Chapter 92: Retaliation and Cursed Beings

"You don't have to do this," Tusile says. "You've done enough for us already."

I am once again sitting in front of three elders; Tusile, Guklaro, and now Verako.

"But I want to," I reply. "I like discovering and inventing new things; I don't just want to open a dress shop and live a simple life; I want to learn more about mana, spells, and magic, and a lot of that is experimenting with and inventing new things."

"I understand. If that's the case, then I would like to ask that you make more of those portals. We have a lot of stored liquid dark mana that you can use; how many do you think you can make with the mana?" Tusile asks.

"Hmmm, it is a lot of mana, but it also requires a lot to make, and I'll need to transform the dark mana into space essence, but I can make around forty portals" I give a rough estimate of how much I can make.

I explain to the Elders the problems with the portals, namely the amount of mana it takes to form the portal and the increasing mana cost as the distance grows. I tell them my suggestions before leaving them to discuss the details of how they want to go about the portal implementation.

Next, I go to the Combat Academy, I find Tana there training as usual.

"Hey, Tana. How are you handling everything?" I ask, walking up to him.

He blushes at me approach and looks down. "I-I'm fine" He replies, then he realizes what I was referring to. "I... try not to think about it."

I give Tana a hug, "If you need company just come over, I can train with you. Don't try to bottle it all up" I let go of Tana and give him a smile.

I watch as his core starts giving off a strong amount of love essence. I'm not sure how I feel about that, I'm too young and too focused on other things to spare any minds to it. Plus I've been a horrible friend locking myself away for a month, in my own puberty induce anxiety of others... well I've always had anxiety of talking to people but it's just so much worse now. With the recent world notification about me, I just don't want to talk to people. The questions, the praises, everything... it all just feels suffocating; it doesn't feel real to me, like I'm someone I'm not.

Tana looks determined, "Y-you don't need to worry about me, Esofy and Chyzu is nice and I have more time to dedicate to getting stronger"

"Then let train together!" I say with a smile.

With another mind I have a clone walking to the warehouse storing the Liquid mana. The Liquid dark mana is stored in barrels of light-saturated lead; the material has to be above a certain density to properly contain with the added push back from the MM force; otherwise, the liquid mana will leak. We managed to gather a large amount of dark mana after I switched the Mana Arc's liquid mana production back to fire mana.

First, I open the top of the barrel and begin transforming the liquid mana to space essence. It takes so much mana that I had to refill my reserves three times before I managed to complete the barrel. One down about sixty more to go.

This will take too long; first, I should make a large mana battery and have volunteers donate mana. I make a large cylindrical mana battery. It takes a long time and several sessions when I needed to recharge my mana reserves, but Now I have a battery that has enough mana to fully convert a barrel to space essence.

It wasn't hard to find volunteers, I ask the elders to help find some people, and at the Lojyo, they made an announcement. The next day I have more than enough people to make ten barrels of space essence. They put the mana in the battery, and I used the mana to fuel the transformations. Over the course of the next week, wherein I trained with Tana with my primary mind, I managed to convert all barrels to space essence. I thank the volunteers and ask them to refill the battery one last time.

Now comes the hard part; making the portals. It will take a week to make them, and that's not just because of mana restrictions as I still use mana to build the portals and enchant them, but also because I am taking delicate care to make mana structures to form a battery for the portal and to make it like how I made my diadem, having the mana as close together as they can be without fusing the mana.

I'll be making the portals for the rest of the year, and that's not including the times that I'll be going into the dungeon. I'll be twelve years old by the time all forty portals are done. Perhaps there's a better way? I'll need to improve my [Mana Manipulation], but that won't be enough to make them faster; I'll need class bonuses or a magical or enchanted item that will improve my [Mana Manipulation].

First things first, in order to do a job correctly and efficiently, I need proper tools, and that means I need to make them. Finding a rare space Domr, making space essence crystal, finding or even making a space essence gem, all will be needed to make what I need.

