Ascent of a Dragon

Through the eyes of a new student

"Stop spinning it like that!" "This is harder than it looks you know." "This should be the easiest part... Aether defaults to being still, so just relax your grip a bit." "Yes ma'am." Teacher is... a surprisingly patient teacher all things considered. The group rest by a grassy pond, a day's walk from where they met. Within the pond stands the ape, Muscles, surrounded by a harsh torrent of swirling water, brushing against his gold fur. Lil' Blue sits herself at the other end of the pond, sipping up her fill while the explorer sits in a lotus position, attentively listening to Teacher's instructions.

Aether swirls within him, gradually calming its flow as he loosens his habitual hold. "Great, now let it spread evenly. You should only focus it on an as needed basis." "Fuuuuu..." He exhales, resisting the strong urge to resume spinning his Aether as he spreads it out. "What does this achieve?" "Faster response time. You don't have the means to change your body structure so you can't rely on any type of Aether channel to transfer faster. Even if you did there would still be no reason to focus it like that." "This is very different from Mana..." "It depends on the world, but keeping Mana moving can help it stay attuned to you by keeping it occupied with instruction and close to your soul. Aether isn't fickle like Mana though, it won't go away without prompting."

"I see." He responds introspectively, stroking the untamed strands of beard streaming from his face. These habits are quite difficult to curb. I've been doing it like this for... Hmm... "Say, do any of you know the date?" Lil' Blue skitters over, hopping to her perch atop Teacher's head as she winds threads around her pedipalps to speak. "It's a couple eightdays into 3681 post-revival. Why?" "Thats... Midway through the 1840th cycle, yes? Oh my... I'm late. I was supposed to attend a wedding twelve cycles ago."

Lil' Blue wipes her eyes with her forelimbs, staring at the explorer with a very spidery form of disbelief. "You've been here twenty-four years? I didn't realise a human could last that long down here..." "I'm an elf." He responds ""What's the difference?"" The dragon and spider both ask in unison. "Actually wait... I thought he was a monkey. He has the same brown fur that they usually have doesn't he?" Lil' Blue's gaze shifts from the dragon to the elf, then briefly to the monkey and back to the elf. "You know... I'm starting to see where your confusion stems from." "Hey..." The explorer peers down, self-consciously stroking the unruly scraggle of his beard.

"Well human, monkey, elf, whatever. Why've you stayed here for so long? Not the most... hospitable place." "I came here about fifteen cycles ago as part of a competition by request of my master. I can't remember the exact reason, only that I'm aiming for the bottom of Nilasuun." Teacher tilts her head, the spider atop smoothly hooking a leg around her horn to avoid sliding off. "Is that what this place is called? How cute!" "You're not taking the 'cute cave' meaning are you?" Lil' Blue chitters. "Of course I am! Nila Suun. It's a great name!" "No way! It's clearly 'red walls', Nilas Uun! The stone here turns red when exposed to a lot of Mana, hence the name!" "I'm quite partial to Ni Lasu'un, the interesting world of stone." Lil' Blue lets out a frustrated chitter, turning to beckon Muscles over.

Through the eyes of a wet monkey

"Monkey! Come over here, we need you to settle a debate." Gol Dhee releases the swirling vortex of water around him, allowing it to crash back into the pond. A debate? What insight of mine do they seek? Stepping out from the waters he waves his hand down, prying the liquid clinging to his fur and causing it to puff up in all of its fluffy, shiny glory. Sitting down by the trio, his eyes turn to the bright one. "You seek me?" "Does the word Nilasuun hold any meaning to you?" She asks, grooming the fuzz on her forelegs. "None." He responds, brushing away the rogue droplets of water still clinging to him.

"Uh, okay. What do you call this place then? As in this whole labyrinth?" "The world? My people call it Heumo Ho'Mul." "That's... Location of Mul, yes?" The dragon chimes in. "Who's Mul? And don't you always call me Hinya Mul? What does that mean?" Gol Dhee rubs his nose as he thinks on the question. "I lack the words to describe him. The name means great shadow and he is the one we revere most. Hinya is... one who acts on behalf of another." "So I'm emissary to the great shadow? Sounds cool! I've even met a guy who looks just like that once!" Are the speculations true?! Could she truly be emissary to a god? "Hey, what's mine mean? You call me homo or something right?" "Ho'mah is one who is bright. Because you glow. Though some of my people called you Hinya Mol. Emissary of the powerful light." "Fuahahah! My name is cooler than yours!"

Through the eyes of a cool-named spider

So what does he call the elf then? I'd ask but it feels like something you should ask yourself. Probably calls him green dude or something anyway. Lyla nestles comfortably into her perch, continuing to groom her fuzz as the dragon stands, followed by the elf and monkey. "Shalleth we'st headeth offeth? I'st doth not'est desireth to lingereth." This old dialect of Aoan is fucking painful to listen to... I mean, I understand her, but why not just speak normally! The elf stretches, walking over to haul his backpack over his shoulder, and attach his satchels, and wrap his tool belts, and... I've seen entire armies with less gear than him... Whose war is he preparing for with all of that?

