Reborn With a Magic System

Damion mentally eyed the quest completion and new quest notifications from the Magic System. On one hand, he was happy to be moving forward with his quests, on another he was clearly being moved in a certain direction by the System. It was becoming clear that the Magic System wanted him to solve the problem humans of the past created on the Mother World, how he was supposed to do that, he had no idea.

“You haven’t explained why the Alfar are against a more permanent solution,” Damion told Visneer.

“You are correct. I cannot speak to the Alfar motives, but they aggressively go after humans. Perhaps it is a holdover from the ancient war, perhaps they have another solution. Or perhaps they simply want to be the only race on the Mother World.”

“They can’t have looked at the evidence and come to a different theory on what the eventual result of the Mother World eventually running out of mana will be. Unless they know something you don’t.”

“My people have studied the Mother World and the seal for generations. The only solution is for a human mage to undo what was done.”

“In my experience there are three ways to stop an enchantment. Deactivate it, overpower it, or destroy it. Is there a reason this magic seal is different?”

“No. It should follow those same basic principles. However, there are other factors that must be taken into account.”

“Such as?” Damion asked. He could already think of one, location. If the seal was in a sensitive place, breaking it might not be feasible.

“The seal is powered by all of the mana flowing forth from the depths of the Mother World. Because of this, it is not conceivable for a mage to be able to overpower it. As for destroying it, while that might be possible, there is no certainty that its destruction would allow the Mother World to revert to its previous natural state. And there are other concerns with its destruction.”

“It’s under the ruins of Atlantis, isn’t it?” Damion realized.

“Yes. And the destruction of the seal could very well release all the creatures trapped in that underground ruin. We might possibly solve one problem and be left with an even graver threat.”

“I guess that leaves shutting it off, but with the place filled with Demonic Beasts, that doesn’t sound like much of an option.”

“It will certainly not be an easy task.”

“So, why exactly does this seal require a true mage to shut off? Human, I get. I’m guessing it is keyed to our physiology, but why is being a true mage required?”

“Because one mage must inject different affinities of mana into the seal in a precise sequence. Only once that is done will the seal be unlocked, allowing adjustments to be made.”

“Can’t you take any human down there and just have them use artifacts?” Damion asked. He felt that would certainly be a quicker solution. Any mage or knight could use artifacts to release mana of various affinities. Why were the Iblis waiting for a true mage?

“We attempted that, several thousand years ago. Unfortunately, the seal is able to somehow detect the minute differences in a mage’s affinity and mana converted through an artifact.”

“Alright, you’ve explained the situation, now explain my options to get home,” Damion said to Visneer.

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“There are three known ways to cross realms. The Exile spell, which brought you here, can, in theory, send you back, though the spell is only anchored to this world. Casting it from other worlds opens a rift to the ruins of Atlantis, as you are aware. Casting the spell on the Mother World creates a rift to any number of realms. There is no way to determine or control which. You could, should you so choose, cast the spell continuously until you happened upon your world then go through.”

“How would I know it is my world?”

“You have a communication tablet, yes?”

“I do, so while the rift is open I can send a communication through.”

“Indeed, but you have to keep the rift open until someone else opens their own rift back to our world and answers your message. If the person who receives your message cannot cast the spell, or perhaps they don’t receive your message right away, you may not even realize you connected to your world.”

“Not exactly a promising solution. What is option number two?”

“This is a more direct method but requires you to master the Spatial affinity and have an absurd amount of mana available. Since you have been to both places, you can connect the two worlds by casting Portal.”

Damion recalled his experience in trying to cast Portal to get back home. He had passed out and was not eager to repeat the attempt. Most likely he would need several times the amount of mana he currently had, which meant he was a long way from being able to use this method, but it was at least still viable.

“And the third method?” Damion asked.

“The completion of a Growth Breach.”

“Completion? You don’t mean clearing a floor, you mean reaching the end of a labyrinth.”

“Precisely. Growth Breaches do not simply go on forever. When they reach their midway point, the Realm Breach then begins to get easier, until finally you reach an exit that will leave you here on the Mother World, or in the case of starting here, in whatever realm the labyrinth connects to.”

“How difficult do the floors of a labyrinth get?” Damion recalled that none of the labyrinths on Nerotath had crossed through the S Rank floors yet. Even if labyrinths could connect him back to his world, how long would it take them to actually be able to complete that bridge.

“The maximum strength of a Growth Breach depends on the distance between the two realms. The further the distance, the greater the strength of the center pocket space. Think of a Growth Breach as a chain. Each link is interconnected, but individual. Each link in the chain is a separate pocket space, tied together to span the distance between our worlds. The longer the distance, the more links in the chain are required. From each end of the chain the pocket spaces slowly grow stronger, to maintain the integrity of the chain, until the middle, which is the strongest point.”

“I don’t know of any labyrinth in my world that has met your criteria. Our strongest mages are only S Rank, and they have yet to surpass the S Rank floors of the labyrinths we have control of.”

“I completely understand,” Visneer said. “The few labyrinths we have completely cleared connect to worlds relatively close. Even for the people of the Mother World, exceeding S Rank is no easy feat. Let alone reaching the Ranks beyond that.”

“So, there is no way to know how far my world is from here? No way for me to know if completing a labyrinth to connect our worlds is even possible.”

“You are partially correct. Because of the labyrinths we have completed, we were able to form a rough idea of how far a Portal can go before it requires additional mana. From that calculation we are able to determine how far away certain realms are from us.”

“That won’t tell me how far my world is, not until I have enough mana. And I won’t know I have enough until I can successfully cast the spell.”

“Correct. But once you can cast the spell, or if a labyrinth from your world is completed, we can determine the distance and have the answer to your question.”

Despite having an answer to his question, he was no closer to getting home. He had already guessed at needing more mana to be able to successfully cast Portal and return home. For a moment he thought of the 1,000,000 credits he had just acquired and wondered just how much he could increase his mana through the Magic System Store. The drawback of course was, even if he could freely increase his mana capacity, that would then make it harder to increase his magic power, since it would require him to accumulate even more mana before he could compress the mana to raise his magic power.

While Damion was considering his options, he unexpectedly received a call on his tablet. Without thinking of who or how, he quickly answered it, only to be disappointed.