Students at the Academy weren’t forbidden from researching the specifics of how Capacity and Connection worked, but it wasn’t actively taught either. The two attributes were the least straightforward, and a real understanding of Connection in particular would take months or even years that could be better spent on more practical topics. Students could either learn exactly how Connection worked or learn how to design their Mana Body and defend themselves from monsters.

Still, Alex was surprised that he’d never read this booklet. Becca had stated that they were available down on the second floor, and any work of the Dean’s was a constant source of interest, “Where were these booklets?” He asked as he grabbed one and sat back on a plush chair next to Becca’s.

“Low-tier transmogrification,” Becca replied, and that explained why Alex had never seen it.

“Makes sense,”

Becca had opened her booklet already, indicating that her interest in the conversation no longer outweighed her interest in learning about magic. Alex didn’t disagree with the sentiment, the Dean was incredibly insightful. Any of his works had hidden gems of useful information.

He started by skimming over an introduction that stated the goals of the primer, it turned out that the Dean planned on informing his readers about Connection and Capacity in his booklet named after those attributes. Alex got to the good stuff a bit more quickly than he probably should’ve.

Upon entering the path, the Trialbringer enacts a change that is invisible to the human eye and so unobtrusive that I was not able to notice it with my senses until I progressed several levels into Tier 3. This level of precision is to be expected from such a powerful entity, but its effects are without a doubt the single most impressive thing I have yet borne witness to.

Humans, and other Manaless animals, have no natural connection to their soul or capacity for the creation of magical effects. This limitation is overcome by the Trialbringer, who initiates a connection between the body and soul as it ascends a new Pathwalker to level zero. This raises the Connection attribute to one and allows the mana of the soul to begin to seep into the body. The amount of mana generated by a being with a Connection of one is sparse by any metric, but this is a saving grace for humans at level zero. A higher Connection would risk burning out the body with mana beyond its ability to hold.

This is a large part of why we refuse to allow most individuals to artificially raise their Connection. Without sufficient Capacity, even a powerful healer will only be temporarily stabilizing anyone whose Connection grows too much while using unreliable methods.

Artificially raising Connection was an interesting topic, one that Alex didn’t understand particularly well. He’d heard that the city had methods to raise a Neophytes Connection so that they could attempt to form a mana type, but it wasn’t a topic that was relevant to him. He went back to reading.

At the same time as the body and soul are connected, the body itself also changes. This change is expressed with the Capacity attribute being raised to one. With a Capacity of one, the body can begin to hold the mana the soul produces. This attribute is much easier to raise than Connection, increasing whenever you level up. This leads me to believe that the Trialbringer raises the attribute by tempering the body with stable mana. This temperance is hypothetically possible to copy, but the instability of mana on Earth makes it effectively impossible with our current capabilities.

Stable mana wasn’t a common term, but Alex had seen it before. Mana on Earth was inherently unstable due to its current status as a Tier 2 world. Magical effects were more dangerous. Large concentrations of mana could cause ecological disasters. Part of New Chicago’s magical defenses were dedicated to preventing ambient mana from forming into such a storm.

Stable mana was hypothesized to make a world significantly safer, and the Dean seemed to believe that there would be other benefits. Earth was so far from that point that it was all theory or second-hand information. He continued to read, quickly coming to an interesting section.

The most straightforward way to think of the increase to your Connection in Tier 0 is as a tutorial. The soul attributes are withheld until reaching level thresholds to allow a Manaless being to acclimate, instead of forcing them to adapt all at once. This has proven a detriment in recent years that we have worked to overcome, but likely prevented the immediate collapse of society when the Trialbringer first arrived.

“So this is the theory behind emplacement rituals,” Alex noted, feeling a bit stupid. He should’ve realized that immediately. It was a bit confusing, though, as the rituals were known to give access to the soul attributes, not increase your Connection.

“Kinda,” Anthony replied, “They’re designed for Tier 0s who have the first point of Connection but not the soul attributes. That’s in the book I’m reading now.” He motioned to his own book.

“That’s why I got the books, so we can better understand the concept.” Becca agreed.

“If emplacement rituals just unlock the soul attributes, will they really work for us?” Alex asked. It was odd since the answer had to be yes. The Stirlings would’ve pointed out such an obvious problem.

“They should,” Anthony mused, probably thinking the same thing about his parents, “Maybe they just have to modify the rituals for untiered use? My parents sounded confident this morning.”

Alex skimmed over the next few paragraphs. They were mainly following these same lines, explaining the difficulty of adapting to even the smallest amount of Connection and how dangerous it could be for someone who wasn’t prepared. Alex had seen the tutorial analogy for Tier 0 before, but one of the Academy’s main goals was to give a strong tutorial so students could maximize their power in Tier 0 instead of learning the ropes as they leveled. The illusion rituals he and his friends went through weren’t the same as the real thing, but it was still good practice.

