33. The Beetles

“Oh! I’m gaining magic,” she breathed. “It’s the Mark. It’s filtering the magic from the water somehow.”

She hurriedly drank some more.

I took another look around, but everything seemed quiet. My cartography skill wasn’t picking up any enemies, and Annabeth seemed to be doing fine.

“Okay,” I said grudgingly. “But if this gives me the runs and I get a gravy stain on my new suit, I’m not going to be happy.”

“You’re immortal now,” Annabeth chided as she sat down beside the pool. “A few microscopic bugs aren’t going to hurt you. Now sit down and drink up. We need this.”

She patted the space beside her and took another drink.

Annabeth was right. We desperately needed a source of magic. I was probably being cautious for no reason.

I sat down beside her and cupped my hands in the water. It felt amazing, and slightly tingly. It felt like I was in a spa and this was specially infused water with extra minerals and electrolytes or something.

It also felt welcoming, just like Annabeth had said.

I lifted the water to my lips and took a cautious sip.

It was delicious.

Absolutely delicious.

Like the best tasting beverage I’d ever had.

It was water, of course, but it reminded me a lot of a bubbly wine—like a moscato. It tickled my palate and danced across my tongue. I swallowed, and the water soothed my throat. I suddenly realized I was parched, and I desperately wanted more.

I took a second drink, much longer this time, and I felt it slide into my system like I’d taken a tall shot of Fireball.

Yum!

Best of all, I felt my Mark of the Deep Earth wake up and take notice. It was still digesting the Rat King’s core, so other than helping with my Crystal, it had been comatose. Now the water was here, though, it wanted that too.

It eagerly drank in the magic from the water, and now I could sense it had a specific flavor. The water contained magic from deep in the earth. Somehow, it had made its way up to the surface, and over time, it had infused the water with its power.

“It’s like earth tea,” I told Annabeth. Then I realized I hadn’t explained anything at all, but she still nodded.

“That’s exactly it,” she agreed. “Earth tea. And my Mark is loving it!”

I drank another handful, and that’s when I felt the most important part of this adventure. The Mark of the Deep Earth took that tea, processed it, and pushed some of the magic into my system.

Fresh magic!

Finally!

Best of all, my Mark had already converted the magic for my use. It was in my colors.

Well, mostly converted.

It wasn’t very saturated, but that was easy for me to fix. I’d converted so much neutral magic at this point that saturating a bit more barely took any of my attention.

I drank a few more handfuls, and that’s when my Mark of the Lagerel decided to get in on the action. It let me know that roots were uniquely suited for absorbing moisture and nutrients, and it wanted to have a go at this new power source.

I agreed, of course, and soon it was eagerly absorbing the magic as well. After it got enough, it started pushing the overflow into my system. To my pleasant surprise, the magic it gave me was just about perfect.

Annabeth and I shared a look of pure joy, but we didn’t stop scooping the water and gulping it down as fast as possible. This water was literally life. I could see fresh pink magic seeping into Annabeth’s matrix, just as new emerald green and sapphire blue were seeping into mine.

The fresh magic felt so good, and I wanted more. Much more. I needed to get Penny back to full capacity again. I needed to rebuild Red and the Hexagon Network and make it even denser than before. I also needed to refresh my own personal matrix. I felt my best when my matrix was stuffed full and bursting with energy.

Annabeth leaned over so she was closer to the surface and her scoops had less distance to travel. Then she knelt down and put her face right on the water. Now she could practically splash the water into her mouth, and I quickly followed her example.

No matter how much I drank, it was still amazing—like it was the first drink. I was magically thirsty, and I wasn’t going to stop until I’d drunk my fill. Annabeth had been much lower in magic than me, so I’m sure this felt even more life-giving for her.

‘Anomaly detected,’ my Bank Crystal announced. ‘You are being watched.’

‘Where?’ I asked. ‘Is it hostile?’

Who was I kidding—everything in the underground seemed to be hostile.

‘Watcher is unknown,’ my Crystal replied. ‘Location unknown. Intentions unknown.’

I kept drinking as I scanned all around me. I didn’t see anything, but now I knew that something was out there, I thought I could feel something.

It was very faint. Barely detectable. Whoever it was, it obviously wanted to stay hidden. I’m sure a regular mage wouldn’t have noticed anything at all.

My senses were incredibly sensitive, though, and now I had a supercomputer of a Crystal watching out for me. Since I knew something was here, it was only a matter of time until I figured out where it was.

I sent Annabeth a quick message and told her to stay calm. We weren’t being attacked yet, and I didn’t want to give away that we knew something was up. We both kept drinking and didn’t even look at each other. Until this unknown watcher made a move, our best course of action was to gain as much magic as possible.

I finished topping up my own matrix and began working on Red next. If we were going to be fighting again, I wanted the most powerful shield I could get.

‘Are you going to make any changes to Red?’ my Analytical Side asked.

‘No,’ I replied. ‘He’s already got everything he needs. We know his defenses work well. I just need to make sure there are more Hexagons than before. After all, having ten thousand Hexes instead of two thousand will massively boost the amount of defensive force I can bring to bear. Fortunately, his fellow Hexes resize easily, so it’s just a matter of having enough magic.’

My Analytical Side seemed disappointed, so I gave him a consolation ice cream cone. It was always fun upgrading soul creations, but in this case, my time would be better spent gaining as much power as possible.

Of course, I couldn’t take in all this water without visiting the Freshness Fountain. I thought I’d have to visit it several times, but I guess more of it was magic than I’d thought.

I did end up making one new creation—a straw. It helped me suck down the water even faster. The straw was so simple. It reminded me of the soul creations I used to make before my Waker Moment. Still, it was all I needed right now, and it got the job done. Both of my Marks were loving all the power, and they also got something out of this process. I wasn’t sure exactly what they were up to, but the aspect of the magic in the water was somehow fueling their growth.

I was just happy they were doing their thing so I could do mine. I fed almost all of this new power to Red, and it was fascinating watching new Hexagons pop up and settle into the Hex Network. In a weird way, it was like blowing soap bubbles.

As the new Hexagons showed up, the older ones shrank, making room for all the new defensive magic. I started out with about five hundred Hexes. That wasn’t much, and the Hexagons themselves seemed huge. That was all the magic I’d had to spare at the time, though, and it was better than nothing.

When I reached two thousand Hexagons, I felt the intention of the watcher shifting. Now it seemed frustrated, like it was expecting something to happen. Only it wasn”t.

I reached three thousand Hexes before I felt it shift again. Now the watcher felt irritated. I messaged a heads up to Annabeth.

‘I”m almost full of magic,’ she messaged back, just as my Crystal spoke up.

‘Hostiles incoming. Suppressing non-essential notifications.’

I sent my Crystal a quick feeling of gratitude. It was doing a great job interfacing with my cartography skill and keeping an eye out for trouble. Then I checked my map to see where the enemy was.

I was expecting to see something big and deadly, but instead, it was quite small—about the size of a dessert plate. At first, I thought it was a turtle but then realized it had six legs and a shiny segmented shell. I wasn’t an entomologist, so I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking at, but it seemed to be some type of beetle.

Its eyes were tiny, but they glowed deep red, which made it look like it was demon possessed. That, along with its red-tinged aura, let me know it was at least as battle crazy as its larger ant comrades.

I’d thought beetles were small, but in true red-eye fashion, it had mutated to a more deadly form. Not only had it grown in size, it had expanded its exoskeleton to form a shell, like a box turtle. It also had expanded its mandibles until they were half again as long as its body. Even its legs were mostly tucked under its protective shell.

Basically, this beetle was all about the defense and the attack.

It also knew we were here, as it made a beeline right for us. It wasn’t fast, but it didn’t detour for anything either. In typical red-eye fashion, it tore up anything in its path and managed to convey the impression that it couldn’t wait to take a bite out of my juicy flesh.

“Have you charged up your shield charm?” I asked Annabeth as two more red-eyed beetles crawled through a hole in the wall. Actually, now that I looked, there were a lot of holes in the walls. Let’s hope they all didn’t start spewing demon beetles.

“Not yet,” Annabeth said tensely. “Working on it now.”

“You better work quickly,” I said as three more beetles appeared out of three different holes.

I got up and stepped towards the beetles to give Annabeth a bit more time. I was glad the beetles weren”t moving that quickly, as it gave me time to figure them out. I was sure there was a learning curve on how to handle them, just like the ants.

