Alright, still alive. No one beating me. Handlers aren't going to do anything to me. I tell myself everything is fine once I've recovered and gone back into the hall. I look around momentarily.

There's... still no one here. I can't help but feel a little weird walking around naked, but... oh well. As long as there are no handlers. I have some time, it should take them a while to cut the hair of so many rail units.

So for now, let's explore. I want to know more about this mysterious building. Maybe I can learn more about the AR program if I look around. If nothing else, it will keep me away from the handlers. Without delay, I trot back over to that stairway I was just hiding on. Circling around the railing, I go down the stairs. They're nothing like the stairs I've used before. Instead of narrow and steep, they're shallow and really long. It makes them easy to walk down, even as small as I am. It didn't really register earlier, but it also made them easy to roll around on without worrying about falling down the stairs. Though I didn't really consider the possibility at the time...

Ignoring that worrying thought, I keep going. Once I reach the bottom, I look around. The lighting is somewhat dim here, lit by smaller pointy things than the hallway above. It seems that the room mimics the hall, stretching out a long way in the same direction, toward the room with the bath, though it is much more narrow, more like a normal hall. I start walking and notice right away that the ceiling is really low, probably the same height as the ceiling in that super long hall we took underground to get here.

Up ahead, I see some bright light and a lot of movement. The light appears briefly, then disappears again for a while. On and off at a somewhat steady rhythm. I go toward it, soon making out people, while the light looks like a big fire. The people soon resolve into individuals, more women moving about quickly. It looks like they have a big metal door that they open to shovel coke into the fire from a big wooden box, before quickly shutting it again. I want to see what they're doing, so I go closer.

I know they'll be scared if they think I'm a rail unit right away, so I shift expression to one just faintly different. I'm not sure if I have it just right yet, but it should work. Rather than blank and emotionless, I make a neutral, passive face. Like the kind Eryk used. It won't show any of my emotions, but it also shouldn't look creepy.

When I come near, a few women suddenly stop what they're doing to stare at me. Within moments, the other women run into their backs or otherwise follow their gazes over to me. "Oh my! What are you doing walking around like that, miss?" one of the women rushes over to me. "Are there any clothes around for her?" The women all look around to one another, but no one says anything. I look around too. Some of them are carrying robes, all nice and white, folded up and piled high in their arms. Other women are standing near giant wooden buckets. Or maybe tubs, since they're so big. They're washing them in water that looks like the water in the bath, all bubbly and hot looking. Some more wring them out and hang them on a clothesline to dry.

So they're washing our clothes here. But what's the big fire for? Making all that water hot probably. But where is the water? Now that I think about it, I haven't seen the source of all that water since I got here. There was so much of it, it must have come from somewhere.

But there's no time to think over the mysterious source of the hot water. The women are all searching around, distraught. I glance over to the piled up robes, finished being washed. It looks like they set my robe, the one that is a completely different size than all the others, off to the side, along with my shoes.

"It's fine," I tell the women. "I'm just exploring. Don't mind me."

"Exploring?" a few mutter, looking even more concerned.

"I just want to look around. What are you doing here?" I ask while I move slowly toward the stacks of robes.

The first woman trails along behind me a little as she responds. "W-well, we are heating the water needed for the bath and laundry. As well as washing and drying all of the laundry, of course." She stammers a little at first, but then reports everything they're doing really clearly.

"So this is where all the hot water comes from..." I murmur. "Where is the water exactly?"

"The water? In the pipes over there," she points over to the big fire I saw earlier. Now that I'm closer and at a different angle, I can see it a lot better. There is the metal door into the fire, but around that are stone walls to keep all the fire inside. This basically makes it look like the forge I saw at Gremory's shop. However, there is one big difference I can only see now that I'm off to the left side of the room.

There is a big metal thing, cylindrical, about as wide across as I am tall. A pipe I guess. It comes down into the room from above, goes straight into the fire pit, then continues out the back of the fire pit into a wall at the end of the room, a short distance away. It looks like the stone walls of the fire pit were built specifically around the big metal pipe, I don't even see any smoke coming out around the edges. But how does that work? Where does the smoke go? Circling further to the side, I manage to spot a chimney going up into the ceiling next to the pipe.

Ok, so there is still a way for the smoke to escape. That means the water must come in from above, flow through the fire to get hot, and then into the wall. And then... goes to the bath somehow. But the bath should be above this room. With the distance I walked, it should be directly above this room, shouldn't it? How does the water go straight upward? Is it something about the pipe?

"Actually, what kind of metal is this?" I mumble to myself when I think about it. I walk up to it, holding my hand out. It just came out of that fire pit, but I don't feel that much heat coming off of the metal. This metal is a shiny silver, just like a lot of other metals. But... isn't there a bunch of water inside? Gremory told me that water makes metal rust. I don't see any rust around this pipe though. Or maybe it's only rusting on the inside where the water is?

While I gaze at the metal pipe and wonder about this, I feel the women's eyes all on me. They continue to watch me, only half heartedly doing their jobs. I suppose I am really distracting, I remind myself.

So I turn away from the mysterious pipe for now and go back over to the pile of robes. While the woman watch, I pick up my robe. "M-miss, those are for the rail units!" a nearby woman exclaims. I slip on my robe and step into my shoes.

