Phonta tore through the shelves of her office, littering her floor with a multitude of artifacts she had collected. Magic tomes acquired from exotic shores and hidden realms tumbled to her feet around her. Stone and metal carvings, that, to the untrained eye were paperweights, but to her, they were priceless memories of the past sacrifices she had made.
Phonta knew all too well what the energy building beneath the school would do, what it was capable of. She feared the worst. The students would be fine, she sensed that a protective spell had already been erected. If it came to it, she would cast one on herself. Neither was it the campus she fought to save, it could be rebuilt within a couple of years. Nor was it even the money that she would lose. Though she was by no means a wealthy woman, she had quite a lot of connections. Three lifetimes spent on the front lines fighting rogue dungeons and hostile empires allowed you to meet a person or two. What she feared losing was even greater than any of that. She feared for the future of mages themselves.
The world was changing. Gone were the days of mighty battles and giant monsters lurking beyond the next mountain. In was the age of innovation, of engineering, of peace. Mages did not have the respect they once did, as Phonta knew first hand when she constructed her academy. People looked down on her for not letting go of the past, but it was them who were doomed to repeat it.
In her office, she had torn apart two shelves, but haven't found what she sought. She was in a frenzy, waves of energy crashed onto her faster and faster. Then, under a pile of papers in a cobweb infested corner, she found it!
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Firren’s feet tumbled underneath him as another quake shook the ground. Pushing himself to stand up. For the third time, he restarted his frantic pace. He raced past the spellcraft laboratories, past the firing range, past the sparring arena, and bursting into the dorms. Up a flight and into his room, he observed his desk. Right where he had left it, a crumpled ball of fine, gold-lined parchment sat on his desk. Looking at it now, he felt so stupid.
Who would go through an elaborate prank like this? One of the noble mages, still resenting him for their failing careers? Maybe, but unlikely. The ground shook again, sending Firren grasping for support against the desk. Now was not the time to question this. This letter was real, something big was going on. He came back for the letter, and he had it, he needed to go.
Bursting from the dorm building, he ran back, back to the students. When whatever was going on finally happened, he did not want to be outside of the erected barrier.
The sparing area flew by him on the right, then he passed the firing range on the left but stopped. Was that….
“Headmaster? HEADMASTER!”, He yelled over the rumbling of the ground. She was not thirty feet away in the courtyard of the academy holding something in her hand. A magic stone?
Without noticing the apprentice behind her, she grasped the stone firmly with both hands and slammed it into the ground with mana-amplified strength.
PHWOOOM
The stone was immediately embedded deep into loose dirt. Firren then saw her produce a silver cube, a few millimeters on either side. He could not make out its fine detail, but he had seen objects like this before.
“Is that…”
“A spirit control circuit”, interrupted an old gruff man coming up behind him.
“Ah- Master Timon, I …. What is…. How-”
“No time for that now! I trust Phonta knows what she is doing, but I'm not enough of a fool to stick around and find out!”, His gaze traveled down as if was examining the grass at his feet. For a brief moment, he seemed to zone out, having a distant look in his eye. Then his eyes went wide. “WE NEED TO GO NOW!”
Phonta was finished with her preparations.
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The waves of mana erupting from the mana stone were now unbearable. They shook my core worse than the enemy core ever had, and they kept getting stronger! Everything inside my perception felt of pure mana, of power. My perception was going blind and I was about to die in an explosion of mana, but all I could think was, This is all my fault? I was too reckless borrowing down her too quickly and without caution. What did I even hope to gain? I am going to die and nothing is going to change at all!
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Another wave ripped through me. I could feel the intensity growing by the moment. One thought echoed in my mind. Survive.
Not for me, or the people above us, but for the future. For the generations lost. For my master. For Philip. Their faces echoed through my crystalline body. This would not be my end. I will not let it.
The energy around me grew stronger, brighter, more energetic, but my own reserves were weakening. The shell of mana I had as a defense was struggling to even dampen the onslaught. If only I had more mana!
“But I do….”, I whispered to myself. I was being blasted with some of the strongest mana waves that existed in the world at the moment. How could I run out of mana? I am a dungeon core now goddammit!
Unsure of the logic behind this plan, but certain that it was the only hope, I lowered my mana shell.
BOOOM!
The mana crashed harder than ever before. I was underestimating how protective that shield had been. Cracks began to appear around my body. I could feel fragments begin to break off, ripped back by the mana impacting me. Then, with all my will I had left, with all the strength of my past coursing through my mind, I commanded the mana.
“ABSORB!”
Instantly my body stopped resisting the mana. It was as if someone had just opened the floodgates into my very soul. Energy without bound coursed through my body. My repeated reserves filled to maximum in an instant, then kept filling. I felt a familiar feeling building inside of me… almost like….
LEVEL UP
WOH……
The energy inside me seemed to drain into my body increasing its size and thickness immediately. A harder, darker red crystal now surrounded me. The waves suddenly seemed weaker. It was not that the mana stone had been depleted, but my defense had increased. The mana kept flowing.
My reserves were filled again and I was surging with more energy than before. The pain started to course through my crystal, something I did not know a dungeon core could even feel until now. The power was too much now I was almost at my breaking point again.
LEVEL UP
The Strain shot back down and for a moment I was under control again, but it did not stop. My core was rapidly filling with mana. I was unable to stop the process any more. The pain grew more intense each second. I was burning up from inside my core.
LEVEL UP
AHHHHHHH!!!! The mana was not stopping! The strain on my body was growing stronger! THE PAIN! THE PAIN!!!
LEVEL UP
I Can't go on like thi-
LEVEL UP
AAHHHHHHH!
LEVEL UP
LEVEL UP
LEVEL UP
LEVEL UP
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A small golden rabbit popped its head out of the box in Phonta's arms, a quarter meter in length and glowing with magical power, it danced around her in a circle.
"No is not the time... Frank... I need you to.....", A tear formed on her eye as she explained to her pet. The spirit animal tilted its head at first, then seemed to understand.
"I-Im so s-s-sorry!", She hugged the animal with a long embrace. Tears flowed on her eyes, but there was no other way to stop this overload. The power had reached the point where she feared the student's protective barrier would not hold.
She closed her eyes for a long moment, then let go of the animal. Frank hopped to the magic stone and turned to look back at his master of ten years. Then, phased down through the ground towards the core.
Phonta unleashed the spell. The mana stone she was using immediately cracked in two, forming a beam of light streaming deep into the ground.
PHWOOOM!
With her bettered senses she confirmed that Frank had successfully used the energy to surround the overloading device. She just hoped that it would be enough, hoping he would survive the bla-
BOOOOOOOM!
The ground shook in one final tremor and the overloaded mana stone gave up on containment. A Tsunami of mana erupted from every direction of the stone sending out waves capable of leveling buildings and driving mages mad, but the eruption never reached the surface.
The protective shell form by the spirit impacted the mana in a mighty clash. Pure mana and anti-mana collided with each other in spectacular fashion. Tit for tat they exchanged blows annihilating each other and absorbing the almost endless release. The world seemed to be shaking apart, but an earthquake was nothing in comparison to the damage a wave of pure mana could do. Especially at that strength.
And it was over. The two mana signatures below had almost perfectly annihilated each other, leaving nothing behind. It was over. The school was safe, and Phonta wept.
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Cracks started to deepen in my core from the strain. Its density had grown tenfold, but the mana was not letting up. THE PAIN WAS UNBEARABLE! I AM GOING TO - and everything went white.
.
.
.
When I came to I was still alive, somehow. The only information provided to me was from the world itself.
You have slain an enemy dungeon core named ‘Mystic Golem Dungeon’, you absorb its powers.
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Firren stood up slowly on his shaky feet, unable to comprehend the spectacle of magic he just witnessed. He had taken cover behind a building with Master Timon, but it ultimately proved pointless. He was right, Phonta was able to save us all.
He took a shaky step towards the collapsed headmaster in the courtyard, but a hand quickly grasped his shoulder.
“Don't disturb her boy, she had gone through enough. Why don't you instead tell me what you have in your hand?” Master Timon looked into my eyes and motioned to the parchment I still clutched in my fingers.
“uhhhh…..”