Magical Engineering

“Oh god, why does everything hurt?!” I screamed. Wait, had I managed to form actual words? My head was finally clearing, and while the pain was still there, it was no longer coming in new horrible waves. I thought that the pain might actually be decreasing slowly, but it already felt a little less intense than when I had screamed out.

“Dave, you’re doing great. I think we’re through the worst part. Just hold on in there.” Was that Elody’s voice? I tried to respond, but it seemed my scream of pain was the only thing I could manage at the moment. I was still thinking, though, and while my vision was blurry, there were shapes in front of it. I thought I could make out everyone, all still alive. Had we done it then?

I felt the new presence in my chest, where I had pushed the energy from my soul. We had done it, there was a new growing core there. It was hard to explain how I knew it, but this knowledge came to me intrinsically. The vague concept of a soul that had been growing within me since I’d started gaining experience had turned into a burning inner world that pulsated with life as it exchanged energy with my core. The flow went in both directions. My core transformed my native soul energy into the mana I would need to power my magic and other abilities. While most of it was sent out testing my newly developed mana channels, some of it was sent back to my soul, further reinforcing it.

This must have been how people were able to break through the level twenty barrier. It wasn’t just the new soul-mana reactor they created but the slow reinforcement of the existing soul itself. Both grew stronger together, pushing the person onward beyond what one alone could ever do. Was there a hard limit to how far even these two pieces could push me, or was the sky the limit? I wasn’t sure that was the best metaphor anymore, considering my circumstances, and I realized my brain was willing to judge my own train of thought again. That was a good sign for my long-term recovery.

Okay, I needed to stop musing about my own brain and focus more on the changes. I could feel my soul and my core and the energy going between them; that was great, but could I feel the new orb sockets? I tried to move one of my switches, and yes, there was something there. It felt empty, was that right? Weren’t the brothers supposed to be setting up my circuitry? As I started to run down the ideas of what had gone wrong, the simple, obvious answer hit me. I needed to actually take the orbs into my sockets. They couldn’t force that without my soul agreeing. So right now, everyone was watching my body convulse in pain, hoping they would see the orbs disappear, and I needed to validate that hope.

I pushed my perception harder into the cold emptiness of the socket and grasped something sitting above. I felt a clicking sensation in the socket and I seemed to register a feeling similar to a limb now in that socket. The socket now contained the unrealized potential of a Life orb, and I was sure of that much. I probed the sensations the orb was giving out and found pathways of growth within it. There were different ways that I could push it as it developed, and that would further unlock more branches and forked pathways, but while I could feel the map’s existence, I couldn’t see any of the destinations other than a single starting point with five pathways off of it. I focused harder on it, causing a message box to pop into my mind. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on NoveIＦire.net