I wanted to focus on getting my actual job here done before I focused on getting my Augntation. In part, that was because there was a weird sense of integrity about it that I felt kind of sort of obligated to follow. As in, I was here to do a job in return for paynt. That was my official goal. Prioritizing my personal gains over completing my task felt dishonest.
For another, I wanted room to think and grow. I trusted Linak and the academists to not just bail on after the job was completed, especially since their fussy professor wasn’t here. They seed like pretty sincere people.
My first treasure was essentially a small monocle.
“An eyeglass for looking through things,” the Ogre said. He had introduced himself properly as Mage Tirk. “You can imagine its various applications, yes? Looking at bone fractures and other internal lesions, looking into constructions and devices to find internal cracks and displacents, even looking into food to determine the interactions between ingredients—”
“That last function would need a magnification rune we haven’t integrated properly yet,” Mage Privant, the young Rakshasa, said. “Otherwise, Tirk is correct.”
I sent my mana into the monocle via Sacrifice. No, I wasn’t wearing it at the ti, because blinding myself with vivid threads of mana swimming around in front of my eyes didn’t sound fun. “But it doesn’t work,” I said. “Which is why it’s getting Sacrificed.”
Both grad students grimaced.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Broken] Artifact of Thorough Sight. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward: Thorough Sight now active for 4 minutes ]
“Oh!” I quickly looked away. “Ew, ew, ew.”
“Are you alright?” Linak asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I closed my eyes for a bit. “I just can see through everything.”
It would have been one thing if the Sacrifice reward had just made seen through one layer of whatever I was looking at. Instead, for the brief mont I had actually experienced it, Thorough Sight seed to make see into whatever the centre of my target was.
I had assud that I’d just have had to avert my eyes. Seeing through the mages’ robes to reveal their naked bodies would have been rather uncomfortable, but a reasonable outco from a treasure that was supposed to enable seeing through things. What I got instead was looking through their skin and even their flesh until I was staring straight into their organs.
Not even a proper picture of organs, where I might have been fascinated at how different races’ internal structures varied from that of humans’. No, I just got a hodgepodge of flesh and blood vessels and many different glistening and pulsing bits that made no sense whatsoever and just wanted to make hurl.
And for four whole minutes too! This was actually pretty annoying. At least it wasn’t over an hour like the Emulation effects.
All three other mages laughed when I ntioned what I was going through.
“I told you it was incredibly broken,” Mage Privant said.
Mage Tirk shuffled about. “Ah, well, that is why we’re having it be Sacrificed by our friendly trash destroyer Mage here. I was mostly curious if your Sacrifice Aspect would bypass the incorrect functionalities, Mage Moreland.”
I wanted to glare at him but looking at the Ogre was annoying. “And is that why you never bothered to explain the incorrect functionalities in detail, Mage Tirk?”
“Well, no. I just thought it would be funny to see your reaction.”
The others chortled again. Admittedly, I might have found it funny too if I wasn’t on the receiving end.
We waited for a bit until the Sacrifice reward ran out. It wasn’t that I couldn’t see at all. It was just highly uncomfortable looking into the centre of everything. The walls, the floor, even my own hands. I was actually curious what I would see if I looked into the ground or up at the sky but getting to either of those would make the four-minute tir run out so we didn’t bother.
The next treasure was an old wheel. When I Sacrificed it, I got a strange movent bonus as a reward. All my motion was essentially sliding now, like every surface was coated in thick ice and I was wearing skates.
Needless to say, the mages laughed the first few tis I slipped and fell. I rubbed my ass as I was helped back up, laughing too. It was kind of funny.
The next thing was an old bowl.
“It’s an actual treasure this ti,” Mage Privant said. “As in, an ancient treasure we bought from so adventurers who found it in Eversight Dungeon.”
“Where’s Eversight?” I asked. “I’ve been to Seethescale.”
“It’s basically next door. The entrance is sowhere on Ring Three, I think? I’m not sure.”
Naturally. They were grad student mages, not adventurers. Mage Tirk went on to explain how the bowl had a property of appetizing whatever was put into it. That made curious if it could even make feel good about chowing down bug-food.
I Sacrificed it. Then I grimaced at the reward.
[ Sacrifice
You have Sacrificed 1 [Broken] Artifact of Gastronomic Appeal. Windfall bonus activated.
Reward: Afflicted with Intense Hunger
Re-evaluating…
No reward assigned ]
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My stomach clawed inside for the rest second. I hadn’t even finished reading through the strange blue screen before the feeling disappeared and I was back to normal.
