Monarch of Solitude: Daily Quest System

Chapter 140 - Mana Saver

For the next few days, Rino found himself pouring over papers and drafting countless spells. Not everything should be added to the grimoire. Some of his best magic circles were also useless in this world because Rino realised the town wasn't built with enough magic circuits for complex spells. 

The lamia leather grimoire had limited pages and while Rino could rebind a grimoire to add pages, carrying such a thick tome around was inconvenient. In his previous life, Rino did not use grimoires. Instead, he stitched spells into his clothes and wore many layers because of it. Some of his more elaborate accessories were engraved with spells that gave him conveniences such as flight, dark vision and underwater breathing.

People often thought of him as a great mana manipulator, but Rino had limitations too. He doubted anyone was physically and mentally capable of using secondary spells while chanting catastrophic level destruction missiles. Building a complex spell took a lot of concentration without a team of magicians splitting the burden of the spell. Rino wouldn't be able to maintain a secondary spell without the aid of his portable grimoire.

If he could, he would stitch spells into his garments too. However, Rino simply wasn't sure that his clothes were good enough for weaving spells into. Noir's gift was damaged by the vicious lamia, and the lich needed something more durable before he wove spells into it. The thought of becoming handicapped mid-fight from wardrobe malfunctions and torn clothes made him shudder. 

Grimoires and pre-written magic circles served two purposes. The first was faster casting time and the lack of need to chant. Pre-written spells can be activated on the spot. Depending on the rune crafting proficiency, the spells could be permanently activated based on the caster's unique mana or used by anyone as a disposable spell circle.

Rino always wrote his magic circles with a special activation requirement so nobody else could use them. Even if they knew the code, not everyone was capable of activating four elemental magic at once. His glove was stolen once, and Rino was glad he had such a strict usage requirement. He would hate having to explain how the city was raided by lightning storms after a glove theft.

The second reason why magicians often used grimoires was because of the mana saving functions. Unlike Rino, most magicians don't have huge mana reserves. Many magicians can only cast intermediate spells without the aid of grimoires. Even those who could cast advanced spells couldn't achieve that in succession. It was exhausting on the magician, and mana circles took time to draw.

However, depending on how a magic circle was drawn, the magician could channel mana more efficiently, using less with better results. The discovery made grimoires very popular, and many intermediate magicians could cast advanced spells when using a grimoire and wand. This invention gave rise to the era of magicians, who were popular additions to the adventuring guilds.

Anyone with magical aptitude could learn to become a magician. Even the weakest magician with one element affinity could register to become a beginner magician with the guild after buying a good staff and grimoire. Many wealthy merchants and nobles sponsored poor magicians with the items needed in return for rare resources.

It was a good business model that Rino wished did not exist. Grimoires made casting spells easier and were a good mana saver, but he still wished more people understood the magic they were using instead of treating them like tools to complete a chore. To cast a fireball, most beginner magicians flip to the right page and pour mana into a grimoire while directing the output with a staff. Nobody knew how to correctly call upon the mana into their body with the popularity of grimoires. 

Magician deaths in his previous world were high, and adventuring magicians were disposable with the rise of grimoires. Rino shook his head. It was a disaster, and the lich wanted to avoid that in this world. Grimoires should be used to assist the magician and not become the magician's master.

Thinking long and hard about the secondary spells he wanted to use with the advantage of saving mana, Rino knew a few. The shadow sack, shadow tendrils and teleportation spell he learned from Kragami and the quest reward were very useful in kingdom building. However, they were mana thirsty, depending on the distance, intensity and number of items. 

Kingdom building… Rino needed spells for construction. In case he did not have any link to a mana web array, the magician needed a way to scout new locations. He needed the ability to level grounds, build footholds and establish safe zones.

Determined, Rino crushed the paper in his hands and sharpened the charcoal pencil. The piece of charcoal crumbled a little, and Rino looked at the black powder on his stone table. He should look into a way to produce better charcoal pencils after he finalised his magic circle designs.

Time passed quickly as Rino edited the magic circle while testing its mana conversion rate. Teleporting small items over a long distance barely made a dent in his mana reserves. So far, Rino used his temporary magic circle to send rocks from his study to the lamia's cave that his shadow gargoyles retrieved.

Hence, he experimented on summoning and teleporting his shadow minions using the smaller carnivorous bats, the shadow gargoyles, shapeshifting spectres and Mutt. If there was one thing Rino learned from teleporting his shadow minions using a magic circle, it was how inaccurate their destination marking was. One gargoyle was thrown to the sea when Rino's teleportation spell opened above the salty waters. It was fortunate that shadow minions couldn't drown, or Rino would have lost one good test subject.

Bigger summons need not necessarily cost more mana to teleport. However, intelligent summons cost more. Rino tested this theory on two shapeshifters. Honestly, he knew that Acht was smarter than his buddies, but Rino wasn't expecting much difference. He had no idea if it was because he appointed the shapeshifter as his tannery manager, but as compared to Drie, Acht cost more mana to teleport in the same distance.

Without a teleportation marker, Rino was unsure of how to perfect the spell in his grimoire. It was good for emergency getaways but not very useful for logistic transportation.

The mana usage for this random teleportation spell was five times lesser than the original teleportation spell, and Rino sighed inwardly. Without a marker, this mana saving circle wasn't useful. If he could see where he was going, the magic circle teleported accurately. However, if he could not see where it was going, the destination would be random in a direction Rino looked at.

"What about using scouts to determine the teleportation location or an existing summon to pinpoint the teleportation appearance?" Mutt suggested after the number of paper balls in his master's study covered a small corner of the room.

The sabre tooth wolf whined as another paper ball bounced on the stone ground. He materialised from the shadows and collected it within his jaw to add to the pile.

Rino listened to his summon and thought about it. Indeed, it could work. However, he didn't really have control over his summons. Minions who did not have his split soul worked under his orders even if they had free wills. Rino could only summon and uncommon them but not control their bodies. It was a huge disadvantage.

After listening to his master's counter argument about his body control difficulties, Mutt raised an invisible brow.

"But Master could do a swapping summoning technique, right?"

Rino paused. Swapping? He remembered Kragmi talking about the concept before, but he thought it only applied to himself and his summons. Did it work on inanimate objects too? He thought that only creatures born from darkness could travel through the shadow realm. Was he wrong?

In any case, it was still worth a shot. There wasn't anything to lose, so Rino and Mutt worked on testing the new teleportation trick.

Lo and behold! The trick worked, and Mutt helped Rino to fine-tune the swap teleportation coordinates. For now, this was a better idea than randomly teleporting minions and items into the ocean. 

The first swapping spell was added to Rino's grimoire after it was finalised. At the same time, Rino added some of his regular supporting spells like flight, stealth and dark vision that could be useful for night building in areas without the mana web array.

He could use the night vision spell for his dark mushroom farm in the cave managed by gargoyles. At the same time, Rino worked on a storage spell to minimise his mana consumption for big and bulky items in his shadow sack. He looked at the lamia leather he wanted to reserve for Kragami and wondered if he should use some for an inventory bag with a constant magic circle instead to save mana.

The few days of 'vacation' passed quickly as Rino put his tannery to work on a new piece of leather using king toad skin. The grimoire secondary spells were finalised, and before he left for Noir Province to discuss his new findings with Kragami, Rino received a new system notification.

Too lazy to check it yet, Rino opened his grimoire and used the World Tree as his teleportation marker. Hopefully, he wouldn't shock anyone to death with his sudden appearance.