Chương 59: (B2 Chapter 10)

You may choose to upgrade your Class to Arcane Assassin, or choose to remain as an Assassin. Arcane Assassin! Sounds exactly like what I have been working towards! And the class is highlighted in blue, meaning it's a rare class! I immediately conveyed my intention of upgrading to Arcane Assassin, afraid the system might remove the class upgrade if I took too long. I didn't really need to think much about this decision; it had been exactly what I had been working towards.

The screen disappeared, and everything within me changed. Deep within my chest, something stirred awake, and started changing something fundamental in me. All over my body, I got a tingling feeling, as a strong presence of what I knew as mana rushed throughout my body. The mana completed a few quick cycles through my body, seeming to strengthen wherever it passed through. The sensations ended as soon as they started, and a new system screen showed up. Congratulations!

Your Class has been upgraded to Arcane Assassin. You shall receive 2 Agility, 2 Intelligence, and 1 Dexterity with every level up from now. You have received the Skill: Arcane Comprehension (Passive) Great! I'll now receive 2 Intelligence, that solves my mana problems. No stats to Wisdom though, which is a bit of a bummer, but I have the free stats to invest in it so it's not a big deal, I guess. I got another passive skill as well, and I think it would help me in understanding mana better based off its name.

I was just about to throw off a wind bolt spell, when I felt a rush of heat rapidly approach me from the right side. I instinctively used quick step and launched forward. The world slowed down, and I looked to the right to see a fox had released its fire spell at me. I berated myself for getting distracted by the class upgrade and the shiny new skill in the middle of the road right next to a dead fox, but I got distracted quite quickly yet again. My eyes were fixated on the slow-moving fire spell.

All of a sudden, I knew a lot about the spell. It was made primarily of fire mana, with a little air mana inside to perhaps act as a source of combustion. The spell was designed to burst upon impact; the aim being to scorch and burn rather than penetrate. The mana was neatly arranged in a very specific pattern that allowed the mana to flow throughout the spell. Quick step then ended, and the world snapped back into its original speed. The fire spell sped up and splashed against the road, scorching it.

I stared absentmindedly at the spot the fire spell had hit, before I caught another approaching spell out of the corner of my eye. I sidestepped it easily without even using quick step, and stared at the passing spell once again, absolutely taken aback at the knowledge I was gaining. This time, I paid closer attention to when it splashed against the road, and I understood that the mana had been designed to forcefully break-apart its spell formation upon impact, resulting in a small blast.

The fox had started making yet another spell while I was busy playing around with my latest skill. Before it had the chance to release it, I rushed towards the far slower fox and put it out of its misery easily. I then went under concealed presence, and my attention was yet again pulled towards the latest spell that Arcane Comprehension could dissect. I now knew that the mana in concealed presence was designed much differently than the fire spell from the fox.

The mana in this spell was arranged in a manner that not only allowed light to flow around it instead of hit it and bounce off, but it also stopped any light, sound, or smell from leaving its boundary. The more I looked at my spell the more, and at the same time, the less, I understood. I now knew that concealed presence also did something to the light flowing around it so that a distorted figure of bent light didn't show for the others, but what it did I couldn't understand.

This is going to take some getting used to. I got an idea and switched on Mana Sense, and an instant information overload hit me with force. I snapped my head back instinctively and closed my eyes as an intense pain shot through my head. It was the worst pain I had ever felt, and I couldn't do anything else apart from fall to my knees and press my hands against my eyes in a desperate attempt at making the extreme pulsing pain go away. This story originates from a different website.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Some time later, I wasn't sure how much, a sudden wave of relief spread over me. The pain dulled, but didn't go away. Still, it was enough that I could attempt to open my eyes. I blinked through the tears and looked around. I was on the ground in the middle of the road, surrounded by the two dead fox bodies. Mercifully, nothing had come by while I was laying on the ground helplessly, but I needed to get up and get away from the road.

Not daring to use concealed presence, I instead got up on still shaky legs and entered the first building I saw. It was probably idiotic to hide so close to two fox bodies, but I didn't really care at the moment. All my attention was focused on trying to stop my head from throbbing. I went through the entrance and reached the stairs, climbing a few stories before going to a hall and sliding down right there. Sharp pulses of pain kept going through my head, and I couldn't think or do anything.

