Though there wasn’t much visually different about the preserve walking it with my mana senses extended, there was everything different about it magically.

When I’d been unable to direct them, and could only use Dusk and the vague impressions I got from things that were close to me, I’d gotten the sense the preserve had a lot of powerful magic, and that there was a lot of complex geomancy and terrain manipulation going on.

Now…

I could see so much better.

There was power rushing through the entire place, like a massive web of spellcraft that I was unable to entangle. The work I’d done with Dusk had been little more than trimming the excess, like I did with the spells in my spirit.

Fifth gate power flowed everywhere, supported by lower gate power. Not unlike the complex bath that Kene had been submerged in by the witch, there was supporting magic that ran the gamut from first gate to fourth, all leaning in to help shape and improve the fifth gate power that was keeping the preserve running.

The creatures were like candles that lit up in my senses, often drawing power in from the environment in order to restore or improve their power, releasing their power as they squabbled over territory, or going still and blending into the environment as they rested.

I walked through the preserve, noting down easily a dozen spells that I could use, while Dusk peeled away to go talk to the world mammoths, since their magic had so much overlap.

I nodded and wished her the best while I retrieved some paper and a pencil and started making a physical list.

For first gate, I knew for a fact that I wanted the cavern dragon’s Enhance Forging spell. I’d seen how much of a power booster it had been when I’d worn it as a ring, and being able to wield it would help with Briarthreads, Material Echo, Fungal Lock, and any future spells that formed constructs out of mana.

I also wanted to leave one of the mounds open for whatever mysterious deadly spell Edgar was willing to share with me, but that still left one more slot open, and I started taking notes. I didn’t need to inherently pick up a dragon spell – I was sure there was an infinite amount of useful spells out there – but I wasn’t going to lose out on listing my options at least.

I spotted the Coral Dragon’s Claw, which forged extra large claws of coral over the terragon's natural claws, and for me could probably forge the claws over my fingers for a melee strike. I might not be as strong as a dragon or draigg-blaidd, but I was stronger than an average mage.

The fruit mimics weren’t the best source of spells, but they did have a first gate spell that used their magic to shift energy around them to help them blend in. It wasn’t quite a veil spell, but it could definitely be useful when I combined it with the new veiling technique I’d worked out during the Beastgate Trial Trail.

The draigg-blaidd had a spell that I thought might qualify as a meta spell, like the forging one, but I wasn’t entirely sure. It was dangerously tempting, since it seemed to increase the output of whatever spell it was directed into far more than just directing in extra mana would, but it put a strain on the user’s body to use it, since the draigg-blaidd were left panting and exhausted after sustaining it for a few seconds.

Pretty much everything, from waterfall estragon to frost hydra, had some sort of sensory enhancement spell of some sort, and while there were arguments for all of them, I thought that the best one I might possibly pick up was from the sky estragon, which helped them diffuse their senses out through the winds, lights, shadows, and surrounding creatures, while skipping over the earth and giving a general sort of sense of where the ground was. It wasn’t exceptionally powerful, but it could be used just about anywhere, while something like the desert estragon’s was a bit more specific to the desert.

When it came to filling the second level of the beastgate, there were even more options.

The Coral Dragon’s Armor, which formed twisting coral armor over the body, and could be layered atop of the scales of the terragon. I thought that meant it could probably be integrated on top of other armoring spells, so if I was to pick up something like the Fungal Armor spell, it wouldn't create a conflict between the two.

The desert estragon had an interesting mirage spell that projected false limbs out all around the user, while also blurring the edges of their body into whatever was around them, making them hard to hit. With Foxstep and Lesser Image Recall running alongside it, I could get even harder to hit.

There was also a spell that the kelp terragon used, which forged bands of kelp around a person that slowly tied together into knots, which could definitely combine with Fungal Lock quite well. The interesting thing about it was that it wasn’t a channeled spell, like Fungal Lock, but rather a single cast that forged the binding kelp, and then the kelp stuck around for about a minute before fading.

And of course, much as with the first gate, there was no pressing need to pick up all of my spells here at the preserve.

