The Fusionist Book 4 -- Chapter 3

(I'm back!  I had a good few days off and I'm ready to really dig into this next book)

Chapter 3

Healing the physical injuries of the bandits’ victims was easy enough for Larek to accomplish, though they at first shrunk away from him when arrived at where the wounded were being held. At first, he thought it was his height that made them wary of his presence, but he realized he was still wearing his ring with the Perceptive Misdirection Fusion on it. Even if he hadn’t been wearing it, no one had mentioned his height as something disconcerting – not even those that had physically carried him back to town when he was unconscious. They would’ve undoubtedly noticed that he was taller than what their visual perception told them, but none of them seemed fazed in the least.

No, they shied away from him for a couple of reasons that were in no way related to his physical characteristics. The first, and most impactful to Larek, was that most of them had – at least in part – witnessed his deadly rampage against the bandits. Such brutality and wanton destruction imparted upon those that had hurt them so badly was disturbing even to those who had suffered, and they acted as if they expected him to lose control like that again at any time. While that wasn’t likely to happen, they didn’t know that, so it made them wary of his presence.

The second reason was that, in addition to their physical injuries, they had also suffered severe mental trauma related to what was done to them. As a result, the victims shied away from everyone, not just Larek; he wasn’t sure or not if he felt better at seeing some of the injured acting the same way with some of the healers trying to help them. Regardless, this mental and emotional trauma was something that was unfortunately something that he couldn’t heal with a Fusion. Having dealt with something similar, if not exactly the same, when he was captured and tortured by Ricardo, the Fusionist knew that only time would help to heal those types of wounds.

That the caravan victims were thankful for their healing wasn’t immediately obvious because of their mental states, especially as two of them slipped into a temporary coma due to the extent of their horrific injuries, but he could see a little bit of hope shine in their eyes when their bodies were put back together. It made him feel as if he had at least partially made up for his mistakes earlier, but he was also glad to eventually leave the multitude of rooms located in an expansive one-story building in the middle of Enderflow where the victims were being treated. Seeing them healed of their physical injuries only seemed to highlight their battered mental states; given that he couldn’t do anything to help in that regard – only make it worse with his presence – Larek found that he’d rather make himself scarce.

His service to the town wasn’t impacted by his offer to heal the victims, as no time was taken off, though from his interactions with Protector Ashlynn from that point on he found that it at least seemed to mitigate a portion of his rampaging mistake. As much as he wanted to leave the town and make his way back to the Kingdom, he was actually thankful that he was forced to stay in the relatively quiet town so that he could recuperate fully from everything that had happened to him.

Fortunately, there were no more reports of bandits or missing people, which meant that Larek didn’t have to go out and kill anyone else. Not that they would’ve brought him along, as his overheard conversation was proof enough that they didn’t trust him not to lose control, but he was glad that he didn’t have to worry about being forced into that position once again. Unfortunately, the lack of reports or other information about the bandits’ contacts also meant that the Protectors were no closer to learning where previous victims may have been sent. Larek felt horrible that his actions led to this lack of information, but there wasn’t really anything he could do to help; in fact, he was told in no uncertain terms that his help was not neededfor such an investigation.

Instead, his obligation of service to the town of Enderflow shifted to one of simple guard and patrol duty in and around the town. It was highly boring work, as he basically wandered around looking for anything suspicious or that might prove a threat. The only time over the first week that he saw action was when a giant alligator emerged from the distant river and somehow managed to sneak into the fields where the Ectorians toiled away. No one was seriously hurt as they fled the large beast, though one of the Ectorians strained their ankle when they ran away from the danger the alligator posed. That was easy enough to heal with his Fusion afterwards – almost as easy as killing the alligator with his axe, as the beast was fairly slow on land and its durable skin couldn’t withstand the sharpness of his bladed tool. It was less of a fight and more of an execution as he was able to slip around the snap of its jaws and separate its head from the rest of its body with a single strike.

It turned out that gator tasted a little bit like chicken, as he found out after the beast’s corpse was butchered and cooked up later that night.

Besides that one brief activity, two weeks after arriving in the town half-starved and relatively weak saw Larek fairly well-recovered; it wasn’t just his physical body that had recovered, but his Pattern Cohesion, as well. When he gazed internally at his pattern, no longer was it torn and ragged, where a light flexing of his Pattern Cohesion would cause it to break apart like wet paper. In its place was a strong, healthy internal pattern that was – if anything – better than it was before; it was as if the damage that he had done to it and had healed over the last few weeks of non-activity had made it more durable and resilient. When he finally decided that he was as healed as it he was going to get, he took the time away from his patrolling duties to finally create another Fusion.

Because he hadn’t tried anything in weeks in fear that he would damage himself further, Larek started small. Just a simple Strengthen Stone +1 Fusion on a palm-sized rock he picked up outside.

It was at that point that the powerful Fusionist discovered that something was wrong.

“What’s going on?” he muttered to himself, after he finished the simple, Basic Fusion. It had been created easily and quickly, settling itself into the rock in his hand without any problem and it appeared perfect – but it wasn’t the Fusion that was the problem. It had been formed as flawlessly as his usual creations and was as strong as anything he’d made before; if anything, the Pattern Cohesion imbued into the Fusion was stronger and more permanent-feeling than before, which he could only attribute to his strengthened Pattern Cohesion. He felt that if his creations hadn’t been at the point where they would last for a lifetime or longer, then it was quite possible that his new Fusions certainly would. In addition, some of the Fusions – such as the ones he’d put on staves with offensive abilities – would suffer much, much less from repeated usage, meaning that they might be able to be activated more frequently. He suspected that the formations wouldn’t be at the point where they would never break if stressed too much, but they had nevertheless made a significant jump in resiliency.

So, if the Fusion was even better than before, then what was the problem?

In short, it was his Mana regeneration.

Having not used any Mana since he arrived in the Empire of Sealance, he hadn’t noticed anything different with it. Now that he had finally used some to fill his Fusion, which was only a small amount for this particular Fusion (approximately 14 Mana), he noticed that his Mana didn’t refill in a blink of the eye like it did before. In fact, to completely refill the 14 Mana he utilized, it took a little under 2 seconds.

Granted, such a regeneration rate would’ve been absolutely fantastic for any other Mage in the Kingdom, but for Larek it was shockingly slow. To one who was used to refilling thousands of Mana in a second or less, this reduction was of significant importance to him and would hinder his Fusion-making capabilities. He relied on his tremendous regeneration rate to create the powerful Fusions within minutes, completely blowing away the Fusion Times that were associated with the Fusions he had access to. Over 100 hours for a Fusion was something he could do in minutes – or at least he could before; now, with his much-slower Mana regeneration, he’d be lucky to get something like that done in less than a full day.

Just to check if it was a fluke, he created a Multi-Resistance Cloth +2 Fusion on his bedsheet he was comfortably sitting on, using 475 Mana to fill it up. It completed just as expected… and his Mana regenerated at the much-reduced rate as he feared.

Having his fear confirmed, Larek was at a loss to explain what had happened to cause such a change. It wasn’t a small difference, either, as it was extremely detrimental to his ability to create Fusions.

He thought at first that it had been caused by his Martial “awakening” as he gained access to his Stama, but for some reason that didn’t feel right. Some intuition told him that far from being a hindrance to his Mana regeneration, it should’ve actually enhanced it somehow, as his body was in harmony now with the energy within it. He then thought that it was a result of his stronger Pattern Cohesion or his recent usage of his Battle Arts, but neither of those seemed plausible, either.

It wasn’t until he finally started to spend his accumulated Advancement Points and Aetheric Force that he discovered what he thought might be the reason.

To start, he used his 20 AP and split it evenly between Intellect and Acuity, adding 10 to each, in an effort to give himself a bigger Mana pool and to hopefully increase his Mana regeneration. His maximum Mana went up to 1,600 after his Intellect rose to 80 and was doubled by his Intellect Boost +10 Fusion – and increase of 200 Mana. As far as his Mana regeneration… he didn’t see any difference when testing it out with additional Fusions.

With the 5,424 AF he had access to use on increasing his maximum Skill Levels, he increased his Fusion, Pattern Formation, and Mana Control Skills to a maximum of 37, brought Multi-effect Fusion Focus up to 20 from 17, and spent some to gradually bring up Pattern Recognition, Spellcasting Focus, and Magical Detection up to a maximum of 21.

Mage Skills:

Multi-effect Fusion Focus Level 17/20 (200 AF)

Pattern Recognition Level 20/21 (210 AF)

Magical Detection Level 20/21 (210 AF)

Spellcasting Focus Level 20/21 (210 AF)

Focused Division Level 31/31 (310 AF)

Mana Control Level 32/37 (370 AF)

Fusion Level 33/37 (370 AF)

Pattern Formation Level 33/37 (370 AF)

It was the most Aetheric Force he’d used all at once and it incapacitated him for a few minutes while it went to work adjusting his Skill maximums, but once it was done he sat up in bed and looked around to see that the world had slightly changed.

Magical Detection has reached Level 21!

In reality, it wasn’t the world that had changed; it was his perception of it. That perception of the world was now inhabited by a vision of very faint wisps of multi-colored strands of light that were just on the edge of visibility. He discovered that if he concentrated on them hard enough, he could make them out well enough, though they were sparse in number; despite their sparseness, they were easy enough to see floating around everywhere. When he wasn’t thinking about seeing them, though, they disappeared into the background.

Confused at what these insubstantial strands of light were, he dismissed them as he experimented with another simple Fusion to see if anything had changed with his increase in Skill maximums. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be different with his Mana regeneration, as it was the same slow rate as it was, but he thought he discovered what the multi-colored light was.

Mana. Or at least the equivalent of Mana, just floating around everywhere.

When he spent his Mana, he watched as these light strands gravitated toward his body, where they disappeared as they were absorbed into his skin. More of the floating Mana streamed in from outside of his room at the same density as his room held before, no more and no less, as it was replenished both in the space and into his body. He found that if he activated moved toward the incoming strands of light, his Mana regeneration ticked up slightly – but it was barely noticeable, and he only discovered it because he was monitoring it closely.

What did he learn from all of this? Well, he learned that he could now see free-floating Mana in the air and that his body absorbed it in order to replenish what he spent. As for why he hadn’t seen it before? Well, he could only assume that the density in the Kingdom was so great, being in close proximity to the large breach and additionally the presence of Scissions and now Apertures, that it was virtually indistinguishable from anything else. It was only here in a land quite far away from the origin of Mana – which he learned hadn’t really been present before The Transition a thousand years ago – that it was sparse enough to make out the multi-colored strands individually.

That, in turn, led to Larek’s problem. Without the same density of Mana floating around the area, his Mana regeneration suffered. There simply wasn’t enough of it nearby to fill him up quickly, so he was limited to his current rate.

The only solution was to get back to the Kingdom, or at least in closer proximity to the area, to replenish his Mana at his accustomed rate. Unfortunately for him, he was still a couple of weeks away from leaving Enderflow due to his service obligation, so getting back would have to wait a little longer.

His plans were derailed a little bit by these revelations, as he had been planning on remaking his staff and replacing his current Martial stat Fusions with stronger ones now that his body could handle it, but those required a lot of Mana to complete. He had also been thinking of volunteering to add some Fusions to the Protector’s equipment as he thought it would give him something to do on his time off, by making their weapons sharper and armor more durable, but now he was rethinking that whole plan.

First, he didn’t want to inadvertently cause the people of Enderflow to want more and more of his Fusions for their people, trapping Larek in place as he was used just like the Dean and Shinpai had used him to create Fusions for the SIC. Granted, he was eventually “paid” for his work, but he was also worked so hard that he’d needed to take a break to restore his internal pattern with how much he had done for them.

Secondly, he was still technically incognito as a “Martial” from the Kingdom without any magical skills other than what he used with his Stama. He didn’t want to reveal that he could create Fusions, as they might then ask if he could cast spells in defense of the town; when he would tell them that he couldn’t, he wasn’t sure how they would react. Would they think he was lying? Would they know that it was “impossible” for a person to be both a Martial and a Mage? Was capture and exploitation a possibility? He didn’t know the answers to those questions, of course, and also didn’t want to find out.

Lastly, if he was going to spend his slowly regenerating Mana on anything, it would be for his own benefit. Without the ability to create large amounts of powerful Fusions by the handful, he had to be more selective of what he did end up making. As for what that entailed, he decided to do something he’d been wanting to do for a while, but never seemed to have the time as something more pressing was always taking his attention.

In other words, Larek was going to clean up his Fusions list.

There were now so many Fusions on the list that it was hard to keep track of them, but with the recent increases in his Skills above 30, he now realized there was a solution to it all as long as he had the time to apply himself to the effort.

With that goal in mind, Larek spent the next few weeks of his service obligation to the town of Enderflow making dozens of small Fusions in the privacy of his room.