(*creee*) An annoying metallic chorus broke the silence of the dull apartment, it echoed slightly due to the lack of furniture in the room, increasing its maddening tone and making the noise sound slightly ominous. Maiel's eyes fluttered open immediately in response, yet he didn't move an inch, too busy trying to frantically recollect last night's developments. Yet as much as he attempted to put the pieces together, he couldn’t reach a reliable answer as to what had occurred.

The clock that had been angrily ringing for a while, fell off the stack of books it had been placed on and rolled over to the carpet. This broke Maiel’s trance as the remembered what day it was. “The Institution!” he yelped, kicking off his blanket and rolling out of bed. Dragging himself over to the carpet, he reached his hand out to the clock, only to freeze halfway. There, on the tip of his fingers, what could only be described as a few blood red crystals glowed sinisterly.

“Eeep” Maiel stumbled backward and landed on the side of the bedframe. The crystals- how, wait no- these look like the things that were spilling out of the dead Enigmarus. He brought them close to his eyes, they were… beautiful. It was like an exotic piece of glass artwork, which glittered like there were millions of small stars shining inside. After being enraptured by this display for a moment, Maiel shook his head to bring himself back to reality and finally switched off the clock.

Completely forgetting about the Institute for a moment, he strode over to his table and brushed away a bunch of books to make some space. Taking a soltech knife he kept hidden under a pile of konstruct theory books, he tried shaving off a piece of the blood crystal. The moment the blade cut through the glass like substance though, a sharp pain pulsed throughout his body making Maiel drop the knife in surprise. Then with a slight hissing sound, the glittering inside it became brighter as small glasslike tendrils emerged from the bottom of the crystal as it hopped onto the table with an audible ‘thump’.

Maiel leapt back in distress wondering what the bizarre creature was. He knew that rare sightings of organic crystalline life forms have been found in the depths of the Tri Mana Concentrate, but what was one doing on his finger? Whilst he was trying to make sense of the situation, the crystal organism patiently waited as if it required some sort of approval. Noticing this, Maiel inched closer to the desk, trying to see what was preventing the things movement, when suddenly,

(*sheeee*) Letting out a hissing noise, the crystal beast began convulsing and rolling about as if experiencing immense pain and in a matter of seconds ceased it’s cries altogether, the light inside of it fading. Was it dead? Could something like that be alive in the first place? With these questions weighing on his mind, he bent down and touched the strange crystal for the first time. It felt, unnatural, the surface was hard yet with a small amount of pressure, Maiel’s finger pierced though into a wet aqueous solution, this was worryingly similar to what he had seem in his dreams…was it some residue of the blood that had leaked from the Enigmarus?

Now curious, he leaned over and searched for the knife he’d dropped, and found grudgingly realized it had burnt the tile where it landed. “(*sigh*) Why do these things never have a safety feature” he muttered, carefully picking it up from the side as to not get burnt by the gleaming red blade. After flicking the switch on the side to turn off the mana channels, he set the now normal looking weapon on the table and turned his focus back to his fingers.

This time mustering up the courage, he inched his hand forward in an effort to directly touch the peculiar growth. (*sss*) The moment contact was made, the delicate tendrils shot out of the biggest piece and latched onto his palm. The array of deposits all over his hand began clumping together and formed a singular entity that was nearly half the size of his clock. Maiel stared at it in horror, scared to make any sudden movements. The thing then applied more pressure to one of its tendrils, making it drill into his palm and draw a drop of blood. As if having confirmed something, the critter then detached the tendrils and rolled onto the table similar to its predecessor.

Fearful that it would attack him, Maiel delicately slid his hand over to the soltech knife and steadily lifted it up. He then briskly repositioned his index finger, flipping on the switch and opening the mana valve, making a menacing red glow appear on the blade in a matter of seconds. The crystal creature, which had watched this entire spectacle with interest reared itself up and outstretched its tendrils again. Thinking that it would pounce on him, Maiel hurriedly positioned the shining blade over it and-

