Chapter 184: No Stone Unturned (1)

Jaxir stared at the transparent machine gun hovering inside the magic circle for several more seconds. Then, he looked down at the Legendary Compendium, as though the book might realize how stupid this looked if he gave it enough time.

Nothing changed. The turret just kept floating there, its barrel pointed at some imaginary enemy beyond the cavern wall.

"Fine, let’s see what you actually do."

He set the Construct Compendium across his thighs and started feeding mana into the first section of the magic circle, following the pathways the book had already lit up for him.

The outer ring brightened first. After that, the smaller circles started filling one by one, and the translucent turret above them gained a little more substance.

Jaxir had barely reached what looked like 10% completion when the drain on his reserves got uncomfortable enough that he stopped.

The half-formed Construct immediately started falling apart. Its barrel broke down into mana first, and the rest of the weapon followed.

Jaxir checked how much he’d spent and stared at the number with his mouth hanging open. More than 100 MP was gone, for something that hadn’t even made it past the start of the process.

If the cost stayed anywhere near consistent, finishing the whole thing would take at least 1,200 MP. That was ridiculous for an introductory Construct.

Jaxir already had far more MP than most Level 9 players could reasonably have. Even so, 1,200 was more than a third of his total reserves.

The casting time made it even worse. His first attempt had already shown him that finishing the circle properly would take well over half a minute, and that was if he rushed through sections he barely understood.

Was he going to stand still in the middle of a battle for that long, building a magical machine gun while somebody tried to cave his face in? Absolutely not.

Suddenly, the storage function made a lot more sense.

Constructs weren’t meant to be thrown together every time someone needed one, at least not once they got this complicated. A Conjurer could build them ahead of time, store the finished creations in the Compendium, and pull them out once the fight actually started, without paying the time cost under pressure.

Jaxir could already see how fast that would turn this book from an expensive curiosity into something dangerous. There was another problem, though.

The turret he had just tried was only the first lesson. Jaxir doubted he could even make a decent Common version while rushing through a circle he’d never seen before.

If he slowed down enough to actually understand each section, fixed his mistakes instead of forcing mana through them, and tried to squeeze better quality out of the finished product, the process could stretch into several minutes. The MP cost probably wouldn’t stay as clean as 1,200 either.

"Constructs are fucking expensive."

Jaxir leaned back on one hand and looked at the three Compendiums lying around him.

Did every Conjurer deal with costs this absurd? Or was he paying extra for being inefficient, after wandering into a Path he had never trained in? He had no idea.

Though, either way, the answer was the same. If he wanted to understand what these books could really do, he needed time.

And that brought his uncle’s deadline right back to the front of his mind.

There was barely a quarter of the day left before Jaxir had to log off and sleep. Tomorrow was the last day before the Chance Corporation expected its answer.

He had already reached Grand Archmage, survived Maelis, joined the Gasini’s test, and somehow stumbled into a Legendary legacy that could teach him three completely different branches of Conjurer magic. Complaining about the mana bill was especially stupid when he still didn’t know what signal he could send the government with everything he’d gained.

Jaxir closed his eyes and crossed his legs.

Somewhere along the ridiculous chain of fights that had led him here, his Grand Mana Potions had dropped into the single digits. He wasn’t interested in burning through the last of them just to experiment with a turret.

His normal regeneration was a lot better than when he’d first entered Divinity. On top of that, the Wisk of Mana Belt kept adding 20 MP every minute, and his staff could gather another 200 MP worth of ambient mana for Casts.

None of that would refill several thousand MP on the spot. However, he had enough time to let his reserves recover naturally while his mind came down from the constant strain of battle.

He sank deeper into meditation and let the cavern go quiet around him.

The difference got much more noticeable once his reserves climbed closer to full.

Mana saturated his body with a fullness he’d never really paid attention to before. At the same time, the ache in his ribs and shoulders was fading faster than his ordinary regeneration could explain.

Jaxir opened his eyes and focused inward.

The Natural tempering method had already taught his body to incorporate mana directly into his flesh.

Now that his reserves were fuller, that saturated mana was supporting the body around it as well. It smoothed over damage and helped small injuries repair themselves, without any healing Ability involved.

It wasn’t anywhere near fast enough to replace a Healer, or a proper potion after serious damage. Still, the improvement was obvious. Jaxir flexed the hand the wolf had cut open earlier and found the wound almost completely closed.

"Nice."

He turned back to the Construct Compendium with a lot more patience than before and started the first lesson again.

This time, Jaxir followed every line of the circle instead of rushing to finish. He slowed down whenever the mana split into smaller pathways, checked how each section connected to the next, and corrected the flow whenever the structure started losing stability.

Somewhere around the halfway point, he realized that taking his time was making the Construct a lot more expensive than his original estimate.

1,200 MP came and went before the turret was even close to done.

Jaxir grimaced but kept going. After putting this much into it, he wasn’t about to abandon another attempt.

The machine gun slowly gained substance above the magic circle as each part locked into place, from the long transparent barrel to the boxy housing and the mana feed attached underneath.

By the time the last section stabilized, Jaxir had spent just over 2,000 MP.

His reserves were down to barely more than a third.

The finished turret lowered itself onto the crystal floor beside him, its translucent frame turning slowly as though it was searching the cavern for something hostile.

Jaxir immediately checked its quality, and his face started to tighten.

After several minutes of careful construction and enough mana to make most Level 9 Mages cry, he had achieved the astonishing result of...

A Common Construct.

Jaxir groaned and dragged both hands down his face before looking back at the weapon.

The turret swiveled toward him for a moment, then went back to scanning the cavern as if it hadn’t just personally offended him.

Jaxir rested one arm over his knee and stared at it, his eyes narrowing.

"You better be badass."