Mana Soul: Chapter 46 - The Rabbits - Markus

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The flying ship’s arrival caused quite a stir amongst the general labourers of Arngier, and no small amount of chaos in the hunting headquarters. It took the combined efforts of most on duty golems over half an hour to settle things down and quell the spreading rumours of invasion.

Phillipe himself went looking for Markus in order to confirm what exactly was going on. To which Markus was forced to reply that he didn’t strictly have answers to give just yet.

Teaming up, Markus, Aela and Phillipe joined Hilda at the inner bailey gate along with ten combat geared golems and then headed for the flying boat’s projected landing site.

Judging by Tina’s current heading, it looked like she was going to attempt landing inside of the large trench being dug out for the future main sewer line. Given the height of the ship’s deck comparable to the side profile of its hull, this was probably for the best.

Despite its inelegant appearance, the huge ship gently glided down from the sky and came to a rest in the trench. Easterners, most likely the original crew of the ship, could be seen hurrying about as a large wide board was lowered from the deck to the ground.

With a difference of around fifteen feet from the deck to the ground, the plank bowed ever so slightly as Tina awkwardly began disembarking the boat. Taking her final steps off the plank, Tina took a very noticeable deep sigh of relief.

In the meantime, thirty southern men of wildly varying appearance and age descended the plank with practised ease, settling off to the side and chatting nervously amongst themselves.

“Those would be the shipbuilding experts, I assume,” Markus observed with interest.

“Should I go speak with them?” Phillipe asked curiously. Dealing with the different labour factions leaders was part of his job, so it was a reasonable question. Another part of Phillipe’s job was helping them choose a representative if they didn’t already have one, which was quite likely to be the case in this instance.

Markus was about to agree but stopped as an eastern man wearing silk robes descended the plank with practised grace. A man of perhaps forty or so years, besides his raven black hair and dark eyes, the only reason Markus was confident he was an easterner was because of his foreign style of clothing.

Five men and women wearing crisp lilac and emerald uniforms and carrying short spears descended behind the merchant. Standing a short distance behind him, the armed guards made no signs of overt aggression and kept their spears pointing upwards.

“I think that is the person you should prioritise speaking with,” Markus corrected, nodding towards the merchant and his attending guards.

“Right,” Phillipe agreed, taking a moment to smooth down his jacket and adjust his collar before smiling amiably and making his way towards the patiently waiting merchant. Two golems accompanied Phillipe as a token escort

Having recovered from descending the ramp, Tina proudly marched her way over to Markus and pointed back at the giant ship, “Pretty good right?!”

“It’s impressive,” Markus conceded, “But what are we paying for it? This ship is larger and heavier than those we had discussed. So won’t it make passing Peabody and your grandfather’s test that much harder?”

Tina’s confidence wavered for only a split second, “Actually, we came to something of a deal,” she grinned wider and chuckled, “Mr Tanaka-” Tina pointed to the merchant, “-represents a Lord in rebellion against the imperial court. If you look close you can see the ship has some signs of battle damage, and that is because they had to break through a naval blockade. You see, the lands controlled by this rebel Lord are experiencing a famine due to the naval blockade and land-based trade being completely cut off. Mr Tanaka lost his escort ships breaking through the blockade, so he was trying to hire mercenary ships to help break back in, as well as fill the cargo hold full of grain and whatnot. Apparently, he got to talking with an old friend of gramps who pointed him our way.”

“And this amounted to something along the lines of you delivering the cargo in exchange for the ship?” Markus guessed.

“More or less,” Tina agreed happily, “We have signed a contract for a dozen supply runs in exchange for both the ship and trade goods from the Lord’s territory,” she held up a hand to have Markus wait until she was finished, “The reason the territory is starving is that they produce a rather unique spice, it doesn’t really grow anywhere else, so they have something of a monopoly on it. Unfortunately, this also means they don’t have much of anything else, hence the famine. This first supply run will pay off the ship, and we will profit share with Mr Tanaka for the spice we bring back to sell. Afterwards, it will be a regular give and take according to the free market.” Tina seemed incredibly proud of herself.

“Your grandfather and Peabody both approved?” Markus asked curiously, quite impressed by the opportunity and contract Tina had negotiated.

Tina nodded emphatically, “Peabody was very involved in haggling the exact nature of the contract, but not nearly as aggressive as I would have thought he would be given the precarious position of the rebel Lord. After conferring with gramps, he said it had something to do with stabilising the local market and long term relations, which I guess makes sense.”

“A long term trade partner who has a spice monopoly could justify it,” Markus agreed, “And impoverishing this rebel Lord would very likely weaken their position and cause you to lose access. I highly doubt whoever replaces him would be willing to trade with someone who supported the enemy, you know?”

“Huh, I hadn’t thought of that,” Tina admitted thoughtfully before shrugging, “Anyway, I still need to have some changes made to the ship, and I need you to do some of the enchantments. We managed to make decent time travelling here from Monteire, but it's a hack job at best. OH! Also, can I borrow like…Fifty? Ish? Golems as guards? Not that I don’t trust Mr Tanaka and his men, buuuut, I don’t see a reason to risk it.”

Fifty golems was a lot, but given the size of the ship, and the number of potential enemies at the end of the journey, it would be good insurance and peace of mind. “Alright, but we will need to increase the number of mana storage crystals on the ship in order to give the golems a decent amount of activation time.”

That was one of the problems with golems. Depending on the activity, golems could function weeks without needing to replenish their mana or mere minutes. It all depended on the amount of exertion and number of active enchantments. This was why Markus had the mercenaries and chimaeras harvesting mana, and not the golems. Better to have the golems in reserve in case something goes wrong than to have golems going inert in the middle of a fight from depleting mana.

“Uh, so, can I also have an extension on the original budget?” Tina asked hopefully, “As you said, this ship is a fair bit bigger than the ones we talked about, and I have spent most of the original budget just making sure it can fly.”

Markus sighed and nodded, “You can have a forty per cent extension, so I suggest you make it count.”

Tina beamed, “I will!” She insisted happily and began rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

“Oh, and I want some flying boats made as well,” Markus added, “I have a feeling that the mercenaries could put them to good use in scouting, and if we can get each of them mounted with a ballista it would give some peace of mind against flying monster attacks.”

“I could look into that,” Tina agreed, “There are definitely some design changes I want to make after having made that first flight!” She grumbled good-naturedly, “I’ll try to come up with a new prototype design before I leave.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Markus agreed, withdrawing his tablet and adjusting Tina’s available funds, “If the shipbuilders need payment, make sure to let them know credits can be converted to coins at the golem bank and exchange building.”

Tina nodded somewhat uncertainly, “You made your own bank?” She asked curiously.

“Sort of,” Markus admitted. “It’s more of a physical backup for the purchases being made in Arngier. I want everyone to get used to coinless transactions, but I feel it would freak people out and cause them to panic if the option to exchange credits into coins wasn’t also available.”

Tina nodded in understanding, “You're trying to teach the commoners how nobles do most of their large scale business, but you are doing it with small scale transactions. It’s definitely an interesting experiment, I’ll give you that.”

With her budget back in the black, Tina headed over to the shipbuilders and began leading them around the side of the ship, describing the changes she wanted to be made. Although too far away to hear clearly, Markus was fairly certain he heard Tina demand a drawbridge-like door on the lower hull of the ship. Not a bad idea at all considering the ship was no longer required to remain seaworthy.

Hilda silently left and joined Phillipe’s diplomatic talks with Mr Tanaka, leaving Markus and Aela alone with their eight golem guards.

“You still haven't talked it out?” Markus observed with a disappointed sigh.

Aela remained silent.

“She is having a pretty rough time right now and only has Phillipe for company. It would mean a lot to me if you tried to resolve your differences,” Markus rested his hand on Aela’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze before rubbing her arm.

“Okay…” Aela agreed reluctantly, “Tomorrow…”

“So reasonable,” Markus teased gently, leaning forward and kissing her cheek.

“Not playing fair,” Aela grumbled half-heartedly, allowing Markus to lead her back home.

Waking up a little worse for wear the next morning, Markus got himself dressed and reviewed the weekly budget of expenses on his tablet. As expected, expenses were steadily climbing as the number of mercenaries and indentured labourers in Arngier increased. This wasn’t a problem due to the steady stream of income generated by the mana restoration artifice in Endem, but sustained growth would require more stations being established in larger towns and cities.

A proposal had been provided by the rebellious golem Mark, which in and of itself was somewhat surprising. After their last confrontation, Markus had expected the golem to lay low again, so the detailed plans for increasing Markus’s own protection and increasing the military might of his fledgling nation was almost suspicious.

The plans were simple enough in concept that Markus was a little annoyed that he had not thought of it himself. Full body prosthetic suits of armour. The mana costs would be multiple times higher than the operation of a golem, but assuming Markus, or indeed whoever was interred inside, could learn to control it, they would be impervious to just about any attack so long as the mana reserves lasted.

