The Third Step: Chapters Sixty Eight, Sixty Nine, Seventy, and Seventy-One

So, due to the weirdness of the upcoming American holiday (And the friends and family moving around to visit that come with it), I've had to post all Mana Mirror chapters today, on Monday. Primal Soul, Tamer's Heart will still go up as per usual on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sorry for the inconvenience! But hey, at least you get an extra chapter out of it?

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Chapter Sixty-Eight

I spent nearly all my time over the next several days doing one of three things: Training, learning, or waiting around. I had a pair of new spells that I needed to learn, and getting to use them against Liz and her grandfather was a great way to stress-test them. By getting to know the spells through combat so well, I was able to focus on using them. Much like Meadow had said, the Retributive Thorns spell was essentially useless on its own. Oh, I could cast it to create a sharp spike of forged thorns in the air around my body, but it used fourth gate mana. I could do something comparable with Briarthreads or maybe blademoss, using first gate mana. Given that mana regenerated from the center outward, it meant that there was a much higher opportunity cost to spending fourth gate mana over first. 

And that was a real consideration for the first time in my life, and was the reason I had to spend time learning or simply waiting around. Even setting aside the fact that I was wasting about half of my mana regeneration, recovering fourth gate mana was a slow process. I had a stream of mana diverted to filling Ephemeral Rebirth, which only slowed it further. 

I could usually recover my first gate mana at a reasonable enough speed. Second gate mana was hardly a problem, especially space and time due to their pairing so well with Foxstep, its root, and Harvest Distance. Third was a bit slower to recover. I’d run out in a fight before and been in a tight spot. But it wasn’t terrible, just slower. That compounded when it came to fourth gate, however. Even if my first and second filled quickly enough, the time it took to recover my third gate meant it could be some time before I even started recovering my fourth gate. Fourth gate was also larger than third, which just further slowed the time it took to restore an empty gate. This problem was apparently even worse at fifth gate, which was the largest gate of all of them, giving it great reserves of power, but making it slow to recover. 

For the first time in my life, I gave serious thought to simply taking a full gate mana regeneration spell at fifth. Having that source of power massively speeding my recovery would be invaluable. But it would also come at a truly extreme cost… Whatever I decided, it was a question for future me. 

In the now, I trained and rested. When I wasn’t doing either of those, Meadow, the witch, and Kene began to walk me through aspects of more advanced alchemy, namely the theory behind permanent enhancement alchemy. I didn’t have the mana or the resources to practice it, but covering the complex anatomical diagrams and reading through known reactions was something I could do, even if I frequently took breaks to wander off and make food, coffee, or check on Liz. Still, the basic idea behind permanent enhancements was simple, and actually overlapped fairly well with both the fields of beast magic and even biological enchanting, though it had far less in common with meridian or nadi development than I had initially expected. Instead of remapping and enhancing the connections between spirit and body, it was a purely bodily art. 

Permanent alchemy began the same as regular alchemy – combine ingredients that had portions of the array that bestowed the effect that you wanted, while draining away the parts you didn’t want. These components were frequently more powerful, more delicate, and would require a longer brewing time under more controlled conditions in order to fuse into the right energetic arrays, but the base idea was the same. Where it differed was the next two steps. 

The permanent array needed to become, well, permanent. The method needed to accomplish this was incredibly strange, and I felt it was very counterintuitive. If I had been an ancient alchemist, I’d have attempted to get the potion to absorb power at the same rate it spent it. Instead, the most effective way to do it was to effectively turn it into locked energy, like the energetic flows within my organs. It was entirely passive and immutable, and powered not through pouring energy into an effect, but by the flow of energy through it, like a river turning a water wheel. It was essentially creating entirely new ‘organs’ that provided the effect through natural processes. Finally, the potion needed an affixation. To continue to stretch the organ metaphor, it needed a way to connect into the body’s energy ‘veins’ to form the ‘organ’ without causing damage to the flow of energy within the body. 

My full-gate spells gave me advantages and disadvantages, as well as aspects of them that were both an advantage and disadvantage. On one hand, I had a huge amount of energy compared to a baseline human, which meant much more free energy would flow through the organs, making the effects more powerful. But that in turn meant I needed to build the organs to be more robust, and often larger. With spell arrays already covering large swathes of my insides and energetic patterns, and countless more that would be added in time, I had less room to add new permanent effects. But that also meant that I’d need to do far less work with affixation, since my body was already primed to accept new patterns. So on and so forth. 

There was a lot more to it than that, of course, and even two weeks wasn’t enough to bring me to an acceptable mastery for Meadow or the witch. Heck, I wasn’t even on Kene’s level, since they were more used to these sorts of considerations when dealing with advancement alchemy. 

And on the topic of advancement alchemy, some of the other breaks I took were to absorb those. Kene had finished refining the wallsurge stone into a completed wallsurge elixir, and with my gates now opened, the bonus effect of massively burning through mist as well as raising walls would be invaluable. On top of that, Oryskon delivered a set of three budget advancement resources, gathered from what money I had that wasn’t either going to him or to investment alongside the thousand or so I’d earned from winning the competition. 

The first was a smooth, pure white pill that temporarily improved a person’s ability to access their Identity, while the second was a pink pill that would improve reaction speed for a short time. Neither one would brute force ingraining of my newest spells, but the natural way to ingrain was through understanding and use. Trapped in the tower, I had the use part down pat, and each of these pills would help me understand the spells better. The third and final was a chunky mash of herbs and water that was little more than a potent source of life mana with some tinges of creation, telluric, and solar. I’d been puzzled by it at first, until I’d realized it was designed to help me charge Retributive Thorns’ ingrained effect. 

I paced myself over a few days, beginning with the pink, then white, pills as I trained with Liz and her grandfather. Though I didn’t immediately ingrain my new spells, I felt like the improvements to my understanding of their use via the pills had shaved at least a week of practice off of the time needed to ingrain it. The next day, I drank the wallsurge elixir. It was a chalky gray color, with flecks of silver running through it. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect as I downed it. I knew it was put on par with things like the bronzepick pill or golden soul elixir, but that was about it. 

As soon as it began to soak into me, it was like lightning erupted through my veins and spirit. Crackling power rushed through my mana-garden, and I fought to control the dualistic stream of power. It was simple enough to direct the power that burnt away at the mists, as I split it evenly between all of my gates. The power was borderline explosive, and I could feel myself nearly reaching the mistwall that would indicate I needed to start digging. The other half was more difficult, but I suffused the lightning-like magic throughout all of my walls, albeit in an uneven slant. Most of the power went to my first three gates, helping the walls erupt into the air, while remnants of the power were slipped into the fourth gate walls to help raise them as best I could. 

Then the power vanished, leaving my mana-garden scorched, but… feeling oddly healthy. It was like a forest after lightning had caused a forest fire, and now all the new saplings had the fuel to germinate. My reserves of mana had grown considerably, and between that and reaching the mistwall, I could absolutely understand why this was valued so highly as an advancement resource. 

Over the last few days of training in the area of rapidly accelerated time, I finally ingrained my two newest spells. I already knew what the ingrained effect of Retributive Thorns was, of course, and I processed the power of the herbal mana source mash to help fuel it, while Meadow showed me a part of the spell that could be used to temporarily disable its retributive stikes. After all, if I started using this spell in the second round, it could give away the fact that I was a plant mage. Plants, fungi, and my mantle dragon’s breath were all cards that I was holding close to the chest right now. 

Concentrate Spellpower, on the other hand, was a totally new ingrained effect. It was an odd one, as it helped me sense the layers of my soul more clearly. Supposedly that would help when I went to form roots, though I was still unsure on that whole process. The clarity it brought definitely gave me a better appreciation for when Orykson said that treating the soul as layers like a cake was a massive over-simplification. I could faintly feel the flow of soul mana into the soulself, and from there up into all of my spells. That had surprised me, but it was a small part of all of my spells, even if not much compared to drawing on my beast core. It wasn’t just me, either, soul mana was a part of everyone’s spells, and it really did become the normal mana that was used to power spellcraft. The soulself extended up as well in long thin fingers of will, but it also went down, mingling into the soul mana. My mana, will, and soul mana all also reached further down, where the legacy and structural elements lay, though sensing that was difficult. Up in the sky, I could sense the mana channels that connected my body and my spirit, mingled among the pollen and spores. 

It was complex, beautiful, and somewhat terrifying to behold the delicate complexity, and terrifying. Both in an abstract awe that was both terror and joy, and in the more practical sense that it helped me get a better sense for just how badly I’d damaged parts of myself. I’d punched a mana channel down into my soul mana, shattered half of them, had my will curling out in a very unnatural pattern, and somehow turned the gateway that accessed my beastgate into a strange central set of connections that, judging by my other mana types, definitely shouldn’t be located so centrally and were intersecting with things that they shouldn’t be. 