The group set off, led by the elf as they traverse the grasslands. "So where are you leading us anyway? I didn't know this layer even had plant-life." Lyla asks, dangling to the side of the dragon's horn to meet the elf's eyes. "Actually, nearly every floor has plants, and I'm yet to see one without moss. You may have made the same mistake as I had when first exploring this place. As it turns out, each layer isn't a uniform biome, but rather a continent of its own with varying degrees of climate and wildlife, though there are commonalities, like how this floor has a lot of rivers and waterfalls and how the floors below tend to be foggy, there is no less diversity here than on the central continent above. Incidentally..." I have made a mistake...

Through the eyes of an eager teacher

Aleph flicks the chatterbox's head with her tail. "You're spinning your Aether again." Rubbing his head he turns around apologetically, taking a breath to calm his grip over Aether. "Sorry, I got distracted." "Yo finally dude. He like, stopped. That's so totally rad yo." Lyly whispers atop her head. This dialect makes me so uncomfortable... "Say, you never answered her first question. Where are we going?" "Ah, right. I know a route down the next few floors, but it's quite the walk from here. Still, it's far better than stumbling through the ever increasing fog of the next few layers." "I see... Oh, and make sure you keep your Aether spread evenly. I can see it pulling together again." "Yes ma'am..." You know... I still don't know his name... Oh well, I'll just call him Fluffy.

As they walk along the terrain slowly shifts, pillars growing more dense, more sparse, thicker, and thinner while grass paints itself in ever increasing splatters across the ground. White moss clings to the ground between patches of grass, dipping into pools of water, and coating the pillar walls. All the while constant streams of water tumble down from above, some in tiny streams, and others in wide pillars the group occasionally have to power through. In the distance, enormous geysers erupt from below the horizon, shooting boiling water with enough force to cause tremors kilometres around and carve into the rock above.

The trek is long, paws, feet, and knuckles brushing against grass, wading through rivers, and scrambling across rock alongside the occasional flick on Fluffy's head. The air grows thick with a tropical humidity, the scent of wet grass permeating the cave as arches of mossy wood begin to litter the horizon. Fluffy skips ahead, planting his sword into the soft soil of the ground and settling his bags beside it. "Are we taking a break?" Aleph asks, sitting beside him. "Oh, yes. Sorry, I'm not used to travelling with others. We can keep going if you like." "Yo it's totally almost night anywho. May's well just crash either ways... yo." "How can you even tell?" "Skill issue."

Aleph lays down, allowing Goldy to lean against her and forcing Fluffy to do the same. Much resistance is had, yet he eventually succumbs to the relentless tugging with her tail and pulling force of her Aether, Goldy sharing an understanding look with him as they settle for the night.

What is Mana? We use it every day, even those of us who aren't attuned. It is the driving force of most of our technologies, the source of strength for our greatest warriors, and the means with which many thousands of lives are saved each day. Yet with the recent wave of other-worlders being pulled to our world, many among our youth have begun to bare a woefully poor understanding of it. Much information tends to get muddled under the endless stream of stories and beliefs they bring and share. While these stories are fascinating in and of themselves, we must not allow ourselves to forget the true nature of Mana and its history.

To begin with, Mana is one of the three major pure energies, and the one which is most abundant in our world. Testimony from those who hail from other worlds, including demons and the rare ancient transcripts of conversations with angels, indicate this varies with some worlds containing more, less, or even none of each of the pure energies. Some worlds are allegedly composed entirely of esoteric energies, not classified under the main three. Though much of this should be taken with scepticism, as it is impossible for us to verify. Not to mention the questionable validity of the claims about these energies to begin with.

The most unusual property of Mana is its variance. Within Magnus Mundus, Mana is considered extremely versatile and capable of nearly any feat, given enough energy. Yet in other domains, despite the energy being identical by all metrics, they bare completely different effects. In the Maroltin domain, Mana takes the form of an all-encompassing system, allowing individuals to cast predefined spells based on a complex system of individual traits and skills. The energy itself is known as MP, and has even been seen to be usable by demons who completely lack the ability to manipulate Mana. The tower world also has its own form called aura, not to be confused with the Aura discussed in earlier chapters. This aura grants its wielders unique abilities which grow and evolve with the individual.

An interesting consequence of this is the effect known as deprecation, in which most individuals will experience a weakening in their Mana-based abilities within other domains. Magic from some domains may also exhibit additional properties during deprecation. The most clear example of this is with the MP system adapting to use estimates, denoted as heuristics, when attempting display the traits of an individual from another domain, since it cannot accurately ascertain the capabilities of those under a different system.

In the following chapters we will discuss the different forms Mana is known to take, as well as their interactions with one another. We will also discuss the known magic systems of other dimensions which, while more sparse in good examples, are known to have the same properties of deprecation.

- Excerpt from chapter 6 of Eyva Poe's 'Analysis of the Pure Energies'