Chapter 95: Mana and Water

  By the next day, most participants had lightened their loads slightly, but not everyone had enough water. They had used their supplies recklessly, not only for drinking but for all sorts of peripheral activities. This was especially foolish in the desert, yet in practice, ever since caravans first began crossing these sands thousands of years ago, there were always such people. Perhaps they weren't fully aware of the dangers, perhaps they found a string of excuses, or perhaps they were simply incapable of imagining the perils of tomorrow. It was just like in chess—they didn't think three moves ahead for their survival, but simply moved the pieces aimlessly.

  While Emilia's group forged ahead, they were overtaken by not one, but three smaller groups. Emilia, busy controlling two layers of mana, suddenly looked around and caught one of the passing boys by the sleeve.

  "What is going on?" she asked.

  "Hundreds of giant beetles are attacking the scorpions. And we are in their path!"

  Fear was etched into the boy's voice, and his eyes constantly scanned the distant dunes for them.

  "Emilia, we have to hurry." Rumi immediately grabbed Emilia's hand and began pulling her forward.

  Soon, everyone was rushing ahead with redoubled strength. Some discarded necessary and unnecessary items from their packs, while others drank thirstily from the little water they had left.

  Naturally, there were also many well-prepared participants. They hurried forward, breaking the wind with their chests and carving a path through the dunes for the rest.

  Driven by the beetles, the group bypassed two entire oases. They were forced to run through the night, and only their bodies, tempered by mana and earthly treasures, allowed them to somehow keep moving. The column stretched out significantly; those at the very back were out of sight, hidden behind one dune or another. However, they had a trail to follow, and Emilia hoped nothing bad would happen to them.

  Finally, shortly after dawn, the group saw the beetles begin to turn toward a mountain of amber, and everyone could at last breathe a sigh of relief... for the moment.

  An hour or two later, Emilia and the others reached an oasis. Emilia began to purify water, while Rumi sat on the sand, breathing heavily in the indescribable heat.

  "If they chase us like that again, I don't think I'll be able to endure it," she said, her small chest heaving up and down. "You'll have to carry me."

  "Hey, I can barely carry myself," Emilia countered, handing her a cup of purified water. "Here, and drink it slowly so you don't choke."

  Rumi thirstily raised the cup and, naturally, quickly choked, spilling some of the water. Emilia immediately began to scold her, until Elion finally interrupted them, asking for a cup of water as well.

  Emilia had collected plenty of water for purification and even considered creating a cooling formation so they could enjoy ice-cold water. But she was worried that her magical ingredients wouldn't be enough.

  "What are you talking about? This is a golden opportunity. You can sell water to the others. I'm sure they have various mana-rich treasures for your formation," Elion noted casually, his eyes shining in a peculiar way.

  "And if you pay a ten percent tax to the Church, we'll make it all completely legal. Don't forget that representatives from literally every guild, the mayor, and the nobles are here."

  Emilia looked around and considered it.

  "Maybe Elion is right. This desert could be a golden opportunity."

  After they talked a bit more about the idea, Elion began speaking with various youths, frequently pointing toward Emilia and her formation.

  Soon, several of them approached, and Emilia quickly began to bargain with them. Elion intervened strategically several times, pointedly stopping Emilia just before she named her price and increasing it significantly.

  "Emilia, you have to understand that these are an entirely different breed of people. Silver coins are worthless here. Only various treasures hold any value. You know what? Leave everything to me. I will represent you in exchange for a modest twenty percent commission."

  Emilia hesitated, but after seeing how Elion easily increased profits not by twenty percent, but often by two thousand percent or more, she quickly agreed.

  "Maybe I really am still thinking at the level of copper and silver coins," she thought to herself.

  ---

  "Two liters of water, one mana crystal."

  "This is highway robbery!" one of the noble youths protested. "How can ordinary water cost so much?" he continued indignantly.

  "On the contrary, it is not a question of what the water is worth, but what your life is worth. Is a medicine not made from simple herbs that can be found in any field? No, the medicine is expensive because of the healer's mastery. If a legendary healer prescribed you mere water, would you refuse to pay him?"

  "But she is no legendary healer!" the young man countered.

  "She might be, or she might not. The question isn't the cost, but whether you are ready to pay the price."

  The two continued to haggle for a while, while Emilia and Rumi watched a completely transformed Elion. At one point, Rumi slapped her forehead with her hand.

  "That's right. Before joining the Church, Elion came from a wealthy merchant family. He must have been trained for deals like this since he was young. He might be overdoing it a bit since he hasn't been in trade for a long time, but he's still doing better than you."

  "Hey, I hadn't even started yet," Emilia said, offended.

  "Yes, and it is a good thing we didn't let you," Rumi teased, sticking out her tongue.

  The two continued to exchange pleasantries, while Elion drew the attention of several youths and quickly gathered a handful of mana crystals.

  After they reached an agreement and finalized a contract before a representative of the Church, namely Elion himself, Emilia, began purifying a large quantity of water. The process was quite slow, and at Elion's insistence, she set up a second, cooling formation.

  "Only now! Ice-cold water, just two mana crystals!" Elion shouted at the top of his lungs.

