The Sixth School Ch. 041

The next layer of runes in the sigil would take the purification of the mana a step further by removing any aspects that the particular mage may have inculcated into his understanding of magic. As the healer had said, one's aspects affected the very mana they produced and had the potential to affect the one on the receiving end of the mana if unfiltered. These unfiltered aspects may hinder, alter or even taint the formation of aspects for the new prospective mage in ways that were as yet unknown in the present. As such, this layer was meant to ensure that no aspects from the one supplying the mana would affect the one receiving it.

The third layer of the sigil could best be described as a de-concentrator. While she was a seventh-tier mage, at present the healer's mana pathways could only support a mana concentration of up to the third tier, and so that is what she produced. As a mundane human being, however, Greg's body couldn't handle that level of mana. Heck, even tier-one mana would kill Greg if it went over a certain limit. And so what this layer of the sigil did was to break down the mana that came it into lower and lower tiers of mana. No matter what tier of mana came into this layer, it would just keep going round and round this ring until it was brought down to tier one mana. This third ring was the reason why the process could last for ten minutes even though the healer could only maintain magic output for about five minutes at best. It would take between fifteen to twenty units of tier-one mana to match one unit of tier-three mana. As such, despite the process lasting for about ten minutes, the healer never really had to supply more than a minute's worth of mana to the process.

The fourth layer was a containment layer. This layer would create an invisible dome that would separate and isolate the space in the middle of the sigil from the outside world. That way the mana that was concentrated in this small area wouldn't disperse into the atmosphere. The final and centermost layer of the sigil was the injector. Apart from just containing and saturating the area around the subject with mana, this final part of the sigil would ensure that most of the mana would be injected directly into the body of the one in the center of the sigil for maximum effect. It was on this last layer that Greg sat cross-legged.

Fifteen minutes after he'd been pumped full of mana, the pain ebbed enough for Greg to open his eyes and look around himself. Usually, the healer would still be seated just outside the sigil ready to begin their lessons. This time, however, Greg found himself sitting alone. Looking around, Greg saw that his teacher was standing at the mouth of the cave looking out at the mountain. Greg didn't go up to her immediately. Instead, he opened his system and had it absorb the remaining ambient mana held in the containment dome that his body couldn't absorb. The fact that the sigil broke down the mana into tier one mana, over ninety percent of which was injected into his body, meant that very little was left over for the system to collect. The total amount coming to about fifteen thousand magic points.

Greg could get almost eight hundred thousand magic points whenever his teacher healed him directly. As such, fifteen thousand mana points was barely a pittance. Still, given that Greg went through this process three times a day for the past thirty or so days, the numbers had quickly grown. Fifteen thousand multiplied by three came to forty-five thousand magic points a day. That number multiplied by thirty came to about one point three-five million magic points. Greg's current total magic points stood at one million and some change after he'd spent around three hundred and twenty-seven thousand magic points to buy the reinforced tier three flask that Olivia needed to store the essence of corruption that they'd gotten from the last dark crawler they'd killed.

Greg had gotten excited thinking that if it only took a month to gain a million magic points, it would only be five months before he could gain access to the next tier of the magic shop. That, after all, had been the trend with the Eros shop. Every higher tier had cost ten times what the tier that came before it did. And given that the basic magic shop had cost five hundred thousand magic points, he'd guessed that the next tier would cost five million magic points. Olivia, however, had thoroughly burst that bubble by letting him know that the next tier would actually cost him five hundred million magic points.

Greg's disappointment at the revelation had been short-lived when Olivia laid out just how lucky he was to even have access to the first tier of the shop. Some of the items in the shop that he could just buy with magic points, were items that most others in the magic world would give a hand and a leg for. For some, it wasn't an issue of lacking the money to buy it, the items were just so rare that to even hope to get it on the open market was pure fantasy. Even if it was just the first to the third tier, Greg had something that couldn't be quantified in terms of value.

Grimacing slightly in discomfort from how packed with mana every single cell in his body felt, Greg rose to his feet. All the mana in the containment field had been siphoned away by the system. Forcing himself to ignore the pain, Greg walked over to the mouth of the cave where the healer stood arms folded, as she looked out at the land before them. Greg had more than once come to the mouth of the cave himself, just to take in the breathtaking view that lay just beyond the threshold of the cave's entrance. Walking up behind the woman, Greg circled his arms around her waist and pulled her close, his head resting on her shoulder.

Just a few feet from where they stood, everything was covered in snow. An unsurprising fact given how close the cave was to the peak of the mountain they were on. If not for a combination of runic sigils at the door that kept the cold and snow at bay and others within the cave to keep the temperature bearable, the place would have been bitterly cold. From where they stood, one could see a sprawling vista of colorful trees that covered the mountainside in a thick forest. A few trees could withstand the cold this close to the peak. The lower down the mountain one went, however, the more vibrant the flora and fauna of the mountain became. Every once in a while Greg managed to catch a glimpse of some exotic animal among the trees that not even the former Roka was familiar with.

The reason for this was quite simple. This wasn't the mountain Roka grew up in. Every time he was sucked through the straw of the teleportation rooms, Greg felt like he'd moved hundreds of kilometers in a few seconds. Still, it was hard for Greg to wrap his mind around the fact that the mountain the town was on was off in the distance close to the horizon, looking like a small hill compared to the one they were on. The distance between the two points was such that Greg suspected that it would take almost three months of walking to cross from one mountain to the other.

Despite holding the healer close and being so sorely tempted to try and push things further, Greg restrained himself and instead asked. "What's wrong?"

"What makes you think something is wrong?" the healer asked in return.

"You are neither sitting waiting to teach nor are you at your workstation," Greg replied simply. "I've had the chance to watch you over the days I've been learning from you and as you said, you seem drawn to magic and magical research. Whenever you are dealing with people, there's always this ... barrier, between you and them. It is almost as if some part of you can't quite connect to them. Perhaps it's the part of you that was hurt and betrayed, perhaps it's something else. That awkwardness, however, disappears whenever you are doing research. I've watched you work. I've seen the pure curiosity, fascination, and love for magic that animates you whenever you are on the workstation side of your lair. The first time I came to this place, I thought that one side was for work and the other for leisure. However, I was wrong about which side brought you more pleasure. I quickly came to see that one side is for the thing you love doing the most, and the other is only there for those few moments when you can't do it. Either because you've hit a snag and need to clear your mind, or because you are too tired to keep on researching. That you are here looking out of the cave rather than at your desk doing what you love best, tells me that something's bothering you," Greg laid out his reasoning.

There was a bit of silence following Greg's words before the healer let out a somewhat defeated sigh. "Have you given thought to what school of magic you wish to follow?" the healer asked.

A small frown crossed Greg's expression at the somewhat unexpected question. "I thought you said I'd have a few cycles to think about it?" He asked.

"That... that was before I had something extremely selfish to ask of you," The healer replied. This might very well be the first time that Greg had heard the healer stammer as if she was unsure of what to say. Greg could hear the deep conflict in her voice even as she spoke. "I... I want you to become a healer, Roka," she said...

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