Chương 61: Everyone Gets the Same

Enzo turned the garnet over in his fingers, examining it under the Light Orb. The stone was about the size of a golf ball, shaped into a baguette cut with rounded edges and corners. There'd been no need to pursue a perfect cut when crystal mana could shape the stone precisely. And the rounded edges served a practical purpose. The gold wire wrapped easier around smooth transitions than sharp corners. He picked up the loupe and studied the wire work.

The gold traced clean lines across each facet, welded directly into the garnet's surface using crystal mana rather than wrapped in the traditional sense. There was no gap between metal and stone. No seam. The wire sat flush, as if it had grown there. Silver had been his default for enchantment work so far, and it conducted mana well. But enchantments consumed the material they were built on, and he wanted to know whether gold degraded at the same rate. If there was a difference, it was worth finding out now.

He'd layered the mana gathering and fire conversion enchantment into the gold after the welding. A faint red glow was already building inside the stone, deepening as he watched. The enchantment had been active for less than five minutes and the gathering cycle was already pulling in ambient mana and converting it fast enough to be seen. Ambient arcane mana drawn in, converted to fire, stored in the garnet. He'd spent considerable time thinking about that.

How an enchantment built from arcane mana could convert to a type he couldn't produce himself. It had bothered him since the first battery, a question he'd pushed to the back of his mind, assuming he'd have to live without an answer. Sumi's discovery made it click. Arcane's underlying function was transmutation. Change was what it did. The enchantment didn't need his personal affinity to convert. It needed arcane mana and an intent layer specifying the target type.

The magic in the enchantment handled the rest, because conversion was its nature. He set the loupe down and held the garnet up to the light.

"Analyze." — Superior Fire Mana Battery Type: Arcane, Fire Enchantments: Gather Mana (Stable), Convert Mana (Fire, Stable) Infusions: Reinforcement +1, Gather Rate +1, Compression +1 Materials: Almandine Garnet, Gold Description: A mana storage device constructed from multiple fused almandine garnets, shaped and reinforced through Infusion during active material transformation. Gold wire bonded to the surface holds stable mana gathering and fire conversion enchantments.

Increased mana intake from combined passive infusion draw and active enchantment gathering. Reduced mana leakage due to reinforced outer surfaces. Increased storage capacity from mana compression. Warning: Mana Battery signatures will attract Eaters. They may also attract Beasts and hostile Mages. — Enzo smiled to himself. It was everything he'd hoped to see, although the warning about Beasts and hostile Mages was unexpected. It made sense, though. He pulled up his notifications.

— Mana Control (Level 16) → Mana Control (Level 17) Mana Circulation (Level 8) → Mana Circulation (Level 9) Cultivation (Level 3) → Cultivation (Level 4) Enchanting (Level 8) → Enchanting (Level 9) Infusion (Level 5) → Infusion (Level 7) Analyze (Level 8) → Analyze (Level 9) Light Orb (Level 1) → Light Orb (Level 2) — Enzo leaned back in the chair, closed his eyes, and stretched until his shoulders popped. It was nice to see another level in Mana Control so soon. Deserved, though.

Besides the constant Infusion itself, controlling the mana once it was inside the gemstones had been the hardest part of the work. Doing them at the same time deserved a skill of its own. Analyze was fast becoming his favorite spell, but he had no idea how to expand it even though it was getting close to level 10 threshold. The clacking of nails on the stairs brought him back. Fast, uneven steps racing down the hallway, followed by the scrabble of paws sliding across hardwood. The sound stopped outside his door.

The doorknob rattled. Turned. The door swung inward and Murph stood in the frame, tongue lolling from the side of her mouth, tail going. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. She barked. Enzo opened his eyes and swiveled in the chair. Looking out the window, he could see the sky had gone dark. The last traces of light were fading behind the hills.

"I didn't realize how late it was." He glanced at Murph.

"But you're right. Dinner time." Enzo paused at that. He was so used to someone bringing him something to eat that he hadn't really made much of an effort to go out and get food in the past couple of weeks. Nearly every spare minute was spent working on some project or problem or random task. But he also just wasn't as hungry as often as he used to be either. That was just another one of the unexplained phenomena around the end of the world and the advent of magic. Except tonight he was.

Creating the fire mana battery had required some intense mana working. Enzo pushed himself to his feet and grabbed his cane.

"Come on, girl. Let's head down to Jack's and see what's on tonight." Murph spun and pranced down the hallway ahead of him, her steps light and bouncing, tail sweeping side to side. She looked back once to make sure he was following, then kept going, half-dancing her way to the stairs. He followed at his own pace. Outside, the settlement had settled into its evening rhythm. Lanterns and candles flickered in windows.

