Using 20 points of mana and the most focused invisible force spell I could manage, I struck the urn. Not even a tiny crack appeared.
I looked at it in dismay. In my panicked inscribing, I hadn’t counted just how many of the warding sigils I had placed on the urn. Evidently, with the power of a wraith, my sigils were stronger than I had anticipated.
I stopped to examine the barrier with my mana perception. I was trying to figure out how to break the pot, but I what I found was a little surprising.
The urn was covered by several layers of barriers. Unlike with the door to the town hall my barriers weren't a consistent wall. Instead the barriers I had created were fluctuating randomly.
Considering the haste with which I crafted the sigils, it was hardly surprising that the mana was flowing inconsistently. As the different barriers received varying levels of power, they grew larger and smaller.
After a moment, I realized that the fluctuating shields had been causing the urn to move around. Perhaps the nightmarish entity wasn’t about to break free.
I was terrified, exhausted, and perhaps a little irrational when I decided I needed to open the urn. Drawing the ring of sigils had given me some time to calm down a bit, but I still took a moment to try to clear my mind.
I was still exhausted and achy, but I was able to see that destroying the pot was not necessarily the best course of action I could take.
Despite all of the horrific tales I had heard about wraiths, I had never heard of them acting with any particular intelligence. When the titan’s remnant had struck the night before, it had specifically gone after places struck by lightning. Had it been looking for me in particular, I imagined that it would have behaved quite differently.
Considering that, it was highly unlikely that the thing would actively hunt me down, even if it did manage to set itself free. Leaving it behind was probably not as terrible an idea as I had first imagined.
Pilling up some debris around the urn to keep it in place, I left it in the middle of the circle of sigils. I was reasonably sure that it was unnecessary, but I wasn’t about to take any risks.
As I was walking away, I noticed the purple mark alerting me to a new boon. I was unsure as to how long it had been there.
Physical enhancement: improved concentration
Strengthens the user’s mental concentration. Physical enhancement level: 5
Physical enhancement: improved information processing
Strengthens the user’s mental processing capabilities. Physical enhancement level: 5
Codex: Mana form implementation
Enables the system to automatically craft simple mana forms when prompted by the user.
Codex expansion
Increases the maximum amount of information that can be stored in the codex.
Minor boon
Minor boons available:
Physical enhancement: Improved mana control
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Physical enhancement: improved mana perception
Physical enhancement: improved mana production
Mana pool expansion
I was a little disappointed to see that there weren't any new boons. I easily dismissed the two physical enhancements. There was no way I was going to take either of those unless I absolutely had to.
I was also able to easily rule out the codex expansion. My concerns about it not being immediately useful remained the same. I would probably take it later, but for the moment I looked at the other two options.
I could either take a minor boon that I knew would be useful, or take a chance with the mana form implementation. I still didn’t know what the limits for the boon were, so I was hesitant. Perhaps the subfeatures would offer an answer?
Codex: Mana form implementation
Enables the system to automatically craft simple mana forms when prompted by the user.
Subfeatures
4 dimensional pattern translation: Enabled by default
Mana form pattern translation storage: Enabled by default
4 dimensional directed mana form creation: Enabled by default
Conditional creation: Disabled by default
Queued creation list: Disabled by default
I had an answer. It looked like the boon could only handle mana forms that existed in 4 dimensions. Only a few of my spells were quite that simple. My basic invisible force and fire starting spells only needed one extra dimension of information. The upgraded versions of both spells required at least 5 dimensions to properly direct the mana. Other, more complex, spells and sigils required as many as 6 or 7 dimensions to properly define their magical effects.
It wasn’t great, but perhaps I would be able to use the boon to craft small pieces of my spells? I figured I probably could, but it wouldn’t be worth it. The effort I would need to expend commanding the system and piecing together the individual components without losing control would probably end up being more than what it would take to craft a spell normally.
Perhaps later I would find a way to make it more convenient. Until then, I didn’t particularly need the boon.
Looking over my minor boons, I considered which one I wanted. Half of the boons would let me work with mana more easily, while the other half would give me more mana to work with.
The increases to my perception and manipulation of mana had greatly increased my magical capabilities. Between the two, I wasn’t sure which would be more immediately useful. More importantly, I wasn't sure if taking either would be a good idea yet. I figured it would be a while before I fully adapted to the changes from the boons I already had. With practice, I still had plenty of room for improvement.
If I wanted more mana, the choice was a little easier. I didn’t usually go through my mana very quickly. When drawing complex sigils or runes, I would already take enough time to regenerate a few points of mana. I hadn’t experimented with my improved regeneration yet, but I was quite hopeful that it would be a decent improvement.
Deciding to test it, I looked at my interface.
Name: Kyo —-----
Class: Novice Mage
(5/100%)
Mana Pool: 72/150
Codex: 72.45%
MR:244
TPEL:30
Boons:
System Initiate: 10
Novice Mage: 5
Emergency augmentations: 2
Environmental Conditions:
Mana level: High
Danger present
Limited resources
System Messages:
None
After spending a half-mark gathering food from one of the last remaining patches of vegetation, I looked at my mana again.
Mana Pool: 78/150
Before, I had gained around 2 mana every quarter mark. From the looks of things, the boon had increased that rate by about half.
I didn’t need any more information than that before selecting the minor boon for increasing my mana regeneration further.