Devouring the Neverglades (Beta Version) Chapter 9

With James' help the next day I had a wood block with the magical circle taken from the Giant Mouth Cat, etched into it.

Frankly it was a little annoying that James had made the whole thing look almost simple and it was even cleaner than the one I had written in my notebook.

With that, I had my first Magic Circle that wasn’t the one in my old pamphlet. 

I scurried away taking the block into the compound and settling in the covered meeting area inside. Adults would be around in case something went wrong, but not too close as to interfere. I had a cup of water, and it was time.

I had eaten a big breakfast, mostly fish, and it was time to cast some spells.

First I took a breath, slowly, just letting the air flow in, in, and out, until I started drawing more and more of that buzzy feeling from the air. Trapping it as best I could in my lungs. 

In, and out.

Time passed, but I was focused, how couldn’t I be? This was magic. Real actual magic that I could do something cool with… Maybe!

The buzzing in my lungs got stronger and stronger, long past where I would have used some water to spit it out. Okay.

It was time.

Test one.

I had the circle, but it was just in wood… How do I make mana follow it?

I reached out and touched the circle forcing the mana inside me down, it tingled all the way down my arm, and then touched the wood. I tried to keep control of it, but the moment it seemed to flow out of my fingers it puffed into nothing. Either so insubstantial that I couldn’t touch it, or just beyond my ability to control.

I pulled back, forcing the sparkly buzzing feeling back, and then grabbed my cup. 

I’d thought this might happen.  It only took a few moments to bring the mana up and let it soak into the water in my mouth, then I leaned over, and let the glowing mana water flow onto the wood.I splashed it a bit, but it flowed into the etching, and one every bit of it was glowing. I reached out.

The circle had mana flowing through it. With my touch, I urged it on. Just like I had learned to do with the circle in the pamphlet, it should-

I felt it. The man was activating! I kept my finger on the circle as the mana flowed more and more, until the water started splashing away, but the mana remained! It was locked into the formation! I could feel it. The mana burning away!

Then… It stopped.

Huh. I grabbed my cup and spit out the mana fuel so I could talk, and then patted all over myself. 

Nothing had changed?

I didn’t feel any different?

I picked up the block. The etching was blank, just showing a sort of scorch in the wood and nothing else. Where had the mana gone? Was my mana broken? Had I done it wrong?

Staring at the block of wood for a good while I realized, nothing had happened. The circle didn’t work. Nothing worked. This was stupid.

Magic was dumb.

I tossed the stupid wood onto the ground in frustration.

Then I blinked because that was odd.

“That didn’t sound like wood.” It had made a strange noise for wood on concrete.

I picked it up and banged it against the floor and it wasn’t the same noise as it should be. I grabbed my knife and with a bit of effort started trying to shave off a bit on the side, and my knife did cut through, but only with real effort.

Which made no sense. James had carved the circle in it, without any effort, and my knife was full of magic.

“OOooooooooh.” It clicked.

That spell! It was made to make the user stronger. But usually the magic circle would be going through the monster! 

This circle…

Was completely useless for my desires!

“Fu-fiddlesticks.”

I cursed looking around and sighing in relief that no adult had heard me.

What else could I do? I flopped backwards and just pouted for a while.

—---

“It made the wood strong.” I explained as I waved it around to Old Man Will. He’d noticed me pouting and had finally been the adult brave enough to approach me doing ‘magic.’

“That sounds useful.”

“No… Yes? I guess. Is it like the infusion I was already doing? It doesn’t feel like it has a bunch of mana in it, so it actually feels worse.” I mumbled as I tapped the wood on the old wooden benches only to stiffen. “Wait.”

I reached for my knife and cut…

It had sliced right through the wood like it wasn’t even there.

“It’s temporary?” I realized, as it was back to being normal.

But…

So, it was like a buff spell? A temporary one? I flashed back to the Giant Mouth, we’d stabbed it with the harpoons, and yet, those harpoons had seemed absolutely stuck inside the fish unable to come out. That wasn’t just because of the hooks.

