Dyani had experienced plenty of problems related to altering mana affinities while making skills.
Now she was struggling with the exact opposite.
Crystallize Mana was designed to work with any mana type, which necessitated a completely different approach.
Instead of carefully designing each element to maximize efficiency with a specific affinity, the skill structure needed to be robust and adaptive enough to handle whatever mana you threw at it.
Making it robust wasn’t too difficult. It just took more mana, but she was having a lot of trouble making it adaptive.
Her first major discovery was that the primary purpose of the skill’s interlocking monitors and modifiers was to determine the solidified mana’s crystalline structure. To the average eye, mana crystals of different affinities had little to distinguish them but their color, but this suggested that different affinities had different underlying patterns.
That was why Dyani’s crystals were breaking down. The base skill’s ability to solidify mana wasn’t difficult to replicate, but without the right crystal pattern, the mana was simply released. If Dyani strengthened the area of the skill that condensed the mana, she could make the crystals last a bit longer, but not more than a few minutes.
She decided to take a break. Nymin had left some dinner in the cold box, along with a note explaining she was covering someone else’s night shift, so Dyani ate that, conjuring short lived mana crystals with her free hand as she contemplated.
“One thing at a time.”
Dyani had replaced the Jump skill shard in her necklace with the Crystallize Mana skill core, so she could peek inside more easily. She did so now, running a tendril of her awareness over the interlocking chain of modifiers.
With a few minutes of effort and some scribbling, she drew out the structures associated with most of the primary mana types; Pure, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, Shadow, Life, Death, Force, Metal, and Mind. She gave up on Oath and Time. Their underlying structures reached into dimensions beyond the physical, which she couldn’t properly sense or conceptualize.
Once she had a rudimentary understanding of the crystalline structure associated with the rest of the primary mana affinities, Dyani switched to an empty skill slot and started designing a skill from scratch. She didn’t bother with interlocking the components for each mana type together. Designing a custom structure for every different blend of mana, based on the proportions of the component affinities was far beyond her at the moment.
She set her sights on a simpler goal. She copied the force mana converter from Mana Jump, connected with the Crystallize rune, and only included the modifiers for force mana. Dyani was unsure if the resulting skill needed the level of reinforcement that the more mana inclusive original needed, but she added it anyway to save herself from having to start over.
Once the skill was stable, Dyani filled it with mana and waited with bated breath.
Her earlier iteration of the skill formed the crystal all at once.
This once conjured a tiny seed, and grew the rest of the crystal around it, layer by layer.
Once the skill was out of mana, the blue-gray mana crystal clattered onto the table. Dyani stared for half a minute before reaching out and poking it. When it remained fully solid, she picked it up and examined it with her spiritual sense. Unlike a skill shard, it didn’t reveal anything complex, just highly concentrated mana with a sense of movement.
“I am victorious!”
Dyani pumped her fists in the air while running a lap around the kitchen table. She tripped on the chair she’d just been sitting in, dropping the mana crystal to skitter across the floor. It remained intact.
“Still victorious.”
Happy that no one had been there to see that, Dyani plotted out her next steps. While the ultimate goal was Crystallizing her skills into solid cores, she wasn’t there yet. She’d been practicing moving skills from one skill slot to another, and was getting good enough that she only had to make minor repairs afterward, but she still had no idea how to fold her skills into a tight enough package to remain intact, while retaining the ability to unfold when they were absorbed.
Transfer, compress, solidify. If she could master those steps, she’d have what she needed.
Hopefully Pikawon would find something useful in those books Dyani still hadn’t read.
For now, she dedicated herself to increasing types of mana crystals she could make.
Instead of creating multiple skills for multiple mana affinities, Dyani spent far too much of the night creating a set of monitors and gates that would send mana in specific directions based on what affinity was most prevalent.
Tomorrow, she would create convertors for each mana type and a system that activated the modifiers for each affinity’s crystal pattern. She considered including a touchpoint to allow the user to manually designate the type of mana crystal they wanted to form, but the front end of the skill was already getting so complicated that she didn’t want to push it.
She could try it if everything else went to plan.
* Name: Dyani Farlight
* Level: 2.1
* Experience: 90%
* Attributes:
* Mana Capacity: 0
* Mana Regeneration: 0
* Magic Power: 0
* Strength: 0
* Speed: 0
* Endurance: 0
* Vitality: 1
* Mind: 1
* Toughness: 0
* Perception: 0
* Talents:
1. You gain two skill slots per level, instead of one. You cannot absorb skills.
2. You have increased sensitivity to and intuitive understanding of skill structures. You may alter and reshape your internal spiritual structure more easily and with reduced risk.
