Immovable Mage

– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 218, Season of the Rising Sun, Day 4 –

“Huahh!” Terry slammed the glowing keen dagger with both arms into the sphere.

Finally, a crack appeared on the trial’s target and it evaporated.

“Screw…” He was wheezing heavy breaths. “...this. Seriously.”

Another target sphere appeared.

“Oh for mana’s sake.” Terry felt like kicking the wall. Only he knew this to be a bad idea. Mostly because he had recently kicked this damned target sphere and was not looking forward to more bruises.

Terry had managed to get through five targets easily, with the high-quality blade of his barrier spear, his recently improved physique, and his mana foundation.

The seventh target had already proved a challenge until Terry had switched to his inscribed keen daggers to make use of the mana blade as well as the guard on the dagger for more powerful attacks.

He did not require the spear's reach for this trial and hammering down a mana-infused dagger with both arms was the most powerful attack Terry had come up with.

The most powerful regular attack at least.

Terry had considered using his last remaining martialist talismans, but it seemed like a waste, especially now that he knew he was going up against Vicious in the future.

For the ninth target sphere, Terry had wanted to be clever again. He had shaped a thin layer of metal around the target and then crushed it with his unstoppable shift combination.

He had barraged the transfixed metal with disruption discharges until the metal shifted into the target and broke it apart.

This had worked for two more targets, but then it turned out that each sphere required deeper and deeper shifts before it broke apart completely.

Terry’s unstoppable shift combination was a tremendously inefficient technique to begin with and this increasing distance requirement was a deal breaker for his attempt at cleverness.

“Not like this was a much better use of time and mana…” He was still trying to catch his breath. He had assaulted the sphere with powerful dagger strikes for what felt like forever and he had accentuated each strike with bursts of mana.

How many of these damned things are going to pop up? This is already the twelfth…

Let’s try something else…

Terry searched through his dimensional storage and retrieved one of the many magic weapons he had looted from the Hall of Power. It was a green-blue sword with an unusually wide blade, which he proceeded to examine warily.

Why can’t they just use inscriptions like any sane mana crafter? Or add a note that explains how the item works if the item cannot suggest its own use?

It’s ridiculous that one has to use the item to see how it works. What if I blow up the whole cavern with this thing?

Terry’s eyes danced around the walls. A moment later, he was transfixing several tertium items to make sure there would be no tunnel collapse and that no harm would come to the unconscious Apex behind him.

Afterwards, he grabbed the sword hilt with both hands and stared at the target sphere.

First issue, I don’t know what the magic in this thing does.

Second issue, it’s a sword and I’m not familiar with swords.

Third issue—

“Enough,” barked Terry and infused the sword with mana, only to suddenly feel the sword sucking mana of its own.

What a greedy sword!

He waited for the sword to be charged completely and then slashed at the target sphere.

*Boom!* The sphere was eviscerated in a storm of green and blue dust.

Terry’s face stiffened.

That was complete overkill.

He clicked his tongue with a frown. “Inefficient too.” Even with Terry’s considerable mana pool, the sword had used more than a third of his available mana.

Terry’s frown deepened when another of the accursed target spheres popped into existence.

No whining. He chided himself.

He infused his mana into the magic sword again, only this time, Terry cut off the mana flow at his own discretion. He could still feel the sword attempting to suck more mana but he had enough mana control to prevent this from happening.

Terry slashed at the target sphere and the target blew apart without shattering sound. He was pleased with the result, only to frown again a second later. He held the magic sword close to his eyes.

The mana inside looks different now. Does it get damaged if it’s used with insufficient mana?

“Crap.” Terry cursed. Inefficient in another way.

“Let’s first verify this, maybe I’m overthinking things.” He continued destroying the target spheres with the magic sword while carefully limiting the used mana.

“Not enough…” Terry stared at the most recent target sphere that had survived the latest sword attack. He had evidently used too little mana.

Terry held the sword up to his eyes again. “Yup, the mana keeps changing.” He shrugged. If that is really a sign of damage, then I might as well use it up. That’s the only way to be sure if my hypothesis is correct or not.