I again talk with the Elders, but this time about putting a bounty on the largest space Domr that can be found. But I don't just leave it up to chance; I'll use my enhanced [Sense Magic] and search for Domrs; I should be able to scout the entirety of the Nexus, ten kilometers at a time. I should be able to scan a length of four hundred kilometers in about an hour which should cover the entire Nexus in under a day, quicker since I can scout with two perceptive spheres ten kilometers in diameter, but I need to wait until I figure out clairvoyance safety.

With my plan set, I use the rest of the day to make several space essence crystals that I may need and research how mana gems are made. Using several examples in the village, the mana structure is clear to me; making it, however, will prove tricky. It's going to need to take a long time to form the correct mana structures as it seems to need delicate and precise manipulation.

I didn't manage to make the gem today, but I have plenty of time to figure it out. For the next day, I visit Kayafe again. I arrive at Temple island and notice a large flock of people building the foundations of a village. The village is on a jetty just like all villages, leaving the valuable land space for farms. Despite the Bamboo used for funerals being on the island, no one uses them for construction. For one, the plants haven't been selectively cultivated for use as a construction material, and two, it's sacred. The bamboo represents the next life of the dead; when the bamboo dies, it is believed that they've died in their next life.

I don't know if a cursed being will be created if the bamboo is cut down. It does seem like cursed beings can be too easily created, but that can't be the case, can it? Maybe I should ask Kayafe and the Guardian about that?

I walk to the Mana Arc with those thoughts swirling in my mind and initiate contact with the ancient soul.

"Greetings"

"Hello, Kayafe. I finally managed to enhance my [Sense Mana] into [Sense Magic]!" I brag, feeling my success settle in. At first, it just didn't feel real, but now I am getting used to it. Use to my incredible sensing range, use to my clear vision.

"[Sense Magic], Huh," Kayafe says, impressed, "I thought it might be something like that, [Mana Manipulation] turns into [Magic Manipulation] after all. Before you ask, I haven't been able to get very far into the breakthroughs. I have figured out several things like making permanent effects onto mana, which is inherently a magical phenomenon, but as far as using magic for non-mana applications, I have yet to do that, and it is likely an advanced form of that skill."

"The guardian warned me about Clairvoyance retaliation, is there any advice you can give me on protecting myself? What are ways that people retaliate, and how likely are monsters to do the same?" I ask, changing the subject.

"Clairvoyance retaliation?" Kayafe repeats. "Well, as you discovered already, mind mages are the most common forms of it. Skills and protective equipment are a requirement, and even that only delays some of the more powerful mind mages. Also, just because you have a resistance skill at level one hundred doesn't mean that the enemy won't have a skill or breakthrough that pierces your resistance, be mindful of that. You know how bad a five-minded mage can be; remember how I said that's on the low end? Mages with ten or more can easily use all their minds to crush your defenses. In war, clairvoyant scouts are often accompanied with mind mages to defend them; it's a whole different war that takes place at the same time as the actual war."

"What about non-mind mages? What do I need to look out for?" I ask.

"Skills and items, both magical and enchanted. Some will put you to sleep; some will harm you; others will try to kill you depending on the laws implemented by the governments. The most common way to deal with those is through the use of a scapegoat, to redirect the attack rather than try to contest it in an attempt to block it. Usually, the skills and items only activate once per clairvoyance attempt, but they don't always activate immediately; some are activated by how long the observation is. For example, if you pass by someone with a clairvoyant sphere, it won't activate on an innocent blind person or military warrior. It pays a lot to learn the clairvoyant laws of each city and kingdom, and most will usually enforce a delay in items or skills as they don't want their internal spies to be attacked. Some laws will only allow non-lethal retaliation." Kayafe explains

"So it's very nuanced, governments don't want their internal affairs to be hindered, but they also don't want enemy spies getting too much information." I summarise.

"Exactly. Also, retaliation can be staggard, so for every interval amount of time retaliation can occur and many times get progressively worse. Also, scapegoats won't work from area of effect attacks; be mindful of those."

"So those are things to look out for. Other than scapegoats and items and skills to resist retaliation is there other ways to get around attacks? Hiding from them? Working through a proxy?" I ask.

