Gracia stood atop the highest branch of the ancestor tree, her gaze stretching out across the horizon. Monsters born of fire and earth were attacking the forest again, causing her fists to clench in annoyance. These were always the worst enemies for her people to fight against, and many green sisters had already been lost.
Ever since they were born in this world, they had begun slowly gathering ki and leveling up as monks with minimal effort. After a while, many of them had sparked an evolution, allowing them to gather and store their ki internally. At which point, they had been given a prompt by the system, asking them which path they wanted to follow.
For the green sisters, most of them chose the path of Wood, hoping to further expand the forest. The red sisters each chose an element or a weapon, aiming to better themselves for combat to protect their people. Meanwhile, the blue sisters had more varied choices. Some took the paths similar to the green or red sisters, while others branched out.
The weapons being wielded on the frontlines by the red sisters were products crafted by a blue sister who had chosen the path of Arrays. This seemed to be a fairly mysterious path, which allowed individuals to either establish protective fields around an area, or imbue items with special abilities.
After we received these prompts, their growth soared. Understanding was required in order to progress from one stage to another. However, the sisters were all able to share their understanding of their own paths on the deepest level directly with the ancestor tree itself. This knowledge was then conveniently available for other sisters to access at will.
In the first few years, many sisters had been lost to either the monsters that appeared or to a failure in advancing their strength. Now, however… Gracia was confident in their strength. Still, it was only natural for her to worry for her people. Their numbers which should have reached nearly a million by now were barely half of that, after all.
In a way, though, they were stronger than ever. Focusing, she was able to see through the eyes of the forest, watching the fight. Humanoid figures of molten earth walked towards a line of red sisters, each holding a different weapon.
The first sister stood forward, and lifted her staff. Raising it to the sky, a swirl of wind began to form around the staff. Wind was… quite arguably one of the weakest elements within this world, which contained practically no atmosphere to speak of. However, her wind was supplemented by her own power, beginning to shine with a pale light.
When she brought her staff forward, the wind flew out, crashing against the molten figure in the lead. Although it did not sustain much damage, it had been blown back several meters. The rest of the red sisters took this as a signal, and began unleashing their own attacks. Some of them relied on the power of their weapons, while others formed patterns in the air that resembled stars in the sky.
Gracia gave a small nod of satisfaction as she watched the fight, knowing that there were many blue and green sisters standing by to help heal them if they got hurt. This was the path of the forest, the path of unity. All things sharing one root.
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“Hmm… something feels different.” I muttered, standing within the courtyard of the Sky Citadel. My eyes glanced over the stone walls, feeling that something was amiss.
“N-nothing’s wrong, my Keeper.” Tsubaki hurriedly spoke up in front of me, having called me here. I could see the nervousness in her face, her panicked thoughts easily visible to me even without purposely observing them.
I reached out, gently patting Tsubaki’s shoulder to try to comfort her. Whatever had happened, it seemed like she took care of it well enough. “What did you want me for, by the way?” It was rare for Tsubaki to reach out to me in prayer, and she had never done so to directly ask for my presence. I had the feeling that it was related to that special project that she had been working on together with Dana, but I wanted to ask to be sure.
“Ah.” Tsubaki’s face brightened as she saw the chance to change the subject. “In fact, I was hoping for your help. Dana and myself have constructed a mana refinery, and we require a large source of energy in order to get it started.”
“Activating it on our own would require more mana than myself and Dana possess, and we wish to keep this project a secret from the rest of the world for the time being. If they were aware of what we were powering, there is the possibility that this information will leak to our future enemies before they make themselves known.”
I gave a small nod as I listened to Tsubaki’s request. “I’m honestly surprised that you didn’t call Ryone for this.” I knew that Tsubaki was much more willing to disturb the other gods than she was to do so with me personally.
Tsubaki’s cheeks puffed out slightly, and her gaze shifted to the side. “I attempted to do so, but she said she was unavailable, and that I should just ask you instead. She’s been saying that for… five months now.”
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Ryone? I raised an eyebrow, calling out to the Goddess of Magic.
Yes, dear? Thankfully, her voice answered back quickly.
What’s got you so busy that you’ve been ignoring Tsubaki’s request all this time?
There was a light laugh as Ryone’s voice entered my ear. I wouldn’t really say I’m busy. I do have a little project I’m working on, but starting up her mana refinery would only take a second for me. I just thought it’d be better for you to be able to spend more time with your little fox, and see how well she’s grown lately.
