Both Dr. Haley and Dr. Johnson were in their mid-thirties and bickered like an old married couple. The rest of the team briefly looked up when they had arrived, but soon went back to their work.

Eventually, once they had reached what looked like a private office, Dr. Haley turned to Mark and asked

“Mark, do you know what Mana, Aura, or even Prana is?” Dr. Haley asked.

Now that was a hard question. He could sort of speak for Prana and to a lesser extent Mana, but if he was honest he didn't really know, they just were.

Mark said as much.

“Correct! We don't know! At first, we looked at it as mumbo jumbo. Perhaps a cosmic joke played on us by beings with power infinity more sophisticated than ourselves” Dr. Haley said excitedly.

Dr. Johnson interrupted.

“At first we thought we would start to run into problems. As we would surely be able to prove these energies had not been part of the creation of our universe. And we were right, to an extent. But the more we ran the numbers the more it started to make sense. These weren't just energies, they were more like fundamental forces of reality. Like gravity or Weak Nuclear Force”

At this point, Dr. Haley took out a plastic case. Opening it she revealed a large glass cylinder nestled in foam. The Corrupted seed was held in the center.

She then took over where Dr. Johnson left off.

“These three concepts are more than just duct taped onto our world. It's almost as if they made their way into being. Restructuring the laws of reality around themselves. And not in a destructive way. No! They blended seamlessly. Aura, Mana, and Prana bloomed into our dimension without disturbing a single aspect of it. All the math still works! There’s just more to take into account now”

Mark was starting to feel like he was in a TED talk.

“Alright Dr. Haley, you lost me about halfway through that. So what does this have to do with the seed?”

Dr. Haley clicked her finger.

“Right! Contained in this seed is the perfect case study for us the gather data on these new fundamental forces. We believe that this “First Rites” is more than it seems. It’s as if we are being offered a manual on how they fit into our new reality and if you crunch the numbers the next steps are easy”

Mark wouldn’t say any of this had been easy, but he waited for them to go on.

“We know that the guardians offer a piece of the puzzle, however, we can now mathematically prove that each piece works in consort with the other. We’ve even got a rough idea of what we are looking for”

Okay, now Mark got that part. Nodding he indicated for her to continue.

“Right now we are actually in a perfect position because we have two components right here that can be activated right now! There’s an order to these things you see. First, we need a base, that's the seed. Then something to cleanse the base. That’s the elixir we distilled from the “Desecrator”.

Sam leaned over and whispered in Mark's ear.

“That’s the name of the Guardian Jonathan and I took down”

“Finally, something thing to nurture, something to repel, and then three power sources. In that order,” Dr. Haley finished.

“To cut to the chase. Seeing as you still hold ownership over the seed, we want your blessing to merge the two items,” Sam said.

The room went silent.

The sudden change threw Mark. One second they were belting out theories pertaining to the universe and the next they were waiting for an answer.

Mark thought it over.

“Is there a time window once we do this?” he asked

“No not that we can tell.” Dr. Johnson.

“And it’ll give us more answers?”

Both of them nodded now.

“Then sure, go ahead”

Dr. Johnson grinned and whistled in a short sharp call.

Two soldiers wheeled a cart in. On it sat a large metal drum-like container.

“Wait. Right now?” Mark asked.

“Sure why not?” Sam asked.

Mark shrugged.

As the soldier got closer Mark sensed changes in the surrounding Mana. The soldiers stopped the cart next to Dr. Johnson.

Mark's eyes were locked on the drum. Lifeforce practically flowed off it in waves. It was calling to him.

Reaching out his hand he tried to get a better feel for it.

Now that it was closer it simply glowed in his sense. It was like Prana in its purest form. The thing almost resonated with life. Releasing it in quiet pulses into the air.

Even ten Mark’s at their max couldn’t compare.

“Quite something isn't it,” Dr. Johnson said when he saw Mark's reaction.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He could not agree more.

Mark watched as they took the container with the seed in it and slotted it on top of the drum, locking it in place. The two fit together seamlessly.

Then Dr. Haley pressed a button on the side of the drum and it began making a mechanical whirring sound.

From the bottom of the glass container, an opening unlocked and a pink transparent liquid started to fill the space, rising up from the bottom.

The seed was about halfway up and the moment the liquid came into contact with it there was a violent reaction.

As if one had dropped water into boiling oil, it hissed and bubbled.

The liquid continued to rise, covering it completely, eventually, the container was full.

The hissing continued but the reaction became less volatile. Tiny bubbles coated the surface of the seed. Trickling up every now and then.

It reminded Mark of soda bubbles.

“Excellent! Now we wait, let's go get the readings!” Dr. Haley said, moving from the room.

The reaction had been interesting but overall the whole process was disapointly simple.

“Mark, thank you, really, we will keep you informed on the changes,” he said as he left the room following the soldiers out.

It felt like a monsoon had just passed.

Mark turned to Sam.

“You weren't kidding, but ‘passionate’ isn't the word I would use. Perhaps eccentric?”

“Aww come on, not you too, Jonathan said the same thing! They just like to be efficient with their time. You know, this is the secrets of the universe we are talking about,” Sam said as she pouted.

