Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 216, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 40 –

Terry stepped out of the special training room and saw the sun rise in the distance. He had been exercising inside the transparent box for nearly an hour. The room had assaulted him with fire blasts, icicles, and all sorts of magical attacks and terrain changes.

Terry glanced back and reminisced about the first time he had seen this room. Back then, Isille and Bjorln had given them a primer on mana cultivation and introduced them to the Guardian training facilities in Arcana City.

When he thought of his parents, Terry felt a tinge of homesickness. While he was technically home already, he had not been able to see Isille and Bjorln yet. He sighed and shook his head to clear his mind.

Terry let his gaze wander over the training grounds and smiled faintly at the other people scuttling about. No matter which time Terry chose for his training, he was never alone here. There were always at least a few other Guardians training and practicing to improve themselves.

Terry went over to a free training area and sat down first. He mentally went over the guidance which the Guardian instructor had given him.

First stage of cloaking…

Terry closed his eyes and concentrated on his mana sense. A large part of his mana circulation had become second nature, which was great for speedy reactions, but in order to cloak himself, he needed to carefully pay attention again. Terry slowed his moving mana and then took tight control of it, so as to not let a single trace of it leak outside his body.

Basics done. I still need to get used to it before I can combine it with my normal mana circulation speed.

“Not to mention burst techniques,” muttered Terry while keeping his eyes closed. “Still, perspective.”

I reached the basic level much quicker than the Instructor anticipated.

Nevertheless, Terry frowned. He took a deep breath.

Second stage of cloaking…

Terry carefully sensed the ambient mana in the environment and tried to mimic the mana concentration by leaking a controlled amount of mana.

The ambient mana here is unaspected. It is fortunate that my oscillating mana can’t easily be distinguished from unaspected mana.

“Sadly, in aspect-emphasized environments, I’ll never be able to apply the second stage,” muttered Terry with disappointment. “Not without a magic item at least.”

Terry frowned again. He recollected the channeler that had destroyed some of his equipment with extreme heat. His bracer and armor had been beyond salvaging. If he had worn his old glove imprinted with the Gravitational Attraction spell, then it would have been permanently damaged as well. Even though the woven self-mending inscriptions from Brynn had saved his new inscribed glove, it had taken several days for it to recover to be usable once more.

Downsides of relying on items…

Terry continued his breathing and cloaking exercise while mentally going over his new equipment orders. Most of them should be ready for him in the afternoon.

Terry opened his eyes in order to increase the difficulty for his cloaking. The additional sensory input from his eyes always made it harder to concentrate on his mana sense. Just like louder environments.

When thinking over his new equipment, Terry smiled. He remembered how his Aunt Brynn had first proposed mana crafting to Terry. The suggestion was made to overcome his casting speed limitation.

Stopgap.

Terry smiled because his casting speed had increased tremendously since then and the imprinted equipment was not necessary anymore. He could cast the spell on his equipment whenever he needed it. Terry had graduated from his first stopgap.

More room for shielding. Less mana interference with my other magic items…

Terry thought of the possibility to use the new freedom to wrap the divine hammer inscription around his arms as well, but immediately dismissed the idea.

Focus. Not before I can manage a proper weight-bearing surface with the inscription on my legs.

Afterwards, Terry sensed his two new anklets. They were among the cheapest storage items Terry could find – based on a comparably simple enchantment that would expire before two years. His requirements were low since these ankle bracelets were supposed to be filled with mostly worthless junk. Pebbles and various pieces of wood or metal.

Terry had purchased the anklets with some of the contribution points he had earned in Tiv. He had felt awkward because so many contribution points had come from missions when he had traveled with Sigille, Matteo, and Cadence. Missions, in which Terry had not contributed enough in his own opinion.

He had thought of using the anklets to already start practicing air movement like he would have to use once the divine hammer inscription afforded steady footing. He could use the junk from the storage bracelets and his Immovable Object spell to create jumping surfaces as well.

Also helps with practicing casting through my feet…

The fact that he used the contribution points to prepare for the divine hammer inscription made Terry feel better about spending the points from his instruction missions.

Terry wondered how his new armor would feel. His mana compression had improved, which meant he could afford smaller pearls for movement as well as smaller protective scales for the webbing inlay. The fact that he did not have to imprint the items first also made it more viable to use more of each for his new armor.