Eventually, the magic sword broke apart. Terry was not sure if he should be happy that his theory had been confirmed or unhappy at having wasted a precious magic item.

I’m not a sword user anyway, but still.

“Screw you.” Terry cursed at the next target sphere that appeared in his eyes.

Either I sacrifice magic items or even more mana and time…

“Wait…” Terry paused and thought about his recent toad encounter. Attacks came in different styles. He had been forced to break through tough defenses plenty of times. From turtle cultists over ice elementals to rock-solid toads. While it was hard to see the items like the levered screw mechanism as traditional weaponry, they had certainly served Terry well so far. Most of them were useless in a heated battle but with time and patience?

“Let’s see how physics stack up against you.” Terry used his Immovable Object spell to transfix a U-shaped tertium piece as a fulcrum. Afterwards, he used the Shape Metal imprint of his armor to reshape several metal ingots into a long pole extension for his barrier spear. Thus, the short spear with the high-quality blade turned into a long, thick, bladed lever.

Terry pushed the spear between the fulcrum and the target sphere, so that the blade was pressing against the target while the vastly longer pole was on the other side of the lever’s fulcrum.

He walked into the air and turned on his head. He used his own body weight and the force from pressing against the immovable layers of septimum in his boots to push the lever further down.

If one lever was not enough, he could apply multiple levers and transfix an attachment in addition to the fulcrum to maintain the pressure of the metal on the target sphere. He could stack the pressure before attacking with his barrier spear or keen daggers.

Eventually, a crack resonated in the tunnel…

***

Terry glared at the target sphere in front of him. He had lost count of how many he had broken so far, but he knew that he hated this one most of all. There was not the slightest doubt about it.

Of course, he had thought the same about the last few spheres too. Each one was the most hated until the next one appeared.

Terry had tried his regular attacks. He had tried his lever-techniques and his levered screw mechanism. He had tried setting up several levers at once and kept them under pressure with other immovable objects.

However, all the ideas that had worked so far, had failed for this one. The stacked pressure was not enough. An additional push was missing. That was why Terry eventually felt forced to resort to his wastrel habits again. He picked another magic sword from the Hall of Power and charged it with mana. His lever techniques and pressure stacking had already managed to afford him a chance to recover his mana.

Terry grimaced slightly when the golden blade sucked mana even more greedily than the previous one had done. This time, he did not attempt to obstruct the mana flow. These swords were valuable and he would prefer to not break them all if he could avoid it. His mana would recover eventually, but he did not know when he would get another fortuitous encounter like the three Halls.

*Ka-SWISH!* A sharp crescent of light traced his sword slash and flew forward.

Terry was disconcerted by the fact that the damned sword had sucked him completely dry of mana. He was wondering if the mana martialists had any other way to deal with such a tremendous mana requirement.

Is it that their acupoints and mana structures are capable of providing more mana for such things? A way to optimize short-term throughput? Like many compressed mana pools?

Terry’s curious mental inquiries were interrupted when he finally saw the accursed target cleaved apart. He waited with bated breaths for another of the damned spheres to appear.

“Perfect achievement,” praised the soft voice. “You have earned an additional reward.”

“Oh, thank mana!” Terry exclaimed with relief and fell to his knees, completely exhausted. “It’s finally over.”

A red disc appeared in front of him. It looked similar to the blue and green discs that Terry had earned from previous trials. Only this red disc started glowing brightly.

“Uhm…” Terry stared wearily. I’m not sure this is good.

“Wait, I feel…” …something weird from my storage. Terry quickly located the source and retrieved the two other discs that were now glowing brightly as well.

“You have collected three tokens of perfect achievement.” A chorus of voices echoed from everywhere at once. “You have proven your worth. Name your weapon of choice!”

“...” Terry was stunned into silence but eventually answered. “Short spear.”

The voices remained silent for nearly a minute before a reply echoed from the walls. “Of that kind, we have only inferior quality to offer. The only pinnacle items available are a great sword, a soft sword, a claw, and a staff.”

