Chapter 47 - Efficiency

[Regrettably, it did not work…]

When Lily awoke, Arakil informed her. She felt extremely disheartened that she couldn't help him more tangibly at the moment.

[It seems the restrictions placed on me prevent me from interacting with outside magical constructs to improve my condition. This means that if I'm to gain more Mana, we either need more concoctions, or better yet, you to learn Mana imbuing.]

"I've been asking Camilla to teach me how to do it without her ladle," Lily replied. "So, hopefully, I'll learn how to do it soon. Then I'll give you back as much Mana as you want!"

[Thank you, Lily. Enough to repair some of my functionality would be ideal for our goals. Although before that, I still need to locate a method for attuning your Mana Core to Astral.]

"It feels like with every step forward, we take two steps back…" Lily mumbled. "Mana, Mana, mana… I wish there was a better way to get it."

[Well. Drinking Rose's blood would be one way. However, I know you are averse to that. The quickest method after that would be trying to find some monsters.]

"But I only have a few glyphs left…" Lily sighed. "Which means I need to learn how to imbue… Which I need more Mana and practice to do… Ugh…"

[It certainly feels like a paradoxical dilemma. Still, with time and effort, you should reach it eventually. You can cross monsters off until you're better supplied; we do not want to risk your safety.]

"I'll do my best!" Lily replied enthusiastically.

***

Lily spent days trying to better herself as much as possible. Some of the staff had even spoken with her out of concern that she was becoming secluded after Rose's departure.

Margit had teased her about becoming a hermit, but Lily refuted that by pointing out that she left daily to work in Camilla's shop.

Camilla had reluctantly agreed to let Lily start practicing brewing without the ladle, although the lessons were far too infrequent for her liking. Camilla was ever the penny pincher and would only let Lily do it on the most inconsequential potions, and since Camilla was profit-focused, they were at the bottom of the crafting list.

After plenty of pleading, Camilla eventually relented and gave her a few more obscure and simple brews. It was possibly some of the hardest work she had ever done, and it was so frustrating trying to get her raw Mana to leave her body.

Both Arakil and Camilla had told her it was something that took a lot of time and practice, but Lily was growing impatient. If she could cast a spell using her Mana, then why couldn't she just put her Mana into ink or a potion brew?

Arakil had explained it as the spell enticing the Mana to behave as expected, where manipulating your raw Mana was a much larger endeavor. Camilla told her she just needed more time. Lily hated that answer.

Lily continued to cast her Starlight spell every day and eventually reached a third little pinprick of a star when she cast it. She figured, ultimately, she would have an entire little constellation of stars in the palm of her hands and giggled excitedly at the eventual possibility.

The Mana gathering went surprisingly well. Lily had completed doubling her range and proudly told Arakil when he threw a spanner into the works by telling her to now focus on making the rings even tighter.

"But if I make them tighter, my range will be so much smaller!" Lily protested.

[Correct; however, to absorb the Mana contained within Rose's gift, you want it as tight as possible for maximum efficiency. If you attempted to absorb it now, you might get less than 10% of it.]

Lily reluctantly sighed and then spent all her remaining meditation time trying to make the spiral as tight as possible. She had thought it was a major accomplishment when she had contained her new maximum length into half her previous extended size. But instead, Arakil told her to work on it more .

Through gritted teeth, she continued to make the spiral tighter and tighter until she reached the deadline for the potion. If she didn't absorb it now, it would harden and be potentially wasted.

Lily had expected a complicated explanation, but Arakil had just mentioned pouring the contents in a circle around her board and then proceeding with the meditation while making as tight of a spiral as possible.

I really expected more… Like placing it within another glyph and linking it to my board or something. I'm almost disappointed by how dull this is.

And so, with reluctance, she popped open the potion stopper and immediately frowned at the coppery and slightly sulfuric scent. She also immediately could feel the warmth radiating from the mouth of the bottle.

This potion bottle really sealed everything up… It's crazy how hot it is after all this time. I can't believe Rose forced me to drink this! Or that she expected me to drink it again!

Sighing, Lily began pouring it out into a thin circle around her board. She was not looking forward to cleaning it up and was suddenly extremely glad she didn't have carpeting in her room. She kept swallowing repeatedly while holding back on retching and tried her best to pick up the pace.

When the last drop was poured out, she practically leaped onto the board and meditated. Hoping that her little, mental, inner world would be enough to distract her from the horrible smell and grim reminder of the past.

When she took a deep breath to start, she nearly lost her supper and cursed herself for forming that habit at the start of each meditation session. Thankfully, she recovered in time, and when she found herself creating her spiral, she noted all the flecks of red floating about.

It's very different from the last time…

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Lily began drawing things inward with her spiral, but she noted that the red flecks seemed extremely reluctant to flow into it. With a slight panic, she started increasing the density of her spiral, trying to add as many rings as possible.

Eventually, after adding numerous rings, some of the flecks finally started flowing into the spiral toward her Mana Core. Lily wanted to let out a sigh of relief, but she was far from over, and she needed to do more. Only the smallest flecks were now flowing, and the larger ones still remained rooted. Worst of all, she noticed that some flecks began dimming as if about to wink out!

