“But I saw him—”
“Not sure what exactly his attunement is, but it’s different. I think he stores monsters in items, then gets power from the objects. He wouldn’t tell me about it before the match, he just said he could take care of things. It was pretty frustrating.”
“Yeah, I’d be pretty frustrated if someone who I was fighting alongside didn’t tell me about all their abilities.” I gave her an exaggerated wink.
“Oh, shush, Corin. When I can summon it, you’ll be one of the first to see, okay?”
I nodded. “Acceptable.”
“If you want to see it any faster, you could make me a mana storage device...”
We spent much of the rest of the meal talking about enchanting options. All in all, it was a pleasant change of pace.
***
I lifted up the product of three weeks of agonizing labor — a single crystal of gray mana, still trapped within the practice shell.
I might have slightly overestimated myself when I’d planned to figure out how to make the more advanced version in a week.
Even so, I was proud of my results.
Over the following few days, I finished filling the remaining practice molds. It was considerably easier after my first success — but I still had a pretty significant problem.
I always stopped as soon as I started feeling a headache.
I knew from speaking to various Diviners that I was being overly cautious. After a cursory test of my mana levels after finishing one of the crystals, I knew I was nowhere near the point where making one was going to put me in danger.
But I remembered what had happened to Sera after the fight, and how long it had taken her to recover.
And, more importantly, I remembered what happened to my great grandfather. The story of his broken mind echoed in my thoughts every time I considered using any significant amount of mind mana. The more I tried to fight the thoughts out of my head, the more I reinforced them.
But I needed to make my attunement stronger. I was nowhere near Carnelian yet — and I was rapidly running out of time to get there. I knew I’d never make enough progress if I kept stopping at the slightest hint of discomfort.
And that was why, if I couldn’t scour the fear from my mind, I needed to beat it through other means.
I needed to outsmart it.
And with that goal in mind, I began my next project.
***
I handed the four completed crystals over to Vellum.
“Oh, you’re still enrolled here? I thought you might have dropped out from shame a couple weeks ago, since these took you so long.”
I grinned. “Sorry to disappoint you, professor. I do have other things to keep me busy.”
That was about seventy percent an excuse, but a fraction of truth was good enough to keep the smile on my face.
She just shook her head. “And I suppose you’ll be wanting the mana out of these?”
“Yeah, and I’d like to see the extraction process, if you don’t mind.”
“Very well.” She nodded, laying out the crystals in a line on the table. She opened a drawer, reached in to withdraw something...
...and hit the first crystal in the line with a hammer.
The quartz casing exploded, chips flying everywhere.
As I gawked, Vellum took a deep breath, and then smashed the next one.
And the next. And the next.
At least the mana crystals themselves remained intact.
“Ah, much better.” She set the hammer down on the table amidst the quartz powder and debris.
I stared blankly. “I...thought you said I wasn’t supposed to damage the casing?”
“Of course not, dear. I enjoy doing it myself far too much to let you do it. Let an old woman bask in one of her few remaining joys in life, hmm?”
I sighed, taking a seat in the chair across from her. She was obviously having a little fun at my expense, but that was tolerable as long as I got the results.
I reached across the table and began to retrieve my hard-earned crystals. “Of course, professor. I would never want to deprive you of such simple pleasures. You wouldn’t happen to have any more practice crystals that I could use?”
“Oh, no, that was the last batch. You can buy them at some of the supply stores on campus, though. They’re cheap or I never would have given you any.”
“Right.” I rubbed my forehead, feeling the grit of powdered quartz dust that had stuck on my fingers when I picked up the mana crystals. “I’ll keep working on those, but I do have another question in the meantime.”
“Oh? Need some advice on how to woo a young lady, perhaps?”
I blinked. Where did she get these absurd ideas?
“No, Professor. A rune-related question, and I think you’re the only one here who might know the answer.”
“With those younger ladies, flattery will get you everywhere — but with me, Corin, you’re better off just keeping me entertained. I do hope this is an interesting question?”
I nodded. “Is it possible to use runes to perform mathematical calculations?”
She steepled her fingers. “That is an interesting question. If you’re thinking about making a magical device to make it easier to perform math in class, however, I’m afraid that the designs required are quite complex — and most common methods are patented, so it’s not something you could easily make and sell.”
Huh. I hadn’t been thinking of something of that level of complexity, but it was good information to have. “Nothing quite like that. Basically, I’m going to have a divination rune that checks for a value, and then I need to run it through an equation and display the resulting number on a surface. I found the runes for the first step, and I think I know how to make the number display, but I couldn’t find anything on the middle part.”
Vellum leaned back in her chair. “That’s not terribly difficult. You want to run the number through the exact same equation every time?”
I scratched my chin. “Yeah. I think so? I’m pretty sure the underlying equation stays stable, but I admit I haven’t dug into it very deeply yet.”