Chương 73: Returned

Enzo circulated the new mana type again. There wasn't a lot of it, barely a fraction when compared to the others. He suspected that to be a limitation of relying on an adaptation to convert mana based on his gene, rather than being able to supply intent to transmute arcane into a specific type. This time he sent it to his hand, before allowing it to trickle from his palm. So far, the new mana hadn't done anything while he circulated it throughout his body.

It felt unique, in the same way that every other mana type he'd experienced felt different from the last. But the sensation refused to translate into words that would let him describe the mana. It was as though every time he grasped for understanding, it slipped out of reach. And as the mana bled through his flesh, nothing changed. No element materialized. No colors emerged. He activated Mana Sense. The air above his palm shimmered faintly, almost like a heat haze, but obviously invisible to normal sight.

Besides the feeling of it inside his reservoir, it was the first bit of evidence the new mana type was real. And it answered nothing about what it was or what it could do. Ahead, Val stepped out of the tunnel and back into the main cavern. Kenzo, Robert, and Frank were already there, sitting partway up the hill near the exit tear. Kenzo had a small pile of crystals between his feet, while Robert was turning one over in his hands, examining it.

"Any luck finding the core?" Enzo asked. Kenzo shook his head.

"Nah, bro. We ran into a dead end." He held up a crystal.

"Found a bunch of crystals though."

"And you managed to harvest them without turning them into dust. Congratulations." Frank grinned.

"Shoulda seen it." He jabbed his thumb at Kenzo and Robert.

"These two were competing to see who could break down the tunnel walls the fastest." Val laughed.

"Of course they were."

"So what now?" Robert asked, handing the crystal back to Kenzo, who added it to the pile. Enzo pulled the two crystals from under his arm.

"Sam, would you mind taking these out to Sumi? Then we'll keep checking the tunnels." Sam nodded, took the crystals from him, gathered the rest from Kenzo, then left the rift.

"Did you guys run into any problems?" Enzo asked. Kenzo shook his head.

"Nah, we found nothing. You?" Enzo resisted the urge to glance at Val.

"We were ambushed by spiders. They were about the size of a tennis ball, but uh… Val handled them easily enough."

"Yeah," Val said. She crossed her arms.

"It wasn't a problem at all. Not even a little bit." Kenzo turned to Val, a curious look on his face. Enzo surreptitiously shook his head. A few moments later, Sam returned. Over the next two hours, they explored twelve more tunnels between the two groups. The pattern held. Each tunnel had at least one crystal within the first five minutes of walking. Spiders ambushed them regularly, always dropping from the ceiling or pouring from cracks in the walls, always made of brittle arcane mana that shattered on contact.

The tunnels themselves were a maze. Most split at least once, though a few quickly ended in dead ends. Neither team encountered anything resembling the scaled ape-like creature Enzo had seen. Whether that meant there was only the one, somewhere down one of the upper tunnels, or that others would be found further into the rift, nobody knew. What was obvious was that this rift was much larger than the first one they'd found on the road.

His theory was that the cellar had flooded heavily during the blood rain, causing the rift to form. It had been left alone since, continuously absorbing mana without anything or anyone to interfere with it. It also explained the higher abundance of mana crystals. Enzo experimented quietly with the new mana type. He circulated it in different ways. Transferred it to his mind reservoir, and threaded it when they stopped for a moment.

Even as a thread, the mana was almost perfectly clear, revealing only a subtle shimmering where the thread snaked through the air. By the time Enzo called it, he was extremely frustrated. And his knee ached. The incorrect cane length, uneven ground, and constant ducking and twisting bothered it more than the pace.

"That's enough for today," he said. Nobody argued. The other mages' reserves were running low. They'd tried absorbing while inside the rift, and it was much harder despite the feeling of abundance. There was so much mana in the air, but it was also far more dense. Perhaps it was connected to how mana crystals formed. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Frank and Sam had been moving slower, too, the fatigue clearly growing on them.

That was interesting, because the mages all seemed fine physically. It was just another type of mage privilege. Sumi hadn't yet identified the precise mechanism, but they were all aware of the changes. They needed less food. Less sleep. And now this. It wasn't a lot, but it was noticeable. As the others filed out, passing through the rift one by one, Enzo glanced over his shoulder. There were many tunnels left to explore, including those that would require climbing to reach.

They'd left marks on the walls to indicate which tunnels had been fully searched, which was roughly half of those on ground level. But putting it off would provide additional information. About whether the rift would change again with their absence. Whether the locations they'd found crystals would repopulate, and if so, how fast it occurred. There was a small concern that a mana construct might be able to claim a rift, but he couldn't see it happening.

Though the Guide hadn't said so, it was almost certainly necessary to possess magic directly before you could claim the rift. He was more curious about whether the creatures themselves would respawn, and if they did, would they be in the same spots? Would their actions and attack patterns be identical? Enzo stepped through the tear last, and reality folded around him. A discomforting moment later, he found himself standing in the cellar with the others.

Frank, Robert, and Kenzo were examining some of the wine bottles.

"Think we should give these to Jack?" Frank asked. Robert nodded.

"Better than just leaving it here." Enzo headed for the stairs.

"No. Not yet, at least. This place was flooded with enough mana to create a rift. It's possible the wine was affected." Kenzo placed a bottle back on the rack.

"You're the boss." Reaching the top of the steps, Enzo found Sumi and one Watch member sitting on the grass. Beside her sat a pile of crystals, sunlight glinting from their purple edges. Sumi's eyes swept over him, then the others as they exited the cellar, before falling on Val with obvious relief.

"What were the results?" Enzo asked. Sumi turned back to him with excitement.

"It works exactly as you hoped. I sent the others back once I was sure." He nodded, then turned to Frank.

"I need you to fence off the rift, and the wine, then set up some furniture down there for people to use. We'll want to get started immediately."

"I'll get on that," Frank said. Enzo looked at Sumi.

"How long and how often?" She looked thoughtful.

"Maybe an hour a day of exposure? The goal isn't to drain them completely, just keep their levels low." He nodded.

"Also," Sumi said, "We might be able to use it to determine who has the gene." That caught everyone's attention.

"How?" Val asked. Sumi climbed to her feet.

"Well, I was testing myself along with the others, and I noticed I was bleeding mana slower than the others through Mana Sense. Almost like my body was holding onto it better than they were." Enzo frowned.

"Perhaps we are. It might be linked to Cultivation and Attunement."

"That's what I was thinking. Anyway, along with bleeding mana slower, there was a very subtle distortion in what was draining from my head." Sumi shrugged.

"It was difficult to make out, for obvious reasons, and it might be different for people who aren't awakened already, but…"

"That would be amazing," Val said.

"If you're right, we can begin testing everyone."

"Starting with high risk people," Enzo added.

"Like mom and dad. And anyone else related to a known gene carrier."

On the way back home, Enzo waited until Frank and Robert went ahead with the rest of the Watch, leaving the others to talk.

"I have another mana type," he said. Val grabbed his arm.

"You what?" The others turned to look at him with similar surprise. Enzo nodded.

"I spent some time exploring the list of adaptations." He paused.

"Did you guys know we're famous?"

"Yes," Sumi said.

"Well, you more so than us."

"My Instant Blended Flows is catching up though!" Val said, releasing Enzo's arm. Kenzo grunted.

"Only because you stole my idea."

"I did not!" Val said, glaring at Kenzo.

"We both came up with the idea, but I was faster. Besides, you have Combat Sight on there. That's such a cheat ability."

"There is no such thing as cheating when it comes to a real fight," Kenzo said.

"There are only winners and losers. And I like to win." He grinned down at Val.

"Which must mean you like to lose." Before Val could respond, Sumi spoke.

"What mana type is it?" Enzo leaned on the cane with every other step, keeping unnecessary weight off his bad knee. Already the pain was subsiding.

"That's the thing. I don't know what type it is. I used the Automatic Conversion adaptation to discover it." He frowned.

"I suspect the creator might be another Magus. Meha Kulkarni. The terminology used in the description was an exact match for the Guide entry I unlocked about the Combined Affinity Problem." Sumi held out a hand.

"May I?" Enzo nodded. She placed the hand against his arm.

"Diagnose." He felt the magic push into his body. There was a moment where his own mana, now almost always circulating in small quantities, pushed back against the foreign mana, before seeming to respond to his intentions to permit the spell, and withdrawing without a fight. Sumi shook her head.

"I don't recognize it either. It's none of the types I have access to."

"Show us, bro," Kenzo said.

"Maybe we'll recognize it." Val nodded. Enzo held up a hand, and circulated a small amount of mana. He'd almost emptied his reserves of the unknown mana type, burning it to no avail while trying to figure out what it did.

"You won't be able to see it without Mana Sense," he said.

"It's almost completely invisible." Both Kenzo and Val stared intently at his hand, looking at it from multiple angles, before shaking their heads.

"We have a list of known and potential mana types back at the Guild," Sumi said.

"Val has been asking people what mana types they think might exist based on what we already know, and documenting the answers. You should take a look at it. It's helped me discover a few, though none that I'm good with."

"Same," Val said. Before he could respond, Frank came jogging back toward them.

"Hey, Enzo!" Enzo looked up.

"What?"

"Dominic and Signe are back."