15 Secret of Mana (2/2)
The entire secret garden must have been less than fifty square meters in total. It was a short distance for my feet to take me to the center where the mana well was.
Darah followed behind me.
I looked into the glowing pool that was about the size of a round jacuzzi tub, and what I found reflected at me was not my own face but a canvas of stars brightly lit across a clear blue morning sky.
”hmmm,” I heard Darah behind me. ”It looks like someone's touched it. That fool Roselle must have pinched a bit of mana before he ran away with his wings between his legs.”
”He did enter this place before he left,” I agreed, although I left out the part that I sent Qwipps in here to look for him too.
”Well, you should go cleanse it then,” and with zero warning, Darah pushed me into the mana well.
Getting thrown into a pool full of magical energy wasn't something I wanted to do without testing first. After all, what if it was the equivalent of radioactive sludge and melted me into dust, or worse, turned me into some kind of genetic freak?
Panic flared up in my chest and I thrashed below the surface of the pool. This anxiety stayed with me until I realized that I wasn't drowning. I was breathing.
I opened my eyes.
Pale blue orbs with fiery tails swam in the pool around me like shooting stars crossing the night sky.
Calm returned to me as I watched them pass by. And when one brushed me, I could feel warm energy, similar to the feel of Aura's glowing bracelet, pass into me.
After an unknown amount of time passed, I swam up, and when I broke the water's surface, I found Great General Darah sitting on the grass beside the mana well. It seemed she'd been waiting for me.
Darah waited for me with her legs intertwined in the lotus position. ”Now you know what you were fighting for...”
”I...” I nodded, suddenly speechless. Such a priceless feeling it was to be wading in this well. I could feel myself getting stronger as if I could break through the limits imposed on me by my genetics.
”In the vastness of the Calmlands, there are only three mana wells. Each one hidden in a fairy fort hill. The one in the north is under the control of the Chariot Lords of Wheel Nation. The Magesong Clan of Spellweave River Valley controlled the other two... that is, until tonight when your unit took full control of this western hill,” Darah explained. ”Do you understand what that means?”
I thought about it for a few seconds before I responded with, ”We now have a way to cross the Calmlands without worrying about depleting our mana supply...”
Darah nodded. ”Mana fuels much of a fairy's power and technology… Mana wells like this one are our primary source of it.”
I lifted my hand to watch the water cascade down through the gaps of my fingers like a waterfall. ”I guess mana is to fairies what oil is to us, humans...”
”An apt deduction,” Darah agreed. ”Although we rarely destroy our environment to gain it, unlike the way you humans do. We just kill each other for it.”
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I made to wade out of the pool of mana but then Great General Darah held up a hand.
”Stay there for a while. It'll help you cultivate and reinforce the arcane energies flowing inside you,” she instructed.
”I don't have any arcane energy in me... I'm human,” I reminded the general.
”That is a common misconception... all living things possess a bit of arcane energy inside them. Humanity may not have as much as the different fairy races, but you have it.” Darah placed a hand in the pool. ”You simply lack the understanding to harness it.”
I watched as the mana climbed up Darah's arm and get absorbed into her skin like a sponge. Immediately afterward, Darah's eyes lit up with its own inner light, and I felt power radiate out of her in a wave of invisible energy.
”How do I—”
”Awaken your fairy gift inside the pool and allow it to evolve beyond what you can currently do with it,” she instructed.
”Evolve?” I asked.
Darah nodded. ”Although fairy gifts are rarely unique to an individual, they are a resonance between the clan you serve and the arcane potential in you. As you grow, your gifts grow with you.”
Darah took her hand out of the pool. ”This is your first lesson. Evolve your fairy gift past its current use here and now.”
”My first…” The confusion was clear in my furrowed brow. ”lesson?”
”I have chosen to take you under my wing. You will report directly to Fort Darah from now on as the replacement Hundred-Man Commander of your current unit,” There was a smirk on Darah's lips.
The shock showing on my face made Darah laugh. I couldn't help thinking how similar it sounded to Aura's own laughter.
”However, don't start thinking too highly of yourself, Dean Dapper. You have potential but that is not the only reason I promoted you,” Darah admitted.
”What's the other reason, General?” I asked, curious.
She shrugged. ”The best way I can watch over my foolhardy niece is by making sure her foolhardy captain is under my thumb, yes?”
This was a fair assumption. The General certainly knew the right tactics to use here.
”Foolhardy,” I whispered, not at all against the idea Darah proposed. After all, I would officially become a Hundred-Man Commander now. ”I like the sound of that…”
”Yes-yes, that name really suits you,” Darah's eyes twinkled. ”Alright… from now on, I will name your hundred-man unit as The Foolhardies.”
”F-foolhardies?” I wondered if that was even a word. ”I Don't get to choose?”
Darah's eyebrow shot up. ”You have something against my naming sense?”
I shook my head quickly as I felt a murderous intent coming from Great General Darah. ”Foolhardies is great.”
Darah nodded satisfied. Then she said, ”Well? Are you planning to chat with me until dawn arrives? Begin with your training!”
I quickly did as ordered and activated fool's Insight while still in the mana well, all the while wondering what Luca and Aura would think of our unit's new name.