Chương 50: Chapter 49: New Construct

Deciding the healing bombs were the most practical for Ben in the situation he was in, he immediately got to work. Pulling the [Regeneration] skill inscription for the healing out of his head was surprisingly easy. And swapping it into the center of the [Learning Model] where the placeholder used to be also felt natural, too. Though that was only a mental replacement, it remained to be seen how it'd be once he actually did the etching.

Now he just had to actually see where he wanted to inscribe it, because he wanted to let [Learning Model] be in his palm to study more later, so he quickly ruled out his hands. But also because knowing his luck in this place, getting his hands chopped off by some monster was a very real possibility. But at the same time, he wondered if getting his hands chopped would actually remove the construct, given that it wasn't actually physical.

So he opted to etch the construct directly over his chest instead for safety, and also because he liked that there was a lot of space there in case he wanted to expand and branch out later. He could always remove the construct and etch a new updated one. Keeping it as simple as possible, he just tweaked the outer pathways of the model to hold the life energy routed through [Regeneration] and release it entirely on his mental command.

He only made one bomb socket for now though, for simplicity's sake, just to test if his theory even held any water. He could totally figure out how to add more sockets for multiple bombs later. For now he was seeing if this even worked. But actually building the thing onto his chest was way harder than he expected. He had assumed it would be as easy as copying Ethan's construct, but making his own from scratch felt like dragging a heavy weight through mud.

He isolated every task he could through [Focus] but it was still hard and he realized it was actively draining something deep inside of him to act as the ink for the etchings. Whether it was his mana, his essence, or some other weird resource, he honestly had no idea. Since [Learning Model]'s placeholder had just been a lifeless dummy, it hadn't demanded this weird personal toll. But using his own actual skill's inscription as the core was definitely taking a chunk out of him.

It took him hours of work to etch it all slowly, but he'd long since lost track of time. Pushing through the weird fatigue, he connected the last glowing pathway with the inscription and held his breath, hoping it wouldn't explode in his face. And it… worked! It worked! He cheered as a notification popped into his vision. Would you like to bind the [Healing Mark] construct? Accepting it immediately, he waited for the confirmation. Congratulations! [Healing Mark] has been added as a construct!

He closed his eyes and visualized the new addition resting right over his sternum. It was basically a tiny, invisible bomb socket. It wasn't physically drawn on his skin, but etched into some weird metaphysical layer of his body that he could only feel with his mana. Finding it pretty hard to describe, he just accepted that he apparently had an internal canvas for this stuff.

Eagerly, he activated [Regeneration] and started funneling life mana through the skill straight into the empty construct's socket, where a container started filling up instantly. As he watched, though, a concern popped up in his head. He had completely forgotten to actually check how much energy the damn thing could safely hold. Realizing he had a bomb attached to his chest that could literally explode inside his chest, panic flooded his veins and he cut off the mana flow immediately, and froze for a few moments.

He let out a sigh and slumped, staring at the ceiling of the dark stone and blinking at the realization that he could notice the sun rays peaking through already. Since this was just a hollow and not an actual cave, it was rather open and he'd just put some leaves and branches to hide himself away. But yeah, it was morning already. He'd again lost himself in his work. Realizing how long he used his skills, and in new ways for the first time ever, Ben eagerly looked through any new notifications he might've gotten.

[Mana Construct Lvl 1 > Lvl 4] [Mana Manipulation Lvl 6 > Lvl 8] Stolen novel; please report. [Mana Sonar Lvl 11 > Lvl 12] [Regeneration Lvl 6 > Lvl 8] [Focus Lvl 17 > Lvl 19] So he was right! Using his skills in entirely new, unintended ways, or at least in ways he'd never used them before himself, was apparently the way for insane growth. Getting this many levels from a single project was honestly amazing! He immediately wanted to push [Focus] to its limit and evolve it right now.

But he forced himself to put those plans on hold. Since [Focus] was sitting at level 19, grinding out that very last level was probably going to take way more time than he thought it would. Therefore, making sure his brand-new chest bomb didn't randomly detonate and kill him was slightly higher priority. He spent the next few minutes just sitting there, carefully pushing small amounts of life mana through [Regeneration] and directly into the [Healing Mark] while constantly tinkering with the construct he'd made.