The first beetle reached me, and I gave it a good punch. I was curious to see just how strong its shell was.

To my surprise, the shell wasn”t rigid. I thought it would feel like punching a rock. Instead, the segments of the shell spread out slightly, absorbing some of the force. I almost laughed, as the beetle was using my own defensive strategy against me.

Absorb, reflect, redirect. That was Red”s playbook, and it was the beetle”s too. It also didn”t help that it was walking on moss, which was soft and springy and helped cushion the blow.

Don”t get me wrong, the beetle’s shell was still tough and would have broken a regular person”s hand. It was just that its design allowed it to have the advantage of both hard and soft, and I had to admire that.

My next punch was already on its way, and this time I gave it some more gas. I focused the force runes on my hand and altered my tense-on-contact to allow for a bit of give.

When I hit, the force went through the shell, and the beetle exploded. The shell actually stayed together, but everything under it was toast.

‘Watch out when you hit these things,’ I messaged Annabeth. ‘They are really tough.’ I also included my thoughts about its design as I set myself up to receive the next tiny tank.

This time, I knelt on the ground and Connected to the earth. When my dessert-sized enemy reached me, I punched it from a greater base of stability, and it exploded right away.

These things were certainly sturdy, but they weren”t that bad.

More beetles were arriving through the walls, so I had plenty to experiment with. I punched out several more until I was familiar with how they felt and the best angle of attack. Then I switched over to using Spike and the Knuckle Crew.

That was a lot more fun. It took a tiny bit more magic, but my soul creations were incredibly efficient and my Spikes punched through them like bullets. It was nice because I didn”t have to punch as hard and I could attack from different angles.

Even though Spike wasn”t very thick, the shell couldn”t expand anywhere near fast enough, and instead, exploded apart. It wasn”t long before I was surrounded by chunks of beetle carcasses.

‘Clean up on aisle three,’ I sent playfully to my Bank Crystal. It used all that extra processing power to figure out my humor and put the dragonfly in motion. Soon the points were rolling in.

‘How many points are these worth?’ I asked.

‘It is unknown at the moment,’ it replied. ‘These exact beetles weren’t part of the welcome packet we received. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe a point. Maybe less.’

That seemed low to me. Sure, these bugs weren”t fast, but they had great defense and excellent attack. Actually, I just assumed their attack was excellent. Let”s hope I didn”t find out the hard way.

“I”m ready,” Annabeth said. I quickly scooted back to be with her. She also knelt on the ground and Connected with the earth. A few seconds later a beetle arrived, and she whacked it with her shillelagh.

Even though I”d warned her what to expect, there was no substitute for firsthand experience. Her beetle deformed and snapped back into shape so fast it popped into the air like a spring loaded toy.

“That”s different,” I laughed as it arced through the air and splashed down in the magic water. “I hope it can swim.”

Actually, it turned out it couldn”t. At least, not in that water.

Its legs waved frantically for a moment, and then it just dissolved. As in, it suddenly looked soft like jelly. Then it turned into a thick liquid. Then it faded away.

The surface of the pond looked calm and flawless, as if it had never been disturbed at all.

“Jason,” Annabeth gasped. “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” I replied and my voice shook. “We were just drinking that.”

“It could have burned our hands off,” Annabeth said, “or melted our insides.” Then she looked at me in horror. “You said our watcher was waiting for something. Do you think he was waiting for us to disintegrate like that?”

“Probably,” I replied grimly. “I think we are very lucky we have the Mark of the Deep Earth and that the water liked us.”

The thought was disconcerting, but we still had beetles to vanquish. I’d been Spiking them while we’d been talking and motioned for Annabeth to have another try. This time she did slightly better. She didn’t kill it, but it didn’t bounce into the air either.

“I don’t think these will be better, but let me give them a try,” Annabeth said as she switched over to her short swords. They did fairly well, but only if she stabbed directly downward and hit them just right. Their rounded chitin diverted her thrust if she didn’t pierce them dead center.

I kept taking out the majority of the beetles, giving Annabeth time to experiment and find the best attack that worked for her.

