Chương 9

Mana Manipulation was the iconic Mage Skill. Even if you didn't use the Skill regularly, you'd have to understand it if you wanted to modify and evolve your other Skills. Since it'd let you tinker with your Skills' mana. Alex closed his eyes and visualized his soulspace in his mind's eye. Once again he held out a hand. Pure mana. He willed his mana into the world. He felt it exiting the space around his soul, pouring into reality.

In his mind he'd removed just a few strands, less than 5% of his mana pool, but when manifested it took up a surprising amount of volume—glass-like liquid strands several feet from end-to-end, flowing in the air. It was mana exactly the color of his Mana Shield, except turned to liquid form. He had all of a half-second to admire it. It simply flowed its way into thin air, and vanished in the space of a blink. He pursed his lips. Why did it just—? He hadn't dismissed all that mana, but it'd vanished regardless.

It's pure mana. It should be very similar to my Mana Shield, which is also pure mana, isn't it? Which also stayed in place just fine. It's flowing out of existence entirely, he realized. Is it because it's in liquid form, instead of crystalline, like the Mana Shield? But how do I crystallize it? He considered playing with another affinity—such as Force, or Water, or even Time, which he was kind of intrigued by. After a few seconds of consideration, he realized he could do even less with those affinities.

He didn't have the first clue how to actually manifest them. You're supposed to be able to just will it all into existence, I think. Let's see. He willed his mana into reality. At the same time— Force mana, he willed. A few strands of Pure, distinctly not-Force mana flowed into the air—exactly like before—and vanished, again. Okay, that's kind of funny.

He stood there, mulling it over, and then sat down, set the sword down—he'd intended to see what it'd be like to wield a few mana types with his blade, but he seemed a little ways away. It was true he didn't seem to be able to do basically anything with Mana Manipulation, but he felt he was picking up an aspect of the answer with every try. It's pretty clear this is all based on will, and it's all designed to be intuitive. This entire System, everything about this magic—it's all will-based.

He'd willed in his Skills, and he'd willed in the Awakening Stone as well. It was the same with his Class Cards and Mana Shield—he'd wanted there to be a Mana Shield where his hand was pointing, and there was. I feel like… He decided to try Mana Shield again. But this time he closed his eyes, visualized his soulspace, held out a hand. Mana Shield. Silence.

He quickly realized what he was missing— the Skill's supposed to place the Shield at a point in space, and I didn't think to specify it, since my eyes were closed. I can't just will there to 'be' a Mana Shield in the abstract, it has to be placed in space. He closed his eyes, held out a hand, and this time willed the Mana Shield to appear at a point in space, a small distance in front of him—while still visualizing his soulspace. This time, his mana responded.

As did the Skill structure in his soulspace, which lit up with Pure mana-colored light. He opened his eyes and saw the Mana Shield before him. … Ah. He was back to a grin. I understand it now. Mechanically it is all pure mana, it's just—I will it to happen, and the Skill activates, and takes my mana and structures it in real-time. And this shield is just incredibly structured mana.

And the way it's structuring this mana isn't really any different than what I do with Mana Manipulation—what I can do with pure will, is it? It's all based on will. It's specific, intentional will. Then, on reflection— The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Also, I wasn't just thinking the words 'Mana Shield' and wanting it to exist, I wanted there to be an actual Mana Shield. He was sure it was an important distinction.

I'd bet that's also why I couldn't get Force mana just now. It felt true. He held out a hand, and willed Pure Mana into the world. Except this time, he focused on the mana and willed it to still. It wasn't as simple as 'desiring the mana to still,' which of course he'd always been feeling, in an abstract sense. He forcibly imposed his will upon the mana. The strands of pure mana stilled, mid-flow. It did this for all of a fraction of a second, like a stutter in time.

At which point it flowed right out of existence again. In retrospect I… kind of feel like that should've been more obvious. He didn't glimpse inside his soulspace, but he was certain Mana Manipulation had lit up as he'd willed that, helping him instill his will into the mana itself. It'd only held for a second, but it still felt like a victory. I have a start, I just need to pursue this. And then— It's kind of hilarious how difficult it is to do even extremely basic mana manipulation.

To get started with it, anyway. One hour. Thirty-ish tries, starting with just a few strands every time—and he could summon a tiny fraction of his mana as Pure mana, on its own, and simply have it exist for the space of all of half a minute. It was like he'd caught a snapshot of a river, gleaming in the light. God, I still can't get over how beautiful it is. He was pretty sure he could stretch it far longer with time and practice.

This constant 'willing' isn't something I have to do with Mana Shield because it's in that crystalline form. It's structured so it's stable in reality. Then the next step feels like—'crystallize?' After all those Mana Shield attempts, he had a clear sense, and understanding, of what a Mana Shield was. He willed the mana to take a structure precisely like his shield. The mana started to glisten, thicken, and he instantly realized he'd have to apply far more willpower to the task—sheer focus and mental energy.

