Chapter 339 – Spatial Secrets
“Why did you let it go!”
“That was a Heavenly Enhancement Tree!”
“Don’t you know you could have bred an entire line of different Heavenly Enhancement Trees from that one. All you would need is the right cores to feed the saplings!”
The angry complaints came in one after another from the A Rank mages. He knew they would be angry with him and want to keep the tree for themselves, which was why he made them promise not to attack it, but he had no idea they would be this upset. However, the more they yelled at him, the more he realized how much of an opportunity he had wasted.
He had no idea you could breed different types of Heavenly Enhancement Trees by feeding different affinity cores to them. Learning that made him wish he had paid a bit more attention in his Magical Plants and Their Effects class at Silver Spire. Though, he would have thought he would have remembered such a lesson. Perhaps it was not covered since Heavenly Enhancement Trees were so rare and thought impossible to take out of a Breach.
“Don’t be angry with Mage Picard,” the S Rank Mage Levine said, silencing everyone. “For that tree to willing enter his personal storage space, it must have trusted him. You should not ask a mage to go back on their word, even if it causes you to loss a few coins.”
“A few coins!” Mage Adair practically choked.
“Yes, a few coins. Besides with the tree out in the wild, it will be able to leave its seeds wherever it wishes. In a few generations we may just find that Heavenly Enhancement Trees are not that rare at all. However, if one of the noble families had captured it, you can be sure any saplings would have been raised in secret and treated as rare commodities just so that family could continue to make more money. Mage Picard’s actions were for the best of humanity.”
“Well said Julia,” Mage Veers said with a smile. “While these other fools might think otherwise, I feel you have the right stuff, Mage Picard. I don’t see you on the rolls for the Mage Association, would you like to sign up? I can guarantee you fast advancement and I’m sure we can get you a top-notch Spatial mage to teach you more about your affinity.”
“That is very kind, but I like traveling around and exploring. I’m not very good at sitting in one place for very long. I don’t think I’d be a good fit for the Association,” Damion told Mage Veers, trying to weasel out of any commitment. How could he possibly have time to fulfill the duties to the Mage Association under two identities!
“Completely understandable,” Mage Veers told him, hiding the disappointment in his voice. “My offer is always open.”
“That is great to know,” Damion told the Void mage.
“Shall we split the spoils then. There is not really anything to split outside the initial dungeon clear, but there were a few decent finds in the first dungeon,” Mage Adair said to the group. Perhaps distracting them with loot would relieve some of their anger at Mage Wells.
“Alright, let’s have it,” Mage Strand said. He was the most eager for the spoils from the first clear, since they had harvested Heavenly Wood Enhancement Fruits.
Damion began removing the spoils from his personal spatial storage and let the A Ranks divide the spoils on their whims. His share was obviously smaller, but he did not care. He had already secreted away a Heavenly Wood Enhancement Fruit for himself and Mage Guptill, seeing how Damion was getting the short end of the stick on the spoils, did not mention him plucking the last Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Fruit from the tree he had set free.
“Everyone satisfied?” Mage Adair said after the spoils had been divided up.
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No one bothered to complain. They had responded to this call because of eight Realm Breaches appearing at once, things had taken an unexpected turn, but they were still content with their rewards. After all, the Heavenly Enhancement Fruits they each claimed as well as the rare herbs from the Wood affinity dungeon were worth a considerable amount.
“Alright you lot, time to secure all these Breaches. Once we get them back to the Association you all will be able to start clearing them to your heart’s desire and then we can determine if any are worth keeping around,” Julia Levine said, causing everyone to spring into action.
As Damion watched, Mage Veers took out the containment units and started setting them up. In a short while, this area would be nothing more than an insignificant spot in a Red Zone once again. Not wanting to stick around and be caught up in more work, Damion cast Portal and sent himself back towards his underground house.
After Damion left, the A Rank mages all looked to one another and realized they had just lost their free ride back to civilization. Perhaps if they had been a little less critical of the Spatial mage, he would have stuck around long enough to Portal them back to a major city.
Damion did not Portal directly to his house, in fear of being followed. But after he exited his first Portal and then opened another and saw no one was coming after him, he opened Portal in the direction of Phil and called out to his companion.
“Hey buddy, how has your day been?” Damion asked the Blizzard King.
‘No prey,’ Phil sent back through their bond.
“Well, that is too bad. Don’t worry, we have plenty of food back at the house. Let’s go.”
Damion opened a Portal for both of them to travel directly to his underground house. Once home, he got Phil a chunk of Holy affinity Demonic Beast meat from his reserves and then took out the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Fruit.
“Here goes nothing,” Damion said as he consumed the fruit.
*Ding*
{Host has consumed an affinity enhancing item. Current affected affinity D Rank. Would host like to maximize the effect of the enhancing item for 500 credits?}
‘Yes.’
{Confirmed. Maximizing effect of affinity enhancing item.}
*Ding*
{Enhancement complete. Congratulations host on achieving A Rank Spatial affinity.}
Once the Magic System increased his Spatial affinity, Damion began to have a better understanding of its secrets. Despite his understanding of the Nashto language, certain things had remained a mystery to him, particularly in regard to affinities he did not have.
With that thought in mind, Damion took out the Iblis spatial artifact. Before when had had studied the enchantments on the ring, there were parts he could not grasp. He thought perhaps it was because his understanding of Nashto was too shallow, but now he was realizing that was not the case, it was his understanding of the Spatial affinity itself.
“Does this mean I have to gain all the affinities to fully understand Nashto?” Damion wondered aloud.
A yes answer did not sit right with him. It was possible acquiring all the affinities would let him fully understand Nashto, but he felt there was a different path, one more fundamental to all languages that he was overlooking.
Putting the matter to the side for a moment, Damion began examining the enchantments on the Iblis artifact more closely. Now that he could understand the principals behind the enchantments he was seeing how they tied together and how to replicate them if he wanted. After a few hours of study, he was certain he now understood the principal of creating and anchoring a pocket of space to an object. He also understood why Mage Levine had told him it required a large amount of mana.
The enchantments would be laid out and then powered up and he would separate a portion of his personal spatial storage and anchor it to the artifact. Since a Spatial mage’s personal spatial storage was infinite, there was no risk or danger of him hurting himself or losing out on his ability to store things. However, the process required him to expand a section of his personal spatial storage as if he was putting something in, which required mana. And then he had to use even more mana to stabilize the space.
Since it was empty, the new pocket space would want to collapse. To force it to stay open, required other enchantments on the artifact, and to fill the space with mana. This was why it was stupid to store things that require mana inside a spatial artifact. Once created, the pocket space would maintain a certain level of mana automatically, but if too much was drained at a time, the space could collapse, causing the loss of everything inside.
“This makes so much sense now,” Damion said as he put the artifact away. “Not that I need to create a spatial artifact, but it is good that I know understand the principals. I think I even understand my own spells better.”
While Damion was patting himself on the back, his tablet signaled an incoming communication. After quickly looking in the mirror to make sure he had removed the Metamorphic Bracelet’s disguise, he accepted the connection.