Chapter 911 – Manajuice

The train makes a circle around the mountains, switching tracks a few times so we don't hit the other trains. There’s plenty of space for it, as stretching out around us is a grassy flatland dotted sparsely with ruins as far as I can see, along with some small forests and rivers. And at the center of it all, the volcano with the skeleton fallen into it sticks out like a sore thumb.

“Pip, this is kind of fucked up,” I say, speaking my thoughts aloud to the adult kindred standing next to me as we both watch from one of the larger balconies.

“Language! The younglings might hear. Yes, yes, might hear!” Pip taps his leg after every 'yes' and twists and shakes as if in a panic.

“Oh, so they can’t hear me swear, but they can watch you endlessly burn the still-living monster? And for how long exactly? 300 years?”

“Probably longer, yes, yes! But it is the enemy! Tariel the Undying. He refuses to die.”

“How did you even take him down?” I ask as I rest against a railing that was never made for a human, so much as for the kindred children, meaning it’s all weird, bent, and designed with bigger spacing, accommodating these dangerous creatures’ large size.

“We suspect Tariel was damaged, yes, yes. Nearly failed barrier after resting for so long. Too ancient, maybe buried in the cavern, damaged and not fully fixed after the war!”

“So you got him somehow at the start of the war, and you’ve just been torching him ever since.”

“Yes, yes.”

“This cannot end well.”

“No other choice! But very useful for the calculations. The city is a great place for the younglings to socialize! Tariel is an enemy, so there’s no need to be sad!”

“I wouldn't say I'm sad,” I say, looking at the skeleton while the train rattles on the tracks so the other train can pass by. “But yeah, I don’t guess you can kill him, and somehow the asshole’s still regenerating from the bones that you still can’t destroy.”

“Not asshole. Tariel!”

“Yes, yes,” I sigh.

“Yes, yes!” Pip says excitedly.

“Why don't the kindred eat meat, Pip?” I ask, deciding to push away my boredom by questioning the kindred. Mostly because I feel like watching and taking a short break from my training.

“Don't eat meat because it belongs to beings with thoughts!”

“Oh, yes?”

“Yes, yes! Yes.”

“What if you were to meet some sort of demon that had no thoughts? You know, a typical battle maniac that doesn't think of anything. Logically, you could eat him then, correct?”

The answer doesn't come, and when I glance to my left, I see Pip with his head bowed down as he is in deep thought.

“Pip?” I ask carefully

In answer, I only hear him muttering quietly, “Yes, yes, logic there. What if no thought? Hmm?”

Deciding not to risk turning an entire race of vegetarians into a demon devouring plague, I poke him, and Pip shakes his head and looks at me.

Pip growls in what is supposed to sound dangerous and takes a few tiny steps towards me. “Nathaniel's head often empty,” he says, and once again growls, moving even closer. “Me eat Nathaniel. Yes, yes.”

I feel myself smile and tap his head, which causes him to vibrate in happiness.

“You silly, little troll,” I say to him.

“Me not troll. Pip is a kindred, and Pip will eat Nathaniel!” He pushes even closer and presses his head against me, poking my side as he mutters, “Nomnomnomnom.”

He even pokes me with his weird arms, but does so gently.

“Nathaniel has a soft body! Like babies! We will eat babies too because no thought, head empty. Yes, yes! Nomnomnomnom.”

Ten minutes later, we are still making wide circles around the mountain, and we’re still switching tracks when I find myself on top of one of the wagons, the one where Sophie set up her garden.

Only Min-Jae is here with me, sitting and watching curiously as I experiment with [Jüdrajil].

First, I have an orb I made with 10 or so percent of my mana. Holding it in my hand, I use [Jüdrajil] to drain it, at which point the orb liquefies, and the resulting liquid floats and bounces just over the surface of the wagon.

[Jüdrajil - lvl 13 > Jüdrajil - lvl 14]

No matter how tightly I weave my constructs, how much I use my passive to temper them, or how hard I push with [Manifestation], that damn skill just liquefies it all too damn easily. But that isn't really a bad thing at the moment. I touch that liquid and try to “take” again.

And damn, the liquid turns into liquid. A more purified one, and there’s less of it there, but it’s still the same liquid.

And then I take from it again, and again, and again. Until the only liquid left is a single nail-sized droplet that I put into a similarly small vial and close with a cork.

That liquid inside still floats slightly, bounces, and lacks the wetness of water, behaving more like some sort of levitating mercury. The color’s a darker shade of blue now, with light blue and white running through it, leaving it with a much higher level of contrast. Once again, I'm amazed by how little mana [Jüdrajil] requires to use.

