Talisman

Thane waited with bated breath as Annabelle's eyelids fluttered the same as last time, then suddenly, he felt something in the air shift as if a vortex had formed with Annabelle in the center.

Realizing what was happening, Thane quickly grabbed the mana stone resting on the table and shoved it into her arms. As soon as the crystal touched Annabelle's skin, it flashed like a star before beginning to shrink at an alarming rate.

Thane watched as Annabelle's skin grew fairer, becoming smoother and flawless like marble, and her brown hair seemed to grow not in length but volume framing her face to capture her beauty.

When the crystal eventually disappeared, Annabelle opened her eyes and viewed the world anew. It was as if all of her senses had been enhanced. Even the dull light from the small lamp forced her sensitive eyes to look away.

Annabelle's mind was also more precise, as the cloud of worries and errant thoughts that usually plagued her were strangely absent.

"Earth to Annabelle, is anyone home?" Thane's voice pulled her out of her confused state. Turning to Thane, she smiled, "It worked. I can feel the mana flowing through me."

[Notice: Start]

Congratulations! You have stepped onto the path of Mana Cultivation, allowing the essence of the realm to flow through the body. Mana is never to be underestimated as it can give. It can also take. You have been warned!

You have gained the Title: Mana Cultivator(Mortal Grade)-You are one of the gifted those closest to finding the truth of the Realms. +50 mana, 1 mana recovered every hour.

You have learned the cultivation technique: Inkwell(Warrior Grade)-Using this technique will channel your mana to increasing your mana regeneration rate.

Note the following changes have occurred to Talisman Creation(Mortal Grade): Using this technique will cost mana equivalent to the length of the word written and its effect on reality.

[Notice: End]

Annabelle couldn't help but feel giddy as she looked over the various notifications. She could also feel the almost electrical mana flowing through every fiber of her being.

Turning to Thane, Annabelle launched herself at him and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Thank you so much! This feels amazing. We have to find one for you. I don't know how I ever enjoyed anything before this."

Thane chuckled and gently set her down, "Well, I'm glad it worked, and don't worry about me. I already have something I'm working on. Now can you use your talisman technique, or do you not have enough mana?"

"I have enough though the description is confusing. But I think I understand it, though I would like to train with it before I find myself in a life and death battle." Thane nodded, "Well, we do have a training hall that should be unoccupied."

In the training hall, Annabelle stood a few feet away from a straw dummy that Thane set up, "So how does this work? Do you just activate the technique?"

Annabelle thought of using the technique, and her mana stirred for a second before settling back down, "I don't think so, but I think we're on the right path."

Thane scratched his chin for a minute before he thought of something. Taking out one of the books Annabelle had bought, Thane started to rip the pages into uniform rectangles.

Turning at the sound of paper tearing, Annabelle blanched when she saw what Thane was doing, "What are you doing!?" Thane returned the damaged book to his ring and gently held the ripped shreds in one hand.

"Talismans are usually sheets of paper inscribed with a phrase to protect from evils or bring good luck. Maybe for your technique to work, you need to write the word on paper."

Glaring at Thane for a moment, Annabelle eventually took the paper rectangles, "Fine, but if this doesn't work, you're buying me a new book."

Thane rolled his eyes but said nothing to busy watching Annabelle as she retook her stance in front of the target.

Resisting the burger to tighten her fist around the paper shreds, Annabelle stared at the straw dummy. Steadying her breath, Annabelle closed her eyes and began to imagine an inkwell.

Taking a pen, she dipped it into the ink before moving to a sheet of paper ready to write. The smell of ink filled Annabelle's nose as she opened her eyes and grabbed one of the sheets holding it between two of her fingers.

Her mana focused on her hand, and the paper in her hand grew rigid as the word push began to appear on the paper as if written by an invisible pen.

Annabelle felt her mana start to drain, and after a few seconds, the word was finished, and she threw it at the dummy.

Straight as an arrow, the paper flew before stopping a few inches in front of the dummy. The word push flashed before it exploded in a shockwave sending the target flying into the wall along with a significant amount of dirt and dust.

Thane's eyes were almost out of their sockets as he looked at Annabelle as she looked back at him. Once they both confirmed that their eyes were deceiving them, Thane let out a slow whistle.

"Fuck, are you okay?" Annabelle saw the concern in Thane's eye, and she quickly nodded, "Yeah, I just wasn't expecting.. Well, I don't know what I was expecting."