It did somewhat have the issue that Meadow had talked about with me not really needing plant spells the same way a normal plant mage would, but at the same time, I didn’t have any plants that could perform any sort of binding ability, and even if I did, it would need to be a continuous channeling of mana, while this one wasn’t, so it went on the list anyways.

A spell from several of the more general ocean estragon seemed to allow them to change their bodies slightly to adapt to their environments better, be it on the coral side, kelp side, or even briefly in the deep sea. I didn’t expect to need to dive into the depths of the ocean, or down, but who did expect to drown? Having contingencies was good. On the other hand, I didn’t want to be wasteful with the spells I picked up. After a moment, I put it on the list.

The lens of forged mana that I’d seen Arcelli use before went on the list. It was shockingly flexible, able to enhance most spells that used solar mana in any regard that passed through it, but also able to concentrate mana senses when they were sent out through a specific direction. For me, I could see it having endless uses.

Though it wasn’t from a dragon, I’d gotten a good taste of how powerful frost and ice creatures could be, so while I moved through the arctic section, I went ahead and added a spell from the boreal toads that lived in the area, a sort of song that they croaked out that built up winter magic around them, stealing away the breaths of those within the radius of the song and encumbering them. Though I’d been passed out most of the time I’d spent with the boreal toad and hex-ermine, they’d still helped keep me safe.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I debated entering the bonesprout fields to check out some of the cocatrice and basilisk spells, but eventually decided against it. Most of their magic was completely and utterly deadly, with no uses other than killing. It wasn’t even like a flamethrower spell, which could kill, but could also be used in combat. Basilisk spells were deadly poisons that could eat a person from the inside out, and… I didn’t want that, even if I did want to increase my power.

While I was thinking of improving my offensive power, I decided to pick up a type of dragon’s breath. I was at the dragon reserve, after all, and the entire reason I’d accepted such a risk when having my beastmark tattooed on was to gain the power I needed to help protect my family. Ed had stepped up, but the assassin was still out there, and said assassin had arcanist level healing potions, could heal on her own, and was incredibly strong.

Last I’d seen her, she felt like she was peak third gate, presumably using her sacrifice legacy to improve the density of her mana, rather than cutting out the steps. Either that, or she’d used some sort of potion or pill to form the steps for her. Whatever method she used, she was stronger than I was, even if we were standing on the same stage.

Not only that, but when I’d fought the revenant, I’d struggled to make a dent in its armor when it flickered up to third or fourth gate. If I’d had a harder hitting spell then, maybe the coblynau and I would have gotten less hurt.

Besides… It was freaking dragon’s breath! Who didn’t dream of being able to release dragon breath from their hands?! I wasn’t willing to devote both of the currently-exposed mounds within the beastgate to only dragon breath, but I needed one, for sure.

The obvious choice was Mantle Dragonfyre, and as I donned the heat protecting enchantments, I studied how the estragon and terragon used it.

Given the way that most offensive spells seemed to be fairly simple, I had expected for this one to be the same, just plug mana in and release a blast of powerful offensive magic.

I was quite incorrect, as it turned out. The dragons would start the spell, and it would rotate through their entire body, layering extra energy and more of their mana into it. That added power was then compacted, improving the power of the dragon’s breath. The more times they cycled the spell, the more power they could compact into it, but the harder it seemed to be to hold the spell, as it began to tear apart under its own weight.

If the spell did break, then all of the power that they had worked to compress and build up was just released in a harmless wave of raw mana. It didn’t seem to strain their spirits – thankfully – but the mana was entirely wasted, and their body had to rebuild its lost energy.

But if they released it after they completed a cycle, then they would release an incredibly potent beam of red-brown light that felt far stronger than what a bunch of hatchlings should be able to manage.

I fed them a bit extra for allowing me to watch, then left to go look at some of the other rare variants of dragon’s breath, and found myself examining a bunch of water related ones to my surprise.

The waterfall estragon’s breath weapon instantly released a large, intense pillar of condensed and forged water that allowed it to reign supreme over its fellow lake and river estragon. It didn’t have the same extreme power as the mantle estragon’s did, but it seemed incredibly cheap for the power that it had, as it could be sustained for quite some time, keeping continual pressure on something.