Maybe I should have just drunk it? Lily thought with horror before shaking her head. No! I can do this!

Tighter, more rings, more spirals, constrict it together!

Lily felt drenched as she sweated from the effort and panic setting in. Even forming her Mana Core hadn't felt this bad, and she now understood why Arakil had been reluctant to use this method. Ingesting it must have done something to loosen the Mana, perhaps with it mingling with her internals, whereas now she was trying to forcibly extract it out.

Lily lost track of time. She'd gathered what she could, and once it was in her spiral, it began cleansing from the crimson red to the iridescent silver she had grown so fond of. When the last stubborn red fleck faded, she wanted to collapse, but she had to hold on for a bit longer until she finished purifying and reinforcing her Mana Core.

"I did it…" Lily whispered, fatigue dripping in her voice.

Her Mana Core shimmered with a fresh silvery coating, and she smiled happily before opening her eyes and nearly collapsing.

She immediately glanced outside, but judging by the night sky, hardly any time had even passed. She frowned in frustration. It had felt like hours , but it might have barely been one.

She sighed and looked at the floor, grimacing at the reddish-brown, almost black sludge surrounding her. She would have sworn it was left on the floor for weeks if she hadn't just poured it out moments ago.

"Is it because I sucked the Mana out of it? Because that's really gross…" Lily whined.

Lily carefully stood up and stepped over the boundary, not wanting to touch it barefoot. Grabbing a damp cloth, she began trying to wipe her floor, and to her great relief, it seemed to come off with only a little bit of elbow grease. With her floor clean and the cloth disposed of, Lily finally grabbed Arakil to inform him of her partial success.

[I did warn you there would be some loss; however, it sounds like you did a fantastic job regardless.]

"Why was it so much harder? Why did having it inside me make it easier?" Lily asked with slightly morbid curiosity.

[Once inside you, it is surrounded by your entire being and subject to the full weight of your aura. Even though you didn't have a fully formed Mana Core at the time, one's personal aura is a powerful mystical force that cannot be easily overcome.]

"Aura?" Lily asked, tilting her head. "I don't really get it, but is that all it can do?"

[Its primary use is to prevent foreign spells from invading you directly. Imagine how dangerous and deadly spells would be if someone could manifest a firebolt directly inside you. Your aura prevents such a tragedy from occurring, whether you want it to or not. Likewise, your personal aura helps you claim what is inside of you, should you want it to.]

Lily shuddered. She had definitely had a nightmare or two in which she had misplaced a directional sigil, and when she cast the glyph, it placed the flame directly in her head. She was suddenly extremely grateful to hear that such an event couldn't occur.

Arakil then had Lily do some tests by using her freshly nurtured Mana Core. She had to cast Starlight until she was empty and count how many times she could cast it until empty, then meditate until full.

It took some time, but in the end, Arakil had a rough estimation of how much she had grown and her gains from Rose's gift. According to Arakil, Lily probably gathered just under 60% of the Mana contents. Even though he praised her, Lily couldn't help but feel a bit down from that tidbit.

I wasted almost half of it…

Besides that, Lily had progressed quite well and likely doubled her capacity since forming her Mana Core. While it sounded impressive, she once again realized that doubling 1 made 2, while doubling 3 made 6. Her Core was tiny , so saying it more than doubled gave her mixed feelings.

However, what did cheer her up was Arakil praising her regeneration and the purity of her Mana. He had mentioned that originally, he thought they would need to cleanse her Core from Rose's intervention, but her quick thinking had saved them that trouble.

[While you are undoubtedly a bit upset by these small gains, you have great potential. An extremely pure Mana Core would be highly sought after in my times, and like I keep telling you, we have the time to grow.]

"I just… Want to catch up," Lily admitted. "I don't want to be left behind. I want to go to Regarth with Rose, and I'm worried that I'm nowhere near where she was. You didn't see her that time with the gremlins; it was crazy… I can't do anything like that!"

[Well… If you wish to be more like Rose, should your next lesson be an astral attack spell?]

Lily paused when she read those words. She instinctively wanted to shout yes, anything to be slightly closer to Rose. But then logic and reason kicked in. Where could she even practice an offensive spell? She couldn't exactly shoot it against her wall and didn't feel brave enough to venture outside the walls until she had glyph ink and stacks of prepared glyphs to protect her.

"No … I think I'd rather learn something more defensive… Or maybe a spell with some utility?" Lily eventually responded.

[Good answer! While idolizing your big sister is admirable, remember that you are your own person and can forge your own path. As for utility or defense… The defensive Astral spells might be too much for you until we grant you the affinity.]

"Oh…" Lily replied, slightly downhearted.

[Do not fret! I think I have the perfect utility spell for you. Both you and Rose seemed enamored with the shadow cloak glyph, so I'm positive this one will entice you.]

"That glyph was a lot of fun and really useful," Lily said excitedly. "What's this astral one called? What does it do?"

[Nebula Veil. You shroud yourself in space dust. It's similar to the shadow cloak in its uses, and while not as powerful in the darkness, it still can be used to some success in the daylight.]

"Nebula Veil…." Lily repeated with awe in her voice.

[It can also make quite the fashion statement. So, would you like to learn this spell?]

"Yes!" Lily answered with zero hesitation.