Afterwards, Terry retrieved a few documents from his dimensional storage. The documents included all the information on Alrik’s formerly secret dungeon that had been gathered by the Guardians up to now, including all after mission reports.

The purplemist lynx appears plenty of times below the floor from back then…

Terry bit his lip while reading the information in the sheets of paper.

***

Terry sat cross-legged on the training grounds. He was snacking on a sandwich he had brought to serve as his breakfast. At the same time, Terry compressed the rotating mass of mana inside of himself further and further. At various locations inside and outside his body, he shaped several new experimental refractors he wanted to try out.

Terry swallowed the food in his mouth and released the pressure on the rotating mana sphere. The sphere rapidly expanded while rotating and hitting the positioned mana refractors.

Terry whirled his head around when he sensed a single spiral of dense mana lines emerge from a location at his back. He held his breath and examined the path that led to this spiral in his mana sight.

Afterwards, Terry moved the dungeon information in front of him away and scribbled into one of his notebooks. He sketched the refractor shapes and locations that he had tested and documented the estimated mana velocity and compression. He marked the path that had led to a nearly workable spell slicer.

Not that far off…

Terry rubbed his chin and allowed himself a moment to dream of a proper disruption pulse.

He stopped when he sensed a familiar mana signature approach from the distance. He narrowed his eyes because the mana signature disappeared a moment later. Terry snickered and began emitting low-intensity mana pulses. Eventually, he spoke without turning around: “Morning, Siling. You’re up early.”

A dark-haired, elven woman became visible and showed a disappointed expression. “Morning.” Siling crossed her arms. “You’re no fun. How did you catch me? You can’t have been sitting here pulsating the surroundings the whole morning? Did someone snitch when I wanted to arrive?”

“It might have worked if you had used the ability earlier,” said Terry amusedly. “I sensed you when you arrived through the northern district gate.”

Siling scrunched up her face and then glanced at the direction she came from. “You can’t see it, but I want you to know I’m looking exasperated. That’s like…” She exhaled sharply. “I believe I’m getting a headache.

“Alright, so much for my fun surprises,” exclaimed Siling dejectedly. “I can’t really walk through the gate all invisible. The guards would become slightly suspicious of what I need to be invisible for.”

“You could walk the whole distance instead of going by gate,” proposed Terry.

“Yeah no.” Siling shook her head exaggeratedly and walked around to face Terry.

Some things never change, thought Terry and chuckled.

“What got you up so early?” asked Terry.

“Well, I was feeling pretty good about my recent progress.” Siling tapped her lips with her finger. “Until someone appeared and was all Tiana-on-steroids, outright refusing to lose a spar like any sensible person. This ratio of battle demons to sensible elves is making me feel a teeny bit nervous.”

Terry raised his eyebrows in a skeptical expression.

“Therefore, I thought I could forgo some beauty sleep to train some more,” said Siling. She leaned forward with anticipating eyes.

“Your later combinations were getting better and better,” said Terry while scribbling some more in his notebook.

Siling leaned back and shook her head with a pout. “You were supposed to say that I don’t need any more beauty sleep though. Tut tut tut. It seems the instructions on important matters have been lacking in Tiv.”

“Huh?” Terry blurted and looked up, which caused Siling to giggle.

“Anyway, I’m not the only one skipping their beauty sleep,” said Siling. “The others, too, wanted to arrive earlier today.”

“I’m looking for new spellwork again, any opinions to offer?” asked Siling curiously.

Terry thought over the spells Siling already knew as well as the spells he had encountered so far. “Depends…”

When he didn’t continue his thought for nearly a minute, Siling leaned forward and raised her eyebrows. “...on what?”

“How far you want to go with the aerial route,” replied Terry when jolted from his thoughts. “Among other things.”

“The aerial spar with Calam, Peekaboo, and you were fun, but I’m not sure yet…” Siling tilted her head. “I mostly accepted the floating as a package deal with the vanishing ability. Although it is quite useful to stay out of trouble with most opponents.”

“One of the most annoying spells I encountered was Shadow Bind,” said Terry. “But that would have limited applicability against opponents in the air, similar to your rock spears. Its purpose also overlaps with your Entangling Roots. While its individual effect is more useful, it does not really synergize with Liquify Earth.