“Maybe a sonic strike would be better,” she mused, switching back to the shillelaghs. “I have all my magic back, and these beetles are much smaller. Hopefully, I can do more than a few hits.”

The idea proved to be a good one, although her first attempt was way overpowered. She radiated less sound than she had for an ant, but it was still too much. Her target shattered, sending shell and beetle juice over ten feet away. There was no need to put that much effort into each pint-sized enemy, so she scaled it back. And then scaled it back again.

That gave her a nice pop and a small splatter, which seemed perfect to me. Annabeth vanquished a bunch of red-eyes like that, but I could tell she still wasn”t satisfied.

“It”s still taking too much magic,” she informed me. “I”m going to adjust the sound and see if I can do better.”

I nodded and let her do her thing.

She adjusted the frequency up and down the scale with a variety of success before she started using complex sounds. Annabeth began listening to the beetles intently as she hit them—almost like she was tapping watermelons in a grocery store, listening for ripeness. She went through a whole series of sounds before landing on something that seemed to suit her.

I didn’t notice any visual difference, but she was able to lower the volume of her sonic strike even more. Her strikes were now so soft, the red-eyes didn”t splatter at all. They still died, though, and the dragonfly still collected their points.

“I think I”ve got it,” Annabeth announced proudly. “I”m hardly using any power, but it”s still enough to take them out. It”s not perfect, but now that I”ve gotten most of my magic refilled, I could do this for hours.”

“That”s great, ” I said encouragingly. “And you are just in time too. The pace of the red-eyes has picked up, and I could use your help.”

Annabeth seemed to take in the rest of the room for the first time.

“Oh, Jason! I’m so sorry! I was having so much fun figuring out the best way to use my sonic strike that I almost forgot what we were doing.”

“That’s okay,” I laughed. “I know what it”s like to get involved in something new. After all, you waited patiently while I enhanced my Bank Crystal. I figured it was my turn to handle things while you worked out your stuff. It’s just that we are facing a lot more beetles than we have before. I don’t know how many there are going to be, but right now it feels like we’re facing a huge nest. Or colony. Or whatever you call a group of beetles that live together.”

Annabeth expanded her efforts, and soon we were able to beat them back. Having her taking care of her side made a huge difference, and I felt like I could relax and have fun again.

It sort of felt like I was in one of those tower defense games on my phone. The kind where a defensive row of towers is shooting down a never-ending horde of zombies. We were even playing for points, just like in a game.

Except that if we got overrun, these red-eyes would take us apart one small chunk at a time. That would not be fun at all.

Now that I had a moment to focus, I turned to my soul creations to see if they could help with our current situation. Unfortunately, the answer was mostly negative.

The beetles weren’t light sensitive, so the Flashers weren’t able to help. The Miners couldn’t break apart their flexible chitin, although they were able to do some damage against the legs.

It wasn’t long before there was a whole group of beetles going around in circles because they were missing their legs on one side. It helped disrupt the flow of new red-eyes, but it wasn’t something I wanted to rely on.

The Belchers had the most success. They imitated Annabeth’s complex sound and were able to vanquish some of the red-eyes on their own. They were slow to fire, though, as they had to suck in air and compress it before they could perform a sonic blast.

When they fired though, they were often able to vanquish a couple of beetles in front of them and stun a few beetles beyond that. It was neat to see their abilities expand. Up to this point, I’d been using them to make loud belching noises, and I’d been relying on the volume of the sound to disorient my opponents.

I quickly made a ring of Belchers around us and used them to slow down the rate of incoming beetles. I was very glad I did, as our enemy got smarter and a beetle made it through Annabeth’s defense.

Apparently, a beetle had hitched a ride on top of another beetle. Annabeth took out the top beetle, and moved on, thinking that the enemy was handled. The bottom one continued to use the top one as cover, and it got inside her guard.

It was on her far side where I couldn’t reach, otherwise I’d have Spiked it myself. I wasn’t too concerned, as I figured her shield charm would handle it until she figured out what had happened.

It wasn’t until Annabeth suddenly shrieked and leaped to her feet that I realized something was wrong. The red-eye had taken a nasty chunk out of her lower leg. The wound wasn’t big, but it was fairly deep. The bite had gotten through her skin and into the muscle underneath. The bite wasn’t fatal, but it was bleeding freely, and I’m sure the pain was raw and sharp.