Modelled after the roughly human form of the existing golems, the amalgam of prosthetics looked like a barrel-chested knight in plate armour. The designs noted that the ‘driver’ would enter through the front chest cavity, which could be opened and closed through manipulating internal locking mechanisms. Although cramped, the driver would be able to sit on a custom made recumbent lounge of sorts and buckle themselves in to prevent being thrown about. Assuming the driver was correctly connected to the prosthetics, they would be able to see and hear everything as if they were using their own eyes and ears as well as the communication artifice and mana visualisation artifice.

Finding his own helmet restrictive when it came to breathing, Markus was surprised to find that Mark had even made an allowance for that as well. Much smaller versions of Tina’s rotating blade artifices were built into the upper back. One directed air inward while the other pulled it out again.

There were some problems Markus noticed with the design, the most notable of which was its sheer size. Just judging by the sketched image of the driver inside for scale, he figured it had to be around fifteen feet tall. With all the joint articulation and mobility of the golems, each part is liable to take an incredibly long time to fabricate. It would also require no small amount of quartzite and other gemstones, which were already in relatively short supply. Finally, the costs in mana would be incredibly prohibitive.

Even so, Markus knew that he had to commission at least a prototype in order to test its effectiveness in the field. After all, there was the distinct possibility that this amalgam would be the extra muscle needed for the mercenaries and chimaeras to safely clear the higher level dungeons. Of course, arming the amalgams would be another hurdle. Best Markus could think of off the top of his head was to use pikes in place of spears, or maybe use large cast-iron axes with durability enchantments to stop them from shattering.

Having convinced himself, Markus sent the work order through to the workshop and listed it as a high, but not the highest priority. In addition to making more golems, the workshop had begun producing large numbers of prosthetic components in anticipation of the arrival of the mercenary company’s disabled veterans. Unwilling to divert personnel from that endeavour, Markus expected the Amalgam to take the better part of a week to be completed at the earliest.

Setting the tablet back down on the bedside table, Markus realised another potential drawback of the amalgam. Chimaeras would likely not be able to be drivers. Due to their heavy composition of mana, there was a distinct possibility of the amalgam overdrawing its mana reserves and then drawing on the mana inside of the chimaera driver. It was a flaw in the prosthetic connections enabled by the enchantments. The worst it could do to Markus, or anyone else with a Class would be rendering them unconscious, requiring a golem to connect to the amalgam and unlock the chest plate in order for the driver to be removed and recuperate.

Settling back into bed, Markus gently stroked Aela’s cheek and brushed aside the stray hairs from her face. She always seemed so much smaller when she was sleeping like this. Smaller and far more fragile. Looking back on their first meeting, Markus now understood how lonely and starved for any degree of emotional intimacy Aela had been. She had little in common with her adopted siblings and had been ostracised by everyone else around her. While Markus could somewhat appreciate the loneliness, he had forgone potential friendships deliberately in order to pursue his ambitions.

Lowering his eyes to the blankets covering Aela’s taut abdomen, Markus felt a pang of guilt over not being able to be everything she needed him to be.

Retrieving his tablet again, Markus used it to view the silvery-blue mana flowing through the veins of his left hand. Wincing slightly, Markus pulled away the blankets and made a quick inspection of his groin, or more specifically the mana passing through it. Replacing the blankets again, Markus sighed and stared at the ceiling.

In addition to the blood flowing through his veins, Markus’s bones also contained small amounts of mana. It was more difficult to notice, but Markus had confirmed it on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, the mana inside of him did not extend to the life-giving seeds in his genitals. That single fact made the chimaera fertility treatment method impossible to emulate. That is unless he changed himself.

Staring at Aela as she continued her slumber, Markus recalled how he had saved Aela’s life. Converting mana from one form into another inside of his own body had been the most painful experience he ever remembered experiencing. It was almost certainly an experience shared by the monsters who were impaled with weapons bearing his mana draining and conversion enchantments.

The fact that chimaeras existed at all, proved that organic matter could be converted to a pseudo mana state. The question was how. Markus was not averse to altering himself, but he needed to know if it would work, be certain before committing to it.

Testing on humans was out of the question, but the prospect of experimenting on animals wasn’t much better. However, with no real alternatives, Markus began dredging the depths of his mind for potential avenues of experimentation while listing a work order for live rabbits.

There was another avenue of inquiry that could provide the answers, but the insane amount of danger involved made the potential sacrifices of a few rabbits pale in comparison. A dungeon Class Crystal. Found in only the highest level dungeons, it was suicide to consider attempting to obtain one without a large party of high-level Warriors, Mages and Priests. Purchasing one would be equally as difficult. Besides being prohibitively expensive, the major houses of nobility held near complete monopolies and heavily controlled who could purchase them.

