Elevation of mana 2 a pr.., p.1
Elevation of Mana 2: A Progression Fantasy, page 1
Elevation of Mana
✧ BOOK 2 ✧
WANDERING AGENT
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from Podium Publishing.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael Robert Taylor
Cover design by Yanhong Lu
ISBN: 978-1-0394-6653-1
Published in 2024 by Podium Publishing
www.podiumaudio.com
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: THE DANGERS OF WATER
CHAPTER 2: WORKSHOP
CHAPTER 3: CUSTOMER COMPLAINT
CHAPTER 4: ARMOR 101
CHAPTER 5: ARMOR 201
CHAPTER 6: BREAK-IN
CHAPTER 7: JUSTICE
CHAPTER 8: WORK ORDER
CHAPTER 9: TESTING PHASE
CHAPTER 10: HAPPY CUSTOMER
CHAPTER 11: DELIVERY
CHAPTER 12: IDA
CHAPTER 13: MAGICAL MATERIALS
CHAPTER 14: CONDUCTOR
CHAPTER 15: CRIMSON
CHAPTER 16: END OF ELAYATOL
CHAPTER 17: WEAPONS FOR A MONSTER
CHAPTER 18: MEETING
CHAPTER 19: VISIT FROM A SOLDIER
CHAPTER 20: SHARING SECRETS
CHAPTER 21: WRITING
CHAPTER 22: CALL TO ARMS
CHAPTER 23: FIRST BATTLE
CHAPTER 24: DEATHS
CHAPTER 25: FIRST FORT
CHAPTER 26: ON WAR
CHAPTER 27: WEAPONS OF WOOD AND IRON
CHAPTER 28: PLAN
CHAPTER 29: UNTIL YOU CAN’T ANYMORE
CHAPTER 30: OUT ONCE MORE
CHAPTER 31: ATOP A HILL
CHAPTER 32: GO TO SLEEP
CHAPTER 33: THE PATH HOME
CHAPTER 34: JOURNEY WITH IAN
CHAPTER 35: SENTINEL
CHAPTER 36: RETURN
CHAPTER 37: HOSPITAL VISIT
CHAPTER 38: MEETING WITH ATAL
CHAPTER 39: ANGRY GIRLFRIEND
CHAPTER 40: CINO
CHAPTER 41: IAN
CHAPTER 42: BATTLE BEGINS
CHAPTER 43: BATTLE
CHAPTER 44: FALL OF AN ANCIENT
CHAPTER 45: THE HAMMER FALLS
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chapter 1
✧
THE DANGERS OF WATER
Iunderstand you have questions,” I said to Shorin. “I hope that I can assuage them for you.”
“As do I, though the biggest of which is, why?” he replied, looking up from the small cup of what passed for tea here. I noted that both the cup and the pot it had been poured from came from my supplied pieces and wondered what they were using before.
“Why? Surely you can see the uses for what I propose?”
“I do. A flowing… pipe of water is certainly something to look into, but we have always done things one way; to change them now would be too much.” He was cautious, not objecting, which was good.
“This project won’t actually change much, sir, since someone will have to manually supply the water that goes in; but it will serve as proof that it can be done. Think of it like practice—to first show that a spear can be thrown, don’t you have to try it? You wouldn’t take it hunting without practicing first.”
He leaned in. “Ah, I like that, but it does lead to another question. What are you hunting here that you need to try out your spear?”
I had to admit that he had me there. I’d practically admitted that I was aiming for bigger and better things. Was his caution born of thinking this new idea might be dangerous, or was it because he wondered what I might do with it in the future? I needed to assuage both of his concerns if we were to proceed.
“You know what the city smells like in the dry season? When the weather is warm and there’s no rain to wash away all of the… excess buildup. No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop some people from leaving a mess, but something like this could help. We could make it easy for places to get rid of all that waste and wash it away from Atal.”
“Is there truly no other reason?” he inquired, seemingly in disbelief.
“No? Why should there be?”
“Ah, sometimes I see the things you do and forget just how young you are, Justin,” the elder said with a shake of his head. “Young people like you so often forget the astounding power of water and the good it can bring.”
“Is that not what I’m trying to bring to Atal though?” I asked.
“No. Young Justin, I have lived here a very, very long time. Have you ever seen a river overflow from its banks to consume a village? Ever seen the ocean rise and overtake a city? There have been close calls, you know; times when only fast action saved even Atal. Water, young man, is cruel and potent.”