I really wanted to sit down with Orykson and create a map of all of the damage, and all of the things I needed to fix, but I didn’t have time. As the acceleration wound down, I only had one more night of sleep before the second round of the tournament. 

Chapter Sixty-Nine

“Reveal your orbs of destiny and absolution!” the Patriarch of the Silent River Sect commanded, his voice ringing from the sky. I stared at him, wondering if he really needed to fly while we were in a waiting room, before quickly teleporting the orb out of Dusk’s realm. The spirit, currently sitting on my shoulder, turned and gave me a sigh, asking if I’d really forgotten to bring out the orb. 

“Hush you,” I said, as the Patriarch made dramatic flourishes in the air, and a massive pulse of ungated mana washed out of him. The orb in my hand began to flicker, before settling on a nice green color. Next to me, both Liz and Ivy’s orbs turned a rich amber yellow, and I gave an envious whistle. If I’d gotten yellow as well, I thought I’d have stood a good chance of winning a top slot. 

“Sort yourselves,” the Patriarch demanded, and people began to move around in groups, trying their best to sort out the color coordination. In a weird way, it reminded me of being back in school. Finding my own team took a bit of time, and I was annoyed when I found the very first person on the team. 

“You’re the woman who shot me!”

“You were just floating there on your cloud. What was I supposed to do?” the woman said. Her accent wasn’t one I immediately placed. I thought it might be from the Tower City of a Thousand Worlds, though I wasn’t sure. For the first time, I got a good look at her, and took in her appearance and spirit. She was in mid-fourth gate mineral mage, with pure telluric mana, and an arm that was made entirely of metal. 

I was frankly impressed. Her arm had been homemade, judging both by the fact that it had been allowed in the competition despite being enchanted to do far more than just replace a limb. Multiple different magical stones had been strategically placed in the joints, and most of it was made from magical minerals. There were thousands of little connection runes carved into it, and I suspected that if she was to really let the power of the arm loose, then she’d be surprisingly adaptable and powerful. Then there was her gun. She had a collection of simple metal bullets propelled by ungated alchemy, but there was also a collection of magical minerals. 

“If you’d unloaded one of those fire ones, I’d have…” I trailed off. If she’d hit me with one of those, I’d have potentially been pulled out. It wasn’t a guarantee, with my soul mana powered regeneration spell going, but it was a flip of the coin that I didn’t like. 

The woman gave me a surprised look, her metallic fist curling into a ball, and I only then realized that her coat was supposed to be warding her bullet cartridges. It wasn’t a great enchantment, only capable of veiling telluric mana, probably because she’d also made it herself. But considering how few knowledge mages there were here, she probably hadn’t expected anyone to peirce it. 

“Oh, I wasn’t supposed to sense those, was I?” I asked. “Sorry. I’ll keep it quiet.” 

“Whatever. My name’s Corra. You?” 

I pursed my lips, thinking over it. There was that one guy who’d struck Kamal’s spells down with seemingly nothing but a name, so I was none too keen about using my real name. 

“Call me Fox, and this spirit is Forest.” 

Corra’s eyes slid over to Dusk then, and a look of comprehension dawned on her face. She stepped closer to me and lowered her voice to a whisper. 

“You’re not a kitsune, are you? You’ve got a phantom fox bloodline and spatial magic. It explains how you’re using their magic, but also dodged the massive volcano, and had that uber-healing magic. I read about phantom foxes' ability to eat shades and use their spells.” 

“That’s… closer to the truth,” I said. “Tell you what. After the tournament’s over, or at least after we’re both knocked out, if you’ll give me the run down on your powers, I’ll give you the run down on mine.” 

“Deal,” Corra agreed, and we set out to find the rest of our teammates. 

Two of them were also fairly impressive, a man named Bijuli and a woman named Aradia. Bijuli was actually one that Liz had fought before, and he had tempest mana alongside purple lightning crane mana. The lightning crane mana was a mix of tempest, the more esoteric parts of telluric that felt like magnetism to me, and heaping amounts of desolation. Fairly simple for a beast, but between the two of them, his bonded meridians, and a bond to his sect’s specialty spell to decrease the mana cost of lightning bolts, he was reasonably competent. 

Aradia, on the other hand, was from a city state that I barely knew anything about, the Hallowed Orrery. Her magical style was an interesting one, as she utilized light spells with her solar mana, but not in an illusion sense. She actually created a form of hard light that had impact and cutting power, somewhat like the swordsman in the orb that I’d fought. But she also had mental mana, and primarily used it to give psuedo-minds to her spells, helping them move on their own to strike their targets.

