Squeezed Dry

As the new saplings began to grow, Sharon glared fiercely at Richard and hopped to the other side of the demiplane, her landing forming a metre-wide square pit.

“This will be your mana pool,” the legendary mage fumed between gritted teeth, flying back and forth as she carved three notches to link the pool with the energy-absorbing trees. The pool started emitting a faint mist as mana started radiating from within, clear liquid slowly starting to fill it. Richard walked over and cupped some of it with both hands, finding it strangely viscous with a strong aura of mana that made it clear that this was amongst the best mana springs in existence. A single vial of this would be considered a powerful mana potion, able to fetch over a thousand gold coins.

Despite all that, this wasn’t a fortified mana pool but a hole stamped out into the ground with no measure to prevent the outflow of...