Shades of the New World

Chapter 191: Mana Complex

The Dimension Core then started to glow brightly and Evin could feel the ground shifting slightly. From the point at which Evin stabbed the ground, a small patch of black soil started to appear and replaced the unnatural black surface.

When Evin looked closely, he could almost see the soil growing ever so slightly, giving him an indescribable feeling of amusement and excitement. 

But a second later, it began to demand huge amounts of mana from Evin through the mental link he had created with it.

"It wants a lot of mana," Evin said, looking at Rith. 

The Cosmic just smiled back and pulled out another huge mechanism from a tear in space, almost thrice as tall as Evin. It was shaped like metal cylindrical capsule of some sorts, with a variety of engravings carved on top of it. In its center, was a glowing blue spiral and when Rith put it down to the ground, a loud thud sounded across Evin's shadow.

The tremor seemed to wake Runa up, as the skinshifter's drowsy thoughts appeared briefly in Evin's head. She didn't seem so happy to be woken up like that, and after mumbling something through telepathy, she went silent again. Evin asked her to turn into a spear and go back to sleep. The skinshifter obliged almost unconsciously and turned into a spear on Evin's hand, before Evin made her float with his Heavy World spell. 

Finished with the babysitting, he turned towards the smiling Rith.

"What the hell is that?"

"This is a Mana Complex, one made for Dimension Cores," Rith said, her face grimacing a bit: "One of these things cost about 70 thousand gold to create, so just be grateful that the upper echelons have completely lost their minds, alright?"

"What? What does it do?" Evin asked, excited to receive something so expensive for free.

"You can think of it as an all-in-one system that will take care of all your Dimension's need for mana. Obviously, you can use it to fuel your spells, but since you already have a Channeling Artifact and a considerable number of lodestones, it's not that necessary in my opinion," Rith said.

"How much mana does that equal to in the first place?" Evin asked, looking at its size.

"About half a ton, I believe. Which you might think isn't enough to grow a land as big as your town in half a year, but it's designed specifically for those purposes, so you don't have to worry about its functionality. Also, these engravings will connect it to a rich-mana source under the Cosmic's possession, so you don't have to worry about it sucking all the mana in the air," Rith explained.

"So there are other Mana Complexes, designed to fuel other things, right?" Evin asked, excited about the idea of huge mechanisms powered on mana.

"Yes, definitely. For example, many buildings in Tower City use a Mana Complex to function. I can tell about the ones I'm allowed to, but I want to show it to you when we get there. I don't wanna spoil anything for you, after all," Rith said and smiled meaningfully.

Evin thought about the giant black needle he saw through Twelve's memory and couldn't help but speculate its functions.

"In any case, straighten the Dimension Core a bit and align the Complex on top of it," Rith asked.

Evin made the thing weightless and tried to align it perfectly on top of the Core. He didn't have to try hard, as the two spirals' ends met and it locked in with clinking sound.

Through the connection he had with the Core, Evin could feel that its need for mana was being satisfied.

"Alright, we can leave that thing for the time being. For now, let's go outside," Rith said, satisfied with the Dimension Core's performance.

Evin took Runa in his hands and the three got out of his shadow.

"How do you people make these things anyway?" Evin suddenly asked, feeling like he had just witnessed a miracle.

"Well, I can't really tell you now, can I?" Rith shrugged. She then pulled out a book from inside her storage space dangling it in front of Evin.

"What's that?" Evin looked at it curiously, but Rith didn't seem willing to give him the book just yet.

"How do you think Space magic is cast? Through willpower or through logic?"

"Mostly through willpower?" Evin answered. He still felt like the concept of teleportation very unscientific.

"Wrong. It's through logic," Rith shot him down immediately and then asked another question: "If it's cast through logic, then what kind of logical phenomenon should you imagine?"

"Hmm If I want to get somewhere, I can do so by walking But if I use the World of Space, I can do it instantaneously. After all, it's almost inevitable that I'll be getting to my destination," Evin replied unthinkingly.

"Ugh, take this seriously. At least seriously think a bit before you answer," Rith sighed but still gave him the book: "It's Mathematics. We do it all using Geometry."

Evin glanced through the book, and sure enough, it was filled with mathematical subjects and problems. Most of them seemed to focus on three-dimensional coordinate geometry, where one had to calculate the distance between things. 

'Fuck' Evin thought as he read.

"You should know that the usage of the World of Space can be extremely rigid and boring. Most of the time, you will be calculating the distance between one portal gate and another inside your head, using the World of Thoughts. Even the methods of imagination are quite linear as well. Unfortunately, that's the tried and tested method of working with this World, so It is what it is. But first, let's talk some history," Rith said with a shrug and started her story.

"In the early 3rd century, the Cosmics still used their willpower to create their portals and gateways but at the same time, the ones who could actually create them without failing once or twice every five tries were few. The reason for these failures were mostly related to inaccuracy. After all, most would be only creating these portals through guesswork. If one was just a little bit uncareful, they would easily fail to create a stable portal, leading to the users of the portal arriving at their destination with misaligned organs and sometimes even missing body parts. Obviously, this could be tested by throwing in objects tied with a rope inside the portal first, so the fatalities rarely occurred but recasting the portal was a huge waste of money so no one really wanted to do that," Rith said clearly.

"But in the middle of the 3rd century, one Cosmic found out about mathematics and geometry from some scientist in the East and decided to implement it into his spellcasting. Obviously, it was a blind leap of faith, but the Cosmic was confident in its effects and after messing around with it for a few years, he perfected his new craft. Miraculously, every portal he created never failed, so the method became widespread among the Cosmics in the following few decades. Eventually, the upper echelons decided to make it so that every Cosmic had to learn these methods. Obviously, this extended to the few humanoids who learn from us, like yourself," Rith finished.

It was nice to hear a bit of history, but Evin was more interested in what came next.

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