Chương 30

"I wonder what it's for," said Beckett curiously.

"Alchemy, maybe?" said Alex, thinking about all that ice mana. Since it was a rift treasure, it didn't have a description yet. It'd have to be identified by an Appraiser first. They both stood before the treasure for a few seconds, admiring it.

"You can get a vague sense of how valuable it is, based on its aura," said Alex.

"Supposedly." Beckett glanced at him, grinning.

"For a guy who's been an Awakened for like four days, you're really knowledgeable. It all still feels kind of new to me."

"You'll get used to it," said Alex absently, as if he hadn't also been in this world for four days. As for the knowledgeable bit—"After I Awakened I read, like, a lot."

"I can tell," said Beckett, laughing.

"I binged like the last ten years of World Championships in, like, a day. It's like, what?" He glanced around him.

"I mean, I just killed three Slimes, in an icy forest, in an alternate dimension." Alex smiled; he couldn't help it, seeing the guy's clear, well, enthusiasm.

"I get you. I felt the same way."

"Getting frozen in the side sucks, sure, but man. Okay, sorry—treasure." Beckett knelt beside the treasure.

"I can feel its aura," he said after a few seconds.

"I can't tell how valuable it is."

"Pretty much, same," said Alex. He didn't have enough experiences with treasures. A few seconds passed, when Alex had a thought.

"So for how we're splitting treasure," said Alex, glancing over—he wanted to establish this before it became a potential point of tension.

"Let's say we'll keep individual loot for ourselves. Anything we find in chests, or get from fights where we both contribute, we'll split 50/50."

"Sure, that's—actually, honestly, I really don't need it," said Beckett, glancing at him.

"Echelon gives me anything I'd want, so—you can have it if you want?" Alex felt surprised; he glanced at the treasure, hesitating. He didn't know what it was precisely—like all rift items, it'd be blank until it was identified properly—but the average two-star, F-rank rift drop was probably half a credit to a credit? So, say, $1, 000, lying there.

"Let's stick to the treasure split," he said finally. It felt a little silly—more than a little silly, actually—turning down free money. And it wasn't like he couldn't use it. But he didn't participate in that duel; he felt like it was rightfully Beckett's, not his. He didn't feel he needed to take the guy's treasure. By rift's end, he felt certain he'd have his share of treasure regardless.

It wasn't like he was absolutely against taking any free money as a matter of principle—he might've if he felt he was truly desperate. But he wasn't.

"Are you sure?"

"I'd rather deserve what I get. I'll have my chances," said Alex. He felt certain.

"We're barely into the rift." The last bit wasn't strictly true; they might've been a quarter of the way in, but the spirit of it was true. Beckett glanced at his face, and seemed to understand.

"How about we split all treasures 50/50?" the guy said.

"We both fought slimes, I was just lucky."

"Sure, that's fine." Alex was pretty sure he'd said it as a way to share that Alex would find agreeable. And it worked, to be fair. Beckett picked up the treasure, and seemed amused—"What's up?" said Alex, glancing over.

"Catch." He grinned, tossed it at Alex. It wasn't incredibly cold, like he'd expected; it was only cool, like the cold energies were contained. Beckett winced again; the throw seemed to stretch something in his side.

"I might be a few," he said apologetically.

"Is it just ice mana?" said Alex, walking closer, inspecting it.

"I think so?" Beckett dislodged a piece of his armor, revealing the wound. A splotch of skin and muscle down his side was icy blue. He winced, hissing a little.

"That's—that's worse than I thought." Wisps of flame danced over its surface.

"I've been treating it a little with fire mana, and it seems like it's helping," said Beckett. He licked his lips.

"Most of it's under the skin. I'd try cycling fire mana—" He flashed a smile.

"But everyone keeps telling me not to cycle fire mana."

"I'd imagine," said Alex. He knew there were passive Skills that involved cycling fire mana, but that was via Skill Shards—Skill Shards that were probably very specifically structured; you weren't immune to your own mana. In its raw form, fire mana, cycling internally, could be… not great. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"How's your Pure affinity?" said Alex. He had an idea.

"It's only Fair," said Beckett. He brightened; they seemed on the same wavelength.

"I can try?" Pure was one of the mana types that was most amenable to cycling, supposedly; the Awakened body even cycled a little of it at rest by default, to help repair itself. As Beckett started cycling Pure mana, Alex did as well, on himself. Purely out of curiosity.

"It's working," said Beckett after a few minutes. He seemed entranced. Alex focused on his wound, and saw it did seem to be shrinking faster; the Pure mana seemed to be clearing away the ice. Before long, it was gone.

"Are you still cycling Pure?" said Alex.

"Yeah."

"How does the rest of you feel?" said Alex.

"Besides what's affected by the ice mana, I mean."

"Fine?" said Beckett, after a second.

"If it's doing anything else, I can't tell." Alex was silent.

"Were you testing it to see if it'd do more?" Beckett said, glancing up at him.

"That's the hope," Alex admitted.

"You're much better at that than I am," Beckett said, with a touch of playfulness.

"I was cycling like half that much mana, way slower." Once again Alex was reminded how sharp the guy's senses were. Or possibly his intuition as a whole.

"You're still holding back," said Beckett, and Alex could see the genuine curiosity in his eyes.

"Aren't you?" He tilted his head.