“The standard for aerial combat would be Wind Blade, which is also useful down on the ground…” Terry, who was still sitting cross-legged on the ground, tapped his knees with his fingertips. “Perhaps Metal Hammer? That could be used both to knock enemies to the ground and to smash them into liquified earth.”

“Another would be Drain Mana, but that would require you to get relatively close,” continued Terry in thought. “While it may be complemented by the vanishing ability, that is still a risk. It would be a useful combination with Share Mana though.”

“If you are going the aerial route…” Terry shrugged. “Perhaps some large scale attack spells. Higher level Fireball or Ice Barrage. Those are more effective from the air.”

“Among those I have encountered, the most annoying spell by far was an amazing application of the Resonance spell from the sonic aspect.” Terry grimaced involuntarily at the memory.

“Aside from space magic at least,” continued Terry with a slight scowl. He pushed the image of Anand and Ava out of his mind, and looked at Siling in thought. “Haste and your Resummon Soul spell worked great together.” Terry remembered the paired instruction rings from Sigille. “Is there an inverse spell that lets you move towards a summoned soul spirit?” He explained the ring’s function to Siling and how it had saved him in Syn City. “Together with your current spells, that would open up a whole new level of mobility.”

“Yeah, there should be something like that,” said Siling ponderingly. “But it goes beyond soul spirit manipulation and includes the space aspect.” She frowned slightly. “Haste was already a headache. I need to check what the supposed level for that spell is.”

While thinking, Siling moved her eyes over the documents next to Terry’s notebook. Afterwards, she shot Terry an inquisitive glance. “Some light reading for the morning?”

“Uhm…” Terry hesitated but decided that of everyone, Siling would probably be the best candidate to share his intentions with first. “You mentioned that you are thinking about retiring Sniffles, right?”

“Yes?” Siling raised her eyebrows.

“Would you be able to capture the purplemist lynx’s soul?” asked Terry. “Is your own soul strong enough by now?”

Siling blinked and her expression was blank for several breaths. “Yes, I think so. It would fit well, but…” She fingered some of the documents. “This dungeon again? I thought we had all grown wary of dungeon work? Especially of this particular dungeon.” Siling glanced at Terry and then looked at the documents again. “The purplemist lynx and its mana abilities are sure tempting, but I would not want to drag people along just for a new soul spirit.”

“It’s not just that,” said Terry. He explained about the mana core shortage.

Siling listened quietly.

***

“““No!””” Both Jorg and Lori exclaimed with ashen faces.

Miguel observed Terry and puffed his cheeks.

Gellath had paled slightly. He furrowed his brow and crossed his arms in thought.

Calam was fidgeting with his hands.

“This isn’t like back then,” said Terry. “The dungeon has been explored and assessed. I have read through the available information and recent reports. I intend to accept it as proper dungeon work. No secrets. Proper preparation.”

“But what if the scrolls fail again?” asked Lori in a trembling voice.

“The scrolls most likely failed due to a spatial seal set up by the dungeon,” explained Terry. “I have experimented together with Uncle Samuel and Instructor Ser from the Academy. None of their spatial seals were able to endure a burst with oscillating mana.”

Terry took a deep breath. “And there are now stationed Guardians waiting directly outside. I don’t intend to clear it, I just want to collect some cores.” He glanced at Siling. “And perhaps collect a rare soul spirit while at it.”

Siling suppressed the instinct to flinch when the reproachful gazes of Jorg and Lori hit her. She clenched her fists and forcefully maintained a calm expression.

“If you need money, I can—” started Jorg.

“It’s not about the money,” insisted Terry.

“But why does it have to be this dungeon?” asked Lori. “You don’t burst mana when you sleep, what if—?”

“I have no intention of sleeping next to that dungeon,” said Terry calmly. “But I also don’t believe anything would happen if I did. I don’t understand completely what happened, but I have slept next to plenty of dungeons since then. Even here, I’m close to a dungeon. Even here—” Terry stopped himself when he saw the color drain further from the face of his siblings.

