Chương 50: Chapter 44

Hakon paid more attention to his structures than the fights around him. He trusted that the others would be fine, for one, and he was slowly starting to get the hang of it. And while he had yet to fall into a trance, his condition was not too far off either. Exhaling deeply, mana flowed into the conjured weapon in steady streams. When that wasn't enough, [Mana Infusion] triggered, flooding the structure with even more mana. That, against Hakon's expectations, worked much better than anticipated.

Sure, the conjuration cracked from the pressure coming from within, and a lot of mana poured out of it even faster than it had from the previous conjuration. The mana structure's integrity was clearly not as durable as it should have been. That was yet another thing Hakon added to his to-do list as he cast [Reinforcement] to stop the leak temporarily.

The layer of [Reinforcement] rippled and threatened to break apart as the mana from within ravaged the structure, so Hakon released the blade before it could fall apart. He attacked the injured monster even though it was already on the ground, its chest heaving heavily as blood pooled around it. The strike ended the Terror Deer's suffering before the conjuration destabilized and fell apart. While that was much better than anticipated, it was nowhere near the level Hakon wanted.

If anything, it showed him several more things he had to fix and improve. That's not it. I need to do something else. Reinforcing the conjuration worked, but its stability was important as well. Thinking back to the states of mist, water, and ice, Hakon was reminded of something else entirely. He couldn't quite tell why he thought about them, but turning to watch the others fight made him think of the training ground and the Ironwood dummies they'd used before the Rite.

Following that, Hakon thought of the hay dummies they'd thrashed when they were smaller children. Hay. It was nowhere near as tough as Ironwood. If anything, it wasn't all that special, yet it withstood the violent antics of dozens of children once compressed and reinforced. Hakon did reinforce his structures already, which left him with 'compression'. Could that work? He wondered, leaning heavily on [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Shaping] to conjure a sphere the size of his head.

But it didn't stay that large for long as he compressed it with raw willpower. That worked much better than anticipated, as the sphere shrank to half its size.

"More," Hakon grunted, pressing down even further. It was harder, and a headache crawled up the back of his mind, but he pushed further until the sphere was the size of an apple. At that point, the structure was much harder to control. His control nearly slipped several times, and hairline cracks spread across its surface, yet no mana leaked. Hakon used [Reinforcement] nonetheless, strengthening the structure only to press down further. That turned out to be too much.

He was already having a hard time maintaining so many Skills, but the real problem was [Mana Manipulation]'s level. It was simply not at a high enough level to support the ideas forming in Hakon's mind. And that was exactly why he had to keep going. To push further, forcing his Skills to advance under pressure. But that required time, a lot more mana, and a gargantuan amount of effort. For now, Hakon could only watch a group of Terror Deer charge his way.

The small sphere hovering before him shifted slowly at his command, but it didn't transform into a blade. The conjuration's pressure was already too much for him to bear, every modification was harder on the mind and his mana reserves than the last. With that in mind, all Hakon did was give the sphere a pointed tip. Even that transformed the light headache into a mind-splitting catastrophe, but it worked.

A burst of mana was all the pointed sphere needed to shoot forward and pierce through the closest Terror Deer's skull. The monster collapsed to the ground a heartbeat later, which was followed by several prompts trying to catch his attention. They were prompts he couldn't check because there were simply too many, irritating Hakon more than ever, and he still had to face several Terror Deer thirsting for his blood. Unfortunately, it was their blood that would be shed.

For the Ancestors, and, in a way, for himself as well.

Heavy breaths filled the corpse-ridden clearing. No one escaped the fight unscathed. Except Astrid, maybe, but while she did not get physically injured, the constant use of her Ancient Power and Runeskin wore her down as well. She was just as drained as everyone else. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Hakon was the first to regain his bearings.

He did not jump to his feet right away but checked up on the others, even when his blurry vision made things more difficult. Björn looked like a mess. His whole upper body was riddled with holes the size of a fingertip, some of which were still bleeding or stuffed with fragments of an unfortunate deer's antler. But as bad as Björn looked, his healing was monstrous enough to keep him alive. It wouldn't surprise Hakon if the Blessed warrior's wounds would heal faster than his own.

Looking down at his body, he could only shrug. His wounds were not all that bad, but his mana reserves were empty. After earning a Level earlier, Hakon did not think about holding back for a moment. That came back to bite him now that [Natural Regeneration] couldn't use his mana to heal him faster. One more thing to add to the list. He mused to himself. While it was not a major problem, [Circulation] was good enough of a Skill to help him replenish mana.

