Pale light cast itself throughout the chamber, sending shadows dancing along the walls. Fortuna dozed in the corner, but opened his eyes as I walked by, stretching my body carefully, feeling the muscles slowly relax. I was as ready as I could be, and if I waited any longer, the potions I prepared would no longer be useful.

Two weeks of preparations had led up to this moment. I cleared my schedule tomorrow, in case I needed time to recover. I practiced Iron Forging as often as possible, always looking to find minor tweaks to improve the technique, feeling my vessels grow minutely stronger each day.

In a few hours, I would either find my experiment successful, or I would be dead. A grim smile flickered across my features at the thought.

Taking a deep breath, I stripped off my shirt, feeling the cold air brush against my bare torso. Cortos' chamber tended to be dark and frigid, and goosebumps broke out across my skin. Padding across the room, my bare feet hitting the stone floor, I opened the drawers and retrieved the three potions, laying them onto the worktable nearby.

I had made sure the last two nights to use archaic exercises that I found in a several hundred year old tome to prepare for tonight. Mana was used to, for lack of a better term, massage my vessels, relaxing their walls and priming them for growth. And I had not tempered at all these two days, letting my body recuperate as much as possible. Truthfully, I was not sure it would make much of a difference, but any bit of improvement helped.

Grabbing the regeneration potion, I felt the icy chill of the liquid through the glass. I released a shaky exhale of air, pushing aside my worries before tilting the glass back and drinking it. The cold, mint-flavored liquid shot down my throat, sending stabs of icy discomfort throughout my body before settling into my stomach. Near instantly, I felt minor aches and pains throughout my body disappear, as the potion took effect.

Unfortunately, it was also accompanied by an unbearably itching sensation that crawled through my flesh. This uncomfortable feeling led me to quickly snatch up the numbing potion, hastily downing it, and feeling the effects take hold. The itching disappeared, as did any sensations in general. If I was not touching the glass, I would not be able to tell, and my entire body felt foreign and detached.

Finally, I picked up the Philter of Ancient Blood and uncorked it with one hand. I hesitated only a moment before tilting the glass and swallowing it with one loud gulp. The mixture was disgustingly thick, almost gelatinous, and the instant it hit my stomach, I felt a brief, bizarre sense of wrongness before the effects were masked by the numbing potion.

Thankfully, I could sense the massive increase in mana absorption speed, telling me the potion was working as intended. The effects should last for several hours, and although I usually only used Cortos' array for much shorter periods, with all of these potions and my preparations, I should be able to last much longer.

Usually, the pain left me unable to observe it's effects as it happened, but the numbing mixture would leave me able to watch as it tore apart and rebuilt my mana vessels. Shaking my head, I realized my musings were just a way to delay the inevitable. I had already drank the potions, and putting this off any longer would just waste my meager fortune in materials.

Stepping into the center of the array, I took a deep breath and sat down with my legs crossed. I took a few minutes to steel myself, pushing aside any worries and stray thoughts that may distract me during this process. When I felt ready, I flipped on the enchantment with a flex of my will, feeling the mana flowing below us activate, ripping through my body.

After a few seconds, I realized that the potions were working just as intended, and there was no pain. In fact, there was nothing, not even the somewhat intoxicating sensation of mana surging into my body, gathering into my core, and growing in power. It was unsettling and strange, but I ignored that and instead pushed my awareness into my body, examining the effects.

I had seen and felt many things that I once considered horrifying, but watching my channels and core be torn to shreds only to reform themselves nearly instantly was entirely different. As I had hoped, the effect was incredibly rapid, occurring almost instantaneously, and as I watched, I could see the walls gradually thickening, growing more robust with every second. Still, it was clear that if the array did not function properly, I would be crippled in seconds, and a surge of fear and resolute determination ran through me.

As I watched, I noticed that the array, while extremely well-directed, had some level of inefficiency. Some of the energy was released back out of my body, rather than working as intended. This lost mana gathered around my body, forming a loose cloud of energy. It seems even the brilliant Cortos was not above making mistakes, if only minor ones. Although I was sure I could not fix the imperfect array without years of study and research, I did have an idea that may work almost as well.

Pushing my mind back out of my body, I dropped into the now-familiar breathing patterns of Iron Forging. After weeks of practice, I was able to enter the state with only a few minutes and maintain it nearly with only minor focus. After making sure I was focused correctly, I returned to examining my body, noting with satisfaction that the wasted mana was now further reinforcing my vessels, with a small fraction remaining in my core.

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And there I sat, taking in breaths and cultivating mana, continually scanning my body for any potential problems as the array did its work. Time passed without incident in a blur, and I noted with satisfaction that my experiment was working even better than I expected. Yet as I watched, I noticed something potentially disastrous happening in my body.

By this point, mana had suffused my entire body due to the potion speeding my absorption. The sheer volume meant that some of the energy radiated into my tissues, concentrating inside my skin, muscle, and bone. I prepared to force the power out of my body, to avoid any potential injuries, but as I gathered my will, the energy seemed to disappear.

