Chương 24

The duel was fresh in his mind, and he recalled one of the ping! s had happened when he created a Mana Spear. The other two were during his final one-versus-two duel on the ice. Skill evolved! Skill upgraded! Mana Manipulation [Common] (3/3) Allows the user to manipulate claimed mana in accordance with his affinities, structuring all mana the soul manipulates in mana-perfect form. This Skill has achieved slight proficiency in Pure mana (1), including slight proficiency in hard constructs (1).

This Skill has achieved slight proficiency in Swordforce mana (1). -> Mana Manipulation [Uncommon] (1/3) Allows the user to manipulate claimed mana in accordance with his affinities, structuring all mana the soul manipulates in mana-perfect form. This Skill has achieved slight proficiency in Pure mana (1), including slight proficiency in hard constructs (1). This Skill has achieved slight proficiency in Force mana (1), including slight proficiency in Swordforce mana (1).

The upgrade notification had expanded to include a before and after, which made the difference a little clearer; he knew the display would alter for clarity after the description hit a certain length. He didn't need the change; he already had a pretty good idea of what the difference was. He'd achieved that slight proficiency in Force mana. Which was also what caused his breakthrough with his mana spears, which actually flew straight, thank goodness, and also looked more like actual spears. Finally.

Curiously, the Skill upgrade didn't explicitly upgrade his Pure mana manipulation. Which was what should've helped with creating sleeker spears. His suspicion was upgrading the rarity of the Mana Manipulation Skill also provided a slight across-the-board boost to its abilities, regardless of mana type. New supports and support levels clearly mattered for a Skill, but its overall rarity grade also seemed important.

He inspected the Skill structure in his soulspace and saw it'd gained a plethora of new lines—the majority of them were related to his Force mana, which he'd been explicitly training, but plenty were in areas he didn't even recognize; he could visually see the difference. Which also raised a question, actually—if Skill rarity upgrades provided this across-the-board boost, why wasn't it better to add a bunch of slight supports, and rack up those +1's? Was there an incentive to go deep in a Skill, rather than wide?

But from what he could tell, plenty of build guides did recommend going deep on a few supports. He had a few hypotheses, but he moved onto the next notification. Which had been the cause of a burst of joy in the middle of that final duel. Level up! Class 'Base Mage' has reached Level 3 He checked his stats. Stats updated! +9. 0 per level. User distribution— 12% / 16% / 21% / 11% / 17% / 14% / 9% Strength — 9. 3 (+1. 1) Dexterity — 10. 5 (+1. 4) Wisdom — 12. 9 (+1. 9) Constitution — 8. 6 (+1. 0) Intelligence — 10.

8 (+1. 5) Perception — 10. 5 (+1. 3) Endurance — 8. 5 (+0. 8) Without that mid-fight Level up at the end, he was pretty sure he would've collapsed in half the time. He still wasn't quite sure how he'd lasted as long as he did.

He didn't have a clear idea of how long he even lasted; all he'd felt, at the time, was this sense of incredible clarity, like he was fully in the present and all he could think about was the steel flashing for his face, the sensations of his body, of his mana in the air—it wasn't that time slowed down, but he'd felt incredibly… aware? It was a feeling he'd never had against the dueling bots—even if he'd tried very hard in his duels against them. He couldn't even articulate precisely what the difference was.

Well, the talent difference was far bigger. As was the pressure, like I couldn't stop the fight mid-match. And I actually got slashed, a lot. He'd barely been touched by the dueling bots, now that he thought about it; his worst damage might've been the strike to the face. And his improvement in this fight wasn't comparable to anything he'd felt before. It certainly beat casting Skills at thin air, by a long shot. He'd had to pull himself out of v-space to restrict himself from doing more 1v1 duels.

Never really thought I'd be the fighting type, but I guess if the conditions are right—it's kinda fun, you know. He grinned. God, those Templars fucked me up. They felt so far ahead of him it was insane. Even when he'd equalized in Level it was like he was fighting a different species of human. I really freaking tried at the end there, too. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. It's almost demoralizing. But he didn't really feel demoralized, was the thing.

