The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 28

Chapter 28

“The first thing you need to know about your Fusions is that, while strengthening the containment barriers around your Mana Cost will solve most of your problems for the time being, it isn’t a catch-all,” Larek’s instructor explained. At the same time, Grandmaster Fusionist Shinpai used his Pattern Cohesion to quickly form the same formation that went into his Pneuma Boost Fusion, though at only Magnitude 1 instead of 9. Looking down at the formation floating in the air near the floor between the two of them, Larek immediately saw what Shinpai did to the Mana Cost section.

Instead of a single square barrier that encompassed the entire section, with a circular internal barrier around the inside perimeter, there was another barrier that was squeezed in between the circle and square in the shape of an octagon. The 8-sided barrier was connected by what Larek could only described as faint jagged struts to the square via its points.

Pointing at them, he asked, “What are these?”

His instructor nodded as he answered. “Those, my young student, are dampeners, allowing the additional octagonal barrier you need to add the ability to flex under the strain of the vast amounts of Mana that you’re injecting into the Fusion. Their primary purpose is to accelerate the infusion of Mana throughout the entire formation while maintaining proper Pattern Cohesion, but that’s not really a problem for you.

“They’re very rarely used, as I’ve only used them on very small Fusions that most Master or Grandmaster Fusionists can create within minutes, which also do not require more than a fraction of their full Mana capacity,” he explained. “It’s a shortcut to reducing Fusion Time, but it also risks breaking the formation if it isn’t as rigid and focused as possible, an ability most Fusion veterans are able to reproduce after creating similar Fusions hundreds or thousands of times. It’s how some of us can create dozens of similar Fusions one after another in a day without straining ourselves, but their use is limited to the weakest of them. Until now, of course, with what you’ll be using them for.”

He could immediately see how they would be beneficial, not only to protect the overall stability of the Mana Cost section, but also to reduce the amount of strain on his focus and concentration as he held everything together during the creation process.

“I see. That makes sense to have it around the Mana Cost section, but why are they around the others?” Larek asked.

“Ah, well, that’s something that you would’ve learned in Intermediate Fusions,” Shinpai answered as he chuckled. “As you create more-complicated Fusions, you’ll discover that the formations require a level of symmetry that is necessary to maintain stability. As a result, any structural changes to the containment barriers need to be copied to the others in the formation. For something like this 2-by-2 grid, that isn’t a big deal because there are only 4 sections; for something like a 4-by-4 grid, this can make it a little more complicated; as you may not know, every additional element added to a Fusion formation requires slightly higher Skills to maintain proper focus. At least, most people would have difficulty with lower Skills, but I have a feeling that you’re going to surprise me.”

Larek hadn’t actually known that information about more-complicated Fusions, but it certainly made sense. He had a feeling that was why he hadn’t been able to advance past Level 20 in his Pattern Formation and Fusion Skills despite making hundreds of Fusions; none of them challenged him at that point, because while they were powerful, they were relatively simple in design.

“Normally, I wouldn’t suggest you practice this immediately upon learning it; creating such a Fusion would typically take the majority of our class time. Given that I’ve seen the speed at which you can create Fusions, I think I’d like to see you attempt this with a Magnitude 1 Fusion of your choice.” His instructor then pulled out a steel plate from a stack of them near his seat and handed it to his student.

Taking it and laying the plate in his lap, Larek pictured the new addition to his containment barriers as he began forming the Fusion for Pneuma Boost +1, as that was based on the original Fusion he was attempting to improve.

It was more difficult than he thought it would be, because his mind immediately jumped to its normal formation without the additional barrier and dampeners. It took nearly a minute of quickly creating one incorrect formation after another from memory before realizing that he needed to slow down and take his time; the formation was nearly automatic by that point and he barely needed to think about it, but that was precisely what he needed to do in order to correctly form it with the new barrier.

After a few more minutes of painstakingly altering the original mental picture of the formation he had in his head and then translating that to the actual Fusion hovering over the steel plate, he was finally at the point where he could double- and triple-check his work. A quick glance at the formation that his instructor continued to show him as an example revealed a few improvements to the dampeners near a few of the barriers. Once those were taken care of, he looked it over one more time before beginning to funnel his Mana into the formation.

Without having to regulate the flow so that it wasn’t overloaded immediately, thanks to the extra containment barriers and the dampeners, it took all of 10 seconds before the Pneuma Boost +1 Fusion was complete, clicking into place onto the steel plate. A few seconds later, Larek was picking it up and examining it for any visible flaws; satisfied, he handed it to his instructor, who simply smiled at him and nodded in thanks. He was also a little disappointed that he didn’t level-up any of his Skills during the process, but he supposed that it wasn’t exactly something entirely new or particularly difficult, just an addition to what was already there.

“Precise lines, constant thickness, and a perfect reproduction of the dampeners and additional containment barrier. Very nice – and what I expected of one that can create Fusions at the speed that you can.”  Shinpai handed it back to him. “But as I was saying earlier, this additional containment barrier and dampeners are only one step in the process of strengthening your Fusions. The other step is for when you begin creating even stronger Fusions, which I can see is likely to happen in the future.

“Now, this method is largely untested because it was never approved for use, but I think it will work well for you,” the Grandmaster Fusionist continued. “It was originally designed as a way for multiple Fusionists to work on the same Fusion at the same time without it falling apart, but that was abandoned shortly after the first attempts were made. This Mana Overflow Bypass,” Shinpai explained while demonstrating the creation of an interesting addition to the formation he had maintained the entire time. The normal connections between the 4 different sections were still present, but there was another that went from the center of the Mana Cost to the exterior square containment barriers of each section, including its own. Each containment barrier was intersected multiple times, making this Mana Overflow Bypass look like some sort of multi-limbed monster reaching out to touch everything around it.

