Chapter 1: How could I forget a corner?!
"Finally!" I say, ignoring the sweat dripping from my forehead, I'm totally covered in dirt anyway; I've been digging for weeks now, first with magic, then, when my mana got depleted, with pickaxe and shovel. The doubt of my calculations being wrong touched me many times, however, I endured it all and finally reached it, a mana well, basically the reason why people are able to use magic. It took me months to theorize where it was and even more to cross the monster-filled jungles to reach it, but it is finally here in front of me!
I stare in amazement at the sight before me, a crack in an empty room from which a blinding blue light emerges, I can almost feel the nearly-limitless amounts of raw power it radiated like a blue sun, enough to let me turn dragons into ballerinas and titans into my personal valets, I would need a very high roof for them to follow me into the house though.
Wasting no time I use liters of mithril ink to engrave complex magical circuits around the crack. Before her accident this was the work I spent over twenty years on, mana catalyzation and how to use it to evolve monsters. Admittedly, I would have never thought that my first test subject would be myself, either this works according to my calculations or I die miserably. But I like to be optimistic. I need to be, with only having one shot at this if it doesn't work then everything I've stridden so hard for in these past few years would mean nothing.
Hours pass, I feel my eyes getting heavy but I keep drawing circles inside of circles, inside of squares, inside of pentacles, inside of etc... You get the idea, lots of shapes inside of other shapes, surrounded by runes to set a focus to a never attempted spell. Magic in this world works by using your soul like a third hand to control and shape raw mana into any form you want. This is called direct control, it needs a lot of focus and ability and just a moment of distraction would have your soul lose grasp over the mana, causing the spell to fail and rebound, that’s why only arrogants and fools use this kind of magic hoping to catch their opponens by mistake with its adaptability.
Runes work as instructions, you can specify simple tasks, like gathering mana at one point or keeping it together, just by writing two to three runes. Infusing your soul into a rune it will flow inside the medium, usually metals like copper or gold, and as long as the flowing energy doesn't meet any dead ends it creates the desired effect. Lastly, the power of the spell relies heavily on the smoothness of the engravings and the kind of metal used, the effects gets amplified or reduced. For an instance, mithril is probably one of the best materials, and hopefully strong enough to endure the high amount of energy.
To keep things tidier and allow more runes to coexist and interact, we just need to insert the runes inside a geometrical shape that either isolates a certain function from the rest of the formation or can be used to create complex spells containing virtually infinite subfunctions and variables. Just put your mana in a rune and have it use the right path. People call this rune language m++.
What I'm planning on doing is basically a giant function that will extract and refine the raw energy from the mana well and use it to level up my soul, allowing me to manipulate not only raw mana but also all the other forms of energy and matter! "Muhahahahah coff coff urgh!" A mad laugh escapes my lips before I get choked by the industrial amounts of dust floating down here, almost forcing me to vomit.
I decide to take a little break: It took me more than 2 years to reach this point, I can rest 5 minutes before risking my life in an almost suicidal spell.
I open my dimensional bag and take out the reason for this quest for power, the white sheets and the glass dome warmly embracing the beauty laying inside the crystal coffin; Long auburn hair reaching down to her waist, honey mead toned skin and rosy cheeks, even death could do nothing to ruin her beauty. The preserving coffin also did its part, the love of my life from the times I was still the "great mage Azorious" and not the "kingdom's greatest fool" as they called me now. Soon I'll show them all! I wonder how the other races would call me then, death god, devil, calamity?
I wanted to lift the dome and feel her smooth skin one last time in case I failed, but I couldn't. Opening the dome would break the spell maintaining her body. I needed to endure. Once I resurrect her I'll brush her hair and taste her lips as much as I want!
I resume working at a feverish pace, hundreds of arcane silver diagrams fill the cavern under the eerie blue light of the mana well. I'm unsure how much time I spent in that state, hours? Days? The mana from the well automatically recharging my stamina.
However, as the last rune appeared on the wall I felt my strength leaving me and I had to sit down. I admired my work in wonder like a child, my eyes darting around the complex web of silver incantations reflecting the blue light in hundreds of rays. I look for any flaw in the design checking for dead ends or conflicting runes, and after an hour I am sure, "THIS SPELL IS PERFECT!", I joyfully scream jumping around and honouring my title as 'kingdom's greatest fool'.
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I couldn't contain my excitement and sent my soul forward like an arrow, starting the complex program. As my soul get absorbed inside the runes, I launch one last meaningful glance at my beloved. "Soon, soon we'll be together again.", I mutter softly.
That's kind of when stuff went to shit. Because of my impatience I hadn't noticed one of the stars missing a corner, soon my soul charged the incomplete star, the milky white light spreading over each rune and line of the figure until it reached a dead end in the star, generating a domino of errors. Runes started popping like grenades, shredding my poor soul, if I had been closer to the formation instead of a safe distance I would have already been disintegrated to dust by the escaping raw mana.
I tried recalling what was left of my soul back inside my body , maybe I could still salvage something and escape with my life. However, I could only stare in horror as the soul disobeyed my control, diving straight into the mana well it sucked all my life force with her, leaving me powerlessly fainting on the ground, surrounded by flashbangs and explosions.
In my unconsciousness I felt my soul surrounded by an infinite power. It felt so soothing and warm, I just wanted to abandon myself to the feeling and let my soul disperse in there, but then I remembered my quest and purpose. I cannot die here!
Making my resolve I decide there is only one thing I can do. I focus my mind, attempting the most brute force system of using magic, direct control, which, in the case of my supreme spell, is like trying to solve hundreds of differential equations at once without pen or paper. What could go wrong?
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I opened my "eyes" to the same room where I had failed my experiment, its rock walls greetings me differently than before. Where once the eerie lightning blue light of the mana well inundated the room with light, now darkness reigned, however i could somehow see without any problems, well, more than see i guess what i’m doing is more like perceiving the surroundings. The sun could shine straight on a random rock and I would see no better than before. My dependency on light to see wasn't the only thing that had changed: I could perceive everything in extreme detail around me: I found it fascinating until with my all seeing gaze i stumbled on something horrifying on the ground; A skeleton.
It wore the same robe encrusted with dirt I wore and on his fingers, I could see my rings. With horror a question appeared in my mind, could it be? Could that be my corpse? Reality dawned down on me with its impossibility. 'It can't be!' I kept repeating in my mind. If that was me then how was I still alive?
[Greetings! Please select a name for yourself!]
A blue box appeared in front of my all-seeing eye, what is this thing? I wondered taken aback. 'Whatever! I have more pressing matters right now!' I thought, directing my gaze inward. If I could see myself maybe I would find answers to at least a few of my questions.
HOWEVER, A CERTAIN BLUE BOX KEPT APPEARING, COVERING MY SIGHT!
[Greetings! Please select a name for yourself!]
[Greetings! Please select a name for yourself!]
Since you insist on bothering me I'll reveal you my identity! Ex-master of the blue tower, adviser of the king and researcher of the great art, tremble in fear because you are standing before the great mage Azorious!
[Name selected, you have officially called yourself "Dungeon of the great mage Azorious".
Would you like to see your status?]
[YES] [NO]
Wait, what?