jmclarke
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Chapter 748: Artificial
🕑 Added 2023-12-27 20:16:57 +0000 UTCAlex pointed to an instrument resembling a temperature gauge filled with blue glowing liquid.
“I've put enough of Hannah’s energy into the controls so you’ll be able to use them, Birger,” he said to the giant. “As long as the gauge has liquid in it, you’ll have enough energy to operate the sanctum without me. Kelda’s foresight’s really something to admire: she installed an energy storage compartment inside the controls that takes and holds Hannah's energy for a while. I believe she put it in so her assistants could use the sanctum’s functions if she wasn't around.”
“Good on her,” Birger said, his voice sounding well pleased. “Of course she’d think of something like that. So…my question is, what do you want me to do?
“Operate the traps.” The General of Thameland nodded to a swarm of small portals hovering above the controls, each a window to a different room in the sanctum. “You'll be able to see into every room through these portals, but you’ll have to learn which portal corresponds to which room. When you know that,” Alex pointed to rows of buttons on the controls. “You'll be able to use these buttons to turn the traps on and off.”
The old giant raised an eyebrow. “But why would I be turning the traps off? Shouldn’t I just leave them on so that secret church lot gets slaughtered?”
Alex shook his head. “That's what I was thinking at first: until I realised it wouldn’t work. Not if our plan is to get rid of all of them at once. If we want them dead, we’ll have to lure them deep into the sanctum.”
“And why is that?” Birger asked. “Seems to me that once you lure them here, you can just close the portals behind them and they’ll be trapped. Doesn't matter how many traps they walk into.” The old firbolg smiled viciously as he imagined their hunters being cut down like dying trees.
The young wizard smiled weakly. “I wish it was so simple: but there's a problem with that. The first time my friends and I came up against the hidden church—back in Thameland—they escaped using some kind of miracle. The ones who we didn’t kill became these pulses of light that streaked away through the sky, and just disappeared. If it wasn’t for that, we probably could have finished them off.”
“So you think they might be able to escape again? Birger asked.
“There's a distinct possibility they could,” Alex said grimly. “And they're smart: if we lure them into a trap, and they start taking losses early, they'll retreat, and if they get away, they'll be a lot more cautious in the future. They've been after us for months now and—as far as they know—we’re still completely vulnerable to them: so the moment they get a whiff of our trail, they’ll come running like the dinner bell’s ringing. But, if we only kill some of them, and the rest get away…”
“…I doubt they’ll take the bait a second time. Then if we ever want our lives back, we’ll have to be the ones trying to hunt them down,” Birger nodded. “Makes sense. So you want to lure those rats as deep into the sanctum as we can get them before we start turning up the heat?”
“Exactly,” Alex smiled viciously. “We want to make sure they're well into the trap before we really spring it on them. To start off with—ah! Bjorgrund, you’re back!”
The young giant stepped from a portal and into the lab with an easy, excited swagger to his gait. “Nice collection of traps in here. I looked over all of them,” he said. “You asked me which of them we should use first, right?”
Bjorgrund came up beside his father and Alex and pointed at one of the window-portals hovering above the controls. “My first choice would be those goddess statues with the fire-beams, they’re what I’d pick to use on the church first.”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t think so, because if we hit them with those fire-beams, whoever doesn’t get fried, will immediately turn tail and run. We've got to lure them in, like we're slow-boiling a frog.”
Bjorgrund’s eyes went wide. “Why would anyone slow boil a frog? That's sick!”
“It's just an expression…even though in some places people actually eat frogs…” Alex shook his head. “Nevermind! The point is, if we start with fire-beams and blow most of them up, the rest'll just retreat right away. We've got to get them deep enough into the sanctum that we can kill all of them.”
The young giant sighed in disappointment. “Alright—but, I still wanna see those fire-beams in action—but you've got a point. Then, I think that room there’s a good choice.” He pointed to another window-portal.
“Ah, is that the trap that shoots poisoned spears?” Birger asked.