“I don’t know what happened or why.” Terry shook his head. “I can’t control what happens, only how I react to it. Yes, my disappearance was weird, but I came back. Even if something happens, I’ll come back. Yes, there is a risk, but I don’t want this risk to control my life. I don’t want to…”

Terry ordered his thoughts. “The Guardians are desperate for mana cores. Particularly for cores of the arcane aspect. A pure arcane aspect is rare, but that dungeon definitely spawns the purplemist lynx.”

Miguel nodded slightly.

“But…” Jorg exhaled a quivering breath.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about…” Terry heard the voice of Sigille in his mind. “Doing my part.” He thought of the Veilbinder’s story. “It’s about doing what I can.”

“Aunt Brynn said the crafters have their pride and that everyone is doing what they can to help Arcana through this crisis,” said Terry. “Dungeon work is currently neglected, because so many of the stronger Guardians are busy dealing with the broken barrier.”

Terry took another deep breath. “I can’t craft anything too useful. I don’t think I can make much of a difference at the border.” He glanced at Jorg and Gellath. “I can’t help out at the clinic either.”

“This?” Terry clenched his fists. “This is something I can do.”

“I already know the upper floors in this dungeon,” said Terry. “I have additional information from the Guardians. With oscillating mana and its effect on spatial locks, I am taking less of a risk than anyone else would.”

“I’ll tell Unca Samuel!” Lori burst out.

“I already did,” retorted Terry. “He wasn’t happy.”

Not one bit. Terry flinched inwardly when remembering that talk.

“But he understood my reasoning,” finished Terry. “He lectured me on all sorts of safeguards I ought to prepare, but he won’t stop me. With all those safeguards, the profit will be much lower than an average dungeon dive, but I don’t care. It’s not about the money.”

Lori and Jorg glanced at each other. Their gazes flashed between worry, unwillingness, and determination. For a moment, it looked as if they wanted to tie Terry up and drag him away, but in the end, they just walked to his side.

“When will we go?” asked Lori.

“You’re not going anywhere without us,” stressed Jorg.

“Good point,” said Siling and pointed at Jorg. “What he said.”

“I figure we can get to the purplemist lynx floors,” said Miguel. “While we are missing a few people, we should all have improved a bit. And we know what we are getting into this time.”

“I’ll come, too.” Gellath said weakly.

Jorg and Miguel looked at him with concern.

“Are you sure?” asked Miguel.

“You don’t have to,” added Jorg. “It’s alright.”

“Stop looking at me like that,” protested Gellath. “Besides, in therapy, they also said that it helps to confront the root of your issues. Sooner or later, I would have visited this dungeon again anyway.”

“Alright, then.” Calam nervously stepped next to Gellath. “I missed out on the first round, so I still owe a dungeon dive and…” He held out a fist towards Gellath. “Freeze buddies, right?”

“Damn straight.” Gellath grinned and fist-bumped with Calam. “Prepare. Habitualize. Watch and thaw.”

“Uhh…” Terry opened his mouth but failed to say anything. His eyes moved over everyone.

“You did not seriously believe that we would let you go in there alone?” asked Siling and snorted. “I would say you already had enough alone time in dungeons.”

“Yeah, if you are worried about us, then you should worry about yourself first,” grumbled Jorg. “Don’t do it if it’s too risky.”

“We’re your whaka,” mumbled Lori faintly. “...it goes both ways.”

“I got the first two.” Miguel spoke to Gellath. “Habitualizing the reflex of casting that new spell whenever you freeze and then the prepared items as a second line of defense. But what is ‘watch and thaw’?”

“Keeping an eye on the situation with its relation to your freeze buddy,” said Calam. “Means we are not completely free to engage the situation, because we need to keep a part of our focus there.”

“But together, we’ll be like, uhh…” Gellath glanced around.

“Half a Lori?” suggested Miguel.

Lori narrowed her eyes while Jorg rolled his.

“Sure, why not.” Gellath grinned. “Pretty useful, right?”

“Could kick my bum at least.” Miguel snickered before returning to a deadpan expression. “But that’s not saying much.”

Gellath snorted.

“So what’s the thaw part?” asked Miguel.

“Well, if I freeze, Calam is supposed to figuratively whack me over the head to unfreeze or thaw me,” said Gellath. “Same the other way around.”

“Why haven’t you told us about this part before?” asked Miguel with narrowed eyes. From the side, Jorg was also leaning a bit closer.

