Solution for a problem?

Joseph turned to Catherine once they were out.

"Do you think this guy is telling the truth?"

"I don't believe him. Saying he is one of the great mages and his son is a black dragon? You think I believe something like this?"

"I don't know that much about this stuff. Alas, I don't even know much about the continent."

Catherine shook her head slowly.

"Really. I'll explain everything you should already know when we are in a better place for it. Seems like that place was more secluded than I thought."

"I mean. How would I know about the last five thousand years?"

"True."

They looked into the room. Tobald was leaning on his left hand and looking at the ground. It seemed like he was lost in thoughts.

"Should we just leave, or you want to stay here with him to share more of the history?"

"I want to hear more from him. He might be able to answer more questions if we stay."

"What if he locks us up?"

"Just look at him. He is a sitting corpse. What can he do?"

"True."

They sit down on the chairs and started meditating. Catherine ned to get her mana back and Joseph was training while waiting.

After an hour or so they heard him calling for them, so they walked back in.

"I called my son. It seems like he is still alive and he actually wants to speak with me."

They were shocked.

"Wait! You called for him?! If it's the actual dragon, people will get scared to death!"

He laughed.

"I don't fully understand why you all are scared of. He never even attacked any of you. The only things he attacked were those spirits. He said it was because God spoke to him in his dreams."

'Silvia are you here? What is happening?'

[Message!

This place is not my domain. I have no connection to any of this.]

'Great help. But it's good to know I can speak to her with my thoughts. Wait! The quest is not done yet?'

While he was thinking the other two were talking.

"You want me to get you something that can keep you alive, besides these machines?"

"Yes."

"Are you crazy?"

"Why? You just need something that can make concentrated mana, that I can absorb."

"I have no idea what could do it. I have no idea how these things work."

She pointed at the machines.

"I wasn't talking about these. There has to be something else that can do it. Did the technology not develop in all these years?"

"Technology? As I said, I have no idea. All these artifacts are alien to us."

Tobald seemed really sad by it.

"So all the knowledge was lost or forbidden. This is very sad."

Joseph was just listening, when he remembered something.

"Catherine, didn't you say there are crystals, that can absorb mana from air?"

"Yes, there are. Of course, you remember that part."

She was shaking her head while saying it.

"But we don't have any on hand..."

She snapped her fingers.

"We actually have something, but I don't think it will work that well."

She pulled out the core of the rift from her pocket dimension, where they stored it.

"This might actually help for a little bit. But it absorbs mana really slowly. I think you would need like 5-6 of these to survive without other substances, going by these things power, which keeps you alive. Anyway. How do they work?"

He sighed.

"They simply change the mana that is put into them into a form, that can be absorbed by me. After that, I use the mana to regenerate my body. Honestly, these machines are only helping me absorb mana."

Joseph was confused.

"Don't you have a mana core that makes mana out from food you eat?"

Tobald put his hand on his chest.

"I have. But it's too old and it's not working properly anymore. It was fine for the first thousand years, but then it started to get weak."

"Thousand years?!"

Catherine head chopped Joseph.

"You know a lot of creatures can live that long. Also, it's not rare for great mages to use mana to prolong death.

"Really?"

"The thing is that there are only a few great mages around, but all of them more than a few hundred years old."

"I see."

"So you say your mana core is not working? You could use something to repair it, or just replace it."

Tobald started coughing nervously and Joseph was looking at her confused.

"Replace?! How?"

"Just place this core in instead of yours. It should work just as well."

"What are you speaking about? If I do that I will die!"

She laughed.

"You have all these strange artifacts, but you don't even know such basic as mana cores and crystals? They are basically the same, except that some of them are corrupted. But you don't have to worry about that with this. I've used it already and I'm fine."

Tobald looked at Joseph.

"What she is speaking the truth?"

"Beats me. But I trust her."

He sighed.

"The reason I don't know about this stuff is that that stuff wasn't around in my time."

Catherine scratched her head.

"Silly me. They must have appeared later on... Wait! Those armors were using similar stuff! They absorbed mana from those stones!"

"Stones? Do you mean the artificial mana storages? They are just batteries. You can charge them and take the charge out of them. They are nothing more."

"I see. Then do you want to try this?"

She held the core out towards him and he took it.

"Now what?"

"You hold this close to your chest, then use your mana to exchange the location of your core and this one."

Joseph leaned closer to Catherine and whispered.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to trust him?"

"Don't worry. Even though he will have a new core, it will be barely enough to keep him alive at this point. That one is weak because I used up most mana from it. Also, he needs to get used to it, which can take months."

Tobald did as Catherine said and the one from his hand disappeared and a small pile of red dust appeared in his hand. The two of them were surprised, and they spoke at once.

"That is your core?!"