Chapter 76

Dylan followed Vivienne along with the rest of the students. As they walked, everyone quietly discussed her word magic, many speculating on how she could do something like that. The only full-fledged Words Mage explained that this form of magic was tied to her titles and branches of Karmic magic. Dylan listened further, but was unable to understand many of the nuances and definitions for such magic, but that was not as important to him as the fact that all the visions shown were true and were secured by the appropriate title.

Vivienne had, so to speak, placed visions in their heads that matched her titles and abilities. What Dylan noticed was that there was a slight ambiguity as to whether these were the pictures that had earned her the title or not.

Listening to the students' gossip, Dylan continued to ponder on the matter. It seemed unlikely to him that someone would so easily reveal their strongest merits. It was more likely that this was some kind of deception, she did have these titles and the visions she showed probably matched them qualitatively. But she did not show what she was really capable of, in case it turned against her.

Dylan didn't see much sense in it anyway, but he could understand it. People loved to brag, and he really loved it too.

Dylan stopped thinking about it and focused on his surroundings. They had walked several streets and as far as he could tell they were heading towards the main white castle. It looked very much like a medieval castle, with many tall towers, one of which could have housed a princess. The castle's fantastic appearance and luxurious design spoke volumes about it. Dylan even laughed a little at how nobles, mages and knights loved to flaunt their luxury.

Shaking his head, Dylan decided that it would be better to try to remember his magic lessons than to think about such nonsense. Dylan walked the rest of the way calmly, none of the knights and magicians stopped their group, even when they entered the castle together. Inside, as one could imagine, everything was mirror white.

Dylan immediately realized that there was a formation in the castle that monitored cleanliness, it was just a monumental waste of resources in his opinion. He did not even want to understand what was behind this decision, he was increasingly convinced of the abnormality of the magicians and knights here.

Shaking his head, Dylan walked on, watching as their relatively dirty shoes disappeared without a trace. This no longer surprised him. Following Vivienne further, Dylan simply looked around and was once again amazed at the luxury.

At some point they entered a metal box and went down. The elevator was really big, it easily fit more than 25 people. When they arrived at the right floor, the elevator doors quietly opened. Inside, Dylan saw a real laboratory, the first room was huge, all the walls were white and in its different parts there were tables with a lot of different equipment. There was so much stuff, many magical objects completely covered in runes, several huge ritual circles, there were even things that resembled a typical earthly hospital, like a microscope and a centrifuge.

Expanding his aura, Dylan tried to figure out what some of the items were for, but he couldn't. He still didn't understand runes, ritual magic, or enchantment, but being able to at least see the actual magical structure of these items was already an achievement. What surprised him was the lack of mana in some of the items, or rather, there was mana, but it was so little that they wouldn't be considered magical. This meant that these items relied on technology. Expanding his aura further, Dylan sensed several different types of mana, at first they were the usual affinities, like flame and water, but then he sensed life and blood mana. The next moment, his aura crashed into the walls, stopping its progress. Dylan immediately realized that there was some kind of barrier, deciding that this was enough, he dispersed the aura and exited the elevator.

While he was looking around the room, everyone had gathered in a small group in front of Vivienne. After waiting for everyone's attention to focus on her, she smiled and spoke in a calm voice.

"Welcome to my lab. Today I want to show you what Arcane Creation magic is truly capable of. You probably guess that it is something similar to the creation of artifacts, or perhaps you think that it is magic that creates and changes matter. In some ways, this is true. Basically, Arcane Creation magic specializes in creating magical items. For example, stones that generate heat or something more global like gravity cores. These are items that do not use spells, runes and other conventional magic. Arcane Creation magic creates items that are inherently magical, the most famous example is mana cores." Vivienne said, trying to explain everything as simply as possible.

Dylan nodded at her explanation, as he had known about it for a long time, although this magic was very advanced for their level, he was still interested in it for the future.

In this world, Dylan decided to divide everything into three conditional parts: material, magical and spiritual. If their magic consumes mana to create effects, then magical items can use mana to create magical effects, or for example heat, light, vibration and other types of energy. In fact, anything, or their nature as magical items makes them permanent. Like gravity cores, spatial rings. Their effects are seemingly endless, gravity cores constantly create gravity fields around themselves, and rings constantly store a piece of space in themselves and they don't even need mana for this.

Continuing her speech, Vivienne walked over to the equipment table and picked up a glowing yellow crystal from it, showing it to the students.

"This is the well-known crystal of light, a kind of ore that is found in mines. By its nature, it is magical, it contains mana that has acquired a very strange structure and a peculiar effect. Thus, the mana inside accumulates light, and later emits it. Perhaps this does not surprise you at all, such a simple effect can be easily repeated with the first-level spell "Ball of Light." But on the contrary, it amazes me, because the magical structure that the crystal consists of does not dissipate over time, like our spells. As long as the Crystal remains intact, this effect will not disappear anywhere, but if we used a light spell, we would spend mana, while the crystal only needs light and, in rare cases, heat."

