"What the hell am I missing?"
Two days had passed since the magic advisor made his declaration, and his implementations were executed.
The knights now meditated day and night. However, they were progressing at a snail's pace— Elijah and Calvin's quick grasp on mana, seems to have been outliers.
Bella had more progress than the knights, but was lacking compared to the magic advisor, and the kingdom's genius.
She was still failing to produce a flame.
The herbalist and the blacksmith, however, had made no progress whatsoever.
Greta, the herbalist. Was at her wits end.
'Ahhh!' She screamed at the top of her lungs.
"I've tried everything: comfrey, lanceolata, yarrow, calendula… nothing works! No combination, no change in procedure. In the end. The results remain the same, a regular brew."
There was a secret ingredient missing. Something that would boost the effects of the herbs elevating them into something more. Something magical.
Atleast—
That was Elijah's hypothesis.
The blacksmith was having the exact issue. He hammered away nonestop begging for a magical creation, nonetheless , The results remained the same. Mundane weapons.
Elijah was stumbed. He'd been trying to think of a solution since the day before, he knew something was lacking, but no idea what.
In the past, he had the brilliant idea of infusing magic in their creation process, and it showed remarkable progress. However, in the end—- failure. The moment he stopped supplying magic, whatever magical reaction was occurring , halted.
But, today was different—
Today, He had a new idea. In order to achieve pioneering results, he needed pioneering materials.
In other words, fresh herbs— not whatever stale ingredients Greta had stored up in her lab.
And
Beasts parts. He heard stories of the wolves in the surrounding area gaining steel fangs after evolving. Utilizing them should show better results than mundane steel.
And, at the very least
Even if he failed to make a magic sword, he could hope for a weapon containing the steel fang's poison.
So—
Earlier in the morning, Rohan was sent on an expedition to gather the ingredients he required, And would be returning any minute now.
Elijah would've loved to take the opportunity to leave the castle, however, he was not the biggest fan of Rohan.
Not to mention, the mission promised to be short— just a stone throw away from the castle's walls and back. He was more interested in prolonged outings.
At the moment, he was doing what he did best.
Practice his mana flow.
It had long became a compulsive behavior of his, not unlike nail biting is for others. As soon as he was in a situation that allowed his brain to go idle, he found himself doing it without realizing.
He did it so my much, mana now raced through his system so freely, it was as if he'd carved a highway just for it.
And he had.
After all his time of flowing mana through his system, his body had been adapting and evolving Unbeknownst to him. Invisible pathways specifically for mana, have now been carved throughout body, forming a system of its own to optimize mana flow.
The same could be said about everyone else. Over the pass year of being exposed to mana, their bodies have been slowly evolving and adapting to function in a world of magic.
Elijah with his obsessive need to interact with mana, had long surpassed their evolutions. however, them attaining more and more was inevitable. His goal was to make sure they did so not only faster than they originally would've, but faster than the other kingdoms.
"Sir magic advisor", Rohan called out to him from behind .
"I have returned with the materials you've requested".
"Finally!" Elijah excitedly jumped up from his meditative stance. "Lead the way."
Rohan lead the way, and Elijah trailed behind.
It was the opposite of their first meeting.
As the thought crept into Elijah's mind, He instinctively reached for his neck, and slowly caressed a wound that was no longer there. His eyes later found there way to Rohan's own neck, and a sinister smile exposed itself on Elijah's lips.
Before long, They had reached their destination. It was an otherwise empty storage room. Now, it was filled with boxes piled on each other, with a variety of herbs of different colors and shapes peeking out through the cracks.
In a next corner of the room, six large wolves with long steel fangs where stacked in a pile. Their black fur soaked red as fresh blood leaked out.
Elijah smiled at the great haul. He could sense a great deal of mana emanating from his goods.
"Perfect!"
Clank! clank!
He not so gently patted Rohan on his armored back.
"Good job!".
Feeling the sting from the 'pats' sink into his flesh, Rohan spared Elijah a wary stare, then walked away.
"Now, let's get these materials To their respective places. Then, phase two of the pioneer project can officially begin ".
Or was it phase three?
Elijah gathered the boxes of herbs and sent them to Greta's lab. Along with the boxes, however, was some of the wolf blood Elijah collected. There was no real significance to collecting it, just a sense of they could be of use. He also sent instructions for her to coordinate her efforts with an alchemist.
Next on the agenda— fang removal.
He approached the pile of wolves, with a blade he picked up along the way in hand. With each step, his legs lightly shook. With Eyes looked on the fangs protruding from the wolves mouths, hesitation filled his heart.
Though the wolves were dead, he was extremely intimidated by them. They were larger than any wolf he'd seen before,and their teeth were nightmarish.
The thought of sticking his hand inside the wolves mouth to pluck them out— was simply terrifying.
And yet,
He did it.
He shoved the knife into the wolf's gum— blood squirting in his face as he did. There was momentary repulsion but he quickly composed himself and and continued the job,plunging the tip further into the root of tooth. After securing it with tension, he applied pressure to the handle of the blade,formed a wedge and used force to pluck the fang from its roots.