"Sorry for the confusion," I say while turning away. Half so I don't have to see their responses and half because they probably don't want me to see their responses. "I'm actually a rail unit. I'm broken, so I'm not like the others." I slowly walk back over to the metal pipe, giving them time, before turning around once more. The woman who spoke earlier is still standing, halfway between shocked and confused. I turn away again as I frown a little.

I'm about to continue looking at the pipe, but I guess it just took her a moment to respond to me looking at her, because she speaks up as soon as I look away. "I-is that so? What are you doing down here? I thought the rail units were all supposed to be upstairs." She speaks with a stiff, nervous tone.

"The rail units are getting their hair cut before the battle. I tied mine up in a bun so it wouldn't need to be cut," of course that doesn't explain what I'm doing down here, with people who did not expect to have to meet a rail unit. The women's faces all say as much, until I finish explaining. "Since I have time before they all do that, I'm exploring. I've never seen this place before, so I thought I might learn something if I looked around."

"L-learn something?" the woman clearly doesn't understand.

"Yes, like this," I point at the large pipe. "I've never seen so much hot water before. You just taught me how it was made."

"I... suppose so..." is all she can say in response.

"Also, this metal doesn't seem to be one I'm familiar with," I say. I reach into my basket and draw out the nuvrite. With a very weak push, I send a small amount of mana through the ingot, feeling it immediately become warm in my hand while it produces a weak mana field. I hold it up to the metal pipe, and the result is immediately obvious. As the metal bar approaches, the pipe loses its color, becoming see through, like glass. At the same time, I feel air mana returning. So this metal is just like glass?

"What in the..." I hear another woman sputter as she stops midway through stacking more robes with the piles already there. I turn away a little to hide a grin I can't help. Of course they would be surprised, seeing something like this. However, they already know I'm a rail unit, so I don't need to worry about them seeing me doing strange or mysterious stuff. Not needing to hide anything is really, really relaxing...

The really fortunate thing about this metal's reaction, I realize a moment later, is that I can see the water now. I put back the nuvrite and take some mollite, since air mana makes me... weird. I use the mollite instead, producing a much stronger field so the entire side of the pipe turns nearly invisible. Now I can look through the metal and watch the water inside.

"Huh..." I take slow steps along the pipe toward the wall, looking closely. "There's the water..." I don't see any signs of anything that looks like rust though. Is there something special about this metal?

I keep walking until I reach the wall. The pipe is elevated slightly off of the floor and as tall as I am, so I am eye level with the top third of the pipe. Looking at the stone wall, it again meets the pipe seemingly perfectly. I don't see any gap between the two. Pressing the mollite ingot into the corner where the pipe meets the stone, I can look through. Just past the wall, I see the flow of water move straight upward.

"Like I thought, the water flows up... But how?" I turn back, the woman have all stopped to gape with open mouths. "Hey, do you know how water can flow upward like this?" I ask them since maybe they know. But they all just shake their heads or shrug vaguely while they stare. "That's unfortunate..." I grumble. I guess they don't understand it either. Since I've pretty much finished my exploring in this area, I begin to go back. The woman all scatter out of my way as I walk past.

I do feel bad for disturbing their work and scaring them, so I turn back. "Sorry for intruding, I apologize for any distress I may have caused. Also, thank you for teaching me about hot water, and for washing my clothing." I intentionally hold myself still so I don't bow on reflex while I apologize and thank them.

"A-ahhh..." is the only response from most of the women. At least they don't look terrified. With a silent sigh, I walk away.

I go back up the stairs into the hall, glancing over to see that a number of rail units have begun to gather at the far end of the room near the bath, now with hair cut short. Naked like they are, they really do look like adults. Even with all of their hair cut off, the male and female ones look very different from one another, don't they? Completely different body shapes. Male with wider shoulder and bigger muscles, female with wider hips and significantly larger breasts than the male ones. The differences aren't so obvious when looking at people with clothes on. I usually just tell them apart by men wearing pants and women wearing skirts. There are other, more subtle differences I'm used to, the face shapes and posture mostly, but those aren't as clear at this distance.

Though they are all pale and skinny from eating nothing but bread, they don't actually look unhealthy or younger than their real age, not like I do. Something to do with their manastones? They told us we wouldn't starve without food, so maybe they also provide nutrition if we don't get any? That would explain the bread...

With no way of telling, I just shrug and move on, really not wanting to dwell on those thoughts right now. A quick scan of the room, and I find a few handlers down at the end near the rail units. Turning away from them, I head back toward where we came in earlier. Away from the handlers.

The huge doors we came through are open again, so I quickly return to the big room where we entered, before anyone notices me. In the entry room, I look around a little. The floors are all clean now, no trace of the filthy tracks we left earlier. Checking the rest of the room, there are still two doors on my left and one on the far wall. The left hand door placed further away is the one we entered from, so I guess I'll start with the other.

Going over to that door, I swing it open to find another staircase leading down. It goes pretty far, also lit on both sides with those same pointy lights. Not wanting to climb down all of those stairs just to see how long the hallway shoots off into the distance, I close the door again.

That just leaves one more, the door opposite of the hall leading to the baths. This one is also metal. I look at it briefly, tapping a nuvrite coin against it. Earth mana, so just iron. Actually, what about the other doors? It only takes a quick check to determine that they are made of iron too.

Back to the far door, I turn the handle and pull it open. The next room is more of the same. White stone walls, high ceiling, pointy lights, but with other furniture inside this time. I walk into the room, looking all around as the door swings closed at my back. No handlers, good. There's no one here, and a glance at the walls doesn't turn up any more doors. Looking left and right, it seems I came in closer to the left side of the room, but not quite all the way in the corner.

