Chris was disappointed with his mana capacity being so much lower than his control and output, however, he would overcome this hurdle. It was more typical for powerful mages to have an immense mana pool and simply throw magic around like they were never going to run out.

‘I'm simply going to have to be… inventive’ Chris mused while waiting for the sponsorship section of the ceremony to begin. Now, since my control is so good someone will definitely sponsor me to the Mage Academy. I would be able to use that connection to get the funds necessary for my development.

‘If my body doesn't want to hold lots of mana, I'll simply store it in some bottles’ laughing Chris imagined himself in the middle of battle chugging bottles of liquid mana and firing plasma bolts at enemy mages. ‘An amusing idea but not very practical. No, I will enchant items to become my mana capacitors, some nobles do it already. I just need to improve the design. For now, I will substitute quality for quantity.’

Just as the nobles and freshly blooded were about to mingle and discuss sponsorship there was a blinding flash of light and explosion of heat.

“”BOOOOOM”” Chris and most of the gathered were blasted across the square, the fire licking hungrily at stone and flesh.

‘Dang..dang..dang..thump...ring’ There was the sound of a huge bell ringing rapidly before a huge impact and a metallic hollow sound as the bell was struck by something massive. This was dimly registered as an alarm by Chris but he was barely conscious.

The surroundings were littered with stone wood and glass from the vaporized building, the guild building. Many people lay slumped unnaturally with shrapnel from the building embedded in their flesh. Very few had reacted in time to prepare defenses. Only 3 people were left standing after the blast. Two of the Primar Mages and Shaper Kiran, he had managed to protect the 2 younger mages. The three of them were inside a shimmering aegis, a faint blue glow and shimmer like heat on a desert all that told of its solid shape. It weekly shone after taking the huge blast before flicking out.

The other Primar Mage, well he had not been so lucky. Although the mage table was the furthest side of the square from the blast a huge jagged lump of masonry had shot across the space and practically vaporized the young mage. The crowd of onlookers lined up against the wall… well being meer meters from the explosion they had turned into fragment missiles to cause damage to the living.

Chris had been lucky, not a trait he usually displayed. There had been other boys and girls in front of him, as well as Kiran. He had been spared all but the smallest ricochet.

‘Oh god, this hurts so much.’ Chris let out a whimper as he looked at the source of the pain. There was a wooden splinter about 10 inches long and 2 wide embedded into his upper thigh. He tried not to think about all of the arteries and veins running through that spot. He resolutely decided not to remove it. It would take more than [Minor Recovery] to staunch the blood flow.

The bell that he had heard earlier was now silent but he could hear shouts and smaller explosions falling within the city. Who was attacking them? He had never thought to ask who the neighboring powers were, always too focused on trivial things and recently, magic. He would have been content to work his way up the Mage Ranks and live a comfortable life…

‘No that option is no longer available, I have to find my mother and leave the city.’ This was his thought, but he knew that the magic capable of vaporizing a building from outside the city was scary.

It had to be at least of the 5th if not 6th Tier. They likely had multiple High or Grand Mages on their side. This town's most powerful was Shaper Kiran, a mere 4th Tier Caster.

But what was the purpose of attacking such a small town with such power? This was the question on his mind as Chris limped over the writhing crowd of injured also clawing their way to their feet. As he approached his mother's position in the crowd his heart sank. ‘No, not her please.’

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He had always loved his mother deeply, now with the recent memories of his past life he had come to think of it as a natural reaction to his mother having died when he was young. His father had been good to him but had never shown the deep love that his current mother had. Perhaps he had indulged himself in that love since coming here as well. It had allowed him to forget the harsh realities of life, to relax and look forward to carefree days.

The smoldering stone and lacerated bodies in this section of the square made his eyes prickly with tears, his chest tightened and mind dulled. She had been at the front of the crowd, neer the thick reinforced glass of the guild building window. The blast has fractured it into dinner plate size shards that had sliced through everything in their path, including her.

He felt like he should feel anger, wrath or some other hot emotion. But he just felt empty, a deep desire to just lie down and let whatever would happen, happen.

‘No… I used to hate people like that. The ones just sitting there during an accident, doing nothing’ new resolve formed within him. He would be different.

Chris bent down to grab a still-warm shard of metal from the ground and stood up to look around. Most people had left or were sitting in shock ’Or Dead’. He must have been standing there for longer than he realized.

‘Focus Chris’, for he had to prepare. When the main bulk of the attacking force would break into the city he must have a means of defense. Chris reached for his center of magic, his nexus, and drew forth some power. Flowing the mana down his arm he grabbed the chunk of metal with his will. Focusing on his magic since he willed the atoms that made the copper lump to vibrate.

The copper began to heat up, becoming more malleable.

He then began to push the metal into a long strip with his will, the band of copper elongated and then he began to fold it in upon itself. Forming a crude band. Next would come the painful part, he released the copper ring from his will and looked inside his chest. He could sense the mana crystal, surprisingly high quality. If left alone it would have naturally dissolved inside his body, but he had other purposes for it.

Pushing his mana against the stone he grabbed it within his will, wiggling it towards the surface of his skin. It wasn't that painful surprisingly, at least not yet.

Now would come the painful bit, he grabbed a shard of glass from the floor and cut his flesh above the stone then quickly pushed the stone out of the world and into his palm. That was painful and very dangerous, he could not afford blood loss.

“[Control Flame]” He panicked, willing a nearby fire to leap up and sear the flesh closed. The words and desire had come unbidden and panicked, as the heat seared his flesh he realized he could have heated an object and seared the fled or just bandaged it.

The flame splashed against his chest and burned a good deal around the wound, a sloppy fix, but just a bit late for a redo.

Chris stood gasping for a few minutes trying to soothe the pain with a few liberal applications of [Minor Recovery]. Eventually, he stabilized.

‘Next I must set the gem into the ring.’ He gripped the ring and heated the metal again softening it and then pushed the small mana crystal into the soft metal, pushing it deep enough that the metal came over the halfway point on the gem and gripped it firm.

Now that the crude item had been made he would have to enchant it to his purpose. He had read about the basics and knew that an automatic charge and discharge were above him. For now he would create a simple storage enchantment, that would allow the containment of mana.

Focusing his will he visualized the crystal, currently, it was a raw jumble of sugar crystals infused and strengthened with glass and mana. In order to allow the easy flow of mana, he must alight at least the bigger crystals to point inwards and create a small hollow space at the center of the crystal. This was difficult but after a minute of trying it was satisfactory.

Next came reinforcing the crystal itself and willing the mana added to the gem to condense and fill the empty space, like a hydrophobic material making a bead of water. This would prevent the escape of mana. With this the basic containment was complete, it was very crude and he would not want to drop it, but it would serve his needs.

Now came to test the little time bomb. Nervously Chris slipped the rough ring onto his left hand's middle finger. It sat there just a bit lose, using his will he tightened the ring until it fit snugly. Slowly he pushed some of his mana into the metal and stone of the ring. It began to draw the mana from close to the gem and condense it on the inside. ‘Not very fast but serviceable.’ He increased the rate of flow and the ring absorbed it faster. At this rate, it would take maybe 5 minutes to fill the ring and store maby 5% of his capacity. He knew that drawing the mana back out would be much quicker than feeding it in.

The stones they gave us were better than I thought. Now looking at the copped remains of bodies he turned away. He could grieve later. Now he had more rings to make. There were 9 other children and 9 fingers he could fill. He tried not to look at the horrified face of Mark, a shard of wood in his chest.

Chris would be prepared.