Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King



Now that he had seen that it was having an incredible effect, Wolfe worked even more carefully to spread the flow of mana between the others.

One after another, the basic nature of their mana veins began to change while Wolfe pondered the reason that simple exposure to mana should cause such an extreme reaction.

It might be the density, as it was far beyond what was available in nature, but increasing the mana density in the Den hadn't caused any sort of effect other than the predictable increase in growth rate.

What he suspected was that it had something to do with the bloodline curse that had been placed on the Witches since all of these girls had been adults when they first met him, and he cleansed the remaining blockages from their systems.

It was possible that the interference of a high-level Magi was enough to break the curse and begin to undo the damage that had been done to them, leaving their bodies magically perfected in a way that only a Magi could achieve.

It went quite smoothly all the way through the ten witches of his pentacles, but there was a minor hiccup when he reached the two witches on guard duty.

They weren't as strong nor as used to his manipulations of their body. Both nearly passed out from the first touch of his mana, and anything more than a bare trickle had their eyes rolling back in their heads.

He didn't have the skill to personally modify the process for so many different people. All Wolfe could do was alter the amount, so they were going to have to bear with it.

Their auras were growing at a phenomenal rate, far beyond what they could possibly be doing willingly, and it was clear that while their mana veins weren't beginning to change yet, it wouldn't be long before the process forced them to a breakthrough.

While he carefully maintained the state of balance for the witches in the pentacle as the change to their veins stopped, and their auras began to grow, Wolfe had most of his attention on the two Rank One Witches.

Their growth was magnificent, and they were both getting close to Rank Two, but one of them was beginning to lag behind. Instead of absorbing the incoming power, it was leaking out of her aura and back into their surroundings.

It almost felt like she was full, like a jar with limited capacity.

Wolfe had never encountered anything like that before. He would have to ask around about it and search through all of the knowledge that he had gained later to see if there was a reason for it or if he was making a mistake of some sort.

Perhaps the gap between them was simply too large, and she couldn't handle that dense of mana. It also occurred to Wolfe that she might have reached the extent of her natural potential some time ago and had now been pushed past it by as far as her body could handle.

Even before the war, most Witches were stuck at the First Rank for most or all of their lives. So, he shouldn't be surprised that he couldn't change that, but it still felt like he was letting her down even though it was a gift.

Not long after, her progress totally stopped, and all of the mana that he was putting in simply passed through her aura, not changing it at all. That might be a new record for a witch reaching her potential, at least in the last few centuries, but it looked like she would never make it to Rank Two unless there were some bottlenecks that could be worked through.

The Witch who had reached her peak slowly started to regain her senses as the sensation stopped and her aura stopped changing. Just in time to witness her lover and deployment partner reach Rank Two.

The others were lost in their meditation, doing their best to get every possible bit of power that they could before the opportunity passed.

The first time that you went through a new cleansing or advancement process always seemed to be the most beneficial, and they didn't want to risk falling behind and dragging down the whole group while the Pentacle tried to balance them out again.

The power of the ascending Witch seemed to burst forth much more vibrantly than the others had, and her mana veins began to adapt and stretch the moment that she made the breakthrough, pulling her further ahead and absorbing a huge amount of ambient mana to reform her aura.

So, that was the secret to the mana veins. They couldn't adapt until the Witch had advanced. It wasn't completely a matter of talent, though those without talent couldn't manage the feat at all.

Once the advancement was complete, and the new Rank Two witch was in meditation along with the others, her tearful lover smiled at Wolfe and climbed into her lap to hug her while she focused.

Strangely, that seemed to help the process. 

"It must be a matter of motivation," Wolfe muttered to himself, which made Stephanie laugh through their link.

Eventually, the advancement rate faded until all of the Witches were brimming with power, and their aura density had come close to matching Wolfe's mana density.

They couldn't be far from advancing again, and the feedback that Wolfe was getting through the Pentacles was finally making visible progress on his Mana Core again.

The look on everyone's face when the process ended was pure exhaustion, and it was only a few seconds before the first witches fell asleep. Their new Rank Two member was sleeping with her partner in her arms, leaning against the wall, while Cassie, Ella and Priya had tangled themselves together in the fight for bed space once they collapsed.

Since they were all sleeping, Wolfe moved himself outside with the Trolls and the other Familiars who had come along for the trip and took a seat on the front steps.

Ember brought him a ball to toss as soon as he sat down, and Wolfe thought that the Hellhound wanted to play fetch.

The Trolls were giggling, though, so he decided to ask their opinion first.

"What game is Ember wanting to play?" He asked.

"Oh, good call, asking before you threw the ball. She wants to play baseball. She's been working hard on creating a bat with fire magic so that she can play both sides of the game. We've got enough players here now that we can, but it will only be the four of us batting." One of the twin trolls suggested.

"I don't see why not. Just have the batters back to the airplanes. I don't want them getting damaged by accident."