Mana Marker

Mana Marker

Difficulty: 1 out of 3
Mana Cost: 1 out of 3

A spell for placing concentrated mana, creating a marker. Mana normally dissipates soon after release, but this spell, one of the most basic spells for manipulating mana, causes it to remain at a single point by condensing it. The greater the caster excels at controlling mana, the longer it is possible to make the mana persist.

Condensed mana is still invisible, but it can give even those who normally can't sense mana a feeling that “there is something there.” Markers are used like beacons by setting them at specific points, and they can also be set up so that they signal only to certain targets. For example, by adjusting the concentration and quality of the mana, they can be made undetectable by ordinary humans so that only magicians or certain specific races will be able to sense them, or they can be made so that they're difficult to notice unless one is in possession of a certain magic item. For superior magicians, it's even possible to do things such as including messages for those able to detect the set marker, or imbuing spells so that those gathered around a marker can be healed.

Additionally, markers set by this spell are also used as targeting marks when firing spells. When casting long range spells that extend even beyond the caster's field of vision, it's difficult to aim and fire, and spells will often hit unintended locations, but if a marker is set in advance and targeted, then one can ensure that a spell will land accurately. AoE spells are difficult to fine-tune in much the same manner, but by setting a marker to encircle a specific area in advance, it is also possible to ensure that a spell's effects will only extend over the encircled area. It's highly difficult compared to setting markers at specific locations, but it's also possible to set markers on objects and living things. There is a high likelihood that it will be canceled out quickly, but it's even possible to cast spells that automatically home in on the target by setting a marker on the foe one wants cast magic on and then targeting it before firing.

When using this spell as a marker for other people, it's basically used to communicate with allies. Sometimes there are markers set by officious monsters pointing out locations where lots of unwary humans pass by and monsters can lurk in a perfect spot to attack men without being noticed. Upon carefully sharpening their mana sense and taking another look, unmarried monster ladies seeking men will find out that there's information about “hunting grounds” scattered all over the place that their senpais left behind. Besides that, the property of this spell “to give even those who can't sense mana a feeling that something's there” is also exploited by monsters to use it as a method of luring human men into their own lairs.

Also, in nations where humans and monsters live together, an unconventional use of this spell is to cast it on unmarried human men to help them get together with specific races of monster girls. Markers that can be strongly perceived by the corresponding race that a man desires are set on human men. These markers tell other races of monster girls, “I want to be joined with a specific race, so keep your hands off me”, and an extremely wide area is affected, so it's like a man advertising himself to every individual of a particular race that he is seeking, and unmarried individuals from among them will probably gather before the man, scrambling to be first.

“We've discovered the outpost targeted for subjugation.
We'll leave a mana marker behind and return for now.
…There are five men within the target, a perfect number.
Why don't we share them nicely and enjoy ourselves...♥”
~amazoness in a radical sweeper unit~