IWUAaDNW: Exploit 4.3

"It isn't," Ulfric confirmed. He was looking at the ground, where my ants had drawn a bunch of stick figures sitting on the back of beetles. "Hm, we could use bug cavalry, that's not wrong. But it really depends on the soldier, not everyone will be able to do that and still fight effectively. Mounted combat takes training, and we’ve got no one who can train others––for now at least," he glanced at Tyr, who shrugged. “And that’s depending on how many people can handle a monster big and strong enough to be a good mount.”

"That’s very likely to be an issue," Eira cut in. "Citizens of Central usually have small streams, far too small to support higher-tier familiars."

Kamella nodded in agreement.

I tilted my wasp's head to the side to silently ask what she meant by 'stream'. When Eira didn't immediately understand, Ulfric had to be the one to answer, "Basically, everyone has a rate of mana recovery that limits how much they can use on a daily basis. That's called the stream. If your stream is too small, you won’t be able to maintain a tamed monster safely."

"That is inaccurate," Amnassah cut in, then wilted under the stare Ulfric sent him. They made an interesting portrait together; Ulfric was huge, built like a cord of logs, with a gruff face, prominent scars, dreads, and wouldn't have looked out of place in a biker bar. Amnassah was tall but built like a bundle of twigs, and would have felt right at home in a chess club somewhere.

Faced with Ulfric's stare, Amnassah stuttered incoherently while he recovered his wits. "Uhm... the correct... the correct terms..." he cleared his throat and started again. "What I meant to say is that, the correct terms are 'pool' and 'stream'. All forms of life sustain themselves from a reserve of soul-aligned mana––the 'pool'––which is the source of alchemical properties... that is, the pool is critical for any living being's ability to sustain themselves and grow."

"Or use empowerments, abilities and spells," Eira added. Unlike him, she seemed mostly unfazed by Ulfric's appearance.

Amnassah nodded. "Yes. Evocation and physical abilities. Uhm... yes. That pool is replenished when the living being's body absorbs ambient pure mana. That absorption is referred to as the 'stream'. What you described is… well, both ideas as one. That’s inaccurate."

Okay... simple enough.

Explanation done, he wilted into himself until Ulfric stopped looking his way. Once that was one, Amnassah continued at Kamella and Eira.

"The... uhm... the problem, I presume, that madam Eira is suggesting, is that, people in Central tend to have very limited streams?"

Eira nodded in confirmation. "That is correct, from my experience. I presume it is an adaptation to growing up in such a mana-poor environment. This can cause some problems if they are hoping to become spellcasters. Some of the students I had to reject because their streams were too small..." She sighed wistfully, then shook her head. "In any case, this causes a problem for us. Dungeon minions subsist on mana from their dungeons; taming a monster transfers that cost over to the tamer's stream. Ownership change only transfers that cost onto the new owner of the familiar––the tamed monster, in academic terms."

"Which limits how many monsters any one of us can have," Ulfric grunted. "As well as how powerful they can be."