A Relatively Powerful Mage

Imri looked through his notes one last time. He had been frustrated by his lack of contributions to the migration. He had quickly discarded some of his more extravagant ideas. He was still a long way off from rendering backpacking logistics irrelevant. Still, if he couldn’t solve that problem he would find another meaningful method of contributing.

His epiphany had come while he had been walking, his mind free to ponder things as he monotonously put one foot in front of the other. He recalled a conversation he had with Zathri, where the Chixel had mentioned the importance of mana density. It not only affected the rate at which mana recovered but also the rate and effects of natural treasures, with higher density areas producing them more frequently and with greater effects. Unfortunately, it also affected the rate and strength of monsters on the same axis as treasures.

Zathri had speculated that the mana density of areas ripped from Earth would be almost zero, though they claimed that even pre-integration Earth didn’t actually have zero mana, just extremely dismal amounts. They had also theorized that anything adjacent to those areas would probably either have violent mana storms, due to the clashing densities, or a mana density on the lower end of the spectrum. Zathri thought the stone forest they were currently in was an example of the latter, while the shooting stars in the plains were an example of the former, with the shooting stars actually being globs of condensed mana.

Despite the importance of mana density, they currently don’t have a direct way of measuring it. The best Imri could do was measure the density through his Discerning Eye trait which gave him mana sight. However, this was far too inexact for Imri’s liking. Even the Chixel, who had lived in a world full of mana and had developed a society around magic, had yet to find a direct tool for measuring mana. Instead, they relied on indirect analysis, giving areas a rough classification after studying the treasures and monsters. He thought it was appalling that such an oversight existed, and his latest project sought to remedy this.

His solution was so simple he was kicking himself for not figuring it out sooner. One of the other benefits of high mana density was that it made a great location for mana gathering facilities. They worked by gathering mana particles that passed onto an enchanted panel. While these facilities were much larger in scale than anything Imri could produce, he had produced a small prototype to practice the runes. The mana required to run the prototype far exceeded the amount of mana it could accumulate by several orders of magnitude. Imri had mentally filed that away in his mind, intending not to revisit the concept until he had gained quite a few levels and better materials.

Now he was reinscribing those very runes on a thin sheet of copper. He had measured the dimensions of the film as precisely as possible, creating a 10 centimeter by 10 centimeter square. The thin sheet was placed over a wooden board to give the item structure, with a small gemstone on the back for a mana supply.

Next came some math, as Imri worked to come up with some standard measurement of mana density. He set the standard as a square meter, so he multiplied by 100 to compensate for the small handheld device. He also multiplied twice to eliminate the mana loss due to transference, eliminating a dependency on material components. The hardest variable to account for was the mana efficiency of the enchantment. While he had a decent idea of approximately what the final item's mana efficiency would be, he certainly couldn’t accurately say exactly what it would be, there were too many variables. Instead, he worked in a set of runes that would activate the first time sufficient mana was available. The runes would reference the mana efficiency of the mana collection runes and divide so that the number was standardized to 100 mana efficiency, a nice even number that any half decent enchanter should easily be able to create with the worst components. He also had to standardize the amount of time the collection rune ran, setting it to be a variable that multiplied the amount of time to one minute, no matter how long the collection ran. This meant a sample run for six seconds would be multiplied by 10 while an hour long sample would be divided by 60. This left his final measurement as mana per square meter per minute per 100 mana efficiency.

The next problem was how to send those results to the operator. Fortunately, this was also a problem he had dealt with in other enchantments, specifically his range-finder tool. He had experimented with two options, the first was a noise rune that would read out the results in a mechanical voice. While this was doable, it wasn’t as practical as the second option, which involved the first enchantment he had ever learned. The light runes could be used to form a crude display. It took a fair amount of work to have the lights configured so that they would display the numeric result.

Imri had decided to use a separate item to create the display, fashioning a crude display screen out of a small old-fashioned mirror that had an ornate silver border and back. He had been wanting to try having a two-piece enchantment, the idea actually originating from the wicked soul capture dagger he had claimed from the Chixel priest. It was linked to the giant crystal which had powered the main enchantment with both items being linked despite not being physically connected, an enchantment network. Unfortunately, this was the most difficult part of the enchantment he was currently working on. He would need to create runes on the mana collection panel that would send the results to the display, with corresponding runes to pick up that data.

As the hours passed Imri’s fatigue from the hard days hike began to affect him. He could feel his mind sluggishly working through the problems that came up, at this point fueled only by his enthusiasm for solving a difficult problem. At last, he admitted defeat as he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere with some rather elementary problems that would have only taken him moments to figure out when he wasn’t exhausted. He had made good progress, and he felt confident another session would see his new tool completed. He also had been rewarded for his hard work, a level up notification pinging his mind. He ignored it, knowing he would have plenty of time to review it during tomorrow's hike. He instantly fell asleep the moment he lay down.

The next day was hell, he had only gotten a scant few hours of sleep. Normally this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but before the integration, he had often worked with almost no rest when an interesting problem was stuck in his head. However, those days didn’t involve grueling hikes with a heavy pack. He was miserable, and it showed as he was often prodded by the rear guard to pick up the pace when he had struggled to keep up.

Despite his miserable state, he still did his best to focus on the last steps that would be needed to finish the enchantment. While he wanted to solve the problem as quickly as possible simply due to his obsessive nature, there was a second motivator. He wanted the tool to be available as soon as possible so they could get several readings of the mana density in the forest. This would allow them to have a baseline to compare against when they reached the plains and mountains since he doubted the numeric value would mean anything without context, it was a unit of measurement he had just invented.