There are a few things in here at least. Tables, chairs, and lots of neat piles of... things on top. I carefully take one and look at it. It's like those things I've seen a few times before. Super thin so when I look at the edge, it just looks like a straight line with no thickness at all. It's also pretty smooth between my fingers, and pretty flexible too.

On its front, there are things written. I don't see any numbers mixed in with the unknown writing symbols on it though. There are so many things with writing on them in this room, all over all of the desks. For all I know, they all have tons of information about the rail unit program. But I can't read, so it's no use to me...

There's nothing to do for that now. I'll just add it to my list of things to learn if I survive the battle. I set the thin thing back on the stack where I found it and move on.

After a quick search, I determine that all of the other desks also contain lots of writing, but nothing else of note, so I look once more for a door, but don't see any except where I came in.

"So... is this the whole place?" I wonder aloud. "Hmm..." It feels like there should be more than just this. A whole building with nothing but a bath and an office? Maybe I'm just missing something?

I think for a bit. If there are no doors in the walls, what about in the floor, like our storeroom? I've never seen doors in ceilings, and the one here is way too high for me to reach, so I guess the floor is the most likely. I wander through the room for a bit. Since there are so many tables and desks, there are lots of things to look under. I find one with a small carpet underneath, so I lift the edge up.

"Ah, there it is," I say with a small nod when I find a door beneath the carpet. It's actually pretty hard to notice, white just like the whole floor, but there's a little cutout in the stone, like a handle. When I grab the handle and pull, it's pretty heavy, but I manage to get it open some. I can't raise it that high because the carpet and desk sitting on top of it keep me from opening the door all the way. But I'm small enough that I manage to slip through the narrow gap, bringing my basket through after me.

I pull the edge of the carpet with one hand to straighten it out so it isn't messed up before letting the door close again.

This new area is really dark. Completely pitch black. They didn't put any lights in here? Relieved I don't need to worry about my identity now, I just light up my divine gear.

Glaring light fills the small space, and I find that I'm on a small staircase. It's like the ones I saw earlier, but doesn't go down far at all, only just a few steps, really. It also has a very low ceiling. Most, maybe all adults would need to crouch to go through. I can almost touch it when I reach up. It only takes a few moments to descend the handful of stairs.

There are more stairs leading up not very far down the little hall, with no apparent branches in the path or anything. So I trot over to them and start climbing. This is also a really quick climb. It's about the same distance as the other stairs, so it should be bringing me back to the same level as the last room.

At the top of the stairs, I reach another door. A regular door this time, not one in the ceiling like I was half expecting. Same white stone as the last though. There isn't a handle to turn though, so I'm not exactly sure how to open it... "Hmm..." I stand there at the blank door and run my hand over its surface. I barely touch it, but it swings away just a little. "Weird..." I think aloud. I look down where the door meets the wall, only to find some light scrape marks, no sign of a latch at all. So it just swings open? Who chose the doors for this place?

"Huh..." I wonder while I push a little more and the door swings out into the new room. Since there's actually light in this one, I let my gear go out as I enter.

This one is very small. Tiny really. There's nothing but the blank white floor, walls, and ceiling, with one little pointy light directly overhead. The room is so narrow I can nearly reach the walls on both sides. It's only about five of my short paces across to the next flat white door at the end. It looks just like the other, so I just push it and it swings open, marked only by the faintest scrape against the wall it meets almost perfectly.

I step through the doorway into yet another new room. Finally something interesting! I gape at the stuff scattered around. A number of tables contain unfamiliar looking tools and there are more things with writing all over, but the most interesting thing has to be the enormous pieces of glass standing floor to ceiling near the walls of the room.

Each one contains some sort of... picture. There are lots of tiny bits of writing next to the pictures, with little arrows pointing to different parts. The most distinct thing about each image though is how they split, with little circles at the end of each line, for more lines to branch off from there, going to more and more circles as it descends from high over my head, down, sometimes, all the way to the floor. Each of the three pictures has a completely different pattern of splitting lines and circles.

It's no more intelligible than the writing in the other room, but all of this very clearly is used by the program for... something.

I'm drawn over to one of them in wonder. I look up at the glass high overhead, where there is one part I can read.

8•8•8•4/(3+(8•8•8•2))

It's math. But what are those parentheses for? For that matter, why is the division written that way? I don't know, so I just follow the equation down until it resolves to 1.9941577. It takes some time for me to divide that many decimals down in my head, but that seems accurate enough. However, the next line raises that number to the twenty-fourth power. I have no idea why they would do that, maybe it's explained by the other writing on the board? But I can only read the numbers... I think about the math briefly before shaking my head. There's no way I can do something like that mentally. However, a huge section of the glass is taken up by the math where someone painstakingly worked through the entire thing, eventually reaching 15639664.10692. It takes up so much space that the work reaches all the way down the huge piece of glass, the answer sitting just a little above my head. If it was an adult writing this, they would have needed to kneel down to write it. I gaze in awe at the incredible amount of math.

What could it mean? Without any context from the pictures or the writing I don't understand, I don't know. Still, the way this is all written on the otherwise clear glass... I slowly reach up and touch the answer in front of me. This is amazing. But when I pull my hand away, some comes off on it? "Ehh?!" I gasp. It's only a small bit of a number six I removed with my finger, but I shudder at the thought of messing up the answer someone arrived at after all of that work, in this clearly very important room.

