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26.15% My 13th Reincarnation: The Gods Won't Let Me Die / Chapter 17: Getting Stronger

Capítulo 17: Getting Stronger

Vol and I have been hard at work these past few days. I think we're getting close. We've been sleeping in the magic academy, only leaving it when Elizabeth told us we were starting to look pale, and asked us to go get some sunlight.

We were outside for about an hour before we promptly shut ourselves back in the testing chamber at the academy.

The testing chamber is relatively small, and covered in extremely hard, white tiles. As I throw away a small jewel-like stone into a corner, there's a knock on the door.

"Hello, is master Vol here?" a young elf outside the door asks me.

"Vol," I turn back and wave him over. I notice that he's starting to look kind of tired.

"Yes, can I help you?" he asks.

"I'm here to f-fulfill your request for a thousand mana stones."

"Ah, yes, thank you."

"Please sign here, m-master Vol!"

I look around the little room. Mounds of precious stones litter it, many cracked or in pieces. When we started, we'd go through about 150 in a month, but the number has been steadily increasing, along with the pace of our research.

Vol finishes signing the paper and I see the young elf hesitate for a second before speaking up.

"Uhm, master Vol, I'm sorry to ask, but do you think you cou-could sign my arm?! I'm, ehm, a big fan."

"Sure, no problem at all."

Right, Vol is apparently kind of a big deal here. A celebrity, in a way.

"Thank you so much, master Vol! I'll leave the mana stones here for you."

We continue our work for several more ours, but nothing seems to be working. The sun has gone down and I'm getting a bit tired. Realizing that we're doubtful to get anywhere, I decide to head back home. I could use a rest in my own bed for once.

"Oh, of course. Say hi to Elizabeth for me. I'm sure she will be happy to have you back home for a bit."

"Will do. Maybe you should take a nap, too."

"Ha-ha-ha, yeah, maybe I'll do that. Goodnight, Sebastian."

"Goodnight, Vol."

As I wait on the lift down from the floating academy, it occurs to me that, at some point, Vol stopped calling me "kid" or "my boy." Thinking about it, Vol knows more about me than anybody else in this world. He knows both about my identity as Stencil, as well as my broken mana store. More than that, he's the only person who has seen the varying forms of mana within me.

In the back of my mind, I dread what might happen if he were to turn on me one day. For now, though, at least, he is my friend.

I open the door to the small rosewood cottage Elizabeth and I live in.

Elizabeth isn't up. To avoid waking her, I tiptoe up the stairs to my bed.

This turns out to have been pointless as, 5 hours later, quite a while past midnight, our front door slams open. Tripping out of my room, I spot Elizabeth entering the hallway from her own room. She looks just as confuddled as I am.

Half sprinting, half crawling, Vol accidentally bumps against the walls on his way up the stairs.

"I did it!! It's done - it's here! Look! LOOK!!!!"

In his hand, held aloft in triumph, is a medium-sized mana stone. There's a slight glow in the center and, as he fumbles his way up beside me, the light gets stronger.

"Here - here! Hold it! Come on - here - hold it!!"

Confused and tired, I let him place the mana stone in my hand and get an *immediate* wake-up call.

The purplish stone suddenly spikes in brightness. It feels like somebody turned on a flashlight and is shining it directly into my eyes.

"Argh," I shout, covering my eyes, and dropping the stone.

"Look-look-look! Look!!! See!! I told you!!!"

I look out through my fingers to see Vol pointing furiously down at the bright stone, excitement and pure joy written across his face. I peek down at it.

The mana stone is still unbelievably bright.

Wait. I dropped it. Which means I'm not holding it.

Which means...

I look down upon the jewel-like stone. My eyes are starting to adjust to the bright light, but it's still irritating to look directly at it.

But the stone is still just as bright as before, despite me not holding it. It isn't leaking out the mana like Elizabeth's sword did. The stone is retaining it perfectly! It's-

"We did it, Sebastian!! An artificial mana store!!! WE'VE DONE IT!!"

I can barely believe my eyes; probably because they're still hurting from the bright light. No wonder he was in such a hurry to get here.

The mana stone was a big step in the right direction, and Vol and I rushed back to the magic academy to replicate it. By sunrise, we had made two more. We had also broken nearly 100 mana stones, beating our previous daily record.

The mana stores all reached their storage limit within a few seconds of their creation, since I was in the room, but still. Three successful artificial mana stores that could pick up mana and contain it, theoretically, forever.

We began brainstorming ideas. Now that we had finally made the stones, it became clear to us how much they could be used for.

I threw out a few ideas from my previous lives, but one thought in particular stuck with both of us.

