Deep below us, the fungal caverns opened.
Usually, a dungeon absorbs mana from the earth, condenses it, and feeds it to the Core. We just reversed the polarity.
Fifty thousand units of raw, blue magic shot up the ventilation shafts. It bypassed me. It bypassed the skeletons. It erupted out of the cave entrance like a geyser.
Above ground, Bishop Vane was licking grease off his fingers, watching the golden ledger suck the life out of me.
"Almost done," he chuckled. "Another successful acquisition."
Then the ground exploded.
A pillar of blue light shot into the sky, piercing the clouds. The air in the clearing instantly became so saturated with magic that you could taste it. It tasted like ozone and blueberries.
The soldiers gasped. Their armor started to glow. The grass beneath their feet grew three feet in a second.
"What is this?" Vane shouted, shielding his eyes. "My readings! The saturation levels are off the charts!"
Down in the Core Room, I was watching the System Interface.
System Alert:
Market Saturation Detected.
Supply of Mana exceeds Demand by 10,000%.
Calculating new Exchange Rate...
"Come on," I whispered. "Crash. Crash you piece of junk."
System Alert:
New Value of Mana: 0.00001 Gold per Unit.
"Bingo," I said.
"Vane!" I projected my voice again. It was booming now, amplified by the free mana swirling in the air. "Check your ledger!"
Vane looked up at the golden book floating above him. The book was trembling.
His spell, [Divine Foreclosure], was designed to extract value equal to the debt. My debt was 1.3 million Mana. At the old price, that was a fortune.
But at the new price?
My debt was worth about three copper coins.
The golden ledger flashed red. It tried to recalculate. It tried to pull more mana to compensate for the drop in value, but there was too much mana everywhere. The equation broke.
Error:
Transaction Failed.
Debt Value Negligible.
Foreclosure Cancelled.
The golden book slammed shut and dissolved into sparkles.
Vane screamed. "No! That’s illegal! That’s market manipulation!"
"It’s called a bubble, Bishop!" I laughed. "And it just popped!"
The backlash hit him. The spell collapsed, and the mana link snapped. Vane was thrown backward off his floating chair. He landed in the mud with a wet thud, his silk robes instantly ruined.
The soldiers looked around, confused. Their weapons were sparking, overcharged by the ambient magic.
"Retreat!" Vane shrieked, scrambling to his feet. He looked terrified. Not of me, but of the sky, which was now swirling with unnatural, neon-colored clouds. "The saturation is too high! The Physics Engine is going to glitch!"
He didn't wait for his men. He pulled a teleportation scroll from his sleeve, ripped it, and vanished.
The soldiers, realizing their boss had just bailed, looked at the glowing blue geyser still erupting from my cave, dropped their heavy shields, and ran for the hills.
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.