Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 133: Wasting

Sevren Denoir

I walked through the strange house, passing the many tables of equipment I'd set up since I'd begun shifting my operations to this static Town Zone of the Relictombs. I weaved around a mana-attribute detecting device, then stepped over the cords for an ambient power system. Within the center of a swirling collage of metal and wires, the beast core of a winddraw anthradov hovered.

While alive, these wind-aspected mana beasts would inhale through their obscenely large gullets. They'd suck in as much ambient mana as they could, then expel it as a rumbling attack that was dangerous even for a team of mid-tier mages.

But, as far as I was aware, I was the only artificer who had recognized the potential the beast core of these creatures could have. I'd jerry-rigged a system that forcibly stimulated the beast core with a bit of mana, causing it to draw in the energy around itself in a weakened mimicry of the living monster's signature attack.

But the mana wasn't expelled as a sound attack. As the ambient mana neared, a gravity-imbued artifact helped siphon it toward storage containers, where a collection of other small artifacts distilled the substance into drops of pure silver liquid.

My system for passively gathering mana for my experiments was revolutionary. At least it would be if I released the method to the public. There were many systems that attempted to do similar things, but they almost always required a mage to stand nearby and utilize their active control over mana to finalize the gathering process. Furthermore, my system was compact and efficient beyond compare.

I hadn't gotten around to setting it up outside yet, but that would be my next step.

I moved over to the kitchen counter. I'd cleared it of most items that had supernaturally spawned here, but there was one remaining. Toren had called it a 'microwave oven,' and said it cooked food using high-frequency waves along the electromagnetic spectrum. Apparently, in whatever land he had visited, this was one of the primary methods of heating food, though it was clear his knowledge of it was very basic and non-technical.

I settled my left hand on the cord at the back where it plugged into the wall and engaged my regalia, Scouring Purpose.

I narrowed my eyes as mana funneled from the spellform on my lower back, to the cord, then back to my hand. It provided an almost instinctual understanding of the inner workings, the spellform simultaneously accelerating the pattern-matching abilities of my brain.

My regalia didn't outright tell me the functions of items I used it on, but it made me far, far more receptive to deducing them myself. And from the information I'd absorbed from this cord, I sighed in irritation.

It was easy for me to spot wherever aether was involved in a construction when using my regalia. Everything, even mana artifacts, had a distinct pattern associated with them. A cause and an effect that I could eventually put together. But when aether imposed itself on the world, there was no cause. Only a preordained effect.

I unplugged the microwave with a hint of sour irritation. Toren had hypothesized that this zone merely imitated the effects of that other land he was aware of, meanwhile filling in the blanks with aetheric effects to bridge the gap. And it appeared he was right. The wire had copper running within, presumably to conduct a charge, but there was no electricity coursing along it to energize the microwave. It simply worked as if by true magic.

I grasped one edge of the microwave with my left hand, then moved my right arm to hold the other end. Except I didn't have my right arm.

I paused absently, cursing myself for the stupid mistake. My right hand had been my dominant one, and without it, every single experiment's efficiency was cut in half at least. I'd never appreciated the convenience of my previous dexterity until now, where I floundered to use my non-dominant hand like a wogart.