2006 Memory Crystals (Part 2)

Without the new array, the mana circulatory system would have drawn the power core inside the Golem faster than the Awakened could fix it.

Best case scenario, the Golem would work just fine but the residual imperfections in the core would slow down the activation of its spells. Worst case scenario, one or more of the enchantments wouldn't work at all and those that did would be defective.

Every time the group hammered at the Forgemastering circle surrounding Raptor, it produced a blinding flash of white light and the power core seeped a bit more into the Adamant.

Soon there was just a little bit of the sphere still visible from the outside and fixing the mistakes took longer while the energy reserves of the members of the group were nearing the bottom.

The Silver lining was that at that point the energy signatures of the power core and the Golem were nigh-identical. It reduced both the number of clashes between them and the number of imperfections they caused.

Once the power core completely merged with the Adamant, the runes comprising the Forgemastering circle left the ground, closing in to Raptor.

The residual world energy the runes contained was compressed into a blue sphere that enveloped the power core. It created the mana pathways that would keep the core's energy from dispersing and brought it exactly at the center of the mana circulatory system.

Lith had placed it exactly where the mana core of the Vagrash once had been, hoping that it would enhance the performance of the Golem.

"Is it done?" Tista asked, using a wave of the hand to remove the sweat from her eyes.

"Almost." Lith half-panted and half-said. "There's still the final step."

He took a few deep breaths with Demon Grasp to return to his peak condition but after using it so many times, he recovered barely 60% of his mana.

'Dammit, I might have overestimated our forces.' Lith thought. 'Raptor is supposed to be the easy one yet we are already spent.'

'It was our first attempt at using the Mouth and the Fury with the others. Cut ourselves some slack.' Solus replied.

"Stop doing that. It's creepy." Protector said after noticing Solus' eyes going black and Lith's going golden.

"Sorry, but I can't afford to keep you guys in the loop with a mind link. I need all the energy I can muster or everything we have just done will be for naught." Lith took a white crystal the size of a coconut out of his pocket dimension.

"Luckily, Spirit Crystals are the easiest to make." His words were welcomed by a choir of booing.

Spirit Crystals were actually the hardest to make, just not for him. Lith had developed Demon Grasp by learning how to remove Mogar's life force from the world energy and replace it with his own.

It was something that only he could do thanks to his Spirit Eye.

By using the same method, he could also transform a white crystal into a Spirit Crystal. A normal Awakened, instead, had to inject their own Spirit Magic inside a crystal until every bit of world energy was replaced by their mana.

It was a long and tedious process that usually required days since white crystals were the purest form of coalesced world energy. Their mana capacity was above that of a violet core of the same size.

While people like Faluel needed a stasis field just to afford a bathroom break, Lith left the elemental energy inside of the crystal, replacing solely the spark of Mogar's essence with his own in less than half an hour.

"Now comes the hard part. Turning a Spirit Crystal into a memory crystal. Wish me luck." He said.

"How does that work, exactly?" Faluel asked.

"Sorry, secret of the trade." Lith shrugged. "I promised the other Archmages of Jirni's research group that I wouldn't share it."

"Not even with me?" Tista said. "I'm your first apprentice and your older sister."

"Of course I'll share it with you, Tista." He replied, making a huge grin appear on her face. "As soon as you either develop your Spirit Eye or become a Forgemaster good enough to make one."

Her smile disappeared, replaced by a deep frown and the flip of the bird.

"Wait a second." Phloria said. "Valeron's Spell Hoarding Cube doesn't have a Spirit Crystal."

"Yep." Lith nodded. "I need this to be both a Spirit and a memory crystal because otherwise the Golems can't use my bloodline abilities."

"Then what's the connection between your Spirit Eye and the memory crystal?"

"That I use my eye to cheat my way to success." He replied with a wink. "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you more without disclosing the secret of the technique."

Lith sat cross-legged on the floor, breathing slowly to keep Demon Grasp active while his mana mixed with the elemental energy in the crystal.

A Spirit Crystal was simply a mana gemstone that carried enough life essence of a mage to reproduce skills that required life force, be they Spirit Spells or bloodline abilities.

A memory crystal, instead, was capable of storing not only the mana, but also the willpower of its user. They could be used to preserve a mage's legacy, to allow other people to use their spells like Jirni's cards, or to share memories.

The principle was simple, at least in theory.

All mana crystals above the bright yellow tier could be recharged either by the world energy or by a mage's mana, if one was in a rush.

Every mage capable of using tier five spells knew how to imbue their willpower in their mana, but only a few of them were capable of doing the same while recharging a crystal and turning it into a memory crystal.

The crystals belonging to orc shamans naturally turned into memory crystals over time simply because their fallen race had the bloodline ability to dominate the crystals, using them as a source of power for their spells instead of their mana core.

To do that, an orc shaman had to imbue the world energy inside the crystal with their willpower. Over time, the process would leave behind a faint imprint in the crystal that another shaman could recover, if they were skilled and powerful enough.

Yet the method that orcs used was highly inefficient. It wasn't something they did on purpose or with method, just a lucky side effect. It took years for a shaman to store even a single spell in the crystal and few among them lived that long.

To make matters worse, their imprint would carry more of their personality than their knowledge.

Because of this, when another Orc shaman managed to tap into the portion of the gemstone that had been turned into a memory crystal, to access the magical knowledge they had to fight a battle of willpower first.

It was the reason many Orc shamans became crazy after discovering the hidden power of their crystal. Tapping into many memories also meant clashing with several personalities at the same time.

What was left of the previous shamans' minds wasn't enough to replace the current shaman's personality but it was enough to leave them mentally scarred and fuel their superstition.