“Milord?” a gravelly voice echoed in his head. “AAAH” Maiel jumped backwards in shock, making his chair dramatically fall with him. (*thud*) “That looked like it hurt milord…”. He was dazed for a moment before coming to his senses, lifting his head, Maiel looked over at the beautiful crystal sitting smugly on his table. Trying not to break eye contact, Maiel picked himself up wearing a silly look on his face. What… just happened, did that thing talk? “I really am losing it huh...” he murmured, re-establishing the grip on his knife that had miraculously not cut anything. “Losing something milord?” the voice asked politely sounding confused. “OK! What is going on!” Maiel thrust his arm out threateningly towards the crystal, the knife’s tip wavering. “You what the hell are you!?” he desperately yelled. “Me? I’m an ichor you created milord” the voice calmly responded. An ichor? He’d never heard of a manabeast like that before, and what did it mean by ‘created’, creating an intelligent lifeform was impossible, this had been established by the machina project and was an iron rule in konstruct development.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But then again... the crystal was related to the great and mighty Enigmarus. Perhaps it was plausible? “If I’m your so-called… lord, then shouldn’t you obey me?” he asked cautiously. The crystal-no ‘ichor’ lifted its body up with some tendrils and the lights inside it flared up. “Obey? Of course, master’s word is this one’s desire” it said resolutely. The light in it then dimmed slightly and a few tendrils shattered, (*shh*) “Miiloord, I require energy to maintain this foorm!” the voice now seemed greatly distressed. “Eeeh wait energy?” Maiel switched off his knife and went over to the now convulsing crystal. “Yees energy, please provide energy master!” Uhh energy, what kind of energy? Energy, energy…Mana!

Alarmed that he may miss a chance to interact with an entity directly connected to the Enigmarus, Maiel rushed over to his bed and pulled out a spherical glass with a black cube inside filled with a thick translucent liquid, his rosebulb. Wincing at the amount he’ll have to pay for a new one, Maiel drove his knife down and cut effortlessly through the glass, (*tssh*) the trademark sound of glass breaking filled the room as he reached his hand into the slimy mess and pulled out a black cube covered in small cobalt letters, a mana core.

He took the queer component over to the struggling ichor, “This should work right?” he frantically asked placing the cube next to it. The tendrils shot out once more and grasped onto the mana core making the cobalt letters light up and release small pulses of concentrated mana, prompting a shiver to go down Maiel’s spine. The tendrils then desperately pulled the mana core into the ichor’s main body which was gradually becoming dimmer.

The blood crystals began breaking down and reforming to create room, more and more tiny tendrils appeared and clasped onto the core, till the thing was completely encased. At this point the crystals broke down again and closed the opening, sealing in the black cube. A few moments passed as Maiel watched in anxious anticipation… Suddenly the tiny lights inside the crystals lit up once more and began growing, it began expanding as if being inflated with air, the tendrils on the outside thickened and grew into crystalline limbs, then the whole thing subsequently lifted itself up and twisted into an insectoid figure which reminded Maiel of a crab like manabeast h’d seem a picture of. “Aaah milord! I’m grateful for your benevolence!” a bright patch appeared on what seemed to be the head and the glassy voice returned to Maiel, who was furiously brainstorming the logic behind the ichor’s transformation, he was still a konstruct student after all.

Giving up after a while, he went back to gazing at the crystalline insect. “Soo what are you going to do now?” he asked endeavoring to hide his curiosity. “Whatever you wish milord” the ichor answered back immediately, without the slightest hint of doubt in it’s tone. “I see in that case…roll over!”, the ichor enthusiastically rolled over, “jump!”, the creature obeyed, “Bite this!”, Maiel rummaged through his books and pulled out some scrap papers. The ichor opened its glistening crystalline insect jaw wide and snapped the page in half. Maiel whistled in satisfaction, he’d tried to buy a manabeast in the past but quitted once he saw the outrageous prices.

After fooling around for a while though and savoring the thought of having a compainion, Maiel’s eye caught the alarm clock… “AAAH” he screamed. Startled by this the ichor called out to him in agitation, “what is it milord!” “I-I’m Laate!” Forgetting about his new friend, Maiel briskly opened his drawer to pull out the Institute uniform for konstruct engineering and ran into the bathroom. “Milord, is there anything this one can do to help?” the ichor asked expectantly. “No no, it’s fine, you just stay there and don’t move” he replied.

Coming out all dressed in the neat Institute attire, Maiel swung a bag containing a bunch of papers and books over his shoulder and went for the door, then looked back remembering his companion, who had taken his orders too literally and was rigidly not moving at all. “Hey Zin, don’t touch my stuff ok, especially not the books” he called out, “Zin milord?” replied a slightly confused voice. “That’s your name now alright, I thought about it in the shower” he said opening the door that led to a dimly lit corridor. “Ah! To have been named by milord himself, truly an honor…” As Zin fell into a trance, Maiel hurriedly strode outside praying to the Enigmarus that he wouldn’t be kicked out of the Institute on day one.