It felt like he'd been shown exactly how much he could grow, even at Level 3. And something told him those Templars only showed him a fraction of the possibilities there was; he didn't believe they were the ceiling at this Class Level for a second. He did regret going that hard, and he also didn't regret it. He was wrecked, mentally; that was undeniable, but— if I can get to that rift at like 90% of my usual self, I'll count it as a win. He checked the final notification. Skill evolved!

Swords Proficiency [Common] (0/3 -> 1/3) Gives the user innate proficiency in sword-fighting, as well as innate compatibility with all swords-based Skills. This Skill has achieved slight proficiency. It did feel like I was moving much better at the end there, he reflected. I didn't know you could get proficiency levels in utility Skills. I wonder how much of a difference higher rarity swordsmanship makes, if you can even get there.

It was close to closing time—somehow he always seemed to find himself staying until the facility closed. He was famished. There was theoretically food at the TC on the lounge floor. But the prices seemed to assume you were an Awakened. Which… I guess, makes sense. Fair play. But he thought about his bank account, and also the fact that he'd probably need to buy gear tomorrow for the rift—he'd get no virtual sword in real life. And something told him bringing a kitchen knife or something wasn't going to cut it.

He dropped by at a late-night diner nearby, watched some videos as he wolfed down a burger, and was on the bus home before midnight.

He woke up early, for once, the next day, and felt okay-ish. Still pretty wrung dry, but not cripplingly so, like he'd been afraid of. He was still on his 100% recovery day plan. Today was purely reserved for prep, including making a few of the most expensive purchases of his life later today. First though, he had to do a bit of research as to what he'd get that was even vaguely within his price range.

He was on the Exchange website, filtering by rank, and anything beyond basic weaponry immediately seemed out of the question. He made a list of a few swords, all of which would cost his entire bank account, and also a few amulets and rings with mana-related attributes, which he'd decided he'd max out a credit card for. Which meant he'd still go without armor, but even basic chestplates were closing in on 10, 000 USD. It is what it is.

He'd never thought of himself as poor—he'd been a normal student, in his mind—but he was feeling rather acutely how much it sucked, not being able to afford almost anything he wanted. He scheduled a time in the late afternoon to check out his chosen items in-person, before deciding, and filled the rest of the time somewhat mindlessly.

He did spend time researching, reading build guides, getting out a whiteboard and ideating on where he might want his build to go—with notes such as, mana spear — make persistent, shattering fragments? spear shrapnel? And, shield—low-hanging fruit? Multi-shield support seems easy get, what else? thinking—density? After yesterday's fight Pure cycling and Force cycling were on the docket for Mana Manipulation, and he watched a bunch of videos on the subject.

Free videos—there seemed to be some higher quality content; several big-name independent Delvers ran Patreons that went deep into minutae, but Awakened pricing struck again. He was seeing at minimum 1000-USD-a-month membership fees, which felt ludicrous. He still felt he managed to get the knowledge he needed to potentially start experimenting with cycling tomorrow—while he delved the rift, maybe. Cycling itself was a giant rabbit hole, with a wide variety of ways to execute the concept.

Typically you'd get a dedicated Skill Shard for it. But the basics seemed potentially accessible with his current level of Mana Manipulation. It was called a passive because you'd need to run a constant stream of mana through your body. This process also 'reserved' a percentage of your mana pool for its use. Which was also part of why he wanted a mana-boosting ring or amulet as his second piece of gear. It seemed very clear to him that he'd live or die by his mana.

This was the more productive side of his morning; he also spent the morning watching highlights from the latest World Cup finals, between a duelist from a Norwegian Guild and a duelist from the U. S. He scrolled his social medias, seeing the latest happenings around the world—it seemed an expedition to clear a newly dropped Tower in the arctic was underway; a master Skillscribe in the U. K.

managed to inscribe the first Skill Shard from scratch, which was apparently big news; he watched a video speculating on the origin of the Labyrinths, and what Awakened civilizations might be out there in the wider universe. It seemed certain they were out there, even if there weren't any nearby. The only things he didn't indulge as much were the celebrity gossip rags around top Awakened; he honestly didn't care who was dating who. Magic was still new enough to him that it all alternately amused and intrigued him.

