Chapter 46 - Gathering Array

Despite Camilla promising to wring her dry, the next two days surprisingly benefitted Lily. Her increased Mana Core meant she was left with enough to still function, while Camilla thought the girl was putting in 120% effort.

Time flew by, and the day of fetching her wooden meditation board, a crucial tool for her magical training, soon came. Camilla escorted Lily to and from the shop, and Jeff happily gave her the finished product. He tried to talk about the quality of the wood and point out the benefits, but most of it went completely over her head. She wanted to be a mage, not a carpenter.

When it came time to pay, Camilla made Lily count out every single coin. She even spent some time "inspecting the product for potential flaws" and eventually huffed and said it was "acceptable." The woman was utterly shameless when it came to money, and Lily and Jeff found each other exchanging sorry glances to one another.

"I still think it's a waste of time, but it's your money, not mine..." Camilla couldn't resist mentioning it.

Lily could only sigh and nod. While she understood it was certainly a superstition in the olden times, her Mana was not contained in her blood, and it would benefit her. Unfortunately, she could not point that out to Camilla, as she kept her current condition very hushed until she was prepared to take the test.

Lily had tried to pry as much information about it from Rose as possible, but much to her dismay, it was either mostly forgotten or Rose hadn't been paying enough attention. Lily was envious that the dragon girl could get such outstanding results despite such a wishy-washy attitude about the affair. Still, that didn't stop Lily from digging out some juicy nuggets of wisdom.

The first test was simply checking one's magical compatibility; they had you grasp a bronze scepter with an orb on the top, and the orb would glow. Rose said it shone incredibly brightly for her, so they enrolled her in the second test.

It's probably a magic tool like Camilla's ladle. As long as I spin my Mana Core and focus it on my hands, I can probably pass it easily enough. Lily thought confidently.

The second test required you to demonstrate your bloodline compatibility. Rose mentioned only a handful of other kids made it to this stage, likely because they did not get a good result with the scepter. Depending on how you did at this stage depended on what schools would be interested in you.

And that's where I need to demonstrate my Astral magic!

Lily knew she would need something far more impressive than the Starlight spell, even if she was a spellcasting Lagia. She had one idea to use a glyph, but she reasoned someone might claim she had outside help.

Set up this Mana gathering array, grow my Mana Core, learn to imbue, give Arakil some Mana, and then work on that Astral affinity. That's phase one!

Then, for phase two, I need to learn more Astral spells and make it look like it's my bloodline. Those finger wiggles are really tough. Hopefully, I don't need to go that far, depending on how this affinity works...

"See you tomorrow. Don't stay up too late trying to meditate on your hunk of wood!" Camilla abruptly said, breaking Lily out of her self-reflection.

"Um, I won't!" Lily hastily replied, blinking a few times. "Thank you again for the help, Miss Camilla!"

The woman waved it off before handing Lily the folded pieces of wood. Lily was very grateful that it was thin and light enough to carry without much issue. She was very concerned about that when Camilla had taken it most of the way, but now that she was holding it herself, she realized it wouldn't be an issue.

Especially if I want to take it with me. It would be horrible to have spent the money, not to mention Arakil's inscription, to make it a gathering array if I had to leave it behind.

Lily excitedly made her way to her room. Before even fetching Arakil's book, she placed it on the floor and unfolded it to its full size. While she knew nothing of wood and the craftsmanship, she still had to admire how seamlessly it looked unfolded like this. It looked like Jeff really had put in his best effort.

"Arakil, I'm back and got the Mana wood!" Lily said happily.

What proceeded next was a lot of back-and-forth, getting exact measurements and relaying them to Arakil. Arakil had asked Lily to triple-check everything , and she was especially glad that she had previously bought a ruler as it greatly simplified this task.

Arakil would use the last of his surplus Mana to carve the Mana-gathering array into the wood. Effectively, he was loaning Lily the Mana as she promised to pay it back with interest. Arakil scoffed at her terminology and reminded her that they were teachers, students, and partners in all of this.

I will still pay you back so we can fix your eye and everything! Lily repeated to herself.

For quite some time, it had been nagging her in the back of her head that she was not contributing much to Arakil. He'd done so much for her and asked for nothing, and while she was eternally grateful, she couldn't help but feel like she was exploiting him somewhat. She couldn't even imagine what it must be like to not be able to see the world around him.

Taking the inscription, she placed it in the correct position and, rather than her usual activation methods, activated it by channeling a tiny bit of Mana into it. She giggled with glee when it lit up; no longer was she forced to use triggers to activate a glyph.

Stolen novel; please report.

The page lit up and formed a perfect square in iridescent silvery-gold light as if calculating the wooden creation. Lily gulped when she saw that the perimeter of the spell did indeed stop just before the edges, and she realized that if they were even slightly off, she might have enchanted her floor—or something worse!

Once the wood was measured out, it began forming intricate magical circles with a multitude of glyphs in varying sizes. Once again, she recognized barely any of them, although she swore she could remember a few from the setup they did on the stone platform.