Connection and Capacity are not unique to the Trialbringer’s Path, even on Earth.

Alex slowed down when he reached this sentence, his interest peaked.

Before the Fall of Civilization, as we have titled the first Tier 3 trial overflow, there were several documented cases of untiered individuals performing powerful magical feats in extreme situations. These extreme situations were always characterized by an excess of mana in their surroundings creating a mana storm which mimicked some effects of a Mana Baptism in their environment.

Alex grimaced, this was something he had heard about before. Mana was ultimately a gift, just a dangerous one. Untiered individuals encountering events where mana density rose to a dangerous level would rapidly gain power as the mana helped them adapt to survive the danger.

Due to the instability, some who experienced this phenomenon died as individual attributes fluctuated out of control. It is known to be especially dangerous for those who gained a level of Connection that far outstripped what Capacity the storm gave them.

“What’s this about mana storms?” Alex asked. He was surprised by the information, “They temporarily raise your attributes?” His mind was racing as he started to make connections between the two concepts.

“It’s what the body does when it interacts with mana,” Becca nodded, confirming Alex’s thoughts. He was suddenly much more interested. There were implications, there. A new plan started to bloom in his mind.

If he wanted to refine the idea, he would need to do his research. Yesterday, the risks and benefits of his plan had been worked through with the assistance of Anthony’s parents. They weren’t here now, and he wasn’t particularly sad about that. His path should be his path. He could figure out what would work and what wouldn’t.

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It was interesting enough that Alex spent the next few hours looking into the difference between the boosted soul attributes from an emplacement ritual, and the less predictable gains from a mana storm. His initial thoughts were coming together, as he started to parse the benefits and drawbacks of each.

“There’s something that doesn’t make sense here.” Alex frowned at his several pages of notes.

“What’s that?” Becca looked up from the book she was reading to respond. They made eye contact and Alex’s frown softened.

Then it came back as he refocused, “I don’t understand why we don’t use this stuff more often.”

“Mana storms?” Anthony was dragged out of his own book by the absurdity of Alex’s question. The other two members of the group had noticed as Alex’s interest shifted to the more extreme side of mana exposure.

“I think heightened mana density events is a more accurate term for what I’m talking about.” Alex replied, “‘Mana storms’ conjures the picture of the great disasters that you read about in the history books. A group of idiots who somehow became Attuned before The Fall creating massive rituals without the proper safeguards. Laying waste to massive chunks of Asia when things went wrong. Hurricane Evelyn gaining a wind attunement and tearing half of Florida away from the mainland United States. Stuff like that.”

“You just described some of the greatest tragedies of human history.” Becca sighed, “I think events where millions of people died merit the caution we show them.”

“Well that’s what I’m saying,” Alex nodded, “Those events were such massive tragedies that we’re just avoiding the topic. I think if it's approached in a safer, and significantly smaller, manner almost all of the risk can be mitigated.”

“Just tell us what you’re thinking,” Anthony sighed, “Stop drawing this out.”

“Well, as far as I can tell, emplacement rituals are just incredibly small, precise mana storms. They have a preset amount of mana that goes in, which is why there’s a strict time limit. I assume that increasing the amount of mana could risk destabilizing the ritual, and if they could just change the ritual to give us more time they would’ve already done so. That’s why they need a powerful Tier 3, to forcefully stabilize the ritual in case they need more mana.”

“I’m with you, so far,” Anthony nodded, “But you haven’t actually gotten to the point.”

“I think that scaling up the ritual, by creating an area dense in mana, would have the same effects without the time limit. It would also potentially give us more attributes to work with.”

“Aren’t the higher attributes the problem?” Becca asked, “Everything I’m reading claims that the most common side effect from being inside a minor mana storm is injuring yourself with your increased attributes.”

“Yes, but all of those problems can be mitigated by a healer,” Alex replied, convinced that he was onto something, “Mr. Stirling would be able to heal any muscles we tear or repair blood vessels if we have a stroke from the strain. The increased time fixes our biggest worry, that we’ll take too long to adjust to the attributes and have to enter the path before we’re done.”

“Fair,” Becca replied, “Let me look into it some more.”

They did just that for a while, discussing different things they noticed and conclusions they came to. It became obvious after a short while that Becca and Anthony preferred the safety of the emplacement ritual. There weren’t any guarantees that their attributes wouldn’t go higher than they should, but even if that happened it would still be manageable.

Mana storms, on the other hand, could give people attributes beyond what most Neophytes would ever experience. If the physical attributes were significantly imbalanced this could cause serious injury. Mr. Stirling being able to keep them alive wouldn’t matter if they were constantly reinjuring themselves with the slightest twitches, according to Becca. It would ruin their ability to focus.

The soul attributes were just as fraught, with the potential to overwhelm the body’s Capacity. Luckily, both Capacity and Connection were always present to some extent. This meant that a ridiculous increase in Connection wouldn’t just kill them, as their Imprinted minder could siphon the excess mana out of them before it burnt them out.

Eventually, Muhammad and Jess came to join them.

“Surprised you two are so late,” Anthony greeted them.

“It was pretty obvious that Becca would have you two researching some obscure magic,” Muhammad replied, “I was only too happy to miss it. I already have my blueprint.”

Normally, this would be when Jess rolled her eyes and corrected him, but she was currently engaged in a nonverbal conversation with Becca. The conversation had begun with a raised eyebrow at her friend when she noticed that Becca and Alex were leaning towards each other, only separated by the plush arms of their chairs.

Becca had nodded back at her, which prompted a massive grin before a few more, significantly less subtle, gestures were exchanged. The two were both grinning by the end of it, and Jess segued the conversation away from studying with a squeal, “Oh my god! Finally.”

She then ran over and hugged Becca while Alex pulled away.

Muhammad just nodded at Alex, “Congrats, bro. I’m guessing she finally caved to my idea?”

Alex groaned, “I thought it was yours and Anthony’s idea?”

Muhammad’s smile widened, “Nope, all mine. Anthony is just stealing my credit.”

“I am not!” Anthony protested, “We both gave her the same advice after Amy convinced her they should get together.”

“I gave it to her first, though,” Muhammad replied.

“And I didn’t know that when I said it.”

“Still, the early bird gets the worm. I will be taking all credit for the two of them finally getting together.”

Jess smacked Muhammad on the shoulder, failing to remove his smug grin, “Oh, shut up. Just be happy for them.”

“Would you be saying that if you were the one with the best plan?” Muhammad raised an eyebrow at her.

The group continued to fall into playful arguing after this, with Muhammad refusing to yield any amount of credit to anyone at first. He finally relented when Becca pointed out that she was the one to actually kiss Alex, which also satisfied Jess. Anthony continued to claim that he deserved part of the credit for supporting the winning idea over the girls’ scheme involving Marlin and subtle signs that Alex had completely missed in the whirlwind of certs.

This conversation could’ve easily continued for a long while, but Alex seized a chance to change the topic and began to explain his idea for using a heightened density event instead of an emplacement ritual to provide more time. Jess suggested calling the heightened density events; ‘density surges,’ and Alex quickly caught on to the new name.

“‘Anyone with a Domain’ is a big requirement, you always have such grandiose ideas.” Muhammad noted, “Isn’t this just trying to reverse engineer what the Imprinted are going to do regardless?”

“Since when do you know what grandiose means?” Alex complained, not content to let the backhanded comment stand.

“We went over this yesterday,” Muhammad grinned, “I’m a supremely talented genius, held back by the doubt of my so-called friends.” He made a dramatic face while saying this.

Jess helpfully poked him, “Yes, babe, you’re very good at bantering. Can we go back to Alex explaining his idea now?”

“It’s pretty straightforward once you know his plan to mitigate risk is just using Mr. Stirling,” Muhammad replied, “A high-tiered individual uses a condensation array to create an artificial density surge. Great name, by the way, much catchier than what Alex was calling it. The density surge temporarily gives you the soul attributes, and you can inscribe your mana body during the surge. As long as you enter the path before the surge ends and your temporary stats go away, you’ll never have to deal with mana rejection.”

“Wait,” Jess frowned, “Why do you gain the soul attributes alongside Connection? Doesn’t that normally require levels?”

“Gaining stats through leveling from the Trialbringer has two advantages, it's safe and it's permanent.” Muhammad replied, “Density surges are neither, but you receive more immediate power for that short burst.”

“How do you know all this stuff?” Becca asked.

“My dad went through a density surge while he was Tier 0. Tiered individuals are insulated from the effects to an extent, but a strong enough surge can still affect them.” Muhammad replied, “It’s actually how he gained his mana type, although he later found out that the attempt should’ve killed him.”

Oh, that was interesting, “That’s what I was missing!” Alex exclaimed. Throughout the conversation, Alex had felt like he was missing one of the obvious benefits of heightened Connection. This was it, greater Connection made it easier to gain a mana type. Mana types opened a whole new world of possibilities. They were a requirement for noncombat Achievements beyond Rare after all.

“No.” Becca interrupted him, “You’re not trying to gain a mana type in the thrill of the moment. Neophytes struggle to form insight after spending years meditating. Most of the stories of people going braindead in mana storms stem from forming an incomplete mana type.

Alex wanted to argue with her but didn’t have the right words. He was missing crucial information to make his case. If he wanted to bring people around, he would need to know more. If he wanted to try for the best possible achievement, his plan would have to evolve.

That would have to come later, though, they had a duel to watch.