Eminence in Technomancy c1

After taking the brown blob, I collected all the steel weapons the bandits had and took them to my place.

The day was getting shorter, so I swiftly returned to carving my hole.

Once it reached enough depth, I started to dig towards the stream. My hole was between the stream and the boulders.

On my right was the water stream, and on the left was the clearing with boulders.

For now, I used simple reinforcement to keep the dirt above my head.

Once Triple Core Reactor is online, I won't need to cast magic on dirt above me. The reactor will generate gravity to keep the ceiling in place.

That reactor is one of the best things I have ever invented because of its versatility.

After making a room and a roof above my head, I collected a bunch of wood and transmuted it into a bed; apart from that, I took some bark and leaves and turned them into rubber, creating a makeshift elastic mattress.

With these things done, I called the day as the sun was already down.

The next day, I went to work to make drinkable water; mana can sustain me for as long as I want. But my body is different when it comes to that.

It wants food and water. Because of that, I decided to employ the water stream on the right side of my ‘manhole’.

To do that, I need to dig. My digging is a simple employment of mana. I send a wave of mana into the dirt; the stream of energy settles in, and then I pull, removing all that dirt which has settled mana in it.

The progress is swift when you have a large amount of mana.

And I do have a lot of mana. My soul holds a type 3 reactor. However, the issue is that my body is different from my soul. Such an arrangement means it is imbalanced, making my mana flow smaller than I want.

But this is enough to build a lab.

Once I reached the spot where I was right above the stream, I started to transmute all that extra dirt I collected into makeshift aqueducts.

‘Let's add some motion runes~ this will give my lab some power before I kick start the reactor.’

With future ideas for water in mind, I spent several hours extra building the water system.

Since I want it to constantly flow, the water has to go somewhere. So why not send it back into its original stream a couple dozen metres away? The earth there is lower, so I would turn it into a pipe.

After playing with the system for a bit, I opened the ‘valve’ or, more like, a lid. The water started to fall into the aqueduct.

The motion runes caught the water. The water could only move after accumulating enough mass, again and again.

I watched how several magic circles started to light up.

The water was generating power. A little bit, but it's enough.

Little by little, the lights in my two rooms started to come to life.

So far, I only have a hole, which is the entrance; the entrance room, which has my bed and the brown blob; a corridor; and the water room.

And, of course, the ‘pipes’ set towards the south to discharge the water back to the stream's original route.

I went outside to check my impact on the water stream.

The hole where the water falls into the aqueduct isn't that big. But water has something called erosion.

It will eventually get more prominent. That's enough reason to finish the reactor as soon as possible.

After an outside inspection, I returned to reinforce the aqueducts and the walls with more reinforcement.

