* Hey its time, get up. * Said a voice piercing through my dream of toast. It didn't take much for my brain to associate it with the piece of toast in front of me. The toast suddenly had eyes and a mouth and I was shocked awake.
"not my toast!" I shouted into the little room.
*Don't know whats up with that, but hey, your awake. I did it. Go me. *
I turned to look at Kashi and everything hit me at once. It was time for me to attempt to get the staff that would hopefully help me moving forward. I stood up and walked over to the primary barrel. Kashi flew over while flipping over to the blue print that I was going to use to manifest the staff. I needed a perfect image in my head for this to work. So I studied it for a bit, then with a deep breath I plunged my hand into the barrel.
Surprisingly the barrel didn't feel as empty as I thought it would. It was similar to plunging your hand into water, only there wasn't anything visibly there. I concentrated on the staff in front of me. From the silver coated tip to the Quartz crystal core, to the solid quarts contianment tank that rested atop it, and then finally into the enchantments that lined the entire staff as a line of interconnected symbols. I did my best to not think about my lack of knowledge in enchanting and instead chose to focus entirely on the experience that the previous owner had, Surely he wouldn't create a useless staff.
A line of faith passed from me into it as I began to withdraw my hand from the barrel, something clasped between my fingers. Visually the staff had no imperfections, but I wouldn't be able to tell for sure until I was capable of casting an Identification spell on it.
* Well, the runes are active, so I can only hope that the magic worked out. You should be able to start directing magic into the device now. *
"how do I do that again?"
*you have to concentrate on the mana within you, then touch the rune on the staff just below the tank. It should pull from your mana reserves and begin to fill the tank. Then we can be sure that the staff was manifested correctly. *
"interesting, alright I suppose we should give it a shot. "
I sat down on the bed once again and attempted to feel the magic sensation that I felt yesterday. It took some doing but eventually I found it resting just beneath my stomach. I began to direct it up and out of me when something amazing happened. I was suddenly standing in a dark room looking at some kind of flourescent gas that was balled in the middle of it. I took a gander around and called out for Kashi, when they popped into existence next to me.
*ah, I see your conciousness found your mana well. Good. Sorry it took me a second to activate our link so I could see what you do. *
"alright so can you tell me about this place?"
*Certainly. This is your mana well. Its a mental representation of the mana resevoir inside of you. It occurs when you reach out to your mana, and the mana reaches back. Equal and opposite reaction. There should be some holes around here in the walls that represent your mana channels. The safe path way for the mana within you to travel through your body. I would think of them as veins or arteries in the human body. Mana veins bring mana into your mana well, and mana arteries pump it out when you cast a spell or fill your staff or have any other need for it. With a little mental effort you should be able to take control of your well and the mana veins farely easily. The Mana arteries though will be slightly trickier to start up. You will need to manually direct the mana out the first time. Then your body should adapt and you'll be able to do it more autonomously later. *
"I see, thankyou for the info. Hrm... well lets start by feeling out this... ORB shall we. "
I took a deep breath and closed my mental eyes, surprisingly I felt my mind shift into a more fluid state and I was now floating around the room. I could reach out mentally and touch the sphere of gas. It took quite a bit of effort but I managed to pull a string of gas off of it, a tendril of mana. "I really need to start thinking of this with proper names. " I directed the mana toward one of the opening and began to direct it out of my body. "Question Kashi, What happens if the mana touches the walls of this tunnel?"
*mana burn. It will be very painful. Don't let it get to close. just keep pulling. once it reaches the exit, The exterior pathways will be fully open. Then you will have to do so with the others as well. It will be a process. *
The rest of the time I spent on this pretty much in silence, it was tedious work and If I deviated to much from my focus the mana would attempt to escape me. I completed all 12 different arteries but When I came too hardly any time at all had passed according to kashi's internal clock. A feature he started when We met.
Eventually I was even able to start filling the staff's resevoir with mana. When I did it seemed to buzz to life, and I didn't have to hold it either as it could float in a stationary position if I set it off to the side.
"time to check the chest i geuss and see what kind of robes I got from the dungeon. "
*I do hope they are something that boosts mana regeneration. That would be good for us both. *
"Why is that?"
*the more mana you regenerate, the more mana I can pull, without stunting your mana intake. It will allow me to access every feature as much as I want. Plus I get a full feeling when I take enough mana. I like that feeling. *
"Greedy book needs food. Got it. "
I took the sides of the chest lid in my hands and opened it revealing a seet of clothe robes that shimmered slightly when I twisted them in the lights, and a satchel bag that matched the color and pattern of the clothing. I laid the outfit out and realized that it was designed to go over the tope of the clothing that I was wearing now. When I got it on I felt it pull some magic from me, just as my staff and my book did. Then another window popped up in my vision.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"well, seems we have 12 hours to kill what should we do while we wait?"
* How about you learn some basic magic for Offense and Defense. *
"Sounds practical. What do you have in mind. "
*Something like this...* kashi said before flipping over to a set of spells that seemed simple enough. Force dart, and Magic shell. Magic shell was a defensive spell that seemed to wrap around the body like a personal force field, and force dart seemd to weaponize mana energy directly and fling it at a target. *these should be low level enough for a beginner like you to start with. I'd start with magic shell, as it will protect you from any negative back lask from magic dart if it goes critical. *
" I love how you warn me about the spells like this. Lets get to work. "
By the time the door opened. I would be ready to start my adventure into the unknown... Totally ready. Yeah.