What if there was a way for Elizabeth to use her sword, but using the power of my mana, instead of her own?

In other words, a rechargeable battery.


next chapter

Capítulo 18: Practice

It was somewhat disappointing to find that, despite the artificial mana stores correctly absorbing and preserving mana, I am still unable to use magic. Vol and I are optimistic, though.

Since we completed the first mana stone, about 2 weeks ago, we've been making a lot more progress. Vol has been working on modifying Elizabeth's sword which she, somewhat reluctantly, donated to our research, with my reassurance that it would still be functional afterwards.

While Vol is carving a spherical hole in the sword, I've been creating even more artificial stores, varying their sizes and limits. So far, I've managed to create 6 variants.

After the third week, Vol finishes the carving, and we verify that the mana store is able to sit within the sword without falling out.

For a while now, Vol has been talking about having to inform the elven elders about these breakthroughs, but I've managed to talk him down so far.

"But this could revolutionize mana tools as we know them!!" he would argue.

"Which is exactly why we need to be careful," I'd shoot back. "We still don't know their limits. They could cause serious problems."

While that is technically true, it is partial. It could cause serious problems. For me.

If somebody powerful gets their hands on these, and I haven't found a surefire way of fighting back, either with proper magic, or through magical tools, I could end up tortured or killed. These mana stores could easily be weapons. As a matter of fact, that's the very thing that Elizabeth, Vol, and I are heading out to study right now.

Vol lets out a heavy breath behind me. I look back and see him heaving a little further back down the path we came from.

We're about halfway up a mountain near Rosewood. I figured Vol would be exhausted, since it sounds like he has lived in his lab for the past who-knows-how-many years. He doesn't exactly get out much. He did last longer than I thought he would, though. We camp for the night, despite it not being that late, and wake up at sunrise next morning to continue our trek.

A few hours later, we finally reach our destination: A plateau near the top of the mountain.

This particular plateau houses a particularly strong monster. Namely, a dragon.

Well, Vol calls it a wyvern which I thought was something else, but it seems like they're the same thing here.

No matter.

A big fire-breathing lizard is still a big fire-breathing lizard.

The monster seems fast asleep. Our purpose here is to fight - and hopefully kill - this particular monster. Not because it's of any danger right now, though it will be once the Demon Lord rises, but for the sake of practice.

Elizabeth grips her sword tightly with both hands. Several small, round glowing stones are hanging off the side of her belt. These are mana stores, each filled with my mana. Our goal is to attempt to measure the amount of strength unleashed from the mana stores compared to the source - me - when using a magical tool. The magical tool being Elizabeth's newly modified sword.

She lets out a breath, focusing on the monster, and inserts one of the mana stores into the sword. Its pale blue light expands, growing in both saturation and strength. From what I can tell, it's equivalent to when I'm holding it.

Elizabeth looks back at Vol and I for verification, and Vol gives her a thumbs up, indicating that he has recorded the result, and that she should initiate the attack on the dragon - I mean, wyvern - in front of us.

She strikes me as tense, and a little shaky, though her gaze remains blank. She has fought face-to-face with a greater monster twice before, so you'd think she was used to it by now. Well, maybe that's the reason why she's so tense. Being knocked unconscious and waking up to find me burnt half to death probably wasn't very pleasant.

Elizabeth bends her knees, her eyes dead set on the wyvern. I see her jaw clench.

She pushes off the ground hard, and dust blows up around her. I see Vol half covering his face, an ecstatic look upon it, as he watches Elizabeth's leap.

The wyvern jerks awake, presumably from the sound of Elizabeth's harsh leap.

Not a great strategy, if I'm being honest, Elizabeth. Best not to wake a sleeping enemy.

Not that it matters.

The wyvern barely manages to take in its surroundings before a long blade slices straight down through its long neck, leaving a blue afterglow behind it.

The monster's large body falls limps to the ground, its head severed in a single, clean strike. Elizabeth looks down at the glowing sword and the dead wyvern on the ground, astonished. I peek over at Vol.

The elf is standing stock still, his mouth agape. I can't help but chuckle a little bit. It looks like his eyes are about to fall out of his head like an old cartoon character.

I see the light of Elizabeth's sword dimming somewhat. It must have expended quite a bit of mana, but it's still a lot brighter than usual. There's no doubt that the mana stone worked.

"I don't believe it..." I hear Vol mutter, admiringly.

"Me neither," Elizabeth responds.

Slowly, almost as if rehearsed, they turn toward me, their mouths hanging slightly open, looks of awe upon their faces.

"That was pretty good. Let's try another one, just in case."


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