Maikana
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Chapter 51 – Three mana monte
🕑 Added 2025-04-14 20:05:34 +0000 UTCThe days to follow were a whirlwind of activity for some, and utterly mundane for others. Unfortunately for Kori, her days fell into the latter. Warriors, mages, miners, Elders, and even a few members of the Circle, all came together to deal with carving out a new space for the ambitious youngling to work in. Their efforts were quickly stymied by an expected delay, the colony of slimes was found to have flourished over their years of isolation. They subsisted on anything and everything else that tried to call the abandoned space home, plants, insects, rodents, and anything else quickly finding themselves on the menu. In just the storage room they were tasked with securing, dozens of the gelatinous nuisances thrived.
Unlike the relatively tame and harmless slimes that the clan raised for waste disposal and cleaning purposes, the feral slimes had grown and evolved beyond their simple origins into actual threats. The warriors found them to be both particularly annoying opponents, due to their ability to re-absorb their own mass should it be severed from their bodies and resistance to most forms of physical damage, and excellent training opportunities, due to those same traits. As long as they did not pierce the nucleus that held the slime together, they could spar with the masses of ooze for as long as they wished. Provided they were careful to avoid being struck by the highly acidic slimes, or splashing themselves with detached mass from their own attacks.
The mages were much better equipped to deal with the slimes, even the simplest unaspected bolt of mana able to decimate the internals of the creature if properly aimed, but they mostly let the warriors have their fun. At least until they located a rather rare specimen that had gurgled up from the watery depths of the pit.
Most slimes were averse to being submerged in water, dissolution one of their many weaknesses, but a rare and dangerous breed called the depths home. Aqua slimes. Their forms were much less viscous than their simpler cousins, looking more like a puddle inching across the floor, and they lacked their acidic potency. They made up for these detriments in sheer volume, their size measuring in the cubic meters, and cruel method of hunting. Rather than attempt to dissolve their prey, they engulfed them whole and suffocated them within the bounds of their bodies.
These slimes were typically ambush predators, either hunting in the water where they were near invisible or disguising themselves as puddles and awaiting their unsuspecting prey to trapse into their midst for a drink. Their presence went completely unnoticed in the dank caverns, until one of the warriors stepped in one by mistake. Thankfully, with the abundance of others in the area she was quickly freed from her watery foe’s embrace.
Aqua slimes had a single glaring weakness that nearly completely eliminated their threat once their presence was made known, they were magical. Any mage paying half a mind to their surroundings could spot the mana present within the supposed puddles. Finding their nucleus was more difficult, so they didn’t really bother. Instead, a decent fire mage could eliminate them in quick order simply overwhelming their entire bodies with heat.
The assembled combatants didn’t bother to fully clear the old quarry, electing to just clear the large storage chamber that was being renovated and the area between the main entrance and its own for the time being. But even just that proved to be a fruitful day for those assembled. The warriors, mages, and even the shamans present were all surprised by their abundance and well pleased with the experience earned in the eradication of the slimes. Blonc had even begun scheming to cordon off the area as a new training ground, hoping that the slimes would continue to repopulate quickly enough for periodic sweeps of the area to fuel the growth of their combatants.
Once the slimes had been eradicated from the work area, construction could begin in earnest. The mages raising and reinforcing walls to seal off the new work space, miners cutting through meters of solid stone to create a direct path, shamans even calling upon earthen spirits to instill the stone with their protection and ward off intrusion. All the while the warriors stood sentinel, protecting the others from any and all. All the assembled kobolds came together to bring the culmination of their work beyond what any one group could have possibly managed. This was the way of Clan Emberscale, to come together and provide for one of their own.
It took several days to complete the work, the bulk of the time needed by the mages to raise the walls of stone needed, the high ceilings, nearly three meters tall, adding to the workload. Once the perimeter walls were erected and the passage cut from the main tunnel the work was able to proceed in a much more sedate manner, the threat from the slimes cut off by reinforced stone.
The end result wasn’t much to look at yet, four simple but expansive stone chambers occupied the newly carved out space, each square and roughly five meters to a side. The corner chamber where the entrance connected providing access to the adjacent pair via thick stone doors. There was even an area for sleeping walled off near the main door in case she got distracted in her work. The adjacent rooms were designated for storage, one for equipment and raw materials, the other for product, and both had a second stone door that opened into Kori’s new work space.
Kori’s excitement at the completion of the new space was tempered by the fact that the chambers still stood stark and empty, awaiting their eventual contents. Her time while the work was completed had been boring, she was not allowed anywhere near the space until the threats were eliminated and had no reason to be there while the mages completed their work to Elder Tuli’s plans. She tried to imagine the various apparatuses and accoutrements that would fill the space, how she would want to lay out the work room and storage spaces, and what she wanted to work on first. But in the end, her time was relegated to little more than assisting Losq and trying to explain the methodologies of his training to Ylst.
True to the Elder’s word, she was very interested in the young brewer’s progress. The novelty of training a brewer to touch upon mana was intriguing to her. She had many thoughts on how to proceed towards [Mana Control] and hopefully even [Imbue Concoction], taking all her willpower to resist stepping in and taking charge of the matter herself. She had promised Kori that she could proceed as she intended, but the inefficiencies galled at her.
“Kori, are you certain that he shouldn’t attempt to learn meditation? I know you struggled with the skill but I could have a senior apprentice come by to give him a few lessons.” She asked, having made the same offer several times for several different reasons.
