Holy shit.
After expanding my domain of shadows, I could see… everything. The entirety of the training court, Jonet trembling near the door and halfway into the service wing. Wherever I wished within the radius and from whatever angle I wanted, the entirety of my domain bared all for me to see in the gray on gray rendering of darkvision. And like the shadow realm, I could move freely around the space as I pleased.
"AHHHHHH!"
I saw it before I heard it- the increasing panic preceding Jonet's bloodcurdling scream. She was practically fainting by the time I swam through the darkness to try and dissipate the spell.
Within a second or two of moving next to her and reabsorbing the darkness, the umbral cloud in her immediate surroundings began breaking apart like handful of soap bubbles popping in slow motion. Allowing the pale light of the training court to once again shine on our surroundings.
"My apologies," I said, attempting to hide the excessive pride from my face. "That was an accident."
She regained her composure with a deep breath and fully turned to me before bowing. "Thank you, Your Grace. However, there is no need to apologize. I will be fine."
'Sure.' I shrugged to myself before turning back to grandpa.
He had wide grin in his face that remained until I stopped before him. Then he knelt before me and gave me a vigorous rub on the top of the head. Much to my contempt. "I couldn't even make a domain that large until I was ten years old." He bellowed proudly. "I see you becoming a great Sorcerer. A Magus, even."
"What's a Magus?" I asked, desperate to pry as much information as I could from the old man.
He bared his palm before me, grinning wide before flooding it with mana. Producing grimoire page of the same black ashen smoke color as his death magic..
"Magus Everandus Cole." I read a little slowly, as I was still 'learning.' Evolved. Rank 15 Lich Lord. What's that mean?" I asked with full ignorance.
If it was anything like the ranking systems from those old shows and mangas I used to read, that meant my grandpa was ridiculously overpowered.
But that was based of biases, I was aware. So I needed to know more. Both of magic and of this world.
"Magus is my military title." He proudly declared. "Evolved refers to my Mana Well. Something you gain at the Arcane Institute. As for the last part." He sighed. "That is my Class. I am a Lich Lord. The Necro King. A Magus on the other hand, is the highest attainable rank within a guild or military.
"In other words, it's a scale for magical power. Meant to show others how powerful I am." He arrogantly boasted. "But you'll learn about that later. First." He paused to groan as he reached into the shadow beneath him and pulled out a stack of three textbooks and a rolled up scroll. "You are to read these and come back to me with what you've learned."
I contained my grin as I took my time reading over the spines to peruse the contents of my new collection. Prompting a heavy, impatient sigh to escape my grandfather's lips.
"Remember what we spoke of, Amun." He growled. "You can fool anyone; even your father, but not me. You have one week to learn this tome." He held up the scroll. "And one month for each of these books."
Dammit.
"Yes, Sir." I nodded, trying not to sarcastically drag on the word for too long before squatting down to begin placing the texts in my shadow pocket.
While I was putting on an act in vain, I was undoubtedly excited to be able to finally get my hands on some noteworthy reading material. With my Eternal Eye, it was by far the fastest way to absorb information. Making things like schools or tutors entirely obsolete for me. Though that did pose a question for whenever my education inevitably started. Hopefully, I could prove to my parents that instructors weren't necessarily need, rather than textbooks or other documents and a form of condensed education. Leaving me an abundance of time to train my body and magic.
And my vassals as well.
With my bounty of knowledge secured, my grandfather gave me a complacent grin before turning off to step into the shadowfell. I did much the same and saw him floating off in the abyss towards the formal wing of the house. The region dedicated for the guests and nobles and a place I had no intention of going any time soon. And so, I swam past Jonet scurrying off towards my room and crawled out from the shadows under my bed with books in hand to read the rest of the night away.
Even with my training regimen, my need for sleep was only around four hours for one or two days per week now. Otherwise, it was meditating for the same length of time before I stirred awake fully rested. Which; even without the Eternal Eye, gave me more than enough time to extensively read through the books and learn as much as I could of this strange world.
