Chương 274: Chapter 263

Half an hour later, Sam found himself in the middle of the training field, with the entire area a mess. After the first laser, he tried to shape the new energy in all sorts of shapes, starting from cubes to cylinders, pyramids, and everything in between. The ground of the training field looked like it was missing a lot of dirt, with the holes having rather eclectic shapes.

As he looked around, he thought that it looked like somebody found the shape delete function in their 3D editing software and went a little too trigger-happy. All in all, he was very proud of what he had made. It wasn't something that the other Sam had seen in his lifetime, and the man spent an inordinate time watching all sorts of duels, fights, and battles on the internet to hopefully glean some kind of information that would propel him upward in the power charts.

With short but precise motions of his feet, a small bump of ground rose behind him, quickly transforming into an approximation of a chair, and he fell backward, relaxed.

'I really should have done this a long time ago…' he mused as he took a deep breath and brought up his system screen. During this whole debacle in Sunspot, then the lessons at the Mage Tower, and finally his 'self-expression' here at the training field he made sure to keep it away as he wanted to see the entire thing together. [You have over a hundred notifications!] [Expand?] He rubbed his hands together in anticipation and clicked on the expand button.

Instantly, dozens of different screens exploded, and moved around in his vision, then they merged, separated, disappeared, reappeared, and mixed with all new ones. It was as if the system was doing the entire calculation for his gains in real time, or at least showing him how convoluted it had been. It took around five minutes before the system settled down and he could finally start reading the things it was showing him. [You participated in a divine ritual! You receive +1 LUK!] [You have leveled up!] [You are now Level 104!] [Gained 6 unassigned attribute points!] [Thanks to your protective actions, you gained +2 END, +1 DEX!] With his first action, he quickly assigned five to Vitality to bring it above 40 and one more to Perception. Then he continued to read. [You have received several skill level-ups, however, a new action has invalidated these!] [You managed to recreate magic thought to be lost!] [You gained the title, True Magician!] [True Magician: You discovered something that has been lost, but instead of creating a theoretical model, you actually managed to cast the magic. Increases damage with mana-based skills by 1% and decreases mana cost universally by 1%.] [You discovered the concept of Nothingness. It is not the absence of everything, but the immutable nature of the universe.] [Nothingness, or Void, is about absence, but paradoxically also contains everything that makes up the universe. You tapped into a small part of this duality and managed to make it your own.] Sam had to blink reading that sentence. It kind of made sense, but honestly, he had no idea what the hell the system was talking about. He kind of felt that it was a quest hook, but he had no idea how to activate it. Even then, the changes he expected from it made him rather excited. The title already was something that not many people could achieve. For once, he had some knowledge about this.

It was one of those important titles that was actually limited in how many people could get them. One of the ways to get it was how he did it. That is, to discover a forgotten or new type of magic, or to master an already known magic in a new way. Seeing that the number of magic types was limited, thus the number of titles that could be gained was also limited.

There were rumors in the other Sam's life that one particular mage managed to get the title twice, but nobody could prove it and the person never talked about it. [You are granted the skills Void Manipulation, Void Affinity, and Void Soul!] [Void Manipulation has absorbed Wind Mana Manipulation, and all associated skills, Shadow of the Dragon and all associated skills, Advanced Clean I, and all associated skills.] [Void Affinity has absorbed Greater Wind Affinity, Greater Shadow Affinity, and Cleaning Affinity.] [Void Soul has absorbed Mana Infused Body, Pure Body, Basic Elemental Resistance, and Shadow Resistance.] [The absorbed skills all increase the initial level of the new skills.] Sam let out a shaky breath with a small smile. This would actually make his life much easier. He would only need to focus on a few skills to grow, instead of a dozen. Plus, with the changes, his enemies – whose exact numbers he rather didn't want to know – who were all preparing for Shadow and Wind mana, would be in for a big surprise.

Curious, he opened the skills and began to read. [Void Manipulation: Level 13 (0%) (Active/Passive) You managed to manipulate nothing and everything at once. You made nothing out of something while using nothing made out of something. This allows you to manipulate the void or one of its constituents separately. Gain a 1% increase in damage and cast speed for each level in the skill for void and basic elemental spells and skills. Decrease mana cost by 1% for each level in the skill for void and basic elemental spells and skills. Basic elements include Shadow-type mana. With knowledge comes understanding, and with understanding comes power. Gain 0, 2% True Damage for each skill level. Activating the spell, you can do the following: This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Shape Void: Shape the void into the desired aspect and unleash it. Absorb Void: Use the void to absorb material or energy. All the absorbed skills and subskills' passive effects are also absorbed and incorporated into this skill.] It was a rather long skill with an even longer expandable list for the absorbed skills and subskills, but to his happiness, it was a completed skill! [Void Affinity: Level 14 (0%) (Passive) You touched upon the concept of Nothingness and it, in turn, touched you. Decreases mana cost by 1% for each level in the skill for basic elemental and void spells and skills. Grants you a limited affinity to all the basic elements that you hadn't had before acquiring this skill, set at Level 30, which cannot be increased. The cost of those basic elemental spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 0, 5% for each skill level (15%). Wind, Shadow, and Clean affinity have been set to Level 100, but cannot be increased further. The cost of clean-type spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 0, 5% for each skill level (50%). The cost of wind and shadow-type spells and skills is reduced and their power is increased by 1% for each skill level (100%). Their damage is also increased by 0, 5% for each skill level (50%). The burden of containing nothingness has increased the difficulty of molding mana. Increased mana cost by 1% per skill level and 0, 2% per personal level. All the absorbed skills and subskills' passive effects are also absorbed and incorporated into this skill.] It really simplified his skill tree with these consolidations. Although he never expected to acquire this type of mana, he was pretty happy. He doubted any of his enemies would be able to make sense of it. Plus, he still could use his previous spells, so he could be all sneaky and tactical instead of going all in with it.