With that in mind, I search the tables nearby. If the writing on the glass comes off that easily, surely they have whatever they used to write it nearby in case any of it gets messed up, right? Who knows? I don't even know what sort of thing I might be looking for. I've never seen anyone write anything, so I don't know what kind of tool is used for it.

No no no, that's wrong. I saw that handler writing that one time. I think back to that moment, only months ago, but feeling like a lifetime after everything I've been through at the orphanage. It sort of looked like a thin stick. Is there anything like that here? Searching the tables, the closest I can find is a not so thin stick. That one was pointy, but this one has a big bottle on the end. Wait, a bottle? They had a bottle of black liquid they used to write the other time, so maybe...

I set the thing down so the bottle is on the bottom. If I assume that's where the black liquid is for marking things, I want it to stay in the bottle when I take the stick out so it doesn't spill everywhere and just makes everything worse.

Next, I hold the bottle carefully with one hand while lifting the stick with the other. It comes out easy enough, dripping a number of drops of dark liquid back into the bottle. I gulp and hold it in place so it doesn't drip on anything. Rather than a pointy tip like the last one had, this stick has a sort of... fuzzy top. It sort of looks like cloth? Just really tiny and scrunched up maybe?

When it has stopped dripping, I walk over to the board I messed up. Holding it as carefully as I can, I gently bring it forward, touching the tip to the glass and ever so slowly dragging it over the surface. The mark I end up making is only as long as my finger is wide, reconnecting the bottom part of the number six I wiped away. I pull the thick stick back from the glass, sighing when I see the six looks fine again. Then I deposit the stick back in the bottle where I found it.

"Whoo," I breathe out. No more touching the glass. "Still..." I mutter. What could these elaborate pictures mean? I shake my head. I have no way of knowing without more information. I should keep moving, I don't know how much time I have left. So I get going, but... where's the door? Actually, where are any doors? The one I came in through was white stone, just like the walls, so... I suppose it's just really hard to see? I turn in place until I can orient myself, figuring out which way I came from. Going back, I run my hand along the wall and search until the door suddenly swings open at my touch.

I couldn't see it at all! I let it swing closed again, peering closely at it. Staring directly at it like this with my face nearly pressed against it, I can just barely make out the line where the door opens. And that's when I know exactly where to look. I push on it and the nearly invisible door swings open again. I peek through the next door to confirm it's the same staircase from before. It's good to know I haven't gotten turned around or anything.

Once I've done that, I turn back to the room. So if I can't see the doors, I have no idea where or how many there might be. I guess I'll just go by touch then.

I circle around the room with a hand trailing lightly against the wall, moving toward the right of the door I entered through, until I find another door. Just like the other, it swings open when I touch it, even though I can't see it at all. I look back to the area where the last door was. So this one is on the right hand wall compared to the last door. There might be more doors around the room, but I guess I'll go through this one first.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I step through, into another tiny room, just like the last one. With nothing but another swinging door. I walk the few steps across the space, then pass into one more big empty room. I look all around. Ok, not entirely empty.

There is a single table all the way on one side near the far wall. The walls are utterly bare here too, so I have no idea how many other doors it could have. Looking behind me, the door I came through is also invisible. Why are the doors so hard to see here? It's kind of annoying when I'm trying to explore.

Looking back into the room, it spreads out to my left. I'm near one corner and the table is in the opposite corner, all the way across the room.

Now that I have my bearings so I can find my way back, I start over toward the table. I only take a few steps across the empty floor before I stop, realizing it's not as empty as I first thought. There are... lines? White against the white floor, they're hard to see unless I stand right over them. I crouch down over one to get a better look.

A slight silver border is the only way to really tell it from the floor, though the white is kind of shiny and metallic too. Actually, the silver-white line is set directly into the floor, embedded in the stone. It goes off, extending in a curve across the room until I can't make it out anymore, just a short away.

Then there are some grooves on either side of the white line, not very pronounced either. Only about a hand-length away. I run my finger along one groove. It's pretty shallow, I wonder what it's for? Then I touch the white thing.

It's like the divine totem! Reeling back momentarily, I shake myself and touch it one more time. I can feel a connection through this material. But... no, it's not really like the divine totem, is it? The connection is the same quality. I can just push all the mana through it that I want. But it doesn't feel like it's connecting to anything like the divine totem did. Rubbing my hand along the surface, it's definitely another metal. It's smooth, kind of hard, and maybe a bit cool to the touch. Though... the silvery parts feel a bit different, maybe colder?

I push with my mana, just sending it into the metal from one finger to another. A flash of light shines out when I do it though. It only lasts a moment as I push the mana through. "This one lights up?" I wonder aloud. I push some more mana through it and it glows brighter. So it's like tin, but none of the mana is getting converted into light mana like tin does. Actually... it's really faint, but did I get a tiny bit of absolute mana from that?

There must be more going on here. It lights up when I push mana through it, not when I use another mana field to interact with it... Neither nuvrite or mollite seem to have any interactions though, pushing mana through or not. And neither of them produce any mana types, so what is happening with this one exactly?

With that thought in mind, I grab the nuvrite. I push a weak flow of mana through. As I bring it closer to the metal on the floor, it quickly begins to glow a blinding white, way brighter than before, until I stop. I have to take a moment to blink away the afterimages. So this metal lights up, but produces absolute mana instead of light mana. And it can also carry mana, and it lights up when it carries mana too...

More pieces to puzzle together, but not at this moment. I try to push my mana through the metal, rather than just making a small current between two fingers. It won't budge though, I guess this large piece of metal doesn't make a complete circle. Meaning it doesn't even cross back over itself anywhere. What kind of shape is it then?

I turn and start walking along the curving line of metal. As I go, it feels like I'm walking in circles around the room. No, I am walking in circles around the room. They just keep getting smaller. Ok, spirals then...

When I realize this, I briefly consider just going to the center where it must lead, but I decide I want to stay on the path just to see if there's anything else along the way. Shortly after, I find there isn't when I do reach the center of the room. I'm a bit dizzy from spiraling around over and over again, but I shake it off.

All the way in the middle of the room, the line of white metal connects to a strange little thing in the floor. It's like a tiny depression, with flat sides. I push my thumb into it. It's just a bit deeper than the tip of my thumb, and made of the same white metal as the curling line. But I don't see any silver... Looking back over at the metal, I realize, maybe the white part is one thing and the silver part is another? If they're two different metals just placed really close together, that helps explain why it does so many different things. Though it also complicates it. I'm sure the glowing comes from the white metal, I could see it myself. But what about carrying mana and making absolute mana? Wait, the first one is easy. I'm already touching the white part in the middle, and I can feel the connection. So the white one can carry mana and glows.

The silver one... could be nickel, right? I pull the bar of nickel from my basket and try to compare its silver color with the silver metal in the floor. They... look the same? I think? Except lots of metals are a similar silver color, so it's hard to say for sure. But that would explain the absolute mana.

Standing from the puzzling device, I make my way over toward the table. Maybe it'll shed some light on all of this? It's as tall as I am, so it makes things a bit difficult. Holding onto the edge, I stand on my toes to see.

Unfortunately, the table is covered with more unfamiliar things. There's another stick looking thing, but it's quite different from both the thin one I saw a handler use, and the thick one in the other room. It's pretty long and a little on the skinny side, closer to the one the handler used. It looks like it's made of wood, but there are odd sections at both ends. One has a bit of pointy white metal coming out, while the other has a big... hollow spot, also seemingly made of the same white metal. The shape is smooth, like the one I found in the floor earlier.

Leaning up onto the table, I pick it up, then drop back to the floor to look at it. As expected, the white metal coming out of both ends is the same as what's used in the floor. I touch both ends, careful not to stab myself with the tip, and I'm able to push mana through the object. It glows as expected, and another test with nuvrite reveals that it does not produce any absolute mana.

"So the silver part is definitely another metal," I conclude. Probably nickel. But I still feel like I'm missing the big picture. A big spiral made of metal, embedded in the floor, with a table full of tools like this one that looks like it's used for writing. How does it all come together?

I turn back to the table of tools and set the stick down. What else is here? Sticking my head up over the edge again, there aren't all that many things, at least compared to those desks piled with all sorts of stuff. A number of different... rocks? Too smooth to be normal rocks... I grasp up at one over the edge of the table until I get it.

"It's just like that other one!" I gasp. Like that stone I pulled out of the monster. I feel my hair stand on end, but this one... doesn't do anything scary. "Hmm..." I peer closely at it. It's a kind of pale, whitish blue color, not black like the one from that night. It's a very smooth, angular sides, like it was cast or maybe even cut into this shape. When I reach out with my mana, I feel like I'm reaching directly into a mana well. Like other mana wells, it immediately begins dissolving the mana I push inside, so I pull back.

"Hmm, it was a bit different," I think to myself. It didn't feel like colorless mana like the other wells. It was more like... water maybe? I don't know if it's a type of mana I don't know of yet, or it's different because it's inside this stone...

"Let's try another..." I say while standing on my toes and trying to reach more of the stones. Unfortunately, I'm too short to reach them, so I end up having to jump up onto the table, dangling my legs over the edge as I lie across the top to pull the stones over to the side of the table.

Once I've done that, I can reach them just standing on the floor. I grab them one at a time to take a look at them. One by one, I go through the stones, reaching inside briefly to see what they feel like.

I use the absolute mana this time to avoid wasting any, and immediately notice that these rocks all contain different types of mana.

There are five stones in all. There's fire, lightning, earth, and air, all the ones I've been using. Plus that first one I didn't recognize. I guess I can call it water after all? Looking at their surfaces, the colors of the stones even match their element, like the fire stone being red.

"Could these be manastones?" On one hand it seems obvious, what else would you call stones full of mana? But at the same time, they don't seem anything like the manastones we have. They don't do anything. Since I can't figure anything out for sure, I decide to leave it there and go back to examining them.

As I continue to hold and study them, I slowly begin to notice something. They aren't like the metals I can push mana through. I don't get that strong feeling of a connection they give at a touch.

Rather, these stones feel like they kind of... push out toward me, or something. It's a really faint feeling that I probably wouldn't notice if I wasn't really paying close attention to them. It even takes me a while to realize it while I'm carefully inspecting each one.

So the stones are like mana wells containing each of the mana types. Strangely, I don't feel any with light or dark mana. Or absolute mana for that matter. I wonder what separates those three from all the other types?