“Yeah! It's deadly, and it'll kill some of them, but probably not enough to make them anything but really mad. They'll just keep coming for us.”
“Perfect, and then we can hit them with the deadlier traps, good thinking Bjorgrund,” Alex said. “So, keeping that in mind…could I get you two to plan a route through the sanctum?”
Father and son looked at each other. “A route?” Birger asked. “What do you mean by a route?”
Alex pointed at the map. “We should ‘gently guide’ them through the sanctum. By opening and closing portals to different rooms, we can herd them where we want them to go, and keep them away from places we don't want them in. So what you’ll need to do is look at the different traps and make a corridor through the sanctum. Don't just choose one path, if we leave a couple of portals open, it won’t seem like we're purposely directing them to where we want them to go. It gives the illusion of choice, which is what we want them to believe.”
“Right…” Birger said. “So they'll go from room to room, running into traps along the way, which will gradually decrease their numbers.”
“Exactly,” Alex said. “I'll also leave some summoned monsters in every room to do more damage.”
“And where’s this route going to end up?” Bjorgrund asked. “Where are we herding them to?”
“To you and me,” Alex said. “Once their numbers are down enough, we’ll be waiting with an army of summoned monsters to crush the rest of them.”
The young giant rubbed his hands together. “I like the sound of that.”
“I'm not so sure I do,” Birger said. “I'm worried about you two facing that First Apostle, no matter how big your army of summoned monsters is.”
Alex smiled. “Not just any army, Birger. There's something I have to do, but after that, I’ll be learning some seventh, eighth and—hopefully—ninth-tier summoning spells. At those levels, I'll be able to summon things that’ll make even the First Apostle nervous. Well, at least, I hope so.”
“We’ll have a whole army, Father, just like the one Alex used against the rune-marked,” Bjorgrund said.
The young wizard shook his head. “Oh, we'll have a lot more than what we faced the rune-marked with, and many of them will be a lot more powerful.”
“It still makes me nervous…” Birger said.
“After you see some of my new monsters, maybe you'll be less afraid,” Alex offered.
“Maybe,” Birger said. “Can you summon some right now?”
Alex shook his head. “Not yet. My mana pool isn’t quite powerful enough for eighth and ninth-tier spells. Maybe only seventh for now.”
“Then we can't rely on them. It takes a long time for a wizard to build up their mana pool,” Birger said. “How long do you think it would take you to strengthen yours enough for ninth-tier spells?”
“If I have my way?” Alex said, taking a small bottle of glowing liquid from his satchel. “About a day.”
“That's the bottle of soul stuff you've been collecting, right?” Bjorgrund asked.
“That it is,” Alex said. “And now I finally have enough to implant my artificial mana pool. That's one reason I'd like you to spend the next little while planning out the trap route in the sanctum: while you're doing that, I'll be doing a bit more soul-surgery.”
The young wizard looked at Kelda’s equipment. “Since I have this amazing lab to use, I'll probably be able to make it even better than I initially thought.”
###
Once again, Alex lay naked inside the Cage.
He’d modified the machine, preparing it to do more than simply cut threads on the soul, but surgically attach something new.
First, he’d have to construct the artificial mana pool.
Above him the bane knife that Val’Rok had lent him hovered, gripped by a glowing Wizard’s Hand surrounded by the arms—tipped with bane–scalpels—attached to Kelda’s machine.
Floating above him was a clear, magically treated basin, ready to hold his soul-stuff. Inside the vessel was where he’d be constructing his artificial mana pool. His heart was pounding, but he breathed deeply, trying to relax.
‘Remember,’ he thought. ‘This’ll be a lot easier than removing the Mark’s patch. Much easier. Just follow the design you created, let the Mark of the General guide you, and get it done. No point in waiting.’
Another Wizard’s Hand floated to the basin, carrying the bottle of soul stuff, and poured the shining liquid. It ran into the waiting vessel freely. Then the scalpels began their work.