And the media ecosystem around Awakened felt endless. The only drawback was, an element of it was algorithmic. Meaning he'd sometimes see content he didn't particularly care for, from sources he didn't particularly respect. He tried not to spend that much time on short-form video, but he did, a little, to kill time. Which was how he came across an admittedly very photogenic, blonde guy around his age, beaming at the camera.

"So after my last video, I've been getting a lot of questions as to how I maxed out my Mana Manipulation at Common rarity in my very first week as an Awakened," said the guy.

"As a non-Mage. And yes, it's real! I promise, you guys." A screenshot popped up showing a Skill description. A similar Skill description to Alex's own, actually—three slight proficiency supports, adding up to a Common [3/3] rarity.

"It's actually less than a week," the guy continued." And my advisors are telling me I'm very close to the evolution, so stay tuned for that. Back on topic—rather than reply to all your guys' DMs, I thought I'd make this quick video. First, it's important to be intentional. You have to—" Alex watched him list his three tips—which popped up one by one on the screen, in text that felt optimized for short-form video; the guy clearly had an editor. Alex watched all this in silence.

And then—"What the fuck is he talking about?" muttered Alex.

He clicked the guy's profile. tired_killua very high/Exceptional Fire, high Lightning, S cultivation talent. Striving to be the best! Awakening June 2026, @EchelonGuild incoming Class of 2026 Level 3, follow the journey!

"…" Alex got the impression, listening to him, that if he was telling the truth about his Mana Manipulation, it was sheer talent that accounted for his progress. Everything he said was either vapid, or utter nonsense in Alex's eyes. His bio… only supported that reading. The guy's talents were high—actually quite similar to his own, just with a few affinities changed, but— putting it in your bio feels a bit… much? Alex paused on the reel again. He didn't care. Truly, he didn't—it didn't matter.

But something about this guy made him think— this guy comes across as absolutely insufferable. He opened the reel's comments, which made a muscle in his face twitch. x_panda_princess_xx Omg I never thought about it that way tyy, saving Every comment received a like and a reply, such as— tired_killua ofc! 😊 glad I could help! Don't leave a comment, thought Alex. It's not worth it move on. He couldn't. He kept scrolling, and saw only comments along the same lines.

The account had been created for 3 days, and somehow already had tens of thousands of follows—a quick search told him why. The Echelon Guild had apparently made a video about a few members of its incoming class, part of which featured him rather prominently, apparently, tagging him in the video. Alex was back on the reel; he reached the end of the comments. There were maybe two neutral comments, among a sea of fans. Fuck it.

1arcstyrion why are you giving advice dude it's literally your first week It felt like a slight moment of catharsis. He could move on. Thank god, someone had to say something. He kept scrolling. Eleven minutes later, he got a notification. tired_killua who tf are you 😭 stfu Okay, thought Alex. I shouldn't have said it. He was regretting saying it already; he was somewhat allergic to involving himself in online drama as it was.

Five minutes after that— tired_killua well I just got into the Echelon Guild as a Chosen, and that's what the other Guilders in my orientation group, who have years of experience, are saying, not to mention the top duelist mentors they assigned me, so Alex read that twice. Okay, something tells me he didn't hear that from these so-called top duelist mentors, was his only conclusion. Or he's very badly paraphrasing. I've learned my lesson, I'm not replying again, thought Alex.

tired_killua didn't leave a third double-text, to his relief. He'd wasted enough time online. He had to get to something actually consequential things. Thirty minutes later, he was on a rideshare to the Stark City Delver's Association. It was time to see what treasures he could buy. Treasures that could potentially make the difference between life and death in his rift tomorrow, on his college student's budget.