Rugrat was thankful that more people weren’t going to be around to see him trembling as he sat down in the dungeon core room.
His Mana pool and his Mana Regeneration were already high based on his increased stats and thirteen open Mana gates. The Mana Channel Revitalization pill had changed his channels’ innate composition. Although he had an idea of what might happen in the future, for now it made it easier for him to control and refine his Mana.
Erik turned off the Mana storing formation. The pure Mana, with nowhere to go, was gathered back in by the Mana gathering formation. The density in the dungeon core room climbed once again.
Rugrat closed his eyes and focused on his Mana system, on the three combined Mana drops and the last remaining separate Mana drop.
He started to circulate his Mana, increasing its density. As he exercised his control over the Mana in his body, the Mana around him rippled with his actions. As he moved, the Mana followed just a second behind, like a puppy realizing its mother was gone and trying to trail after her.
Rugrat increased the pressure in his body, bit by bit. He paused regularly. After he had recovered from his injury, he hadn’t pushed his Mana system to the limit, afraid that he might cause more damage.
As the pressure increased without any issues, Rugrat continued, bringing in more and more Mana. His Mana gates turned into small vortexes as Mana glowed within his expanded Mana channels.
Rugrat felt the explosive power held within his body. He circulated the Mana, removing the impurities as Erik had talked about.That took him less than a fifth of the time it had when he was combining his second and third Mana drops, his focus and control over his Mana system had improved substantially thanks to the Master level pill.
Rugrat then started to push his Mana toward his last remaining Mana drop.
Instead of forcing them together, Rugrat formed the Mana inside into a whirlpool. On one side, there was the combined Mana drops; on the other side, there was the remaining single Mana drop.
Rugrat was much more powerful than he had been last time. With his high Mana Regeneration increase, even further improved by the dungeon, Rugrat pulled the two separate clumps of drops into the whirlpool of Mana. They fought against him, shaking to free themselves but Rugrat only increased the rotation, fighting against them. Sweat started to appear on his forehead.
Rugrat let out a low growl, opening his eyes, angry at himself. He was playing it too carefully, he hadn’t even begun to push himself.
Power surged through Rugrat like a tidal wave, and the whirlpool picked up speed. The vortexes at Rugrat’s Mana gates increased in size, from just a few centimeters to a half meter.
The single drop came into contact with the already combined drops.
A light appeared between Rugrat’s belly button and his solar plexus. The light filled his Mana system as the Mana in the room seemed to pause.
Then, like sound coming back after an explosion, Mana shot into all fourteen of Rugrat’s Mana gates. Rugrat’s Mana channels started to glow brighter, then began to grow. Instead of just being a series of channels, threads started to appear.
Rugrat might only have a basic knowledge of the human body but he could see that his Mana channels were shifting, becoming aligned with his circulatory system. Those threads of mana channels arranged themselves around his veins, arteries, and capillaries.
Rugrat let out a yell as Mana was drawn in through his Mana gates, concentrated within the compressed Mana core and then pushed out into his body. The Mana density in his body had increased once he compressed his core, without him needing to do anything else. The Mana in his veins was no longer a mist. Half-condensed drops appeared here and there instead of the mist, pooling where Mana gathered naturally.
Rugrat’s Mana veins spread, connecting to his muscles, nerves, organs, tendons and bones. He no longer had just blood flowing in his veins and supporting his different organs and systems. Mana now supplied its own kind of energy, deeply changing his body, recreating it on a cellular level and bringing it closer to the Ten Realms. Closer to the Mana that was all around him. Mana was no longer a separate system that lived around and within him;, it became a part of his entire being.
Rugrat opened his hand and a Mana blade appeared. His expression was blank, assessing and taking it all in. His eyes shined blue as power spread throughout his entire body.
I thought that I knew magic, that I was a true blue mage? I was merely an idiot playing with nuclear bombs and saying I knew nuclear physics.