Larek tilted his head in confusion. How is that supposed to work?

“The thought was that when multiple Fusionists worked on the same Fusion, with one providing only Mana to help speed up the process while the other held the formation together while adding their own Mana, their Mana flow might not equally match up or meet the requirements needed for proper saturation throughout the formation. While an underflow wouldn’t hurt the formation unless it was maintained for the length of the process, leading to a deficit at the end, any overflow of Mana could strain the formation and break it. To prevent that from happening, this Bypass was designed to shift that overflow into the containment barriers to help strengthen rather than strain them. Unfortunately, the entire process was found to be too difficult to maintain, so the project was abandoned – but a few remnants like this still remain from those whom conducted the experiments.”

Larek memorized the connections between the Mana Cost and the containment barriers, identifying that it wouldn’t be very hard to replicate the feat. It was a simple feat to produce the necessary connections, as it wasn’t necessarily altering the overall Fusion, just some more additions.

“Do you think you have it? Or do you want to practice?”

Larek nodded at the first question, before shaking his head. “I think I have it, but I’m more interested in what else you can teach me,” he said. “For instance, how do I go about making a 4-by-4 grid like David and Marybelle created earlier?”

“Oh, you want to run before you’ve barely been able to walk, huh?” his instructor chuckled. “Haste will only lead to mistakes, and while you seem to have a decent foundation of basic Fusions, your other knowledge is severely lacking. I’m not going hold your hand and teach you everything that should’ve been taught in previous classes, but there are a few things that are imperative for you to learn before we can move on.”

“Such as what kinds of things?” Larek said impatiently.

“First, you need to slow down, Larek,” Shinpai replied seriously, all mirth gone from his face and tone. “You may have an abnormally large Pattern Cohesion, but you’re still playing with forces here that could kill you if a mistake is made because of impatience. You remember how you told me that you tried casting a spell and it nearly killed you? I don’t want something like that to happen to you, because it will only be a matter of time before it does,” he warned.

Larek thought about those times when he had experimented with some higher-Magnitude Fusions without absolutely knowing that it wouldn’t kill him, and he mentally shivered. His first few days of creating Fusions had been a time of wonder and exploration in his newfound ability, but at the same time he was flirting with death every time he tried something new or simply unknown at higher Magnitudes. When he added in the fact that he was self-taught through the use of a book instead of at an instructor’s direction, he was honestly lucky to be alive.

Larek nodded his understanding. As much as he wanted more knowledge now, he was fairly confident that he would eventually get it, as he had an instructor that was willing to teach him. Besides, I already learned something today that I didn’t know before, so anything else will simply be a bonus.

“I really do hope you understand, because I will refuse to teach you if you can’t follow my instructions. The first of which is that you won’t create any more Fusions without my permission.” He held up his hand at Larek’s immediate response. “I know, that seems unnaturally harsh, but I promise you that it is for a purpose.  It also won’t be as bad as you might think, because I’m going to want you to create at least one Fusion every single day, if not more. Can you agree to that?”

Larek hesitated for a second before agreeing. The only reason he hesitated that long was because it seemed unreasonable, especially when it pertained to something that he absolutely loved doing. In the end, however, he decided that it was probably for the best; with this restriction in place, it would help prevent another incident of being hyper-focused on one thing such as what happened back at Crystalview.

“Very good.” Grandmaster Fusionist softly smiled at Larek as the severe expression faded from his face. “Now, do you have any questions for me before we get started with your first official lesson?”

Larek considered one of a few dozen questions about which he was curious or wanted more knowledge about, but he held his tongue for the moment. He was determined to wait and see what he was being taught before he asked for anything more, as it was entirely possible that his instructor would cover most of it in his lessons. If it didn’t, then he would most likely ask them later.

Though, there was one question that he really wanted answered and was unlikely to be covered at any point; it was something that could be dangerous if he asked it, but he figured that he had already taken a risk by revealing some of his abnormal stats to the Grandmaster Fusionist – and it had worked out alright, he supposed. He wasn’t going to do something as daring as revealing his Martial stats to his instructor, but the older man – who was thankfully not from the Kingdom – might have some prior experience with it.

“Just one question. Have you ever heard of anyone having access to both Mana and Stama?” he asked.

The Grandmaster Fusionist sat and stared at him for an uncomfortable minute before he said anything. When he did, it was in an even softer tone than before. “That’s a dangerous question, Larek. And I’m not the one to risk my life answering something like that. Is there a… particular reason why you want to know?”

“I was just curious, as something like that was never covered in my education back at Crystalview,” he quickly blurted out. “I guess there’s a reason for that?”

“Yes; yes, there is.” His instructor paused for a few seconds before resuming his normal tone of voice. “Now, if there are no other questions, I’ll go over everything we’ll be covering this year in this class.”

“No, no other questions.”

The Grandmaster Fusionist stared at him for another few seconds before nodding and then began to start listing off different Fusion-related terms and concepts, which were entirely unfamiliar to him – but they sounded absolutely fascinated.

As he listened to Shinpai, he mentally made a note never to ask about people with both Mana and Stama. If he would risk his life just answering a question about it, I’m glad that I never told anyone but my closest friends.

He just hoped it stayed that way.

Book 2 Chapter 29: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-83546766