For a time I sat, thinking on what he was saying. When I was a boy, the elder of my village had felt similarly about fire. That made sense; since we lived in a forest, fire was an extreme threat. Here though, fire would be less so. A river passed through the city itself, and with so many potent users of magic, fires could be easily taken care of. A tidal wave though? Or a flood? What about a storm surge? Here in Atal, water might be considered by the elders to be the threat, and they would be right.
“I do not anticipate that we will ever be using that much in the city,” I started before thinking deeper and stammering a bit. “Not anytime soon at least.”
“What are you thinking of for right now?” he asked, a gleam in his eye.
Dams had appeared in my mind unbidden. They were structures that could abate the sort of thing he was concerned with, and without much issue. There were some truly massive structures on Earth—Hoover in the U.S. and Three Gorges in China were the first to come to mind—but even smaller dams would cause incredible chaos if they failed.
“There might be ways to store that much water up, but it would take a long time, and it would be nothing like what I’m proposing. Even then, we wouldn’t want something like that here in Atal,” I said, not truly answering his question.
Shorin leaned back, rubbing his chin. “Interesting, so what would happen if one of these pipes of yours burst? How bad could it be?”
“Well, a street could flood, but it shouldn’t be any worse than that, and even that would be something we could fix before trying to build the entire thing,” I answered.
“Hmm, I’ll want to see how you would prevent them before we go beyond your test. For now though, let us discuss supplies and how to actually build it.”
Over the next hour or two I went into detail about how many bricks I would need, how many people, how long it would take, and all the other gritty details. Then I was told to wait. My project here might be smaller than a full, city-wide plan, but it would still need to be brought before the leaders of the city. Overall, it wasn’t the worst answer I could have gotten.
Shorin
I watched as the youngling left my home. He wasn’t a boy; not truly, but every year people seemed younger and younger to me. It made me chuckle when I thought how my own ancestor must view us. Perhaps I too was very, very young and naive.
He didn’t understand though; not truly. At his age he’d never seen a stream that had been diverted carve a canyon in only a few years, or the enormous waves that even the strongest in the city struggled to protect us from. On the other hand, that gleam in his eye when he thought about destruction, and how he avoided explaining. Little Justin had ideas on how to weaponize water; that was something I knew would be worth the hassle.
“I don’t know; what do you think?” I asked the servant girl who came to refill my drink.
Her eyes flicked around the otherwise empty room for a moment. “M-me, sir?” she asked.
“Is there anyone else here?”
I let my eyes flick down to the markings on her, which that told me just how long she would have to work for me; years and years yet remained on her time. She didn’t know it, but she was a distant relative, one whose contract I’d purchased using income from that lad’s inventions. It was better for her here, as I could see to it she wouldn’t be mistreated. Some people were truly horrible to their servants. If I could mold her into something useful in the time I had her, though, I might even tell her of our kinship when it was over.
“I… don’t know. I’m not sure I completely understand. It sounds like he has a good idea, but since I’ve never seen anything like what he’s suggesting, perhaps use caution?” Her voice rose at the end, more a question than an answer.
A small laugh escaped me, and the tension in her muscles eased. “If more youths thought like that, we’d have a lot more elders. Now off with you; I’m sure you’ve other duties.”
Chapter 2
✧
WORKSHOP
After leaving Shorin to his business, I headed home. I hadn’t moved from the first place I’d bought; though I had purchased some of the surrounding houses when my money flow came back, and I made a few… improvements. No longer was my home a single small dwelling, but now a complex to rival even Shorin’s, with a few buildings surrounding a large courtyard.
When I returned, Chien went to one of his work spaces. I’d set up a few small shop rooms with basic equipment for him. He needed space to practice what I was teaching him if he was to teach others, particularly as things got more and more complicated. The kid was a magnificent worker, and more than once, I’d considered teaching him more about magic. But, I held back; the understanding I possessed of some magical principles could make someone far too powerful.
While he tinkered, I turned to a rather smooth-looking portion of wall and reached out with my magic. The operation was delicate and had to be done manually, but soon enough a door formed, and I descended into the real heart of my home. If Shorin had ever been down here, he would have lost his mind. The things above ground were valuable to others, but the things down here were valuable to me.
A series of oil lamps—the elves already had a prototype—lit the space and shined light upon my real work. There was more than copper or iron here; I had samples of everything from aluminum to tungsten, painstakingly isolated and purified from every sample I could get my hands on. Most of them were useless for now, but I needed some for very specific applications, and making them was fun.