The three books he gave me were focused on mana and its interactions with human physiology, affinity cores, and basic spellcasting. The latter of which I was particularly excited about. But I wrestled my haste to the ground and went through the books one by one.
The book regarding mana contained far more information that I'd guessed it would. In addition to the descriptions that I already knew; that mana was a fluid much like gas or water that existed everywhere in different densities, there was also more detailed explanations of the aspects of mana and its interactions with the body that my grandfather skipped over.
Mana Pores were, as the name suggested, pores that would open or close to regulate the flow of mana traveling into an individual's Well, thus determining rate of mana recovery in that individual. Like the brain preventing the body from biting itself hard enough to draw blood; if you were sane, one's Pores would never take in more mana than it could handle, under normal circumstances.
They were more or less fixed at the time of birth and could only be expanded by either expensive potions or acclimatizing to a mana-dense environment. And they were scaled numerically- with .01 being the smallest size possible for whatever species an organism is apart of, granting a faint trickle of mana into their core. And 1 being the largest radius possible for that species. For humans, the range was between .45 and .6.
'So.' I began to internally hypothesize. 'Perhaps that implies that an elf with Pores rated at .45 would probably have a higher rate of mana recovery than a human with a wider pores radius. But how much wider?'
Setting my question aside for a later time, I went on to the next section about Mana Tolerance. Which referred to two phenomenon. First was the feelings of pain and fatigue and loss of sanity one would experience in an area with denser mana than in their well. Like the mana would crush the much the way the Venusian atmosphere would, I supposed; minus the heat. The second phenomenon was akin to a sort of magical fatigue. Where; regardless of the radius of one's pores, the constant circulation of mana on the well caused the spiritual organ itself to tire. Causing magical burnout.
More interesting to me however, were the effects of both too much and too little mana. If one were to cast too many spells and deplete their well faster than it can replenish, they'd experience excruciating levels of pain and fatigue until their Well recharged. If they were burnt out and still tried to cast in vain, those spells came with a large risk of stroke or cardiac arrest. And without the presence of mana in the Well at all, each spell cast would consume the life energy of the caster.
Too much mana on the other hand, and the body would become oversaturated with energy. And much like an electrical current, the wire; or body in such case, would short circuit.
Mana Wells on the other hand, were more or less described just as I'd observed them over time. All but confirming just one of my hypotheses- That, like its namesake, it was a cylindrical object said to be housed within the Spirit, only capped on both ends like a can of soup. Through those pages however, I'd learned that the 'walls' of that can were made of the mesh-like Mana Pores that allowed the energy to flow through. And that even while fully closed, the Pores allowed a faint trickle of mana to constantly circulate in and out of the Well. A phenomenon most notably perceived by the sentient races as the emission of mana from all living things.
While potions, enchantments and sometimes armor could act as a quasi-second Well or temporarily boost ones own, it was generally impossible to expand the Well permanently. And like Pores, Wells varied from species-to-species in terms of depth and density, and were alphanumerically ranked by the humans.
The size of a Well was numerically ranked from 1 to 12. At the size of 1, a Well will be the smallest size possible to sustain life for that particular species. The smallest well of a plant would be akin to a grain of sand while the smallest human Well is around the size of a bottlecap, allowing for only a single powerful spell or a handful of weaker ones before exhausting. At twelve on the other hand, a Mana Well would be slightly larger than that creature's heart.
Much like my own.
On the other end, the density of a Mana Well was determined by the visual appearance of the energy within, and represented by letters. A Mist Well was at the lowest end of the spectrum; and among humans, this demographic consisted of those who could only manipulate the elements for practical matters. Roughly a quarter of the population.
A Water Well consisted of those who were still unable to utilize higher forms of magic, but could at least use their natural abilities to the height of their species' potential. Allowing them to defend themselves against hostilities; known to humans as the gifted, or Mystics.