While I idly wonder about things I still can't figure out, I try reaching inside the fire stone one more time. I reach all around, searching through it to see if there's anything inside. Even though it's just a rock, the insides feel larger than any of the animals or people I've looked into before. It reminds me that the strange mana containing spaces don't actually match up to the physical objects at all. They don't really have size either, since they aren't physical places. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me at all. Even if they don't actually have any true size, after searching for a while, it still feels huge inside.

"Hmm..." I grumble, not having found anything in particular. It's like a mana well, so I suppose I shouldn't expect there to be anything but mana inside. The only time I found anything in one was when that terrifying stone was in the monster's.

Actually, didn't that stone feel like it had something inside? Apart from just the poisonous mana, I vaguely feel like it had some sort of texture. Maybe it was just all those horrible spiky vines? But that would mean those vines came from somewhere.

So for this stone, does that mean there should be something inside somewhere? Even if there is, how am I supposed to find it? I pull my mana out and just look closely at it for a bit.

This particular stone is very smooth. It rests easily in my palm, so it's quite small. Eight flattened sides, connected by four nice, straight edges around the middle and narrowing down to a point at each end. I tap on the points a little, finding that they're not all that sharp. All of the stones have the exact same shape.

Then I sit down on the floor and set all the stones down in front of me. I'm sure there are more places to explore, but these are way too interesting to just leave alone because I can't figure them out easily. I'm sure I could learn something useful from them. So I keep thinking.

I must be missing something, skipping over some piece of information I could use. So I start over, covering what I know to dig up anything else I should try. These are tools, they must be used in some way. It doesn't seem like they do anything on their own, so I stand up again, checking the tools still remaining on the table. Maybe they can be used with the other tools?

The first thing that catches my eye is the stick. I grab it, holding it up next to one of the stones. How might these be used together? I turn the stick around a little, and come to a solution that seems way too obvious now that I'm looking at it.

"Isn't this the same shape?" I question. I feel kind of stupid for not noticing it earlier. The depression on the end clearly looks like the exact same smooth sided shape as the stones.

I slide the brown stone into the end of the stick. It only goes in halfway. The four sides converging to a point on one end feel like they snap right into place, staying there even when I let go.

"Ok, so the stones go in the stick... It's like a stick for writing, so..." I trail off. Is it used for writing something? What does it write on? How could it even use a stone full of mana to write? I look back up on the table. There are more flat things, so I take one and set it on the floor.

It has some writing on it already, so I carefully just poke at the corner where a little mark wouldn't be in the way. I press the pointy tip to the surface, gently so I don't break it or something. After a moment, I lift it again. No marks or anything. So I move it back and forth against the surface a little, but there's still nothing.

"So it's not for writing?" I scratch my head. What else is there here? I set the tool with the stone back on the table, and look at anything else on the table for help. Besides the flat things with writing on them, there are only four tools left. Because they're all near the wall, I end up needing to circle around the table and pull them off from the sides. I turn each of them around in my hands as I inspect them. First is a thing made of wood. It has four little legs to sit on with a thin piece of wood across the top, with lots of small square holes through it. It looks just the right size for the stones, so I slide them into it. It turns out to be just a tiny bit smaller than they are at the widest point in the middle, so they sit right in the thing. I guess it's a holder then, for holding lots of stones nice and organized. I do a quick count; it'll hold twenty five stones. Not exactly helpful for figuring out what this all does though.

Setting the holder back down, I check the next tool. Tongs? They're really big in my small hands, but they look a lot like the ones Gremory used. The only real difference is the cutout at the end, which makes the same square shape for picking up the stones. Though there are two of them, pretty close together. I try picking up a stone and realize that they're shaped that way to lock onto both sides of the stone. With it held securely, I'm able to turn it all around. "If there had only been one, it would have fallen out if you held it wrong, wouldn't it?" I carefully set the stone back down to keep looking at the tongs.

They also seem to be made of a different material. More shiny than the gray of iron. I test it with a nuvrite coin, but nothing seems to happen. "Hmm." It's metal, but there's no interaction? I pull a bar of mollite and slowly increase the force, but still there's nothing. It's not even like copper, where I had some idea that something was happening and I just couldn't see it. This time, there's just nothing happening. This is the first one I've found that doesn't do anything special.

Wait, let's try thinking about this the other way. They clearly do stuff with mana here, so what sort of tools would they look for? Maybe they chose this one specifically because it doesn't have any interaction with mana? That... could be it maybe?

Since that seems to be all there is to the tongs, I look at the next tool. It's circular and see through, about the size of my hand. Maybe it's glass? It has a little bit of metal around the edge, so I have a place to hold it without worrying about cutting myself. I look briefly at the metal and test it with nuvrite, but it seems to be made of the same material as the tongs. The clear part doesn't react like glass either. It doesn't become super invisible or return any air mana. I try touching the clear part, rubbing my finger over the surface. It's smooth, but not really like glass. Firm, but has just a little give to it when I gingerly poke at the surface. So, not glass, but something similar?

I turn it a little, then look through the clear part. "Huh..." It's almost completely clear, but also sort of colors my view. The colors are faint and sort of drift around just a little. There's no real good indication of what this is for either... I turn it around a few times in my hands, but that's all there is to it. "It's shaped like you're supposed to hold it," I say to myself. Then there's the clear part. It's a little curved, a shape that reminds me of an eye, so my first instinct was to look through it, but it just kind of makes things look sparkly. I set it back down extra carefully, in case it's also fragile like glass.