All the same, Markus gave Peabody a standing purchase order for a Class Crystal. There was next to no chance that the established nobility would allow Markus to ‘establish his own house’ by purchasing a Class Crystal and theoretically become a true rival. Attempting to make the purchase through Phillipe or Hilda’s families as proxies wouldn’t work either. As contemptible as some of the high nobility were, their servants weren’t stupid.

Feeling Aela begin to stir, Markus set aside the tablet and helped her sit up.

“Have you been awake long?” Aela asked drowsily, rubbing at her eyes and yawning wide enough that Markus could clearly make out the back of her throat.

“A little,” Markus admitted, “Are you up for telling your mother about the ten free treatments? Or should we have a golem do it?”

Aela gave him a sly look in return, “You know, I am really tempted to go with your golem idea,” she grinned and stretched, eliciting another drawn-out yawn, “But…What if we told Yiva and just let it spread from there instead?” Aela suggested mischievously.

“But isn’t Svala in one of those buildings at the nursery?” Markus asked, a little confused by what Aela was looking to achieve.

“She is,” Aela agreed with a smirk, “But Magnus won’t be. He’s trying to pair Thyra off to try and guilt a free treatment out of you.”

“Really?” Markus sighed and shook his head, “Why does he make it so difficult to like him?”

Aela shrugged lazily and got out of bed, “He just likes being petty and selfish, it's who he is.”

“At least this is sort of in the best interest of his daughter,” Markus rationalised with just a hint of scepticism.

Aela grunted in agreement as she pulled on her boots.

Getting out of bed, Markus got dressed as well.

After a short breakfast downstairs, they headed for the Blood-Hunters nursery and pulled Yiva aside for a private chat. Not only did Markus and Aela let her know about the ten free treatments for each of the clans, but Markus also explained how the payment structure would work and why he designed it that way.

Yiva couldn’t help but trot excitedly on the spot, “You are asking so little!” She bleated happily, “Oh! There will be so many little ones!” Yiva hugged Aela and Markus excitedly, “Thank you!”

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Markus blushed and did his best to grin through the strain on his ribcage.

“I always knew you were a good man!” Yiva declared proudly, “Am I allowed to tell others?! Oh! Sorry!” She quickly released Markus, allowing him to breathe in some much needed fresh air.

Taking a few moments to catch his breath, Markus raised his hand to beg her patience. “If you could let the Shadow-Maw know as well, that would be a big help. But please make sure everyone is aware that the service won’t start accepting appointments until tomorrow.”

Yiva nodded excitedly, “I will make sure everyone knows!” She promised.

Markus would have allowed the appointments to start sooner but wanted to give the craftsmen a little more time to make the mobile treatment waggon a little nicer. The more respectable the waggon and its contents appeared, the more confidence the chimaeras would have in the service. Or at least that was Markus’s thoughts on the matter. The minor delay also allowed for modified uniforms to be made for the golems responsible for administering the treatments, but that was very much a bonus and not at all necessary.

Leaving Yiva to spread the good news, Markus and Aela spent the rest of the morning playing games with the chimaera children. After midday, they engaged in some light sparring to try and determine the extent of Markus’s untapped skill before visiting the hunting headquarters and watching live feeds from the field.

Roughly thirty per cent of the western forest and one more dungeon was now under their control. At the hunters' current rate of momentum, the mouth of the great valley would be cleared in around five to seven more days. This was important because it would signal a slowing of the hunt while the gained ground was fortified against potential counterattacks. It was crucial that the hunters not stray too far from supported fallback positions. There was no telling when a high-level monster would arrive, so it would be best to play it relatively safe.

Things may change depending on the integration of artifices into the hunters' arsenal, but for now, this was the overall plan.

Markus was hoping for some indentured wainwrights to arrive at some point. He wanted the Armoured Waggon to be mass-produced and mounted with a ballista for fighting the monsters. As a veritable mobile fortress, it would give the hunters a real chance of responding to and taking out high-level monsters as they were detected. Between the Armoured Waggon and the Flying Boat, the hunters would have control over the land and sky.

The majority of monsters the hunters currently seemed to be facing were enhanced aggressive versions of regular animals. This was good in the sense that it meant they were easy to lure into traps and ambushes. However, it was only a matter of time before more intelligent monsters like the trolls or orcs would appear. Those monsters would be just as capable of laying traps and ambushes of their own.

Markus just hoped that the hunters wouldn’t be facing any such monsters until entering the great valley proper. Savage cunning would be able to do little against magically reinforced walls and ever vigilant golems.

