Chapter 21: The black tower

While crossing the lava Cyan was afraid the weight of the lava would crush him like an ant, but the mana armor that Arlom has put over him not only made him immune to the heat but also supported the weight of the lava for him.

Cyan could only be more amazed by Arlom, and the strength of the blue armor that was protecting him, Cyan understood once again, how strong his Master really was, to be able to hold back such huge amount of weight and heat without letting out a single drop of swept, the things his master could achieved were always endlessly inside Cyan mind.

Nevertheless he could not remain under Arlom protection forever, Arlom previous words were still ringing inside his head, gritting his teeth Cyan could only vow to himself to use this chance to become stronger and learn from his Master limitless strength.

After passing through the lava a huge green forest could be seen in front of Cyan, it was extending endlessly in every direction trough the horizon, looking over his surrounding Cyan noticed that they were in the middle of a black mountain that was soaring through the skies, he could now take out a clear picture of how huge this place was leaving him with an amazed face.

The position they were in was sticking out like a sore thump, if this was the super-secret hideout of Arlom, this position was surely already known to everyone, nevertheless, his positions should still hold some significance, this was the opposite of hiding, it was more like the tower of a king should live.

Turning around Cyan could see Arlom in another light, he was more aware than ever of the status his Master has in this forest.

Before Cyan could continue feeling more amazed by the view someone interrupted him

[Arlom]: "Did you finish standing there like an idiot? If you did we have things to do now"

Arlom pay no heed to Cyan amazed face while he was looking around, he doesn't have any time to waste here they need to move out, Arlom needs to execute his plan as fast as he could, the sooner the better.

Covering his body in his mana armor to support his body once again, Arlom started to run using the black stairs that were at the edge of the road.

While descending through the stairs Arlom could not help but to think about the skill he was using right now to support his own weakened body.

The mana armor, this was the most basic of all the skill that humans could learn on their own and more than a spell or skill, it was more like the natural defense mechanism of the human race against the other races, it was a skill born of necessity more than anything else.

Even if it was the most basic of skills, it was the most important one, some people believe that this mana armor Arlom was using, was the manifestation of the soul itself as it burned different from person to person.

That was because even if they looked at like, each person mana armor was different in capabilities, but nevertheless all of them do the same task, to protect and support the body, which was a good thing to have in this forest, the stronger your control over the mana the stronger the armor would be.

In a world of super human beings there was no shield nor protection that could block a sword slash at supersonics speeds, what would be the point in something bulky that would not work as protection what so ever, this mana armor was the innate protection of the weakest of the fourth races, the humans, and even if it was the most basic of skills, Cyan has learned it in a single day.

Letting out a sigh, Arlom turned back to see Cyan following closely behind him wearing a faintly blue protection layer, his speed was slow to Arlom standards, but it was night and day from the Cyan of 3 days ago, Arlom could only left out another sigh, while thinking this kid was totally cheating he must be totally cheating to reach a level were most people would take a year, in the bright side maybe not everything was hopeless.

Arlom could only remain in silence while the descended the black mountain and in contrast with the blackness of the mountain, was the glowing orange lava that was coming from the top of the mountain that was above the clouds, even if he was pretty high above the ground, this was still not in the top that was hidden behind the white clouds and it was impossible to be seen by Cyan.

After looking up, Cyan could notice that this black mountain has weird shape, it was perfectly rectangular, because he was running around it, he could understand the shape of the mountain, and even if Cyan had not any fear of heights, running at the edge of a black rectangular mountain without anything to hold onto got to his nerves.

But even if Cyan was very afraid of falling off, he could only steel his mind, surely Arlom will drop him off the cliff himself if he were to know, taking one last look to the bottom ground Cyan let out a sigh.

They were hundreds of meter over the ground, and because the mountain was completely black, Cyan was feeling he was standing in a black void, he felt like if all the ground under him was twisting, nevertheless something else has draw his attention at the bottom, making all his dizziness to disappear and his mind to regain focus once again in that last one look.

It was the lave that was falling from the top of the black mountain, and it was forming a pool at the bottom, but that was it, there was not river nor a new mountain being create with cold rocks, even if the lava has burned the near surrounding trees, it was not incrementing its size, nor it was be spreading to all directions.

After being 3 days inside the cave, Cyan knew that the constants glowing effect that was coming off the ceiling was the lava moving because of the temperature changes and the intensity of light also changes throughout the day, he could take a wild guess that, this lava had days flowing out from the tower for at least three days, nevertheless that pool was too small, something was sucking the lava back to the ground.

The flow of lava was not stopping or slowing down, but the lava pool never grew in size, it was quite bizarre to look at, but more bizarre than that was the mountain itself, it was completely black and in a perfectly rectangular shape, this should be a something at like a volcano, but it was completely rectangular black mountain, it was definite something that was not formed naturally but it was made by some intelligent species, maybe it was made by humans.

Cyan forcefully put out this questions for later and letting out one last sigh, Cyan felt he had achieved something after being able keep running in this void.

The road width was enough for two persons could walk side by side, but because no light was reflect on the surface, it has played some nasty tricks on Cyan mind, if wasn’t that he was on top of this road right now, he could never guess there was a road to behind with.

After walking around once again, he took his eyes away from the road and turned to look over his Master that was running in front of him, while pointing out to the lava pool, he asked.

[Cyan]: “Master where all the lava is going when it hits the ground?”

Arlom stopped in his feet, scaring to death to Cyan.

After looking over the lava and then to Cyan, he could only shake his head, like saying ‘To not even know that sigh’ Of course how could Cyan know even the most basic of things, Arlom could only be remained once again, that Cyan knowledge was very limited.

Nevertheless he will answer this questions of his, maybe they can have something to talk about while the descending the mountain, after all, Arlom was worry that this would become a silent walk outside, even if it did not show up in his face, Arlom like to talk a lot and this it is not something he cannot do most of the time.

Resuming in a walking speed now, Arlom took some time to explain thing of the forests. While they were descending, Cyan was hearing Arlom talking about load of things as well as why the lava never accumulated at the ground.

It was something Cyan could had not believed if not because Arlom did not have any reason to lie about this.

[Arlom]: “When the lava reach the bottom it gets devoured by the lava worms that live inside the pool, they absorbs the heat of the molten rocks while releasing a huge amount vapor in the processes, this vapor is 50% refined mana and 50% water”

Cyan could hardly processes this, worms that live inside the lava and they eat it too? But this was not the end of Arlom history

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[Arlom]: “Then the lava worms go deep underground were is a lot hotter and this is where they would excreted out the cold rock, that cold rock would heat up slowly becoming lava once more, then it would join the flow of lava that exit at the top of this mana gathering tower, were the flow is controlled to form that small pool, were the lava worms live in, forming like that a cycle”

Cyan could only speed up while trying to follow behind Arlom that was starting to walk faster and faster again, while explain him about the function of this tower, Cyan could not help but to think this can’t be called walking anymore but running, nevertheless he wanted to hear the reason for this tower.

[Cyan]: “Master so this tower recollects that mana?”

Arlom could only shook his head.

[Arlom]: “This tower was made with the intention to regulate the flow of the lava, for harvesting the refined mana that the worm release you need to do it yourself, however the one that controls the tower controls the flow of lava, and without this the pool would dried out and the lava worms would dispersed, even if you reactivated it, it would take one hundreds of years form the lava worms to come again, and you would have to cross your fingers so the flow of lava doesn’t stop…”

Even if Arlom was talking pretty dark stuff, like how much fighting has occur because of this black towers, Cyan eyes light up like starts now and interrupted his Master explication.

[Cyan]: “Master, Master can I also help you recollected the refined mana too?”

Arlom could only laugh to Cyan childish curiosity and eagerness to be of help.

[Arlom]: “HAHAHA, of course you can, I tell you what, after you finish your new training I will take you there myself”

Of course Arlom will never spoil a surprise for Cyan.