I sat there, forcefully keeping my eyes open and trying to stay alert enough just in case something decided to attack. Time passed, and at periodic intervals that I soon realized aligned with my health regeneration rate, a wave of relief would spread through me, decreasing the pain slightly each time. It soon got to a point that I was finally able to sit up straight and actually think. What was that…?

It had seemed like using Mana Sense had triggered an information explosion through Arcane Comprehension, and my brain just wasn't strong enough at the moment to 'comprehend' everything that had been thrown at me. My best guess right now was that I needed either more intelligence, or wisdom, or both, before I could attempt both skills at the same time again. Perhaps I would need to cross over the next threshold in both stats, whenever that occurred. Isn't Arcane Comprehension always active as a passive skill though?

Does that mean I can't use Mana Sense…? That was a seriously messed up thing if it were true. And it really did look like it was true, as I didn't know if passive skills could even be switched off. Wait… can they…? I hadn't ever tried it, and I wanted to try it out right now, but my head was still in pain, so I figured waiting a bit longer was the smarter thing to do. Meanwhile, I thought about my new skill. Apart from almost giving me an aneurism, the skill was amazing!

It felt like I had learned more about mana and how it worked in a few minutes when compared to all the experimenting I had done on my own. However, I had clearly discovered a downside of passive skills, and I needed to be careful about getting more of them, especially if they couldn't be turned off somehow. I also thought about Mana Sense. It was an amazing skill that I couldn't afford to lose.

Sure, it was probably a temporary loss, and Arcane Comprehension more than made up for the loss by the sheer depth of insight it provided, but I didn't want to lose the sense of wonder and discovery that Mana Sense brought me. Moreover, I was of the belief that using them both at the same time would accelerate my understanding significantly. Another thing that came to mind was my new class, Arcane Assassin, and getting just one single skill.

I had thought once I got a class that combined magic and assassination that it would give me a hybrid skill of some sort, perhaps allowing me to imbue mana within my dagger or something like that. Instead, all I had gotten was a skill that allowed me to understand mana better. Was this the system being as stingy as ever, or was the system hinting at me to continue down the experimenting and self-learning path I was currently walking on?

Thoughts kept circulating my mind before finally the pain in my head completely stopped. I sat up a bit straighter, and opened my status to confirm that all my resources were full. Closing the status, I thought of switching off Arcane Comprehension. I waited, but nothing really happened. I started concealed presence, and immediately the mana patterns and their nuances started going through my mind. I made my intent of wanting to switch off the passive skill as clear as I could, but the skill didn't die down.

Maybe there's a functionality in the status screen… I re-opened my status, and then conveyed my intention of stopping Arcane Comprehension. Nothing changed, and I still kept getting small insights into what the mana was doing in concealed presence. I kept trying for the next few minutes, but no matter what variation of 'stop Arcane Comprehension' I tried, nothing worked. With a sigh, I let go of concealed presence and the passive skill died down as well. This is a bit troublesome…

Tactical Insight was also a passive skill, but it had a 'trigger' when it would show its effect. That 'trigger' was when I thought of attacking something. It seemed like Arcane Comprehension also had a 'trigger' that activated it, but it was much more troublesome. It started working as soon as I could sense any Mana being used, no matter who was using it. It didn't matter if I wanted the skill to work or not, it would simply start dissecting anything with mana that I could sense.

It didn't work all the time as I couldn't sense mana in the environment without using Mana Sense, but as soon as that skill was used, Arcane Comprehension tried to make sense of every mana thread that was present. It looked like I would have to get used to the skill's effect, especially since we were going into the dungeon soon. Oh! I remembered something, and immediately opened my inventory, taking out the Ability Upgrade Token. Maybe I needed to have a rare class to have my ability advance…?

With excitement coursing through me, I tried using the token. Disappointingly, the same error system screen showed up. I sadly put the token away, but then took out the rare skill stone. I remembered that I had wanted to use this once I got a class upgrade, and I didn't really have any reason to delay it any longer. As soon as I held it in my hand, a system screen showed up. Would you like to use Skill Stone (Rare)?