As Aela had promised, she left in order to go speak with Hilda, who they had both seen practising alone in the sparring yard earlier. With Phillipe entertaining the foreign merchant, Hilda was quite likely feeling quite alone. This made Markus grateful Aela had agreed to try and mend their relationship.

Checking reports from the golems, it was interesting to see that the easterners were more or less keeping to themselves aboard the ship. After thinking about it for a little, Markus supposed he could understand why. Just as he was worried that they might try and steal the ship after it made its delivery, they were most likely worried that Tina might renege on their deal and just keep the ship, imprisoning or killing them in order to keep it quiet.

As evening approached, it came as little surprise to Markus to find dozens of small cages and crates containing rabbits had been delivered to the now completed kennels. A cursory glance through the work order confirmed that a handful of chimaeras had been responsible for the majority of the captured rabbits. Their heightened senses gave them a significant leg up over their human competitors.

Marking the work order as complete for the time being, Markus decided to open a few others in anticipation of creating Guardians. Boars, wolves, foxes, even bears if they could manage it, Markus wanted scans of them all. Altering the work order to require live delivery but only in order for the golems to perform the scans, it would mean the trappers would be able to walk away with the animal afterwards to do as they will. In the case of chimaeras, it would almost certainly end up in a family cooking pot. But human trappers would likely take the animals for butchering and sale at market.

Before trying his first experiment, Markus made sure to check whether Leona had made any progress with Cara, Markus was disappointed to find that the small redhead had remained stoically silent.

Removing a thumb-sized crystal from his pocket, Markus dragged one of the wicker cages away from the pile and into one of the kennel stalls. Placing the crystal down beside the cage, Markus left the stall and then lowered a pair of Mana Vision Lenses over his eyes. Concentrating for a moment to remotely activate the enchantment, Markus waited patiently as large amounts of monster mana radiated outwards from the crystal over the course of a minute before depleting itself.

Curiously, both the rabbit and branches of the basket retained the monster mana for close to ten minutes before dissipating. However, neither showed any signs of external or internal change that he could see. The enchantment itself had been a slightly modified version of what constituted the chimaeras fertility treatment enchantment. Markus hadn’t expected it to work, per se, but it was interesting to see the results.

Remotely charging the crystal again, Markus decided to try something a little different. Fetching a stick, he wedged a spare mana draining bead onto the end of it and then carefully altered the enchantments to only convert mana, but not drain it.

Activating the crystal again, Markus waited until the rabbit was suffused with monster mana again before hesitantly gently poking the rabbit with the bead on the end of the stick. Expecting the rabbit to shriek in pain, convulse, or otherwise react as the trolls had done, Markus was surprised by the rabbit's relative complacency. Besides trying to hop away from the stick, the rabbit didn’t show any other aberrant behaviour. This was all the more curious since Markus could see the monster mana inside of the rabbit changing pale blue of generic mana. Unfortunately, the mana dissipated at roughly the same rate as the first experiment.

Markus retrieved his crystal and repeated the experiment on other rabbits. The next three rabbits gave the same results, but the fourth rabbit, an aggressive male, viciously bit off the bead from Markus’s stick and swallowed it. Thinking some particularly uncharitable thoughts, Markus continued the experiment and waited for the mana to dissipate. As the minutes continued dragging on and the converted mana inside of the aggressive rabbit faded, Markus began wondering if Aela would wring the little bugger's neck for him so he could retrieve his bead.

Aela and Hilda seemed to have decided that sparring was the best way to settle their issues and were doing just that a short distance away. After watching their aggressive reconciliation for a few moments, Markus turned his attention back to the scruffy black rabbit.

“Huh…” Markus leaned over the stall’s lower door to take a closer look and make sure he wasn’t just seeing what he wanted to see.

The mana inside of the rabbit had almost entirely dissipated with the exception of the surrounding tissue around the ingested bead. Nearby blood seemed to be shifting the mana away and allowing it to disperse and disappear like before, but it was at a greatly reduced rate in comparison.

Remembering that he still hadn’t talked to Phillipe, Tina, or Hilda about their experiences in gaining a class from a Class Crystal, Markus eagerly headed for the sparring grounds to rectify that oversight.

Waiting somewhat impatiently for a lull in the girls' bout, Markus waved to both of them to get their attention.

Apparently more than a little spent, Hilda and Aela nodded silently in agreement with one another before slowly making their way over to see what he wanted.

“Hilda, do you think you can tell me what it was like when you used the Class Crystal to become a Warrior?” Markus asked, doing his best not to sound rude or demanding.