The deep sea drake’s breath was a stream of light that punched through the nonmagical shadows of the deep sea, and it seemed to operate not dissimilarly from the mantle estragon’s. It didn’t rotate through the entire body, but instead charged up power in the back of the drake’s throat, and the longer it charged, the more powerful the eventual blast was. It didn’t seem to hold the same risk of wasting mana, but the effects of charging seemed less intense than the cycling of the mantle’s breath as well, making it a good in-between.

The coral terragon’s was quick, thin, and smooth, and while it wasn’t as cheap as the waterfall estragon’s, it wasn’t horribly draining either, as it could be sustained to cut through the water and earth. It seemed almost as sharp as a blade as it speared through the world, unlike the bludgeon that was the waterfall dragon’s breath.

The kelp terragon, on the other hand, seemed to have a slightly sticky breath. It was mana intensive but fast, releasing a bar of blue-green light that struck and then clung to whatever it struck, digging in and dealing lingering damage, which only grew more intense if the breath was sustained.

While it wasn’t rare, I did also consider the breath weapon of the desert estragon. It fell pretty solidly in the middle for most things: it wasn’t mana hungry, but nor was it cheap. It wasn’t powerfully concentrated, but it was still a dedicated offensive spell. The reason I considered it, however, was its secondary effect. When the rush of simultaneously hot and cold destructive breath was unleashed, it warped the air, creating illusions of itself from multiple, slightly off angles and curves, making it difficult to tell where the actual breath was.

As I was wandering through the preserve, I noticed the rainbow kirin following me, so I turned and waved to it. Normally when I did something like that, it turned and left, but this time, it trotted up.

“Hey,” I said, holding my hand out for it to sniff. It did, then pressed its nose into my hand. I gently stroked its mane for a few moments before the kirin pulled away.

I ran my mana senses over the rainbow creature, hoping that there would be some sort of ultra-powerful kirin magic that I could appropriate, but it was like running my hand through mist – I could see that the kirin was there, but I only got the faintest impression from my senses.

The kirin looked at me, and our matching eyes locked. Again, I felt a moment of understanding pass between us.

And a spell bloomed to life in my mind.

It was a full-gate spell, a second gate one, from the kirin, but it was incredibly strange, unlike any that I’d seen before, and entirely unlike any beast spell I’d ever sensed, while also definitively being a beast spell, one for pure hudau mana, and would work with the approximation that I had.

If I’d only had the spell to go off of, then I’d never have been able to make a guess as to what exactly it did, and would have had to get Meadow.

But the kirin had passed along a sort of understanding, and I closed my eyes as I digested the spell.

The Ninelight/Prismatic/Rainbow/Fortune/Constellations Bindings/Depths/Connection/Integration/Vibrancy.

I flinched as I tried to parse the strange translation of the spells name, which felt… Wrong, somehow.

It took me a long time to understand it, but there was an instance of text that the monolinguistic spell didn’t translate – the library’s motto was written in an ancient language that didn’t translate, and this felt… similar.

I let the name of the spell wash away to focus on what it would do, but to my disappointment, it was difficult, the understanding that the kirin had passed along being only of limited help.

It would improve the potency of ingrained effects, that was clear and easy to understand, but that felt more like a byproduct than its intent. The purpose of the spell was to help to create synergies even when they weren’t explicitly there, whatever that meant.

It would make all of my mana and energy – not that there was that much of a difference now – work together smoother, while improving the unity of bond and purpose, which… honestly just felt like another way of saying that it would make my body and spirit more cohesive.

It was also very clearly a growth spell, but what it required me to push was even more vague and unusual, and I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. The closest feeling I got was pushing existence, which made no sense at all to me.

I reached within myself to consult fortune, and felt it loop in lazy, almost amused swirls. It was happy, even interested, in seeing what could come of this bout of connection, but the winds didn’t impart some deep need onto me – if I wanted the utility of some of the other beast spells, that would be just as reasonable, and perhaps better in some ways, though worse in others.

I opened my eyes to try and ask the kirin for assistance, details, a better understanding, anything of the sort, only to find that the kirin had vanished.

I sighed and went back to looking over my list.