"Why? Wouldn't it be more fun to like—let go, and see what you can do?" A silence. And then—"Sorry," said Beckett, quickly.

"Again—if I'm actually making you uncomfortable—""It's fine," said Alex, and smiled a bit to show it was genuinely cool. Might as well, the guy could probably tell.

"And yeah, I'm pretty talented at Pure and Force."

"I can tell," said Beckett. He seemed— excited?

"Your mana responds to you really well, especially your Pure mana. I've been thinking a lot about your spears."" What?" said Alex, almost choking.

"They were really well-made," said Beckett.

"And precise. I was inspired—I'm serious," he said, seeing the look on Alex's face.

"I mean, I have spears, kind of—I was thinking, I wish I had that kind of control. I was stunned, genuinely."

"They're Pure mana constructs," said Alex, forcibly getting past his surprise.

"They're inherently stable in that form, that's very different from fire lances."

"But that feels like an excuse," said Beckett.

"Like a quarter of my lances miss when I fight, and it's because of exactly that. You're mixing your lances with another mana type, and they're still that precise! Why can't my lances be better? I can be better." Alex had two gut reactions to this. The first— this guy's an actual psychopath. The second was, it wasn't lost on Alex that this wasn't very far off at all from his own thinking after seeing Beckett's lances. He... wasn't quite sure what that said about himself.

"And your shields," Beckett continued.

"They're different from your spears. You've modified their structures, right? I was watching them after I finished my fight."

"I've tinkered with them, yeah," said Alex.

"You're really interesting," said Beckett. He grinned.

"It's like—the more I see, the more curious I get who you are."

"I promise you I'm not that interesting," said Alex, with a weak smile. Of the aspects of himself he didn't want to reveal, his talents was probably the least concerning. It also seemed the aspect Beckett was curious about. He supposed you might be able to derive Outworlder from talents, but it'd be a leap—there were plenty more talented people than Outworlders. And even then, it's…it'll probably be fine?

"What was your idea, again?" said Beckett.

"With Pure cycling?"

"Whenever I've tried to cycle it, it also hasn't done anything," Alex told him, refocusing. He assumed it'd clear foreign mana, like with Beckett, but he hadn't had the chance to test that yet. Otherwise, no results.

"But it should be." He was certain his cycling Skills had improved since his first few tries, which had been by himself in the v-training facility, screwing around, trying to replicate how his body had naturally used Pure to recover. He felt he'd gained several insights after observing the Slime, which he'd tried to apply, but the result was the same—still nothing. It felt like a slighty cool rush of energy pulsing through his body, in a loop. It was pleasant, but that was about it.

The thing was, Alex was certain Pure was supposed to have innate body-supporting properties; he'd felt it— His eyes trailed down to the treasure in his hand, and then the faint patch of skin on Beckett's side, which the guy was finishing up." Oh," he said. He'd skipped a step. Of course. It felt obvious.

"The ice mana in the treasure, and the ice mana in the Slime, are the same mana," he said.

"It isn't aggressively freezing me because that aspect of it isn't being emphasized. It's inert." At Beckett's questioning glance—"Pure mana has the ability to support my body, but I need to actually will it to, specifically," Alex clarified. Alex closed his eyes and began circulating his mana throughout his body, starting with 5% of it.

As he did, he instilled his mana with his will, willing it to bring out specific aspects of itself—its capacities for recovery, the way he knew it could support and refresh his body. The coolness intensified almost to a coldness, but a refreshing coldness—like a river flowing through his body—a river of pure, flowing energy, coursing through his limbs; he wasn't too tired yet, but he instantly felt refreshed." Nice," said Beckett, eyes gleaming.

"Is it cool if I see what you're doing?"

"Sure."

"I've always wanted to try it with lightning mana." Alex observed himself as well; visually little had changed, but with his soul senses he felt the slight Pure aura his body was now giving off. He was pretty sure the Devereaux's passives hadn't given off an aura, but he assumed his aura was simple mana leakage. He drew his blade and cut himself lightly on the back of his arm, and saw the wound instantly take on a faint Pure-blue glow. It closed up in the span of ten seconds.

It was a papercut wound, but it still fascinated him. He discovered, after trying a few sword slashes against nearby trees, that it also seemed to provide him a slight physical boost; it was like his body was being inundated in a very pleasant internal ice bath, and it was bringing out new capacities in his muscles. The increase seemed to scale proportionally with the percentage of his mana he allocated to the Skill. He also decided there was little point trying to hide his mana talents at this point; it'd be fine.

Which was actually somewhat relieving; it let him focus on the magic. After a few tests, including very light sparring with Beckett—just him slashing, and Beckett very lightly parrying with his spear—he determined that maybe 7-8% mana reserve was the most he could allocate to Pure cycling without losing control of the mana flow, at least right now. Alex decided he'd refine his technique, and see if he could increase that figure.

At a certain point the amount of mana you reserved for passives grew impractical, especially if you were also a mage and needed your mana pool for spells. But he was a ways away from that concern.

"By the way—have you checked your essence reserves since we entered the rift?" said Beckett. Alex hadn't; he did just then, and discovered a solid quarter of it had vanished, converted into experience toward his next level.

"I'm almost at Level 4," said Beckett; he seemed pleasantly surprised.

"And we've fought three Slimes total."

"I guess real life is much better for Class Leveling," said Alex. They walked deeper into the forest, Alex playing with his new Skill as they went.