Chương 49: Chapter 43

Getting rid of the monsters heading toward the Lightcaller had been almost too simple once he didn't have to regulate how much mana his Skills consumed. The ordeal itself was straightforward. And once Eren was able to fend for himself, Hakon could finally join the others at the 'main' battlefield further behind. Björn looked like a mess, blood running down his well-trained body in streams. Antler fragments stuck out of his chest and right upper arm, with one whole antler lodged deep in his abdomen.

Not that he seemed to notice. Björn severed the head of the beast attached to the antler before ramming his war axe into the Terror Deer's skull, splitting it in two. With that taken care of, he pushed onward, leaping into the masses with a manic smile. The Blessed warrior's combat style was destructive, yet it was not the most lethal. It wasn't as bloody either. Astrid, on the other hand, was both bloody and deadly. She was drenched in blood, probably her enemies', and so was the area around her.

A familiar crimson hue oozed from her body, fluctuating as soon as she burst forth. Using her Runeskin, Astrid danced around a group of six Terror Deer with grace and swiftness. Her daggers flashed through the air, leaving red marks on her targets with practiced ease. The wounds burst open moments later, flooding the surroundings with even more blood. Hakon expected Astrid to outperform Björn, but he did not expect her to be this powerful.

Then again, he had to remind himself that Blood Fury worked best against larger groups. The more blood there was, the greater Blood Fury benefited her. As he maintained [Pack Coordination] and joined their fight against tens of frenzied Terror Deer thirsting for their lives, he quickly realized that he was not as needed as he had first suspected. Björn was doing his own thing regardless, and Astrid never truly needed him. That gave him time to focus on his own abilities.

Crusher was back with Eren, resting near a lifeless deer, and that was fine. He didn't want to rely too much on the reward the Ancestors gave him for completing a Deed just because it would make things easier. To truly grow, he would have to suffer. Doing so required him to push a plethora of Skills to their limit. [Split Focus]' passive effect was useful, but he currently had enough mana to push it further than ever before. So that's what he did.

It felt like his mind grew sharper than it had been before splitting apart. The sensation was no longer as confusing as it had been, but it still felt like the voices in his head had quadrupled. While that did not necessarily include the prompts of his Ancient Power, it did affect Enhanced Comprehension as soon as he activated the other Skills. [Mana Sense], [Sensory Expansion], and [Flow Observation] activated simultaneously, consuming a considerable amount of mana.

If not for the recent level-up, Hakon wouldn't have unraveled their full power, but the Skills were needed for what came next. Mana pumped through his entire body without triggering [Circulation]. However, he did trigger [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Shaping] as he extended his senses beyond his physical shell. Mana flowed outward, forming several spheres at will. He narrowed his eyes at the fluctuating structures floating before him and lobbed one through the air.

It struck one of the Terror Deer closest to him but failed to do any damage. The mana sphere barely sustained itself long enough in the first place. Most of the mana within dissipated in the air before it splashed against the target, leaving it more baffled than anything. Heat rose to his cheeks when Astrid appeared beside his target, her blades carving deep gashes across its neck. She raised an eyebrow at Hakon but was fortunately distracted by the bleating monsters charging at her.

Brushing the embarrassment aside, he shaped one of the mana spheres into a blade. It was rough and fluctuated even more wildly than the sphere had, but it didn't dissipate right away. Closing in on one of the Terror Deer with [Stealth], he reached for the mana blade, his intent clear. Alas, the execution failed miserably. While he felt something when his fingers coiled around the mana blade, clutching it shattered the construct. Eyes narrowed, Hakon shaped another mana sphere into a dagger.

He didn't follow the sense of wrongness from his Ancient Power right away and instead watched as the construct formed before his eyes. Reaching out with [Mana Sense], [Mana Manipulation], and [Mana Shaping], he tightened his control over the weapon before releasing it at the distracted target. The structure didn't lose any of its mana as it crossed the short distance, yet it couldn't have done more damage than a feather. If anything, the mana blade tickled the target as it impacted.

The mana within burst in all directions, and the Terror Deer's head yanked to the side. Hakon groaned and conjured a [Mote of Light] in the monster's face. A moment later, [Circulation] burst to life, and he closed in on the beast with his shortsword in hand. The execution was swift and merciful. He doubted the monster even realized what happened when it collapsed to the ground. Unfortunately, the Terror Deer's death didn't solve the issue at hand. If anything, it annoyed him more than before.

He had to search for a new target, which had grown into a problem. One reason was the monsters' brethren collapsing dead to the ground right beside them. [Stealth] was great for staying hidden, but hiding a broad-shouldered Barbarian in the center of a clearing was too much even for such a cowardly Skill. With that in mind, Hakon pumped an immense amount of mana into his next mana sphere. The other conjurations dispersed from a lack of focus, while the one before him expanded rapidly.

The influx of mana ebbed down, the gains from his level-up complete, but that mattered little. There is no weight to mana. He concluded this after analyzing the latest of his conjurations. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. No matter how he shaped and shifted the mana before him, it didn't change the core issue. It wasn't a physical structure. Not like that, at least. Fire could be destructive even if it did not have physical weight.

The same could be said of water. Once boiled, water would evaporate, and–that was something he'd learned in the harshest of winters the tribe had faced in many cycles–it could also freeze. What did that mean? Hakon did not know yet, but he felt like mana wasn't too different from fire or water. It was everything, yet nothing. Rootkeepers, Lightcaller, as well as any other Barbarian had the same type of energy.