Between Rugrat’s eyebrows, a fifteenth Mana gate opened.
Everything seemed to snap into place as Rugrat was lifted up by the Mana all around him. Rugrat closed his eyes, tired.If he damaged his Mana veins now, then they could be repaired with a healing potion as they were now a physical part of him.
Rugrat lost consciousness. So he didn’t feel the Mana being gathered inside his body and the impurities being expelled. Within his body, there was no longer any elemental Mana.
Out of his fifteen Mana gates, the impurities of the five Affinities were released. The dungeon core absorbed them hungrily.Rugrat’s body continued to draw in Mana and expel the impurities, the dungeon core absorbing them and growing slightly.
Egbert and Erik watched on as Rugrat changed. Erik felt the Mana within his Mana channels shake, being actually drawn towards Rugrat slightly as Rugrat’s mana gates tried to consume all of the mana around him.
The power dimmed down within Rugrat’s body as he returned to normal. He returned to the ground, completely spent and unmoving.
Erik lifted him up and put him over his shoulder, then activated the Mana gathering formation again.
Mana surged upward. It was too much for the formation and the Mana spread out in a wave. The wave from Erik had been barely noticeable but this highly concentrated Mana hit people like a shockwave. Their Mana systems trembled. The beasts in the beast stable roared in excitement as the plants and magical items of Alva were recharged or grew faster.
People stared at Erik as he carried Rugrat over his shoulder.
Erik stopped, as if a burglar caught in the act. He mentally waved his hand and thought, “These are not the people you are looking for.”
“Nothing to worry about, folks!” Erik announced as he turned and quickly headed for the barracks, with Egbert following behind.
“I think that will put them all at ease!” Egbert hissed.
“Don’t you have to go back to the library?” Erik responded.
“With everyone staring at us like that? I’m more likely to be asked questions and bugged there. I’ll just hide at the barracks for some time.” “Scared of people bugging you?”
“Hey, I was all alone here for a while. Now it’s nothing but noise and ‘Egbert, do you have any information on formation reactions? Egbert, do you know the best stitching pattern for shoulders? The water-to-flour ratio in pancakes?’!”
“Need a new job?” “My job is actually rather rewarding. It’s just the ones wanting to get you to do the work for them who are annoying.” Egbert’s eyes thinned.
Erik didn’t say anything and just nodded.
It was only now that Erik realized he hadn’t asked Egbert his opinion about the changes that were happening to Alva and what he wanted.
“Egbert…” Erik started.Egbert looked over with a curious gaze.“What do you want to do?”
“Do?” Egbert asked, confused by the question.
“You might be bound to serve Rugrat and me but we don’t want you doing things that you don’t enjoy. I realized that we’ve kind of taken you for granted. Things like not asking what you think about what is happening to Alva, about what you want to do.”
Egbert looked confused, looking to Erik before he slowly started to catch on. “Oh,” Egbert said, at a loss for words. It took him some time to think on it.
Erik shifted Rugrat around on his shoulders when Egbert started talking.
“I do want to go out into the Ten Realms. I am linked to th
e dungeon, so the more the dungeon increases in power, the higher I can go in the realms, the more strength I wield and the longer I can last without needing to get charged up by the dungeon core. Yet with you heading to the Fourth Realm, someone needs to watch over Alva. There are a lot of changes and I’m excited to deal with them and work things out.”
Erik nodded. “Very well but do know that I consider your position to be similar to the academy head. If you find someone to take over your role, you can do as you want.”
Egbert nodded, his words coming out in a quiet voice. “Thank you.”
They continued walking. Something bugged Erik. “How powerful are you?” he finally asked.
“How am I supposed to know?” Egbert shrugged, waving his arms around.
“Well, you keep saying things like ‘Oh, I’m super powerful but also dark and mysterious.’”
“You been reading my books?”
