The following days passed in a blur for Barry. Until the days turned into a week, and the time once again began to slip away from him.

  After saving the woman in red, Vanessa, and realizing his bluff had been called out, he couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder every day at work.

  Yet after a week of paranoia, nothing strange occurred.

  As the quiet rumbling of the bus was jostled by a familiar hole in the road, the pen that Barry had slowly been hovering above his hand clattered to the floor.

  Stepping off at his usual bus stop, the insurance agent breathed a few deep breathes of the stale city air. The slow trudge from the station to his run down apartment was as interesting as it always had been.

  The bum who lived in an overturned Dumpster gave him a pleasant wave. The only other spatial mage in the city still made a loud booming sound as they warped overhead in whatever direction they might live.

  Stepping into the run down one bedroom, Barry’s eyes fell to the three objects that had consumed most of his mind.

  First, was Things with Wings, the strangely named framework on Shadow Magic. A banned framework due to its connection with the cults of the old world. Barry had already began reading it but still couldn’t get a good grasp on the exact way it operated.

  The second item that Barry’s eyes fell upon was a small cherry oak container, no larger than a ring box, that contained a set of silver earrings. It was no mystery what those enchanted studs were. The moment he pierced his ears with them, it was easy to assume that the communication magic would take hold.

  The final object of Bartholomew’s both adoration and fear, was the crystal. That purple gem that he could absorb right now and instantly elevate himself into the third rank of power. It might even take him higher, supplanting him not just at the bottom, but somewhere firmly in the middle of it due to his strong foundation.

  Every day he gazed at the gem. Slowly building the confidence to take the favor from the blood red criminal.

  It was tantalizing at the best of times. When a person increased in the ranks of power, it wasn’t just a quantitative difference in the amount of magic they could wield, it was qualitative. Their mana became more pure, more refined, more dense yet easier to control.

  A rank was defined by how many times one pulse of your mana would circulate your system, commonly known as rings. The jump from one to two was electric, and Barry rode the high for a week. Imagine how it would feel to jump instantly to the next rung on the ladder?

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  But to absorb the crystal was to destroy it. It was to accept a favor he didn’t earn nor ask for from a figure infinitely stronger than Barry, who certainly would see that as a debt.

  They owe me. They even agreed that they were indebted to me. I already got the book, they must see the crystal as another form of payment. But the fact it was never mentioned makes me uneasy. They had to have seen through me, otherwise why offer me crystallized mana? Whatever. I need this. I deserve it.

  The same mantras Barry had told himself hundreds of times repeated in his head as he greedily reached for the purple gem.

  Clutching it in his palm, it pulsed faintly, responding to the ambient mana he leaked at all times. Barry had read up hundreds of times on how to absorb crystallized mana.

  If it was pure, you simply injected your mana into it, then once the crystal was soaked in your magic signature, you sucked it back into your body, and the rest of the mana would come along with your original pulse. Similar in concept to a dam breaking.

  Injecting a small tendril of his mana, the crystal warmed slightly, greedily sucking in and absorbing the energy. Withdrawing the small tendril opened the flood gates.

  The crystal crumbled instantly under its own weight, turning into a fine purple dust as the magic contained within it slammed into Barry’s soul.

  Bartholomew lasted for approximately seven seconds on his feet before collapsing into his couch, white-hot pain lacing through his entire body.

  A scream erupted from the deep recesses of his throat. He knew that forcefully expanding his network was going to be uncomfortable. Hell, the online guides even mentioned a certain level of pain, but nothing could prepare the young mage for the agony that was this event.

  Similar to when a person fills a water bottle with too much water, or a pipe with too much pressure, all of the veins in his mana circulatory system burst with the influx of power. Yet unlike a normal person who undergoes this procedure, two things were working against Barry.

  First, was his mana network was unnaturally resilient. A lucky quirk of his birth that allows him to cast slightly above his belt and lends itself to a stronger magical foundation.

  Second, was that typically artificial growth happens multiple times, injecting small amount of mana from small crystals to stretch and expand the network in a less painful way.

  These two facts combined in a wicked maelstrom, immobilizing Barry with pain until the mana in his body naturally repaired his unnaturally durable network. Which, naturally, took longer than average.

  After four hours of pure agony, only parts of which Bartholomew was conscious for, the pain finally subsided. The network had fully repaired itself, the new mana now fully integrated into his system, his veins larger and more reinforced, and the well at the center of his soul forcibly expanded, filled, and then subsequent drained during the repair process.

  Flinging his eyes open, Barry awoke at the earliest hours of the morning.

  Good lord was I hit by a train? I knew it would hurt but that was just ridiculous. Besides, it’s what five in the morning and I’ve barely recovered a fifth of my mana. The last time I had a breakthrough it felt like I was reborn again, this time it feels like I just gave birth.

  Pulling himself off the floor that he had collapsed onto, Barry shambled towards the shower.

  I need to shower. I think I sweat out my weight in water.

  Stumbling into the shower, the hot water felt like a warm hug from an old friend. As the water continued to flow down Barry’s back, he could already feel the physical benefits of crossing into the next rung of power.

  Okay, I might be low on mana, but I still wanna take this new power for a test drive.