In the other hand. After hearing his Master reply, Cyan could grew exited and speed up again, going outside the cave has already proved to be worth it, his master has gave him even another task he could help in after this one, nevertheless his curiosity only grew more maybe there are other thing he could be of help in the future too.

While Arlom was debating to himself if he should speed up again, or tell his disciple about the surprise hidden in the lava pool, only to look at that st… stunned face Cyan always put out, Cyan interrupted his train of thought yet again with another question, bring him back to reality.

[Cyan]: “Right Master what are the uses that refined mana has?”

Of course Cyan was asking this because, maybe he can also be of help in this area in the future, it is better to learn the sooner.

[Arlom]: “Oh right, I haven’t told about that, It can be used to make magic tools, it can also be used to forge weapons or it can even be crystalized to fuel portable spells, that will not consume your own mana, it has a lot of other uses, but the principal use for refined mana is as the primal material to make health and mana potion, if you look to the north you can see another tower, and there is one to the south, one to the east and the last one to the west, even inside here, five of this towers were build”

For some reason Arlom face grew serious, and his mood turned sour, even if Cyan took notice of this, he did not know the reason of why, and just asking about it would be not polite of him.

Looking over the distance Cyan could see there were two more towers very far away in opposite directions, if not for they being so tall and Arlom had pointed them out, he would had miss them.

‘Who has come out with this crazy idea to build this towers?’ This was the only thing Cyan could only think.

Of course this tower was not place at here at random, and them the worms has to come from somewhere, and the continue flow of lava, how do you tame worms that live inside the lava?, even Arlom himself need his mana mantle to protect him for the lava, his body was not made of steel right?

This and other thoughts were it Cyan mind while he was keeping quiet while following behind Arlom.

Arlom could almost read Cyan thoughts, even if he was behind him, he could predict what were the thoughts of Cyan, reading someone mind was a crucial skill to keep your head inside here, and maybe there would be a day that Cyan could hide his thought for him, but that day was not today.

Nevertheless before Arlom could say anything, Cyan asked him again.

[Cyan]: “Master how the idea to build this towers has come to be?”

Arlom wanted to laugh to this question but how could he. Towers that spit lava to feed worms to gather refined mana? If you said that to anyone, being called crazy was the least of your problems, nevertheless someone has thought about it and done at the end.

Arlom slowed down to walking speed again, narrating a history cannot be dole while running after all.

[Arlom]: “We have a little more of time, so I may as well tell you the history, A long time ago, when the uses of refine mana were few but still very precious, a crazy mage that grew tired of the current process to gather the refined mana because it was slow, painful not to mention very expensive, while it could only produce a very small amount just enough for a single potion, left into a journey to find alternatives and in the end he had found it”

[Cyan]: “The lava worms?”

Arlom nodded

[Arlom]: “Exactly right, before the lava worms were discovered, they were only two ways to harvested refined mana, one was from plants and trees but these would only generated one drop of refined mana per tree, entire forest were destroyed by this method alone, but it was very expensive method and there are other races that loves trees so this was a hassle to deal with, and the second method was…”

Before he could continue Cyan interrupted him, there was something bothering Cyan mind that need it to be cleared out of the way first.

[Cyan]: “Master what is the need of refine mana? Is not mana all around us? Why people would need to harvest it?”

Arlom nodded his head

[Arlom]: “Actually I am sure you had noticed it already, but the mana inside you it is not the same as the outside, even if you can control the mana outside you still need to use the refined mana inside you to do it and that would expend your own mana, to replenish this expended mana you need mana of the same category, so you would take a mana potion, or you just can wait and it would be replenished back naturally, so you can guess what is the other method to gather refine mana right?”

Cyan could only trembled inside his mind, the mana outside it was not the same as the one inside him, but nevertheless he would refined it naturally inside him and this refined mana was need it to make potions, the second method to gather mana was of course, gathering it directly from a human body.

Cyan could only grit his teeth’s while answering.

