Andrew Rowe - On the Shoulders of Titans

She held up two fingers in a sign for “little”. “A slight one. Anything that pushes an attuned’s mana beyond their capacity has the potential to increase that capacity permanently — but usually just a bit, and doing it too frequently or with too high of a volume of mana all at once can cause damage. For example, an Emerald-level attuned pushing as much mana as possible into a Quartz-level attuned could potentially cause them permanent harm.”

I processed that.

There was a lot of potential in this new attunement.

Could I use the purification function as a way to create enhancement elixirs without distilling them?

Or maybe just transfer enough energy into someone to permanently increase their power a little bit, gradually over time?

Could I combine this with my other attunement to put enchantments on people?

…Maybe that’s how artificial attunements are made?

I had some more direct questions to ask, too.

“Could I use this on myself to enhance my Enchanter attunement?”

Researcher frowned at that. “It isn’t meant to be used like that…but I suppose it might work? I haven’t heard of any cases of it being used in that way, but the restricted attunements are obscure, even by my standards. I don’t have a lot of data to work with.”

I’d have to save that as a last resort, then. I would have been more tempted if my other attunement had a direct combat application, but trying to enhance my own Enchanter attunement was a great deal of risk for the potential of a minimal benefit.

I was getting a little bit better about using my mental mana without the watch, but the idea of flooding my brain with enough mana that it could potentially cause scars was…

I shuddered a little bit just thinking about it, quickly changing the trajectory of my thoughts to something more palatable.

“If I gave someone enough mana to push them over the threshold to the next attunement level, would their attunement’s level increase?”

Researcher nodded. “That is a standard way of using the attunement, however, it would be temporary. They would gain the benefits of the higher attunement level, but only until that additional mana is used, after which the attunement would most likely revert to its previous state.”

“Most likely?”

“As I noted previously, there is a small permanent benefit from receiving an infusion of mana. It’s possible that your ability could be used as the catalyst for a permanent change, but only if they were already at the cusp of reaching the next attunement level on their own.”

“What kind of scale of permanent benefit are we talking about?”

She made a ‘hmm’ noise. “I would expect it to translate to being able to stretch the person’s capacity to about two percent higher than their previous maximum, provided you supplied them with mana equal to their current maximum safe value. I would never give someone more extra mana than their current maximum value, nor would I advise using this on the same person more than once per week.”

That was interesting, particularly because it implied that whatever had happened to Sera when she drank the potion I’d given her wasn’t the same as transferring mana into her directly. She’d checked in the morning and her mark still hadn’t returned to its previous appearance, in spite of her maximum mana apparently decreasing , rather than increasing.

It was possible that her attunement would have reverted if not for the scarring, but I suspected something else was at work. I hadn’t just been giving her pure mana, after all — that potion was some sort of catalyst for attunements.

I’d procrastinated long enough on analyzing the potion. I planned to do that within the next few days.

Beyond that, knowing some of the safety limits of my attunement was extremely useful. I’d need to know everyone’s safe mana levels, then I could transfer an equal amount into them…provided I had enough mana to do that. Marissa already had more mana than I did, but maybe I could use this as a tool to help Patrick catch up to us. And if I only needed to infuse him once a week, I could safely do the same thing for a few other people, too.

“Can I give people mana more than once per week if it’s in smaller amounts?”

“The more important part is that you don’t want them to exceed their maximum more than once per week. You can safely recharge their mana as many times as you need to.”

Good to know. That’s probably enough on that subject for now.

I took out a drawing of Sera’s new attunement and showed it to the researcher. “Have you ever seen a rune like this before?”

“How fascinating.” The researcher stared at the image. “This is unfamiliar to me. I can check with the central archive, but that will take some time.”

“Central archive?”

The elemental turned her head toward the east…toward the spire, maybe? “My true self remains there, alongside many others of my kind. We gather, maintain, catalogue, and distribute data. Tenjin has kindly allowed this variant of me to remain here.”

Well, that means this elemental isn’t some kind of violation of divine laws, at least. That’s good — I don’t want to deal with any more visage-related complications right now. I have enough of them.

“What are the odds that mark is a restricted attunement?”

Researcher shook her head. “It’s not. I’d have recognized it if it was.”

“What about an ascended attunement?”

Her eyes widened slightly. “That’s…possible, I suppose. I’ve never actually seen one.”

That was interesting. “Do you know how those are obtained, or how they work?”

“No, but I’d like to! If you find out anything about them, I’d love to hear it.”

I nodded. “Okay, another question. If someone had lost the ability to use their attunement properly due to scarring, could I use this transfer ability from my new attunement to help them?”

Researcher shook her head sadly. “It would be unlikely to have any benefit. Mana scars inhibit the proper passage of mana through the body. Attempting to flood a scarred area with mana might do more harm than good.”

Maybe I could get Sera a second attunement, then, and help her get stronger at using that?

No, that’s working around the problem. I’ll do that if I have to, but I’d rather get her voice back.

“Do you know any means of healing mana scars?”

“Not easy ones. In Caelford, they are performing research on full organ replacements, with some signs of success. Our own research has been focused on restoring the body to a previous state, using a combination of local Menders and other body-related attuned from other nations. There have been some successes with both approaches, but each has significant risks.”

Researcher waved a hand toward the section of the library on her left. “The most reliable approach, unfortunately, remains the most difficult. In row 4-D, you can find a section called ‘Goddess-Touched Locales’. We currently have three books covering a location called Vanreach Peak. In this location, rare medicinal herbs can sometimes be found during the winter season. These herbs serve as the foundation for the Vanreach Elixir, which is reported to be an effective treatment for virtually any physical injury, including mana scarring.”

I perked up at that. “How does this elixir work?”

“The herb itself is the most powerful known alchemical component for healing purposes. Elixirs created using the herbs, which are known as Goddess’ Tears, trigger a potent regeneration effect on the body that can repair long-term damage on the body. Some claim the elixir is even potent enough to reverse the effects of aging.”