Upon closer examination, I realized that it had not disappeared completely, but instead seemed to somehow fuse and absorb into my body. I considered halting the array, but as far as I could tell, there was no damage done to the surrounding flesh, and in fact, it felt strangely energized. I was almost reminded of how a magic beast grew more powerful, but this felt different, weaker, and less focused than their abilities.

Over the next hour, I carefully observed as mana continued to seep into my flesh, sinking deep into my bones. I knew this was a risk, but it was a strange phenomenon, and some instinct told me I needed to take the chance if the rewards could be a new secret to magic.

All too soon, I felt the effects of my potions begin to wear off, a flicker of pain coming from my body, and my absorption speed dropping sharply. It seems my time cultivating tonight had come to an end, and it was time to examine the fruits of my labor.

Standing, I glanced down at my hands and noticed that there was the slightest layer of black grime covering my skin. It smelt acrid, a burnt, harsh smell that stung my nostrils and involuntarily caused me to wince. More than that, it almost reminded me of the impurities and blockages present in my vessels, but that made no sense as I had been using purification.

I quickly moved over to the workbench, grabbing an empty glass vial and scraping off some of this grime, depositing the filled container into a drawer. I doubted I could learn much from it, but just in case I wanted a sample to examine later. Afterward, I used my ring and cleaned off the rest of the filth, happy to breathe through my nose again.

Momentarily pushing aside this unusual event, I examined my mana vessels, to make sure I had not sustained injuries. When I looked at the results, I felt a wide grin split my features.

Every one of my vessel walls had thickened and smoothed, removing nearly every weak point where constant stress would usually cause injury. Although this would not be the case once I began compressing my mana into higher forms, I could safely use my magic far more liberally both in and out of combat.

I also saw that they all had increased marginally in size, likely a side-effect of the massive volumes of mana I had used. While not my primary goal, it was a pleasant if unexpected change. Holding out my right hand in front of me, I murmured the incantation for an Arcane Bolt, grinning again as I realized there was absolutely no pain from the spell. If I could buy the supplies to use up the rest of the magic beast blood, there's no telling how strong my vessels could become.

With the good news out of the way, it was time to see what the other changes to my body meant. First, I moved through exercises, testing my limbs and muscles for any stiffness or pain. It was impossible to tell conclusively, but I thought my balance and agility had improved, if only barely. When I had exhausted all the exercises, I grabbed my sword-staff from the table nearby, activating it and swinging it around experimentally.

The weapon responded to my motions, tracing smooth circles through the air and moving through the forms Sig taught me. I could not be sure, but it almost felt like I had grown more coordinated, my body faster and more responsive. And my sword-staff felt minutely lighter, barely perceptible even under careful observation.

Memories of my vision flashed in my minds-eye of invaders with incredible speed and power, throwing me across battlefields with simple strikes. I had often wondered in my spare time how they had achieved such physical abilities, and theorized before that it was through spells or enchantments.

But was it possible they directly strengthened their bodies, just like a magic beast? And if so, had I somehow stumbled upon their techniques?

There were potions to make a person physically stronger, saving them months of painstaking exercise, but growing beyond human limits was notoriously tricky. Attempts to do so were few and far between, often ending in disaster much like enchantments applied to flesh, and most mages dismissed it as unneeded. Why bother being twice as durable as a normal man, when you could summon fireballs the size of a house or throw spires of earth a hundred feet long?

Recalling the raw destructive might of the figures in my visions, I reflected that this was clearly a flawed opinion.

But if this was possible, and somewhat easy by all accounts, why did no one else do it? Magical historians said it was impossible, which would undoubtedly discourage the vast number of mages, but not all of them.

Maybe Cortos' chamber was responsible, and only an array like that could gather enough mana to cause such a fundamental change? Or it could be linked to the Philter, which gave a human being the mana absorption abilities of a magic beast. If this was the case, only a specific mixture of factors would let someone like me use mana in such a manner. It would be monumentally lucky, though stranger things must have happened in history.

Or perhaps it was not an accident, but a deliberate misleading of mages carried out by the Academy. Sig once told me the alliance of magic users with Ferris was fragile at best, and I could see the logic in leaving weaknesses to exploit. Hundreds of mages running around the kingdom with those sorts of abilities would be next to impossible to control.

A shiver ran down my spine at the second thought, and I realized that this discovery could be far more dangerous than anything else I had ever found. Fear surged through me, and I knew that if this was indeed forbidden knowledge meant to restrict mages, spreading awareness of this ability could end with me dead.

Straightening up, I let out a chuckle, realizing grimly that it did not matter one way or the other. If I had discovered some great secret to magic through a mixture of factors, I had just gotten lucky. And if this was forbidden knowledge, it would not very much affect my future, beyond ensuring I had yet another reason to keep my secrets.

Regardless of the reasons, I had made a discovery that could hold the secrets to stopping my early death. And I would exploit it for every bit of worth it held.