“Huh,” I said.
Naturally, the academy mages were all curious about it.
“The conflict is from a different Sacrifice,” I said when I figured it out. It wasn’t hard. “I Sacrifice my food instead of eating it usually, and the reward I get is a whole day of zero hunger and thirst.”
“Ah!” Mage Tirk clapped a closed fist into his palm, small eyes glinting with scholarly enthusiasm. “Conflicting rewards! What an interesting property for an Aspect.”
“I do wonder if the inherent rank of the Sacrifice offering affects which reward cos out on top,” Mage Privant mused.
“There are undoubtedly hidden qualifiers that the Weave doesn’t make us privy to.”
“That is indeed correct.”
They theorized about it for a while, and it was interesting to listen to, but so of it was jargon I wasn’t familiar with such as the Weave’s Internal Homogeneity and its Categorical Thesis. I wasn’t here to learn about Mage lingo though, so we soon turned back to finishing up my job.
Of which, thankfully, there weren’t a lot left. There were several more old knives, but I had done that already the last ti, so they allowed to just keep them for now so I could Sacrifice them later.
I did ntion my experiences in Seethescale Dungeon against the Greater Brillwyrm, where I had Sacrificed the knife Blessed by Escinca. It confird their theory that not only would I get the slashing effect reward, but I would also get the more magical property any knife had, so long as they were active and running.
The last few things were a cowl that could make people invisible—I just turned into a patchwork of invisibility and visibility, which again drew laugher—and a bracelet that had been capable of regulating internal temperature. From that, I got the minuscule ability to control heat.
It was only an internal effect, and it was nice that I could make my body feel cooler at a pinch. But more importantly, it reminded about different Aspects.
My Path would be hitting Silver soon enough, and then I would be able to gain new abilities. Whole new schools of powers that I could learn to control. The Aspects I could learn, however, were a lot more limited than sothing like an Augntation. So, as a Path that was aligned with stars, would I be most capable of learning sothing like Aspect of Heat? Sothing to think about.
But with all that done, I could now finally get going on my Augntation. Technically, I wasn’t yet done with my job. There were all the broken, faded, and cracked mana crystals still left. But that was part of the process.
Every ti I Sacrificed another crystal, I got the sa reward. More and more external mana threads appeared around, a thousand tiny glowing serpents writhing all around .
And the important bit was that they were my mana.
“You can control them?” Mage Tirk asked.
It was a very interesting question because generally, I needed direct physical contact to use my Aspects, save for Gravity’s Field Manipulation. These mana threads, however, bypassed that limitation.
I nodded. “Just takes a little focus.” I concentrated and sent a few threads flying at the Mage’s pointy hat, which turned dark violet just before connecting. His head suddenly bowed down and he yelped. “It takes a mont for the threads to get there though, and I need to focus, which also takes a bit.”
“But you wish for your Power Augntation to aid that?” Mage Privant asked, chuckling at how Mage Tirk was struggling to stand back up straight.
“Yes.” I tried moving the mana threads follow the motions of my hand without using much ntal effort. “What are your Power Augntations, if you don’t mind asking?”
Privant flushed, scratching the horn coming out his left cheek in embarrassnt. “Uh, my Power is not in Silver yet.”
“Nor mine,” Mage Tirk said, finally standing up straight after hefting off his hat, which just made him looking he was trying to carry a baby whale. I hadn’t put that much Gravity into it. “We’re mages. We don’t really need Power as much.”
I rembered how Kostis had bypassed needing to raise his Power by using a fancy Augntation that could temporarily boost it. All these mages put absolutely no stock in Power, did they? It wasn’t like I could bla them. Who needed an Attribute that could only help hit things harder physically when fireballs could just incinerate the target alive?
But I was finding gaps in what I was capable of, and if focusing on Power was going to help get past those deficiencies, then there was no way I was letting an opportunity slip by.
Interestingly, none of them actually seed to dismiss my intention of focusing on Power. There was that at least.
“My Augntation is Mana Generation,” Linak said. “Basically, if I punch hard enough, I regenerate back so extra mana that I’ve spent.”
I nodded. “That’s a good one.” But not quite for .
I kept Sacrificing more of the crystals, moving my arm to manipulate the new threads even while I drove them using my Gravity Aspect. There was no point in using them on . The threads floated too close and drawing them inside wouldn’t have been difficult. It wouldn’t have helped my cast ti practice.