In time, we found our final four members. Two of them were from Aergarde and wore capes that were bedazzled with corporate sponsorships, while one of them was from the Redsummer Isles and wore an outfit that mingled together cultures of multiple islands, and the last was from the Pelagic Metropolis and utilized the water magic that the underwater nation was famed for. I didn’t want to write them off entirely, but their power reminded me far more of Kamal than it did of Corra, Aradia, or Bijuli. They were stuffed with natural treasures and advancement resources, advanced to the very peak of fourth gate, and while that made them impressive in their own right, I wasn’t confident that any of them would be making it much further than the top thirty two. 

As soon as everyone’s teams were complete, the Patriarch gave us five minutes to strategize, dropping his Title of River Lord through the area, while spinning orbs of water surrounded each of the teams to cut them off from eavesdropping. I wasn't sure he really needed to do that, but I didn’t question him, instead turning to my group. 

“I have something of a plan, at least for the opening. Whenever someone is hit with one of our spells, their mana is suppressed for fifteen seconds, and we score a point. So, tell me, have you ever heard of a kludde?” 

Aradia, as well as the girl from the Redsummer Isles, had, but the rest had not. I gave a quick run-down of their powers, and a compressed explanation that I’d been able to learn one of their spells. With my powerful mana senses, I should be able to strike a massive number at once, buying us time to split out and take others down. The plan drew some protests from the pair from Aergarde, but when both Corra and Bijuli threw their weight behind it, it was enough for the more ambivalent parties in the group. I wasn’t even sure why the Aergarde folks were opposed to it – they just seemed to oppose me on principle. 

It was a bit of a reveal to use Kludde’s Weight so blatantly, as it wasn’t a gumiho spell, but it was still a beast spell. If people only ever expected beast magic, or maybe beast magic and spatial magic, then they’d be sidelined when I pulled out my life and death magic. More importantly, if I was right, it would score us enough points to nearly guarantee us a spot in the top half. 

We made some loose plans, but given the nature of the round, there wasn’t much we could do that was concrete. We would split up into smaller groups, so that we weren’t likely to be hit by a spell with a large area, like fireball, but that was kind of all that we could anticipate. Despite that, the five minutes seemed to fly by, and I felt the power of the Shepherd reach through space and connect to each of the groups throughout the room. Then we were gone, and an announcer was counting down from ten. 

I prepared my magic and frantically looked around. The arena had been transformed, with dozens of small castle-like structures placed around. Many of them seemed to have intentionally placed windows to create lines of fire, but also spots with cover, and ramps that would let you access the second or third stories without having to enter the structures. The air was filled with a faint mist, and the arena had been artificially dimmed. It wasn’t truly dark, but without Vampiric Senses, it might have been enough to obscure if forms in the mist were people or true structures. All of the structures glowed with arcanist level defensive wards, presumably to stop us from destroying the area.

“Begin!” the announcer shouted, and my magic exploded out of me. Analyze Life, Death, and Space joined with Sky Dragon’s Senses, Soulgaze, and the passive effects of spells like Ghosteyes or Sense Directionality. Thanks to my Kirin spell helping to create connections, even things like Surveyor’s Eye, Vampiric Senses, and Sensory Network added some power to the effect. I drew on the power of the Druid alongside my staff, infusing the beast’s spell with my knowledge of the creatures and pouring my resonance into my mana senses. I teleported one of my sensory potions into my mouth to push even more, and all of it focused through my Runelight Lens, which amplified it further still. 

I cast Impel Senses, forming spheres around my teammates, and then used my newest spell, Concentrate Spellpower. I sent the will, alongside a thin wisp of soul mana, into Kludde’s Weight, and an enormous crushing pressure erupted across the entire arena. The air began to groan and shriek as even the Arcanist level reinforcement wards were put under strain, but with the assistance of Concentrate Spellpower, I was better able to direct my senses onto all of the people. Across the entire arena, only two forms managed to resist the crashing tide of Kludde’s Weight before it struck. I couldn’t identify one of them, as their spirit seemed to slip away from proper detection, but the other was Ivy. He’d sparred with me enough to have expected it. Liz and a few others had put up resistance, but there was a downside to focusing solely on combat spells and never bothering to ingrain things like Analyze Lunar. I crushed most of their senses without mercy or, frankly, true effort. 

There was a dull roar, as the crowd exploded with frenetic energy loud enough to even slip through the dome, and I heard the announcer’s voice from the outside, the same one who had done the countdown, excitedly speculating about who on the green team could have struck almost the entire arena at once, and what sort of massive gravity or wind technique this had to be.

