28 Mana's Mysteries - Chapter 28
Goh Hungwoo
It had only been half a week since that caster, Goh wasn't even sure he should call the man that, had come and turned the floor of his throne room to solid Mythril. There had been a lapse in Goh's judgment though as Mythril is one of the most durable metals in the realm, it's ability to take heat was far above many other metal's and so the forging of the Mythril was slow going.
Even so, Goh was glad to have been able to gain such a wealth at such a minute cost. All the caster had wanted was information on something that someone must've made up.
The king laughed to himself, final ascension? Who's bright idea had that been to tell the caster?
"Jyr'!" Goh called out from his quarters. A minute passed and the elf came scrambling in to the room. Goh sat patiently at his large oak desk.
"Yes, My Liege?" Jyr' bowed low.
"How goes the forging in the East wing?"
The man brought out a ledger, flicking through the pages.
"The Blacksmiths are working every piece of Mythril they can, my Lord. So far they have created 50 longswords, 10 sets of gauntlets, 5 full sets of plate and three sets of chainmail."
The king sighed, only that many? If he sees the caster again, he should demand the Mythril as ingots next time. No, he should demand that it is what he demanded last time, but was too stunned to say anything in rebuke once the Mythril was planted. Yes, he would do that.
"Draft a letter from myself to the witch that the caster knows, demand that he returns and turns the Mythril into ingots as I requested."
"Yes, my Liege." Jyr' nodded vigorously and left the room.
Goh turned his attention back to the papers on his desk, they were on daily affairs of the nation, scout reports, crime records, dungeon information, new ones, complete dungeons.
As he began to read over the report of a city of monsters, his fatigue caught up to him for once and the words began to blur.
It was strange though, he didn't feel tired, yet the words still blurred. Rubbing his eyes, he caught the distinct smell of ozone.
"What the--?" The room had disappeared, all that was left was a chunk of the carpet and the desk. It was replaced by a realm of dark blues, purples and black, crystals floated in the vast emptiness away from the island that Goh found himself on. Though it didn't feel empty away from the island, there was a distinct impression of power in the air, like lightning about to strike. The land connected to his carpet was a field of blue crystal shaped as blades of grass that lead up to a mansion made from a deeper blue coloured crystal.
What was going on? One moment he was in his study, then next, here?
--
Yolen Arcanum
That was the king of Helios in the source, I had altered the flow of time within the source so that the king wasn't frozen in there forever as I was out of the source.
I had my essence spread incredibly thin, searching for each of the surrounding nation's rulers.
The first that I focused on finding was the dwarven king of Xarthos. According to the slime, Xarthos had a massive capital city i
embedded into the side of a mountain.
Soon, I found it, a structure made of multiple hexagonal rings, all wedged into the side of a mountain. Each ring was at least forty foot thick and made of a bronze coloured metal. They were each stacked atop one another with a forty foot gap between each of the rings. Each ring housed almost its own individual city, they were that large.
I spread myself throughout them and found a castle nestled into the top of the highest ring, buried inside the peak.
The dwarf king was sat on his throne answering the petitions of the people within his land. I appraised him.
NAME - VIZNAR MUNLATIS
RACE - MOUNTAIN DWARF
LEVEL - 78
HP - 251,160
HP/s - +250
MP - 319,956
MP/s - +1,600
JOB - ARTIFICER
INDIVIDUAL SKILL - MINERAL SENSE
STR - 919
AGI - 13
CON - 115
INT - 293
FTH - 193
ABILITY POINTS (0)
SKILL POINTS (0)
The old dwarf, with lines of grey running through his black hair and braided beard seemed to have quite the set of stats. Even though I now possessed near godlike abilities, stats in the hundreds still surprised me. That tiny man would be almost as strong as a hundred adolescent boys.
Still, he posed no threat to me and so I plucked him from his current petition and placed him into the Source along with the Elven king.
As I placed him in there, I checked in on the two monarchs. Time had been slowed to almost a halt within the Source and so I found the king of Helios stood bolt upright looking around in shock at his surroundings and the other still sat on his throne frozen in the middle of a word that was slowly forming on his lips.
Pulling myself back out of the Source, happy to see that it was working as expected, I checked off the kingdom of Xarthos from my mental checklist. Next up was the northernmost nation, a collection of City-States mingled throughout a mountain range that was the main source of income for all the Cities involved. According to the slime, they were ruled over by the City Lords who then elected an independent individual who was the deciding vote in most issues brought up in council. That person would be my target next, known as the Governor.
I materialised in a field, outside of Xarthos' Capital and deactivated my Arcane Form. Immediately a wave of fatigue washed over me, it crashed through my senses and left me gasping.
I stumbled on the bright grass and almost fell, catching myself just in time on a huge amethyst geode that I created quickly with a tap of one of my weak feet. The fatigue didn't fade, so I quickly brought up my stat screen as I sank down against the blue crystal, feeling my heart thrumming in my head.
My eyes widened in shock as I saw that my HP was ticking steadily downwards, headless of my insane regeneration. With alarm, I noticed the sides of my vision turning black, closing in. Somehow, for some reason, I was dying.
I focused as much as I could, using my agility stat to stretch my precious seconds out. I held up a hand, creating a small ring in my palm, then I pulled some of the nearby mana into a ball and poured it into the ring, with the intent of making an item that could diagnose my problem.
When I tried to push the mana into the band, it resisted, shaking in the air and moving around the ring.
SKILL - ENCHANTEMENT MANIPULATION - FAILED
I stared at the phrase in shock as it popped up with a digital ringing in my head. Thinking quickly, I realised that I could still use my individual skill, as well as Mana Weaving. So I tried to use another skill; Still holding up my hand with the ring in, I tried opening up my Storage to stow the ring away.
SKILL - STORAGE - FAILED
Another failed skill, I tried again. This time I attempted to use Psychokinesis on the ring, it lifted gently into the air, pulled upwards by sheer force of will. What did Storage and Enchantment manipultion have in common that they didn't with the other two skills I had tested?
Mana.
It was the mana cost. Both Mana Weaving and my individual skill had no mana cost. Whatever was happening to me was effecting my ability to use the mana in the air around me in a conventional way. I needed to find out what this was before it killed me.
I checked my status screen again, I was almost on half health now and steadily going down. There had to be an explanation for this, one that someone could tell me within a couple of minutes or else I'd surely die.
Quickly looking through my skills that didnt require any mana, I couldn't find any quick-fix and a layer of panic came over me.
The only person I thought of that could've helped was Krystin and she was hundreds of miles away in another country. The next closest help would be at Altheron, with their king. But getting there would still be cutting it close.
I internally cursed myself for using Gateway to bring that undead into the throne room, if i hadn't used it then, it would still cost zero mana to do, it would just be a use of Mana Weaving again. I set my jaw, any more of this introspection and I would die without standing up.
So, standing, time still crawling by and my vision slowly enclosing on me. I looked towards the sky. I still had my Ring of Flight and so my feet lifted off of the ground and I shot off into the clouds, far, far faster than I could safely move without the effects of the mana I still had idly stored within myself.
With a sudden surge of hope, I tried letting the mana's effects take hold.
SKILL - MANA ABSORPTION - FAILED
With that, my hopes were crushed and my only hope was set on the horizon in the form of a budding nation.