A few of the Watch's posts glowed with their own lanterns, reminding him that he'd promised to deliver some enchanted lights soon. The list was long enough that he was beginning to forget things. Voices drifted from porches and open doors. The community had adapted surprisingly well despite the loss of technology. Friends and family spent more time with each other. Children played games and make-believe. The line at Jack's stretched out past the garage entrance and along the sidewalk.

Two dozen people, maybe more, waiting with bowls and plates in hand. The sign over the garage door read 'Distribution Center,' but nobody called it that. Enzo joined the back of the line, just before a couple more groups did the same, lining up behind him. Murph sat beside him, ears forward, watching the front with an intensity that suggested she knew exactly what was happening in there. The man ahead of him turned, saw who it was, and stepped aside.

"Go ahead, sir."

"I'm fine here. Thanks." A woman two spots up did the same, gesturing him forward. He shook his head. Someone further back muttered something he didn't catch, but the tone was clear enough. He didn't look. The line moved. As he got closer, a few people glanced at him with open surprise. One of the women serving from behind the table leaned over to the man beside her and said something. He looked up, spotted Enzo, and raised an eyebrow. It occurred to him that this was the first time he'd come for food himself.

His mother usually brought a plate, or Val dropped something off, or Kenzo swung by with extra. He'd never actually stood in line. Not because he was being elitist or anything. He just kept forgetting what time it was. Murph, on the other hand, was getting a welcome. A girl who couldn't have been older than twelve dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around Murph's neck. Murph's tail went into overdrive. An older man leaned down and scratched behind her ears, murmuring something about her being a good girl.

Two of the serving crew were already grinning at her. As they neared the front of the line, one of the serving crew ducked into the back and returned with a bone. A thick one, with raw meat still clinging to it. She set it on the ground in front of Murph, who grabbed it and dropped into a sit, tail thumping against the concrete. They'd had it ready. Like they'd been expecting her. A loud voice cut through the noise from somewhere behind him.

"Must be nice. The dog gets good meat and the rest of us are stuck eating stew." The woman behind the serving table, a heavyset woman with her hair tied back and a ladle in one hand, looked up. Her expression flattened.

"That dog brings in more meat than you do, Jeremy. She's out hunting every morning while you sit on your ass waiting for your wife and kids to earn your share." She pointed the ladle at him.

"You want to eat better? Go pick up a spear and get to work, you retired tech bro." There was only silence from Jeremy's direction. A few people in line suddenly found the ground very interesting. Someone coughed. The line moved again. Enzo reached the front. Two large pots sat on a folding table, steam still rising from both. A stack of dried biscuits was piled on a tray beside them. The portions being ladled out were reasonable, but he noticed they were measured.

And perhaps a little less generous than they might have been a week ago. The woman with the ladle filled a bowl and set it in front of him. Then she paused.

"Everyone gets the same, sir. Just so you know." Enzo took the bowl.

"Of course." She studied him for a second. Then nodded, apparently satisfied.

"Do many people ask for more?" he asked. She shrugged.

"Only the losers." Enzo picked up two biscuits, tucked them against the bowl, and stepped aside. Murph followed with the bone clamped in her jaws, tail still swinging, and a happy slobber going. They walked home in the dark. The stew was some kind of game meat with root vegetables. It was decent. The biscuits were dry, but filling. He ate as he walked, thinking about portions and supply lines and the fact that his dog had a social life he hadn't known about.

When they arrived, Murph settled onto the grass out the front with her bone, crunching loudly. Enzo sat down beside her and ate in silence. A short time later, he returned to his room, having left Murph with what remained of her bone. He set the empty bowl on the bedside table and dropped into the chair.

"Light Orb." The big issue with carrying mana batteries, besides potentially attracting Eaters, was that it was necessary to make contact in order to draw the stored mana into the reservoir. Pockets had been his first idea. But crystal mana presented a different solution, even if it might not work on every material type used for a battery, such as the bottled blood. Enzo pulled the spellbook closer and flipped to a blank page. He'd created simple leather-bound bracelets for the Watch, to go with the shield rings.

For them, it was about giving them a method to trigger the enchantment. But as a mage, he didn't need that. What he needed was simpler. Physical contact between battery and skin. And some armor to go with it. Both were something they could all benefit from, because even if the others could naturally convert more mana types than he could, it was becoming increasingly obvious that they had limitations of their own. He tapped the pen against his mouth for a minute, then started sketching.

Enzo drew until his eyes refused to focus. Then he closed the spellbook, rubbed his face, and glanced at Murph, curled up asleep on the bed. He hadn't even heard her come in. Enzo yawned, dismissed the Light Orb, and climbed into bed.