The last item is a little wooden object with four tiny wheels. When I try to turn them, I find that they're surprisingly difficult to spin. I thought wheels were supposed to make things easier to move around? In any case, it looks pretty similar to the other holder, with another hole for the stones, but only one, right in the middle. I try sliding a stone into the slot, and set it down on the floor. "Hmm..." I get on my hands and knees, examining it from all sides. It doesn't seem like the stone does anything with the little device. I try rolling it a little. The wheels spin as I push, but stop as soon as I remove my hand. I try looking more closely at the stone. It's sitting in the slot, but since this little rolling thing is so small, the tip of the stone nearly touches the floor, between the four wheels.

Finally, something clicks. Wheels? Touching the floor? I look over at the swirl immediately. Then I pick up the rolling device and walk it hastily over. Could I actually be on to something? As soon as I reach the white metal swirl, I turn the rolling thing and set it down. The wheels fit perfectly into the little grooves on either side of the metal. I lean in close on all fours, looking and feeling at the bottom of the stone. It sits in the slot with the bottom tip of the stone touching the floor perfectly. It's sized exactly right, so I can't even slip my fingernail beneath. So this thing holds one of these stones so it will touch the white metal? If that's the case... I run back over to the table and grab the stone holder, with the other stones inside. I run it over to the middle of the room where I saw another slot. If all of the other square slots are any indication, the stones should fit in that one too. With one more trip, I grab the other tools as well.

I'm starting to form an idea of what might be happening here. These stones work like mana wells, and they have this whole thing set up with metal that should form a connection between them. I have no idea why it's in a big swirl, or why they need a tiny cart to move one of the stones around, or even what having the mana wells connected might do, but I finally have enough information to at least try to work out more. I bring the cart over and set it right near the slot at the center of the room. I sit down on the floor with just a small stretch of white metal between the two.

"To start, let's take the fire and earth stones..." I say to myself as I hold them in my hands. I put the fire into the cart and wiggle it a little to make sure it's in place right. Then, I hold the earth stone briefly. What will happen when I connect them?

I have no idea, but I'm sure I'll learn something, right? Swallowing my nervousness, I slide the fire stone into the slot in the floor. Immediately, the white metal in the floor lights up. I squint from the sudden glare, but don't see anything else. Mana must be going between the stones, but obviously there's nothing to see but the glowing metal to show it. I try touching the stones and feeling inside, but nothing is immediately clear. They're both so large inside that the parts I look through aren't anywhere near where the mana is moving. I frown a little. I was sure I could learn something, but again I'm stuck without the ability to actually see what is happening. Maybe I can at least try feeling the flow between them? I touch the short bit of white metal between the two stones and try pushing my mana through to see if it interacts with anything. However, it just pushes through into the metal. I can still control it? It's not like normal, I can just push my mana into the narrow space, and I can feel a lazy flow of mana. It clearly feels like the fire stone in the floor is sending fire mana over to the earth stone. I shiver a little at the experience that completely disregards everything I thought I knew about mana moving through metals, and just try to reach out. I let my mana stretch, going with the flow of fire mana down the connection to the earth stone.

It's chaotic, with lots of mana moving around. I lose bits and pieces of mine as it all moves along and gets swept away in the flow. So I just try to make a sturdy enough connection to ensure it doesn't break off, and press on. It's a tiny distance along the white metal, but somehow, it feels like a long distance for my mana to travel. I have to focus hard to keep it all steady the whole way.

Then I make it to the earth stone. I can feel my mana pass through, out of the metal and into the mana well. I don't have anywhere near enough absolute mana to reach all the way here, so I try to make it quick since it makes my mana fizzle away.

Actually... it's not just my mana. The fire mana flowing over the connection is all disappearing shortly after entering the well. I look more closely. It's not disappearing, not really. It's getting converted into earth mana? I didn't realize that before.

But I can't dwell on it, so I quickly move on, feeding a slow but steady supply into the stone to keep exploring. Unlike before, just searching around randomly, it feels like the point where they are connected is where the important parts of this stone are. Right here, where I'm reaching into the stone, I search around a little and find something.

Stretching my mana all around it, I try to form a mental image. It's like a large, solid structure inside of the stone. I touch it, finding it to be some sort of straight connector, pointing into the stone. I imagine it as a big solid cylinder.

Tracing up the connector briefly, I arrive at an interesting spot. I try to feel around it. It's not like the long connector, more of a... a joint maybe? That's the best image I can form for it at least. It's just as solid as the rest of the structure up to here, but it gives a different feel. It feels like earth mana, but not like the rest of the earth mana floating around in here. I think it's sort of encased inside the solid joint structure piece. It makes me think of it as a spherical shell with the single piece of mana buried in the middle. That's it though, there's nothing else coming off of this point. A dead end. A round ball on the end of a stick.

Let's see what it's connected to, I decide quickly. Sliding back down the way I came, I move quickly. Every moment costs some mana, and I'm starting to get a little nervous because it feels like the flow of fire mana is slowing down for some reason.