Gellath glanced from Miguel to Jorg and puckered his lips. “Because with you two nitwits, the whacking would probably be less figurative and way more literal than I would like it to be.”

“Sounds like a plan,” exclaimed Jorg with a cheeky grin.

“Yup, I’ll prepare some blunt, weighted arrows,” added Miguel with a snicker. “Perhaps some cold water or electric shock modifications.”

Gellath turned to Calam with insincere exasperation. “See what I have to put up with?”

“I’ll go visit Elena.” Lori began walking off before turning around again. “I’ll be back later.”

***

Late in the evening, Terry was sitting on a desk in his room while practicing his mana cloaking.

He read over the dungeon reports one more time. He mentally went over the checklist of safeguards. Aside from several sets of Mark-and-Recall scrolls, Terry had purchased a number of emergency signal options.

One could be paired with a device the stationed Guardians on dungeon duty had prepared. The device was limited in application, but better than the Guardian card signal system when crossing dungeon borders. Its reach was a lot shorter and it could only be used once per day, but it could breach the dungeon’s signal interference and communicate the floor and position from which the signal had been sent.

Another device could emit a strong flare signal that would rush up the dungeon until it reached the entrance room where the stationed Guardians could see it. It was powered by an unaspected mana crystal and would consume a large fraction of the crystal’s mana with a single activation. Most dungeon divers avoided its use. Applications like Terry’s mana sublimator were extremely unpopular, because they were basically burning money.

Last, Terry had sold some more of the mana cores that had been gifted by Sigille and Matteo in order to purchase a number of additional scrolls. Most were for sending a signal of one kind or another. Two were to create a powerful barrier while help was on the way.

Terry checked his new equipment piece by piece. After confirming everything to his satisfaction, Terry leaned back on his chair and thought over the reactions from his friends.

Not long after Terry had breached the topic, Lori had come back with Elena. To Terry’s surprise, even Elena had declared that she would join. Terry furrowed his brow. He recalled how Elena had repeatedly mentioned that she can ask a friend of her family to watch and help her sick father for a day, but not longer.

Elena’s tone was slightly odd at those times… Maybe Lori has put her up to it? I really have no intention of staying longer around that dungeon than necessary though. I did not want to worry her that much…

Terry bit his lips. He moved his eyes over the notebooks scrambled on the table. He thought over his talk with Samuel and Ser, about Samuel’s theory on the nature of oscillating mana.

Intersection of life and space… Something is still missing.

Terry thought over the behavior when bursting with oscillating mana and the patterns he had identified before.

Explains the Immovable Object effect.

Perhaps explains the mana moving on its own? Is the ‘space’ alive? That seems like a stretch. Does it just move randomly or is there an underlying reason for how it moves?

Why does a burst break apart spatial locks? What about the spell’s limitations? Or the influence of mana naturalization? What about…?

Terry took a deep breath and absentmindedly flipped through his notebooks while contemplating possible explanations. He subconsciously stopped at an entry he had created in Tiv.

The throwing needle that transfixed later than expected…

Terry read over what he had been doing at the time.

Practicing the aspecting technique and an exercise to position throwing needles at a specific angle before they transfix.

Terry blinked and tapped his pen on his notebook.

It was the last needle I threw. Coincidence?

Terry narrowed his eyes.

Anything special?

“I lost my concentration when I heard the knock at the door,” mumbled Terry. “I turned to the side and…” Terry paused and closed his eyes. He pictured his desk back in Tiv.

“Aspecting with my left hand,” murmured Terry. “I practiced it together with my mana reach, so the needle was on the desk.” Terry roughly positioned his left hand over the desk.

“I picked up throwing needles with my right hand for the positioning exercise…” Terry positioned his right hand over the desk.

“Then came the knock…” Terry imagined the sound he heard. Terry felt the reflex to turn towards the noise at the door and he opened his eyes. He looked towards his left and his upper body turned with his gaze. Terry noticed the positioning of his hands.

“Could it be?” Terry’s eyes were fixated on his right hand. Turning towards the imagined door caused his hand’s position to move as well. His right hand was now close to the imaginary throwing needle that was intended for the aspecting practice.

Terry let his hands fall on the desk. He picked up his pen and began writing.

***