It empowered him and helped him catch up to physical monstrosities like Björn, but its secondary ability to suck in ambient mana was subpar. That would have to change sooner or later. Shifting his attention to Eren, Hakon felt pretty good. The Lightcaller had nearly been stomped to death by a group of Terror Deer, which, in a way, had been his fault, but he made it through. He was battered black and blue, and his chest was riddled with quite a few holes as well, but he was the only one overflowing with mana.

How could he not be after leveling up twice in a single fight? Eren had yet to reach the 1st Ascension, which was quite the surprise considering he'd fought and killed monsters strong enough to pose a 'Medium Threat' to Barbarians at the lower Levels of the 1st Ascension, but that only showed how low his Level had been. And that might be the most important part: it demonstrated quite clearly that Lightcaller did not necessarily have to be weak. Eren understood that as well.

If not, he wouldn't be leaning against a tree trunk with that toothy smile, chuckling to himself from time to time even though that had to be incredibly painful. Björn looked satisfied with himself, and so did Astrid. Everyone was happy with the result, Hakon included. He noticed the others were looking to the side, their eyes shimmering in a very familiar way. They checked out their improvements, studying the Ancient Scripture, so he did the same. The Scriptures didn't wait for him to call upon them.

They materialized before him the moment he stopped blocking them out. [Proficiency gained. [Throwing Lv. 5] improved to [Throwing Lv. 6]] [Proficiency gained. [Intimidation Lv. 3] improved to [Intimidation Lv. 4]] [Proficiency gained. [Inspection Lv. 8] improved to [Inspection Lv. 9]] … There were way too many Scriptures, each looking exactly the same to Hakon. It felt like there were dozens, and more of them popped up whenever the ones he had just checked faded. The more he read, the more annoyed he became.

"Change something." He let out a loud groan, dismissing his friends when their heads swiveled in his direction. Please change the Scripture, Ancestors. I know that's possible. We did it with the Ancient Scripture, so… can you make it more simplistic, please? Waste less space and don't distract me in combat anymore. He called out to the Ancestors, sincerely hoping they were listening. His attention snapped back to the Scriptures a moment later. [Proficiency gained. [Pack Coordination Lv. 3] improved to [Pack Coordination Lv. 4]] [Proficiency gained. [Pack Coordination Lv. 4] improved to [Pack Coordination Lv. 5]] … Hakon was close to complaining to the Ancestors. If they could listen to his requests about the Ancient Scripture, changing up the Scriptures shouldn't be so difficult, right? Fortunately, the Ancestors did not warrant his complaints. They deserved high praise instead, as the Scriptures before him melded together.

The Scriptures' letters moved and shifted around before his eyes, forming into a single parchment. [Scripture of Improvement Throwing Lv. 5 → Lv. 6 Inspection Lv. 8 → Lv. 9 Intimidation Lv. 3 → Lv. 5 Pack Coordination Lv. 3 → Lv. 7 Bash Lv. 4 → Lv. 5 Bleeding Lv. 2 → Lv. 3 Mana Sense Lv. 20 → Lv. 21 Split Focus Lv. 12 → Lv. 13 Mana Infusion Lv. 6 → Lv. 7 Sensory Expansion Lv. 11 → Lv. 12 Flow Observation Lv. 9 → Lv. 11 Mana Manipulation Lv. 6 → Lv. 9 Mana Shaping Lv. 5 → Lv. 7 Reinforcement (New) Lv. 1 → Lv. 4] The Scripture of Improvement was much better than the individual Scriptures had been, but that didn't make it perfect. It was good enough, though. Then again, if he were to tell anyone else about his rapidly improving Skills and that there were so many Scriptures that he'd gotten annoyed at the Ancestors, they'd probably beat him to a pulp. That was all the more reason to carry this secret to the grave. To be entirely truthful, the sheer number of Skill improvements was staggering.

Hakon didn't think he'd gain that much from a single fight. Then again, he'd been focusing on many different things ever since the fight against the Terror Deer started. Combat sure was a great way to improve, even if he ended up getting hit a few too many times. He'd been distracted way too often, thinking of new ways to create weapons from mana. There was so much he had to try, but it clearly hadn't been the smartest idea to experiment mid-combat.

Regardless, something Hakon expected to pop up in the Scripture of Improvement hadn't appeared. Enhanced Comprehension's prompting aside, he'd been sure to gain something from squashing his mana together and compressing it. But maybe that just meant he had to work even harder to earn yet another new Skill.