Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System-Novel



After getting out of the lake, Jasmine took Daimon to all the places which she knew of the city, including other residences to which she had access thanks to the token of authority Aurora gave her.

Unfortunately, there weren't any more interesting things to see like that plaque at the bottom of the lake, but Daimon could confirm a few things.

First of all, that function of scanning someone and then releasing mana of the respective elements in which the person excel, was exclusive of the main residence in which they were staying.

Which at first didn't make sense for Daimon, certainly an array that refined and then released mana to help increase the cultivation speed of mages, is literally burning resources, but there is no reason to not have them in all the residences.

But his doubts were somewhat cleared when Jasmine, dropped a bomb by saying.

"Ah that, according to grandmother, the residence is special because for that array to work we only need to use neutral mana crystals as you call them, as fuel, it's amazing right, it can release mana of all the attributes using neutral mana on a 1:1 ratio of exchange".

Daimon nearly tripped when he heard that, neutral mana is compatible with all elements, so it can transform into a specific element mana, like fire mana, water mana and so on.

But it doesn't have any of the elements by innate, instead it must be affected by the environment for that change to happen, places with water bodies end up producing water mana, volcanic zones produce fire you get the idea.

It can be done artificially too, but the way to do it is inefficient, basically you need to drop a lot of mana crystals into the area in which the desired element is abundant, the mana crystals will be assimilated and then after some months of waiting, crystals of the respective element are bound to appear.

High ranked families or forces only resort to this when they are in desperate need of mana crystals of a specific element, because the return in only around 30%, which means that per each dozen of mana crystals invested in those artificial "mines", and after months of wait, one would get only three elemental mana crystals, the rest is lost in the process.

And now, Jasmine casually revealed that the array in the main residence can not only ignore the horrible exchange ratio of an artificial mine, but also convert it on the spot, without the need to wait.

Such an array was way above the capacities of any rune master, be it in the galaxies or in Neptune.

'Well, I guess it's not a legacy treasure of the force that rules the Elemental Sea, for nothing', thought Daimon before saying.

"Wait, I inspected all the mansion, maybe I'm unable to see the arrays, but there is no way Rita wouldn't have noticed the deposit of mana crystals if it was in the mansion".

Rita's eyes sparkled from Daimon's shadow as she heard Daimon complimenting her abilities.

'The young master has such confidence in my skills', she happily thought.

Jasmine pointed at the highest part of the citadel which is also the captain's cabin as she answered.

"Everything in the citadel is controlled through the captain's cabin, I have seen grandma insert mana crystals into the control panel, I can take you there if you want to".

Daimon nodded, he couldn't see though the alloy of the citadel, and mana sense was useless also, so there is no way to know what lies below the surface of the citadel, also according to Jasmine there is no way to access the underground.

All the big structures of the citadel were already there when it was inherited to them, some minor things like fountains and or forests which only worked as decorations, appeared after the previous generations of Aurora's family accidentally touched or activated some hidden arrays made with those white symbols, but the first discovery that could be considered important since the citadel was registered in the record of the Ivory family, was Jasmine's discovery at the bottom of the lake.

Jasmine smiled and then she guided Daimon towards the center of the city, the captain's cabin was located at the highest floor of a skyscraper tyke of building, which actually only had two rooms.

At the base there was a conference room, in which Underwood as well as the other patriarchs were currently having a meeting.

Naturally when the door opened their attentions were drawn towards the newcomers, because only Aurora can bring people here as far as they know.

Underwood saw Daimon walking next to Jasmine and a subtle smile appeared on his face for a split of a second, naturally the reactions among the patriarchs varied, Stoneheart and Heartstream raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, as for Skyfire, his brows deeply furrowed.

"Little Jasmine, this is the heart of the Flying Citadel, it's not a place in which outsiders should come and go as they please, even if it is a friend of yours, he shouldn't be here", he said as he glared at Daimon.

The other patriarchs besides Underwood, didn't say anything, but the overall feeling was the same, this was their base of operations, its importance is similar to the strategic room of the army where the highest ranked generals meet to discuss top secret matters, they were in fact having a serious conversation a few second ago, before Jasmine's appearance interrupted them.

"Now, Skyfire, Gabriel is a guest of our Elemental Sea, and if the young miss has brought him here, there should be a good reason…", Underwood spoke on behalf of Daimon, but Skyfire interrupted him by smacking his hand on the table in front of him.

"That relaxed attitude of yours is getting out of hands Underwood, can you take the responsibility in case something happens, this is the heart of the citadel, do you hear me brat, I'm pretty sure you tricked little Jasmine to bring you here!", he said with a strict voice, as he pointed at Daimon.

Jasmine's pretty face showed some signs of anger, the way Skyfire talked made Daimon look like someone with bad intentions towards her or her grandmother, and for some reason that made her feel angry.

"He is staying in the main residence with me, and I can respond for him, is that enough for Patriarch Skyfire", she said.

Heartstream and Stoneheart's eyes widened in surprise at the revelation that someone other than the Ivory were staying in the main residence, they just supposed that Aurora assigned one of the many empty mansions in the inner ring as a sign of courtesy.

As for Skyfire, his expression turned unsightly, not only some outsider was allowed into the main residence in which even his family haven't been allowed to take a step into, but the little girl who used to listen to him when she was a child, harshly answered him like that.