Though, to be fair, I wasn’t exactly practicing improving my cast ti. That would happen naturally with increasing Spirit.
What I was really getting a handle on was applying all my new external mana to my targets physically.
It was odd to practice that there, in the middle of the lab, with the other mages looking on patiently but not very helpfully.
“You want to… apply mana using your fists?” Mage Tirk asked. “Oh, so Battlemages would be useful references, but I don’t recall anyone in the academy being proficient at that.”
“Sorry.” Mage Privant rubbed the horns on the back of his head. Unlike his Ogre companion, he didn’t wear a mage hat. “We haven’t been much help for you with your Augntation. Especially after you’ve been so open with Sacrifice.”
“That’s alright,” I said. I wasn’t too annoyed. Just getting the crystals was going to be a huge help.
“Perhaps we could provide so Spirit Injectors,” Linak said, looking at the two grad student mages. “Ross—Mage Moreland—ntioned how he has been trying to raise his Spirit. We can assist with that more directly.”
Mage Tirk slapped his fist into his palm again. “Oh, yes!”
“I’ll go get so!” Mage Privant rushed off before I could even ask what Spirit Injectors were or how they could help. “They’re my last batch,” he called, his voice dwindling as he disappeared. “But I should be able to get so more after the next exam…”
He returned pretty quickly. I reached out and took the small potions bottles he offered , adding them to the pile of broken and faded crystals that I was supposed to Sacrifice in my storage bag. It was almost getting full.
“What do these Spirit Injectors do?” I asked.
“They’re essentially liquified mana,” Mage Privant said. “But unlike mana potions which is directly digested by your stomach, where the digestion process frees the mana from the liquid to then be added to your internal capacity as guided by the Weave, a Spirit Injector has the mana get added to your mana core, awakened or unawakened.”
“The process then boosts all advancent towards Spirit that you’re currently undergoing,” Mage Tirk said. “Trust , they’re very helpful for improving your Spirit. You may suffer so minor drawbacks, like hallucinations, but I think you’ll be fine.”
“Interesting.” I smiled at them. “Thanks. Getting my Spirit ranked higher has been my main focus for a while now.”
“It can be hard,” Mage Tirk said knowingly.
Mage Privant collided his fists together, the familiar gesture of good luck I had seen from Aurier. “You’ll get it to Silver in no ti at all.”
Thanking them again, I said my farewells and left with Linak. I parted with him right after exiting the Preservatory, after thanking him for accompanying , of course.
Then I headed to Gutran’s place, trying hard not to get lost.
After just one small accidental detour, I arrived at the smithy. Aurier was hamring away at a blade glowing reddish-orange, and I gave him a wave before approaching his master. And my ntor too, I supposed.
“Sorry to bother you all of a sudden,” I said as Gutran stopped his smithing. “But do you think you could spar with for a bit? I know what Power Augntation I want and how exactly I can get it now.”
Gutran took a mont to put his stuff away and prepare, but he joined in about five minutes. I put on my armour and got my mace ready.
“Sa as before?” Gutran asked. “Or do you want so kind of special exercise or sothing?”
“Nah, just co at ,” I said. Gutran frowned just a bit when he saw crushing the broken crystals and used Sacrifice to pop up external mana threads swirling around . “You pointed out how cast ti is a problem, right? Show that again, please.”
We sparred. We fought. We collided. Gutran was obviously stronger and faster, so I was naturally getting pushed back. But with every clash, I forced myself to forget about how I normally used my Aspect. No matter how much my instincts roared to use Gravity, to change my weight, to ss with my opponent, I ignored them all.
Instead, I focused on what I was doing, on how I was moving, on how my motion caused the threads to move too. With every hit, I was able to direct the mana better and better. I didn’t care if I was getting hit. Gutran wasn’t trying to kill .
All I needed to focus on was getting the external mana used to being driven around by Power-empowered motion.
Through it all, the main thing I had to hold dear was that it was my Power driving my mana.
Power. Driving mana. Mana that I could control, as every touch I landed on Gutran slowly began to get infected with the magical threads, strands that only turned dark once I had punched them into my target.
Gutran stumbled. He frowned as he bowed under more weight. “I didn’t see you using your Aspect.” His eyes flickered to all the threads floating around . “Except…”
Slowly, I smiled, wiping off my sweat. “Yeah, I think I’ve basically done it.”
[ Augntation Unlocked!
You have acquired a new Augntation for your Power Attribute.
Augntation: Mana Injection ]
As I read through the blue screen, my smile widened. Looked like the Weave had recognised it too.
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