Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.02.15]

--- A few days later in the training room ---

“So, you think it’s related?” Zeph asked, still trying to map out a Spell that Makani enchanted inside the Cube. Its shape was identical to how the real version should look, which meant it didn’t work at all in this state – they would have to tweak it for it to work as an enchantment that could produce an effect. But it didn’t matter – Zeph was simply learning how to construct it manually.

And, boy, for a Spell categorized as Tier 0 it was ginormous.

“It has to be. There is no other reason I can think of,” Makani said while caressing his goatee. “According to the information I received from that ugly prick of a Practitioner, the framework is from a stratum-2 Tier 2 spellwork. Why would it drop so drastically in Tiers if not for the lack of additional ‘active sides’?”

The Spell was gutted out. All ‘active sides’ characteristic for Tier 2 Spells were replaced with Mana gathering and redirecting constructs. At least according to their informant. However, Zeph was sure a lot more was added or moved around, though. The construct was a mess.

How could it work without an ‘active site’? Simply. The Manacaster constructing it wasn’t responsible for creating the Spell’s effect. The gradient in Ambient Mana density was. The Spell worked like a framework, directing and moving Ambient Mana in patterns necessary for the effect to manifest. A Spell that was forming a Spell; a mold. Although, as with everything, it was a bit more complicated than that.

He smirked hearing Makani, not taking his eyes from the Cube. “Was it worth it? You didn’t say even one good word about that scion of a Landlord.”

“Humph, exchange of knowledge between fellow Manawielders knows no boundaries!” he exclaimed proudly. “Even if I hate that guy’s guts… Besides,” he glanced at Zeph, “weren’t you impressed? That final Spell of mine was a sensation and a half for the audience! It was definitely worth it,” he said, closing his fist and smiling smugly.

Zeph rolled his eyes. “Yea, yea. If only I could forget the image of a guy whining about the cost of that Manasolid right after his Duel…”

“Oh, come on! I was just in a bad mood.” He slapped Zeph’s arm, making him lose control over the Mana when the mercury in the Cube stirred and rotated the half-solidified construct inside.

A sharp, cold look was enough to make Makani bow apologetically.

In Zeph’s opinion, the ungrateful Manacaster should focus on fixing his personality flaws first before basking in the light of his newfound popularity. Better people suffered from corruption at the hands of their fame.

Yes, the rumor mill powered by the tongues of the city’s citizens finally reached its crescendo, reiterating most of the Tournament events in the most overblown, exaggerated, and ridiculous of manners. And Makani’s final Spell was a thing most often talked about. Not only was it one of a few ‘flashy’ moves that happened on the final day of the Tournament, but the sound of the shockwave had penetrated the building almost entirely. Taking into account how good were the safeguards around the whole complex, it was no surprise that it have become one of the top hot topics for the common folk. After all, most of the stadium’s personnel heard it. First gossips have started the day Makani left the fighting field.

Not that the Spell itself didn’t deserve it. Moreover, all those rumors reminded Zeph that he wanted to learn it as well, so at least the situation birthed some good into the world. Spells able to work off of Ament Mana’s density gradient or spike were rare, and this one was the first offensively applicable type Zeph ever saw. His Partially Self-Sustaining Spells were similar in working and execution, but of detection and utility types.

Not only that. That Spell could sustain an enormous jump in Mana density. Makani already presented the effects for a gradient of two-strata-wise difference in Mana density – the medium-sized Manasolid powering the construct had evaporated in the blink of an eye, ejecting enough Mana to imitate a stratum-2 Ambient Mana density.

After stabilizing the lump in the Cube, Zeph returned to the topic at hand.

“On a more serious note, I’ve finally found out what those dynamic ‘active sides’ in Tier 2 Spells are called,” he said, erasing that goofy smile from Makani’s face. “Well, there are supposedly many different names, but people of knowledge on this stratum use ‘junction node’ – or simply ‘junction’ – for the name, supposedly,” he said confidently, even if that knowledge was passed to him by Alana directly. “As we’ve noticed, the junctions in a Spell are connected with each other to some degree. Mana disappears in one, and comes out through the others, powering the overall flow, so that’s confirmed.” It was actually a difficult thing to prove because the energy transferred wasn’t adding up. “The important part is – the qualitative change in Mana happens exactly during that transfer, even if no Magicule is forming, which may be connected to the discrepancy in overall energy levels.”

