Chapter 449 – Preparations

After Damion returned home and spent a few hours with his family, he started working on the next stages of his plan for the expedition. S Ranks could shoulder a lot of the burden, but they were not the only one’s hopeful to advance. First, he posted a mission with an indeterminate start date for A Rankers to come to Atlantis. He did not go into a lot of detail of what the expedition was, aside from stating that S Ranks would also be participating and they would face S+ Rank environments. Damion could not set a time for the mission to start until Mage Fletcher arranged for the time and place of the S Ranks to be brought over. He saw no point in not having the A Rankers come at the same time as the S Ranks if for no other reason to save Mage Fletcher time.

The criteria for an A Rank joining was high, but he did not want to accept a member that was going to collapse from the pressure of the SS Rank floors. Anyone joining the expedition would need to pass through those floors, even if they did not have to fight, it would still be a challenge. Most likely, only A Rankers that had pushed their bodies to the extreme or were very close to breaking through to S Rank would be able to cope with the higher mana density.

Once the mission was posted, Damion moved on to the next order of business, finding a way to minimize the higher mana density. It would be best if everyone could resist it, but he needed to be realistic, most likely, not everyone could. There was one material he thought might help, Magic Absorbing Crystals.

The rare crystals had the ability to suck in ambient mana and in enough quantities could turn a place into a mana starved zone. Any lodes of the crystals in the settled areas of Nerotath had long since been cleared out. However, Damion had no idea where the mined crystal had been taken or even who to ask to find out about them. After considering everything he knew about Magic Absorbing Crystals, he took out his communication tablet and contacted Arica’s master, Dorian Fletcher.

“Mage Fletcher, I have a question that I hope you can answer.”

“I will do what I can for you,” the A Rank Spatial mage responded.

“What did you do with the Magic Absorbing Crystals from the Wind Wolf dungeon?”

The question was well outside of what he was expecting, and Mage Fletcher had to think for a few moments before he answered.

“The spoils from those dungeon runs were turned over to the Adventurer Association and the Mage Association for cataloging what could be find inside. Once they are finished with them, I suppose they sell them off to cover the cost of what they rewarded people going into the Breach and the other costs of the mission.”

“Do you know who I should talk with to find out where I can get a large supply of Magic Absorbing Crystals?”

“What would you need with… never mind, I don’t want to know,” Mage Fletcher caught himself before he could finish his question. “I’ve never seen a store selling the crystals before, refined or otherwise and any adventurers that come across any are quick to sell it to one of the Associations. My guess is they keep a supply somewhere, so they have them on hand for building prisons or making restraints.”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“Thank you,” Damion told the Spatial mage. “I will try reaching out to someone in the Adventurer Association. Most of them don’t dislike me, unlike the Mage Association.”

“Glad I could be of help.”

After ending his talk with Mage Fletcher, Damion reached out to Manager Halsey of the Saung Adventurer Association. There were a few other branch managers that he knew, but he had known Edmund Halsey the longest.

“Mage Wells, to what do I owe the pleasure? Is this about the mission you posted not long ago?”

“In a way it is,” Damion answered. “I’m wondering where I might acquire a supply of Magic Absorbing Crystal?”

“Magic Absorbing Crystal? That is not a common item. I doubt much is kept around. The little we bring in from the Wind Wolf dungeon gets sold to the Mage Association. I believe they turn most of it into magical restraints for the Justiciar Order.”

“I don’t want to ask the Mage Association for a favor, so can you think of anywhere else I can acquire some?”

“I really can’t. Your best bet is going to be a sparsely populated Red Zone. The only reason Demonic Beasts would not claim territory in a Red Zone would be because they dislike the area. And the only thing I can think of that would make them dislike an area enough to stay away, would be because of Magic Absorbing Crystals.”

“You are saying I should go out there and mine it myself.”

“Not alone,” Manager Halsey hastily added. He was afraid Damion would really head into a Red Zone alone. Even if the region was devoid of Demonic Beasts, it was still a dangerous place and just getting there would likely be quite dangerous as well.

“Of course not,” Damion reassured the Fire mage. “Depending on the location, I am sure I can put together a mission to mine some of the Magic Absorbing Crystal.”

“Might I ask what you want it for?”

“You saw my mission right?”

“Yes, but you did not have much in the way of details. I also found it odd that S Ranks would be participating in this as well.”

“Those that register for the mission will get more information, but basically, we’ll be challenging SS Rank floors of the Avalon labyrinth. I am hoping to use the Magic Absorbing Crystals as a means to lower the ambient mana as a way for those with weaker constitutions to be able to cross such floors.”

“Your theory is sound, but you’ll need more than just raw Magic Absorbing Crystals. Unrefined crystals can only absorb mana for things they come in direct contact with. Simply wrapping them in a cloth lets a person hold them just fine.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Damion asked. He was trying to think of a solution as well, but he had no idea how to refine the crystals to have greater potency.

“It takes a significant quantity of the crystals to be able to do what you want, even after refined. A better approach would be to create an artifact with a Magic Absorbing Crystal as its core. If you can make an artifact that can efficiently draw in mana, with a Magic Absorbing Crystal at its heart, you don’t have to worry about it maxing out. This should also let you get away with not having high quality crystals. Especially since unless you mine a few dozen barren zones, you probably won’t get enough crystals.”

“A magic absorbing artifact,” Damion repeated as the designs for such a device started running through his head. If he was able to craft such a device, just a few of them, spaced out amongst the A Ranks would likely be enough to lower the ambient mana in their area. The problem, of course, was crafting the artifact.

The Magic System could assist him in making it better and more efficient, but first he had to make a working model. This still meant he had to acquire Magic Absorbing Crystals. Sure, he could craft an artifact that absorbed ambient mana with the materials he had available, but it would only work for so long before its reserves were filled. He needed devices that could run in perpetuity, not to mention be turned off.