Or, well, copied. As humans often did, he was essentially just slapping metaphysical duct tape on the whole thing and hoping for the best. Slowly increasing the volume, he strictly monitored the internal pressure until the construct started violently shuddering. He immediately stopped pushing it when he thought it wouldn't be able to handle more. The limit was definitely not a lot. The construct was way too fragile to hold any serious amount of burst healing.

He knew he needed to spend a lot more time tinkering with the construct before he could make this thing useful. Reinforcing the pathways and probably building a thicker containment shell, or socket, for the healing bomb was necessary if he wanted it to be actually useful. He briefly considered using the [Mana Reinforcement] aspect of [Warforged] to harden the construct itself. He did have the inscription in his mind, but that was definitely going to have to wait.

As he wasn't confident in trying to fix things retroactively, he wanted the base to be the best he could make before he added anything on top of it. And also because trying something that complex without actually field testing the basic version first was just asking for trouble. Besides, sitting holed up in this little place of his was starting to get on his nerves a little. He wanted exploration, and adventure. Travel all around the rift to see what was actually up with it. Was it just a pocket dimension?

Or was there something more to it? And he also needed to see exactly how the construct failed under real pressure before he tried upgrading it. Stepping out of his little hideout, Ben decided it was high time to actually hunt some things and stretch his legs. Finding a target didn't take long at all, and he quickly dispatched one of those monkeys since sneaking up to them was pretty easy with [Lurker]. [Tier 1 Monkey slain. Essence gained.] He watched its body drop to the forest floor.

Staring at the dead creature, he couldn't help but feel like this one by one approach was very inefficient. If only he could do this faster. Suddenly struck with an idea, Ben thought about it for a moment, wondering if it would work. Since he had it, he might as well try it and see if it made a difference. If I just route the output slightly differently... and adjust the container construct thing… yeah, that might actually work…

So, using [Fire Burst], he blasted straight up into the sky to get a better vantage point over the forest. As he did so, he wrapped a dense layer of mana around a pulse of [Mana Sonar] and pushed the skill way, way past his usual limits with the heavy assistance of [Focus]. He felt his metaphysical mana muscle straining under the immense pressure as a sharp headache began to worm its way into his head. But honestly, he'd had enough.

He'd been way too easygoing lately, just coasting along and reacting to whatever this rift threw at him. It was definitely time he became a lot more active about what he actually wanted out of this. Waiting for the heavily boosted [Mana Sonar] to return, he reached down to the holding bag attached to his hip. He pulled out the wooden staff he'd seen inside it when he first went through what was inside the holding bag, and gave the weapon a quick inspection.

It was a simple thing, boasting absolutely no ornaments, carvings, or anything that would make him think this was a magical artifact. Flipping the smooth wood in his hands, he really wondered how this plain staff was actually supposed to help with his mana skills. Supposedly it should help. At least that's what he'd assumed from Clarissa's reaction. She had been surprised he'd been able to use [Mana Cannon] without a focus, as she called it. Though she'd confused the skill for some other one called [Mana Beam].

Still, Ben was curious. So he wanted to try it. The moment he pushed a tiny bit of mana into the wood, it instantly felt like a literal extension of his own arm, and he realized why Clarissa had a staff of her own. Had this one been her backup? Assuming it had been, he'd have to be more careful. Because that meant these things were fragile. And he didn't want to lose it so quickly after all. Controlling the mana inside the staff was just as easy and fluid as moving it through his own body.

And if it really focused it better and helped him utilize his mana skill better, that would be great. Suddenly, his [Mana Sonar] snapped back into him, slamming a massive wave of pings directly into his brain and spiking his headache so much he had to [Focus] to sort through them all to keep sane. Wincing as the pain and mental strain increased, he locked onto a specific ping and aimed the staff at a monkey he noticed lounging in a tree below. He held the staff with both hands and aimed.

Channeling his mana through the staff, he gathered a [Mana Cannon] right at the tip, essentially using the staff as a gun barrel. [Mana Cannon]. Something blasted out of the wood before he could even brace himself and the recoil physically shoved him backward through the air, sending him flailing out of control for a few frantic seconds before he pumped mana into [Fire Burst] to regain his balance. Looking down to where he'd just heard an explosion, he surveyed the aftermath of his little experiment.

What he had originally wanted was to simply kill the monkey. But staring at the empty space below, he realized a huge chunk of the tree had been entirely vaporized along with the monster.... damn. The staff was incredibly strong! And actually aiming and using [Mana Cannon] with it was so much easier than trying to stabilize the skill barehanded! A wide grin spread across Ben's face.