Reincarnated as a mana core

Leaving behind a wheezing Mia and the motionless avatar of her daughter, Argul made her way over to Arthur. Alyra had been silent since Argul had created the new skill. There were likely some complications with the system or the girl had just gotten a good idea that she wanted to implement.

Argul left her to her work. She didn’t want to interrupt her daughter if she didn’t have to.

Arthur noticed her approach and the two of them greeted each other before Argul sat down opposite to him. The guy was a bit pale, as if he had just witnessed something scary, but it surely couldn’t be as bad as the corrupted they had seen when they first met each other so she put the thought aside.

Instead she decided to get to business immediately. Smalltalk wasn’t her strong suit and between her and Arthur it just didn’t click like it did for Alyra. Argul accepted that though, not wanting to feel awkward and weird anymore like in her past life. “So, how was your trip? And did you manage to get a wagon or trailer?”

Arthur simply shrugged, seemingly uncaring. “I didn’t get a wagon and neither did I find one, even after searching for nearly a week. It looks like they have already been claimed by either the fleeing people or those that chose to stay and I can’t fault them for it. While most vehicles are pretty useless now the wagons are not and make traveling and field work much easier.”

Argul noticed that she had made a simple mistake just now. She had asked Arthur two questions at once and mens tended to only answer one of the questions if they were asked two. She knew that from experience, because she would do exactly the same.

Arthur leaned back into his chair. “We will just have to look around the market for something. I don’t really think people have a use for truck trailers right now so it shouldn’t be too difficult to buy one.”

Argul nodded thoughtfully. Not really having expected Arthur to find anything she wasn’t disappointed. Heck, she hadn’t even thought he would accept the request in the first place so this wouldn’t impact her future plans in any way.

Argul would have to go to the market now that she had created the last spell component for her plate of [identify] or rather [analyze] since that was the name of the new skill. She wanted to make at least the wooden part of her present by hand and without the use of magic so she had to buy what she needed, not grow it. 

The same wasn’t true for the stone that she would use as mana storage. Creating this part with magic would give her the opportunity to choose the material freely and make sure it had a good amount of crystallized minerals.

Argul had thought of making the mana storage entirely out of some crystal of course, but creating them had turned out to be quite difficult. She had tried that out with her earth magic and hadn’t been able to create a single crystal without a fault. Having a faulty crystal would make it less durable so she had put training her crystal production aside for now. 

While Argul was lost in thoughts Luna came out of the kitchen and over to them after she served two of her patrons something to eat and drink. “Welcome back Arthur~.”

She quickly took in his appearance. “Are you alright?”

Arthur smiled at her reassuringly. “Yeah, I’m well.”

The innkeeper gave him an inquisitive look. “Sure, you are all pale in the face for no reason whatsoever.”

The guy could only sigh. “Look, I just witnessed something weird and scary today, again, and need some time to process it.”

Time he wouldn’t get because now he had Argul’s attention. Weird was a word that had a good chance it had something to do with magic. “What was it? Did you look at it with your mana sense? And if so what did it look like? Tell me!” It was as if someone had suddenly switched something over in Argul’s head.

Luna giggled at the outburst and even Arthur couldn’t help but smile in amusement. Sadly, he couldn’t really tell Argul anything useful. “It was just a group of thugs or thieves running away from two that had once been part of their group and were definitely possessed by something.”

Arthur shuddered a bit. “The two possessed were moving in a weird jerky way that made them a lot faster than they should be able to, but it did so at the cost of their bodies. The worst thing however, was the way they laughed.”

He stared accusingly at Argul. “Why is it that all the weird scary things that come into existence because of mana laugh in a way that makes your hair stand up?!”

Argul blinked in surprise. It was true that Arthur had a bit of an unlucky track record in this regard. First it was the army corrupted, then the killer squirrels and now possessed people. One could think that he just attracted things that made horrible noises. 

“Uh, I think you're just a bit unlucky.” She tried to reassure him, but thinking of her cackle fangs and lunarian cave stalkers made her confidence waver a little.

Arthur sighed when he noticed that. “There are more, aren’t there?”

The conversation got to a point where special knowledge was required to understand what it was about, which left Luna a bit confused. Argul on the other hand tried to change the topic hurriedly. “Maybe? Look, this isn’t important right now. What matters if you looked at the possessed with your mana-”

Arthur raised a hand and interrupted her. “No, I haven't, so I can’t tell you anything more, Argul.”

Leaving her disappointed he turned to Luna instead. “Look, I have some stuff to work through Argul and I really need a beer and some peace for that.”

Luna smiled brightly, having received an order. “Sure, one beer for you!”

She was just about to leave, but stopped and looked over her shoulder with a playful expression. “You know that it isn’t time for dinner yet and you will have to pay for this?”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “I know and I will pay. Now please bring me something to drink.”

Luna nodded and brought him his beer a minute later, taking one long look at Argul as if she wanted to ask something before she left again.

Argul didn’t take notice of this, too busy thinking about what the possessed could be and more importantly how they came to be. If possession was a thing she wanted to be protected and protect all her loved ones from it.

She left Arthur alone with his beer and walked back over to her family. Mia was poking Aina and tried to evade the slime attack that followed while Alyra still had her eyes closed.

Argul smiled at the sight and promised herself to protect them from any and all dangers, even if she didn’t know the method to do so yet. Before that though, she would give the market a visit tomorrow.