Hope you guys don't mind the change in style. Only one POV in this chapter though
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Gareth's POV
Rushing back to the Castle Walls as fast as I could with the aid of Gravitational Magic of course. As I entered the entire castle was rather calm. Like it was not even bothered that it was going to war in the first place. Running around the place I saw that the King had a rather jubilant mood like a kid in a candy store.
As I approached him with the ring in my hand his smile even grew wider. Internalizing my anger, I managed to keep up a calm facade so the King does not suspect that I am not under his control.
I feel a small prick on my finger from the ring and a message in my head 'Come forward' signaling that the King activated his formation. I did as it told me and went before the King.
"Go back to your room and prepare. In a few days you will ride towards the neighboring Kingdom and aid them in the combat efforts." He commanded me.
"Why are we in sudden war with the neighboring Kingdom?" I inquired back.
"That's none of your concern. Even if you knew it would not matter." Feeling another prick on my finger and a message 'Go to your room'. I could only grit my teeth before leaving to not arouse any suspicion.
If this bastard thinks he can play around with my brain then I can do the same. Feeling various devious plans coming to me I head back to my room to get ready for what is about to come. Slumping down on my new chair that they placed in my room but the room itself was still as tattered as before. I could even see a bit of moonlight striking through the ceiling.
I began to think about the things I could do. I had various knowledge of the human anatomy system and its brain so it would not be hard to place this entire castle under some form of control. However, part of my conscious would just scream that is not the correct thing to do and the anger in my head wants to be burn the whole place down.
Holding my face I decided to do something absolutely crazy and do what the Goddess told me.
[Amygdala of the brain is the control center of emotions] [Emotion is a affective state of consciousness] [...] I dumped every information I had about emotions into a spell till it turned into a bright violet color and made it directly enter my brain.
As I closed my eyes I was met with a white room similar to when I met the Goddess except this room was filled to the brim with various orbs with varying colors. My emotions. Each of them represented an emotion. The most prevalent where a giant red orb and a giant white orb. Placing my hand on the red orb I could feel the anger pulsing throughout my body, all that rage, misery and the desire to destroy. Placing another hand on the white orb I felt sympathy, desire to help, desire to protect.
Willing my mana into another spell of emotions I shrunk them. Shrunk them into a small orb which could barley be seen. I could feel both the anger and sympathatic reactions in my body subsiding.
I walked around placing my hand on various orbs making certain emotions stronger while making a lot of which smaller. I did not want to completely remove them as I did not want to turn into a life less doll. So I simply shrunk them to the point where I could feel them but not be controlled by them. Namely the ones I reduced were guilt, remorse, sorrow, pity, horror. The ones I made stronger were passion, confidence, and those who would help me in this world.
Shutting off the mana supply and slowly opening my eyes. I did not feel much different but I was willing to come up with a plan to give the King the conflict he desired.
Before doing anything I needed to begin confirming thing. Willing my mana around me [Medium Light] I made it so all light that came to me would not leave and just absorb it instead. I became something akin to a black hole where one would not even be able to make out my figure all they would see is a giant humanoid shadow like creature and it was black enough so as long as I stuck to shadows I could not be seen. Wanting to be sure to not get caught I casted a [Medium Sound] spell around me to not arouse any noise when I walked.
As I roamed the hallways walking across the shadows like a Thief game. I made to the Guards building where the guards stayed. Looking around I saw that some guards possessed the same rings I did while the others did not. That ruled out trying to change the formations of the rings not to mention that would take a large amount of effort.
I walked around the castle confirming the locations and where everything was placed to make sure my plan can come to fruition without any complications. In the end I walked back to my room to come up with various ideas.
Coming with the ideas themselves was rather easy but the results would be horrendous.
[Killing the King in his sleep] would not work as the whole Kingdom would fall if the monarchy was destroyed without proper replacement.
[Putting the entire castle under my control] sounds efficient but I did not posses enough mana to do so.
..
Most of the plans I came up with were either trashed as it would just end in turmoil or required too much mana for to me do so. So I came with a final plan.
Make the King afraid of a mysterious entity so he does not step out of line but even that plan would not suffice as he had large amount of guards stationed everywhere even I cannot take them all at once. So the only solution left for that problem is for me to somehow distract or control the guards so they do not get in my way. Which is quite easy with simply taking control of their motor cortex..Wait.. how is the King capable of controlling such mass number of Guards? Even I do not posses enough mana and I am at violet stage.
I came to a strict realization that I had no knowledge of mana. In a world where everything is possible due to mana I only know a bit of information about it and that was from the Goddess and the formation in the ring. There has to be a better way to control mana or at least increase it and I know exactly the place where I could get it from.