"Those are more advanced forms and are very hard to do." Kayafe says. "While it can fool enchanted items, which will protect you from most retaliatory items, it may not work against magical items or skills. Fortunately, most of those are reserved for military and government personnel, so it's easier to know where not to remotely view. As for proxies, clairvoyant mirrors, and spells that project onto reflective and smooth surfaces also work. Those can't be affected by most nonlethal retaliation but can be destroyed by more dangerous retaliations, and again, area attacks will still hurt you."

With my perception covering such a large area, it's possible that I might face retaliation from hundreds or even thousands of people and things. I need to be very careful; I doubt even the sturdiest of defenses can handle that all at once.

"So proxies are the safest way; unfortunately, it sounds like it relys on normal vision, so I can't use those. And there are likely to be dozens if not hundreds of potential retaliation which rules out items to resist specific attacks, which leaves either a skill or a catch-all resistance item, and scapegoats, lots of them." I say with an exasperated sigh.

"You'll need a very powerful item; catch-alls have a reputation of not fully protecting you. You are best off with a skill; it is unlikely you can make a powerful enough item." Kayafe warns.

"Great... yet another skill I need. I still need [Multitask] and now another resistance skill. I really need a second class to help free up some general skills," I complain. "Anyway, What do you know about cursed beings? The Guardian warned me about them. How common are they?"

"They are rare. Most cursed beings are weak enough that killing one won't result in a realm notification, but that still doesn't mean they are pushovers. In fact, even weak ones can still kill legendary beings; it's because they use magic. Some of the strongest can kill multiple dragons; it's happened before. Liches, Undines, Fallen Legacies; they have the power to kill all life on continents. Just keep in mind, while there are many, even common, ways for cursed beings to arise, they usually require certain difficult to achieve and rare conditions to be created; of course, that is not always the case. Defilement of the dead are sure ways to make cursed beings. Some even do it intentionally to fight wars, overthrow leaders, and many other things." Kayafe explains.

"so, other than defilement of the dead, I don't have to worry about cursed beings?" I ask.

"Mostly, yes. Just stay away from ruins, always at least bury or burn the dead and never take anything from crypts. Some kings will even go through extraordinary steps to make sure they will become cursed beings if their tombs are disturbed. The pharaohs of the Xanadeha dynasty often did that."

"Why do people go out of their way to make things worse for everybody?" I say, incredulously.

"I don't know, but people do, and we have to be careful of that."

After talking with Kayafe, I ask the Guardian about the bamboo.

"It's only a problem if they are all cut down or if the Kyhosa's beneath them are taken; cutting one bamboo down isn't a problem, not even a few. However, cutting them down will result in miasma, which can make any cursed beings more powerful."

"What is miasma, exactly?" I ask.

"Miasma... It's hard to say" The Guardian says. "It's much like lingering sentiments. For example, the bamboo, if you cut it down, the sentiments of it symbolizing another being's life is released, creating miasma. It's fine if the plant naturally dies Miasma won't be created. This is another problem with cities; places of great disparity between the haves and have nots, the neglected poor, the tyranny of authority, resentments from feuds, and much, much more can all create miasma. Unless you have a paradise city, there is usually a limit to the population density of cities, and this limit is lowered based on things like slavery, war, and corruption."

Another point for villages and why Safyr wanted to spread out the Runalymo's population density. Tyranny is the rule, not the exception. Just how is the world not overrun by cursed beings?

"You see the conundrum," The Guardian says with a smile. "Conditions for cursed beings are still rare, and there seems to be a minimum threshold before cursed beings can even form."

"So what you are saying is that even though cities create a lot of Miasma, there just aren't any conditions for cursed beings to be created?" I ask.

"Yes, that is mostly the case. However, Fallen Kings are a type of cursed being that can arise, the conditions are rare, but because of the amount of miasma, they are generally greater cursed beings; the worst I've ever seen was a Soul King Lich. A being so powerful that when we dragons slew it, the entire kingdom transformed into a Magic Zone."

"Magic Zone?" I ask.

"Also known as a Magic Biome," Safyr says. "It is a place transformed by magic, not unlike the magic that creates magic items. They are generally places of high danger, but there are a few safe exceptions. You don't have to worry about those, for now, little one. Train your skills and grow stronger, conquer the Dungeon and keep advancing the Runalymo. I have a feeling you'll need to."