PftA Book 5 - Chapter 18 - Discoveries

“This is so weird,” I said to myself as I examined the crystal veins. “It’s definitely a mana well, though none of the others I’ve found loo

“This is so weird,” I said to myself as I examined the crystal veins. “It’s definitely a mana well, though none of the others I’ve found look anything like this.”

Upon returning to the unnamed Tier Nine planet, I resumed my search for the Arcane well while also roughly mapping the crystal veins I’d noticed underground. After a couple of days, the truth became obvious.

The world-spanning, three-dimensional, branching structure was the mana well.

Though I wasn’t an expert in mana wells by any means, it was clear that the Arcane well Anya had directed me toward was unique.

‘You only have a few days left before you’re supposed to return to join the group heading to the sect branch on Celtor,’ Lisa pointed out. ‘Perhaps now that you’ve verified this is what you’ve been seeking, you should teleport to the center of the structure and test your hypothesis about your demesne.’

“You’re probably right,” I conceded before taking a closer look at the core of the structure.

It was almost like a heart, with four distinct chambers encased in solidified mana crystals. I selected the central chamber since it was the largest. There was no light inside, which wasn’t a surprise.

With a flex of will, I shifted from the mana well into the garden section of my demesne. I wasn’t sure why I selected that instead of my pod, but it felt right.

And honestly, aside from harvesting a few plants here and there, I spent almost no time in the garden. Most of my harvesting was even done remotely. Without Lisa’s care, this whole section would be completely wild.

Instead, the area looked like a manicured garden that wouldn’t have been out of place in any upscale neighborhood.

I positioned myself near the edge of the garden, near the threshold of the dimensional space, and made myself comfortable. With another flex of will, I placed a large portal leading back to the mana well.

There was an instant shift in pressure as the two spaces attempted to equalize. Usually, I’d prevent something like that from happening. But since I wanted to absorb the essence or whatever it was that improved affinities, I hadn’t limited the portal in any way.

While my enhanced Mana Sight allowed me to passively view mana, using the active version made the rivers of mana flowing from the well into my demesne seem almost tangible.

I ignored my curiosity about where all the mana was going and began meditating on the mana itself. Arcane was by far my weakest affinity, so my connection to the ‘element’ was far more tenuous than it was for Time or Space.

Still, it wasn’t that difficult to connect to it when I was literally surrounded by Arcane mana.

Time passed, and I felt like I was actually making progress on improving my affinity. Before I knew it, Lisa informed me that it was almost time to meet with the Patriarch.

I pulled out the testing crystal I’d purchased a few weeks prior. My original one had been taken with most of my belongings when I’d been kidnapped by Cin’Specter since I’d kept it in my storage ring instead of my inventory.

[Time – 95
Space – 90
Arcane – 26]

My primary affinities had slightly improved over the years. I suspected part of the increase in my Space affinity came from having a soulbound dimensional space, but since I hadn’t checked immediately before and after, I couldn’t be sure.

Since my Arcane affinity was only twenty-four when I last checked, which was the day I’d purchased the replacement crystal, I felt confident that the last two points of growth had come from my efforts with the well.

“That’s not a bad improvement at all,” I commented. “It looks like taking advantage of my demesne’s time dilation works just fine. I might even manage to push the affinity to ‘standard’ before I have to go back to the dungeon!”

“Perhaps, but it’s not very likely unless you dedicate a lot of time to it,” Lisa responded. Her avatar sat only a few feet away. “As affinities grow stronger, it takes a lot more to increase them. That becomes more pronounced as you reach thresholds.”

“Maybe just keeping the portal open while I’m inside my demesne will help?” I hypothesized.

“I doubt it will hurt anything,” Lisa replied. “I don’t sense any issues from the influx of mana. If anything, the barrier enclosing the space feels a bit stronger.”

That was good. A stronger barrier protecting my personal dimensional space was always welcome.

= = =

Entering the Celtor branch of the Epikairos Sect was easy enough with the Patriarch’s assistance. Since the wards were all connected and they read a person’s mana signature as a form of identification, he gave me a ring that would alter my mana signature just enough to register as someone else.

That new signature was entered with my new ‘disciple’ information, which had me listed as a Tier Six Time Mage. The Patriarch and I had initially discussed me posing as a Tier Five, but he decided to increase it to Tier Six to justify my position as an Inner Disciple.

I was tempted to give myself a second affinity so I’d have a little more freedom with what I could show, but Patriarch Fora pointed out that having a second affinity was likely to draw more attention than I wanted to deal with.

As an Inner Disciple, I had a lot more freedom than I expected. I had my own residence that was paid for with the huge number of contribution points I’d earned over the years, and I was immediately thankful that the Patriarch had thought to link both of my personas to the same sect account.

It slightly increased my chances of being discovered, but I doubted anyone would look all that closely. If they did, it wasn’t like there was any real risk involved. I’d just give up my little foray into life as a normal disciple and go back to doing what I was doing before.

Taking Patriarch Fora’s advice, I signed up for an Alchemy class. As a new student, I had to demonstrate my knowledge on the topic before I could be given clearance to take certain classes.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did on the tests. Aside from a few areas where I was noticeably weak – like consolidating a powder into pill form – the test showed I was quite capable for my skill stage.

It seemed all of my experience making reagents in various forms had given me a much more solid foundation in the field than I expected.

To shore up some of my obvious weaknesses, I enrolled in a pill-making class, though it would be a few weeks before the first session was held.

Since I was posing as an Alchemist, I spent a bit of time making potions and more of the traditional alchemical products instead of the reagents I was used to making. I also enrolled in a couple of general classes and signed up for a few herb-gathering missions.

I didn’t necessarily need the missions to leave the sect, but they made for excellent justification if anyone was looking and discovered me missing.

Overall, I probably only spent a couple of hours a day during my first weeks at the sect. The rest of my time was spent doing my own thing. Mostly, I meditated in my demesne with a portal open to the Arcane mana well, designed a few upgrades to my old weapons, and spent some quality time with my family and Zavira.

She and Kestin, her fiancé, had decided to move forward with the wedding since Kestin had managed to reach Tier Six a couple of months before the war ended.

His party had been one of the few left on Agirock to maintain the Alliance’s progress in making the world habitable. The position had been very demanding, which resulted in most of those left there progressing quite quickly.

“The ceremony will be held in seven months,” Zavira said from her spot in the hot pool I’d created inside my demesne.

I’d connected it to one of the hot springs I found on the world with the Arcane well, and set it up so the water was constantly cycled using a series of portals.

It was too bad I couldn’t link to the springs in the dungeon with their regeneration-boosting effects. Even without the bonus, just soaking in the mana-infused hot water was nice.

“Where are you holding it?” I asked.

“Probably Atlantis. It’s my home world,” Zavira said before pausing. “I’m not sure I ever told you that.”

She hadn’t. Zavira had only ever mentioned that her home world was high-tier and had a branch location for the Hephaistos Sect where her parents were Elders.

“Epikairos has a Atlantis branch,” I pointed out, causing Zavira to giggle lightly.

“Of course they do! Your master and my ancestor started the sects together. The sects have always been allied. It makes sense that they expanded to the same locations to support each other.”  

I hadn’t thought about it that way, but her comment made sense.

“Anyway,” Zavira said before giving me a mischievous grin. “Try not to get yourself kidnapped again. I’d really like you to be there.”

“Yeah, me too!” I laughed before wiping the steam from my face.

I leaned back and looked up at the false sky I’d given to most of my demesne. The empty void didn’t bother me all that much, but I knew the sight of a sky, even if obviously false, would be preferable for most people.

With a sigh, I asked, “Do you think you’ll ever go back to the dungeon?”

“Probably not,” Zavira replied. “Maybe right before I ascend I’ll go and challenge the tenth floor trial to squeeze out whatever benefits I might get, but I probably won’t even bother with that since there’s little chance it would matter much in the next realm.”

“You don’t think so?”

Zavira shook her head. “No. My next highest non-affinity is too low to cross the threshold, so it’s not like I’d be able to get whatever bonus that comes with having extra affinities.”

“That’s never really made sense to me,” I said, leaning forward. “I’ve heard that having more affinities is somehow beneficial, but nobody explains how.”

“That’s because nobody really knows,” Zavira replied. “Regardless, I don’t really see the point in bothering.”

“But you plan to ascend eventually?” I asked.

“Sure,” Zavira said with a shrug. “I still delve occasionally, and it’s not like I can stop if I want to keep my standing with the Adventurers’ Guild. I’ll probably start delving more once I have a few kids and they all grow up. As long as I delve slightly more than the guild’s requirement, I’ll eventually get there. It’s one of the benefits of being a half-dwarf. I have a long enough lifespan that ascension is practically guaranteed as long as I keep trying.”

“So, why don’t more dwarves and elves ascend then?” I asked, thinking about how many I’d seen languishing at mid-tiers.

“Because they give up. They get complacent and decide that they’re happy with what they have. Or maybe they’re afraid of getting hurt or killed in rifts. It’s no different from what motivates any other race,” Zavira said. “A part of me understands why some might not be in a hurry to leave everything they know to start all over in a whole other realm, even if they’re close. The idea is scary.”

“If you say so,” I said. “I see it as an adventure – an opportunity to start over somewhere new and live how I want to for once.”

“It’s not like you can’t do that here,” Zavira countered.

“Maybe to a point. But that’s assuming the realm lets me stay once I reach the pinnacle.”

“Do you have to go all the way to the pinnacle, or can you stop once you reach level one hundred?”

‘The contract specifies reaching the pinnacle. From the feedback I get when probing the system, it is interpreting that to mean the actual pinnacle, not merely close,’ Lisa silently answered. I relayed her response to Zavira.

“That is unfortunate, especially with the recent changes,” Zavira commented.

“It is,” I agreed.

“Well, hopefully, the realm won’t put too much pressure on you to leave right away.”

I winced at her comment. Given my responsibility in facilitating the change, I suspected the realm would pay particular attention to me when I finally qualified for ascension. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the realm forced me to ascend right away just to avoid any more issues.

I probably needed to get used to the idea of ascending shortly after reaching the pinnacle. Even if I could put it off for a few years, I wasn’t sure it would be worth it after spending so long away from everyone.

It would probably be better for everyone if I just dealt with the inheritance I wanted to leave and avoided the delay. At least that way, I’d be able to ascend with Kai.

I understood his desire to have a companion join him in ascending. And honestly, after everything he’d done for me, I was becoming more and more inclined to take him up on his request.