Had the fish stupidly hardened itself around the harpoons and ended up keeping them lodged inside itself?

Well it was a fish, so that checked out. 

“Figured something out?”

“The spell, this spell, it’s only temporary. I thought monsters making themselves harder was… Forever?”

“Oh! I know a bit about this one.” Old Man William patted the seat beside him and I settled in. “Sometimes monsters grow large over time. Like the Mega Crocs. You’ve seen some of the big ones.”

“Yeah. They’re huge.”

“But that growth takes years. Decades, centuries maybe. That Giant Mouth you found was probably like that. Using its mana to grow larger over time… But some monsters stay the same size until they suddenly get huge. You ever hear the story of Fear Schools?”

“No?”

“They aren’t around much. They prefer the ocean, and only rarely come up the salt rivers. They’re fish. Usually not too big, but they travel in massive schools, Hundreds of them. But in order to hunt, they usually have a leader. This fish can grow massive out of nowhere. It kills whatever the school is hunting, and then it just turns back to normal and the school feasts.”

“But… How did they learn the spell circle? How do I?”

“That I don’t know. Some monsters just use their mana like that. You remember the flying Croc we had to deal with?”

“Heh.” I laughed, but went serious. “Yeah. That must have been scary.”

“Oh it was. A Flying Mega Croc? Just floating up out of the water and resting in trees above the river? But that was the only one we’d ever heard of.”

I tapped at the wood, this was annoying. I’d hoped to have a spell, something I could actually use, but a temporary hardness spell was… Not that useful. Not when I already had the infusion. 

Yet monsters all seemed to have so many different spells and abilities.

I breathed in and out. But they were stupid. Why could they do all this, when I couldn’t even figure out anything?

“This spell is useless.” I muttered. “Hardening something it’s carved into is useless. Especially if it’s temporary.”

“Hmm… Maybe you need the circle on you instead of the wood?”

I tilted my head. The spell… It was meant to harden what it was connected to… A tattoo? No, I didn't want that. But…

I pushed away and headed back. Taking my spot I poured the mana into the circle again, watching as it started activating, but instead of just touching the circle, I reached out and pressed my palm over the entire circle.

And this time as I felt that buzz across my skin I drew it up. Letting it touch my skin, and then continuing the cycle. 

The buzzing ran up, and instantly I knew something had changed, my skin was buzzing, shooting up my arm, and spreading and I could feel every hair stand on end.

And then.

The power faded as the mana was spent.

I pulled my hand away noticing, I had a slight imprint on my palm from pushing against it, and then I looked myself over.

“I don’t feel different.” I touched my skin, and it didn’t really feel any different either.

But as I poked and prodded myself I got the feeling.

My skin was tough. I was tempted to pull my knife out but that was stupid. It had cut through even the hardened scales of the Big Mouth. 

No, instead I flicked and even took the wood and smacked the back of my hand a few times.

It didn’t hurt.

“Figure it out?”

“I can make my skin tough.” I said to Old William as I looked at my hand. Then I exhaled, because as cool as Iron Flesh was, as a spell?

It didn’t go up my arm. I hadn’t put enough mana in to cover all of me, and again… It was kinda useless.

Who the heck has time to pre-buff before combat!?

If I was caught in a surprise round it wouldn’t do any good!

“I think it’s amazing.” Old William said, reaching out and patting me on the shoulder. “Good job Vicky. You’ve done something amazing today.” He told me proudly, and all I could do was show a shallow smile in turn because while magic was cool, this didn’t feel like something amazing.

—--

I of course did have some promises to follow. Sammy, Erik, and Willis all got to see me perform magic now that I could.

“And my hand is now tough.” I explained showing the boys as they rushed in to touch and feel.

“That’s amazing!” Willis called out as he looked from the wood block to my hand.

I just smiled a little trying to keep the bitterness away. I didn’t feel amazing.

But I guess it was step one.

Or maybe step ten, but it didn’t feel like much. 

“That’s so cool. You learned a spell from a monster!”