“Don’t stop clearing them!” I yelled as Annabeth went wild and beat the crap out of the offending red-eye.

I kicked it into high gear to help out, and so did my soul creations. The damage had been done, though, and our carefully cleared perimeter collapsed.

‘What happened?’ I asked all my magical creations as Annabeth quickly got herself back together and started clearing red-eyes.

‘The beetle wasn’t enough of a threat to trigger her shield charm,’ my Crystal spoke up. ‘That charm protects against fast moving objects, like a sword or an arrow. In this case, the beetle doesn’t move fast enough to be considered a threat. It also protects against magic attacks, but these beetles aren’t really magic. They have been corrupted by magic and do have a tiny bit of magic inside, but they aren’t powerful enough to trigger the defenses of the charm.’

Well, crap. Both of us had thought Annabeth was protected. When actually, she wasn’t protected at all. I quickly messaged the update to Annabeth.

“What can I do?” Annabeth asked. She sounded panicked, and I could see why. This battle had gone from a fun smash and bash to a high-risk engagement.

“Hop on my back,” I told her. “Red can protect both of us.”

“If I do that, then I can’t hold down my side of our defense,” Annabeth said. “I can still help a bit, but it won’t be the same.”

“You”re right,” I said, feeling the pressure of the moment. “And I’m not fast enough to keep back all the red-eyes. The only other thing I can think of is to step into the pond and defend from there. That will buy us some time.”

“What if it melts our legs off,” Annabeth replied. She was still standing up, obviously afraid to sit back down again. She was smashing beetles like crazy, and for the moment, we were holding them off.

“I don”t think it will,” I replied as confidently as possible. “We have the Mark of the Deep Earth, and for some reason, it likes that. We need to decide quickly, though.”

As if to emphasize the importance of our decision, a beetle got through on my side. I had too many red-eyes to Spike, and it took that opportunity to put on a tiny burst of speed and reach me.

Fortunately, Red and the Hex Network were up to the task. They flared their force runes and kept the beetle from finding any sort of purchase against my skin. The beetle slid off like it had attacked a wall of air.

I Spiked it and didn”t give it another chance to bite me, but was very happy to see that Red had held up. Annabeth almost had another one get through before she stomped it flat.

“Into the pool it is,” she announced. “The sooner the better.”

“Good,” I replied. “It’s only a few steps away, so you dash for it while I hold them off.”

I guess the fear of being bitten was greater than the fear of melting, as Annabeth turned and immediately sprinted for the pond. The beetles were faster than I expected and swarmed after her.

I held my position, Spiking everything I could reach, until Annabeth jumped into the water. I thought she would stay at the lip of the pool, but she immediately stepped into the deeper middle. The water came up to her waist, and she wasn’t screaming or melting away, so I made my move.

I dashed to the pool and jumped in with her. The water felt wonderful—slightly tingly and full of energy. Meanwhile, Annabeth had wasted no time. She was already bashing red-eyes on the shore, so I quickly turned and got to work.

‘Massive increase in enemies,’ my Crystal warned. I looked, and a flood of new enemies was pouring out of the walls.

Well, crap.

I”d hoped that the beetles we”d seen up to this point were the bulk of the colony. It didn”t look like that was the case.

“We’ve got problems,” I told Annabeth. She looked up at the rest of the cavern and swore.

There were so many of them it looked like a carpet of angry chitin headed our way.

“We can”t defend against that,” she exclaimed. “I don”t think that even the water will be able to stop that many. Not if they swarm us.”

“It gets worse,” I said and pointed behind us. Apparently, the beetles had figured out the water was toxic, and now they were building some sort of support structure to reach us.

The beetles’ shells were not only good for defense, they were also capable of interconnecting—like they were built out of Lego. They had started with a base of about ten beetles wide and three deep. Then more beetles had climbed on top for a second layer. But this layer was slightly offset so the front beetles were over the water. A smaller third layer had formed, which hung over the water even more, and now they were making a fourth layer. Meanwhile, more beetles were joining the first layer, giving it more depth and stability.

It didn’t take a genius to see where this was going. With a good base, they would arch over the water and attack us, even in the center.

