Xion CH34: Lotus

Instead of sucking in mana through my lungs, I was installing a direct pipe. Another concern was installing a magic engine to a familiar. Giving something like a familiar infinite power might not be the best idea. Usually, when one was installed, even a small one, it was after a mage had mastered many spells and entered a more powerful world.

Fortunately, I had forums and dozens of videos to choose from to build a rune-based mind for my undead familiar. After going over my work numerous times over a week, I was sure my rune-based AI would do the job. To that end, I began the installation process and ran a final debugging. I tapped the glasses on my head and watched my rune code for any errors.

Rune craft was a tricky business needing numerous supplementary techniques. If I didn't learn a self-hypnosis technique, they weren't possible. In essence, I had to trick myself into believing a bunch of squiggles could affect energy to make them affect energy. The symbols were easy to screw up and needed to be incrementally carved into a structure with the greater idea held in the carver's mind. If I wasn't already meditating to feel photons, then I wouldn't have the willpower required to carve each separate rune.

Once the debug read negative, I activated it again. Measure twice cut once as they say. I've fucked up too many times and can't afford to do it now. Buying another 10k mana engine wasn't my idea of a fun time. I could take out a loan for one, but I didn't want to deal with interdimensional collectors.

After the second debug, I found an error and quickly took chisels to it, hoping it wasn't too big of a problem.

"You've been at this for a week; maybe it's time to stop," Samael said.

I hit the debug twice more and found no issues. Then I slipped on the mirror runes that would bind this creature made of bone and magic to me.

The familiar was carved into the form of a bone dragon with two maws, five-toed claws, and skeletal wings. While it might not be able to fly at first, it had a lot of room to grow. Its body was made from qi-infused bones from various sapient animals. So it was, in essence, a custom-made skeletal dragon. According to the strongest monsters forum, being undead and a dragon would give it some of the best typing and survivability.

"What are you talking about? It is done; I've already completed it." I gave myself two weeks to get the familiar together, and it was already done. All I had to do was brush a rune, and the mana engine would begin feeding the construct.

"Darling, I don't know about this; it looks scary," Elorael said.

I brushed the rune and watched the power from the mana engine slowly move through the numerous runes lining its body. Finally, a pale blue light lit in its six eye holes, and it raised its head. The creature took two steps and fell on its face. The familiar runes on its body lit up and connected to the runes on my glove. They began to heat up until pain lanced up my arm. I had to either cold sear brand them into my skin or wear the glove for nearly a year until the bond settled.

My connection to the small dragon tentatively awakened like opening a window into a trippy world.

The ground around the little dragon froze over with her ever taloned step. The first thing I felt from her was an overwhelming emptiness. At first, I assumed that was part of her undeath until she sniffed the air like a living dragon. Only through her, I gained some phantom senses. She was looking for bones to eat.

"It worked. I can't believe it worked. Did you make a little god?" Samael asked.

"She might one day grow as large and powerful as one."

I dumped a pile of bone shavings on the ground, and the little devil went to work. Her form shifted as the bone fragments she consumed merged with her own body. Magic was unpredictable, and when I really thought about it, she didn't have a life before this or even prehistory. The magic in her body constantly increased at a steady rate.

While the mana engine inside her was a good one, it was still only a kit I bout for 1.5k and built with cheaper materials. It would help me adapt to mana over a few years and eventually develop my own mana source. After a few years, I could develop my own organic mana core and produce a steady supply of mana myself. Of course, it wouldn't be as efficient as the mechanical mana core. Still, a magic-user could become powerful combined with some familiars, enchanted rings, amulets, clothes, and weapons. Of course, it also depended on the build and when the build started.

I was still in my infancy, and going with a build now was the best idea. So far, I favored familiar craft, binding to myself, and a heavy lean on physical combat. According to the meta forums, golem craft was robust and adaptive.

For example, it allowed users to create their own armies of mobs by using the bodies of fallen mobs with magic and qi; the older the creature, the more powerful. So by making my familiar now, she would be very powerful.

"Darling, I have a name for her," Elorael said as she fed my skeletal dragon familiar a larger bone. "She's so white and pretty, and her scales are long and pointy. They look like the petals of one of my favorite flowers. So, I can't think of a better name than Lotus." Elorael said.

She gently picked up the little dragon while it chews on a bone. The little familiar snuggled into my ebony elf's breasts, and I couldn't help but take a picture and post it. At least I would have a lot of photos for my memories when I got older.

For once, I wrote a caption. "Lotus was born today." The SP rolled in.