It's fucked up.

“This, dear Min-Jae, is manajuice.”

“Please don't. Call it manasol or something,” he says right away, as if he’d been expecting this conversation.

“What does that even mean?”

“Sol could be short for solution or solvent. I think it fits!”

“How long have you been thinking of that?”

“Since the moment you mentioned you could liquefy mana.”

Shaking my head, I look at the vial. “Manasol it is, and manajuice when I'm in the right sort of mood.”

“Okay, and what now? Can you ignite it?”

“I can,” I admit, “but I thought of something else. You know how when I give, it takes all the mana I have available? Well, I tested it a bit, and it seems that giving also turns manajuice back into mana and transfers it as well.”

Looking at it, I shake the vial wildly as if punishing the manajuice inside. “But this damn thing refuses to be used in any other way than through that damned skill.” I sigh and lower my hand. “And I think it's weird. I mean, I can ignite manajuice, right?”

“As you said,” Min-Jae confirms when he notices I'm waiting for a reaction.

“So, how can I ignite the damn thing if the damn skill takes all my damn mana, which includes the mana from the manajuice I’m currently trying to ignite?”

“You said it was a prototype.”

“It's weird, I don't like it, but yeah, screw the system. That’s how I’ll use it. By the way, igniting this thing is scary as hell, and it only gets scarier the more I gather,” I mutter.

My mana reserves have mostly regenerated, and I can replenish it quickly enough through my Ignition Heart and by drawing on ambient mana, it's mostly up to my mood.

I push my mana a little and turn some of it black, not much, just around one percent, and hold it steady even as it tries to pull on the rest of my mana.

Then I use [Jüdrajil], touch myself, and take.

It is one of the worst feelings, but all my mana disappears in a mere flash of a moment. All except the black mana, which, in these few moments of weakness, powers my skills, all while I dissolve it back into normal mana to power everything normally instead. The process isn't smooth yet, but I’ll be rid of that weakness after a few sessions of tuning. I just need a little bit of black mana, which, thus far, has proven entirely resistant to [Jüdrajil].

As a result of taking it, 10,000 stat points worth of mana is converted into liquid, which I take and take and take until I’ve compressed it much further, down to the size of a grape, which I then put into yet another vial.

All that mana, that insane amount, in a tiny vial like this.

I shake it, and if it were bigger, I would be slapping the side of the glass container.

“Do you think storing it like this is better than using a crown, halo, or some other way?” Min-Jae asks curiously, and when I throw the vial to him, he catches it, observing it from the outside.

I’ve been giving it some thought, but I take a moment to think about it again when he asks, talking out loud as I do, “It’s different. I can’t use it in any other way at the moment, just when I transfer all my mana through [Jüdrajil]. But it also means there probably isn’t anyone else, other than some fucked-up specialist, who’ll be able to do anything with manajuice.”

“But people usually can't do anything to your mana anyway. When was the last time someone stole any from you? It would be safe in a crown, too, and you could actually use it,” Min-Jae says as he pulls out some sort of weird-ass monocle and starts looking at the vial through it. Some of his skills with perception elements activate as he does so.

“You saw how small the vial is. The signature it gives off isn't all that big, nor is the radiation-”

“I think it would kill a normal person in a matter of seconds,” he interrupts me.

“Just this?” I'm taken aback.

“Your view on this is a bit skewed, to be honest.” he looks up and smiles before looking back at the vial. “When they’re on your person, these sorts of items tend to have their radiation devoured by your Mana Cycling. But if you left it somewhere, it would kill someone on the weaker end of things. People around level 50 or higher would be safe, the signature isn't that strong, but anyone below that, a few hours would be enough to cause some intense damage.”

“That's fucked up.”

“It applies to some of the more powerful arcane and low pristine items too. A lot of times, their presence alone can be dangerous. I did some testing with Sophie, and our signatures aren't the only things to worry about once we return to Earth. It’s mostly okay here because people tend to be higher level or be born to awakened planets, but it’s going to be different on Earth.”

“I guess,” I acknowledge, looking at the smaller vial I still hold. “My idea is that I could always hold some vials full of manajuice. I could easily have 10 or so, each one containing my full mana pool’s worth of mana or more. Using them to ignite something would be overkill and would probably destroy the item, but I could either just give my mana to someone else while keeping a bit of black mana in reserve, or I could just ignite the vials themselves.”

“If you think about it, don't some of the effects overlap with your black mana?” Min-Jae asks.

“A bit?”