Well, if I was here to make a splash on the global stage and cement myself in the eyes of the Occultists and Magi, I might as well lean into it. While my teammates scattered and prepared their spells, I hooked an arm through Corra’s metal one, gave a wave upward, toward the audience, then used Antburden and Foxstep to teleport while leaving illusions in our wake, to another part of the arena before dropping Kludde’s weight. 

Chapter Seventy

As soon as we landed, I released her arm, and Corra stepped to the side, thrusting her palm out. The center of her palm began to glow a dull orange color as she prepared to release one of the magical minerals on any opponent we met next, while the tips of her fingers began to spark gently. With her flesh hand, she drew her gun, though there was clearly no mineral of any note loaded into the… chamber? Was that the right term? I wasn’t sure. 

While she prepared herself, I also shifted, bouncing on the balls of my feet and preparing to conjure some foxfyre to throw, while casting Reposition Anchor to create a series of echoes, making it look like we were heading in different directions at once. We still had a few seconds until everyone else’s timers went off cooldown, so I swept my senses around me. I was only powering Sky Dragon’s Senses currently – flaring everything together should have been too chaotic of a mess to get a good sense for the exact spells, but when just running a few, that was the best to obscure my humanity.

“Easy points?” Corra asked, and I nodded and began to guide us down through one of the ramps. As soon as I felt everyone’s mana coming back online, I leapt over the edge, and she did the same. A pair of people had been walking on the first level of the building, and their defensive spells burst to life, but we were already striking. I used Foxfyre to burn a hole in the shield that interposed itself between me and the force mage, then flicked a second right into his body. To his credit, he managed to use a blast of force from his feet to throw himself back, but I teleported behind him and flicked the purple flames into the back of his head, and felt his mana vanish.

Across from me, Corra landed next to someone wearing full plate mail and slammed her fingers into the surface. Lightning coursed across its surface, but it was swiftly grounded to nothing, and the armored mage was charging her. Corra leapt into the air, and seemed to use some combination of metal magic and a stone in her arm to soar far further than she should have, landing behind the armored foe, grabbing their arm, and throwing them to the ground. Even as the armored figure struggled to their feet, Corra’s palm went from orange to cherry red, and a ball of flame engulfed the helmet of the armored foe, dissipating their mana. A spell from outside the arena, cast by an abnegation mage, cut off her fire before it could harm the person in the suit, and I took Corra’s arm before splitting our echoes in multiple directions again and teleporting us around. 

I spun as we landed, and spotted the girl I’d seen on the train. She was in tattered robes, holding a sword, and standing next to Dario, attacking anyone who came within ten feet of her with a furious speed, moving fast enough that it was hard to follow. I watched as she sliced through a suit of spinning wind armor as if the wind wasn’t there, and decided that these were not easy points. Sure, there were about eight of the weaker, state sponsored people who were fighting, but between Dario and the swordswoman, they had it handled. I waved to Dario, who waved back, before taking Corra’s arm and teleporting us away. 

This time, as soon as we landed next to a group of three peak-fourth gate overstuffed fighters, I was nearly eliminated. An arrow, shaped oddly like a bird’s feather, rushed through the air, and if Corra hadn’t turned to take the attack on her metal arm, it would have struck my throat. It bout the three fighters enough time that one of them launched a fireball, another shot forth a rain of spears that made me feel nostalgic for fighting with Ed, and a third created glowing spell circles that tried to trap us in place. I burnt through the circles with Foxfyre, then teleported us into one of the structures.

“The archer’s up there,” Corra hissed as another arrow nearly took off her head. We ducked beneath the window, while I peeked out just barely, yanking back as another arrow thumped where my eye had been. But in the second I’d looked, I’d spotted them. They were a shadowy form, though they clearly had wings and red eyes. More than that I couldn’t tell, though, so I let Sky Dragon’s Senses carry my mana senses up to the third story where they were, only to frown. The same figure who’d managed to slide out of Kludde’s Weight. 

