Reincarnated as a mana core

Argul watched as her daughter’s avatar vacated the centre of her field of view at a leisurely place and finally came to a stop to her left. Then her daughter turned half to her and smiled warmly. “Are you ready?”

Argul wasn’t sure. This decision and its outcome made her anxious, but she also knew that most of her doubts were irrational and so, she told herself that everything would be fine, trying to dismiss her anxiety with little success. Then, to really give herself the push she needed, Argul mentally zoomed out and gazed upon the entirety of her domain.

This was the representation of all she had achieved during her last year. 14 worlds of their own, each the origin of their own unique plant and animal species. These 14 worlds were the tangible result of her actions.

What she would do next however, would prove to herself that she had not only progressed her abilities and passions, but also as a person, with all the good and bad that entailed. One year ago she was a deathly depressed 20 year old who wasn’t able to imagine his own future and face his fears, but now she was different. Now, she was a pioneer of all things magical, a mother and surrogate aunt and the lord of her own little universe, though definitely not a god. She was a person who could choose to overcome her fears and dislikes and knew should she ever try to do so, she would succeed. Most importantly however, she was no longer alone.

Argul took a deep mental breath and thought, “Yes, I’m ready.” and if she wasn’t then she would fake it until it became reality. Then she focused. Were she in her own avatar right now she would have closed her eyes, but in her true body that wasn’t necessary, though the act would have been comforting.

The way mana travelled through her domain had to change and as the creator and owner of this place it was her right to do so. The mana would listen.

She left the two lowest floors 13 and 14 alone, not particularly liking the idea of leaving a massive trail that would lead people and worse, monsters, directly to her core. Seeing as she was producing endless amounts of mana she was basically the holy grail of this universe and the ultimate treasure. She would keep it this way for all the lowest floor pairs in the future.

With that defence in place, it was time for the true changes to commence. After having supplied the lowest two floors, the mana created by her would enter the portals and emerge from the one on the third lowest floor. Then, the only portals the mana was allowed to use were those on the first floor. Between these two floors mana would have to use the entrances between the floors to make it through Argul’s domain.

The third rule she established was that the floor number equaled the minimum mana density level required that the upwards moving mana had to achieve on that floor. Unlike before however, areas above the minimum mana density would no longer be forcefully lowered to the floor level.

This distinction was important, because with the abolishment of the rule that any intent bound mana had to be removed from her domain, said mana would no longer be subjected to the fate pact Argul had with the universe Lotusriver. It was technically no longer hers after all. The intent bound mana could and would be pulled along the currents of her mana rivers, but if the currents became too weak or the mana strayed too far from them it would no longer be subjected to the pull and could accumulate in a place, thus creating areas with higher mana density.

The change wrought by Argul’s new set of rules was immediate and noticeable, yet easily overlooked. Mana spewed forth from the portals on her 12th floor, creating great rivers that snaked their way to the first floor, sometimes splitting into smaller rivers, sometimes joining together.

The rivers of mana themselves weren’t really observable. The movement of mana was always nigh instantaneous and as such not visible, much like electricity, but like electricity one could still feel the current running along if it became strong enough.

By the time the rivers of mana arrived on Argul’s first floor their individual mana densities varied wildly. The large and with time still growing amount of entrances between her floors forced the mana streams to split up again and again and depending on where they flowed through the streams lost more or less of their volume. As a result a rare few of the mana streams on the first floor still had mana density levels of 8 or 9. Equally rare were the streams that barely managed to get to the first floor at all, but most of the streams had density levels higher than the floor levels.

The creatures native to Argul’s domain noticed the change practically right after it happened and began congregating close to the rivers. More mana was always better and because they evolved in mana environments, they understood that instinctively.

This created something that because of the large amount of unused space had never really happened in her domain until now, competition. It didn’t make the animals stupid, but, provided they felt like they could win, they now started fighting each other for territory in a mana stream and it didn’t matter whether they were predator or prey. This wasn’t a fight for food, but one for strength.

The creatures from outside of Argul’s domain however, didn’t seem to notice a thing. Not even the Doombluffers noticed the mana stream entering their Volcano or the many streams flowing through the ocean. Though to be fair they were bound to do so the next time they got close to one.

Still, this difference in behaviour would give her own creatures an ever increasing advantage in the near and far future and that made Argul much more happy than it probably should.

Together with her daughter she observed her changed domain for a while and silently lamented the reality that the changes brought by the intent rule would take a long while to become apparent.

Then Alyra turned once more and looked gravely at Argul. The time for fun was over and now came the consequences.

Not a moment later and without giving Argul the time to regret her decision the dam broke. This time mana poured forth from the portals on the first and she watched first with dread, then confusion and then in quiet elation and excitement.

What Argul hadn’t thought of before was that the rule about her mana flow went both ways. The faith mana had to enter on the first floor, travel to the 12th and only then was it allowed to use the portals to reach her 14th. As a result it had to fight against the slowly strengthening current the whole way, a current that was sometimes already stronger than the prayers on the first.

Argul watched as her little mistake ripped the prayers apart and the weaker pieces were swept away until only the purest kernel of them remained. Those remained stubborn though and managed to arrive on her 14th floor, all just one step shy of becoming liquid mana.

Since the faith mana didn’t face resistance on Argul’s last floor it quickly arrived at her core where it accumulated. The individual prayers didn’t combine thankfully and like asteroids they formed a belt that slowly rotated around her core.

Argul waited for a few more moments, unsure if more prayers would arrive, but the faith mana that kept entering her domain didn’t manage to penetrate through the mana rivers. She assumed that this was intent passively given off by people and not supported by the skill [prayer]. Seeing as this passive faith mana wasn’t strong enough to reach her and probably inferior in quality, she was fine with that.

Without more prayers arriving though, Argul put her attention towards her current inventory. She swept her gaze over them and tried to estimate, too lazy to count. There were perhaps 800 to 1500 prayers around her core. A lot less than she had feared, but then again, the majority of people were struggling with manipulating mana at all, them being without guidance and all that.

Argul picked one of the smaller prayers at random and felt into it. There was not a lot there for her to see. She could get a sense of the person the prayer came from. It was no name but enough to serve as a target for a spell. There might be a need for assistance too, but she might have imagined it because she couldn’t find it again.

As she did that, listening to the prayer, the flavour of it changed, giving it an addition that felt decidedly like herself. Argul withdrew when she noticed and compared it to the other prayers. It was definitely different from before, much more silver for one.

She tried to shift it into a different and further out orbit and the prayer complied easily. Tying it with one of the untouched prayers proved to be no more difficult, which meant that reading them wasn’t necessary for control.

Argul read the second prayer too, watching as it changed to match the first, though they still remained separate. She wondered what the change meant. There was clearly a difference and she would have to test that later.

Argul read a few more of the smaller prayers and discovered that the change in them somewhat matched a small, but unusually pure section of her mana soul.

Next she tried a few of the larger prayers and there was much more information in them. There was one Marta who was thanking her for the wonder that was magic for example. Another, a soldier praying that his weapon would not go up in a fireball together with him. There was a father begging for help, for someone to save him and his son from a group of cruel bandits. He was also cursing her for making modern technology inoperable, but she was a very understanding and forgiving person.

Reading through the prayers was a bit like scrolling through social media and Argul may have lost herself a bit in it. Only once there were no more of the prayers that contained more information than the vague sense of a person anymore did she stop.

The fun wasn’t over though, because now she had faith mana to play around with. She turned her view back to Doombluff and prepared herself to contact Jack. With him as assistant, cough test subject cough, she had everything she needed to begin.