I clicked my tongue at that, seeing that it was just a bout of playfulness from the elven goddess. Still, I offered a small shrug. “Well, let’s get this started up, then.”
After I said that, Tsubaki nodded her head heavily. She began walking to the edge of the courtyard, as opposed to the interior of the citadel, while explaining. “The mana refinery acts by establishing a connection with a different realm, one where mana is the primary element. This realm is then contained within a crystalline structure, while the mana contained within is refined and deposited at a rate equal to its generation.”
Once we reached the edge of the courtyard, Tsubaki lightly stepped off, allowing her body to fall freely while I followed behind her. Beneath us, I could see a large facility with wide domes covering its rooms. This type of method seemed… unusual, to say the least. Possibly unethical, if the target dimension contained life, which was a typical requirement for mana.
However, once I saw the spell array myself, I understood something. With my Keeper abilities, I was able to appraise the true nature of the spell. It didn’t ‘connect’ to a dimension where mana was in abundance, it created one.
Long ago, I had heard from Alkahest that cards from the fifth tier of card magic could be considered their own world. Only size two worlds, but that was still something I regarded as a huge discovery. This spell, which Tsubaki and Dana designed to be at the pinnacle of the fourth tier, touched that territory.
The world that it created was only a size one world, with each ‘planet’ being roughly the size of a city block, but that still meant it was an entire world in itself. One specifically designed to produce mana as a means of expansion. When I looked at the mana cost of the spell, however, I understood immediately why they needed my help.
“One million mana to establish this refinery…” I muttered, shaking my head. Even for me, that was a lot of mana, though it was doable.
Perhaps the most important thing to note was that the larger the world within the refinery expanded, the more mana it would produce. So, while this was not a perfect ‘infinite’ power source, it did continuously produce a certain amount of mana. This amount would increase the longer the refinery was ‘turned off’.
“Are you capable of fueling the refinery?” Tsubaki asked, a hint of hesitation in her tone. I knew that she didn’t want to seem like she was doubting me, but the requirements for this refinery were truly obscene. Fifty top-tier mages would all need to pour their mana into this spell to get it to activate.
I gave a small nod, and relief washed over her face, replaced by a mix of pride and confidence. Reaching out a hand, I focused, sending a wave of mana into the giant spell array. Innumerable geometric patterns lit up on the wall, and even in the air itself, and I felt my mana being drained at a rapid pace.
Within the very center of the array, I could somewhat make out a black, swirling void that seemed to consume the mana I was pouring in. Faintly, I was able to see through it, like a window. A world of blue crystal that was being formed from the energy I fed it.
Tens of thousands of mana was being drawn out of me with every breath, until the spell reached its limit. Then, all at once, it stopped. The patterns filling the space faded away, and the void collapsed. In its place, a small marble fell downwards, towards the floor of the room. With a flash, Tsubaki rushed over to retrieve the marble, holding it gently.
In its infant state, the marble was capable of producing one ‘drop’ of liquid mana every five seconds. This drop was the equivalent of one thousand points of mana. However, it seemed like Tsubaki was aware of this as well, and she immediately guided me to another room within the large facility.
The room she led me to only contained a third-tier spell array, but she quickly placed the marble at its center. “This will temporarily suppress most of the refinement abilities of the refinery, while accelerating its time to facilitate a faster growth.”
I gave a small nod, happy to know that Tsubaki had made the proper preparations ahead of time. While one thousand mana every five seconds could be considered fantastic for normal mages or enchantments, it was… a far cry from enough for what she wanted to power. Even just using it to power that same spell would require five thousand seconds, which was… over an hour by my calculations.
Sure, those marbles would add up over time if she were to constantly focus on creating more rather than nourishing this one. However, the growth of this single marble wasn’t linear, but exponential due to its strength increasing in proportion to the expanding volume of the world within.
No doubt, once this marble had been properly nourished, she intended to use it as a battery to acquire more such worlds to serve as backup batteries. I noticed from above that there were at least six other rooms within this facility large enough to support a full-sized spell diagram. Assuming that one was to be used as the control center of Tsubaki’s planet-encompassing ward, the other five should all be similar to the one that we were in now.
Of course, knowing Tsubaki, those secondary marbles could very well be meant to fuel the wards of the other planets. As for the rest of the world? Refining mana into a liquid form was already a known technique. But that was purely to refine mana that existed in this world, and roughly doubled the efficiency. That technique couldn’t hold a candle to refining the growth of an alternate dimension made of mana.