A pinnacle item sounds valuable. Even if it’s not a spear, I could sell it and equip myself properly when I’m back in Arcana.

Terry decided that he had had enough of magic swords for the moment. He picked the weapon closest to a short spear: “The staff.”

“Congratulations.” The chorus of voices faded away.

A small staff appeared in front of Terry. It was as thick as a weapon staff should be, but it was as short as a human adult's forearm.

“What the…” Terry incredulously picked up the weird staff. He could not detect any mana in the staff either.

This is even shorter than a short spear's pole.

Have I been scammed?

Is this a prank?

Terry was almost inclined to fling the staff against the wall. Instead, he reflexively pressed some mana into it to examine the staff with his mana touch. The prickly sensation in his mind informed him that there was mana inside.

Perfectly cloaked mana.

He nearly let go of the weapon when the staff suddenly enlarged to the length of his barrier spear. He grabbed the staff tightly and examined it once more in mana sight. Now that the staff was longer, it was possible to make out dense layers of mana inside.

One, two, three…

Terry saw different layers of mana. One of the layers seemed permanently active. Another flickered with a weakening mana signature.

He pushed more mana into the weakening mana layer and the staff immediately grew another inch.

Okay…

Like the Enlarge Object spell but only limited to length and not proportional. A self-target and some kind of mana buffer to maintain the size for a while…

What if…

Terry reabsorbed some of the mana that was powering the second layer and the staff shrunk.

“The permanently active layer does not accept any additional mana…” Terry muttered to himself. Perhaps something related to durability? I know that these are among the most popular enchantments for equipment in Arcana.

“That leaves this one.” Terry carefully guided some mana into the last remaining layer inside the staff and it began sizzling with snakes of lightning which caused Terry to reflexively circulate his resistance training pattern.

“Not bad…”

If I manage to attach a spearhead, I can use this like a short spear. It would pair nicely with the barrier spear. I have a few spears from the Hall of Power and—

Focus.

Terry reminded himself that he had other things to do first. He was exhausted. He had an unconscious woman to wake up somehow. He had a Spring of Rejuvenation to visit.

He placed the staff into his dimensional bag and then, with Apex on his shoulders, he walked towards the intense mana signature he judged to be the magic body of water.

***

“There…” Terry gently sat Apex down in the shallow mana-infused pool that was apparently the famous Spring of Rejuvenation. He rested her back against the edge so that she was sitting upright. He placed some of his remaining healing items near her so that she could use them when she woke up.

Terry was not sure how Apex would react after awakening, so he would rather keep some distance. Therefore, he walked to the other side of the shallow pool and sat down as well.

This feels funny…

Terry had difficulties putting the sensation of the rejuvenating water into words, but the closest he came up with was a warm tickling all over his body, including his intestines, which was truly strange to experience.

His wariness eased up quickly because he was feeling more energetic with every second inside the magic spring.

Terry could not help but try and consciously guide the mana into his body. He had done so with the aging mana before and he was curious if it worked with this mana that carried the reverse effect.

He nearly choked when he accidentally absorbed a bunch of mana that was so compressed it felt practically liquid. He was forced to hurriedly muster all of his mana control to quickly spread the mana out and around his body before the pressure would damage his mana channels.

Note to self: Be more careful with shit like this.

Terry had closed his eyes to better concentrate and was carefully guiding the mana around his body.

I hope there is a limit to this rejuvenation thing. Do I have to worry about regressing back into a child?

No, even the mana martialists wouldn’t be that insane… would they?

Probably some vaguely defined pinnacle state of the body or something and I doubt that would take the shape of a toddler. I would guess for me that could be the state before I intentionally started aging my body? Or a year or so before? Who knows…

I should pay attention. If my equipment starts feeling loose, I will jump out of here, no matter how beneficial this water is supposed to be.

Terry was indulging in useless thoughts while circulating the mana. He knew that this area was sealed by a spatial barrier and required passing a trial with an annoying number of loathsome spheres. To top it off, he had transfixed an unfolded tertium cube at the entrance…

It should be safe to relax.