Hilda seemed surprised, obviously not having expected a question like that. “Well, it was a long time ago,” she admitted with a bit of a blush, “I was only eleven winters at the time. But it is the sort of memory that makes its mark. The Class Crystal was black and too big for me to hold in one hand at the time, although I probably could now. It was rough and sharp like broken glass. I remember the adults telling me that cutting my hands and bleeding on it was important, or something like that,” Hilda flexed her hands and looked down at her palms, “When I started bleeding, the crystal melted like ice, but instead of falling to the floor, it seeped into the cuts in my hands instead. It was uncomfortable at first, and I remember my insides hurting a little, but it passed after an hour. After a week, my mother began teaching me how to sense the mana inside of myself and use it. When I broke one of my instructors' wrists in sparring, it became obvious that it had been a Warrior Class Crystal.” She shrugged, “That’s all I really know. I hope it was helpful.”

Markus nodded thoughtfully, Hilda’s references to the behaviour of the crystal were very interesting and had given him some ideas. “Thanks Hilda, it was really helpful, and it’s good to see that the two of you are getting along again.”

Hilda blushed a little and nodded before heading back out to the sparring grounds.

Aela lingered for a moment before suddenly pecking him on the cheek, “You were right,” she admitted quietly before following after Hilda.

Far from feeling smug, Markus felt grateful that the pair had managed to put their disagreement behind them. Neither Aela nor Hilda had many friends, so it was important to him that they reconciled before things went too far. It also served as a bit of a reminder that Markus had been neglecting his own unspoken friendship with Phillipe and should probably set aside some time so they could do something together.

Not wanting to lose his momentum, Markus returned to the kennels and used the pump in the yard to fill the bucket with water. Bringing the bucket of water back over by the aggressive rabbit’s cage, Markus was relieved to see that it had spat out the bead from earlier. Gingerly lifting and moving the cage, Markus kicked the bead into the corner, deciding he would clean it later.

Pondering how exactly he was going to go about his next experiment, Markus decided to make sure one of the steps was even possible first. Dropping a blank bead into the bucket, Markus enchanted the bead remotely to decrease the temperature of everything it was in contact with. Although difficult to see at first, ice began slowly forming around the submerged bead. Once the bead had functionally doubled in size, Markus gingerly pulled it out of the bucket and cancelled the enchantment.

Cracking the ice with his knife and freeing the bead, Markus quickly attempted to replicate the cooling enchantment on the ice itself. To his immense surprise, it worked. Although it was draining mana at a not inconsiderable rate, the ice proved capable of not only holding an enchantment but allowed enchantment without being marked just like true crystals.

After his initial excitement passed, Markus was forced to admit that this revelation wasn’t nearly as helpful as he thought it would be. As the piece of ice began running out of mana and slowly melted, Markus could see that the water was unfortunately devoid of mana.

Taking some time to think about what to try next, Markus came up with another idea. The bones had always been the last body parts to lose the mana. So Markus wondered if perhaps there were naturally occurring crystals inside of them. The easiest way to test this theory was to try and enchant the rabbit’s skull and see if anything happened.

Concentrating for close to a half-hour, Markus almost gave up before suddenly feeling a very faint receptivity from the rabbit’s skull. Doing his best, Markus attempted to enchant the tiny crystals to better store and retain monster mana, linking all of the tiny crystals together to increase the overall capacity. Unsure of whether it worked or not, Markus activated the crystal containing the monster mana and waited to see what would happen.

As Markus had hoped, the rabbit’s skull did indeed continue retaining mana long after it had been purged from everywhere else in its body. Unfortunately, it also seemed to have a negative effect on the already aggressive rabbit. Thoroughly agitated, the large black rabbit began attacking the wicker branches with its teeth, snarling and growling in a manner Markus had never heard rabbits make before.

Calling for a golem, Markus wasted no time in jumping out of the stall and scaling the fence.

As requested, a golem came sprinting over from the direction of the workshop with a sturdy looking hammer clutched tightly in its fist.

Hearing the sound of the wicker cage break and the snarling of the savage rabbit suddenly grow silent, Markus peeked over the fence and found the rabbit hanging limply from the golem’s free hand.

The golem casually walked over to Markus, still holding the limp remains of the obviously dead rabbit, “The threat has been eliminated, Creator. Is there any other service I may provide at this time?” The golem’s sweet lyrical male voice and upbeat tone were very much at odds with the passing danger.

“Uh, no, well yes. Leave the rabbit just over there,” Markus ordered, pointing to a carpenter's workbench that hadn’t been removed from the worksite just yet. “And message Hector, I want him back on personal guard detail.”

“As you command, Creator,” The golem replied cheerily, depositing the dead rabbit on the workbench before effortlessly scaling the fence and briskly trotting back to the workshop.

