Ch #19
"Mana Awakening"
The pillar, standing tall and resolute, exuded an air of mystique and ancient power. Its smooth surface reflected an inky blackness that seemed to absorb and trap light, creating an aura of darkness tinged with an otherworldly sheen.
*Was it man-made?* He pondered, uncertain if it served as a connection to the tower.
Kai observed the structure, casting
{Tower terminal No. 189}
A terminal? And number 189? The thought of hundreds of other such terminals scattered across the tower surprised Kai. Were they located in all the cities?
Letting his thoughts rest, Kai approached the pillar. Subtle, iridescent undertones played on its surface. Running his fingers along its cool, polished exterior, he felt a smoothness that belied the mystic origins of the ancient structure.
A warm, gentle feeling enveloped him, running up his shoulder from the tip of his fingers. In a vast space, Kai reappeared, floating in complete darkness, surrounded by seemingly endless mana.
"I've been here before..."
What was this place? The world responded to his thought, the darkness fading. The ever-present pull of gravity returned, dropping him onto a wooden floor. A fireplace made of cheap bricks and the smell of burning wood and trash were in front of him. A warm fire lit up the place.
{...}
{Welcome to the tower, Dormant Kaiser.}
Kai took in the sight, ignoring the message of the tower in his head. This place... It was like he was back on Earth.
He recognized the place, a warm little memory floating into his mind. He used to sit here on the worst winter days. He'd found it while scavenging for crap. A little place for himself. An abandoned wooden house, just outside the outer walls.
The familiar broken walls, the shattered window, and the creaky door reminded him of his time here. The creaking wooden floors were now silent as he stood in the same place he'd spent many nights. The place was half-eaten by termites and looked just as he'd seen it last time... before it got destroyed.
Finally sitting down, he sighed. He hadn't expected the tower to show him this memory. But why the heck was it chiming in his head?
{Do you consent to the tower reading your Records? Reply with Y/N}
"What the heck?" Kai was bewildered by the sudden question.
{Computing... Inquiry 'What the heck?' beyond parameters, please respond with a Y/N answer}
This was new... The records had never asked for consent or anything. Now it was asking him what he wanted? Kai didn't know how the tower worked.
"What happens if I answer yes or no?"
{Computing... Depending on the user response, the tower will either read your records or eject you from the sub-space.}
It seemed like the tower respected his wishes, unlike the records. Well, there was no point for him to say no.
"Yes."
{Reading...}
A torrent of memories from his trial flooded his mind. The scenes played out in quick succession in his mind. The lessons, the battle, him getting almost gutted, and the stare of the Ancient beast... A chill ran up his spine.
{Detected trial complete... Calculating...}
{Evaluation... excellent.}
Kai read the records, being read by the tower. The trial completion was truly and finally done. Aria had mentioned the records being omniscient. The tower had to depend on the records for its purpose, whatever that may be.
An excellent evaluation? That must be a good thing, right?
{Processing...}
{Creating mana channels...}
The familiar warm feeling returned, this time intensifying, creating a euphoric sensation inside him.
{Unable... Detected discrepancies... Reviewing...}
{Creating cascading organ highway systems...}
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Strands of mana wrapped around his blood vessels and capillaries, covering them up, and connecting them to all the organs of the body. A strange tingling sensation; a new sense, completely different from before.
His body felt warm, the mana channels merging with his veins, heating up from the mana rushing in. His eyes glowed, the strange amethyst color becoming more and more vibrant. Kai's entire body connected; mana entering through his pores in a mad dash toward his core.
{Enhancing perception and stability of the core...}
A sharp pain. His chest burned, heating up to abnormal levels. Kai had forgotten about his strange core... A tremendous amount of mana pushed against his heart. It pounded inside his chest.
{Error: Detected discrepancies... Reviewing...}
{Variant detected, creating fail-safes...}
Circles upon circles of runes encased his core. The wild rush of mana crashed against the runic seal to no avail. The pressure inside him died out; the torrent of mana thinning out into a gentle stream.
{Reporting to floor administrator...}
*Administrator?* Kai wondered at the idea of a
being capable of administrating the entire floor of the tower.
{You have become bound}
{Welcome to the TOWER OF BABEL}
Kai found himself in the plaza again, his hand still touching the pillar. He was back, but the world around him changed forever, or rather his perception of it.
The mana swam around him. He could feel a strange closeness to it. It entered him, traveling along the channels to his heart. The giant multilayered seal lets only a bit of all the mana into his core. Kai felt his heart core; the mana entering it disappearing. Inside it, a single drop of glimmering yellow mana, flowed around, never leaving his heart.
Looking around he saw people, the mana around some of them densely packed, and others scattered. Their colors in his eyes now no longer just colors; they assumed shapes, moving. Some had warm mana flowing around them, some cold. He could see not just their mana but also their cores. Most shone in a normal yellow glow, some a shade of silver, and some golden. His own looked yellow but had a shimmer around it, indicating its rarity he thought.