It felt less like the mental energy it took to, say, solve a very complex math problem, and more like he was simply trying, and quite intensely. Thirty seconds, and he inspected his creation with what felt like an odd amount of pride. He picked up his blade, and gave the newly glassy strands before him a curious light slash. The glassy mana shattered and instantly dissolved in the air. Still, it's progress. I'll take it. By this point his mana was at about a quarter full.

He stepped off the station and decided to wait a few minutes to let his reserves refill a bit. I wonder if it was supposed to take that long just to get the very basics like that. I suppose it has only been an hour. A pause. I still can't believe I didn't try to just forcibly 'will' it to stop earlier. With a slight smile— Maybe it's fine to be less of a nerd sometimes, actually. He felt he could use a few minutes' break mentally as well. It was quite draining, exercising his willpower for an hour.

He glanced around. He noticed a few folks had gone in and out of the Hall in the past hour or so; the newbies he'd first made eye contact with were still there, but a few of the v-Duelists had left. A few more groups of newbie-types seemed to have showed up as well, including two girls in a station diagonally across—the Hall was filling up slightly. The giant digital clock on the back wall read 3: 16 PM.

He saw a few Awakened on the benches in the walkways, like he was right now, recovering—he'd seen a few Mana Elixirs in use in his time here, but he was pretty sure they'd brought those Elixirs into the space somehow. The Station didn't let you summon any personal items except basic weaponry, which was a bit of a shame. He'd also been intrigued about what gearing options there were. It was an aspect of this new world he hadn't truly had a chance to look into, purely for lack of time.

He turned his attention to his soulspace again, since the instant he'd crystallized the strands he'd felt a slight 'sound,' like a clinking. And he hadn't realized it was possible to feel a sound—a sound in his soul, no less—rather than hear it, but there it was. He checked his soulspace and focused on his Class Card, and two consecutive blue boxes appeared. Skills evolve with increased supports. Increase a Skill's support level, or add new supports, to increase the Skill's rarity level. This is a one-time message.

Skill evolved! Mana Manipulation [Common] (0/3 -> 1/3) Allows the user to manipulate claimed mana in accordance with his affinities, structuring all mana the soul manipulates in mana-perfect form. Mana-perfect mana constructs are structurally perfect, and have zero mana leakage. This Skill has achieved slight proficiency in Pure mana (1). My first Skill 'unboxed.' Nice. He noted the new last line, the (1) there, and the (1/3) next to the Skill rarity.

It wasn't the most interesting update; all it added was the line in italics indicating proficiency level, which was the basic support Skill that all Skills had. But he still liked that it verified his sense that he'd realized something new in the Skill. He also noticed his essence reserves—the essence he'd taken in on the light rail, reserved for Class Leveling—had decreased slightly, which was unexpected. Is that also Class level progress, from just practicing a Skill? Using mana, maybe?

You'd gain Class levels by gaining experience in your Class, which was usually Dueling or Delving… Suppose it makes sense using magic also counts as Mage experience. Twenty minutes passed, and in this time he considered his next steps. Then he was on his feet at the center of the station. New strings of mana materialized with a wave of his hand, and it felt slightly easier than half an hour before. Let's see if I can't—'crystallize.' Crystallize. Crystallize.

It really is so much harder than making a Mana Shield, even just the level of specificity and willpower you have to put into every try. A second hour went by like this. Close to a third. It wasn't lost on him, in this time, he was making use of 1% of what this station was capable of, but— surely I have to be close by now.

While at first the crystallizing would apply unevenly across the strands, or it'd come with structural defects that made the mana quite brittle, it felt like almost every new attempt refined his Skill. The time his mana took to crystallize was also slashed, from thirty seconds to under ten. He willed his crystallize slightly harder, slightly faster and Mana Manipulation itself seemed to respond, helping him realize his will. Until finally— Skill evolved!

Mana Manipulation [Common] (1/3 -> 2/3) Allows the user to manipulate claimed mana in accordance with his affinities, structuring all mana the soul manipulates in mana-perfect form. Mana-perfect mana constructs are structurally perfect, and have zero mana leakage. This Skill has achieved slight proficiency in Pure mana (1), including slight proficiency in hard constructs (1). He smiled, wiped away a little sweat— why am I sweating? I've barely even moved. Also, apparently virtual bodies can sweat.

The more you know. That's another new line in the description, which makes two points — support levels? — out of three. Surely I can get this Skill fully upgraded. He knew he could do that by increasing the proficiency of either his basic Pure mana support, or its hard constructs sub-support—increasing either from 'slight' to 'fair' would give him that final +1. But he could go in a slightly different direction and also get a +1 to the Skill, and likely faster. It was time to try out another affinity.

Hopefully this time with a little more success? We'll see.