With those things done, I decided to look for food, as the feeling of an empty stomach started to bug me.

~~~

After hunting a deer and finding some berries, I started to cook.

It has been ages since I hunted myself. It reminds me of my time in Canada.

At the same time, I get annoyed just remembering that time.

That's why I usually don't think much about that time. It was a moment of peak humanity’s stupidity.

“Right…so I have the deer skin. I can transmute this stuff into silk clothes.”

A few minutes later, I looked at a circle on the ground. With a palm strike, I send mana into it. The process started to glow, and the brownish deer skin turned into a silk ball.

“Now, to turn this into clothes.” I sighed at the prospect of more tedious tasks.

Eventually, my gaze went to the brown blob.

For a moment, I pondered what to do.

‘Right… just slap the analysis circle.’

I walked over and, with my wooden stick, I started to draw a circle around the blob.

It was simple: a round line around the blob, and the analysis runes followed after.

The scan discerns what mana this blob has; analysis will follow the rules of runes I have set.

The issue of such self-learning magic is the limits I have set.

This type of ritual magic was used by me when I would discover new solar systems and planets.

I added such a system to my Magical Artificial Intelligence. Well, now it's gone. So yeah–

I am long past the seething part.

But it still bugs me.

Losing a whole life's progress to something like a supernova is absurd. I never even considered such a possibility.

Regardless, back to the scan. Each rune has a frequency of mana; the circle will compare the blob’s mana to the frequencies I set in these runes.

In simple terms, it's something like If human-type, it has A type mana, positive mana B, negative mana C, and so on.

Nothing impressive, but I will learn the angle of this— thing.

And I will know where to start my research.

As the scan started, I proceeded with creating spare clothes; for this, I used an assembly-based circle.

The method is more complex than the scan as it has overlapping circles interacting.

But before I could finish, the scanning finished, and I needed to pause.

“Hmm, I think I am getting rusty. It shows human, positive, negative and other at once.” I blinked a couple of times while exclaiming with disbelief.

“Fine. In that case.” I started to alter the circle to increase the depth of the scan.

Removing all other runes and focusing on four things highlighted by the circle. Human, Positive, Negative and ‘Other’.

Since ‘Negative’ was highlighted, it could be some sort of corruption.

Since it looks like a slime or some sort of blob of energy, I proceeded to add things related to that.

The in-depth scan lasted several days as I would alter runes to find more constructive answers.

Eventually, I got something which made sense.

“Dormant energy went out of control and consumed this human. This mana is volatile, and it's corrupting by nature. That's why it lost its original form.”

After learning that, I wrote down the formula of this energy and started to solve the equation.

It has been ages since I used mathematics to solve something as simple as the type of mana instead of celestial bodies and gravitational pulls.

It lasted several more days since I had to do some other things. Like building an entrance to my ‘manhole’, creating a proper room and installing a basic shower, toilet, and kitchen.

By the time I finished this, I had learned how to lower the disobedience of this energy.

In other words, I could use this as a weapon. Make people turn into blobs or turn them back.

From the surface research I have done so far, this looks like flesh rotting, and it affects at a soul level.

The other thing is that it looks like a curse and something along the lines of being an implant.

The question is, has this volatile mana implanted in this person?

Someone has been doing experiments in such a backwater place.

My guess is some crazy mage trying to harness some sort of negative power. Demonic? Maybe, but it's still too early to say.

As I pondered my current finding, I have been testing this new frequency, which will affect the blob.

It was like music, in a sense. I'm trying to get those waves in at a specific time before trying out.

“Hmm…”

I pointed my fingers at the blob and started to bombard it with the new frequency.

At first, there was no reaction, but then black and red lightning started to crack around it. The blob reacted violently.

It started to glow before rapidly shrinking and turning into a girl around my biological age.

She had long blonde hair.

But then my eyes widened as I saw her ears!

For a second, a small gulp escaped from my mouth. This girl, she was an elf!

At that moment, I realised I was in a legitimate fantasy world!

As I was realising my situation, the naked blonde elf slowly opened her eyes. They were blue; she looked directly at me.

“...You…You removed Demonic Possession!?” She exclaimed with disbelief as she looked at her hands.

“... Unbelievable! You have saved my life! My life is yours!” The girl's reaction was utterly unexpected!

“...Huh?”

“...Please!”

“...Huh?”

“...”

“Wait, why do you want to give yourself to me like this?” I said with a confused look. I thought after solving this, I could give her to some elven people, maybe getting a chance to study their stuff.

“... Isn't it obvious? I HAD demonic possession. They exiled me from my home; I can never return. I have nowhere else to go.” She said that with a range of emotions.

“...I see… so you are just like me.” After hearing that, I frowned, realising that this girl was just like me.

“Like you? Then why didn't you accept?”

“Oh, you don't want to hear who I am and what you are getting yourself into?”

“...No. I don't care. You saved my life from a gruesome death; this life now belongs to you.”

She said with steel in her voice. This girl is dead serious.

“Fair enough. However, once you are on this road, you have no way back. I am serious; once you learn things from me, it's my knowledge. It belongs to me.

Do I make myself clear?” I told her with steel in my voice as well. Only my voice made her tremble for a bit.

“Yes, I understand.”

“Good, then what is your name?” I asked after walking over, picking up spare clothes, and throwing them at her.

“...My name? My name is gone. It died when I was —reduced to that thing.” She exclaimed with a disgusted look.

“...Hmm, so you want me to name you?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“...Yes, My Lord, you have to name me.”

“...”

I looked at her for a bit. I could name her Blondie, but that's just—ugh.

For a bit, I looked around, eventually looking down at the magic circles on the floor.

My eyes ended up on a specific letter.

“...Your name…I will call you Alpha.” I said that while looking at the letters.

“It's the first letter in the Ancient Greek Alphabet.”

“...I Understand, then from now on, I am Alpha. What is your name, my Lord?” She asked respectfully after dressing up in my spare clothes.

“My name—” I wanted to say Lucan, but that name has no meaning. I haven't forgotten who I was before my rebirth.

“I am Marcus Goldman; I hold the title of Grand Alchemist and the Explorer of Stars.”

“...did you just say, Alchemist?” Her mouth slowly opened up when she heard that.

“Have you heard about them?” I asked curiously.

“Who didn't!? The legends and stories about people who can turn metal into gold, deny death, and heal anything! I thought such a profession was nothing more than a myth!”

“Well, I am not originally from here. I was reborn in the body of a child after my death.”

“...Amazing! Even real death couldn't take you!”

I could hear how her voice turned into that of worship. Did I just start a cult?