A Slush Well was akin to the concentration of mana within my abode- a fluid held between the liquid and solid phases. Creatures with a well of this density were said to be touched by mana, and were capable of using higher forms of magic. They were your average magical creature or lower ranked mythical beast with superhuman levels of strength and the humans who were born with affinity cores- Witches and Wizard Initiates.
Conversely, those who were loved by mana had an Ice Well and were the humans capable of awakening higher affinity cores, generally bringing them on par with the strongest magical beasts or your average mythical creatures. As such, a well trained mage with an Ice Well of average size was capable of single-handedly defending a city from a platoon of magic beasts or defeat it altogether. And for non-humans they were the stronger mythical beasts and the majority of the sentient races.
At the far end of the spectrum were Diamond Wells. Wells that had mana at such a density that it appeared as a crystal. Creatures with Diamond Wells were described to be the nobles or royals of the human realms, the high-level demons, the vast majority of elves and ancient entities or divine beasts. Regardless of species, they were all said to be regarded as living deities or walking calamities. Singular entities that possessed the power to permanently change an entire region.
'Interesting.' I nodded to myself after closing the book. There was a mystery to be discovered here, I was sure of it. So I immediately delved into analyzing what I'd just read with my Eternal Eye to see if any logical holes could be brought to the forefront of my mind.
After perusing through each line and remembering my grandfather's words on the subject, a few things stood out to me. First, was that was it was never stated by either him or the book that one couldn't induce their mana well to increase in size. Second, was my grandfather's hesitant words when he initially told me of Mana Wells. 'More drastic measures,' were his words. The last data point was the himself told me that his Well was evolved. Whatever the hell that meant.
At a fundamental level however, these points of data definitely implied that it was possible to expand ones mana well. If a great risk. The only question was how.
'Ah well.' I shrugged, placing the book to the side. It wasn't as if I'd have been able to find the answer at that moment. So I added it to the ever-expanding list of mysteries before I moved on to the next book.
A book that I quickly became immersed in. As it gave me insight to the non-human races of this world and how they; particularly the elves, were central to humans evolving into what they were today.
According to the book, the first recordings of humans using anything other than the four types of elemental manipulation dated back to 1,480 years ago, when five magical portals opened up on the far continent of Ulai, on the far side of the Caldera Sea. Though the individual portals spawned on the same landmass, they themselves were thousands of kilometers apart from one another and were responsible for a sudden increase in ambient mana. Turning the surrounding lands into more extreme versions of the environments they already were and giving the denizens of the far realms free reign to invade humanities homeland.
Most importantly, it spurred a mutation within humanity that would give rise to their Affinity Cores.
But even those didn't stop them from learning of the devastating power of the races from the far realms.
Each of them were terrifying and horrific in their own right, but the dominant races of the different realms were most formidable in humanities eyes. For each of them could intrinsically use mana in a different way.
Vampires could use mana to control blood, for instance. And the goblins and orcs of Betrarth could manipulate bone and plants as they saw fit. Elves could mana forge, humans could manipulate elements, dwarves could mold metal and demons; most feared of all, could use mana to empower themselves from emotional energy.
"Now that is interesting." I commented aloud as I slammed the book shut. Vampires and goblins and elves and dwarves. This life was truly magical. And as such I had an endless slew of questions.
I was a scientist, after all. Sure, I delved into fantasy virtual worlds and lost myself in more pieces of literature than I could count. But the potentials for what was reality in this world was nigh limitless. And my pool of knowledge was laughably small. How big was this world. How old. Just how many creatures lived- thrived on it. These were the questions burning most deeply in my mind. Driving my need to explore and see and learn these things for myself.
Frustratingly so.
As a five year old, I had at least a decade until I had any semblance of freedom. Which meant that the only other thing I could do was get my hands on as much information as possible and train as much as I could until the moment came. So no more charades, I decided. My family already thought of me as a genius, so there was no point in trying to play as if wasn't.
It wasn't like I was fooling anyone, anyways.
With that decided, I tossed the second book on my bed and decided to venture into the kitchen for a snack. So I slid down my seat and into the shadows beneath my desk to plunge into the now blissful realm of darkness.