  "Two crystals? How many crystals do you think each of us even has?" one of the boys called out.

  "Ha! Two crystals are nothing. My merchant house could pay not two, but twenty! But I don't have access to my ring right now. Maybe when we return..." someone else replied.

  "No crystals, no water! Next time, bring more mana crystals. This formation barely functions in these inhuman conditions. Do you think it's easy to maintain? Every minute, at least one crystal is drained!"

  "Absurd! Such a simple formation could be powered for months by a single crystal," a girl, particularly tired after the long day, intervened.

  "That applies to ordinary circumstances. However, this private dimension is quite peculiar. And here—this fiery-hot desert..." Elion continued to twist the facts, aided by the Great System, his experience, and his mercantile intuition.

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  "What dimension? What desert? This is highway robbery!"

  "Furthermore," Elion continued unfazed, "Emilia here is not the most skilled formation master. Therefore, her formations often bleed power. That is why more crystals are needed. We aren't forcing anyone. Whoever wants cold water pays, and whoever doesn't..."

  At this, Elion took a slow sip of the ice-cold water. Droplets clung to the rim of his cup like morning dew on the leaves of trees and grass.

  Before long, five people paid for cold water and eight for two liters of purified water each. Emilia collected eighteen crystals, but on the other hand, she had to use two small monster cores for the cooling formation. It truly required a terrifying amount of energy in this disgusting desert.

  Emilia was beyond thrilled with her loot, occupied with her mana crystals. Elion was buried in a book, while Rumi sat near the cooling formation, her eyes narrowed in pure bliss.

  "You know what, we should play a game," Rumi decided suddenly.

  "What could we even play? Our rings are locked," Elion reminded her.

  "What do you mean, 'what'? There are countless games we can play. For instance, we could name names."

  "Exactly," Emilia agreed, carefully tucking away the mana crystals. "We can name different mythical heroes and demigods. Whoever starts first says a mythical hero, and the next person has to think of one whose name starts with the last letter of the previous one."

  "Hey, that is not fair," Rumi objected. "Elion is always reading those sacred books."

  Emilia offered a faint smile. She also read the books "often." A bit more than often, actually, but she had no intention of giving away her advantage.

  "Fine," Elion said, closing his book. "Since I am the one who actually reads the sacred texts, I will be gentle -- Achilles."

  "S? Easy," Rumi chirped, tossing a mana crystal in the air and catching it. "Sisyphus!"

  Emilia did not even look up from her crystals. "Scylla," she said slowly.

  "Ending in A...Hm... let us go with Agamemnon," Elion replied confidently.

  "N… n… n… Yes, I know it - Narcissus!" Rumi said, looking quite proud of herself.

  Emilia finally looked up, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You are all playing too safe. I am going to end this. Styx."

  There was a beat of dead silence.

  "Wait, what?" Rumi sat up straight, her eyes wide. "Styx? The river? You cannot name a river, Emilia! That is cheating!"

  "It is not just a river," Emilia countered, leaning back with a smug grin. "Styx is a deity. The Goddess of the Underworld River. She helped Zeus in the Titan war. She is as mythical as they come."

  "It is a body of water!" Rumi turned to Elion for support. "Elion, tell her! You cannot play a place in a 'people' game!"

  Elion looked torn between his love for rules and his love for technical accuracy. "Actually... she is right. Styx is personified as a goddess. But," he pointed a finger at Emilia, "it is a total scholar move just to force an X on us. That is cold."

  "It is a strategy," Emilia laughed. "Now, unless someone knows an X name, I believe I win this round."

  "Oh, you think you are so smart," Elion muttered, racking his brain. "X... X... Ha! Xanthus! One of the immortal horses of Achilles. If we are counting river-goddesses, we are definitely counting talking prophecy-horses."

  "A horse? We are naming horses now?" Rumi groaned, throwing a small handful of sand at him.

  "He spoke prophecy and was born of a harpy, Rumi! He is more mythical than half the people in these books," Elion countered, feeling his scholar’s pride at stake. "Anyway, Xanthus ends in S. Back to you, Rumi."

  "Ugh, I hate the letter S," Rumi muttered. "Selene! The moon goddess. Top that."

  "Eros," Emilia snapped back instantly, not even giving them a second to breathe.

  "Back to S again!" Rumi threw her hands up. "You two are doing this on purpose!"

  ---

  The following day, they all set out early, before the heat could strike them with its full force. Everyone remembered the beetles from the day before and kept a constant watch.

  Soon they came upon the remains of a massive battle between scorpions and beetles. Emilia had dashed ahead, spending a long time harvesting venom from the scorpions. Eventually, she had fallen terribly far behind and had to march with double the effort for an entire hour just to catch up with the others.

  Larger creatures soon began to appear, and the participants were forced into frequent skirmishes. At times they were swarmed by packs of beetles or scorpions; other times, massive sand worms lunged from the dunes. Occasionally, three-meter vultures descended upon them, capable of launching powerful spheres of death energy.

  Just before reaching the next oasis, they were forced into a grueling hour-long battle with thirty mysterious mummies clad in strange armor, etched densely with cryptic runes.