We were toast, unless we figured out a new way of fighting. Spike-punching had been fun, but we were beyond that now.

“Buy me some time,” I said hurriedly. “I have an idea.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Annabeth replied and began smashing apart the quickly forming bridge. This time she didn’t limit her sonic abilities, and her blows blew apart five or six beetles at a shot. Their interlocking shells made a great support, but it also seemed to transmit sound well too.

I closed my eyes and let Annabeth do her thing as I dove into my Throne Room.

‘Penny! Bring up the template for the Miner,’ I commanded.

Penny gestured, and a life-sized model appeared.

It was a masterpiece of detail and artistry, and I’d spent over a hundred hours working on it while I’d been buried in stone. Now I was getting ready to change it again.

‘I’m sorry about this,’ I sent out to all my Miners who were still working on stemming the tide. ‘To me, a Miner will always have a pickaxe. But that’s just not enough anymore.’

‘Don’t fret yourself,’ my lead Miner said shortly. ‘Just give us the tools for the job. That’s what we need. I’m tired of bouncing off these bugs.’

I felt through my connection that he spoke for all of them. Sure, they were miners, but most of all, they were workmen. Tough little men made for tough jobs. They didn’t care if they were swinging a pickaxe or pushing a jackhammer—they wanted to get the job done.

‘Excellent,’ I replied. ‘Right now you can pierce, but soon you’ll be able to cut!’

The Miners gave a hearty cheer as I took the template’s pickaxe and got to work.

First of all, I took its intention and changed it from a single tool into something that would morph into whatever I needed. It helped that I’d just seen this in action with the Wrecking Crew and the Path of the Formless Weapon.

I kept the base of the pick consistent so the Miners would always have something firm to hold on to. The rest of it I modified so it could be whatever I wanted. And right now, what I wanted was for it to be a circular saw.

I took the shaft, extended it to about half the length of the Miner, and then formed a large round blade. The blade could morph to have variable types of teeth—jagged ripping teeth for softer materials like wood, and short, smoother teeth for hard surfaces like steel.

I was the master of micro-precision, so I made it as slender as my nanoblades. After all, there was no sense in cutting through more material than it needed to.

Finally, I added a safety housing to the part of the blade facing the Miner. I didn’t want my Miners losing fingers—or worse—while fighting the enemy.

The housing part also doubled as the blade sharpener, blade repair, and blade spinner. Now, if the Miners faced something tough enough to tear up their saws, they could just let the blade spin freely for a moment, and it would repair and re-sharpen itself.

Lastly, I made the saw perfectly balanced so the blade could spin at thousands of revolutions per minute and not twist or vibrate. I felt nothing but excitement and anticipation from my Mining Crew as I prepared to add it to the template and triangle-in all the details.

‘Assuming underwater configuration,’ the Bank Crystal announced as I felt my super suit shift. ‘Frog mode. Enough sustainable air available for five minutes,’ it continued as I felt Annabeth grab me and knock me off my feet.

‘Suit’s ability to process air from magic-infused water is unknown. Defensive ability of magic-infused water against this many red-eyes is unknown.’

I paused my modifications for a split second to look outside myself and see how the battle was going.

It wasn’t going well. In fact, I would dare to say it was going terribly.

The incoming swarm had arrived at the small pond and quickly circled it. The fresh beetles had linked shells and quickly started building bridges from every side. Annabeth had knocked them down as quickly as possible, but the base of the bridges had merged, and now there was an almost completed dome. We were seconds away from having beetles in our faces when Annabeth switched tactics and took us underwater.

For a moment, we had a stalemate, as the beetles were unwilling to go underwater to get us.

No.

That wasn’t right.

The watcher was unwilling for the beetles to swarm the pond.

Curious.

What was also curious was a small, glowing crystal jutting up from the floor of the pond. It was on the far side, by the plant, and oozed power. If I had to guess, this was why the water in the pond was so powerfully charged.

The glowing crystal spoke with the soft chimes of the earth, and it talked of being a part of something greater. I sensed a tiny thread, leading deep underground, and I almost followed it. Survival was much more important than curiosity, though, and I sternly pulled my attention back to the project at hand.