Cling!
The steel fang hitting the stone floor.
And just like that the first one was out.
And then he was on the next.
The longer Elijah spent removing the fangs, the harder it became to ignore a soft hum he felt whispering to him from deep inside the wolf.
It was a subtle cry to his subconscious, an institution be urge.
After pulling the last of the wolf's 42 teeth, he refused to ignore it for longer. With his intuition taking the lead, he let the blade glide over the wolf's body before coming to a stop at the center of its chest.
Then—
He sunk the blade deep inside to create an Incision. Blood gushed from the open wound as he forced the knife downwards creating room large enough for his hands.
Then, he removed the blade and took a breather, Allowing the blood flow to subside.
His hand later plunged into the wolf's open wound, and was greeted by the sensation of warm blood and blood-soaked entrails.
Following the hum, Elijah dove deeper, digging into the deepest most centered part of the wolf. Then he found it
Removing his hand— now painted red with wolf's blood just shy of the elbow, he found a pearl clutched in its grasp.
There was an orb the size of a golf ball in his palm. It was as red as blood but had brilliant white light pulsating from deep within its core.
It was a beast core.
Elijah's eyes widened at epiphany this discovery had given him.
"Mana cores!" He clutched the orb tightly.
"How could I have forgetten about them?! These are essential to magic, no less than wands and grimoires are. I had an inclination those weren't viable options for the given situation, but I had overlooked mana cores."
He sighed frustratedly.
"There are too much to keep track of when it comes to magic."
Not letting his enthusiasm drain, he force his spirits up once more with an ear to ear grin.
"But this, this changes everything. I now know what next steps I should take—"
"Im gonna form my mana core"
Collecting the steel fangs he gathered, he skipped off merrily then sprinted the rest of the way to the workshop.
"Edmund!" he shouted, "new materials for you".
Edmund— the blacksmith— was a funny looking man.
His head was so bald, it glistened, putting most light sources in his presence to shame. It was so smooth and shine, Elijah was greeted by his own reflection when they first met. A Very bushy scarlet mustache curled itself at his nose, and an even bushier beard was nesting on his cheeks and chin, reaching all the way down to his chest. He stood as tall as the average man's torso but after years of swinging his hammer, his physique was perfected. Large muscles were sculpted all over his body.
Above all else, he was a man dedicated to his craft.
"Bring them over here, I'll get started right away."
Two teeth revealed themselves from the forest of facial hair, as he smiled.
"Let's see what we have here."
"Here you go!" Elijah tossed the collection of steel fangs his way.
"Oh and this too", he tossed the beast core directly to him.
Edmund caught it " what's this?"
"That is a battery that stores mana, figure something out, ok? Bye!" Replied Elijah in a rush before skipping off.
" Wait, What the hell is a battery?!"
Immediately after arriving at his room, Elijah dived to the floor and assumed his meditative stance.
He took a moment to calm his heart— which danced lively in his chest due to adrenaline and excitement. He knew this was dangerous, his finger was proof.
But he had to try.
This time was different. Mistakes meant death. Yet, he was also different. His control and understanding of mana flow was far more intricate than before.
There was also the instinct drive— this is what everything was leading up to.
He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.
Then—
He began.
Elijah had no idea or knowledge about making mana cores and yet—
He knew exactly what to do. He could feel it.
He could feel it as pulled mana from the atmosphere. He knew he was to organize its flow into many streams, all leading to the center of his chest. He automatically made each stream flow in a spiral pattern and intuitively solidified the mana as they coalesced into solids as small as sand grains.
Each sand grain then flowed in a spiral pattern themselves, only to merge into bigger solidified mana. The process was repeated over and over, until one orb as big as a baseball remained.
At that point, Elijah instinctively filtered out all impurities from the orb that remained. It was a procedure quite similar to the gathering process but was the opposite.
All unrefined and unwanted substances were expelled from his system. They traveled through his mana pathways and was flushed out through his pores.
The orb in his chest was now a lot smaller, but its stability was evident by the hum it emitted. Mana pathways connecting to all organs: brain, heart, eyes, lungs etc, were linked.
Beating as a heart would— a mana heart. The small orb began pulling mana from the atmosphere on its own. Taking only its purest forms.
It pulled in mana, refined it, then expelled all impurities. This process would repeat itself.
Over
And over
And over
Until—
Elijah's chest burned with a new sensation, a new pulse thumped against his ribcage almost as if he suddenly grew a new heart. Except, this one wasn't beating. Instead, it was breathing, which caused it to pulsate with every new addition of mana it absorbed.
Elijah could feel it, he was done. He had created a mana core. But,
Then he really felt it—
*Mana core completed*
— a chill running through his entire being.
Elijah's eye widened.
"Huh? What was the hell was that?!"
*
*
*
A/N
Ten chapters In. How are we feeling about the story so far? Leave a review and let me know. How's the pacing? Any favorite characters?
If you've read up to chapter 10, leave a comment so I can know how many active readers I have.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy.