Four Horsemen: Chapter 24 Part 2 of 2

Asking a few villagers and he found a well sized barn that had been mostly cleared out, several people were milling around talking.

“If we use some of those screws and a big wooden frame we can crush them out good.”

“Yeah, cut a groove into the side and then the juice will come down in one corner and we can store them away in kegs.”

“Then we dry what’s left in the rafters!”

Petor passed the excited villagers and knocked on the barn door.

“Come in,” Desari said.

Petor pushed it open, the barn was swept clean, there were bags and bags of ingredients, people were working on the tables pressing the ingredients down with planks and draining the liquid. Then it went to others who tied them together in bunches and hung them up.

Desari had her own station set up with various alchemical tools that Petor couldn’t begin to understand.

“Petor?” Desari looked up from her book with a frown.

“Hey Desari, I, uh well what kind of plants are they growing around here?”

“They grow three main plants,” she pointed at the different tables where villagers were working. “Lunar orchids, they love dark places and the moonlight, they also can’t be moved from where they grow. You can use them in potions that will burn creatures of the dark. Then there’s the Bark-root, a tuber that grows in the ground much like a potato. You can create a land sense potion, or a potion to increase your stamina and then there’s landweed, looks like water and the leaves look and shift like waves. The pearls along the side light up when they’re submerged or rained on. You can use the vine for water breathing potions, the leaves will increase one’s speed in the water, the pearls to create a potion light.”

Petor nodded.

They might be worth coin but he grew the emberbloom and stormvine for their destructive ability as well.

“Looking for something to pack a bit more punch,” Petor said.

Desari moved away from the villagers and towards her alchemical table.

“Aetheria is a place that intersects the different elemental planes. We should be ready for mages of every different element as well as creatures. It will depend on how closely the planes intersect. I think water, air and metal element plants would be the best.”

“Well actually I was wondering if you could help me identify something?”

“Sure.”

He drew out the thorny plant.

Desari’s eyes grew wide as she studied it without touching it. “Put that away. That’s, that’s ever-burning bramble. That’s from the Abyssal plane.”

“Okay?” Petor stored it away. “Why do you sound stunned?”

“Such a plant is a pain to grow in anything but the most perfect conditions. One would need to till soil filled with blood and bone marrow. It shouldn’t be able to grow anywhere but a battlefield that’s burning. What did you do?”

“I planted it and then just fed it a steady stream of mana.”

Desari didn’t look convinced.

“I can sense what the plants need. With the right soil, water and environment it means I use less mana to make them grow.”

“What about the ever-burning bramble?”

“Well I haven’t touched it since it started getting spikey. Though I think it wanted a few things I didn’t know, potassium, iron and magnesium, then water and fire. Most say just heat, but this one wanted fire.”

Desari nodded.

“It grows on battlefields in the Abyssal plane and fire makes it seed and helps it to grow. Iron, potassium and magnesium comes from bodies decomposing.”

“I didn’t have a body in the pot.”

“No, but you had mana that allowed you to feed it. Alchemists would want to kidnap you, you don’t need the perfect growing conditions, you can just power past restrictions. Just, don’t tell anyone that deals with ingredients what you can do. Many would do whatever they could to control you.”

Petor shivered slightly, morals were a flimsy thing in most places.

“I also wanted to ask about spells.”

Her eyebrow raised. “Oh?”

“I can enhance myself and I should be able to cast a spell at this point, but I was never really taught about cores, mana, essence or any of this. I can grow the plants, but I’d like to have spells I can use as well, put my mana to more use.”

Desari studied him for several long seconds.

“What kind of spells do you want to cast?”

“Well I was thinking something like calling on water, fire, or something.”

“Can your healing help you get stronger?”

“I don’t think so?”

“If you were to exercise more, when you heal would you remove that muscle mass you’ve gained or would it be fed and added on? There are some that have become immune to poisons or that have tempered their bodies with the elements. Could you do the same?”

“Well I would need poisons to try that out.”

“Easily done,” Desari waved him off.

“I guess I could ask Valter how he got so strong and move around some of his ingots. Though isn’t that kind of ineffective because of having the whole mana thing?”

“Don’t enhance your body with mana, just repair it. Mana will multiply what your body can do. If you were to become two times stronger then when enhanced with mana you would be four times stronger overall,” Desari said.

“Then if I was to get stronger now it would have a larger effect later as we increase our core’s strength?” Petor asked.

“Correct, for you to train your body now you’d need to lift carts of goods, later you might need to lift a castle’s worth to have the same resistance.”

“The core, it passively increases the power of our bodies?”

“Correct, some just focus on the power that their core can give them. Those that are truly dangerous aren’t the ones with the strongest cores, they’re the ones with the most knowledge on how to use that mana,” Desari said.

“Its not the strongest fighter you should be scared of, it’s the most skilled one,” Petor said.

“Correct, one second.” Desari adjusted some flames, took out ingredients, adding them to various concoctions, made a few notes and returned her attention to him, putting down extra chairs.

Petor sat with a nod of thanks, chewing on the new information.

Desari sat and waited.

“I’ll work on increasing my base strength. Though I still don’t know about spells.” Petor said.

“You, are an interesting one,” Desari crossed her right arm and held her chin with her left hand. “Depending on your abilities of memorization you could create some hellishly impressive spells. As long as you can hold the spell form in your mind, with your ability to get back mana from your opponents, you could slowly form complex and higher tier spells than what your mana pool could support.”

She dropped her hand and looked up, deep in thought. “With the body enhancement route, once you’ve increased your own body to the limit you can then use spells to further enhance yourself.” She tilted her head from side to side, chewing on an idea. “One area that could be interesting is pure mana spells.”

“Pure mana?” Petor asked.

“Like the mana blast that you fire out of your new spear. Mana is basically the enemy of every other type of energy, unless you’re fighting a creature that can use mana as well as you.”

“Why don’t more people use it then?” Petor asked.

“It takes a lot of mana. Most people use attributed mana of some kind. This allows them to cast spells of that attribute for a lower mana cost overall.”

“So I have a higher mana cost, but then it should be stronger?”

“Right. Also as you use it and learn more, you’ll get better at understanding mana. Just like how those with fire attribute mana gain a better understanding of heat, on fire and similar things.”

Petor nodded along.

“The way that you take power from others is interesting, you draw in other’s mana, passively ‘cleaning’ it. That’s how you were able to supply Valter and myself mana without our mana channels rejecting it.” She pursed her lips in thought. “Well Valter might be different from me, I think you were charging up his armor instead of him.”

Petor cleared his throat, bringing her back.

“Anyway, you store pure mana, you get more of it by fighting others. Though that’s what I would look at first; Increase your natural strength and resistances with your ability to heal. Then spells to enhance your body. Then pure mana based spells. Then see if you can’t spread out the casting of a spell so you can use spells of a higher tier.”

“So how do I cast spells?” Petor asked.

“First, we’ll start with some cantrips,” Desari rubbed her fingers together, a flame appearing above them.

“Cantrips are the lowest spells you can make, but with time and knowledge they can become some of your strongest weapons.”

She drew her fingers around her, the flame grew, turning into a teardrop of moving fire before it split into several pieces that combined with the fire under different alchemy tools.

“Mana allows one to bend the natural rules of the world, stronger bodies, items, and even the laws that manage heat and water. To cast a spell you must do two things, one, draw your mana forth and out of your body, two you have to create a spell construct in your mind, the more you can think of a flame, its heat, its flicker, the way it draws in the air and chars the wood, the stronger your spell will be.”

Petor remembered the flames that grew all around him in his last moments, the heat of it. The relief and hope for the village, the worry for himself. He focused back on the flames, on fires he’d huddled around to warm up on campaign. The slight heat coming from the alchemical reactions nearby.

He reached out his hand.

“Okay now circulate your mana through your hand, out of a single finger and into that flame.”

A flame appeared above his finger, made of dancing emerald green.

“Interesting, mana without an attribute should be clear, though yours takes on a green tint.”

Petor felt his mana slipping down as he focused on circulating mana to the spell.

“I thought all flames were orange?”

“Mana doesn’t need to obey all the rules of the world, though it certainly makes it easier if you do. The only mana that doesn’t care about the universes’ rules is celestial mana, though that comes with its own inherent differences.”

“So, how do I stop it?”

“Think of the flame going our, or stop feeding it mana.”

Petor stopped circulating the mana to the flame and it dissipated.

“What about making water? Will it disappear if I stop feeding it mana?”

“No, it won’t, though holding a piece of metal and cooling it so that it condenses the surrounding water vapor might be more effective.” Desari stood and moved to her table, shifting things, opening things and moving others.

“Practice with making flames and summoning water. Then start making castles out of the dirt and stone, or manipulating water, flames and the world around you. Remember, small spells, as much mana as you were using for the flame spell. Too much mana and you’ll create a great big effect.” She looked him in the eyes. “And remember, if ever in doubt, stop feeding the spell mana.”

Petor nodded.

She raised her eyebrow.

“When in doubt, stop feeding the spell mana.”

“Good.” She sat back. “Remember it is about how you use a spell and understand it that will make it powerful. You should use spells that enhance what you do already.”

“What does the ever-burning bramble do?”

“It feeds on blood and bones of its enemies. When left unchecked it will spread across battlefields and actively attempt to entrap and ambush those that enter its region.”

“Well I can make it grow, could I use it to cover a large area and make it impassable, change the battlefield?”

“Totally possible, but with such a plant you need to make sure that you can control it. You’d need some kind of plant control spell, and a way to destroy it incase it turned on you.”

Having abyssal plants fighting for him sounded pretty damn cool. If he could grow it enough… kill people and then pump power into the plant? He’d need a way to touch it while being out of the reach of the people trying to kill him.

“Seems that you’re thinking on that one some.”

“Being raised a farmer I’ve been closer to plants than people most of the time,” Petor said.

“Definitely something to take a look at. You were also an acolyte in training,” Desari pulled out two books. “These are plant based spells, this is on different spells that various forces that follow gods utilize. Without invoking their god’s power.”

He took the two books. Desari took out a third and held it.

“This book is on area of effect spells. Pick no more than three. With all of these it is best to have no more than three and to have ones that are similar to one another. A gain in one area will then have a multiplicative effect on the others.”

He took the book slowly.

She drew out several others. Petor stored the ones he already had. Just how many books does she have? They were rare things in Aeld and mostly chained to shelves so they wouldn’t go missing.

“These are books on the body, most used by healers.”

“Thank you.” He accepted the books.

“Enjoy and let me know how things go.”

“I will. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Well with how you’re developing those plants, it won’t be long till I’m asking you a favor for a few plants. When we get to Aetheria we can go through the markets and see about getting you some stronger plants.”

“Thanks, truly.” He held her eyes.

She waved him off. “If you’re stronger we’re stronger.”

He felt something shift as if some kind of armor had shifted under her skin. Petor nodded. “I’ll be going.”

“Bye.” She turned back to her table, Petor headed out of the barn, he had plenty to read on now.

He summoned semi-transparent emerald flames on his finger, studying it as he walked through the village.

He dismissed it before anyone saw it.

I’m going to have to find some heavy things to move around.