The blades cut, pierced and kneaded the soul stuff with Alex's precise control. He called on the Mark of the General to guide him, producing images of his previous work harvesting pieces of his soul, as well as mana manipulation.
The substance was a formless liquid at first, Alex pressed a mana conductor to the bottom of the basin, sending careful pulses of energy into it, changing the liquid, turning it to a gel that was reacting to the mana and the blades’ actions. Soon, what was once a runny liquid began forming into a thicker, syrupy substance.
As the blades continued kneading the mana charged soul stuff, it kept thickening, turning viscous. Thick liquid formed, settling into the precise pathways of an artificial mana pool. Artificial fibres, for mana generation—even more efficient than his natural ones—were shaped by the knives—preparing to begin creating the power for his spells.
He shaped tiny ‘threads’ of soul stuff to connect the fibres of his natural mana pool, to allow them to power each other. Finally, he carved the general structure of the pool so it would occupy the exact space as his ‘natural’ mana pool.
It was a difficult concept to wrap one's head around: from what he'd read, most wizards had simply implanted the artificial mana pool beside their natural one then connected the two.
But a mana pool didn't occupy physical space, much like the soul.
There was no reason he couldn't position the artificial version around the original one through mana manipulation techniques.
‘Almost like a patch.’ He grinned, looking at the image of his mana pool that the Cage projected. ‘Thanks for the ‘help’, Uldar. Your design inspired this concept. Connecting the pools together, side by side, would provide a lot more power, just as Val’Rok had said. But laying one atop the other would also create more efficiency, and allow them to support each other better. The power output should be exponentially greater.’
At last, he was almost through, he’d finished constructing the mana pool in the basin.
It gleamed like a miniature sun, ready to generate even more power than his natural mana could. He couldn't wait to see what it would do in conjunction with what he already had.
With the greatest care, Alex let the bane knives hold the artificial mana like tongs, then lowered the construction into his being. He could feel it slide into him, burrowing into his essence and very soul, joining with them.
Controlled with mana manipulation the Cage’s arms set the artificial mana pool in place, adhering it to his natural one. Bane blades gently snipped the fibres of his pool, joining them with the strands of his new one.
He took care, controlling his mana, keeping it flowing away from the new pool until it was fully connected. The work was slow, tedious, and had to be meticulous, as he attached each artificial strand to his natural fibres.
Alex was dimly aware of the giants, breaking for supper, going off to bed while he continued his work.
At last, the finicky task was almost done.
He connected the last strand to the final fibre of his mana pool, joining the two together.
Then, taking a deep breath, he poured energy into the artificial pool.
Its inner energies sparked.
Alex felt like a new star had come to life deep within the pit of his core.
###
Author's Note
Hello thirty-six cool fools, almighty chosen, wise sages, and mighty champions! Thank you for your support!
And the artificial mana pool is implanted. Sidebar, I finally saw Guardians Vol. 3. Fantastic film, definitely my favourite of the trilogy.
Comments
Fizbandu
Right? He should be training with his human allies. It apparently makes them better, too.
Isiah Debarros
Ya but if something that was growing and got to a certain point started growing exponentially it would be a lot. Like had the mana for tier 6/7 spells and his mana grew exponentially from his previous max
Orion Fritz
Exponential isn't a synonym for big. If something is growing exponentially fast, it means that it is growing at a rate that is proportional to its amount. So if it's sufficiently small, exponential growth, can imply unbelievably slow growth. For example, if you invested 1 penny at 8% per year, you'd only get 0.08 pennys every year, but that is still growing exponentially (assuming you reinvest the money you earn). The reason exponential growth is often confused with fast growth is because, given enough time (and sometimes this means waiting an unfathomably long amount of time) exponential growth outpaces all forms of polynomial growth (which are the majority of growth rates you are likely to encounter in real life). Generally (though not always) exponential growth will only occur if there is some mechanism through which having more, will cause you to gain more. examples include population growth (because more people mean more people having sex), investing (beacuse the more money you earn from investing, the more money you can invest), and Virus spread (because the more people that have a virus, the more people that can infect other people).
Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander
Come all ye faithful and play the new Tower Defense game Keldalex5000! Hours(or minutes) of soul-rending fun! Satisfaction guaranteed(for Alex)!
Raymond Howard
nope all of their souls were ripped apart by her failure, it stated that in one of the previous chapters
Fleetpanda
Wondering if he’ll do some life force enhancement training at some point too. He’s dipped into combat and spellcraft, but those weren’t the only things the mark restricted…
George R
Really liked him setting up a trap like this plus I wonder if Alex can help his cabal and maybe the spell caster heroes make their own mana pool
Lorevi Q
Didn't keldas assistants die because without kelda they couldn't leave? You know if there's a storage device for Hannahs power that let's others open portals and all...
Decide
I want to see him replace Baelin, and become the next headmaster. Then the series ends with Alex defending Generasi against an undead horde or something.
Code Reed
So by placing it atop his natural pool it makes it exponentially more powerful? That's a bold claim. It only took him a couple of months to gather enough soul stuff to make the thing. Does that mean he can radically become more powerful at an insane rate by layering Mana pools over and over? Or does the trick only work once and the other ones will have to be attached differently? That kinda power scaling can get out of hand in a hurry without a few limiters in place. Though if the series is coming up on its end it would probably be alright. I'm sure most of us wanna see him on the same stage as Balin, teaching his own COMB 1000 class.
Thomas Keller
/finger He probably needs to learn the summoning spells and make use of them first, and due to his youth and lack of *acquired* magical resources Alex wouldn't *quite* have the range and depth of arcana that would be expected of an Archmage- But yeah, I think Alex will count as an Archmage after this. The fact that he could do this *again and again* suddenly makes Alex's potential look even *more* terrifying! How exciting!
Stephen
Omg. Yes. We finally made it to this part. Oh I can’t wait to see what happens in the upcoming chapters! Maybe he will continue to add to his artificial mana core later in book 9 to make it even larger.
Imagine Baggins
I was figuring it's been like 12 hours total since he got into the sanctum. Most of that being the initial exploration, then most of the rest being testing after he unpatched the Mark.
Imagine Baggins
For a fairly straightforward fantasy setting, you've managed to plausibly dip into quite a few subgenres. The non-human posing as a human with Drestra, the isekaied hero with Hannah, now the dungeon building with Kelda's sanctum. Love it!
Enif
Probably because they're being watched by the church and would be likely to accidentally divulge something.
Evander
Does this mean he's officially an Archmage now?
Tyler King
Guardians 3 was so hard to watch at times, but it was damn good.
FeyOne
The only question I have that hasn’t been touched on in these chapters is about the Golems he needed to be making for his business partnership. I assume he’s been doing some of that in the background, or at least moving towards it, but I don’t actually know how much time has passed since he found the sanctum… The things he’s done so far could have happened in a frantic 5-7 days, or they could have covered weeks already, and with no actual reference to how much time is passing I don’t know what’s happening with his other commitments. That feels weird because the pressure/timeline imposed by that was a regular background reference before he found the sanctum, and so not knowing how that detail is progressing makes it feel almost like Alex has suddenly forgotten about it. Same with the lack of any further hints of any further communication with his family. We know he told them he found the place, and he told them he was successful with his soul surgery to remove the patch…. but it feels weird for there to be no mention of his communications with them sense then.
Fleetpanda
Yeah, more powerful mana and a bigger mana pool sounds exactly like the sage’s mark
Kettle
I don’t think it’s been answered why Alden doesn’t have the other heroes help him with the ambush.
Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander
Awwww snap- Alex is going to make Valrok so giddy when he shows off
Aj jain-perkins
Nice chapter!
Decide
I wonder how it compares to the Sage's pool. Edit: I dont remember, do cultivators in this world have dantians? If so, if he could make an articial one of those for Theresa, that'd be pretty sick.
David Tawater
I am so excited for what is coming!!!
Bru-
Ready for the fight