I soon reach the outer edge of the stone's well, where the solid connector that goes to the earth mana reaches the outer wall. I touch the spot with my mana, only to find that there is another piece of mana seemingly embedded in the side at the base of the connector. This one is light mana? And it's not being changed into earth mana? Maybe because it's stuck inside the weird structure of the stone? As I question this, I'm painfully aware of the way the flow of fire mana has slowed nearly to a stop. I don't know what will happen when it cuts off, so I quickly pull back my mana. After I've pulled everything back, I continue to watch briefly. The white metal is losing its glow, nearly fading out completely as the flow turns to a trickle. Carefully, I push a small amount of mana back out to feel the flow of fire mana as it finally stops completely.

As soon as that happens, I feel the strange space sort of... disappear. Oddly, I can still feel my own mana inside of the metal. I'm able to just hold it there, but I can't move it anywhere else inside the metal. I slowly pull it back, and I can actually feel the space collapsing in front of me. Is my mana holding this space open? I ponder the possibility. So... somehow, mana crossing over this particular connection creates a space where mana can stay, but as soon as there is no mana, that space closes. But it needs to flow between the two stones first? What if I push my mana to the stone? Will that work without a complete circle though? The only times I've pushed mana without a circle are when I use my divine gear, and when I pushed mana across that connection using the divine totems at the church.

Ignoring my questions, I just give it a shot. I push a small amount of mana through the metal to the earth stone, and it flows away just like usual. Only this time, it doesn't come back, because I'm not pushing it to myself. As the mana crosses the connection, I can clearly feel it opening a space with it, and quickly move the other mana I'm working with further. So my guess was right, mana flowing will create a space I can use. While I'm considering this, mana suddenly begins to flow again, but it's going in the other direction this time. Earth mana is moving over toward the fire stone. But why? The most obvious answer is that I just put some mana into the earth stone, but that doesn't explain why it would send mana over to the fire stone. I shake my head a little. Not much to go on.

Still, it's just a tiny trickle of mana. I can feel it slowing nearly to a stop after just a few moments. I stare at the white metal as the glow fades. What else can I learn from these stones? I've seen how they interact, I've felt how they're made, and learned that there's more to controlling mana than I was originally aware of. It cost me some mana, so I just pull a bit more from my well to replace it. It rushes around inside me for a few moments, then once it's settled, I shrug a little. No big deal. I give the stones a hard look for a few moments longer.

I can't think of anything else I might learn from them right now, and I'm probably running out of time to explore anyway. I should head back so the handlers don't notice I'm gone or anything. Don't even want them thinking about me too much. Getting some extra rest before we head out would be a good idea too.

So I pull the stones from their slots and put them back in the holder. I run over to the table and put it back. It takes another trip for the tiny cart, then the tongs, writing thing, and glass-like thing. As I go to put them on the table, I frown a little. I never figured out what the other tools were for, but... oh well. It probably doesn't matter that much, the stones were what had mana. Everything else was for working with the stones, probably. So I think it's good I focused on the important part. I set them back down on the table, though I stop to look at the little round one again. My thoughts from just a moment ago play back through my head. It's a tool for working with the stones. I try looking through it again, at the stones this time. Immediately, I see the difference. The little, glittery colors suddenly get much brighter when I look at the stones. While each stone is faintly colored according to its element, they blaze like bright lights when seen through the viewing tool. With a small smile, I set it down on the table. I'm glad I figured out at least one of the tools.

I finally turn my back on the table, time to get going. I start walking back toward the opposite corner of the room, taking a moment to check my basket and ensure I didn't drop anything while I was exploring. Once I'm satisfied, I briefly retrace the way back in my mind. Far corner of this room, then left wall in the glass room. Left wall into the little hall, and finally the door back to the entrance.

"..." I tilt my head a bit. Based on my mental map, I should be right behind the entrance, shouldn't I? I look over at the blank wall, where there might be doors I can't see. There were no doors I could see in that wall of the entryway either. Invisible ones maybe? Thinking as much, I swing to the left, going for the other corner. Then I run my left hand along the wall that should connect to the entrance as I quickly walk over toward the corner where I entered. Sure enough, I find a door, right around the middle of the wall. I walk through into the tiny room on the other side, exactly the same as the other tiny rooms I passed through. However, there is one difference I find after taking a few quick paces to the next door. This one doesn't open. That's weird, why wouldn't this door open?

I look around for a while before my eyes finally spot an indent in the right hand wall, so small that it's really hard to spot, I'm lucky I noticed. It's the same four sided shape as the slots in the other room, but even smaller. Thinking how the others were sized for stones that fit easily in my small hands, this one is fit for a stone the size of my finger.

"Does it open the door somehow?" I wonder. I don't know how you would go about making something like that work. All I can do is shrug. Assuming it's made to hold a stone, it must do have something to do with mana. Like, maybe mana opens the door somehow?

I may as well try that since it's an easy first step. I press a finger into the slot and try to push my mana across the connection. It's a bit awkward since I'm used to having a specific target, even if it's usually just myself. But it works, it flows off to wherever the little slot connects.

Then the door opens, and all I can do is blink. It doesn't swing, it actually slides sideways with no warning, seemingly sinking directly into the left hand wall.

I can already see the rail units on the other side, standing around in the entrance room, and I don't want to draw attention, so I force aside my surprise, and step through the open door as quickly and quietly as I can, lowering myself slightly to stay below a normal adult line of sight. Hard to say if it works for rail units, but none of them turn to look at me, so it's probably fine.

A nearly inaudible swish is the only indication that the door closes behind me. I glance back briefly, only seeing a smooth stone wall. How does that thing work? There's no way to figure that out now, so I quickly mix into the crowd of rail units to avoid notice.