The winding river proved to be a pleasant change of scenery. I still vigilantly watched for monsters beneath the water, but nothing tried to make a meal of me.
A little after midday, my path started to slope sharply upwards. Less and less of the trees around me were knotwoods. Instead, another kind of tree that I didn’t know the name of took dominance.
Though not quite as twisted and gnarled, the trees around me still looked like I could climb them in a pinch. Countless vines hung down from the canopy above, providing plenty to pull myself up by. Spotting a few monkeys chattering about, I suppressed a shudder. It was going to be a long time before I would be willing to climb near monkeys again.
I was considering finding a good campsite for the evening as I heard a roaring in the distance. I dreaded what kind of beast could make such a sound as it continued on and on.
Realizing that it was unlikely anything living could possibly make such a drawn out noise, I cautiously proceeded around a bend in the river. Through a gap in the overhanging branches I spotted a massive waterfall running down the side of a cliff.
I had found the first of the Three Sisters.
Staring up at the sharp and imposing cliff face, I realized a small flaw with my plans. How was I supposed to climb something like that?
Deciding that it would be a problem for the next day, I set up camp for the night next to another deposit of mana rich clay. I quickly had my shelter set up with a bit of daylight to spare. With little better to do I decided to practice my sigil drawing.
Sigil painting was similar to spellcraft in many ways. The greatest difference was that spells relied solely on the mana the caster could hold together with their mental grasp. Due to the fact that the mana forms for sigils could be anchored to a physical medium, it allowed the painter to manage much larger and more complex works of magic.
The sigil I had the most experience with was my sigil of concealment, but I did know a few others. One of these other sigils would slowly reduce the ambient mana in an area. The sigil of mana draining had been one of the key defenses for sanctuary valley. Attracted by mana, the various monsters of the jungle found the artificially reduced mana levels in the valley very unappealing.
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The other three sigils I could draw with a bit of difficulty were used for heating, cooling, and casting light. I slowly traced out a sigil of warmth, taking full advantage of the available clay. With the aid of my mana pool, the rune took form more easily than ever before. As I formed the mana forms, I noticed a lot of similarities to my fire starting spell.
The mana form for the sigil was formed from four main components. The first was for anchoring the mana to the clay and the second stored an amount of mana. These were used in all five of the sigils I knew. The next component controlled the rate that the mana would be released from the storage. The final component, which was pretty much identical to my fire starting spell, would convert mana into heat.
As I slowly painted the last mark of the sigil, I recorded the forms of my other sigils into my codex. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought to do so before. With the aid of the system, I would likely be able to create spells using the mana forms from my other sigils.
The only difference between the sigil of warmth and the sigil of light was the final component. I hadn’t practiced the mana form for converting mana into light very often, as it wasn’t usually very useful. Most of the mana in the valley was drawn into the walls, rendering spell craft difficult. Casting light outside of the valley was simply foolish, considering what lurked in the night.
Judging the night young enough to be relatively safe, I tried weaving together the mana forms for light without the binding component. Within moments, a tiny glowing orb floated above my hand.
Unlike when painting sigils for the same effect, I could feel the mana rapidly bleeding away from my spell. Without a physical medium to hold it, the mana form for storage wasn’t terribly effective.
If it was so hard to effectively store mana, how did my mana pool do it? Was it simply a much more advanced mana form, or was something further going on? Easily feeling the mana construct in my chest, I also wondered how I could perceive it with so little difficulty compared to other mana.
The best answer I could determine was that it was utilizing my body as a physical medium for storage, similar to how monsters could hold mana within their own bodies.
At the thought of monsters, I heard something shuffling around in the jungle behind me. I rapidly dismissed the last dimly glowing motes of my spell as I huddled beneath my warded shelter.