As if his sleep-addled brain needed another problem, a system notification pinged his mind. It was especially surprising given that he hadn’t done anything that warranted a skill or level up. The notification also felt more insistent, as if the system had put a metaphorical red exclamation to grab his attention, something it had never done.

System Notification

One month has elapsed since inhabitants materialized on this world. Congratulations on surviving this first phase. Many talented individuals will now vie for control over this planet, and to do so they will need to establish their seat of power. To this end, such individuals have been awarded the nexus of civilization. Once placed, the nexus will provide benefits to those who live within their boundaries, as well as access to a system run shop. Once placed a nexus can no longer be moved. Additional information will be available to those who have access to a nexus.

System Notification

Congratulations, you have earned the right to be a progenitor, giving you access to a nexus of civilization. Once placed, the nexus cannot be moved, establishing a settlement. You will be given special access to designate citizens and nobility for your settlement. All individuals will receive a benefit to resource regeneration and experience gained while within the radius of effect. You can access a system run shop from the nexus hub, see the shop for additional details. Additional functions of the nexus will be unlocked as the settlement evolves and ranks up. System events and quests will be generated that reward settlement advancement. Settlements can also be advanced by destroying other nexus. Nexus also advance slowly based on the amount of currency generated through taxation. Progenitors may freely give their nexus to another progenitor instead of placing their nexus, resulting in the original nexus advancing. You will have one week to place the nexus from when this notification was sent, at which time it will shatter if not placed.

New Achievement Gained Primary Stat Bonus Description

Progenitor .15% You have distinguished yourself, reaching level 10 within the first month of the integration.

Imri read through the notification several times, cursing at the terrible timing. Why couldn’t it have come a day earlier when he wasn’t sleep deprived? He supposed he shouldn’t be too upset, if it had come much sooner they wouldn’t be able to place it where they were planning to settle.

He was somewhat surprised that his now flagging pace hadn’t caused another prod from the rear guard, but he quickly noticed why. Nearly everyone had stopped to read the notification, not just those who had become progenitors. It soon became apparent that they wouldn’t be going anywhere without addressing the numerous questions people had, so an early halt was called for a quick lunch and learn.

It quickly became apparent that everyone had gotten the same first system notification. Everyone also got a second notification, though only he and Zhaire got the message for progenitors, everyone else got a notification informing them to seek out settlements with nexus to gain their benefits. Sylvi was a bit disappointed that she hadn’t qualified to become a progenitor, the 10 level requirement referred to heritage levels and not total levels, missing it by only a single level.

When the camp learned that both Imri and Zhaire had qualified to become progenitors there was a clamor of excitement. No one was surprised, but it was still reassuring to everyone that this group was capable. Unfortunately, this left them with an awkward situation, which of them would be the one to establish the settlement? Imri doubted Zhaire would simply give up his nexus without concessions if he even would.

It took a while to satisfy everyone's curiosity, though eventually everyone’s questions were sufficiently answered to the point where they could continue their journey. The conversations and speculations continued as they hiked through the stone forest. As exciting as the nexus was, Imri’s mind soon wandered back to his mana density measuring device. While it was likely far less significant in the grand scheme of things, it was something he could solve. There were too many questions about the nexus that he couldn’t answer before they were deployed.

Despite being completely exhausted when they stopped for the day, Imri was determined to finish his project. He fought off the sleep that threatened to claim him, quickly setting up his workspace where he had left off the night prior. Imri quickly began testing the ideas he had formulated during the day. It took him several tries to get the two separate pieces to connect, but eventually, he managed. With that done, the rest of the enchantment was simple, combining concepts he had already put into practice. With a satisfied grin, he finished inscribing the final rune with an emphatic flourish.

With the device ready, he channeled some mana into both pieces. With that done he tapped a rune that activated it and began taking a measurement. He tapped the rune ten seconds later to get his results. A second later number appeared in the mirror, glowing a neon green color. While the display left something to be desired in terms of readability, Imri was able to make out the result, 10.11. As he suspected, the number didn’t mean much to him, other than giving him an idea of how much mana could be absorbed if we were to create mana absorbing panels.

He took several more readings, just to make sure the device wasn’t spitting out random meaningless numbers. While he sometimes got a slightly different number, all the numbers were within .1 of the mean, and some fluctuations were expected as mana density wasn’t entirely constant in an area. He also tested different durations for the measurements, just to ensure the math was accounting for this. This worked as expected, and he noticed the longer tests seemed more precise, deviating by less than .01.

Satisfied that his prototype was working as well as he could manage, Imri went about applying the finish. He used some of the mid level cores from the camp supplies, not needing the device to be particularly mana efficient. However, due to the sheer number of runes involved, he was forced to use a second core to complete the project.

Imri Padar has reached Level 9 in Runic Enchanter (1E)

Primary Stats Gained New Value

+1 Constitution 101

+1 Intelligence 153

+1 Willpower 136

+1 Charisma 94

Secondary Stats Gained

+1 HP 118

+4 MP 230

+3 Mana Efficiency 243

+4 Crafting Efficiency 252

Quest Updated Progress

Runic Enchanter rank up E to D Craft functioning runes 50/50, Design 10 different enchantments 8/10, Craft 15 different runes 15/15

Imri smiled at his rapid progress. In just over a week he had almost completed his profession rank up quest, something he hadn’t done for his class despite having gotten it much sooner. He endeavored to finish the quest once they set up the settlement, resorting to slight alterations of existing designs if necessary. His elation was slightly dampened as he felt a tinge of jealousy and annoyance through his bond with Emelia. She quickly quashed the emotion, but Imri vowed not to brag about his recent progress. He went to bed even more exhausted the night before, his mind finally subdued now that it no longer had an immediate problem to solve.