The day was long but I couldn't feel the passage of time as I was engrossed in the book at my hand.
The "Introduction to Mana for Dummies" sat heavy on my lap. The title was a jab from a Master who should had been at the peak of power for centuries, but as I opened the first page, the mocking tone vanished, replaced by a clarity that my Earth-trained mind craved.
I spent the first half of the day submerged in the Library of Thought, using the Analysis function to bridge the gap between "Magic" and "Mechanics."
On Earth, we understand the universe through the Standard Model of particle physics. We have leptons, quarks, and gauge bosons. But in Avulum, there is a ghost in the machine: Mana.
According to the Architect's "Dummies" guide, mana isn't just "energy." It behaves with a Wave-Particle Duality similar to light.
As a Wave: It permeates the environment, flowing through the "Ley Lines" of the Tower like radio waves through the air.
As a Particle: It has a discrete, albeit infinitesimal, Mass.
This was the "Aha!" moment. I looked at the requirement for Tier 3: 2,000 units. If mana has mass, then my core wasn't just a battery—it was a Pressure Vessel.
To calculate the internal stress on my body, I had to look at the relationship between density , volume, and the internal pressure.
This model gave me a potential solution for my immediate problem and for future potential ones. To be able to handle the pressure, My body has to grow strong enough.
In my case, the amount of mana was increasing toward 2,000, while the strength of my body remained constant. If I didn't reinforce the "vessel," the pressure would exceed its Yield Strength.
I turned the Analysis function on my left shoulder. The Stone hummed, and my speed of thought surged, allowing me to see the "Obsidian" not as a scar, but as a Composite Material.
The "Dead Zone" was the Architect's solution to the density problem. It was a natural reaction of the core theorized by the architect and the road that can lead to progress. The reaction between the mana at the transition period and the necrotic flesh at my shoulder have gone high-wire and the obsidian tissue that should have been just gradually merged with my body had been concentrated on my shoulder. I thought it was just a magical reaction but it had been a planned path by the architect that i was meant to find later on but all of that had gone wrong now.
The more I thought , the more I realised that I was screwed before I even began.
"Why,WHYYYYY!!!" I screamed ; every time I thought that finally my luck will change it was just another problem and this time, the screw up was with powers that were too far beyond me.
I despaired at that moment, is this it ?
I faced death before but i never felt like this. I thought that death maybe better than seeing my hopes being crashed.
I remembered the first moment i heard that this was a magical world , where people can use magic. At that time i thought i can finally be free, i can finally have the power to control my destiny. At that moment , all of that came crashing down , all the fantasies and hopeful dreams crumbled.
I stayed looking in front of me with vacant eyes, my dreams kept running on repeat in my mind as though mocking me for daring to even think about them.
It felt that I was doomed from the moment i was born and every move i made to get out would only give me hope to then cruelly be destroyed.
Thinking about my past, about my tries to escape, i remembered my family. My parents , even when faced with the gloomy life ahead of them kept going, waking up every day to go to work just to keep their children happy as if that can make them happy too.
"If my dad saw me now, he will be disappointed, huh" I thought about the words that my dad kept saying and the values that he drilled into me. "As long as you draw breath, don't despair son, you never know where the good is, not everything is what it seems , something bad can be actually a blessing"
I really despaired, however , the images of my family and my dad's words pulled me from a bad place; So I kept reading the analysis of the library and the "dummies" book. I was hoping for something , anything at all .
But then I looked at the orb floating and i questioned something that was so obvious that i felt stupid asking " Why did the architect use a 'stone with 8 holes' to hold the legacy". The 8 holes should be for the different elements and the architect theory is about using all elements as one.
But why was he fixated on the elements, the upper limit of magic should be one's imagination. I has its laws ,for sure, but these laws shouldn't be too constrictive, as the magic i heard about in phantasies relies heavily on the mind, even the architect talked about the mind's importance.
And at that moment I had an epiphany, I realized that "Magic" in this world has laws and these laws are absolute and entwined with matter so magic was essentially just Real-Time Atomic Engineering. I wasn't casting spells; I was manipulating the phase-state of subatomic particles through my mana.
"This is it" my whole perspective shifted and an idea began to form in my mind, an idea that can turn my curse into a blessing.
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The sun dipped below the jagged spires of the Tower, casting long, bruised shadows across my room. The lockdown silence was finally broken by the rhythmic thud-clack of boots.
The door didn't open; it was unlocked from the outside.
Akhtar stepped in. He looked exhausted. His cloak was singed at the hem, and the usual sharp scent of sandalwood that followed him was replaced by the acrid sting of Ozone and Burnt Lead.
"The chaos has settled," he said, pulling out the room's lone wooden chair and turning it backward to sit. He didn't look at me; he looked at the wall, his eyes tracking a ghost. "The Council is in a frenzy. They've confirmed it—the Chimera Core was taken by someone with intimate knowledge of the Tower's thermal regulators."
I kept my face neutral, leaning on my "good" arm. "Did they find them?"
"No," Akhtar sighed, finally meeting my gaze. "They found a mana signature in the pipes. It should be a spell or technique used to clear blockages, but someone used it as a kinetic wedge. They think it's an inside job, likely a disgruntled Master or a high-level spy."
He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly as they drifted toward my shoulder.
"They're moving to the next phase of the investigation tomorrow. The Mana-Scan."
My heart did a slow, heavy thud.
"Everyone," Akhtar continued, "from the High Lords to the soot-sweepers, will be put through the Resonance Crystal. It doesn't just measure capacity; it measures Signature. If anyone has touched that pipe, the crystal will bleed red."
Akhtar leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper.