Jack stared back into the room, glancing between the large cylinders he could see inside. They were everywhere and lined the walls with a massive one in the center. When he had first looked he couldn't work out what they were, the cylinders had a metallic base and tapered to a point with a metal cap, otherwise they were see-through, likely made of glass.

  There was a strange glow that pulsed through them occasionally, Jack noticed different colours from most of them. This was when he noticed inside the largest one in the center of the room was the largest crystal he had ever seen. It was taller than he was, even after his growth spurt, it would have to be at least two and half meters tall. The casing was as thick as a large tree trunk and the crystal took up most of the space inside. It was cleanly cut and had a quartz like shape, pulsing green occasionally as he stared.

  “Do you really expect to use me like a human battery charger to power your ship? How is that meant to give me perspective? Only one of these feels like Life mana though.” Jack rambled as he entered the room, feeling the pulse and faint vibration from the large crystal.

  “Haha Jack Jack Jack. I know you may not have grasped it exactly when we were talking about your amplification. The perspective I hope to give you is one of the likely outcomes if your results get back to the center.” He followed Jack in and gestured at the large crystals.

  “Without going into an economics lecture, Mana is the foundation of the universe's economy, our currency is a credit system that is actually managed by the Origin. The actual use of that currency and its value is tied to mana and crystals just like these. Mana is used for everything, and there are only two places that generate mana naturally. There are rifts which generate it from the rift core, and then there are certain planets that have a core similar to a rift core. Those planets are able to generate their own mana as well.”

  Monty walked forward and tapped on the glass in front of the larger crystal as he turned to look at Jack.

  “As I am sure you can guess the planets are popular and either end up as capital planets that are massively overpopulated. To the point that the mana generated can no longer keep up with demand. Or rifts, which are much more common to find but also introduce a massive amount of risk and randomness.”

  “We have devices that can modify the frequency of mana fed into it, like with the testing device. The issue normally is that the conversion rate is not great and oftentimes not worth the cost. Life mana being in the middle of the spectrum is a very common mass storage frequency because it has one of the best conversion rates for the common mana types.”

  Monty tapped Jack on the shoulder to draw his attention back, as he had started to try to count the cylinders in the room. He was interrupted when he got to 34.

  “The most likely outcome if your information made it back to the center was that you would end up ‘contracted’ to one of the more powerful organisations there. You would then be in a room similar to this and would have crystals like these wheeled in all day every day while you simply sat there and generated mana and filled them.”

  “Me I can see past the financial potential you present to the changes a power like yours could bring if we can foster your growth. But obviously in the meantime, there is no reason all the mana you are generating needs to go to waste right?” His lip curled into a mischievous smile.

  Jack narrowed his eyes as he stared at Monty and took in the news. He had thought about it briefly when they were talking about his power, but he had assumed that mana was everywhere. He thought the reason the facility had no mana in the air normally was because of safety for people like himself. He now reassessed that assumption and he appreciated the urgency of Monty and Turrel a little more.

  He tilted his head, he had never been rich before but this sounded like an infinite money glitch. There had to be a catch somewhere, he doubted he could produce enough mana to make much money right?

  “Ok ok, so how expensive is mana? Like tell it to me in terms I would understand. How many meals could the mana from one shockwave buy?” Jack asked, he realised as he was trying to think of a comparison he didn’t really know much of anything about the wider universe yet.

  A few different expressions passed over Monty’s face fairly quickly and Jack thought he caught a hint of shock and then embarrassment for a moment.

  “Hmm. I… umm. See I am a Shardlord now Jack, I honestly am a little detached from that. I have people who manage that for me. I get the jist of the question. Right now you could make a comfortable living just charging mana crystals. When you can learn to charge them that is.”

  Monty sat down on the ground in front of the central cylinder and motioned for Jack to do so as well.

  “Your amplification works strangely, I have only ever seen one other person with that prime frequency. Thiers was considered pretty strong but it only worked at about 30% and that was static, it never changed. Yours though seems to fluctuate, which I have never heard of before so we need to see if you can control that or not. What did your interface say in the frequency section?” Monty asked with undisguised curiosity.

  Jack thought about it, and as he did the information appeared in his mind.

  FREQUENCIES

  —--------------------------------

  Mana: Life

  Prime: ??Amplification??

  “Yeah, it's a bit strange. It lists Mana as Life and then there is Prime listed as well. But that one has question marks around it? It says Amplification but I get the feeling it's not just amplification?” Jack said, remembering the other section that also listed question marks.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  STATUS

  —--------------------------------

  Name: Jack Davies

  Race: Human

  Age: 33

  Origin: Earth

  Modification Level: Tier 1

  Shards Consumed: 0

  Shards Required: ??

  “Ohh and the shards required section had questionmarks as well if that matters but I wasn't sure if that was normal?”

  “Ok, hold on a second. Under your Frequencies, it lists your prime frequency as Amplification. But there's a question around it? That is strange. It makes sense though as it isn’t like what I have seen before.” Monty rocked back and forth as he thought.

  “The shards thing is a little strange as well but not unexpected. It’s something I wondered about too. Normally the first connection back to the origin just needs one shard to establish. It will normally list out the number there so it is unusual.”

  “But the origin is the one that provides the interface and it generally only shows you information that you are aware of. It might hint, like it is doing now by the looks of it. But it won’t normally just give you information that you do not already know.”

  Jack thought on that as Monty continued to mumble to himself, seemingly following a track of thought with almost half verbally and half mentally. He had no idea about any of this, so if that was the case the origin should have put questionmarks on everything. If it was more based on what he knew or had experienced, then that would make more sense. Thinking there could be more information there that he just had to unlock was exciting, who didn’t love easter eggs or secret puzzles.

  “Ok enough enough. For right now and for your near future the most important thing is to work out if we can control your amplification. If we can't do that, we need to find out how it works. For the next hour, you are going to sit there and just focus on yourself and do whatever you can to try and understand or influence that vortex over your heart. I will be here to draw out the mana in your system when and if it fills up. There is going to be no food until we get some sort of progress. Understood?” Monty said.

  Jack sat down and as if on cue, his stomach growled in protest. Using his hunger against him as motivation, Monty was a very scary man.

  Jack turned his attention inwards and focused. He still had mana flowing through his system from their earlier training which Monty had not absorbed. He picked a bit of mana and tried to focus on it as it flowed. Following its path through his body and through the vortex over his mana heart as best he could. He could track it as it flowed throughout his body without much trouble as long as he focused.

  As soon as it started to be pulled into his vortex however, it seemed to disappear for a fraction of a second. Out the other side it popped out but it felt slightly different, the feeling only lasted for a second as it continued to flow around in the strange donut shaped path.

  He simply watched and waited, as he tried to catch the moment when the mana passed through the center and disappeared again. As he watched, he started to form a suspicion. The more he watched, the more he felt certain he was on the right path.

  The feeling after the mana passed through was strange. It felt almost like only a portion of the mana was there after it exited. As if it was a ball of dough that had a part stripped off, then the original bit of dough expanded again to its normal size as it started to flow back around.

  His stomach rumbled once more and he knew he needed food and he could contemplate what that feeling meant as he was eating. For now, his observation had given him a simple way to increase his amplification for the moment. The moment it happened was when mana passed through the center of the vortex. All he had to do to increase the mana he was generating was to speed it up inside his body. If it passed through the vortex more often then he would generate more mana. Simple.

  The problem was he couldn’t work out how to do that. He tried to use the same method for the shockwave where he guided the mana himself. When he did that though, if anything it seemed to slow it down more than speed it up. He knew that technically that revelation alone would be enough to earn him food. He still somehow felt defeated as if he was cheating because he had decided he wanted to increase not decrease.

  As he continued to play he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Monty standing once more.

  “Ok, that’s enough. You slowed it down and that is good enough for food. We only have a limited time here and we are already about seven hours in. Let it settle.” Monty said, heading to the exit. Jack stood and followed.

  Two lefts, one right and straight through a cross section and they stood before the biggest doors he had seen so far. There was writing above the doors and unlike the rest of the facility so far, there was a quiet appetizing aroma that grew stronger as they approached.

  “How many people are on this ship Monty? Ohh sorry I should call you Lord now shouldn’t I?” Jack asked.

  “There is a crew of about twenty to run the ship and then we have probably another twenty here as expedition members or specialists” Monty responded as he approached the panel next to the door.

  “So is there any like etiquette I should be aware of if I meet anyone of a different race? Obviously try not to stare, but is there anything I should know before I shake someone's hand and accidently get engaged?”

  Monty turned to stare at him as he laughed. A very unlordly smile graced his face as he spoke.

  “Who can know, I don’t know enough about earth to be able to tell you. Most human-like races are pretty similar across their worlds. The other races though, best to just wing it and feign ignorance I think”

  He didn’t wait for Jack to respond before he pressed the panel and walked through the moment the doors opened.

  The smells and sounds of a large cafeteria hit Jack as he walked into the room. While not packed, it was still the busiest room he had been in since leaving earth with at least five people other than himself and Monty there.

  Two were humans like them, One looked very similar to Riven the man with the rock like skin who he had met earlier. One was a very sturdy but short woman that seemed to be dishing out food with a ladle. The last person was approaching the two of them as they walked into the room.

  She was the most unique of the crew he had seen so far. She had long purple hair that shimmered slightly. Her hair was braided together as it fell to well below her shoulders. Her skin was scaled and seemed to shimmer as the light caught it, reflecting pearlescent colours as she moved. Her eyes, similar to Turrels, had a solid blue iris.

  What's the worst that could happen? he thought to himself as he stepped up next to Monty, wanting to introduce himself before Monty could. He stuck out his hand towards the woman.

  “Hi I’m Jack, nice to meet you” he said.

  The look that passed over her face made Jack wonder if Monty had manipulated him into this or if it was just his own bad luck. Either way, he had done something wrong and like many single men he had no idea how to handle an upset woman.