If Underwood was Aurora's right hand, Skyfire was the Shaman's right hand, Jasmine used to spend a lot of time in their sects and regarded their patriarchs as uncles, so this took him by surprise, not to mention the silver haired youth didn't even bother to pay him any attention and was instead looking at the walls and other parts of the room.

"Oi brat, do I bore you or something, listen to others when they are talking to you…".

But before he could say anything else, a calm voice came from a mirror plate which was placed on the wall in front of the table where the patriarchs were sitting.

"That's enough Skyfire, I was the one that gave Jasmine the instruction to take Gabriel anywhere he wanted in the citadel, does any of you have a complain regarding who I allow to do what, in my Flying Citadel?", she said.

Aurora's voice was calm like always, but a sever light flashed in her eyes, which made the patriarchs besides Underwood gulp down, for the usually gentle matriarch they know to show such an expression, how many centuries has it been they wondered.

"T-This subject apologize for his presumption", said Skyfire as he slightly bowed his head, not without giving Daimon a poisonous gaze.

Unfortunately for Skyfire, he was completely ignored through all the incident, Daimon walked pass behind him followed by Jasmine who happily guided him towards the portal that let to the only other room in the whole skyscraper, in other words the captain's cabin of the Flying Citadel.

Jasmine used her token of identity and a white portal appeared in front of them, she and Daimon entered through it, disappearing from the room, leaving behind two perplexed patriarchs and one who was gritting his teeth.

Underwood chuckled and then got up of his seat to leave, not without patting Skyfire's shoulder on his way to the exit.

"You can be as tyrannic as you want in your sect, but this isn't your territory, if I were you, I will watch who I offend, that little friend is being backed by the Trident Marshal, Lady Aurora, the Black Empress and the queen of the Mermen Sea, can you afford to offend so many people over some petty delusions, think about it".

Though Underwood isn't close to Skyfire, they are still comrades who protect the Elemental Sea, this is the last shred of goodwill he can show to someone that is being disrespectful with the one in whom Aurora has put her trust, it would be a shame to see a whole sect being erased just because of a bad decision of their patriarch, or at least that's what Underwood implied behind lines, whether Skyfire and the other patriarchs understood it or not, it was up to them.

Stoneheart and Heartstream had thoughtful expressions, the sole fact that Daimon was allowed not only to stay in the main residence, but even under the same roof as Jasmine, meant that Aurora had full trust on him, so things weren't as simple as the champion of the events paying a visit to the Elemental Sea to claim some reward, that's the conclusion they reached.

"We'll take our leave too, we can discuss things once we arrive at Twilight City", said the two patriarchs as they left, leaving an angered Skyfire behind.

'Fucking cowards, are you being intimidated by some random brat that became famous over a childish tournament, humph just you wait', he thought.

…

A couple of seconds later, Daimon and Jasmine appeared at the captain's cabin where Aurora was already waiting for them.

She didn't mention the small incident of before and instead looked at Daimon, waiting to hear the reason as to why he wanted to come here.

"I heard that the array in the mansion doesn't need elemental mana crystals, but just the neutral ones, I just wanted to see how you power it, if I can discern the meaning of some of those symbols, then we might be able to learn more about this treasure", he said.

Aurora's eyes glowed for a second, so far besides her and Jasmine, not even Vincent or her husband have been able to see those white symbols, and she is sure Jasmine didn't tell him, because she specifically instructed her to not speak about it, for others when the arrays activate, they just see some white light and nothing else.

She expected the silver haired youth in front of her to give her a surprise like always, and it ended up happening.

"Yes, come here, this is the master control of the citadel, there are currently three sections available, Environment, Operations and Elemental Conversion Array", she said as she pointed at a large panel that extended for around three meters, what surprised Daimon is that most of the panel was in blank, as if there were missing sections, because the three mentioned by Aurora only covered around thirty centimeters of it.

Aurora took out a couple of mana crystals from her storage and ring and then she placed her hand on the section which corresponded to the Elemental Conversion Array, those white symbols appeared on the panel and then a multicolored portal appeared floating in front of Aurora.

"Since I'm the owner, I can tell how much energy reserves do the three sections have left, all the time, if I want to recharge it, I just need to do this, the three portals are different from each other, environment keeps the forests, lakes, decorations and buildings in general in good shape, they only need mana if they are damaged".

"The operation section refers to the all the generic functions of the citadel, like driving it, the barrier and everything else and lastly the Elemental Conversion Array, which is exclusive to the main residence, as its name suggests it can transform neutral mana into elemental mana".

"In case you are wondering why I don't use it all the time to help little Jas or anyone else cultivate faster, that's because the more it is used, the lower the reserves of energy of it can be charged, currently the maximum charge is of 76%, it was instructed to me to only use it for emergencies, so I have been saving it until now", she said.

Daimon nodded, it made sense that such a powerful array suffered damages with each use, manipulating mana to such extent is incredibly hard if it's even possible to begin with, think of it as a computer which's speed of processing is incredibly high, in exchange overheating is normal, essentially it destroys itself with each usage.

"You can come here as much as you want and even activate the environment section, I have already given little Jas the authority to open the portal to it, so you can get to see those white symbols, just remember to not mention them to anyone outside of the alliance".

Daimon nodded, for now he has learned enough and it has already been an hour, so it was time to return with the others to see how they were doing, so he said goodbye to Aurora and then left followed by Jasmine, whose face was a bit red for some reason.

Daimon didn't know it, but Aurora sent a message directly to her granddaughter, before they left.

'Make the most of this opportunity little girl… you have a lot of competition'.