[Cyan]: “Humans”

Arlom nodded his head.

[Arlom]: “Yes, the humans have a surprising capabilities to refine mana inside them, even if not a huge amount like other species, they are the fastest, so other races declared war on the humans to slave them, and even the same humans slaved their own kind to create mana farms”

Nevertheless Cyan already knew how that war ended, he could guess that the thing that have save the humans for becoming slaves was the inventory bag.

[Cyan]: “Then, Master that mage was tired of using human slaves to gather refined mana?”

Arlom nodded his head

[Arlom]: “Some say he have fallen in love with one of his slaves and he wanted to free all of the slaves, or maybe he thought gathering mana from humans was really too slow, and unless you make half the human race a slave he would never finished his experiments, nevertheless…”

[Arlom]: “After he discovered the lava worms he name them as such, his naming senses were a little bit lacking but after being the first human to discover them the gods recognized that as the named but I digress, after seeing that they could refine huge amounts of refine mana that no contemporary method could produce was just being released into the air, that mage went into a frenzy, and he have come out with a crazy idea that no human would actually think off”

[Cyan]: “To capture them, training and them harvesting them?”

[Arlom]: “That’s right, after he presented his discovery to the world, at first everyone thought he was a genius, but after everybody that he misled to think that the lava worms where harmless creatures, found about the true, everybody thought he was crazy to even think he could train such “warm and soft” creatures, he even use those exact words himself at one time, those words were immortalized in history after a whole town laughed for an entire day and night after hearing them just when a group of mages brought an image of the lava worm into tow with those words being written down below”

[Arlom]: “After that, everyone thought he was the craziest human in the planet, nevertheless…”

Cyan was getting a clearer picture of what a lava worm is, and maybe trying to help out Arlom with all the tasks was a bad idea after all, but he has already said he would do it and Cyan was not someone that would back down.

Nevertheless Cyan eyes were shining like a stars, what an amazing history of someone that everyone thought it was nuts, but he succeeded at the end, Cyan could only felt inspired by it.

That crazy mage did something unthinkable at the end, the black towers are proof he was right after all.

Before Arlom could continue Cyan interrupt him.

[Cyan]: “He went and did it right master? He show them to all that laugh at him and looked down on him, it was really possible and he manage to train and harvest the mana from the lava worms”

Arlom could only let out a loud laughter while shaking his head.

[Arlom]: “Of course not, even if he was crazy enough to think out this idea, he was not enough crazy to try it out himself”

[Cyan]: “Ah?”

All Cyan illusions shatter in an instant.

[Arlom]: “That is why he had misled everyone so they could try to harvest the mana in his stead, I think he was a genius for thinking like this, it was not but after he has passed away that some was crazy enough to even try it out”

[Cyan]: “And this next person succeed in doing so right master?”

Arlom could only shake his head once again, Cyan was being so foolish.

[Arlom]: “Of course no, did you think anyone can get a success in their first try? That person failed, and the next one after that and so on, until the 13th tried, is that some had managed to do it, but nobody knows how that person did it, nevertheless after that build the first black tower and then trained the first batch of worms, then those worms trained the other worms and black towers started to show up everywhere where a heat node was”

[Arlom]: “Now everyone build the same exact copy of the original back tower over and over again, because the worms only would recognized those back towers to form their nests, after you find a heat node and build a black tower and start pumping out the lava, the worms would show themselves after one hundred to two hundred years, nevertheless after that, they would not leave until the flow of mana is cut, or the lava worms are put in danger, and those worms are the descendants of the first batch that the legendary lava worm rider has trained”

Cyan could only felt astonished trying to process all of this but before he could.

[Arlom]: “We are here”.

Even if Cyan was having a lot of fun listening to his Master histories of the past, it is time to go back to the present.

[Arlom]: “Get ready, we are about to enter the forests, remember always stay behind me, always remember that path we took, if you feel something is off put your armor up, but conserver it while you can, and Cyan…”

[Cyan]: “Yes Master?”

[Arlom]: “Never lower you guard”