“I just wish it was a bit more useful.”

“Making yourself tough is useful!” Sammy argued, and I just reached out with my strengthened hand and rubbed over his hair until he batted me away. 

“It takes too long. And takes too much mana, and it doesn’t last very long.” It gave me a realization of just how much mana was in a mana core compared to what I gathered in an afternoon. 

Monsters must have just tons of mana in even a small core. 

Which…

“Wait. How do Monsters have so much mana?” I whispered. The Giant Fish had kept the Iron Flesh spell up for a long time while we fought it. It took me like an hour just to be able to cast it on one part of me for a short time.

The boys all just shrugged, not exactly useful. Okay… Was it just time? But then that Giant Mouth had a ton of mana, and it would be burned up the first time they had a big fight. Then what? I knew monsters didn’t tend to have issues with multiple fights. There was an old Mega Croc that hunted all the others in his territory and had to do it all the time. Sure he usually ate the losers, but that would still burn a lot of mana…

Did Monsters have a way of gathering mana faster than just taking it in?

I know there was a lot of mana around the Neverglades it was a huge source of mana, which is why we were here.

I looked across the river.

Where we weren’t supposed to go, because once you crossed the river you weren’t on the edge of the Neverglades, but inside the Neverglades.

Was there more mana inside?

No, don’t be stupid. That was dangerous. I had a million questions, and few answers. So let’s narrow some things down. 

I took out my spell book… It was just a notepad, and started writing. Question after question filled the pages, but…

“How do monsters know how to use a spell?”

“Instinct?” Erik offered, and I realized I spoke aloud.

“Yeah… But… Ugh. Whatever! Food?”

“Yeah!” The boys cheered rising up and I put my stuff away so I could join them on a hunt. The Mudpups were back hopping around the muddy section of the river eating bugs.

Time to get some!

—--

“Stupid spell.” I grumbled. I’d ‘cast’ it again and again trying to get a feel for it. But there were problems. It burned through a ton of Mana Fuel, and didn’t even cover all of me. “Let’s try this!” I’d gathered up an entire cup of mana fuel, and done a few experiments.

Pouring the mana over my hand as I cast to try and make more mana into the spell was… Mostly just messy. I glanced over at the glowing puddle in the dirt…

I was trying to avoid thinking about how I was going to clean that up. Instead I’d gathered up even more Mana fuel, the full cup was ready for another test.

As a proper scientist I was writing things down. How much mana I used in a cup and how much of me got the tingly sensation of being armored. 

This time, I pressed my hand against the circle and left my thumb in the cup of mana fuel.

I breathed in, and out, and activated the circle. Activate the magic. It starts shifting the mana, drawing up the mana through my thumb from the cup….

The tingling spell ran up my arm and then as it was draining I felt the surge of new mana from my thumb! It was a struggle, it kept wanting to flow away from the circle, but I was drawing it into my flesh. The diagram indented into my palm was working!

Then the tingling feel of the mana started falling away from my thumb. Less and less pressure and I opened my eyes barely managing to keep the focus, and saw it. The cup of water was losing its glow rather quickly.

Oh.

But this was way more than…

I could feel it. No matter how much I tried the mana was escaping as I drew it up, only a small bit of the mana I was burning through was actually going to my spell…

I realized then, at least partially what I think having a weak wavelength meant. 

The mana simply flowed away from me, there was only so much I could control, and the spell was chugging it all away.

It ended, and I sighed. Pulling my hand away and starting my pinch test to find where the durability ended.

I was half way up my neck and thankfully still covered when I heard it.

I stopped moving, and looked over to my right. Where I had spilled the Mana Fuel before.

There was a Croc.

A tiny little baby. The thing wasn’t even a foot long, just a chirpy little baby, no doubt drawn to the source of mana.

I watched as it bent down and started drinking, seemingly uncaring that I was right there…

Or it hadn’t noticed. I had been sitting very still for a long while as I gathered Mana…

I mean… I was kinda hungry. The little guy was just big enough to put on a stick and grill…

Then I realized.

Wait.

A baby. He had no core.

I jolted forward, rushing the startled little shit and leaping as he tried to run. My hand grabbed his little tail, and he turned and chomped me, and for a second I wanted to flail and rip him off, but…

No pain?

“Ah-Hah! My spell power is far too much for you! Maybe in a million years!” I taunted as I pulled him close, and managed to get him off and then held it tight…

I had him… But hadn’t thought this through properly.

Right. The reason I now had a baby Croc in my hands and tensed a bit as he started making calls.

Yep. Time to run. I got up and left my stuff running for the Compound. This could be it!

I could supply this little Croc with Mana, and find out how it made a Mana Core! How Monsters did their spells!

I made it back to the compound running around it to the work area, and as I turned a corner thankfully the man I was looking for was right there.

“Uncle James!” I raced up smiling brightly, and the man looked up from some woodwork to instantly shoot from the Croc in my hands back to me.

“Do I even want to know?”

“I need something to hold him in for a while.” I explained and smiled brightly. 

That unfortunately didn’t work.

“No pets.”

“He’s not a pet!”

“No Pets.”

“I’m trying to understand how monsters form cores, and cast spells. Not a pet.”

“Oh that makes sense. Definitely no, then. No Monsters in the compound.”

“Agh, C’mon I need this. And I need something to hold him in.”

“Kid, we have rules about monsters in the compound for a reason.”

I sighed. “Then I need to talk to Old William. I need this James. This little guy doesn’t have a core yet. If I can figure out how he develops his first spells I might be able to cast actually useful magic! Like… Fireballs!”

“A fireball spewing Croc isn’t convincing me.”

“It’s an example!” I stomped my foot as I pouted at the older man, as he sighed. 

“Alright, we talk to Old William. If, and that’s a big if, he accepts, I’ll figure something out… You got a hold on that one?”

“No problem for now.”

“Alright. Michael!” James yelled, his strong voice echoing over the workshop area.

“Yeah!?” The teenager popped his head out from around a workbench. 

“Go find Old William. Tell him Vicky has some crazy idea to learn more magic.”

“Ooo-kay? Whoa, is that a Croc?”

“Just a baby!”

He shook it off and ran off. I looked up to James, and he turned and went back to work. So I sighed and found something to sit on. My little baby croc had gone quiet, but I could feel it trying to escape when it got enough energy.

—--

“This is… Unorthodox.”

“I just need some time. A few days.” I said, holding the croc up. “I just need to try and feed it mana until it makes a core, even with some mana it’ll still be small and weak.”

Old Man William scratched at his chin looking up at James who was scowling.

“Yeah I can do it.”

“Alright. I’ll allow something temporary for now. Until James makes an acceptable pen. No experiments.”

“Sure!” I agreed instantly, waiting a few days or so is no big deal! I looked down at the croc that was staring at me with those slitted yellow eyes. “Well buddy. You get to live for a while longer. I’ll even fatten you up a bit.” I promised the Croc. 

James sighed at the decision, but nodded, and went scavenging until I was given an old metal washtub. “Here kid, you can stick him in this.”

“Thank you Uncle James!”

“Don’t thank me. It doesn’t have a lid or anything.”

“We can stick him in the secure room.” Old Man William offered, and I was nodding along before stopping. 

“We can’t.”

The men looked at me, and I hunched in a bit. “He’s cold blooded. He’ll probably die inside. He needs sun, water, and a dry spot… I can do that, but I can’t provide heat.”

“That’s more complicated Vicky.” Old William said, sounding rather unhappy, before he just sighed. “Alright. We can use the second floor porch.” He decided and I grinned. The porch overlooked the center of the compound and was pretty cut off. It also was connected to Old Man Williams home. The second floor of the main building.

Few people ever really got to go up there. 

“Thank you.”

“Just make sure it doesn’t escape and eat someone.”

“He won’t!” I didn’t add the probably to the end of the sentence like I wanted, but that was just smart.