“Not a problem, friend Nox,” said Leonis with false heartiness. “You should see Scorio’s chambers. Covered in dead meat knee-deep.”
“Oh?” Nox sounded curious and pleased. “Very nice, best friend Scorio. Females must be attracted.”
“Something like that,” said Scorio, moving forward slowly and taking in the cave. It was simple, with a corner that served as a larder of sorts from which he averted his eyes. But his gaze was drawn to a pool that dominated the center of the cave, its edges rimmed with black stone, its surface gelatinous and glowing a pale, milky white. “So this is where you practice the Delightful Secret Marinating technique?”
Nox hopped up to the pool’s edge. “Yes. This marinating pool. Imperial Ghost secret imperial gel. Gel function as matrix net, hold mana, make mana conductive. Technique take place inside.”
Leonis stepped up to the edge of the pool and stared into the viscous, softly glowing goo. “You’re saying you have to immerse yourself in your imperial gel for the technique to work?”
“Yes.”
Leonis clapped Scorio on the shoulder, hard. “You are far, far more dedicated than I am, favorite friend Scorio. The ten hells love you.”
“For how long?” asked Scorio, staring down at the pool.
“Depends. Mana strength, level of desire. May be one cycle, may be ten.”
“Ten cycles,” said Leonis, disgusted to the point of hilarity. “If you think I’ll be bringing you snacks while you vacation in there, you’re sorely mistaken.”
Scorio tuned him out, not least because if he allowed Leonis’s disgust to filter through his resolve, he might blanch and lose heart. “So how does it work? What is the technique?”
Nox shifted his weight, his eyeless head held high. “Complicated to explain, simple to do. Draw mana in. Find equilibrium, exceed slowly. Imperial gel act as stabilizer, as matrix, help cycle mana, help heal body. Find falling point beyond equilibrium.”
“I don’t understand,” said Scorio. “I need just need to draw more mana than I can burn off?”
Nox shifted irritably, or perhaps it was in frustration. “No. Inside imperial gel, toad draw mana in. Equilibrium where mana taken in same as mana burned. Push beyond. Use imperial gel, break equilibrium, become mana hole. Mana fall toward you, never hit, always miss, circle toad, pull more mana in.”
Scorio was listening so intently he felt a headache coming on. “So I use the imperial gel to help mana come at me but never reach me. And all this mana—where does it go?”
“Mana fall around toad, grow compressed as more mana enter. Stabilized by matrix. Saturate toad. When gel hold no more, toad become mana, Delightful Secret Marinating technique.”
Scorio couldn’t tell if he understood or not, but Nox’s tone betrayed the toad’s growing anxiety—or was it impatience? “How do you draw the mana in the first place?”
“Build reservoir through hunting. Extrude into gel, then as technique used, more mana pulled in by act of missing.”
Scorio glanced sharply at Leonis, who was frowning and rubbing at his chin. “So, to summarize, you get into the gel, extrude your initial load of mana, then pull it back in. You use the gel to pass your point of equilibrium, then use the gel and your technique to have the mana… miss you, somehow… and that missing means it just spirals around you, growing thicker as it pulls in more mana behind it?”
“Yes!” Nox’s excitement was palpable. “Favorite friend Scorio understand!”
“Not really,” muttered Scorio, but then smiled broadly and stood up straighter. “Yes! I mean, I think so. The gel is the key, right? It… facilitates the process of making more mana condense around you?”
“Yes,” croaked Nox.
“Question,” said Leonis. “How does surrounding yourself with super dense mana help you, Scorio? Couldn’t you, I don’t know, just cultivate a bunch of Black Star plants and drink as many elixirs as you needed?”
Scorio hesitated, and for a moment he wasn’t sure if Leonis was correct, but then he turned back to Nox. “You said the gel helps heal your body?”
“Yes,” said Nox solemnly. “Delightful Secret Marinating technique kill toad without imperial gel. Condenses Coal mana, very toxic.”
“Perfect,” said Scorio, clapping his hands once. “That’s it right there. The stronger my elixirs, the more toxic they’d be. I’d not be able to consume enough of them without dying or falling unconscious. But this would allow me to consume as much mana as I needed without poisoning myself. Right, Nox?”
“It is so,” said Nox.
Leonis dropped into a crouch and studied the pool. “All right, fine. But you’ve got no reservoir of mana to ‘extrude.’ At least, I hope you don’t.”
“That’s where my Black Star plants will come in,” said Scorio, and grinned at the sensation of all the pieces slotting into place. “I’ll grow as many as I can over the next seven weeks or so, and make a bunch of tinctures, which I’ll have you pour into the gel once I’m immersed.”
Leonis frowned, clearly searching for another objection.
Scorio turned back sharply to Nox. “I mean, can I use your pool, Nox? Would that damage it or the like?”
“Favorite friend Scorio use imperial gel,” said Nox. “Easy to extrude more.”
“So gross,” said Leonis.
“It’s a system,” said Scorio, feeling fired up, his chest expanding with emotion and fierce joy. “If the Academy thinks it can control us by deciding who gets what kind of pill, well, the Imperial Ghost Toad Delightful Secret Marinating technique is the best way to tell them to go to hell.”
“How much mana will he need?” asked Leonis, turning to the toad. “To make sure the process works?”
“Much mana,” said Nox gravely. “Is why toads spend lives hunting to build reservoir. Must be Ruby strength, better if more.”
“Ruby strength,” croaked Scorio.
“That’s—I wish Lianshi was here—what, sixty-four thousand volts?” Leonis rubbed at the back of his head. “How in damnation are you going to get that much mana, Scorio?”
The number hit him like a punch to the temple. Scorio dropped into a crouch, cupped both hands before his mouth, and stared out at nothing. “Sixty-four thousand. Black Star plants take two weeks to grow, then produce a bead every week. That’s three weeks till the first bead. Twenty-five beads to make an elixir, which if completely unfiltered results in eighty volts. Two batches, so I need thirty-two thousand volts per batch, that’s four hundred plants for each batch.”
“Four hundred,” said Leonis flatly.
“I’ve got a hundred still growing on my original farm,” said Scorio. “I can split each of their seeds in four, that’s four hundred right there.”
Leonis blinked. “How do you know all this?”
“Bought a treatise,” said Scorio, rising to his feet to pace. “Given strong enough mana, I could have four hundred plants in two weeks’ time. That’s four hundred beads by the end of week three, eight hundred by the end of week six. Eight hundred multiplied by eighty, that’s sixty-four thousand volts’ worth of Coal mana.” He paused, blinked again, then gave a decisive nod. “That’s exactly how much I’d need.”
“You’re mad,” said Leonis with something akin to wonder. “Four hundred Black Star plants? Sure, the numbers add up, but how will you find a safe place for them? That kind of concentrated mana production will draw every predator from miles around.”