“Do you think it's the system giving you a replacement in hopes that you’ll give up on black mana?” He throws the vial back to me, and I catch it while musing over his words.

“And getting offered [Usurpation] was a question or a test to see if I want to usurp the system, right?” I snort. “I think I got this exact prototype because the system is experimenting with skills that act like black mana, and it also wants to test me, who already has black mana, to see what I might use more or how I’ll abuse it. Who the hell knows? Overall, I think [Usurpation] was more versatile, but [Jüdrajil] is much more powerful and almost has this sort of absolute, unavoidable effect. I also think [Jüdrajil] will be much better for the combination in the future. The skill that comes out of that combo is gonna be fucked up.”

“I agree with all of that,” he says.

“Well, thank you for agreeing with me, o’ all-knowing Kim Min-Jae,” I say, which gets another smile out of him, and I shake my head. “Anyway, want to find some stronger monsters so I can show you what igniting manajuice does?”

“Yes!”

We leave the still circling train, which makes me wonder if they’re not doing this to make the kindred children dizzy, throw up, or faint. Both Min-Jae and I can fly, me with kinetic power and him by pulling himself with his [Telekinesis].

We have to fly a few dozen miles away, but going by my scans, I find a somewhat powerful monster in an area that’s clear of any tracks or population. Just one of those zones the kindred avoid. There are several craters dotting the area along with a number of lines where some kaiju must have dragged itself through.

There’s also a huge lake that’s probably about a mile deep according to my scans and the size of a city. Inside I find not a fish, not a lion, but something in between, and the effect is quite ugly.

[Merlion - lvl 387]

Its status as a test subject becomes unavoidable as it throws some sort of mental attack our way that I disrupt, along with jets of water that Min-Jae splits in front of us so they pass by our sides.

Currently, I have both vials of manasol with me and am holding the one with the greater quantity. I allow a bit of my mana to compress and turn black, swiftly using a few triggers to ensure that it powers up my constructs, passives, and skills, and then I wait.

The surface of the lake explodes, and from inside of it, a huge whale jumps up, sweeping the whole Merlion into its mouth and killing it with a single bite.

[Hafgufa - lvl 436]

I use [Jüdrajil] and touch the liquid inside the vial, igniting it and quickly throw it down with a quick boost where it crashes against the whale, which is just starting to dive back underwater in a spray of blood from the killed Merlion. That vial explodes, and the liquid crashes out like gasoline spreading over the whale’s body before erupting in those weird flames the ignition causes.

I can see the flames even through the water as they brightly flicker and spread across the whale, covering its body and reaching deeper inside. They feed on mana, taking it in a similar fashion to [Jüdrajil], and the taken mana is then consumed in turn to ignite the manasol so it can burn even longer.

"It just keeps taking mana," I say to Min-Jae as I observe the whale, which thrashes around in its attempts to extinguish them. "The flames don't burn you, they don't cause damage, and they don't spread to anything else beyond the first living thing they hit. The effect isn't nearly as fast as me touching them, but the flames spread through you, take all your mana, and use it to support the flames so they can burn longer and continue to take."

Min-Jae seems like he is slowly grasping the idea. "How long do they last as they are now?"

I shrug. "Honestly? I'm not sure. It probably depends on how much I purify the manasol, the target's mana pool, their mana control, and several other factors. I used my entire pool, plus manasol, so it'll be..." I pause and calculate through experience from previous testing and what my Preeminence eyes see. "At least a few days? Maybe a month? That would only be if the whale stopped generating mana. But as it creates mana, it just feeds the flames, so I wouldn't be surprised if the flames last much longer than that."

Slowly, I start gathering kinetic energy and narrowing it into a needle point that, unlike Lioren's true needle point, ends up being as wide as a bus. When the whale twists and looks at us to attack, I release that blast of kinetic energy.

It bursts towards the lake, sending a huge volume of water splitting away and, for a moment, creating a very large crater, in which my attack kills the whale.

A notification dings, and as the water rushes back in, the whale begins to sink down while the flames continue to blaze across its corpse. Now that it’s dead, the flames aren't firmly attached to it anymore, and I know they will either die off after some time, when the mana that ignites them runs out, or they’ll jump onto the next living being that touches the corpse.

My expression is now every bit as serious as Min-Jae's. He is a smart boy, young man, or whatever age he is now.

He also realizes that if I level the skill and gather enough mana, it should be possible for me to literally leave someone manaless for decades... If not forever. Destined to be harmlessly burned by these flames that strip the gift of mana from them unless they find a way to counter my skill.