“I’m not sure, no.” Kori replied, much as she had the last time she had been asked. “He’d probably learn it right away.” Kori grumbled under her breath. “I know it isn’t necessary for imbue, but don’t know if it would be a detriment or not.” She rationalized, knowing that it was at least in part an excuse to avoid seeing her brother gain the skill that had vexed her. “Perhaps after he gets imbue to not taint the process?”
Ylst made pensive sounds as she thought on the suggestion, Kori hoped that she hadn’t seen her wince at her suggestion. “That is… acceptable. Should he gain the usage of his mana it would be best that he at least attempt to acquire the skill. It’s helpful to recuperate expended mana and is one of the better ways to deal with bottoming out your reservoir.” Both kobolds wincing at thoughts of the unpleasant side effect of mana usage. “If you can actually manage to sink into meditation in that state that is…” Ylst finished as an aside, clearly having struggled in the past to do just that.
“As for imbue itself. You explained how you came to possess the skill as ‘feeling the absence of mana’ within something you were creating.” She quoted Kori’s earlier explanation. “Have you felt this lack yet, Losq?”
Losq, clearly intimidated by the mage Elder, shook his head meekly before giving her a response, “Not yet, Elder.” He said. “I’ve been trying to sense it when I make mead but haven’t had any luck yet.”
Kori took the moment to interject, “I had felt it on one occasion, just the once in all the work I did with Elder Aldr, when mixing in some honey and berries after we stabilized a batch to stop it from fermenting further.” She explained, confirming that the mead was a viable target. “I think the berries were from the surface… juniper if I’m remembering correctly?”
“I don’t get to work with those, the brewmaster only uses those in his small batches that he makes himself.” Losq replied, explaining why he may not have had the opportunity to put the skill into practice yet.
Ylst continued her pensive humming while she thought on the situation. “Any chance you could try it with the ointment?”
Kori shook her head at that suggestion, “He’s tried helping me, I think I’d need to teach him herbalism first…”
“That might not be a bad idea.” Ylst responded, raising her hand to forestall the youth’s denial of wanting to become anything aside from a brewer. “It shouldn’t deviate from your path; many cooks and brewers obtain the skill eventually anyway to assist in spicing and flavouring their work.” She explained.
“Worth a shot.” Kori shrugged.
“I could see if one of the Circle’s apprentices were willing to tutor him instead, while you work with Har to get your space ready.” Ylst offered, likely expecting the outside teacher to be more efficient at the task.
Torn between his desire to learn from his sibling and the intimidation of the Elder, Losq remained silent on the subject. He still couldn’t understand how his smaller sister could speak with the woman, or any of the other Elders for that matter, as though there was no barrier between them. He’d even seen her being downright rude to the chieftain, the only thing that had stopped him from clasping shut her muzzle at the time had been his own trepidation of stepping out of line in front of the Spiritcaller.
Kori saw the pleading look in her brother’s eyes at the suggestion of a tutor from the Circle, she didn’t want to subject him to the air of superiority and arrogance that she had experienced from them. She waved off the suggestion alongside her response. “If it comes to that I’ll see if Elder Aldr will lend him to me for a bit and I’ll teach him here. Or even if the Elder will come here and make a few tiny batches of his juniper mead with Losq.”
Seeing that her suggestion had fallen on deaf ears, again, Ylst sighed and relented, “Very well. Then I suppose the only thing left is to attempt to raise his sensing Skill in hopes it will assist in detecting the vacancy of mana required.”
Kori’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, her own Skill having languished, at least in comparison to the rest of her growth. “How do you suggest we do that? I could still use a few levels in my own.”
Ylst chuckled, glad her bait had been taken so that she’d have at least some help to offer the pair. “Where we had never gotten you the control skill you missed out on one of the more fun aspects of a mage’s apprenticeship. So hopefully you’ll join us for some practice?” She joked, trying not to dig up old wounds while offering her a way to recoup something she’d lost. “One of the best ways to practice the three foundational skills is to play a game. We separate the apprentices into pairs and each take three stoneware cups and attempt to cast lantern within one while the other tries to sense which one.” She explained. “It’s fantastic to practice shaping and control, as you need to be quick and try to use as little mana as possible before your partner senses your working.”
“But neither of us can use shaping?” Losq asked, pre-empting a similar, though likely somewhat bitter, response from Kori.
“Correct, so you two,” Pointing to the pair of them, “will work to find the mana while your opponent seeks to hide their usage.” Attempting to placate their worries. “I’ll try not to be too subtle if you’d like a demonstration, but I’d suggest working with an apprentice so they can use the time to fuel their own growth.” She paused for a moment trying to recall a name to suggest, “Perhaps your other brother, Plk?”
With an enthusiastic nod from the pair, the Elder began creating pockets of mana around the room hidden within various objects, not bothering to cast any actual spells but simply exercising her control of mana to form little clumps.
Kori looked on enviously at what a mage could actually accomplish were they, unlike her, able to use their skills freely. She could barely form mana within the palm of her hand and here Ylst was summoning it meters away on the other side of the room as though it were effortless. She caught on to the game much faster than her brother had, not saying anything whenever she spotted the new hiding place so that he had a chance to try as well. His limited Attunement and lower level in the Skill making it much more difficult for him, and potentially much more rewarding as growth was easier when your ability scores were lower.
Neither managed any growth in the short demonstration, but they could both see the value in the practice and were looking forward to bugging their brother to play ‘find the mana’ with him later.
