8: artifacts part 3

The next day seemed to take a while to arrive, and it almost felt as though time had stopped for a moment. Adore had enough time to sleep in, as she woke up pretty early, at around 5 in the morning. Normally, she would wake up around 6am or 7am, but mostly 7am. However, she wasn't complaining and used this extra time to go over some of the books she had obtained from the lab in the basement to see what she was working with.

---------------------------magic books-------------------------------

Book of water and ice defense and offense spells

Water and ice magic theory and spell book

Water heliing and buffs spell book

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Adore was thrilled about the healing and buffs book, which contained over 10 spells. She only knew one healing spell and had no actual buffs, so she relied on storing mana in certain parts of her body, which drained a lot of mana. She was also glad to see the book on magic theory, as she believed that it would provide her with a better understanding of how magic works. 

As Adore read through the book, she found that it contained a wealth of information, including water magic theory, mana armament theory, and spell enhancement theory. These were big eye-openers for her, as they spoke about things she was already doing but provided more efficient ways of doing them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------Water magic theroy-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Water magic works as a fluid and destructive form of magic, but the main component in every water magic spell is "fluidity." Your spells for magic attacks, buffs, and healing always need to have this component in order to form a true water spell. To achieve this, visualizing how water moves, feels, and tastes can help you gain a greater understanding of the element so that casting water spells becomes easier. Submerging oneself in water as much as possible and consuming it at a higher rate than usual can also help to gain a better understanding of water. When forming more magic circles, try doing so while being submerged in water to gain an even deeper understanding of it. As you grow in strength, your understanding of water will grow as well.

Ice magic theory can also be understood by gaining an understanding of water magic since they are essentially the same. The only difference is that one has become solid, while the other hasn't. However, the feel of ice magic isn't just fluid; it is also cold and unmoving. Understanding this will help your ice become stronger and colder, possibly even to the point where heat is at your mercy and time itself slows for you. Once you reach this point, you will have gained full understanding of ice in all its forms. To get to this point, try meditating and forming your magic circles in cold environments. Spending free time in the cold is the best way to gain even deeper understanding of ice.

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The othe to theories where simple enough but from the looks of what she read about spell enhancement she wouldn't be able to use it just yet because she need to have a book that gave certain runic patterns in order for her to have access to them she was sure she could fine some down stairs but she didn't want to over load her self with information so she stuck with just practicing mana armarment Theory which was a little more complicated but the runes to use it was listed in the book.

------------------------------------------------------------mana armarment Theory-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mana armament allows you to enhance your body's defense, strength, and speed by coating yourself in mana. However, doing this by itself can be draining, so in order to do this without using a large amount of mana, you need to use certain runic patterns called "enhancement runes".

There are two types of enhancement runes - spell enhancement runes and elemental enhancement runes.

The difference between the two is that armament enhancement runes depend on the element used, while elemental spell enhancement runes do not.

Armament runes require specific runes depending on the element used, whereas the runes within armament enhancements require the use of elemental runic patterns.

Both armament enhancement runes and elemental enhancement runes are used in tandem to enhance your body and control the flow of mana simultaneously. There are three types of elemental enhancement: speed, strength, and defense, and each of them require different runic patterns.

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This information was definitely very informative. She would most definitely try and test this out later when she had gone over and studied it a bit more. She was happy she took her time to read this. Since she was up so early, she thought she would start going over them today and practice going over them later in the afternoon when she was fighting the high Tier common beasts she needed for her last artifact.

This was really exciting for Adore. She never thought she would be able to find such an amazing way to conserve and use her mana in a way that was so efficient. Her combat prowess would grow leaps and bounds with this information and, in the process, help her grow stronger. She was looking forward to what the future had in store for her and her mice. She felt like she had a chance at actually being someone in this life and not a nobody working as a manager in an unknown office for pennies. She was able to accumulate a nice amount of money because she was really good at budgeting and did a few odd jobs here and there.

She could make a name for herself and become a person she could actually be proud of and that's exactly what she was going to do the first step to that was getting a little strong first before she could do anything impactfull in this world. So she went over and practice what she had read. She started to formulate the runes she had observed in the book one at a time to she had the first one formulated. 