"It is clear that it is most effective to create such crystals, but there is a significant problem here. To create them, you need strong mana, great skill and materials. This goes to the point that even a Lvl 100 Mage will have to try hard to create a low-quality crystal of light." She said and put the crystal back in place.

"I didn't bring you to the lab to tell you such trivial things, but I want to show you something truly amazing. Follow me." Vivienne said and went to another part of the lab.

Dylan and the others followed her, after a few turns in the lab, they stopped in front of a huge gate that stood out from the interior. The gate was made of white steel and had runes painted on every inch, they were built into the walls, which were made as well as the gate. All this created the impression that something really valuable, or really dangerous, was stored inside.

Vivienne touched the gate and many different runes glowed at her touch. Nodding to herself, Vivienne took a few steps back and the gate slowly opened, revealing what was behind it.

Inside, Dylan saw an even larger laboratory with artifacts that, at his brief glance, significantly outnumbered the previous room. If only because the density of mana in them made them glow brightly.

Entering the lab with the others, Dylan expanded his aura and also began to examine the objects. This time he was not so lucky, most of the objects were protected by a concealment shroud, and those that were not were too difficult for him. But he still learned something that impressed him greatly.

There were several half-assembled golems made of white steel. They were humanoid in appearance, about 4 meters tall, the design resembled typical cyberpunk armored humans, but covered in runes. He tried to assess them, but it did not give anything. Then his gaze caught on something he could not immediately understand. It was a glass container covered in runes, studded with various tools and tubes, with a light blue liquid inside.

Dylan blinked, feeling truly stunned for the first time. Nothing had ever affected him so much except his birthday, because the moment his aura touched the bright blue liquid, he realized it was a reservoir of liquid mana.

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How much should there be?

The tank was about 2 cubic meters in volume, about 60% full. After doing the calculations he hated, Dylan went into a stupor, hoping he was still bad at math.

While the others were looking around the space with interest and talking to each other, Dylan was stupefied and counting several times, trying to figure out where exactly he had gone wrong. But no matter how much hope he had, he was becoming more and more convinced of the terrible reality.

There are approximately 135 million mana in the reservoir.

Dylan ran another calculation and was even more horrified. With current statistics, he would have to meditate for 365 years non-stop to collect the same amount of mana.

After thinking about it for a bit, the amount of mana itself didn't scare him that much, because he knew how big the world was and how many mages there were, but it still surprised him a lot. Gathering so much mana and then compressing it 6 times to make it liquid took a lot of effort. It was probably done for easier use, or something.

What he was interested in now was how strong this mana was. The quality of mana was difficult to determine or describe, but given the quantity, Dylan assumed it was normal world mana.

Dylan continued to think about this intensely until Vivienne's voice caught his attention.

"I understand that you are all very interested in seeing the lab, but I want you to concentrate and come closer."

Dylan looked over at Vivienne, seeing her standing on a rune-covered platform in front of some sort of glass-domed device. To her right was a glass panel, on which she was selecting various runes in rapid succession. A second later, a hologram of rapidly running runes appeared in front of her, but Vivienne only glanced at it, continuing to rapidly select a sequence of runes with her fingers.

Meanwhile, the students began to gather around her and try not to disturb her in any way. Dylan actually decided to put his thoughts aside and took a place with the other reincarnators. Just when everyone had taken a comfortable position for observation, Vivienne finished typing something and the hologram in front of her changed, starting to show a creature resembling a small black reptile with wings, covered in segmented plates. Looking around, Vivienne showed a joyful smile and began to speak with great enthusiasm.

"This is what I wanted to show you! As a Great Mage of Arcane Creation, I can create many things, the possibilities are simply endless. But I decided to specialize in creating various creatures. To show you what my discipline is capable of, I will create my favorite and most amazing in my opinion. The first of them is Sana Cogitans Lacerta, or as adventurers call it the Cat-Dragon. But this species is not at all related to dragons, or small dragons, please do not be fooled by the name." Vivienne said and extended her hand forward, instantly a magnificent staff of white wood with a bright blue crystal at the end appeared in it.

It was so fast that Dylan didn't even realize that magic was used, what shocked him even more was that he couldn't feel even a drop of space mana. Focusing on the staff, he felt a larger amount of mana and most importantly its quality. Until now, he couldn't estimate the power of mana using his senses. Leaving new thoughts for later, Dylan continued to watch Vivienne.

"The Dragon Cat is an amazing creature. In my opinion, they are social animals with great intelligence first, and only then a disaster for miners and adventurers." Vivienne said as she began pouring mana into the staff.