Aria walked up to him, looking a little pensive, checking him for a mana signature. "You're an odd one, taking so long to awaken your mana."
"It was nothing, just the tower taking its time checking my records, I suppose," Kai wasn't going to tell her about the delay. "Where's Lumi? Is she back?"
"Yeah, she's back. She's resting; the mana sense overwhelmed her." Aria frowned, her brows furrowing. "Both of you are odd; the mana sensation is gentle and shouldn't have had any effect on you two."
Kai looked around for the kid, noticing Lumia was distant and resting. "Perhaps we're special?" Kai said with a smug grin.
Aria rolled her eyes at that. "Yeah right, says the guy that got his butt whooped."
{Hurry...}
A headache hit him like a truck before he could answer. Wobbling, he backed up, almost tripping. Aria grabbed him, stopping his fall. "Are you alright?"
"My head hurts, like someone hit it with a hammer." Kai held his head,
grimacing. As the pain dulled, an ashen look eclipsed his face, "What the heck..."
"You're shaking..." Aria examined him, surprised by the sudden turn of things. "What happened?"
He pointed at the obsidian pillar; his hand quivering. "Is there somewhere we can sit? The tower... I think It put some information into my head?"
Aria looked at Kai; her gaze incredulous, as if saying what the heck are you on? She might not have ever heard anyone getting a favor from the tower. She sighed heavily, nodding "Alright, let's go to a cafe I know. We'll talk there."
Picking up Lumi, Aria showed them around. Heading towards her usual place. In the meantime, Kai organized the thoughts in his head.
The tower unlocked his mana and improved his body, creating the structure required for efficient use of it. Therein lies the problem, efficient... Everyone can use mana even without such structures, but most of it would be wasted. The structures minimized the loss to a massive extent, and the increase in speed and volume greatly.
The tower was supposed to make mana channels connecting them to his core, like a new separate circulation system. But he didn't have a separate core. His heart was his core, so the tower ended up turning his blood circulation system into a hybrid circulation system.
Kai checked his records too to see if it showed something different.
> /***
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> Dormant Kaiser (Tower Bound)
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> Class: Fantasia Logia
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> Profession: ---
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> Core: Bronze
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> Heart core: 1st seal
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> Attributes: {Moerei}; {Mark of the raven}; {Mystic Eyes}; {Fortified mind}; {Cascading systems}
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> Artifact: {epoch},{clock of fantasia}
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> Abilities: {Analysis}
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> ***/
Sitting in the quaint cafe, Kai sipped on a cup of tea. The place had a charm unlike what he had seen on Earth. The wooden beams and warm fireplace, and tables spread around the hearth. It had a homely feel. The place, as it turned out, was run by an old couple. They were from the first generation of people who'd been sent to the tower.
"So? What is it?" Aria asked; a similar cup in her hand. They both had ordered tea; the coffee here wasn't actually coffee but something similar to it. But by some miracle, the people here had found tea plants in the tower. Lumi was the only one enjoying a little fruit juice. Which fruit? He didn't know.
"The tower... How does it exactly awaken mana?" Kai asked. He wanted to be on the same page with everyone before he said anything substantial.
Aria crossed her arms, squinting at Kai. "That's why you asked to come all the way here? Or are you hiding something?" Looking at the deadpan look on Kai's face she wondered what he was thinking. "Fine, the tower creates a mana channel for the core and stabilizes your core for the input of mana."
"It's the same as mine then..." Kai contemplated the differences between their systems. "And mana, how much is usually inside the core?"
Aria drummed her fingers on the table, probably thinking of what she could tell him. "Do you know about core ranks?"
Kai nodded; he knew about the basics by now, observing all the creatures he'd hunted. "I know a few ranks, the bronze rank, silver and gold cores. Nothing above that."
"Your core fills up to a level after the awakening, depending on its grade." She gestured towards her cup, "Think of this as a core... mana entering it as sugar." She dropped a cube into the tea. "The amount of mana held in the core depends on its ability to condense it and how saturated it already is."
Dropping another cube into the tea, she mixed them around. "Now if this wasn't tea but let's say something with better holding capacity then you could drop in a lot more cubes, right?"
"Yeah, but what does it have to do with cores?" Kai asked a bit irritated at the roundabout way she was taking it.
Aria picked up the cup taking a sip from the overly sweet thing, "A bronze core takes in uncondensed mana, the one you find normally around you. A grade up and you have silver cores, with 10 times the concentration of mana, and a gold core with up to a hundred times the concentration."
Moving closer at an almost intimate level she whispered, barely audible. "Now this is only speculation but the cores above gold are said to be able to hold liquid mana. A drop of that would be enough to fill up an ordinary bronze core."
She moved back to her place, calmly sipping from her cup again. "So what's with all the questions?"
Kai shifted a bit, unsure of how to phrase his words in front of Lumi and Aria "I have three months before my core... Um... let's say overloads my body."