“Mmm..” Mark hummed.

Convinced Sam was just as bad as they were, only she hid it better.

“Oh right, what are you doing next, I have a spell that needs a test subject,” Mark asked

“Well you’re in the right place, I got half an hour, let's do this” She didn't even ask what the spell was.

They moved to another part of the tent.

The room was bare save for the workstation in the corner. Thin stone walls had been raised to block any damage to the tent.

“This room is made to test out new spells”

Mark noted dozens of scratches along the stone. Like blades had cut into it.

“Alright, you need anything else for this?” she asked.

“Nope, just you. It's supposed to be a buff,” he said.

Going on to explain how it worked.

Mark then cast [Bestowal]. The spell activated, waiting for input. He then directed it to enhance a person’s speed.

Power poured out, it took 30 Prana and 30 Mana. He could have charged it with more but this looked like the minimum he could use. He would have to use the spell sparingly.

The spell accepted the intent and he completed it. Sadly the spell still required contact, but Mark found he could apply it from a distance through [Shape Mana].

“Okay done,” he said.

They began their tests.

From what she could tell the spell was working. She could feel it improving her speed. By how much was difficult to pinpoint, as it didn't just add Aura to her attributes.

Apparently, it just felt like the stat became more potent.

At the ten-minute mark, the spell faded.

Mark recast it. This time focusing on strength.

It was Sam’s idea. She had a set of weights brought in to compare the amount she could lift before and after the spell.

After the second activation ended Sam worked out it was about a 30% increase in the amount she could lift.

“Alright, last one. There's something I want to test. Hit me with strength one more time” she said.

So Mark did.

This time though instead of moving straight into tests she closed her eyes.

When she opened them a second later they were glowing reddish gold. For a second Mark actually felt his own Mana coming from the spell around Sam.

Then she turned to one stone walls and punched. Cracks ran throughout the panel where her fist landed.

Now the damage was nothing compared to what someone like Jonathan could probably inflict, but that was from a full Mana user’s fist.

“What did you do?” Mark asked frowning.

Sam groaned and shook her hand out. The knuckle was bloodied and cut.

Mark moved forward to heal it.

“So I noticed I could affect the spell, control it almost. It became clearer each time you used it. But by actively flooding my Aura through it I could temporarily boost its effects. Though, I can feel the spell is severely weakened. One or two more of those and it’ll fail.” she said.

Mark was frowning.

“Yeah, but it looks like it's dangerous to use it like this. Normally your Aura would improve both your offense and defense. Which you need because if your body is not tough enough, you will break your own bones. The spell artificially made you stronger, but not tougher”

The active function of the spell was great, it allowed one to deliver explosive bursts of strength, but it look like it severely reduced the buff duration.

It was a double-edged sword, but Mark could see numerous uses for it.

Some of the danger might even be able to be mitigated by Resistance. That was probably why she hadn't just outright broken her wrist.

The spell had ended almost as quickly as he had cast it so getting an accurate measurement right now was hard.

But if he had to guess using the active portion of the spell almost doubled the strength of her punch.

Mark was almost out of energy at that point so they just chatted more over the semantics.

Such as the rate of the spell's decay just depended on how much Aura was channeled through it. Though Mark thought that could be fixed by just making the initial cast stronger.

She also suggested that Mark figure out how to use [Bestowal] for Mana users too. Enhancing a Mana user's body didn't help them much other than in terms of defense.

It was a good idea, but he would have to play around with it.

The lights in the room suddenly flickered rapidly before turning off completely. The white noise of lab equipment when dead. Seconds passed and the lights flickered back on.

"Dammit that's too soon" Sam whispered.

When Mark asked what was going she said there were possible rolling blackouts on the way.

Her meeting was for the dungeon response, but no doubt they would now have to bring this up. She didn't know much yet but she said she would tell him as soon as she figured out what was going on. They couldn't afford this right now.

The Map feature had scared a good number of people and it was the army and SAGE’s responsibility to reassure the camp population.

The two left the facility, making their way out passed the checkpoint. Mark thanked Sam for her help.

At this point, the surrounding wind picked up, kicking dust about as she rose into the air. Sam waved goodbye and took off at full speed.

The people nearby whispered amongst one another.

Rumors of the flying girl were beginning to circulate throughout the camp.

With nothing more to do here right now, Mark headed back to the medical tent. On his way there he took in the state of the camp.

People were not taking this well, fear was building.

Mark arrived at the medical tent in no time.

At this time of day, the tent was open to anyone.

Flu, aches, chronic medication, check-ups. You name it they, did it.

only a few people coming in had the odd injury from work

As it turned out [Clensing surge] worked on colds and fevers too.

The Doc dealt with the stream of patients with ease, though he would call Mark whenever the flow got too much for him alone.

During downtime, Mark would use[Meditation] wherever possible. Slowly building as much Prana as he could. He even managed to grab two hours to Burn off more Corruption in the evening.

Finally, six-thirty rolled around, his shift had finished hours ago, but Mark had stayed to help.

It was time for night wall.