Then the competitor who had thrown the fireball rounded the corner, and Corra launched herself at him. He blinked in surprise, even as her hand closed around his foot, and lightning coursed into him. The enchantments activated, and his magic simply cut off. I closed my eyes and focused on that consideration. This game wasn’t an attempt to find the most powerful of all of us. It wasn’t a duel to kill the other person. Nobody scored additional points for an effective kill. You scored a point by hitting an opponent with a spell, buying yourself time. With that in mind…

My eyes snapped open and my mana senses surged out of me. I crashed down with Kludde’s weight on the group of three again, and felt the strange creature on the third floor vanish again. I leapt forward, throwing myself over the window, and flung a ball of fire at where it was. My flames struck an arrow in mid-air, and the arrow partially melted. Partially wasn’t fully, however, so I teleported behind the slippery creature. Up close and personal, I could see that it was humanoid, but also incredibly mothlike, complete with the antennae and wings. As soon as I appeared, though, magic lanced right through me, and I lost control of my magic. As with most disabling spells, it didn’t stop my enhanced physique, but I couldn’t cast any spells.

“Ah, Primes,” I said, nodding respectfully to the moth-like person. “Good job, I pegged you as an archer, didn’t expect a… curse? Was that a curse?”  

“Thank you,” the person said in a deep, masculine voice. “And indeed it was.”

That was when Corra struck. There was a popping noise as she fired a shot, and it slammed into the moth man’s back, erupting into a ball of flame that immediately snuffed out. I saluted the creature before dashing down the ramp as he groaned in annoyance. I slid next to Corra, and we rounded a corner, coming face to face with a lone man. I’d seen him before, the one who had two swords floating behind his back, one of force and one of metal, while wielding a blade that was half metal and half force. He looked at us, and his lips twitched into a smile before he exploded forward. In my spirit, the winds of resolve bucked a warning, and I slid out of the way, throwing a punch at the side of the man’s head. It wouldn’t trigger his shutdown, but it should hopefully buy Corra the chance to land a blow that would. 

The man knocked my blow aside with casual ease, the mere motion of knocking my hand away containing enough strength to lift me off my feet and throw me into the wall. I sat there, dazed, as he spun and plunged his sword into Corra. The spells stopped her from being hurt, but her magic flickered out as he scored a point. Just as he turned to walk away, my magic flared back to life. The man spun with a staggering alacrity and thrust his slender sword right at my neck. He was incredibly fast, faster than I could move. But, thanks to Beast Mage’s Soul, he wasn’t faster than I could cast. 

Kludde’s Weight hammered into him, and his magic cut off abruptly. He stared at me as if he didn’t understand what had just happened, and I saw the knuckles around his sword tighten. Perhaps, if this had been an exhibition of power, I’d have stayed and fought him, though I was all but certain I’d lose. The man’s raw physical strength surpassed mine by a wide margin, and I was certain from the feel of his spirit that it wasn’t the true focus of his magic. But this wasn’t about exhibitions or showing your best. This was about scoring as many points as possible. 

I grabbed Corra and teleported next to Dusk. She’d taken to the skies in her cloud when I’d teleported Corra and myself away, but I quickly locked us in place next to her as she gave a cheerful whistle of hello and used a shockwave to knock aside a spear of hail.

“These guys bothering you?” I asked, thrusting my senses out and slamming Kludde’s Weight into the fliers. I didn’t have the full element of surprise this time, so a few of them managed to push back and avoid elimination, but I’d downed half of them with that motion, sending them plummeting to the floor, save for one who must have been flying with their legacy or something of the sort. Dusk whistled her thanks, and I glanced around the battlefield, letting Sky Dragon’s Senses bring me waves of information. I found Aradia and Bijuli almost instantly, as her light stood out well in the darkness, and carried a great deal of sensory information, and his blasts of lightning were fairly obvious, as he threw around the powerful spells like they cost nothing. The pair were swamped in a five on two, and I felt Bijuli’s spirit flicker out right as I located them. I thrust my hand out, and like a heavenly hammer, directed Kludde’s Weight onto the group attacking them. Three of them must have prepared as soon as they’d felt my senses wash over them,

As I did that, Dusk clapped and released a snowstorm, catching one of the oddly birdlike arrows that came from the moth-like man, grunting with the effort. Corra raised her arm and began launching balls of fire down at the people below, throwing them at anyone who didn’t bother to look up. 

“Ten seconds remaining!” the voice of the announcer boomed, and the entire arena seemed to explode with violence. One corner lit so brightly that it hurt to look at as Aradia created nine constructs of her intelligent hard light, only for the entire area to be swallowed in shadow as a familiar dual set of spears struck her down. 

A blast of light that could only be Ivy’s forest dragon’s breath lit up the darkness, and an entire castle began to crumble. An instant later, it was met with a power that was almost identical to one of my own spells, mantle dragon’s breath, but… less energetic. Instead of cycling through the body, it seemed to rely on a spiritual power, a dominion perhaps? The beams slammed into one another and grew rapidly as the pinnacle elite forest dragon and a creature that had to be a magma spirit clashed, ripping apart one of the buildings. 