Sure, it might feel like they were different, but if they were truly all that different, Hakon wouldn't have been able to replicate Eren's Skill, [Mote of Light], let alone Astrid's [River of Blood]. His recreations consumed far more mana, and they were nowhere near as effective, but that was no permanent issue. It was something he could solve by improving his Skills. All he needed was time and effort. Mana was everything in a way, was it not?

Again, he had no idea how true that was, but he'd heard, read, and seen enough to know that it was possible to change mana's structure. Its frequency. He had done so himself already with [Mote of Light]. But to make it more tangible, to give it physical weight and more structure wouldn't be that easy. Not with mana feeling more like evaporated water–like the mist that obscured parts of the forest near the mountains. That left him with the massive mana sphere floating before him.

How was he supposed to turn something with the same physical structure as mist into water, let alone ice? Modifying its frequency to add some weight to it should help, but it wouldn't be enough. Still, he tried anyway. The sound of battle faded as soon as he focused on the task ahead. Adding 'weight' to mana was weird, but it was nowhere near as difficult as manipulating mana to glow. He watched the sphere shrink in size while it grew more difficult to control.

Putting the difficulty aside, Hakon added more mana as soon as he noticed that the sphere fluctuated more than before. Mana oozed from several spots, dissipating into the surroundings, which was most certainly not what Hakon wanted. He created more thin, elongated mana shapes to place across the leaks, like one would use cloth on a wound. Barbarians would have to wait until their Skills healed their wounds before removing the bandages, but Hakon did not have that luxury.

He placed more and more mana bandages across the shrinking sphere, following a mixture of instincts, lackluster knowledge, and Enhanced Comprehension's prompts. The power pushed him in two directions, one of which felt like a rocky, obscured path, while the other was… well, it felt like a well-trodden path. Even if Hakon liked challenges, he was in the middle of combat and couldn't let the challenge consume him, so he followed the simpler direction.

Several prompts popped up as he worked, his senses fully locked on the structure forming before him. But neither [Flow Observation] nor [Mana Sense] lingered on the sphere for too long. Hakon turned his attention to the patches he had created to close the mana leaks. They resembled bandages at first, but it wasn't long before they coated the sphere, forcefully maintaining its stability.

The sphere could still shrink, but the layer of mana coating it shrank alongside it, making sure it wouldn't flicker and destabilize once more. Once the layer of mana formed, it was like he had stepped through a door of opportunities he hadn't known existed. It wasn't like he suddenly understood everything he was capable of, but more possibilities formed in his head the longer his attention lingered on the mana structure before him–his conjuration.

With countless ideas popping up in his mind, Hakon was about to try something new when several stings surged through his chest. Looking down, his Runeskin was glowing dimly. It absorbed some of the impacting force of a Terror Deer crashing into him, yet that did not stop the monster's pointed antlers from digging through his skin and flesh. [Pain Tolerance] transformed the burning pain into a fickle wick, but his concentration faltered nonetheless.

The mana sphere burst apart, and he nearly lost the path he had been working toward. Furious and unable to rein in his emotions quickly enough, Hakon erupted. Mana burst from his fingers instantaneously, coating his hand just as it had covered the mana sphere previously. It was about to spread up his arms but slowed and went rigid suddenly as soon as Hakon shot forward, punching the Terror Deer in the face. A soft crack rang in his ears, but he wasn't done yet.

The deer tried to pull away or to ram the antler deeper into Hakon's chest, yet it was to no avail. Punches rained down upon the antler, smashing it to smithereens, before he did the same to the monster. Blood and brain matter splattered through the air, yet neither belonged to Hakon. His fists were still pristine, a faint azure membrane protecting his skin and knuckles. [Skill [Reinforcement] has been learned.] [Proficiency gained. [Reinforcement Lv. 1] improved to [Reinforcement Lv. 2]] That was not exactly the type of Skill he had been working toward… or was it? Staring down at the monster crumbling to the ground, his eyes narrowed. The layer of mana covering his fists receded at his command, but the pain did not. [Pain Tolerance]'s effect diminished slightly, assaulting him with crunching pain in his fists and searing stings in his chest.

"Far from perfect," he grumbled, his hands trembling as he tried to regain control of them. He went on to pluck fragments of deer antler out of his chest and turned to yet another Terror Deer mowing its way toward him. Hakon knew Astrid could have intervened, but she had intentionally opened a path to funnel monsters toward him. Utilizing [Mana Shaping] once more, he created a new mana sphere. The sphere ought to have been as heavy as his earlier creation, but it wasn't quite there yet.

If he had a few more heartbeats, that would have changed. Alas, time was of the essence. Hence, [Reinforcement] came into play. Hakon had yet to fully analyze the Skill, but [Reinforcement] had some physical characteristics to it. If not for that, it wouldn't have repelled blood and brain matter. That didn't make it perfect; however, it was one step in the right direction. Shaping the mana sphere into a flat shield, Hakon used [Reinforcement] to coat it and watched as the Terror Deer crashed right into it.

Enhanced Comprehension screamed at him, unraveling several possible paths he could take to acquire a plethora of new Skills, but he didn't plan on acquiring something of little use. The Terror Deer was slowed by the shield of mana, but it broke through and continued to charge. That was until a small blade the size of a bone dagger materialized before the monster's chest. There was some distance between the blade and the monster, but it was at top speed and didn't seem to notice it.

With [Reinforcement] active and pushed to its limit, his mana reserves were affected more than expected, and that was fine. Because the mana coating the conjured blade added a physical layer to it. It still shattered, but not before cutting deep into the Terror Deer's chest as it charged straight into the blade.

"Better," he grunted, imprinting everything he had done deep into his mind. While it was nowhere near perfect, Hakon was satisfied. How could he not be after taking the first step toward something big? He had no idea what awaited him at the end of his path, but he was looking forward to it.