* Talent Skills:
* None
* Skill Slots:
* Mana Jump (Unique)
* Type: Mobility
* Affinity: Force
* Range: Self
* Cost: Low Mana
* Effect: Propels the user in a desired direction.
* Temporary Crystallize Mana (Unique)
* Type: Conjuration
* Affinity: None
* Range: Short
* Cost: Moderate Mana
* Effect: Condenses the user’s mana into mana crystals which break down after a short time.
* Crystallize Force Mana (Unique)
* Type: Conjuration
* Affinity: Force
* Range: Short
* Cost: Moderate Mana
* Effect: Condenses the user’s mana into force affinity mana crystals.
* Empty
***
Nymin’s life had been filled with constant suspicion and rejection, which had taught her to be miserly with her trust, but she was immediately taken with Pikawon.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Not only didn’t he seem completely unsurprised and unbothered by her intangibility, he displayed the kind of nervousness of any young man coming to pick up his date and having their first conversation with the parents.
Nymin didn’t know if anything romantic was going on between her daughter and the boy. She doubted it. Dyani shared her father’s single minded determination, and was entirely focused on advancing sufficiently to follow in his footsteps at the moment. Maybe in a couple years, a relationship would bloom between the two, if the boy joined her team, but only time would tell.
But, by far the thing that endeared him to Nymin were the physiological change that had obviously come from a talent. While sharp teeth, claws, pointed ears, and yellow eyes were far less significant than her own changes, they were more than enough to engender a sense of comradery, even if neither of the pair actually said anything about them.
“What brings you down here so late? Don’t tell me you’re working the night shift and the day shift.”
“The inspector office doesn’t have a night shift. There isn't usually enough work to justify it. I was just hoping to get some extra hunting in. What about you? I don’t mean to pry, but Dyani didn’t mention you ever hunting monsters.”
“What Dyani doesn’t know won’t hurt her. She’s got enough to worry about.” She gave a meaningful look to make her meaning clear.
“If you don’t tell her about my extracurricular activities, I won’t tell her about yours.”
“It’s a deal.”
Pikawon shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, unsure of where to go from here. Nymin took pity on him.
“Well, as long as we’re both hunting, we might as well do it together. Safer that way.”
Nymin didn’t expect to be in any danger. Not only was she a higher level than any monsters she’d met down here so far, very few of them had attacks that could bypass her intangibility. It was Pikawon she was worried about. She didn’t know much about his combat skills, but unless he had an excellent veil, he was only level 2.
“I won’t say no. But if we’re fighting together, I need to know what that attack was. The one that made me angry.”
It had looked more like rapid ferocity than simple anger, but Nymin wasn’t about to throw stones, especially when it had been her fault.
“Do you have an interface?” Nymin knew he did, she could feel the concentration of mana at the base of his skull. She was just being polite.
“No,” Pikawon lied. Nymin didn’t call him out on it. They’d just met. He was entitled to his secrets.
“I’ll just tell you then. That skill is a sonic attack. It’s new, so I’m still getting a handle on it. It does different things to different people. With monsters, it usually just makes them angry.”
Pikawon made a tiny frown that was gone in a moment, but Nymin couldn’t miss. Feeling like a monster was something she’d come to terms with, but he was young, and that wound was still fresh. She tried to lighten the mood.
“You should’ve seen what it did to my boss. I was practicing and I didn’t realize he was in range. He had to use a mobility skill to get to the bathroom in time.”
That succeeded in getting Pikawon to smile.
“Did you try again after he finished?”
“No, I felt bad for doing it the first time. Why would I?”
Pikawon’s brow furrowed as he thought. He took several steps back.
“Try it on me again, but be ready to float through the wall if I get angry.”
“Are you sure? That didn’t look fun.”
“Just do it.”
Nymin raised her eyebrows but obeyed, opening her mouth to let out a silent shriek, this time with far less mana. Pikawon didn’t attack her, or even move in her direction. Instead, he turned to the piles of stones and plant matter that was the still living elemental. The stones had sprouted small vines that were reaching out for each other, but they hadn’t had time to fully reassemble.
He breathed in a sharp breath, visibly holding himself back from moving toward the elemental.
“Are you alright?”
“Fine. That wasn’t much worse than normal.”
Nymin didn’t want to push, but Pikawon seemed to have a better idea of how her Banshee’s Wail skill worked than she did, even after only experiencing it twice.
“What are you feeling?”
“I think the skill is revealing emotions under the surface,” Pikawon said, ignoring the question, “I’m guessing your boss had to go to the bathroom before, the skill just brought the feeling to the surface. Monsters are naturally aggressive, so it makes sense that your skill makes them angry.”