That was when Dario lifted into the sky, the small swordswoman clutched in his hand. She slashed her blade, and a sword ripple caught the spirit in the back. Suddenly unopposed, Ivy’s spell exploded through the arena before vanishing at the sound of a buzzer. The dome melted away, and I looked up to see the scoreboard floating in the air for the crowd. The yellow team was in first place, with white in second, and third, floating in the shimmering display lights, was the green team. 

I sagged in relief. Through the writ, I’d earned the right to mentorship with Orykson, but in order to keep it, I’d needed to place in the top thirty two. Now, I only needed to earn a writ for Ikki, and I’d be able to keep both my mentors, but that was done through side events. 

But even as I swelled with relief, I also tensed with worry. The easy part of the tournament was over. Next round would begin the individual matches. 

Chapter Seventy-One

As I was walking back to my room, the Patriarch of the Silent River Sect slid up next to me, the power of the River Lord swirling around us. Despite myself, I felt a bit of nervous energy in the pit of my stomach. This was his land, and while there were people around, there weren’t many. Could Meadow, Orykson, or Ikki save me in time, if he decided to strike? I did my best to keep the nerves from my face as I gave a respectful nod to the River Lord, while Dusk gave a bow from her cloud. 

“I’m surprised you came to see me,” I admitted, folding my arms behind my back and continuing to walk. The elderly man gave me a dangerous looking smile, and I noticed that his canines were longer and thinner than a human’s, belying his half-serpent nature. 

“Even if your team came in third, you were the second highest individual scorer. The top is already in the vaults, but as soon as  That gives you your pick. It’s also fascinating – you managed to strike out against the entire arena. Even the wind mages couldn’t do all that. You really are one of Orykson’s children, aren’t you?” 

“Meadow is my teacher,” I noted. “Orykson is a contracted assistant. Frankly, if I had stuck to his path, I wouldn’t have half the power I do now.” 

“The path to the heavens is only one person wide. We might help one another, but it is for each to walk alone. It is good that you recognize the need for individualism when defining the self. You should listen to your mentors, but don’t let your every whim be decided by them.”

I nodded, though I wasn’t sure that I entirely understood what he was getting at, nor that I actually agreed with the sentiment. Before the conversation could get awkward, though, the patriarch pulled out a strange badge or amulet of some kind, glowing with sixth gate spatial magic. It seemed to be made from a spatially aligned stone, though it wasn’t Stability-Ore, as it actively destabilized space around it. He tapped the enchantments, and after a soft whining noise of the spell settling, a portal tore open, looking out onto what had to be the vault. 

He ushered us in, and the portal snapped shut, and I turned, taking in the treasure hall. The entire place was polished to perfection, every tile on the floor gleaming with an unnatural brightness. There were no windows, but columns scattered throughout the room were covered in glowing crystals that provided illumination. Low wooden tables ran through the room, with countless items scattered among them, all of the materials that there were to choose from. Four waterfalls, filled with glowing mana water, stood against the walls in each of the cardinal directions, which brought me to the slightly unnerving realization that the room didn’t have a door. No door, no windows, and when I extended my senses, I could feel that behind the facade of nice decor there were powerful wards against detection and teleportation. The voice of the Patriarch finally snapped me out of my fugue state.  

“This is the Silent River Sect’s Arcanist Vault,” the Patriarch said proudly, extending an identification card to me. “As a victor of the top thirty-two, you have been guaranteed a spot in the next Arcanist tournament, should you meet the age and power requirements. You have also been granted permanent access to the Arcanist training facilities here, which you may access with this card. And finally, you have earned the right to take a treasure from our vaults. Please, look around, and make your choice.”

I nodded, and Dusk drifted off in one direction, while I wandered in another, walking through the mixture of items and stopping to examine any that caught my eye. The first thing I spotted that might be useful was a cloak, woven of dreamspider silk, capable of defending the user’s mind – both from attacks, and from external influences while traversing the dreamscape. That could be useful if I ventured in to find one of the strange plants that grew in the realm. It, like nearly everything in the room, was an artifact that straddled the line between fifth and sixth gate levels of power. 

I wandered past a pair of stone lions, both fifth gate earthen constructs that were capable of animating themselves and acting as powerful guards for a home. Dusk getting some new, additional guardians would definitely be a good thing, and it might even be possible for Arthur to be able to use the constructs as a vessel, if I learned the right magic. 