Before long, Terry was completely immersed into the circulation of the rejuvenating mana.

“If you pull crap like this again, I’ll skin you.”

Terry was jolted from his relaxed state by Apex’s angry outburst. He opened his eyes to see her weakly stuffing herself with some of the magic beans that Terry had left next to her.

“That sounds unpleasant, but I cannot make any promises.” Terry held her gaze calmly. “You were acting stupid.”

“Fuck off,” growled Apex.

“You first,” retorted Terry snappily. “Don’t ask me to watch you if you then try to kill yourself.”

“I would have killed the little shitstain if you had not interfered!” yelled Apex with indignation.

“Maybe, but I don't think so.” Terry was surprised at how calm he felt. Perhaps it was the fact that he was tired of shrinking back in front of egomaniac martialists. Perhaps it was the relaxing effect of the rejuvenating water. Most likely, it also had something to do with the fact that Apex would not even be able to hurt a manaless fly in her current state.

“Even if you had defeated him, you would have gotten yourself killed in the process.” Terry talked with utmost certainty. He knew what he had sensed from her mana signature at the time. There was no mistake.

“There are worse things than death!” spat Apex.

“On that we can agree…” Terry furrowed his brow. He was beginning to feel like a hypocrite, considering his own temper at the time. If Apex had not flown off the handle first, he might have done something stupid as well.

Apex snorted and chugged one of the healing potions that he had placed near her.

“You want to kill Vicious,” said Terry. “We can do that together.”

“I don’t need your help!” spat Apex.

“But I need yours,” returned Terry calmly. “My offensive abilities are limited. You’re the only one I trust to go after Vicious.” He carefully weighed his words. “And while you might not need my help to kill Vicious, I know I can be of use to you. I can warn you if he wants to try something like that again.”

“Like what?!” barked Apex with intense suspicion.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that Vicious appeared, nor that your cultivation breakthrough failed,” said Terry firmly. “I could sense some weird mana in you before and I think it is related to Vicious.”

“If you could sense it, then why didn’t you warn me?!” demanded Apex with furious eyes.

“Would you have believed me?!” Terry snapped back. “And I didn’t know then. I had no idea if the mana was yours or implanted. I know better now.”

“Hmph.” Apex scoffed and glowered at Terry in silence while continuing her own treatment.

After more than a dozen minutes, Apex spoke again: “You knew of this spring, you shower me with items. You could have left me for dead. Why? Why are you helping me?”

“I’m helping myself too,” said Terry instantly. “I want to see Vicious dead before I leave this pocket realm.”

“You didn’t know that the little shitstain was here when we first met.” Apex pointed out. “You helped before you knew too.”

“I already told you.” Terry narrowed his eyes. “You helped us when we went after Willow.”

“I did what I wanted!” Apex snapped. “That had nothing to do with any of you.”

“Well, I think I’m doing what I want too.” Terry shrugged with an expression of mild bewilderment. “What’s your problem?”

“Fuck off.” Apex glowered at Terry in silence for some time. Eventually, she growled. “I don’t like owing any favors.”

“Help me kill Vicious and you can call it even,” offered Terry.

“I would kill the little shit stain anyway,” hissed Apex. “What do you want from me?!”

Terry was at a loss for a moment. He did not really want anything else from Apex. However, a feeling of curiosity welled up in him once more. “Fine, aside from killing Vicious, I would like an answer to my questions.”

“What questions?” Apex asked warily.

“Shen talked about you when we first met.” Terry noted her slight flinch.

“He called you Aparicia and talked about something regarding heretics. You both mentioned a Martial Tower.” Terry paused to order his thoughts. “What did he mean with ‘heretic’? What happened in the Martial Tower? Does the Martial Tower have anything to do with the Land of Four Towers in the Free Factions Union?”

Terry could already see Apex’s expression darken, but he knew there would not be a better chance than this. He decided to add one more question: “Why were you so obsessed with Matteo?”

“Oy!” Apex flared up. “I’m NOT obsessed with him.” She clenched her teeth. “I just have to beat him!”

