The crunch of gravel under the car tires disappears as we turn back onto the main road. The trees illuminated by the headlights and moon light start to pass quickly as the car picks up speed. My dad lets out a sigh as I kept looking out the window. He wasn’t pleased when I had called him at work, in the middle of a meeting, to tell him I needed to get picked up because of a demon attack. He was even less pleased when he had to wait around for almost literally half a day because I was being questioned. Yea, they look so long that I ended up having cast mana surge. It turns out that mana surge makes the target glow blue for a second. And the ‘minor’ damage it caused ended up being aches everywhere and a little bit of blood in my mouth. It turns out that the army boys didn't take that well, I kicked the hornet's nest apparently. So a few hour detainment and a game of twenty questions turned into half a day of five hundred questions.
Eventually they let me go, after figuring out that my answers to the same questions weren't going to change. Still the damage is done, dad is very displeased. I don’t blame him, I don't need to sleep, but he’s normally in bed by now. Stupid army dickheads, you’d think they have never seen a spell before. Speaking of spells, I never did show Anna any magic, aside from mimicry. I’ll have to pop some spells into crystals overnight and show them off to her next time I see her. I should also look into making one of those support crystal thingies, a mana one to be precise. Hopefully it will help offset the drain of mimicry, which is getting better, but not as good as I would have hoped. I can probably go ten or so hours on full mana, not including manasurge being used. I let out my own sigh, then return to looking straight ahead.
“Sweety, I thought I told you to stay out of trouble. Why did you get into another fight with demons?” My dad asks in a tired voice.
“It’s not my fault. They chased us up a tree.” I mutter back.
“‘Sigh’ So they said. At Least you got everyone out safely, good job. But your mother is going to throw a fit in the morning, if she isn't waiting for us already.” My dad says, showing a small smile before going dead inside again.
“Ugggh, whatever. She can butt out and mind her own business. I’ll deal with her if she starts throwing a fit.”
“No, you won't. If she complains I’ll talk to her. We don’t need a screaming match.”
“Fine.” Is all I muter back before the ride goes quite again until we get home. Surprisingly the house is quiet when we get home, no angry troll waiting for us.
I tell my dad good night and retreat to my room. He doesn't even try keep me or anything, just says good night in a tired voice as he slowly clomps up the stairs behind me. Shutting my door I’m happy to finally be able to drop the mimicry and stretch my wings. I’m getting too used to these things, it's a little freaky actually.
I plop down in my chair and open up vidshare. Only to be instantly bombarded by news clips of ‘A major military movement outside shimerview.’ and ‘More trouble in the city of Shimerview.’ I take a quick look at one of the clips and find that thankfully there isn't any information about me, Charles, or Anna. Last thing I need is reporters hounding me every step of my day.
After that I watched a few more funny videos while letting my mana regenerate. Once I was back up to almost full, it was time to get to work for the night. Starting first with that regeneration support crystal thing. What was its description again?
[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/ppmk01mtt0z-zjYnph6nnIcEQGyLytuD923sKHLbSbzdm6NuDIWYF2rTzZoG1E85g0rv_cduqxjMf36iq1yzRadR4iKa9Manmr_1hEWYgPAZIlxlU4B2Ybzcgplo-Edpw7K-wQuqKnY4BkMNZ_ydiDQ]
Oh right, it's bloody expensive. Still, it doesn't say anything about a time limit, so I think it's permanent. Five thousand is a good investment for a permanent booster, I think. Only one way to figure it out. I cast the spell like I would mimicry, pulling on my mana flow and focusing on the spell.
Select crystal type: health, stamina, mana
Imminently the mana goes neutral, like it's waiting, and the system prompts me for a type. Let's go with mana to start with. I barely finish the thought before the mana starts moving again. I watch is amazement as I feel the mana exiting my right hand and coalescing, slowly starting to form a visible blue dot about an inch above my hand. I try shifting my focus away from the flow of mana, only for it to immediately start to sputter out. I quickly shift my focus back onto maintaining the flow before it can die completely and it restores back to normal. Apparently there will be no multitasking while casting this particular spell.