After a few seconds of watching the glass dome, Vivienne nodded to herself and a compartment opened up inside, revealing a plethora of meat, black plates and bones. Dylan grimaced at the sight, it was truly disgusting. It was as if someone had gutted something, carefully separating it into pieces, and then simply thrown it into the box, not forgetting to put the guts on top. The rest of the students' opinions were about the same as Dylan's, no one liked to see it. Seeing the students' reactions, Vivienne decided to explain this part of the ritual.

"I understand that no one likes the sight of meat and other body parts, but forgive me for this. Creating this creature from scratch costs too much mana. No matter how rich I am, such costs are significant even for me, and having the basis of the body, I can easily reduce the mana resource for its creation." Vivienne said, to which the students reluctantly nodded.

Satisfied with their answer, Vivienne began the ritual. Turning the staff with the crystal facing down, she touched it to a special metal plate in the center of the runic formation and began pouring mana into it. Extending her other hand, she began to weave thin threads of mana, so quickly that none of the students could fully see it. Immediately after her actions, the flesh inside the box began to move and convulse. Such a sight again made many wince, in addition to the healers.

Over time, the flesh began to merge together to form a continuous fabric, a minute later a whole skeleton emerged from the flesh, which was assembled piece by piece by thin threads of mana. First, the spine was assembled, the skull and tail were attached to it, the limbs of the creature were the last to be assembled, along with small wings. Then the skeleton began to wrap around the flesh, completely merging with it.

Dylan was now really disgusted to watch this, especially because the body began to resemble a large cat with wings. And he really liked cats, so he did not like the sight at all, but he continued to watch, trying to understand how magic works.

After finishing the frame, Vivienne quickly began selecting a new sequence of runes on the interface, as soon as she finished the staff began to supply mana, so that it was visible at the connection point.

It also became noticeable on the creature's body itself, the flesh it consisted of became brighter and more alive. Vivienne continued to weave mana with her fingers and direct the ritual. Meanwhile, the creature's body was floating and various organs were added to it, first it was something similar to lungs, then it was eyes, which looked incredibly creepy in a skinless creature. This continued until Vivienne covered any external damage to the meat and began to insert black plates into the body. They stuck to the creature, making up segmented armor, it would resemble dragon scales, but the plates were much larger and were incredibly smooth. Having assembled the body of the creature, Vivienne began to assemble the head. She covered it with many unnecessary muscles and stuck several chitinous plates on it, making the face as smooth as possible. Opening her mouth, she began to adjust the sharp front teeth and back chewing teeth, doing everything as carefully as possible. Vivienne finished off the very thin black plates on the top of the head, so that they slightly covered the inner ear and played the role of a real one. Having twisted them in different directions, Vivienne made sure that everything was correct and began to assemble the wings, sticking tendons and black plates to them. Having straightened and bent them several times, she made sure that all the plates folded smoothly, so that the wings were very small and almost invisible at one moment, and the next they made up two thirds of the body.

This greatly surprised Dylan, such a complex geometric design on a living creature was simply unimaginable.

Next, Vivienne collected the creature's paws, paying special attention to the claws, the claws began to glow with a bright light of mana and began to change. They became slightly blacker and much sharper, Dylan also guessed that this was not all that they were capable of. Lastly, Vivienne collected the tail, at first it began to become thicker and longer, she even had to add a few additional plates to the width. Smoothly adding them and making sure that everything was correct, Vivienne lastly added the tip of the tail and changed it with magic, from which it began to look like the tip of a double-sided spear.

Vivienne's further improvements were selective, so it was almost unnoticeable. The only thing that gave them away was the large amount of mana in different parts of their bodies.

It took Vivienne about an hour to assemble the creature to such an extent that it now really looked almost alive, or recently dead.

"Pay attention to the next part, I will create a pseudo soul. Perhaps some of you will highlight something important from this."

Vivienne said and poured more mana from the staff. Her hand began to quickly select various runes on the panel, simultaneously creating magical threads. The process itself was completely incomprehensible to Dylan or anyone else. What they saw was how the various threads of mana and visible runes inside the body disappeared without leaving behind a single drop of mana. The creation of the pseudo soul took Vivienne another half an hour and by the end she even looked a little tired. But the satisfied smile on her lips spoke of how pleased she was. With her last movement, Vivienne hit the crystal of the staff on the floor and whispered.

" I give you life. "

The creature inside the glass dome began to twitch and Dylan distinctly felt spiritual energy, and then life force. After some small convulsions, the creature opened its eyes and screamed loudly, creating a very strong sound. The sound began to reflect inside the glass and hit the creature with an echo, at which moment the beast cutely covered its ears with thin plates and quietly hissed in fear.

What Vivienne demonstrated was incredible. The creature was truly alive and Dylan did not sense any death or undead energy. So he quickly assessed it.

Race: Artificial Sana Cogitans Lacerta [Rare+] Lvl 1