"Aqua control"

A thick layer of dark blue energy-like barrier then lined her body like a full-body jumpsuit. It was translucent and hardly visible to the naked eye. She then formed the next set of runes and within a nice hour, she finally was able to successfully formulate the runes.

"Aqu defense"

The thick layer of blue energy that lined her body became more refined and durable, almost like a coat of armor. She was shocked by how little the mana was being sapped from her body. Although it took a nice amount of mana to perform this particular technique, it was nowhere near how much she was sapping from her body when trying to do this without the runes. She also didn't feel the amount of mana being sapped from her body was unbearable. In fact, once she added all the artifacts in her arsenal, it would become way more bearable.

As she was now, she could probably be able to last an hour or two before she lost all her mana in a battle. But once she added both the mana-boosting artifacts, she would be able to last 3 or 4 hours depending on how conservative she was when in battle. She practiced some more before going over the last two. Within the timeframe of 2 to 3 hours, after some time had passed and it was now time for her to start breakfast before leaving to go fight the high-tier common beast for the last artifact she was going to make. Once she had finished up, one of her mice made it to the room she was in after waking up from his slumber.

"Master, what are you doing?" asked Robby.

"Just finishing going over a new technique I learned a few hours ago," replied Adore.

"Wow, master, do you think I could learn it as well?" asked Robby excitedly.

"Yeah, actually, all of you can. Once I finish becoming a dark mage, I may go over them with all of you and

see if you can put them to use," said Adore.

"Really? Thank you so much, master. I can't wait," said Robby with a big smile.

"I have a question for you, actually, Robby. I remember you saying something about all of you being able to

use magic. How does that actually work?" asked Adore.

"I don't really know. I think it's something that we are just naturally able to do. I think it has something to do with lineage, but you'll have to ask Twyla to know more about that," replied Robby.

"Okay, I will when I see her. Actually, now that I think about it, go ahead and wake them up. I'm about to make breakfast, and I'd like all of you to have breakfast with me," said Adore.

"Okay, master. I'm on it," said Robby.

"Thank you," replied Adore.

Adore then made her way to the kitchen and started making some food for the morning. The mice made their way to the dining area, eagerly anticipating their master's food. It wasn't because they were actually hungry since they didn't need food, as the mana that Adore supplied them with was enough to nourish them as long as their master was alive. But actually eating did alleviate some of the strain on Adore to supply them with nourishment through her mana. Plus, they just really loved her cooking, so it was a win-win scenario for them.

Once she finished making breakfast for herself and her mice, she gave them their food and enjoyed the adorable view of her mice eating as she ate. But then she remembered that she had a question to ask Twyla. After she finished eating and cleaned up, she thought about what it was that beasts actually did in order to grow stronger and what the real difference was between mystical and common beasts.

"Twyla, I actually have a couple of questions for you. Would you mind answering them for me?" said Adore.

"No problem master. What is it that you would like to know?" said Twyla.

"Well, first is how does lineage work? And is it possible that I have a different one than a human would?" said Adore.

"First off, from what I have observed, you actually have a jumble of different lineages. Since you have so many, you probably have a low percentage of access to most of them. The best way to receive any benefit from your lineages is to purify the ones you have the highest percentage of and combine them. But, the types of artifacts and potions required to do that at any level that could actually benefit you are rare but possible.

"As for your second question, lineages allow beasts and all races alike to access certain powers and abilities specific to their ancestry. When it comes to mystical and common beasts, that could mean a plethora of things, but the main ones are appearance and elemental affinity. The beast race is limited to specific magical elements that correlate with their ancestry. So, in my case, I'm limited to only shadow and lightning magic." said twyla

"Thank you, Twyla. Now, this is the last one. How exactly do common and mythical beasts become stronger? And what are the things that actually distinguish the two?" said Adore.

"Well master, Both common and mystical beasts get stronger by eating and fighting other strong foe, while also accumulating mana similarly to humanoid races. However, despite getting stronger through the same ways, they still have their differences. For instance, common beasts, although they may gain some intellect as they become stronger, will never be anything more than animals.