When the magical construct was finished, it lowered itself to touch the wood. Lily expected it to keep descending, repeating what she witnessed with the stone platform, but instead, it gently hovered above it as if delicately fluttering across the surface.

The light flashed brightly, turning more silver than gold. It kept oscillating between the two colors while shimmering between pearlescent and iridescent. It was fascinating and beautiful, and Lily couldn't help but marvel at the majesty of the full picture.

Then, without any fanfare, the spell construct pulsed three times before flickering out of existence. Lily blinked a few times, the bright light leaving colorful afterimages behind her eyelids. Once she had acclimated to the now significantly dimmer room, she glanced at the work on the wood.

What was once unblemished wood now had the full Mana gathering array transfused into its surface. The silvery finish looked almost like a living and flowing liquid.

Hiding this might be difficult... It looks magical now!

Lily gingerly touched it, but as far as she could tell, it was the wood now, and it still felt entirely like a single surface despite her vision denying that possibility. Picking up the board, she folded it along the hinges, which immediately caused the array circle to cease being complete, and the flowing silver began dulling and ceasing its flowing movement.

Okay... So, thankfully, it looks normal when it's inactive... That's a relief.

Looking between the contact points where the two pieces of wood met, she could see the transfused inscription went through almost entirely. After giving it an inquisitive lookover, she placed it on the floor again in its open position and watched the silvery fluid return to life.

"Arakil, it works perfectly!" Lily said excitedly. She spent some time describing what it looked like before and after and how it deactivated and reactivated when open folding or unfolding it.

[Excellent. I was a bit worried that the contact between the hinges would be insufficient, but it sounds like our craftsman did a good job. I'd suggest you practice meditating on the array a bit before attempting to gather the Mana contained in the blood. The more familiar you are with it, the better the results.]

"Okay! I still have some time before it goes hard," Lily confirmed.

The potion bottle holding Rose’s ichor was intended to keep the contents liquified for extended periods. It was a "gift" she had received from Camilla, who was getting rid of some old stock.

I'm going to have to thoroughly clean it out after this. Seriously, Rose, you better hope it hasn't permanently contaminated my potion bottle!

Lily sat on the wooden board. She could've sworn there was almost a hum in the air despite having done nothing yet. After taking a deep breath, she began her meditation, flawlessly imagining the spiral that she had practiced tirelessly.

Immediately, the effect was noticeable as she gathered specs into her spiral. What was normally an almost barren landscape of specs was now sparsely populated, and if Lily was understanding the mental landscape correctly, her surrounding area was far larger than before. Whenever she meditated previously, the area she was collecting from was about as big as her room, but this seemed much larger.

So rather than there being suddenly more, I'm just looking at a larger area... Although I'm not sure how big it is... Although I suppose I could just keep adding more rings to my spiral until I reached the limit.

Which was exactly what Lily did. Focusing hard, she kept adding another outer ring to her gathering spiral, collecting specks from further away. With each ring she added, she felt giddy, but there was also growing mental pressure within, and eventually, she reached her limit before the gathering array.

I've maybe increased it to two times bigger? No... probably less? It's a bit sad, but hopefully, I can increase the size once I practice more.

With a deep exhale, she began collapsing her spiral inward before finalizing the gains on her Mana Core and ceasing the meditation. When she opened her eyes, she couldn't help but notice how dark it was outside.

"Oh no... How long did I meditate for?" Lily hesitantly asked.

Standing up, she rushed to Arakil and gave him some ink, hoping to get some answers. Just under two hours was the answer Arakil gave, and Lily gulped. It certainly hadn't felt that long, and now she was greatly concerned about losing track of time while in meditation. She diligently reported her results and findings and awaited to read his response.

[Firstly, if you're concerned about losing track of time, perhaps you could get a timekeeping device? Otherwise, we could create one using a glyph once you imbue or purchase some ink.]

Lily nodded and hoped that Arakil had a more humane timer method. With her current crests and sigils, she could only think of something that warned her of the time by using extremely hot temperatures.

Holding a glyph that burns my hand to wake up would be awful!

[Next, you are correct that the array won't exactly make the quality of the ambient Mana any better. It makes gathering Mana easier over a greater distance and with increased speed. No doubt you noticed the Mana flowed through your spiral quicker and likely simpler than you are used to.]

"I did, although adding extra rings to my spiral was vastly more effort than I expected..." Lily admitted feeling a little embarrassed.

[Do not discourage yourself. Adding nearly twice the distance on your first real attempt is admirable. Before you head to bed, I'd like to try one last thing. Can you place my book on the array?]

Lily squeaked with joy. "Does that mean you could get more Mana?"

[Perhaps... But I'm doubtful, and I reckon the seals placed on me will prevent it. Still, it is worth attempting. If you can leave me on the array overnight, I'll try my best.]

Lily nodded and positioned the wooden board under her bed. Then, she carefully picked up Arakil's book and placed it directly in the center.

"Goodnight, Arakil, and good luck!" Lily said excitedly as she climbed into bed.