The increased mana cost was a little bothersome, but the rest of his skills compensated for it. [Void Soul: Level 21 (0%) (Passive) The void has touched your body, irrevocably altering it. It may feel as if nothing changed, but rest assured, everything is different. The void has fused with your body, filling the emptiness with nothingness. Gives a flat increase of +15 to STR, AGI, END, and +1 to LUCK. Any incoming skill or spell that would negatively affect your body is decreased by 1, 5% per skill level. For every 100 Mana Points, it grants you 5 Base Health Gains. For every skill level, it increases Health Regeneration by 0, 5. For every 200 Health Points, it grants you +1 Stamina Regeneration. The void permeating your body grants you resistance against the basic elements, setting the skill level to Level 100. Your resistance against the basic elements, including shadows is increased by 1% by each skill level (100%). The skill further grants a flat 10% defense against True Damage.] Now Sam was really surprised.

Defense against True Damage? Something that went through all defenses? That sounded awesome. Sadly, it was only a flat increase, but well, a few minutes ago, he didn't even know it was possible. He spent almost half an hour just reading and rereading his new skills, trying to slot the new knowledge into his brain and recalibrating his goals and strategies. Sam also took the time to rearrange his menu screens a little. He had a feeling that not many people would like the absorbing aspect of his new magic.

'I wonder if that mage in the Tower knew what was going to happen?' he mused absently as he began to quickly go over the rest of the notifications. [Perfect Mana Core is now Level 20!] [Mana Scales is now Level 139!] [Mana Weaving is now Level 19!] [Mana Body Infusion is now Level 15!] [Mana Architecture is now Level 38!] [Battle Meditation is now Level 89!] [Illusionary Stealth is now Level 8!] [Field Healer is now Level 6!] [Adamant Spirit Link is now Level 14!] [Spirit Protection is now Level 46!] [The Way of the Forerunner is now Level 52!] [Thanks to surviving many things that you shouldn't been able to, you gain the Death Clarity subskill!] [Death Clarity: Level MAX (MAX%) (Passive) When close to death's door, your mind is sharpened and everything around you slows down. This effect lasts for a minute or until you die.] [Physical and Magical Resistance is now Level 10!] [Corruption Resistance is now Level 47!] [Blood Magic Resistance is now Level 45!] [Adaptive Coordination is now Level 66!] [Combinatorics is now Level 5!] [Lightbulb Moment is now Level 5!] [Master Runecarver is now Level 23!] Altogether a very nice haul for a few days of backbreaking, mindboggling adventure that almost fried his brain. He was standing up and getting ready to leave when he heard a strangled scream. Turning around, he saw Lara staring at the once pristine training field with wide eyes.

"What the hell happened to my training field?"

"Shit!" Sam cursed under his breath while standing up and smiling at his friend. As Lara's wide eyes, which were transitioning from surprise into anger, landed on him, his own eyes widened and he looked behind the woman and pointed.

"Dear god! Is that Dan, half naked, wrestling with a bear?" In Lara's defense, she only turned halfway before she realized the ruse, but Sam was already too far away. Though, he still heard the threats to his body and dignity… Arriving back in the city, he was about to head to his Master's workshop to see how the gate project was going and maybe indulge in some revenge plotting for that asshole back in Sunspot when his messenger began to ring. He picked it up immediately when he saw who was calling.

On the screen that appeared, he saw Dan and behind him Katie and Isabella as they were harvesting some kind of monster.

"Sup?"

"Found this," came the report as he held up some kind of totem, holding it carefully with some kind of cloth. Made sense as the totem's eyes were constantly leaking something that looked suspiciously like blood.

"Where?" Instantly, Dan held up a map where his location was marked.

"Hmm. That's over the border, but not by much. That's the first you guys found?"

"Yeah! Called you the moment we killed the monster guarding it. What do you want us to do with it?" Sam spent a few moments thinking, idly rubbing his chin.

"You guys remember the cleansing ritual?" Dan nodded as he held the totem as far away from himself as possible.

"Yeah. Want us to perform it on the totem?"

"Yes. I want to see what happens," Sam replied.

"if nothing, then just burn it, and the surrounding area. Then go around and see if you can find any more of them."

"Got it, boss!" Dan answered with an awkward salute, almost touching the totem to his temple before the screen vanished.

'Hmm… I wonder, were those put there before I did my thing, or after…' An hour later, as he was sitting in one of the already functioning cafés, going over some general paperwork for the town, the notification of a call appeared again. As he accepted it, instead of Dan or the girls, he saw a small meadow filled with luscious green grass and a bevy of beautiful flowers, all with vivid red petals shining under the sun. Dan simply gestured at it, his muscular arms appearing on the screen.

"This is what happened… The girls already took samples," he reported rather professionally.

"Do you want us to keep going?" Sam grinned.

"Hell yes! Make sure to find as many of those things as possible. Also, make sure to update Adam about their positions."

"Got it! Anything else?"

"Out of curiosity, what did those totems do?" he asked. The screen spun around a little and once again he was face to face with Dan, who just shrugged.

"Not much. Gave local wildlife a healthy amount of bloodlust and some increased strength, but I suspect we caught it early. If it was left on its own…" Sam grimaced.

"Yeah, probably a monster invasion…" Dan nodded in agreement.

"My thoughts exactly." Sam thought for a moment before asking.

"Hey, is Hawky able to fly back here?" Dan thought about it for a moment before nodding.

"You want the samples?"

"Mostly the blood from the totems. I want to see if I can sense them…" Dan grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

"Those bloody assholes won't know what hit them when they show their face!"