They can only gain intellect on par with humanoid races and speak humanoid languages when they reach the peak of their existence. Sometimes, not even then, depending on the species. On the other hand, mystical beasts are born with high intellect on par with humanoid races and even gain humanoid form when they become 3rd-tier mystical beasts. Usually, their lineage is stronger too." said twyla

Adore was very exited to hear that her mice would get huminoid forms one day, she imagine it being like having her very on children, but she also thought about how they call her master and didn't know how appropriate that would be once they resembled humans but she felt like that was a problem she could deal with then into then she decided to finsh up her food and get ready to go, once she did that she put her mice in her soul space and made her way out the house in order to get the last thing she needed in order to make her last artifacts. 

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Adore was now midway to the river where she would be fighting the high-tier beast she needed and collecting the river water for her last artifact before she ran into a girl who was no taller than 5'2. She looked to be around Adore's age, and she was holding a huge silver sword with gold lining and a big red Ruby in the middle of the handle. She happened to be fighting a huge 7-foot bear and was faring quite well against it. She was using a strange energy to enhance and project attacks at the bear as she fought. Adore assumed the strange energy she was using was aura since she wasn't able to read a mana signature on the girl. But she seemed to be able to use the element of fire even though she didn't have any magic. She was actually wearing the fire as if it was a coat, and it seemed to only help enhance her body as opposed to being used to protect. Fireballs or anything like that.

Twyla do you know how she's doing that? Said Adore.

"No clue i don't really no much about knights aor how they fight, i just know there capable of using a strange energy called aura mostly because my lineage allows me to see, and read the arua signatures. Said twyla.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense that you don't know everything about this world, but she seems to be fine. Maybe I'll see her around some Time, and I'll be able to ask her myself, but until then I should hurry up and make my way to the river to see if there's an emperor fish there, which I'm sure there is, I'm sensing a high-1 tier beast signature in that direction."

Adore then made her way to the river as quickly as possible. She didn't want to be out too late, and she was ready to get this over with so that she could go into seclusion for a while and further advance her arsenal of spells and understanding of the new technique she had learned. After 20 more minutes of walking, she finally made her way to the river she was looking for. She took out the bait for the fish, which was just the mid-tier spear Neast she had killed. After a few minutes of waiting, an Emperor fish had finally made its appearance.

Despite its strength, it didn't seem that smart. It just mindlessly swam up to the spearfish without caring to pay attention to its surroundings. So, she thought maybe she could kill it without having to fight it while it wasn't paying attention.

"Ice spike"

Splash!

A spear of ice formed in front of her and shot with a speed fast enough to make the spear a blur before it hit the fish. It didn't fully penetrate it, but it definitely still caused the fish some pain. Blinded with anger, it reacted to the attack with an onslaught of countless beams of water, dense enough to rip through Adore's skin with ease. Adore took the time to practice the effectiveness of Mana Armament in battle.

Aqua control 

+Defense 10%

+speed 10%

A cloak of blue translucent energy enveloped her body, simultaneously boosting her speed and defense. She then began dodging the beams being shot at her with ease, honestly due to the Emperor fish's lack of intellect and enraged state, it wasn't really a real challenge for Adore, and she wasn't even using any of her artifacts yet, and she was already faring well. The Emperor fish noticed this and decided to switch up its attack. The barrage of beams finally stopped, and it resorted to throwing spears of water at her, which were slightly faster than the beams of dense water, which was sort of becoming a problem. So, she decided to bring this little fight to an end.

Below zero

A blue icy ball of energy appeared in front of her before a beam of icy blue energy shot at the fish with vast amount of speed and made a direct hit on the fish. It sent the recently floating fish crashing to the ground and shattering into big chunks of frozen fish. Adore was actually disappointed at how little she gained from the fight with the Emperor fish since it was just blindly attacking. But what could she do? She couldn't force a good fight out of an incompetent foe, so she just ended it before it just got any more boring. She used the spell "Thaw" to unfreeze the big chunks of fish on the floor so she wouldn't have to later through it in her spatial bag, then she proceeded to get some water from the river.

 "Well to home we go." Said adore