That bit of knowledge was being suppressed for some reason.

“Frix! My Tower should be teaching me that…” Makani grumbled. “We still don’t know what is happening, don’t we?”

“Yeah, no idea. A kind of ‘conversion table’ exists for the energies spent and retrieved, but from what I’ve heard it’s nothing more than written-down values for each specific Spellform. But…” Zeph paused his study and looked up at Makani. “I think there is a very disconcerting possibility…”

“Higher dimension?” Makani asked spiritlessly. They already talked about the idea of higher dimensions a few times, as that concept seemed appropriate to apply to the strange phenomenon at the beginning. They got nowhere in their dispute, though.

“You want me to explain that once again?” Zeph asked mirthfully. Makani grimaced at the idea. “No, I was thinking about energy as a whole. What if there are other forms of energy that we cannot perceive?”

“Nonsense,” the Manacaster answered immediately. “Wouldn’t we have thousands of unexplainable deaths each year if that was the case? Especially among the Manacasters? If anything, I would argue it’s more probable for the Mana to land on the lap of some Onji before being restructured and split out,” he said, slapping his hand vertically into the other as if chopping something in half.

“So, you are suggesting we need a ‘perspective’ of another being for a Spell to tier up?” Zeph asked skeptically. “In that light, I can understand why we would categorize a Spell that only works on Ambient Mana as Tier 0, but other tier-zeros require our attention. Only yours is… basically inert.”

Makani shrugged. “Do you have any better idea? It’s as we observed – it’s because of either our Soul and Will, or… someone’s else.”

Zeph frowned. Indeed, they didn’t have much else to work with. The idea of a higher, ‘invisible’ dimension could only explain how the Mana was being transferred, not how and why it was being changed.

On the other hand, it was kind of hard to think about other 3-D ‘planes’ of reality, or about what was happening on those ‘parallel worlds’… Anyway, having a space with four spatial dimensions had far-reaching consequences, so the whole idea wasn’t defending itself very well. The looped dimensions and other such constructs that were trying to explain how the fourth dimension can be ‘invisible’ had some potential, but it was far-fetched and basically unprovable. Not to mention, those explanations never made much sense to Zeph.

In other words, the idea was cool and all, but it didn’t offer any real solutions besides the possible geometry of the movement of Mana.

If only I could study the phenomena at the atomic level of resolution, he thought bitterly.

“The behavior does resemble a physical engine, though,” he countered, using Rui terminology.

“Only if you squint and take an unhealthy dose of assumptions,” Makani said, snorting. “Anywho, you should be careful with that Spell. You do remember what I told you about the behavior of sound?”

During their long sessions, Makani did indeed explain a few interesting things about physicality on Corora.

The speed of the sound was different depending on the environment. That was because of the hundreds of obstacles in the form of the Mana currents and Magicules’ conglomeration areas. When a soundwave passes through several areas with significantly different sound speeds, a quiet echo is created and the sound itself becomes distorted.

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However, those effects were actually the reason for Makani’s prodigious accuracy when separating sounds coming from different sources and pinpointing their location. And the word ‘prodigious’ wasn’t being used lightly here. Somehow, the Manacaster seemed to be able to execute the Fourier transform on each sound he was receiving before splitting the sounds, different pseudo-echoes, and true echoes into separate groups according to the source and direction… At least, that was how Zeph was imagining it.

The difference in the speed of sound was also giving Makani a slight advantage in the medium-range and close combat. The man could easily assess the true distance depending on the sound itself while most people could be left confused by the discrepancy in the timing between a real strike and reflexively perceived danger. A desynchronization that had to be processed by the brain before they could adapt.

For example, in higher Mana density everything would sound to be closer. Reacting on hearing alone would be difficult for unused. It played a bigger role in projectile detection and when reacting to an unseen opponent, as in real close combat people were depending on their Veils for detection, but small mistakes during a high-speed combat could be deadly. Especially if Makani leveraged his advantage and started to sabotage his opponent by producing and modulating sounds around them.