Slowly the blue dot starts to expand, building upwards in a spiral like pattern. I felt the mana slowly weaving itself into patterns so intricate I couldn't hope to understand them. The patterns built upon one another, slowly expanding the shape into a hexagonal diamond structure. Once it reached the top, it came together all at once, and with a small flash it finished.
The crystal stayed floating in place for a second when I moved my hand away, before starting to float toward me. I felt the connection to it form immediately, and I understood how to order it around. I also felt the small boost to my mana flow it provided. It wasn't anything amazing, but I definitely could notice it, if barely. And over time it will only increase with my attunement. And a little prodding confirmed my suspicions, the crystal was permanent until it’s destroyed or dismissed.
I stood up and pumped my fist in victory while walking to the center of my room, intent on observing my new creation for a bit. I watch as the crystal just floats around me a few times, seemingly following a random trajectory that is orbiting my center of mass, and being a random distance between two and six inches away. When I reach out and put my hand in front of the crystal it simply floats around it and continues like nothing happened. Next I grab a book out of my backpack and hold it out in front of it. This time the crystal doesn't change course, and instead bonks right into the book. The crystal just sits there for a moment afterward, before reversing course and floating backwards along the path it was originally taking.
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Interesting, maybe some kind of anti stuck mechanism. But it didn't trigger on my hand, it just went around it. Next I reached out to try and grab the crystal, fully expecting it to drift away from my grasp as I got closer. But to my surprise it simply continued to float normally until my hand wrapped around it. Once in my hand it ceased all attempts at movement, simply remaining idle while I handled it. I let the crystal go, and it floats back up into the air before resuming its orbit around me. Deciding on one last test, I grab the crystal again. Then I walk over and set it down on my desk, before quickly darting back to the other side of the room. I watched the crystal slowly rise up off the desk and spin in place for a moment, before slowly starting to drift back towards me. It kept drifting towards me even after I moved, and once it got back to me it resumed its regular pattern floating around me.
What a neat little thing, clearly it likes staying near whoever it is assigned to. I didn't feel any drop in the boost when it got farther away but that doesn't mean there isn't one. My room might not be big enough to test it. I know I'll get Tommy’s help tomorrow, I'm sure he’d love to play with them. I decided that I’d at least spin up at least one more crystal before the night was over. I should be able to have one of each type if I read the description properly. I’m going to keep the mana one on me, but I’ll probably give the stamina one to Anna to help with her fatigue. And I'll keep the health one somewhere for whenever. I decide to go look over my skills again while my mana regenerates, since I didn't really have time to do it before.
[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/UEsGZREGZqt7TyxjsbrliosFj7l9lTdvFhBwN2uBYY4oppxZnhIU03OneYLqVYlZkOB_fUl4eB8tRupoCYSBu6ekC7TIzEzF8yE9tHZ9GJX1EmLpoOCOKJw8QQHtG26WAX_4oKbiY5IwSsPEsrQDxww]
I didn't really get to look at the contract summoning one since all the crazy crap was going on when I got them. The progenitor's purity seems pretty straight forward, I get extra points and all of my children are gonna be like me. Pfff, as if I'll ever have children, especially now. I’ll still take the extra points, though I should probably keep that a secret. I don’t want anyone to get any stupid ideas, which could lead to problems, which could lead to me getting revealed. And by extension murdered, so let's not! Now onto the contract summoning. It sounds straightforward enough, but it involves contracts. And contracts make everything complicated! Can I get screwed over by these contracts if I’m not careful? It says I can’t die, which is nice, but what about those long term effects? Can someone brainwash me before the contract ends and I become their servant or sleeper agent or something? And it says it's toggleable, how do I even know if it's on or not?
Contract summoning: Disabled
Well, at least that question is answered. Even with all my questions it still might be worth it to look into using this. If I play my cards right, I might be able to gain a lot of essence with what is essentially little risk to myself. I’ll just need to be carefull, very careful. I’m sure Charles and Anna will freak a little when I tell them. Charles because of the connotations, Anna because it’s cool magic. Actually, I might try it out tomorrow. Assuming my day stays mostly free, I might have to set a time limit if I can.
