Or a bomb.
“Alright,” he said finally. “Ground rules.”
“Oh boy,” Luna said, feeling the nervous flutter in his mana signature. “Here comes the fine print.”
“Only take what I give,” Emil continued. “I still need my mana for work tomorrow, so please don’t…don’t yank anything. Overdrawing can blow out a mage’s channels.”
Luna perked up. “I didn’t even know that was an option.” Luna quickly ran through a handful of mana drain combat techniques she would absolutely abuse given the chance.
“Consider it not an option,” Emil said firmly. “Had a faulty concentrator do that to me a few months ago. I was out of commission for a week. Unpaid.”
“Okay, okay,” Luna said. “No imposing an unwelcome refractory period. Got it. Deal.”
And honestly? She meant it.
She needed this guy operational to try and speedrun her early game.
Once the terms were accepted, Emil placed his hand back onto the concentrator’s smooth housing and made his first bulk donation of mana.
Mana flooded her system like a fire hose.
Warning — Critical mana pool levels.
Expel excess mana or risk catastrophic damage in 3… 2…
“GEEEZ…”
Luna panic burbled her mana into a flurry of stone coins, spitting them out so fast she felt like a damaged hedgehog. The pressure dropped just before the countdown hit zero.
She decided not to mention the whole “explode from too much mana” thing to Emil.
He did not need that anxiety.
Emil kept feeding her mana in a steady stream. It seemed to have a warm earthy flavor that carried a tinge of the mild stress of someone who definitely stayed up too late studying city zoning and contractor bylaws.
Mana: 0/100
Regen: 1.0 mana/sec
Mana: 0/10
Regen: 0.1 mana/sec (better than zero)
Together: 1.1 mana/sec straight into Luna’s waiting mana engine.
Luna did her part, certainly pulling her own weight… only because she weighed nothing.
Emil paused a couple times:
- once for a snack,
- once to change into pajamas,
- and once for a skincare routine impressive enough that Luna briefly wondered if he was sponsored.
Each time he came back, he dumped his entire refilled pool into Luna’s casing without hesitation.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
And each time Luna flared like a mana furnace.
Eventually, Emil drifted off with a book drooping from one hand and a mana printing spirit fueled death core in the other.
Luna, meanwhile?
+1 stone mana coin
+1 stone mana coin
+1 stone mana coin
Every 9-ish seconds, a fresh XP penny.
She adored watching the notification ping.
With Emil’s constant input, Luna studied everything…the device’s rune channels, her internal flowing paths, the tiny inefficiencies she could sandpaper down as she leveled.
And it didn’t take long.
Mana: 10/20
Mana Regen: 0.2/s
“Ooohhh yeah,” Luna said. “Quickest level up of my life.”
Her loop sped up ever so slightly, though the xp requirements to reach level 3 also increased.
Emil’s regen remained the backbone of the whole operation, but Luna was steadily becoming some kind of second backbone, like one of those snakes with two heads, but with two backs instead.... Yeah, surely that exists somewhere around here.
And then—
Level Up! — Concentrator Lv. 3
Mana: 10/30
Mana Regen: 0.3/s
New Passive: Potent Product
Your mana coins are 10% stronger.
- Stone Coin → 1.1 mana or 1.1 XP
(Also applies to higher tiers.)
Luna’s whole metaphysical body lit up like the inside of a slot machine.
“OHHHH we’re cooking now,” she crowed. “Premium stones! Extra crispy XP! Limited edition commemorative coins!!”
She immediately printed another stone coin.
It shimmered slightly brighter than the others.
“Beautiful,” she whispered. “I will eat you now.”
Stone Mana Coin consumed.
+1.1 XP
This was going to be a fun night.
…
Luna chugged into level 4 with her road to level 5 being even greater. It took about 3.5 hours of constant work to finally hit the level up.
Thankfully at level 5, she unlocked her next ability.
New passive: Mana Efficiency
Your internal mana pathways refine under constant circulation. Increases your own mana regeneration by 50%.
“Oh gainsssssss.”
At Level 4 she was crawling along at .4 mana/second, but with the level up and ability she jumped all the way to .75 mana/second. She was nearing Emil’s mana regen of 1/s at half his level.
“Stink ass inefficient baby butt smooth skinned mage” Luna grumbled as the mage slept, oblivious, still feeding her a constant stream of mana and therefore XP for her grind.
And grind it absolutely became.
While the power level sprint to 5 had only taken half the night, the next level and a half took the entire remaining four and a half hours luna was allowed before Emil finally stirred awake for work.
All in all though, solid night.
Luna Caine
Race: Nothing
Class: Concentrator Lv. 6
Mana: 0 / 60
Regen: 0.90 mana/sec (self)
Linked regen: +1.0 mana/sec (Emil)
- Draw (Passive) — siphon mana from linked sources
- Output (Passive) — produce mana coins
- Potent Product (Lv3) — +10% stronger coins
- Mana Efficiency (Lv5) — +50% self mana regen