Lasair wanted to upgrade [MINOR MANA CONTROL]. It was her most versatile skill, and quite powerful too. It made creating [ARTIFACTS] a breeze, made [EXPAND] and [SPAWN] cheaper, and had almost unlimited combat potential.
Plus, it let her interact with the world. If not for her very first mana ability, she wouldn't have ended up with [MINOR PYROMANCY]. [SHAPE SELF] was far too slow to be useful in a stressful situation. Without [MINOR MANA CONTROL], her only way of influencing the outside world would be her minions.
She had decided that the best way to upgrade it would be to try and manually create something that was usually handled by the system. Imitation is the highest form of flattery and all that. That being said, she had slightly underestimated the difficulty.
The system used structured mana. This mana functioned similar to computer code, being incredibly compact and able to interconnect with other mana. Trying to create the same result with normal strands would require drastically more energy and effort. Lasair would need to start small.
That was how she had decided to create a [MANASTONE]. The name implied that it was made of mana, which meant she wouldn't have to transmute anything. It was also, though not cheap, not astronomically expensive.
Lasair created a few fragments of [MANASTONE] via the system to get a sense for the structure. Eventually the floor was littered with shards and slivers, but she almost understood. After the just a few more, she had it figured out.
The mana was snipped into incredibly short strings. These had to be the exact same length and thickness, and she needed to handle a few dozen at a time. That was just for a [MANASTONE] the size of a raisin! Not to mention anything to do with affinities.
After the strings were collected, they needed to be shaped. The mana needed to be bent into the shape of an oval, and kept that way. After the two ends of the sting met, they needed to be tied or fused together in a way that let the flow of mana continue in an endless loop, much like an oroboros.
Then, the next string would undergo the same treatment, but while threaded through the first link. This would continue until all the strings had been woven together, ending with a chain mail of mana. This would need to be in the general shape of whatever the end product was.
A vice grip of energy would then be used to compress the shape. After it had been compressed far enough down, it would take the path of least resistance into the real world. Crystallized mana known as [MANASTONE] was the result.
Lasair had no fucking idea why this happened, but least she now knew how. She had a lot of extra energy from defeating the trader, the closeness of the fight helping to add a bit more, and was ready to give it her own go.
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She failed before even getting to step three. No matter how hard she tried, she simply could not get the mana to hold its shape. She could get in it position, maybe even get one or two links together. But the moment she let her focus go it would all fall apart.
So Lasair decided to try something else. She made a single link, just like before. She took the link, in all its circular glory, and passed it through the little cloud of her fire affinity.
Hear her out! Fire mana was usually unruly, yes. It longed to destroy, to consume. But it was something she knew. Her mana affinity was a stretch, only vaguely being connected to her previous life. Even though structured mana was similar to code, it would still be like learning a whole new programming language without any instruction.
But fire was something she understood. Combustion was one of the few science lessons she had listened to, and she had no shortage of first hand experience. Fire was something she could quantify, something with reasoning behind it, and hopefully, something she could control.
The mana took on a nice red color, and immediately began fighting her hold. It wanted out, it wanted to hurt, it wanted to feed. She grasped that small, greedy intent, and turned it back on itself. The mana thrashed wildly, before grabbing hold of its own base.
The two ends chased each other, circling in a tighter and tighter loop until... behold. A perfect link of blazing mana, forever chasing itself. Lasair slowly let her grip on the mana fade, her energy retreating back to her soul. The link remained, in no danger of burning itself out.
After that, Lasair seemed to fall into a trance. Mana passed through her affinity in great swarms, giving in to fiery perfection. The greed of fire set in, and each strand was guided to begin consuming itself, joining with its fellows as they began to chase the same goal.
Links began to clog the air within the Aviary, at least a few hundred. Lasair's energy was almost gone, but she had enough for the last few steps. She gathered all that she had left and began to shape the construct that hovered in the middle of the room.
Soon, a massive dagger took shape. The handle was a simple oval shape, and the cross guard was nothing fancy, but the blade. Oh, the blade. She had guided the links there into a higher density, and even before being brought into the real world it seemed to glow with pure power.
Lasair gather all that she had left, and began to crush. The dagger began to shrink, smaller and smaller. This was taking a bit longer than she would have liked. It was taking a bit more energy than expected.
The dagger kept on shrinking, eventually ending up a little bit smaller than what she was going for. It would be better suited in the hands of a teenager than an adult. It was right on the brink of passing over, she could feel it, but she had nothing left to give.
In one last desperate bid, Lasair used some of the little knowledge she had gained in school.
Hot things expand, right? What if I...
She strained to keep her hold on the dagger as she raised her final option. The very thing that had started this whole process. Her fire affinity. The dagger was once again sent through. A clatter rang through the room.
[MINOR MANA CONTROL] HAS UPGRADED TO [MAJOR MANA CONTROL]
And there it was, sitting exactly in the middle of the mural. A dagger of beautiful deep crimson crystal, wickedly sharp and radiating heat. Actually, the color was a little too deep. Lasair inspected the weapon, and was pleasantly surprised.
[TWICE-CHARRED MANASTONE]
Oh, yes. This will do nicely.