That doesn’t sound as if it was just about Matteo’s strong lightning powers. That’s something else entirely.

“Why?!” Terry shot back before Apex regained the sense to weigh her words more carefully. “What did Matteo ever do to you?”

“Nothing! He even…” Apex cursed quietly. “If I manage to beat him, then I’ll know that I’m finally ready.”

The Wastes does that mean? Ready for what?

Terry stared at Apex in silence. He refused to break eye contact no matter how Apex glared at him.

“Fine,” hissed Apex eventually. She was chewing on another magic bean. “But I’m not much for long stories, especially this one.”

Terry waited for her to continue.

“My father was the head of the Martial Tower.” Apex’s eyes glazed over. “He rose from the gutter to become the head of one of the Four Towers. All with his own two fists. With him, the tower rose to completely new heights. Then I was born.” Apex was scowling. “I had the wrong meridians for the primary cultivation techniques.”

Is that like aspect impairments for martialists?

Terry held his questions to let Apex speak.

“My father refused to let me resign myself to inferior techniques, and that is why he adjusted the cultivation techniques on his own. He practiced on himself first. Despite all odds, he succeeded.” Apex’s face contorted in a mixture of a smile and a snarl. “He succeeded at something thought impossible, something unheard of for hundreds of years. He managed to recreate the techniques with different aspects and different physique requirements. He generously offered the cultivation technique to those like me.”

Terry could not help but notice the pain in Apex’s voice.

“I was happy.” Apex shook her head slightly. “I was trying so hard to make him proud.” Her voice became somber. “I did not know that each of my successes was only inviting more hatred to us all.”

For a few minutes, she stopped talking. Then she looked at Terry with cold fury. “Some of the martialists see the resonance techniques as something more than a tool. They see the creatures and objects behind the resonance as something sacred.” She scoffed. “My flood dragon is supposed to be of water. To force it into lightning is considered a sacrilege. My phoenix is the pinnacle of pure fire, but my fire is tainted.”

Terry could see Apex clench her fist underneath the water’s surface.

“They hate my existence and the love my father has shown me and those like me.” Apex barely suppressed the fury in her veins. “One of my father’s rivals used the opportunity to invite the traditionalists into the Martial Tower. They murdered everyone who resisted. They made a spectacle out of killing my father…”

Terry wasn’t sure if Apex’s eyes were glistening or if it was just a trick played on his mind by the slight glow from the water.

“They wanted to make a spectacle out of executing me too,” continued Apex in a growl. “But right when they were transporting me to the execution platform, the whole city fell into flames because of what happened in the Elemental Tower. An army of elementals was attacking everything without discrimination.”

This… Terry was trying to connect the different pieces of information.

Apex’s eyes became distant. “The treacherous scum that had killed my father and took me prisoner. The people I wanted to kill so badly, but thought unbeatable… My executioners were killed just like that.” She shook her head. “It would have been one thing if they had been defeated by an old monster, but no. Elementals.” She swallowed hard. “When I saw Matteo raging that day, when I saw that he was a mere child not older than I was, I hated him so much. I hated myself even more for being so weak, so useless.”

Apex clenched her fists once more and bloodlust entered her eyes. “I will reach the apex. I will get my revenge. I will retake the tower. I will tear them all apart.” She swore to herself. “Matteo is just a measuring stick. Even the tower master of the Elemental Tower had to give his life to stop that demon at full power.” Azure flames flickered around her eyes. “When I’m able to defeat the demon I saw on that day, I’ll be ready.”

Terry found his own face cramp up. He had asked, but after hearing the reply, he wasn’t sure what to do with this information.

Apex had been there when Anand had Matteo possessed by elementals.

The worst thing that ever happened in Matteo’s life and Apex is using it as inspiration. The death of so many innocent people and yet for Apex, it was salvation.

While Matteo hates every second he remembers of turning into the demon, Apex is unreservedly looking up to the demon that rampaged back then.

Yup, no. I’m not making any comments. I’ll have to warn Matteo when I see him.

Terry exhaled sharply and tried to order his thoughts.

***