My real project, though, sat on a massive stone table. It was a mixture of what I’d seen as a human and what I thought must be possible from this world. This would one day be a wonderful addition to what we all could do, if I could get it to work.
People in this world had tattoos created with magical inks that somehow interfaced with them, slightly boosting their abilities. They were considered a go-to for certain professionals who didn’t have a particular magical skill set and needed small boosts, and they proved a point—magic could interface with people who weren’t casters like me. Anyone with a bit of power and some training could focus their magic into an area, and it would respond.
That sounded to me like an input, a very basic one, but input nonetheless. In my former life I’d been researching computers, and in this life I might just make something better than I’d ever imagined. I was going to create a magical computer, something that could catapult this society straight into the information age. Well, if I could ever figure it out, that is.
Before me sat a basic counting machine, one that didn’t work. I’d made it from available materials that would work with electricity though, so I had to manually power it. The theory was solid, but still it wouldn’t function. It wasn’t supposed to do much, just keep a number and add one to it repeatedly—a simple process really, something that could be built at home on Earth.
The issue was the materials, of that much I was sure. Magic wasn’t electricity, and though it did respond similarly in some situations, they were profoundly different forces. The many materials I’d tested all seemed to dislike conducting it in the way I wanted. I’d even played with a lot of the bases to the magical tattoos, once even putting a basic circuit onto a small captured rodent. None of them worked, and the mouse only sort of glowed—not the reaction I was looking for.
With a sigh, I pulled out a bit of charcoal and reached out with my mind, reforming the paths into a new material. A pulse of will freed the carbon from the slag and left all the impurities behind, and then I began reforming it again.
Magic flowed like an extension of myself, pouring out and over my spell. I didn’t need to imagine every single atom and where it would go, only the structure of the thing I imagined and what I wanted it to do. It was like being the conductor of an orchestra; only I didn’t need to manage every note, just the song. I could even feel it as the power responded—unseen energy flowing just the way I wanted it to. That sensation was one I’d truly never get tired of.
Sweat began to bloom on my brow as, one by one, a spiraling series of woven carbon nanotubes connected the points in my computer, replacing the wires and other bits one by one. An hour passed, then another, intense concentration never wavering as it all came together. The structure was not hard, no; it was weaving it where it needed to go without breaking it that caused problems.
When it was all done I was drenched in sweat, but I smiled down at my creation. The internal components of my design were all purest black—nearly invisible.
“Come now, my sweet; let’s see what you can do,” I said as I pushed the smallest amount of magic into my computer.
There was a tiny flash, and I watched in horror as my work disintegrated before my eyes. It was hard to determine the exact problem, but whatever it was cascaded through the whole thing like falling dominoes, leaving nothing behind but sooty residue.
With a wave, I gathered up the now useless carbon. “How’s it go? Now I know a thousand ways that don’t work?” I mused as I told the carbon to make a diamond.
The little crystal formed in my hand without any real effort. It was a repeating structure with no changes needed, no angles or turns, I didn’t even care the shape it formed. That made it all the easier, as it seemed repeating structures loved to form.
“Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way? Perhaps magical materials are needed, not more mundane ones?”
As I thought out loud, I began to make cuts in my newly formed stone, trying to make it look like the advertisements I’d seen on Earth. It wouldn’t be a good one and, in fact, would probably horrify anyone who worked in the industry, but it’s not like anyone cared here. This little trinket wouldn’t even be leaving my lab anytime soon.
“It’s a shame diamond doesn’t work for currency; it’s pretty though,” I said to myself. It had been one of my earlier tests. “Well, counting machine, let’s try again later.”
There was still so much on my plate. I needed to go check on the metal Chien had told me was on its way to me and begin using it to make product. There was a waiting list a mile long already; everyone wanted something made of metal. The highest calls were for simple tools like blades and hammers, some of which could be made in bulk and at speed.
Musing done, I tossed the little diamond in a drawer and left my lab. There was always more to do, always so much more. Perhaps one day I’d be able to take a vacation.
Chapter 3
✧
CUSTOMER COMPLAINT
Chien stood by as I worked in my shop. I poured more and more of my mana into the fire as the copper began to melt, knowing that the little crucible formed of magical force could take it.
“The men selling this should be beaten,” I declared, not even fully done yet.
“Okay… why?”
“See all the black stuff forming on the liquid there? Those are impurities, and this copper is loaded with them. It’s like they didn’t even try to make it pure, just got it good enough,” I griped.
“Well, you know, Justin, it’s not like everyone knows that. Maybe they’d never made it before,” the young man argued.
