A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 205: Mana Cores

Chapter 205: Mana Cores

After some time walking through the farm, past many fields and pastures, I noticed something strange going on. Nothing was moving. Like, at all.

"Umm... Why isn’t anything moving?" I asked Kronia, even though I knew she was the one behind this, I wanted to know what exactly she was doing and why.

Kronia chuckled and began explaining, "Simple, I’m using my chronomancy to stop time for everyone and everything else."

I stopped and stared at the old woman in disbelief.

"That’s not simple!" I screamed.

She merely chuckled and said, "It is for me, I’ve been practicing this magic deeply ever since that moment..." Her tone became rather sombre at the end there.

*Sigh* "But that’s not important right now. What is important is getting you out of here, and my chronomancy is just a tool to achieve that. Come, I can’t keep this up forever."

"I don’t believe that even for a second!"

Kronia laughed at my words, "Pfft! Really? A time pun?"

"That wasn’t meant to be a pun." I pouted.

"Hahaha, ah... Don’t worry, it’s amusing nonetheless. I understand what you’re trying to say, but to me, this is nothing impressive."

"Not impressive!?!?" I yelled in disbelief once again.

"No, as I said, I’ve been practicing chronomancy for years, meaning that I can essentially control time to an extent, so I reverted my age so that I can keep learning, and I kept doing this for centuries. I’m nearly a thousand years old." She chuckled as she told me about her past.

"A thousand... Years..." I was stunned by that length of time. No human can last that long, yet she did it.

"Yes dear, a thousand years. Far more than a human should be able to live, but with chronomancy, age is just a state of being. I’ve found a way to overcome certain limitations such as my mana capacity and the power of my magic by displacing them from myself but keeping them linked to me throughout time."

"I... I don’t follow."

"Haha, that’s fine, I don’t expect you to understand the intricacies of chronomancy. You just need to know that I’m using it to help you, nothing else." She said in an amused tone as she continued walking down the path.

"How are you even able to be so powerful anyways?" I inquired as I thought about her strength. It didn’t make much sense to me, since, even if you could live for up to a thousand years, nobody could become this powerful without resources, and based on her lifestyle, she most likely didn’t get such an influx of resources.

"Simple. I experimented." She stated plainly. "I know that you won’t be satisfied with just that so I’ll tell you. Normally I wouldn’t divulge these secrets but I feel that you’d figure it out sooner or later so I’ll just tell you now."

"What is then? And, should I tell others?"

"For your second question..." She looked into the sky and contemplated before answering me. "I wouldn’t. Too many people knowing this could be a disaster as it would shift the balance of the world too much." She elucidated.

"As for the first, it’s best to just teach it to you rather than explaining how it works and how it’s created. Come here, I’ll guide you." She stopped and gestured for me to stand next to her.

I slithered over to her side and she asked for my hands. As she grabbed my hands, I felt a small stream of mana enter my body.

"Use your own mana to trace back along mine and you’ll see what I’m talking about." She instructed.

I did as she instructed and used a flow of my own mana and trailed it back along hers. This then led me to finding a giant orb of concentrated mana.

I felt as if I was floating in a giant black void where nothing else existed, and that this giant orb of mana was all that ever was and ever would be.

That vision was cut of when Kronia left go of my hands and held back onto her cane, and I could feel my body sweating from the sheer pressure that that orb exuded.

"Wh-What was that?" I utter with shaky breath.

"That, was my mana core. Attuned to my chronomancy." She revealed.

"A... Mana core?"

"That’s right, a mana core. It’s a crystalized manifestation of one’s own mana, concentrated into one single point, making it more powerful and more potent than anything. Mine is just attuned to my chronomancy, as having more than more than one element in the core can make it more unstable unless you either have great affinity for both, or you create a balance somehow through external means."

"Attuned? What exactly does that do?"

"It grants you better control and power over whatever element you have chosen, increasing your affinity as well, though, by how much depends on a number of factors that you can’t possibly control."

"Really? No wonder you said not to share it." My eyes dilated at the thought of this knowledge becoming widespread.

"Yes. Now, to teach you how to do it."

I shook my head to erase any unnecessary thoughts and focused on Kronia and her guidance.

"First, you want to gather the elements you want to use to create your core and infuse them with your mana. If you want more than one, I would suggest going with those that you have great affinities with, but no more than two or else it would become too unstable." She guided as she explained the intricacies of making my Mana Core.

I followed her instructions, from imbuing my mana with two elements, [Fire] and [Space]. Fire because I feel that it’s my main element, and Space because it’s just a good element to have, and the more powerful it is, the better.

She then instructed me to concentrate all of that mana into a certain point, either in my stomach, my chest. I chose my chest since I thought it would be better protected up there. Or something like that.

There was also the difference between the two spots. Overall, being nearer the heart had the biggest advantages but also the biggest drawbacks, being that if it was ever destroyed, it would shatter and might possibly kill me with the shards from it shattering. And even if I didn’t die, it would be very hard to nearly impossible to recreate it.

The reason for being closer to the heart being better was something to do with the flow of life force improving upon the quality of the mana or something as well as strengthening the body due to this exchange of energies somehow.

If I were to place it in the stomach area... Well, for me it would have more drawbacks than others since my body is built different and this would give anyone I devour a chance at breaking it. So, even though it would grant a better flow of mana, to me, it wasn’t enough of a boost to be useful.

"Good, now that you’ve chosen which locations you want to put it in, you should decide where specifically. Again, closer to the heart is better but more dangerous. Also, I should warn you, no matter where you put it, you will feel immense pain from a foreign object forming within you and trying to squeeze the rest of your insides away, so choose carefully.

I took a moment to consider where I wanted to form my core before I nodded and asked, "So how do I form it?"

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