This sucker claimed to be a mastermage? NEVER EVER. He almost fried my precious body with unrelenting mana. If this guy was good at handling his power then I wouldn't want to get a connection with their big shots.

Again I had to enlarge my crystal and then I let his mana flow directly into expanding my influence. It went up to 80 feet right away before I felt his mana weaken and then stopping.

“Why is the tree not growing? Are you cheating me, dungeon core?”

The anger in his voice was easy to discover.

“Cheating? You idiot almost blew me up! Is there nobody here that is able to control his mana flow for me to adjust to it and let the energy do something useful? You may be a mastermage with all your spell but let me say to you, you suck at mana manipulation.”

The old elf was taken aback by my verbal attack and went pale.

“Excuse me please. I didn't think, that mana would be an issue for a dungeon core.”

“With how many dungeon cores have you ever talked? It seems to me, that my fellow evil brothers and sisters are not on the talkative side.”

Looking down to the ground Galen was ashamed of himself.

“Now, now, dear Marcus, I think you said your part and i'm sure that he regrets his doings. Please forgive him and let us work together again. Tell me how much mana you can take and then I will search for any person in my people that doesn't overcharge you by giving you mana.”

I took myself a bit back and calmed down again. I will have to train this guys for a more delicate mana use.

And then I checked my status, only to discover that I now could accumulate 1000 mana. Hey, that was huge, but remembering my last encounter with an elven mage, there seemed to be some people with much bigger mana capacity.

“I can take 1000 mana without a problem but anything more really hurts if it's pumped into me in one go, so please send only elves with a lesser mana pool. I had enough pain for my first day, thank you!”

“Sure thing, darling. Perhaps Galen can charge up some mana stones and connect them to you, so you take the energy easier without any chance of you exploding and littering us with your glorious self.”

“You're enjoying my misery here, aren't you? But the idea with the mana stones sounds interesting, perhaps I can learn to craft them myself sometime. Dungeons shall be able to create everything in their influence if I am not mistaken.”

Galen nodded and said.

“You are right with that. But I only have 2 small mana stones because I lost my laboratory when we had to flee so suddenly. I will give you one of my stones and hope to get it back again, yeah?”

He seemed a bit unsure and then got a gem the size of walnut out of his robe. It looked like a blue diamond but wasn't clearly it because it hadn't the same glow. He put the stone down and I sent my senses out to the stone.

Now how do I dissolve materials in my influence like in the stories back on earth? I wished to dissolve its structure, but nothing happened. I sent my mana into it,only to discover that the stone sucked it up, much to my anger. Then I tried to surround it with my mana without letting it inside and that seemed to do the trick. I felt the stone suddenly in me, as if having a kind of bag in my mind and I saw a description besides it.

Small mana stone (bad quality)

Contains 120/300 mana

Creation costs 300 mana per size category and quality

I tried to take it out again and in the next moment the stone was back again. And I had a new field in my status, called creation.

My status also showed that I had 203 mana left from the last action.

“Hey, could you find somebody with at least 600 mana? I have an idea I want to check out. If it works, it could really give our mages some serious extra firepower.”

Galen looked to Kalla, seeing her nodding and went to the approaching croud, checking the people for their mana capacity. After only some seconds he came back with a child holding his right hands. A nice blond girl with twin tails and fear in her eyes. Hesistant she came closer and then put her hand on my increased crystal.

“Don't have any fear, little girl. Just send your mana to me and I will make you a nice and beautiful stone to play with.”

She winced for a moment hearing my voice in her mind and then I felt mana flowing into me. But this one didn't push it into me like the other brutes but in a steady stream, calm and measured.

“Hey, you're quite talented with mana. You have much better control about it that any other I met until now.”

Pride and joy filled her face and Kalla smiled at her, meanwhile Galen pressed his lips together. Yeah, suck this, bastard!

After having absorbed all the mana the girl could give me, I started to use it for creating my first mana stone. I observed my energy collecting on the ground and then condensing itself ever denser. Seconds later a stone much like the other was on the ground, shining with an inner light.

Galen took it up and envious giving it to the small girl.

“And how did it turn out? Was it good?” I asked curious.

“It had the double capacity like the one I have given you. That's outrageous. Wait a moment. If I give you more mana and you can boost your mana capacity again, you could make an even bigger stone. Right? RIGHT?”

An unpleasant fever was in his eyes and he came near me with only inches seperating my body from his face.

“Yeah, yeah, I will make one for you, but only after you have learned to control your mana. Even with my higher capacity now I wouldn't be able to take your monstrous amount of mana into myself without a chance of shattering myself. Bear with it a bit longer and now back off. I have work to do, growing that little tree a bit.”