Before, when I’d been buried in stone, I’d spent days working on this Miner, and it had over fourteen thousand triangles of meticulous detail. It wasn’t perfect, but I would put it up against the best character rendering of any game out there. I’d added the details by splitting each triangle one at a time, which was a surprisingly fun and soothing task. But it was time-consuming, and the one thing I didn’t have right now was time.

I’d also made the Miner before I’d made my Surfer Dudes, which were made of blocks, and before I’d upgraded my Bank Crystal. Now I had an idea for a much faster way of enhancing his detail.

I quickly took a few of the triangles already present on the new saw and split them in half. Then I did it again. And again. And again.

I took a moment to fully feel this new high-density section and experience it in every way possible. I let it resonate with all my senses. Then I gently sang it out to the rest of the Miner. I felt it enhance all the details present, and even added in new characteristics. The Miner now had pores in his skin, and the threads in his clothes now had details of their own.

It didn’t feel as huge of a visual update as when I’d first worked on him in Karl’s cave, but it was still pretty amazing.

‘Save the template, Penny,’ I said. ‘Then let me know how many triangles it has now.’

Penny paused for a moment.

‘The Miner now has a little over two hundred and thirty thousand triangles,’ she reported.

Dear god!

That was a lot!

It was also going to take a huge amount of magic to fill it up.

‘Come here and bring everyone else in your crew,’ I instructed the lead Miner.

I quickly peeked at the rest of the cavern. The beetles—or the watcher—hadn’t figured out what to do yet, so I still had time.

I pulled my super suit away from the lower half of my body so my skin could have direct contact with the water. The upper half of the suit held all my air, so I didn’t want to mess with that. The tingling increased, and I felt like I was taking a bath in Sprite. It felt wonderful, though—like I was a guest of a fancy spa at a chalet in the mountains and this was one of their radical treatments to tone and rejuvenate my skin.

This time, I didn’t drink the water. Instead, I absorbed the magic through contact alone.

When I’d been trapped in stone, I’d gotten awfully good at charging and repairing my Miners and Ass Blaster 2000s. All they’d had to do was touch any part of me, and I could project the power and repairs they needed. By the time I’d escaped, I could charge over a hundred soul creations at one time.

This was very much like that, only the inverse. Instead of projecting magic from touch, I was absorbing it. It took a moment to get it right, but soon a flood of fresh magic was coursing through my system.

That brought its own set of problems, as I was now pulling in power faster than my Marks could process it.

I didn’t have time to waste, so I converted the overflow myself. That wasn’t as easy as I”d hoped. The water was heavy on the aspect of earth. So in a weird way, it was literally hard water.

I chuckled at my own humor, and that seemed to help ground the new magic to me even faster. The magic had a mind of its own, though, and it really wanted to meet the Mark of the Deep Earth. Its second choice was the Mark of the Lagerel. As for me, it felt like I was just some mage servant for the real stars of the show.

I could only promise the new magic that if it became part of my magic, then it could visit the Marks any time it wanted. That, more than my regular Superman invitation, seemed to work best. I tried not to be offended that it thought so little of me. Instead, I focused on being grateful that it wasn’t melting me down to a nice goo.

I couldn’t help but pick up impressions from the magic, and it seemed like it was the tiniest drop of a much bigger river far underground. I got images of a magic waterway as big as the Ohio River, flowing thick, like lava, in the mantle of the earth.

‘I think it”s talking about a ley line,’ my Analytical Side spoke up.

‘That’s a real thing?’ I asked, surprised.

‘It seems to be,’ he replied in his best Sherlock Holmes voice. ‘The basic concepts match. So let”s call it a ley line until we have evidence to the contrary.’

Ley lines.

Wow.

No wonder the magic was hard to convert. In fantasy stories, ley lines were a source of tremendous power which came from the land itself. In the tales, mages usually couldn’t tap ley lines directly. They were too powerful, and they burned them out.

Mages usually needed special enchantments in order to tap into even a small part of them.

‘And your enchantments are your Marks,’ my Analytical Side said smugly. ‘See? It all fits.’

‘You’re so smart,’ I told him and gave him an imaginary chocolate ice cream cone with three scoops. He loved to hear how right he was, so I got a big grin as he accepted the cone and started licking away.

Sometimes he was so smug he was insufferable. But, he had also saved me many times before, so it was good to be nice to him.