Not to mention, everyone could condense their Veils to some degree, adding to the ruckus and chaos during group combat.

He himself was struggling a lot with the Sound Spells. It was the first time he had to grumpily admit that the short man was indeed a genius in his domain.

“Yea, yea. If I am surrounded by unstable air I will be hurt worse than the opponent, mother,” he commented snidely. But his mood quickly sobered. “I am concerned much more with my non-existent progress, though.”

“Eh, you will be alright,” Makani said, lazily waving his hand. “It’s similar enough to the Force group.”

Zeph didn’t comment. He had already learned three basic Spells from the domain of sound: Modulated Sound Detection, Modulated Sound Creation, and Vibration Modulation. Those may sound simple, but each one of them was a modifiable Spell construct. That meant that, just like with the Mana Beam, he would have to learn how to modify them on the fly to achieve a desirable effect. In other words, the Matrix-provided versions were merely a sample to work off of, not a fully functional Spell.

And this new one was even worse in every aspect. It didn’t possess clear control points. It wasn’t optimized for Mana consumption and lacked any adjustable elements that could help with that part. It was rigid in its structure while being overcomplicated at the same time. Yet, it still needed minute adjustments. For its overwhelming offensive usability, it was a pain in the ass.

“I don’t think I want it in the Cube…” Zeph said, grimacing. “I won’t be learning anything useful from it anytime soon…”

The mechanism allowing it to process the high-density Mana was simply too unintelligible. Heck, the whole Spell was.

“Just make another Cube if you want another,” Makani advised, shrugging his shoulders. “You should have enough money. And, let’s be honest here, you will need that Spell at some point.”

Zeph schooled his face, giving no indication that he had forgotten about making another Cube. “Yes, you are probably right,” he said seriously, focusing fully on the contraption in his hand. “I wanted to upgrade it anyway…”

Makani put his head in his hand and sent him a lazy glance.

“You forgot about that possibility, didn’t you? O great mind of ours,” he asked, ostentatiously picking his nose with his pinky.