“No!” Erik exclaimed. People that they were passing looked over at Erik arguing with Egbert and carrying Rugrat over his shoulder.
“I’m keeping it all mysterious because I don’t know,” Egbert argued back.
“Like, put it on a scale of that flashy spell in the metal floor?”
“Flashy spell? You mean Cleansing Light? A large area spell that kills enemies and supports allies?”
“Yeah.” “I’m sorry that such a spell is just some flashy light! You would think that such a spell would earn a moniker better than some night light!”
“Well, how powerful?” “Pushy, pushy!” Egbert warned as he waved his hand, looking through a list that only he could see.“I could cast one of those every minute. While the dungeon’s power stores wouldn’t increase, they wouldn’t decrease either.I could also create one of those artillery spells that use four mages to cast about every ten seconds without drawing from our power stores. I can cast any spell that was learned by my old master or by you and Rugrat. Though you have to come into contact with the dungeon core for that information to be transferred.
If you are in the dungeon, you can also have the dungeon cast them but it’s not like you learn how to cast the spell the way you would using spell books,” Egbert finished.
“So how much firepower if you were to go all out?” Erik said.
“I don’t know. It depends on who I have to fight. To kill me, someone needs to take control over the dungeon core and then destroy me. I might be linked to the dungeon core but I gave Rugrat and you my oath and the Ten Realms oath supersedes anything else. If I was looking to do damage, then I could destroy the mountain, the dungeon and anything in a radius of five kilometers, maybe? Instead of doing that though, I would raise more dungeon monsters and send those into the enemy, then support them with spells—create doppelgangers.”
“Doppelgangers?”
“Yes. I can recreate myself into multiple versions. It takes a lot of effort but I can make up to one thousand copies. If they are destroyed, I start losing information and my abilities become limited. In this form, if I am destroyed, I come back with all of my information and I am able to channel all of the power of the dungeon. I also do not lose my personality.”
Erik had been thinking about leaving people from the army behind in Alva but with Egbert’s words and his confident smile, Erik felt sorry for anyone who tried to cause a problem for the dungeon.
“Who gave you the name Egbert?” Erik asked.
Egbert looked up at something on the roof of the dungeon,“Some asshole.”
Erik looked up, not sure what Egbert was staring at, and nodded.
***
Rugrat woke up to a flurry of notifications and an influx of information from his senses, which had been altered to see and feel the fluctuations of Mana around him. It was a lot to take in but he fought through it, excited that he had passed the barrier that had scared him ever since he had destroyed his Mana system.
Rugrat had earned 2,800,000 Experience opening his fourteenth Mana gate and forming his Mana core. His Mana core also increased his base Mana capacity by ten points. Opening his fourteenth Mana gate opened his fifteenth Mana gate as well, between his eyebrows, increasing his base regeneration by two. Though the biggest change came from his Mana Body rebirth.
He closed his eyes, feeling the mana moving throuhg his body, it was peaceful as he studied hismana gates. There were one in each foot, in his upper leg, at the base of his spine, located in his dantain in his stomach, between his shoulder blades where his back rounded, at the base of his neck along his spine, where his spine connected to his skull and at the back of his head. One in each of his upper arms and then the last two located in his palms for a total of fourteen mana gates.
He drew in mana, feeling his body come alive, all of his cells vibrating with energy as his wider channels started to glow as he circulated the mana, drawing it through his mana gates, causing the air to stir around him, turning into light blue streams that entered his mana gates, being drawn into his dantain where his core floated above his last mana gate, the mana became thicker, viscous as it was compressed and refined, he held on, drawing in more, testing his new limits.
The mana density increased but Rugrat wasn’t able to form a mana drop to fill his core.
He let out a breath his eyes glowing in excitement.
“Well, end of one journey, start of another.” He pulled up his notifications.
His title of Mana Emperor had been replaced.
==========
Title: Blessed by Mana
==========
You have become closer to Mana, exerting a greater control over it.
==========
The strength of your spells has increased by 60%. Your Mana Regeneration has increased by 60%.
Can create a Mana domain.
(Replaces Mana Emperor)
==========
“Mana domain?” Rugrat wondered to himself. Rugrat tested his power and felt all of the Mana in the area come under his command. In a five-meter radius, the Mana was cut off from the rest of the realm, no longer under its control but under Rugrat’s instead.
“If I was able to get someone into this domain, then wouldn’t I be able to cut them off from Mana so that they couldn’t regenerate it? I could also call down spell after spell on them.” Rugrat moved his fingers. A Mana blade appeared in his hand; he moved it around. “I could use my new Mana control in smithing, allowing me greater control over the entire process. I could compress the Mana around the item to a greater degree and make sure that there’s no external interference.”
With just a thought, Rugrat was able to call up spells. He could see through the Mana, see it flowing all around him, flowing into his body through his Mana gates. Then, with his greater control, he could manipulate it and force it into a new form.
Rugrat looked at these different stages and sank into thought. He looked at the Mana gathering in his body and wondered whether he could optimize it a bit. The Mana blade, from a normal person’s view, looked like a beautiful piece of compressed blue Mana. To Rugrat, he could see the chaos that was barely controlled within the blade, the parts of the spell that worked but were wasting energy or stunting the flow of Mana. Seeing that natural Mana flow in the Ten Realms, Rugrat wanted to see whether he could emulate that flow into his spells. He worked for a few minutes without results.
He put his new theory to the side as he checked his character sheet. With the massive amount of experience, Rugrat had been able to increase two levels.
Seeing it was still dark outside, Rugrat checked his timepiece.
He took out a sleeping potion. It looked like with the changes in his body and the sheer exhaustion they brought, he had bypassed the screen where he could input his stats. It was like the time Erik drained all of his Stamina and passed out and couldn’t input his attribute points.
Rugrat drank the potion and laid back. When sleep took him, he increased his stats and slept until the morning.
He woke up with Alva’s sun. He stood slowly and stretched, feeling
the massive changes that had happened in his body. With a thought, he could look through the Mana makeup of the Ten Realms. He didn’t even need a spell. This was an innate ability like the Mana domain.
Rugrat looked at his Mana system. His core sat at the center of his being. It gathered a tremendous amount of Mana within it, spreading Mana out to Rugrat’s body through his Mana veins. His system had changed. He was faintly emitting Mana through his pores, his Mana circulating without conscious thought, being released through his Mana veins and then gathered back in by his Mana gates.
Rugrat’s body was at ease. He closed his eyes, feeling connected, part of the Ten Realms. Rugrat stretched out his arms and tensed up. His body vibrated with power as the Mana surrounding him shook. With that feeling of explosive power hidden within his muscles and his body, he felt like he could do anything.
“Maybe I’ll try flying later. I’ve got courses to run.” Rugrat laughed as he checked the time and headed for the showers. He had a course to teach in just a few hours.
***
Erik was in the cafeteria, talking to Glosil about the Fourth Realm and the importance of logistics and supplies. They had also been looking over the information that Erik had brought back from Old Hei.
Glosil had changed. When he worked as the captain of the guards in Alva, he had done it knowing that he wouldn’t go anywhere in the military. It wasn’t because he didn’t try but because he lacked patrons to help him increase his Strength.
Knowing that he couldn’t advance any further in the military, when his senior, Blaze, had offered him the position of Alva’s guard captain, Glosil had debated over it. Thinking about what the small camp might become and Blaze’s kindness, the young man accepted his offer.
He trained people to be guards but he hadn’t lost his edge as he hunted all the time to drive off beasts and protect the people under him.
Still, there were few ways for him to increase his Strength. There were no trainers, no crafters, no one other than Blaze with true fighting experience. So Glosil trained and fought, helping Alva Village to grow but his own personal power hadn’t advanced much.
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 9