Grabbing a pen I created a Diamond on it (Dissociate Formation) which will act as the sender for another formation. Getting up from my seat I walked to the library. I was of course stopped by the guards standing in front like it is the only happiness they can find in their lives.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Halt. What business do you have here?" One of them asked.
"I need some information to get ready for the war that is coming up" as soon as the word 'War' left my mouth their face changed and allowed me access. I figured the King ordered them to help me as long as it connects to the war effort somehow.
As I entered I casted a [Medium Sound] on the door to make sure no noise goes out.
Walking into the library I casually picked up a random book casted the receiving end of the Dissociate Formation on it. Willing my mana through the formation [Sleep is a state
of mind with reduced sensory awareness, almost none voluntary movements and reduced interactions with the surroundings] with a bright white light the formation was set.
I went to the librarian who was stationed there and looked around to make sure the guards who were at the entrance of the second floor could not see me. I passed him the book asking
"Do you know where I can find books like this here?"
He glanced at me while mumbling and he touched the book to look at it closely. He then pulled out a book labeled [Directory] and began to look through it. Bingo. Doing a final look around I poured mana into the pen activating the formation on the book making the librarian fall asleep I caught his head to avoid it hitting the desk so it would not make any noise. I waled up to the counter and laid him back while taking both books out of his hands.
I looked through the Directory to find the location where books about mana may be located. After searching through I found out it was in the second floor. I was irritated at the thought that I had to go through the guards as well.
I placed the Directory back where he got it from and pretended to roam about the library just as I came close to the two guards who were standing before the entrance to the second floor.
The both guards had a very close eye on so I could not cast sleeping magic.
I came up to the one closer to me, while pulling out the book on one hand and a pen in another I opened the book to a random page and asked one of the guards.
"Could you tell me what this word means here?"
"Why don't you ask the librarian?" He responded, clearly not wanting to help me.
"He seemed busy so I decided to come to you." I heard him click his tongue and grabbed the book from the hands and began looking at it.
"This simply means --" He didn't get to finish before I activated the formation and before the other guard had a chance to react I took the book from the first guard's hand just as he fell and threw it to the second one who caught it on reflex. I activated the formation once more and both guards fell to the floor. I let the guards fall which created a large bang sound. Luckily there was no one else in the library. Awake that is.
I quickly ran upstairs as I was unsure of how long the sleep magic would even last. Rummaging through the section of where the mana book should be I finally found it.
[Advanced Topic of Mana and Magic]
[Basics: Mana is thought to be created from the knowledge one wields. We are not sure of the specifics but simply how it can be used. The mana is proven to created by the brain as and it is directly transferred to the hearth and stomach. Mana travels across the body through the blood pumped out by the heart and is refined into the various aspects and colors in the stomach. Mana is everywhere. As long as their is life force in an entity it can produce mana as well. Even creatures that are thought to not have any sense of self]
[Controlling: To control the mana in your body more fluidly. It is best if one imagines a flow of water or the blood in your body. Treat the mana source as a different body part of your body that is under your control and through continuous use it will become more refined, more fluid and more powerful]
[Negative Effects: If an user overuses Mana and Life Force in conjunction with an another it will lead to an mutation resulting in corroding the brain. This is how mana beats are formed. Being whose mind are corroded will devolve back to primal instincts only wanting to hunt, feed and reproduce]
[...]
After an hour of reading or so I began testing out the various theories in the book and letting the knowledge sink in. After a while my mana control vastly improved and I could cast spells in a much more fluid mana and release them in a more consistent manner without wasting it.
Closing the book I placed it back where it was and walked back downstairs to be greeted with the unconscious guards.
As long as they are here I wanted to try something ever since the Princess transferred the language of this world directly to me. You can give someone else your memories or knowledge. If you can give someone memories you should also be able to take it away. I can only assume that the King did not do that me is due to them not being able to understand where the memory itself is located to destroy it but know that it is stored somewhere in the brain.
Placing my hand on one of the guards head. I willed [The memory center of the brain is the hippocampus which consolidates both long-term and short term memory] as I did so I entered into another white room but this one was filled with various memories of the guards. Walking up the recent ones I saw some interesting memories.
'Ho ho ho. This guard is boning the head maid...Hahaha....I wonder what the Princess would think of her own maid doing this. Dang this guy even has a wife .. sucks to be her..'
Walking forward I came to the memory of him meeting me and I directly removed it. I exited his conscious and began to do the same thing with the other guard and the librarian.
I walked out the library and greeted the guards standing in front with a smile pretending as if nothing happened in there.
Now with improved mana control I could do so much more. It is a dream for me but a nightmare to the inhabitants of this castle.