We practiced more spells and I learned how long it would take to regenerate mana. It took around half an hour to regenerate a single point of mana while in the practice range. The girls and I did some rough ‘napkin math’ and figured that each mana point was roughly equivalent to three iron coins of mana. Which meant that my ten mana was only three mana copper of power. Not a whole lot, but a decent amount to start with. The girls each carried more than that in their rods, but they were spell casters as their focus so it made sense. The big benefit was that regeneration.
“Mana infused metals take forever to naturally recharge themselves, Liam.” Kassandra had reminded me. “Normally, a single mana iron coin might take as much as a month to recharge itself depending on how many other spent coins were near it. You’ll regenerate a single mana iron coin worth in around ten minutes. Much faster than letting coins regenerate. If only you could charge our coins for us!”
While talking with Rachel, I ended up promising several times to keep her in the loop about how my power developed and when I thought I’d be able to actually be a ‘mentor’ for her. This was enough to set the elven woman grinning to match Kassandra for enthusiasm on the matter.
Kassandra was quick to demand plenty of attention, reminding me of a cat more than a snake because of that, given she insisted on curling up with me whenever possible.
Given that it took the half hour to recover a single point, we only worked for around two hours with Rachel giving me ideas for different spell formations I could use before we broke up.
Before separating though, the elven woman made sure I had plenty of utility ideas. Everything from firming the ground under my feet to ensure steady footing while turning what was under my enemy to sand, all the way to causing spikes of stone to erupt from the ground or forming them from the air. I did learn that if I was manipulating already present materials, it ended up being noticeably cheaper. The casts never dropped below a single point of mana for each ‘spell’.
After Rachel got her payment from Kassandra in the form of advice and some coaching with water magic for the elf. Rachel mentioned that she was actually trying consciously not to focus on one of her two elemental aspects over the other, since both would be useful for her chosen profession, but it was harder to practice the water one as she’d had it appear later in life and was playing catch-up.
When that was finished, we decided to call it an early day while Rieka and Kassandra scoured the boards for mission contracts. I realized just as I was saying my farewells to the girls that the System had not awarded me a mission for this summon and when I mentioned it to the girls, Kassandra cursed roundly while Rieka looked on in disappointment for her friend.
“Really Kass?” Rieka sighed again, tapping one foot while her arms were crossed over her stomach, disdain obvious on her slender features.
“Yes really! It’s a lost opportunity for Liam. We need to be better about ensuring we state, clearly, a mission for him whenever he comes to us. It’s how he gets paid, Rieka. Basically this was us taking his afternoon without a reward. And unless we reinforce the summon, it’ll pull him back shortly anyway. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get it to produce a mission for him now. He’s already completed the main parts of the request and honestly, we should have asked Rachel for compensation as she’s studying his ‘manipulation’ as a result of us summoning him. It’s work that Liam is doing but isn’t getting paid for and that is wrong.”
Kassandra’s rant wasn’t loud but it was very pointed. Rieka sighed as her serpentine friend wound down, nodding in agreement.
“Yes, well that will be something to consider for the future. I’m sure we can work it into agreements for more training for Liam in the future…”
“How?” Kassandra demanded, her lips pressed together into a thin line. “Liam doesn’t use traditional spells. We learned that today after all. He apes the gestures but I highly doubt that is even necessary. He’s able to scale a lot more power into individual casts. Since he’s not bound by the runic constructs like we are, it’s much simpler to cast for him. Heck, I’m sure Liam will be the one teaching us shortly by giving us new ideas and ways to modify spells just by experimenting with them. I never thought to see if I consumed less mana to use existing material. I need to experiment to see if I can use local water sources for the same effect. I was so focused on following spell structures that I didn’t even consider that.”
“Then that’s payment enough to me.” I cut into the conversation finally, ruffling Kassandra’s mane of bombshell curls gently. She pouted up at me but it was not sincere in the least. “Seriously, Kass. You managed to wiggle some extra SP out of the last mission anyway and I don’t have to squeeze every drop out of things. I like coming here and spending time with both of you.”
“Thank you, Liam.” Rieka’s words were quiet and sincere. Glancing over to her, I had to hide a smile as her tail was stirring furiously behind her to match the happy smile she was sporting. Kassandra also must have seen it, because she immediately decided to climb me again and demand more attention.
“Love you, Liam!” Kassandra whispered in my ear as she used her coils to first wind around my legs and then up again until she was tucked under my left arm again and able to speak directly into my ear.
“Love you too, Kass. And not just because of all the trouble you make.” I shot back with a grin.
“I prefer to think that I keep things interesting.” Kassandra said with a haughty huff.
“Sure, keep telling yourself that. Finish saying goodbye to Liam. We have work we need to do in order to be able to go out tomorrow.” Rieka poked Kassandra somewhere that I couldn’t see, but it made the dwarf lamia squeeze me with her tail and ‘eep’ in surprise before glaring at Rieka.
I headed off the argument before it could really get started by pressing a kiss to Kassandra’s cheek just as she opened her mouth to yell at Rieka. This had the effect of her turning to snuggle into me with a happy hum/mumble instead.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The girls took another five minutes to say their goodbyes before I was sent swirling through time and space back to Earth. Rieka reminded me to contact Cariad about what ‘supplements’ might work well for me and I agreed I would as soon as I got back and had a chance to send the message.
I kept my eyes open this time, which was unnecessary as I was still bombarded with strange sights regardless of if they were open or closed, to see if I spotted either of the buildings I’d seen before. This time though it was just a riot of colors, light, and sounds before I ended up back in my chair in my dingy little apartment.