Waving awkwardly to Hilda and Aela, Markus stiffly made his way back into the kennel yard by using the gate, hoping that his exaggerated calmness was convincing enough to discourage investigation. Walking over to the workbench, Markus was shocked to see the radical changes in the rabbit’s head.

Thoroughly deformed, the dead rabbit had what looked like boar tusks protruding from its mouth and catlike eyes. The skull itself looked somewhat like that of a bear but was grotesquely asymmetrical with one side being larger than the other.

Most interestingly, the skull itself seemed to be undergoing a state of collapse as fissures formed and isolated segments of the skull, which still contained small amounts of mana, were separated from one another. Similarly, the rabbit's eyes literally began falling apart and spilling onto the table as the tusks fell into pieces and tufts of hair began falling out in clumps. Doing his best to force down his revulsion at what he was witnessing, Markus was fairly certain that he had just uncovered one of the steps for creating chimaeras.

It seemed to be the case that prolonged exposure to monster mana mutated or otherwise allowed the mana to reshape the host body. The mixed features expressed in the rabbit were quite possibly due to the mixed sample of the mana, although Markus couldn’t be certain. Not particularly keen on proving that particular theory just yet, Markus turned his attention to the remaining rabbits briefly before looking out over the fence at Hilda.

“If I can make chimaeras with monster mana…Does that mean I can make a Warrior with Hilda’s mana?” Markus seriously contemplated the question for a short while before deciding it was worth a shot.

Hilda and Aela had ended their sparring for the day and seemed to be casually discussing different fighting techniques.

“-sounds good, but I still prefer being on top,” Hilda replied nonchalantly.

Aela was about to provide a rebuttal but stopped when she saw Markus, “I smelled blood, is everything alright?” She asked before giving him a welcoming kiss on the cheek and nuzzling his neck.

“Ah yeah, a golem was able to sort everything out before there was a problem,” Markus replied honestly with a hint of embarrassment.

“Hehe, did one of your little rabbits try to attack you?” Hilda joked good-naturedly, her expression turning more extreme as she noticed Markus's own mounting embarrassment, “Seriously?! AHAHAHA!”

Markus just grinned and bore it. Objectively, he would have been more than capable of putting the rabbit down himself, mutations or no. “Anyway…Hilda? Do you mind if I ask you for a little favour?”

Wiping tears from her eyes, Hilda took a few moments to calm down before answering. “Hehehe, Sure, I haven’t laughed like that in ages! What do you need?”

Markus surreptitiously cleared his throat, “I just need a sample of your mana,” he explained while trying to play it off as nothing particularly important.

Hilda sobered up rather quickly, “I’m sorry, what?”

“I am experimenting with transplanting mana,” Markus explained as simply as he could manage.

Hilda stared blankly back at him.

“I am hoping I can make more Warriors, or something similar by experimenting with samples of your mana,” Markus elaborated.

Hilda waved her hands and shook her head, “No, I think I understood what you intended the first time,” she gave Markus a thoroughly appraising look, “Do you really think you could make more Warriors with my mana?” Hilda asked with a mixed expression of scepticism and curiosity.

“Maybe?” Markus shrugged, “I am fairly certain I can transplant the mana, but I have no idea if it will allow the use of your abilities.”

Hilda nodded slowly, “Why not use your own? Or Tina’s, or even Phillipe’s?”

Markus actually had an answer ready despite not having anticipated the question. “I am experimenting on rabbits at the moment. I can reinforce the cages to the point of making them nearly invulnerable if I need to. However, if by some stroke of luck a rabbit manages to figure out how to use Class abilities, an Artificer would be able to unravel my enchantments, and a fire Mage would cause all manner of potential damage. A Warrior on the other hand-”

“Would just drain mana by attacking the cage,” Hilda interjected, nodding in understanding.

“Exactly,” Markus agreed before thinking of something else as well. “If you are willing, I would like to test whether I can artificially increase your mana levels as well.” It had been something of an afterthought, but the theory had been rattling around his head for the longest time already.

“Increase my level?” Hilda asked in surprise, “You think you can do that?”

Markus nodded, “I think so. I am rather familiar with dungeon cores and monsters. The destruction of dungeon cores released huge volumes of mana which Adventurers convert into additional permanent mana storage. I am not sure precisely how, but I think I am beginning to have an idea.”

“So how would you increase my level?” Hilda asked, sounding somewhat confused, “Running more dungeons?”

Markus shook his head, “Nonono. Actually, it would be similar to the chimaeras fertility treatments. All I should need to do is enchant a crystal to radiate large amounts of monster mana in your vicinity and then your own body should do the rest.”