Nymin wondered what kind of upbringing was responsible for creating and repressing the kind of anger Pikawon had displayed earlier. It could just be his talent, but Nymin knew more about talents than most, and even those that altered someone’s mind or emotions rarely did it to such a degree. Instead of pushing her away, it awakened her motherly instincts. Clearly this boy needed someone in his life that wasn’t a complete termite, digging into his brain.
“It also did something to my spirit. It didn’t exactly feel like an attack, but that might just be because it was so weak.”
Pikawon pointed to the broken elemental.
“You should try it on this guy again. Don’t hold back.”
Nymin noticed that Pikawon was much less nervous when he was analyzing. She wouldn’t have guessed the sheepish boy from a few minutes again would feel comfortable ordering her around. It was cute.
“Alright. Get behind me.”
Nymin activated her skill again, using her small amount of experience with it to focus the effect into a narrower beam. It was still sound, so it spread out more than she liked, but she had enough control to keep anything significant from echoing back to Pikawon.
The elemental’s components started dancing on the floor, stones buzzing and vines thrashing about.
“Keep it up.”
Nymin did, even as her mana reserves fell to half full. The skill didn’t take an enormous amount of mana, but it was still the most expensive one she had. Instincts from years of subsisting on barely any mana told her to stop, but she refused. Discovering the true capabilities of this skill was too valuable.
“Alright, stop.”
She did so. She would be panting from the exertion, if she actually needed to breathe.
“Its spirit feels stronger, but less controlled.”
Nymin reached out her own spiritual sense. She should’ve been paying attention during her attack, but all her attention had been focused on controlling it.
Nymin immediately knew that Pikawon was only half right. The elemental’s spirit was definitely less controlled, but the increased strength he felt was actually just a buildup of mana. The elemental’s core, or mana pool, or wherever a pile of rocks kept its mana had leaked unfocused mana, but just into the outer areas of its spirit instead of a skill or anywhere it would be useful.
She flew forward, touched the largest of the stones, and activated Wraith’s Hunger. The unfocused mana from her attack with Banshee’s Wail flooded into her, filling her pool in a moment.
“So that’s what it’s for.” Nymin knew a person’s individual talents nearly always contributed towards a common goal or theme, and she’d been under the impression that her new skill was simply a further reflection of the powers of intangible monsters. But it seemed that it also synergized with her mana draining, allowing her to pull mana more quickly. The benefit was somewhat offset by the cost of Banshee’s Wail, but she’d still received more mana than she’d spent, and the skill did function as a taunt and a spiritual attack, if a weak one.
Nymin alternated wailing and draining until the elemental finally died, its spirit breaking down into experience. Killing anything made her a bit sad, but she was more than willing to sacrifice a monster to make her daughter’s job safer. That was most of the reason she was down here, after all.
When Pikawon didn’t absorb the experience, she waved him over.
“Hurry, before it dissipates. Level 3 experience will do you more good than me.”
He approached, but shook his head.
“I can’t absorb it. Go ahead.”
Nymin only questioned the statement for a moment before the Mountain Oak above them reacted to the meal. Few people noticed that the massive tree drained experience from everywhere it could reach, since the effect was less significant with gains from training, cultivating, or mastering skills, but it still took its toll.
The hunger that lived in Nymin’s heart easily rebuffed the Mountain Oak’s drain, sucking all the experience into her spirit without a speck of waste.
“And I thought Dyani was good at that.”
“I may or may not have certain advantages when it comes to absorbing experience. It’s just a type of mana, after all.”
“Still, I didn’t think mana drain skills worked on it.”
“They don’t. It has more to do with training the skill, than the skill itself.”
“Makes sense I guess.” Pikawon obviously suspected there was more to it, but he didn’t pry. Instead, he gathered up a handful of dead vines from the elemental and started gnawing on them. He didn’t seem impressed with the taste, but it didn’t stop him from scarfing the first one down and moving on to the next.
“If you’re hungry, you can come home with me. We have better options than old monster vines.”
Pikawon chewed for a few more seconds before responding.
“How much did Dyani tell you about me?”
“Not much. Despite my questions, I taught her better than to betray a friend’s trust. I just knew she had a friend at work.”
Pikawon nodded, satisfied.
“Do you know how looting skills work?”
“Yes. They condense leftover experience into useful items. But if you’re telling me you’re looting the elemental by eating it, I’m skeptical.”
Pikawon shook his head.
“If you figure it out, I’ll tell you, but for now, I can smell a fungus monster coming this way. Let’s go introduce ourselves.”
Nymin followed the boy’s lead, racking her brain for an explanation for how eating monster bits related to a looting ability, or a talent that gave animal features.
“Does your body process the experience into something you poop out?”
That would explain his reluctance to talk about it. Pikawon stumbled in surprise and gave her an incredulous look.
“That was completely insane. I guess you and Dyani are related.”