Shit.

~~~

Later that day, Zeph visited one of the small compression chambers in the headquarters.

This one was made with a specific purpose in mind. Zeph asked for it as soon as he had learned that they had started to build those facilities in the Guild.

The ‘chamber’ was devoid of any entrances; extremely thick walls surrounded a small space inside. A constant noise of working machinery could be heard from a hallway away, even despite many dumpers put in place.

Zeph entered an adjacent room, yet three meters of solid stone were separating him from the item inside.

The insides of the room were quite cozy, in the magi-industrial sense of the world. Cabinets filled with few books and numerous contraptions covered the left wall. Ahead, in the part of the room with a raised floor, an office area was organized. Comfortable armchair, big desk, and a number of measuring devices affixed to the omnipresent brass pipes, all illuminated by a warm light. Two small lamps were lying on the desk for additional light as well.

On the right wall, though, stood something that could only be described as a magitech contraption. A flexible, metal chair at the center was surrounded by a multitude of levers, valves, and mechanical arms. Some of them were holding binoculars of different colors, some glowing spheres encased in metal rings, and the rest –apparatuses whose use was not apparent at first sight.

Zeph stepped closer to a brass contraption. Without sitting down, he switched two levers and turned a few valves before moving an arm with a binocular closer. Next, he grabbed two arms ending in spherical contraptions, moved them closer and into position, turned the last valve, and looked into the binoculars.

It took him a moment to fix the focus. As soon as he could clearly see seven familiar cylindrical shapes, he grabbed the controls. With a flick of his wrist, a mechanical arm entered his field of view. Operating with both hands, he slowly directed it to the first Prana battery.

The chamber in which the batteries were lying was almost completely devoid of Mana and air. An overly complicated machinery was working overtime to make sure it stayed that way. The arm he was manipulating remotely was purely mechanical, as was the system connecting it to the controls. They took no chances – even the light conductors behind the binoculars were equipped with multiple airtight crystal panes.

It was dark inside the chamber, so he had to depend on the weak light coming directly from the light conductors he was using to see. He carefully opened the visor on the side of the first cylinder.

A feeble luminescence greeted him. It backlighted the very corner of a measuring line. It was, of course, deep in red.

A measuring tool similar to a caliper opened at the end of the mechanical arm as he moved it closer.

Five comma four two six… no, five and a half… he noted in his mind.

With slow, careful movements, he continued to check every battery, remembering the values he had measured with the tool.

Finally, he distanced himself from the controls. With trained movements, he deactivated everything and moved to the desk.

He sat down heavily and took out a large book from one of the drawers. He flipped the pages to the last record, then meticulously noted the readings before putting another line of calculations underneath.

“Not even logarithmical?” he wondered aloud. “At this rate, it will stop deteriorating at all… Maybe I will have a chance to test the Prana after updating my Source Net, after all…” he mumbled to himself, his smile growing wide.

On the graph taking the whole next page, a new reading was put along with its uncertainty. The difference from the previous one was clearly visible, but if one were to look at the scale on the vertical axis, that difference was already counted in parts of thousands.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.02.25]

Zeph’s Mana Manipulation training continued without pause for the next ten days. He was mainly learning about Sound Spells and trying to speed up construction time for the most useful Spells he had access to.

His schedule has shifted somewhat, though. His department was finally working for itself. A few people who were transferred to his office helped tremendously in keeping everything on track. Pavail and Irra also didn’t need his input that often nowadays – he was delegated to gathering information for them.

Because his days were already filled to the brim with Manacasting training, he decided to revisit his old projects to fill his free time.

Thus, he focused on two Energy Enhancements rewarded to him: the Flexibility Milestone Energy Enhancement – “Mana-shaping internal amplifier”; and the Power Milestone Energy Enhancement – “Enhanced structurized force transfer”.

As it turned out, the former worked well with his training Perk for Flexibility – the “Body fluidity auto-training”. The Enhancement was causing his Mana to… react to his body movements, which his Perk was helping to train. It formed a nice reinforcement chain.

The effect was very similar to how Mana-L behaved, naturally following the movements of his body, but this EE worked for his pure Mana. The Magicules in his Veil weren’t influenced, although they were moving along as his Mana was pushing them around.

Zeph understood that, in theory, this EE was made mainly for physical fighters to help them control their Veil. But that wasn’t the end of its usefulness. It enhanced the accuracy of neural activity which paired perfectly with the effects of the implant covering his neurons. Moreover, all types of Mana shaping were being enhanced if he was moving physically, even if external Mana Manipulation didn’t seem to be gaining much from that effect.

He spent long hours trying to use it in all three modes of operation. The Internalization was tricky because he was trying to enhance his Spell construction by making miniscule movements with his fingers, eyes, and other small muscles, but he was slowly getting used to it. Disabling and Enabling the effect helped him train the robustness of his Mana Manipulation abilities. It also allowed him to learn what exactly the EE was doing. The Amplification, on the other hand, was another beast entirely. It was definitely dedicated for melee fighters – he felt like he was dancing alongside his own Veil when exercising spear forms. As so, he made minimal progress with that mode, leaving it for the time he would focus on physical training.

As for the Power Milestone, he wanted to analyze how it worked to enhance his Telekinetic Spells.

The process was irritably slow, though. That EE had even a notice in the description that it was incompatible with external Mana Manipulation – a headache-inducing property.

He was sure that if he contacted Danette Gildafi, who was still circling their Guild like a vulture in hopes of sucking information and knowledge from him, then this puzzle would be solved in days, if not hours.

But, as it was, he was alone.

As so, he struggled. Struggled to even see what the EE was doing. Struggling to slow down the construction of the force-dispersing structure. Struggling to understand what principles allowed it to work.

At some point, instead of using only his mind’s eye, he started to sketch the shapes he noticed. Then, he started calculating the forces while looking for any patterns. He wanted to at least be able to imagine what he was working with. To conceptualize the phenomenon.

But what finally brought him the enlightenment he was seeking came from an unexpected source.

It happened when he was meditating, focusing on his Soul and internal flow of energies. At some point, he finally noticed that something unnatural was happening near his skin…