“Huh…” Hilda seemed more than a little surprised by the simplicity of it.

“I mean, technically, you could probably accomplish something similar if you committed to fighting monsters without my mana draining enchantments. But the process would be much much slower and obviously far more dangerous,” Markus explained seriously.

Hilda took a minute to think things over.

“I can probably do the same for you as well,” Markus added, caressing Aela’s neck, “Theoretically, it’s much the same thing.”

Aela considered it for a moment and then nodded, “I trust you. Just don’t make me too strong, I don’t want to break you,” she teased.

“I’ll do it,” Hilda agreed, apparently far more confident now that Aela was participating as well. “But how will you take my mana?” She asked curiously.

“Just another mana draining enchantment,” Markus explained while retrieving a bead from his pocket.

Hilda looked surprised, “You can drain mana from Adventurers as well?” She asked warily.

“Pretty sure,” Markus agreed glibly while altering the beads enchantments.

Accepting the bead from Markus, Hilda's surprise quickly turned to shock as he activated the beads mana drain. “I can feel it!” She declared with worry, now staring at the bead in her palm like it was some sort of venomous insect.

“Don’t worry, the bead won’t take much mana,” Markus reassured her, waiting only a few more seconds before deactivating the enchantment.

Hilda looked visibly relieved, “That was a thoroughly unpleasant experience,” she declared, tossing the bead back to Markus and shuddering.

“That had been the general consensus,” Markus agreed, “But thanks all the same.”

Hilda waved him off and leaned against the nearby sparring ground fence to settle her nerves.

“We can do the experiment tomorrow once Hilda’s mana has recovered,” Markus explained, “It will give me time to prepare some crystals and get mana levels from both of you.”

Hilda nodded and continued taking slow deliberate breaths, apparently more upset by the mana draining process than Markus had thought she would be.

Leaving Aela to keep an eye on Hilda, Markus returned to the kennels just in time for Hector to arrive.

Assigning Hector to a protection role, Markus made it clear that he would prefer a non-lethal takedown if the experiment subject broke free or turned aggressive.

Choosing a much more docile looking rabbit, Markus placed the cage on the workbench and had Hector remove the remains of the dead rabbit. Repeating the process from before, It took a great deal of trial and error before Markus was able to make the tiny crystals in the rabbit’s skull receptive to Hilda’s donated mana. However, in the end, it appeared to be a success. Some mana had been lost during the exchange but what remained seemed to be stable.

Enchanting the wicker cage by tying off a basic durability enchanted bead to the frame, Markus had barely managed to tie the knot when the rabbit hopped and crashed hard into the roof of the cage and sent it flying into the yard.

As ordered, Hector moved swiftly after the cage and secured it, his arms barely moving as the now thoroughly distressed rabbit began leaping against the wicker frame of its cage.

Thoroughly taken by surprise, close to a minute passed before Markus fully realised what was happening. Somehow the rabbit had managed to activate and use Hilda’s transplanted mana.

“Was it because the mana is in the skull?” Markus wondered aloud, unsure if somehow the vicinity of the mana had affected the rabbit’s brain, making it easier to tap into the enhanced strength.

With Hector holding the cage still, Markus could see bright surges of mana flood sporadically through the rabbit’s body each time it prepared to leap. The levels had already grown much lower than before and after a dozen more attempts, the mana was depleted entirely. Still hopping around in its cage, the rabbit was clearly agitated but no longer capable of multiplying its strength.

“Is the rabbit injured?” Markus asked curiously while moving closer to take a better look.

“It appears unharmed, Creator,” Hector replied after holding the cage at eye level for a few moments.

“Alright, set it down on the table again, I want to see if the transplanted mana recharges on its own,” Markus pointed to the workbench and waited patiently while Hector deposited the cage.

Although initially disappointing, ever so slowly, the rabbit’s skull began to light up with mana.

Markus grinned and placed the monster mana crystal next to the cage before activating it. Just as he had hoped, the rabbit’s rate of mana regeneration increased drastically, making notable progress with each passing second. Unfortunately, the mana level plateaued at the same level achieved by the initial transplant.

Not particularly discouraged, Markus chose to take it as a sign that he had probably botched part of the enchantment and needed to refine his technique before trying again on a different subject. On the upside, it seemed like Markus would have his own steady supply of Hilda’s mana for conducting more experiments without needing to distress her further.

Watching the cage go airborne for a second time, Markus sighed as he came to a rather obvious realisation, “I’m definitely going to have to do something to that rabbit if I want any mana for experiments…” Markus observed with minor amusement as Hector once more seized the wicker cage and attempted to bring it under control.