Reincarnated as a mana core

Explaining Alyra’s change to Luna had been pretty easy actually. If there was mana around then why wouldn’t there be wer-people? Anyway, for Luna Alyra was somebody who could sometimes change her form.

After that had been over they had dinner together with Luna being the exception. She had already eaten so she just kept them company. Dinner was a vegetable casserole with local cheese. There were some pieces of meat in the meal, but not a lot. Meat was either expensive or only really available if someone had hunted successfully or killed one of their farm animals. There weren’t a lot of hunters around who could use bow and arrow so that was a rare occasion.

Once they finished eating it was already dark outside. Luna got up from her chair and stretched. “Alright, I am going to clean up and then go to bed. Have a good night!”

Argul secretly cleansed their dirty tableware before she wished a good night to Luna. Then she got up to take Mia to bed, followed by Alyra.

Argul cleaned them all as well as the bed she had dirtied before dinner and locked their door. They changed into their night clothes, or got naked in Alyra’s case and went to bed. Mia slept in the middle with Argul and Alyra to her sides.

During the night Argul worked a bit at her eight floor. She added four different kinds of weeds and three different kinds of small insects. It would still take some time for other plants to reach this floor and the only one in reach was moongrass for now.

Before she got up and ready for the next day, Argul checked her status.

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Quest completed:

• It grows! (4)
  • You created 50 plant species. After you finish a floor the mana created by that floor will be used to create different plants inhabiting your domain on said floor for three days. The plants have to be able to survive on the floor.
  • Int +2, Wis +1

New Quest:

• It grows! (5)
  • Requirements: It grows! (4)
  • Create 100 plant species! 52/100

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There weren’t any large changes since the last time she had looked, but she also hadn’t done a lot in the last two days. The boon the plant quest gave her on the other hand was great. It would reduce the time she had to wait for plants to reach the floor or the amount of plants she would have to create herself. That way she could focus more on special plants.

Argul sent her consciousness back towards her avatar and opened her eyes. The sky was already getting brighter, but it should still be a few hours before dawn. 

She carefully got out of the bed, trying not to disturb Mia and Alyra. Then she took the flashlight from her nightstand and sneaked out of the room. She was still in her pajamas but didn’t care all that much about it.

Argul made herself comfortable in the sitting area on the main floor and looked around. The mana zone had reached the city overnight and what had been dark before to her mana sense looked bright now.

She started to crank the winder of the flashlight and it lit up. She maintained that state for a moment and nothing happened. Now sure that she wouldn’t create a giant electric spark immediately, Argul focused completely on the flashlight.

The mana was moving further west and she couldn’t see anything unusual so she continued cranking. After 10 mentally exhausting minutes the mana suddenly surged into the flashlight and especially towards the LED. The flashlight lit up extremely bright and became a bit warm.

Argul immediately stopped cranking. That was interesting and luckily it didn’t even fry the lamp. She had no idea why the mana had done so, but now that she had seen the reaction between mana and technology herself she was determined to find the cause.

Argul waited until the flashlight cooled down and repeated the experiment. This time the reaction of the mana came a lot earlier, after about 3 minutes. Now the question was if the reason for that was that she had done the experiment twice in the same spot or if something else caused the earlier reaction.

Argul still didn’t know why the mana acted this way, so she tried to find an answer for the new problem first. She repeated the experiment in the same spot five more times and the reaction always started a bit earlier. Then she did the same over in the eating area and it took around 5 minutes for the reaction to occur, but it was definitely longer than in the chilling area. One time was of course not enough for her as a proof and Argul repeated the experiment four more times in the eating area with the same results as in the sitting area.

Luna came downstairs and had to yawn. She hid her mouth behind her hand and spotted Argul. “Oh I’m not the first.”

She waved at her. “Good morning Argul!”

Argul absentmindedly mumbled a greeting back and started her experiment again. Luna walked over to her and looked over Argul’s shoulder. “What are you doing? I thought technology doesn’t work any longer?”

Argul ignored her and concentrated on her experiment. A minute later the flashlight lit up again and Luna shrieked in surprise. She took a step back and a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “What was that?!”

Argul sighed in defeat, still no success. She tapped her index finger on her lips in thought. “An anomaly that occurs between mana and running technology.”

Luna put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you know that all the tech doesn’t work anymore?”

Argul put the flashlight on the table in front of her and turned towards Luna. “Of course I know, Arthur was the one who made the discovery and he nearly died in the process.” Her eyes became a bit distant. “Though one could argue it also saved his ass.”

Argul focused back on Luna. “That tech doesn’t work anymore isn’t the truth, it just doesn’t work safely anymore and will more often than not blow your mind away, literally.”

Luna frowned at Argul. “So you just risked blowing up my inn?”

Argul waved her away. “A flashlight would never cause such a strong reaction. I would have burned a table in the worst case and I can conjure water so fire wouldn’t have been a problem.”

Luna eyed her a bit. “Could you please not experiment inside of my inn, no matter how safe those experiments are?!”

Argul realized her mistake, looked towards the ground and blushed. “Sure. I am sorry for scaring you.” 

She had just been told not to play with fire as a 19 year old. Wait, wasn’t she younger now?

Argul looked thoughtfully at nothing particular. So technically, Luna telling her off was just like an adult telling a child no, which meant Argul was still in the green zone, not that it mattered.

Luna sighed and relaxed. “What do you even try to achieve?”

Argul looked at her in disbelief until she realized Luna was serious. Her tail began to wag in agitation and she gestured around wildly. “I want to know why things are the way they are of course! Otherwise how would I find a way to stop it or create something new?”

Argul's tone became softer. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go back to the middle ages. Compared to our world full of technology that sounds incredibly boring.”

Luna looked at Argul, surprised at the passion she had just shown. She had taken her for a magician, yes, but now she thought that Argul might be more of a scientist. She fumbled a bit around with the wool on her arms. “Uhm, I didn’t mean to offend you, sorry.”

Argul just shrugged. “It’s okay. My take on the world is just a bit special.”

She looked out of the window and noticed that dawn had already arrived. “Do you need help preparing breakfast?”

Luna brightened up at the topic of food. “You were the one that cleaned the tableware yesterday, weren’t you?”

Argul nodded and Luna took her hand. Then she pulled Argul with her into the kitchen in excitement. Cooking without having to clean was a dream come true!

Otjag

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