Mana: 843/7028
Well, I’ve been looking over and musing to myself for the last twenty minutes and I’m only up to eight hundred. Though that's definitely more than I would have had before for the same amount of time. Still not nearly enough to make another crystal, so let's see what some of these other spells do.
[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/RO9XYUArPFGSC4Mm9ddMWU_FqSGdAOSfe8lEmqf9zxfHflgy-048yYH0MXNBwyJ0CSEq4Wj6c49alMfsYm6_8G5ESwFQXLvya5ih6_ENccNAh3ysHRGwydVd0ovZ0JBmlNI1xa3gs_GtZiLHCs5RwHY]
[https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/71hcovcbkoHUpJX0uPvYufGAvpanqAusS1nzlxhe7xb2_l0xVM_yhewY1WEKZUOd8Yvt4MIdiO665gPU09YrzvdfKPNLMVIbB2F4TXOCCtWyTtRiebh0Q0xcKoO42jdfH8H1H4R7VXbAyVIKK-BDRXE]
I've already used mana surge, just gave me joint aches, a mouth bleed, and made me glow blue for a moment. Also pissed off some army jerk offs with nothing better to do but that's besides the point. What I haven't tried out or looked at yet are my healing, haste, and the pocket mana crystal. Anna better be right that it's cool because it was expensive as hell. Unfortunately, I can only afford to cast Haste right now. So I decide to watch vidshare for a while then play a round of DRG2. Always funny watching some dude spamming rock and stone get abducted by a cave leech.
About two hours later I finally decide to check my mana again and what do you know I’ve got about half my mana back. Looking at the clock I notice the time is half after six am. Since its a weekend I’ll have a little longer than normal, so the rest of the house will probably wake up around eight or nine. That gives me a few more hours to mess around before I need to get out, so one more round of testing, then save the rest of the time for regenerating mana. Plan in place I get up and prepare to resume testing.
First up is haste, because it's the cheapest. I pulled on my mana, selected the spell, and cast. Immediately I felt the mana weave into a
spell on my hand, then start looking for a target. After a moment it seemingly gave up and rushed back up my arm, rushing over me before seeping in. After a moment the feeling of the spell faded away, but another feeling lingered. I felt faster, for lack of a better description. Unfortunately I don't exactly have a good way to test it. Going outside would require transforming, which would use mana, and I don't have a baseline anyways.
I sigh at my own lack of foresight. Well, one more thing to try out. Now, how the hell does the pocket spell crystal work? I try casting it without any other spells. To my chagrin nothing happens, leaving me wondering how I'm supposed to get this to work. The description isn't much help, simply saying of whatever type I choose. Maybe I need to choose as I'm casting it? I give it a try, thinking about selecting haste as I try to cast the spell again. To my surprise it works, and I feel two separate draws start up. Both go to my hand, and one starts up a familiar process I had felt just moments before. The other starts an entirely different process. It starts weaving, similar to when I made the regeneration crystal, but still different somehow. I can't quite tell how, I just know that it is. On my hand I see a small blue dot form, and start to expand as the spell continues to weave. But unlike the regeneration crystal, this one starts to pick up speed, weaving back and forth quicker and quicker each time. I watch as the blue dot quickly expands into some sort of rhombus looking shape. Mere moments after it started the crystal finishes in tandem with the haste spell. Instead of looking for a target like it did before, the haste spell jumps from my palm into the crystal with a light flash. After the excess light fades away I’m left holding the newly constructed blue gem. It’s much smaller than the regeneration crystal, being at most the size of my thumb, and has a white little foot with wings on it. That probably to indicate it contains a haste spell, neat.
I set the crystal down on my desk. I've done enough testing for now. I can try activating it later. For now I need to let my mana recharge, and worst case scenario I'll just give it to Anna as a souvenir. Of course Charles might ask for one too, but he'll have to wait. I pull up my browser and prepare to waste a few more hours on vidshare when the stack of papers piled up high on the corner of the desk shifts a little, catching my attention.
Right, all those letters, invitations, recruiting pamphlets. They've been piling up for a few days. I need to go through them and sort them out. Welp, not like I've got anything better to do.