Staring down at the, now crusty, dishes in front of me on the kitchen table. I still had several hours of Saturday afternoon left to work with and I dearly wanted to practice with the earth magic some more to see what I could do. But with all the mana used up and not seeing a reason to burn through the girls’ coin stocks, it made sense to send me home like this.
“Free time…what the heck do I do with this?” I muttered before getting up and setting about cleaning up the dishes. While they were soaking in the sink, I sent a message to Cariad via the System interface. She was quick to respond, as she usually was.
Liam
Hey Cari. Wanted to touch bases and ask you about something. The girls recently reminded me that they are supposed to be looking into things they can do to supplement or empower me. Something about the class that they are doing expects them to train and enhance their bonded creatures. Apparently, I’m a creature.
Cariad
To be fair with them, you are definitely not a local species. You told me that they believe humans to be extinct in their world after all, and extinct to a point they are considered legends. And I assume you are contacting me to see if you would also benefit from these ‘supplements’?
Liam
Yea, that is true about the whole ‘extinct legendary species’ thing. I really wonder and worry about it at times. The girls mentioned something about humans being bogeymen a while back but I haven’t actually gotten much information about that. I should ask them some more. Maybe during the class this coming week when I have to show up during the day for once. But yes, that was the other reason I wanted to contact you. The girls mentioned that they would usually give things that were elementally aligned to their summoned companions to enhance them. But I’m not actually aligned.
Cariad
Very true. The ‘manipulate’ tree that you are working on doesn’t force alignment after all. You should, and I want to put an emphasis on the ‘should’ part, be able to integrate with any elementally aligned object that isn’t directly hazardous to you. So no eating anything toxic or the like. Crystallized mana is your best option, but since you aren’t aligned to it then it will still cause pain, discomfort, and may have further issues.
Liam
How so?
Cariad
If the girls give you a lump of crystallized fire mana and you consume it, and you’d have to literally eat it to get the effects, then you’d get a boost to fire magic and also some pretty heavy burns over your body as you aren’t protected by having an aspected mana source. It’ll also push you towards aspecting in that direction.
Liam
I thought aspecting was either dictated by family, at random, or possibly training? Not sure on the last one but the elf I was working with to get a basic handle mentioned it.
Cariad
It can be for locals, but you aren’t a local. Being an active Traveler means different rules apply. The safest option is going to be elementally neutral sources of mana for you. Unless you want to forcibly aspect your mana, then go that route. Be aware though that it can limit your growth and talent options from the System. It will likely boost your mastery some, but the exchange might not be worth the limitations.
I growled at that point, realizing that I’d forgotten to mention to the girls about the power to add elemental effects to my Shape-Shifting. I made a note to mention it to them later and focused back on my messaging conversation with Cariad, having moved to the couch after dealing with the dishes.
Liam
I don’t want to aspect it yet and I definitely don’t want to limit options, that seems like a bad choice. Also, do you know if there is any way for me to be able to directly contact my companions like this messaging system? It would make planning a lot easier on me.
Cariad
Sorry, Liam. Unless there is a communication power that you unlock at some point, there isn’t a way that I know of to tie locals into the System communication without them either being DSR personnel or Travelers.
Liam
That’s fine, Cari. I just wanted to be sure I asked. Thanks for the tips on things. No eating poisonous stuff and I need to make sure whatever I get is elementally neutral unless I want pain.
Cariad
I’ll do some digging to see if I can find more, but that’s the general baseline. Given how close you are in makeup to your girls, anything that is toxic to them would be toxic to you.
Sighing, I let my eyes fall open and stared at the ceiling for a moment, wondering what I should be doing. A lot of the work that I’d done today had all been mental with the spell-casting, so I had energy to burn physically too.
Curious to see what I was sitting at for mastery of the Manipulate Elements power, I delved back into the interface. Checking the Mastery bar showed it at 87/1000.
“Not bad for a single mana bar of work.” I muttered and went back to the main ‘screen’ of the interface, intending to poke and prod at the other powers and try to do some planning for the other skills or powers I might get in the future. What caught my attention was the entry for mana in the corner by the listing for SP.
It’d been 0/10 only a short while ago when we’d finished up our practice. I’d expected it to have regenerated maybe a point or two, but it glowed brightly at me, a number I had not expected.
Mana - 10/10
“The hell? How did that happen?” I muttered quietly. Fiddling with the interface didn’t give me any new information. Checking my powers didn’t yield anything either. I sent a message off to Cariad about it and got a reply back almost immediately.
Cariad
It’s odd, but also not unexpected. It did say that you regenerated mana quickly depending on the environment. Traveling between the two realities does bring you through the barrier, which is made up of mana. It’s likely that you captured some of it yourself. I highly doubt it’s enough to affect anything, so don’t sweat it. Just think of it as a perk. Means you can practice a bit natively as well.
Thinking it over and not finding anything to contradict her suggestion, I just shrugged and heaved myself off the couch. I needed to do something and going for a run was better than just sitting around and being lazy.
I thumbed the tattoos on my right forearm idly again, since they were the only way I could check on the girls. Kassandra’s tattoo hummed with amused mischief like normal and Rieka’s felt resigned but also amused. The emotions came and went on contact with the tattoo so I had just taken to assuming it was an indication of their moods and relative emotional states. Thinking about the girls helped me reach a decision.
Need to make sure I keep working on getting better. I’ll exercise and use some of the mana at the park. See if I can use the earth magic to boost the local plants. Would be nice to help the trees or something…