  Everyone was deeply exhausted, yet Emilia managed to scavenge nine more mana crystals. Curiously, almost no one asked for cold water this time. It seemed most of the youths had finally realized the nature of the trap they had fallen into and understood the dire necessity of conserving their resources.

  The wealthy children, like Rumi, used these crystals to power the formations on their weapons and armor. They were a strategic resource, and today's battles had swiftly demonstrated just how precious they truly were.

  Emilia had also depleted a portion of her talismans. Now, within the safety of the oasis, she examined the bark of the cacti. They didn't possess bark in the same sense as trees, but the older ones had a tough outer shell that protected them from the scorching heat and the violent sandstorms.

  In this private dimension, the mana was exceptionally dense, making most of the flora and fauna rich with energy. Because of this, Emilia did not hesitate for long and began cutting sections of the cactus to peel away its casing.

  Soon, she found a quiet spot and constructed a formation to help dry the cactus skins. Knowing this would take considerable time, she moved on to her other tasks: purifying water and maintaining the cooling formation for their trio. She, along with Rumi and Elion, had set up a large shared tent made of cloth, keeping it slightly chilled with the formation.

  Even though the formation consumed a significant amount of energy, Emilia found herself in possession of numerous mana crystals and decided she could afford the luxury.

  Early the next day, she checked the cactus skins and found they had dried well. Emilia, who required little sleep thanks to her herbal tinctures, had risen before the others and spent a long time inscribing talismans onto the cactus leather.

  "These are turning out very well. They are difficult to work with, and I have to adjust my formulas for every single talisman, but their mana is abundant. I can craft talismans from them, even if it is a slower process."

  Emilia felt a surge of joy and began replenishing her stock of talismans.

  On the following day, the group encountered three times as many enemies. The battles were so frequent that the group no longer traveled in a long, broken column; instead, they moved as a single, tight-knit unit.

  The constant fighting began to severely drain the youths' reserves of mana crystals, and tempers started to flare. It turned out that the stronger individuals used their weapons more often and were losing crystals at a rapid rate. Since their supplies were dwindling, they began demanding a tax from the others.

  Some agreed, while others protested. The frequent attacks prevented these disputes from escalating into anything too serious, but when they reached the next oasis three hours before dusk, the arguments exploded. It quickly devolved into a heated confrontation, with blows being traded.

  Emilia, however, was able to assist everyone by purifying water, so for now, they left her alone. She left Elion to defend their interests, while Rumi faced no trouble, as she possessed one of the most powerful weapons in the group.

  Emilia wandered off to explore the oasis. She was certain that these oases held their own secrets and that this trial was not leading them through these spots by mere coincidence.

  After circling the oasis three times, she finally detected several energy fluctuations at various points. After investigating them carefully with her skills, she stopped and began digging into the sand.

  Before long, a strange, golden-looking rock was revealed to her. The light in the sky had begun to fade, yet it still illuminated the stone. The numerous irregularities on its surface caught the light, reflecting it back in countless colorful rays.

  Emilia slowly broke off a piece of the rock and began probing it with her mana. This continued for ten full minutes until, at last, a flash of insight struck her.

  "This is raw, mana-rich ore. The weakest mana crystals are synthesized from this very material!"

  After reflecting for a moment, she hurried toward the arguing figures in the distance. She stepped between them and quickly explained her discovery in a loud, clear voice. She gestured frequently and was interrupted several times, but soon enough, everyone followed her back to the rocks.

  "These are indeed the stones used to craft mana crystals. However, they are quite low-grade," said a burly, muscular youth named Karpos. He was a representative of the Artifact Refiners.

  "We use these to fuel our furnaces," he clarified, snapping off small fragments of the rock with his bare hands and inspecting them closely.

  In an instant, a roar of conversation broke out again, with several people speaking at once. Emilia decided to ignore the noise. Instead, she constructed three simple formations and attempted to power them using pieces of the rock in varying sizes.

  It proved to be quite difficult, requiring rather large chunks. The rock crumbled easily, even under the pressure of a finger, and it wasn't particularly heavy, but if it shattered into fine dust, its aura became much harder to harness. The most efficient way to extract energy was to keep the pieces intact and large.

  Emilia took Rumi’s spear and tried to use the rock to power it. After numerous attempts, it proved impossible—the spear relied on far more concentrated forms of energy.

  Emilia approached some of the poorer children and explained her idea. Soon, a youth with blue eyes and handsome blond curls—Alexander—chose to trust her and handed over his sword.

  His weapon was capable of launching air blades; while his magic was significantly weaker than the lightning produced by Rumi’s spear, it could be used much more frequently.

  Emilia immediately began to guide the mana within the rocks, attempting to synchronize their auras.

  Before long, Emilia started asking specific questions about the weapon's internal mechanics. Alexander began explaining in detail how he used the internal formations to power and activate the blade.

  Finally, after about thirty minutes of trial and error—during which almost everyone had stopped arguing to watch her—Emilia succeeded. She funneled the mana from the rock into the weapon and unleashed an air blade, though it was noticeably weaker than usual.