Thane walked over to where the target was and looked around. He couldn't notice any of the usual signs of an explosive. Walking over to the wall, Thane paled slightly when he saw some of the stone had chipped off.

Turning back to Annabelle, he frowned when he saw the look of discontent on her face, "What's wrong?"

Annabelle jumped a little as if she had been startled, "Sorry, I was just thinking about the time it took to write that one word. It was a solid five seconds. I'm trying to think if pushing more mana through the technique will speed it up."

"Well, does the word have to be in English?" Annabelle looked at him strangely, "Maybe not, but what does it matter?" Thane looked at Annabelle, inspecting her, "Did you take Japanese when you were in school?"

Annabelle opened her mouth to answer before she froze, then smiled, "You're a genius. Why didn't I think of that?" Thane quickly set up the dummy as Annabelle retook the same position.

Focusing on the same feeling, Annabelle was able to grab it, and in a split second, the paper was flying through the air, this time slamming into the target, causing it to ignite a burning fire, quickly eating away at the straw and cloth.

Thane watched the fire die down before smiling at Annabelle, "I think that solved it." She nodded, "Using a single character to represent an entire word. I don't think I would have thought of that. It's been so long. I stopped taking Japanese when I entered college."

"I'm sure you would have thought of it at some point. So do you want to try again?" Annabelle nodded, "I'm going to be here for a while until I run out of mana three times over. I don't know if you want to stick around that long."

Thane shrugged and took out his book on plant life, "I'd rather do that here than sitting in that dank room of ours."

---

True to her word, Annabelle continued to practice for the next two hours, depleting her mana way more than three times. And after using her technique so many times, Annabelle had a sense of what words she could use.

Currently, Annabelle could only use single words. When she tried to use phrases, even something as simple as come to me, she collapsed to the ground with all her mana drained. The weird thing was that if Annabelle used the word 'come,' the object was only pulled towards the talisman, not her.

Annabelle concluded that as she increased her mana reserves and the more words she could use at one time. The more control she could have over the effect.

While she was practicing, Thane finally memorized the first five thousand entries in his herbology book. Standing up, Thane opened his mouth to say something when he saw that Annabelle was sitting on the floor with her legs crossed and her eyes closed.

Thane decided not to interrupt her. Making his way past their room, he stopped in front of Helga's steel door, "Are you still alive in there, or do I need to get a body bag."

The door swung open with Hegla on the other side, glaring at Thane, "I memorized your stupid book. Are you going to teach me now?" Helga huffed, "Will see about that."

Helga proceeded to sit Thane down and quiz him on all five thousand entries in random order. Thane had to struggle with a majority, but in the end, Helga smiled, "I really didn't think you had it in you. But you passed even I, can't refute that. Are you that eager to learn about potions?"

Thane smiled, "Among other things, but I do need to learn as fast as I can. My gut is telling me that something is brewing on the horizon."

Helga looked at him strangely, "Your gut? Is that some sort of Ascender talk?" Thane shook his head, "It doesn't matter. It just means that I feel like there is trouble coming."

"Well, you can't rush Alchemy. Every single step requires every bit of focus and attention you can muster." Thane wanted to roll his eyes, but Helga froze him in place as if daring him not to take her seriously, "Fine."

Helga nodded, "Good. Now for today, I will show you the tools you'll be using as well as their function."

---

As Helga gave Thane a tour, Sonya stood outside the door to Lilith's office with sweat running down her back. As she reached for the door handle, the door opened on its own revealing Lilith sitting at her desk staring at Sonya.

"You wanted to speak to me?" Sonya nodded and stepped inside the office, hearing the dull thud of the door slamming behind her, "Y-yes, I did. As you know, I took Thane to the auction house to fulfill my part of a vow."

Lilith's fingers twitched, causing a string next to Sonya's head to twist, cutting off a lock of bright red hair, "You're stalling." She taunted in a sing-song attitude.

"Thane ended up calling the Xu Clan weak to Xu Feng's face in the middle of the auction. While our identities weren't discovered, I fear it might not be long before something leads back to the chapter!"

Sonya stared at Lilith wondering when the ax was going to drop. Instead, Sonya heard Lilith start to laugh. It was a bone-chilling sound full of bloodlust and malice.

"Is that so? Well then, I think this makes a perfect first job for my Ascender."

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