A sash, made of woven threads of skysheep wool and skysteel thread, represented an entirely self-sustaining flight enchantment that would let me fly at over seventy miles an hour without ever needing to stop and allow it to recharge. When I’d gotten my very first broom, I’d thought about the wealthy who had brooms that could recharge in flight, or that could move at incredible speed. This would be an opportunity to have one for myself, and as a sash, I could wear it essentially all the time. 

The next item that snagged my attention confused me, at least at first. It was a cut and polished piece of cyan blue mana, but it radiated eighth gate mana. Deeper inspection revealed that the teardrop shaped crystalized mana was capable of absorbing a single fatal blow from anyone at or below eighth gate, but it would be consumed in doing so. That was interesting. I wasn’t sure if it was the best item for me, but it meant the armory didn’t just have arcanist items. It seemed like consumable items were allowed to go higher in level. 

I didn’t relish the idea of using a reward on something that could only be used once, maybe twice, but it might be an investment. Dusk, Dawn, and I needed to get higher in the tournament, and if we took something that could stop or overwhelm someone else, it might well be worth it. 

I didn’t pick up the crystal immediately, though. There was so much more that was worth seeing. There was a natural treasure, a sympathetic-pearl, that would tie my next advancement together. If I advanced to fifth gate with my life mana, all of my other mana types would also open to fifth. 

On the topic of advancement, there was an item called the Moon Mana Flask, which passively absorbed mana from the moon and converted it into stable liquid form. The liquid took some time to process back into ordinary mana, which made it more or less useless in a fight, but a great tool to help breakthroughs as the mana costs climbed ever higher, and it might also help an enchanter. Despite the name and the fact it absorbed lunar mana, it was a legacy enchanted item, and the liquid could break down into any other mana type with little to no mana loss. 

The treasure hall had well over four dozen swords capable of flying through the air attacking on their own, but the one that interested me most was marked as Kumi's Flying Sword. I didn’t know who Kumi was, or why their sword was here, but it operated differently to most of the other blades. While most were enchantments carved into the blade to manipulate force or air magic, this was made using mineral magic: a nullsteel blade with a core of cognizance-tungsten, and a hilt of hover-bronze inlaid with windspun-topaz. The few enchantments on the blade kept the minerals active, and I might be able to get some use out of the components, even if I outgrew the sword’s abilities. 

There were a few other pieces from the mysterious Kumi figure in the collection, and I wondered if they’d been a crafter for the sect. I found a piece of armor made up of an alloy of nullsteel and slipcopper, set with a fluid-sapphire, that allowed the wearer to swim through stone with some effort. 

While wandering through the weapons and armor, I found a small bundle of four arrows, tied together with a silk ribbon. Each of them held a powerful seventh gate enchantment, a pure desolation spell that I thought might be a disintegration effect. I was no archer, but I could always just stab someone with it to release the magic.

Next to the arrows was a reticle called the Archer’s Reticle, an enchanted piece of glass that would float over one eye, amplifying the user’s mana senses and assisting in aiming any sort of ranged attack with some sort of knowledge magic. I wasn’t quite sure how it did that, but it seemed quite useful. 

I shook my head and continued wandering past several bows, arrows, and other targeting effects, and then stopped when I felt a jade bracelet radiating with spatial magic, and I turned it over. It had to be a legacy-based enchantment, as the bracelet seemed to contain exactly one hundred miles of teleportation. It could go a hundred miles in one go, or do fifty teleports that were two miles, or any other combination. Strange. 

I bumped into Dusk not long after that, and we spent a while pointing out the things we’d spotted to one another. Funnily enough, most of the materials that we’d spotted were actually the same, but there were a handful I’d found that she hadn’t, and vice versa, like the Seven Hue Landscape painting, which manipulated ambient energy flows within a few hundred feet to protect people within its range. I didn’t understand the geomantic principles or enchantments lurking within the painting to fully understand it, but Dusk assured me that it could help basically our entire house and the village of smallfolk. 

The final item she had found that I hadn’t was a bead of ice, a natural treasure that was only a single use. When eaten, it would massively accelerate the mind for a short time, allowing for remarkable processing speed, sharply improved clarity of will, and flawless mana manipulation, buying thirty seconds of focus while only a second passed of real time. 

“What do you think?” I asked Dusk. She frowned and released a complex sound between a kludde’s roar, a robin’s cheep, and the sound of water on the shores. It acknowledged that there was a logic to taking something limited, but incredibly powerful, especially when it came to placing as high in the tournament as possible… But it was still taking a lesser treasure.