Chương 34: Chapter 30

Mana gathered in his palm. Hakon could feel it swirl through the pathways and gather. Moving it outside the pathways worked with some effort, yet the difficulty increased as the distance from the pathways increased. It was not all that dissimilar to moving mana through the steel swords, yet it wasn't the same. He was still touching the object as he moved mana through the weapons. Now he had it gathered in his palm with the intent to remove it from his body.

His Ancient Power confirmed that he was doing something, and that what he was doing was wrong, which only confirmed that it was possible. It was just that he didn't do it correctly. How? Hakon's eyes snapped open to a ripple in the air around his palm. It was not noteworthy to most, but it was something, and that was enough as a starting point. He shifted his Skills around until he broke into a cold sweat. As simple as it appeared to be at first glance, the procedure was cumbersome and complex.

A single mistake and everything would be over. But how could he improve without knowing what was wrong? Enhanced Comprehension guided him; however, Hakon needed more than that. He had to feel what failure felt like. So he tried to remove the translucent mana traces gathered in his hand from his palm even when Enhanced Comprehension told him that he wasn't doing it right yet.

It felt like someone had struck the back of his head with a hammer as the mana in his palm loosened ever so slightly, and it was not long before his concentration slipped, turning his attempt into an unsurprising failure. And that was fine. Hakon tried again, first without changing much to observe everything, then he leaned more and more into Enhanced Comprehension to adjust his already existing Skills. The adjustments didn't improve the process much, but they changed something.

It took Hakon a while, but a Scripture appeared before him. [Proficiency gained. [Mana Sense Lv. 13] improved to [Mana Sense Lv. 14]] As soon as the Skill improved, the difficulty decreased drastically. It was almost like he was trying to do something he wasn't supposed to at his current Level. As if a few more Levels in [Mana Sense] would make everything easier. And it probably would. The Ancestors' Skills worked like that.

Hakon could wield and circulate mana through his body without a Skill; however, [Circulation] made everything easier. The Skill even provided additional benefits in exchange for consuming some mana. It was the same with [Mana Infusion]. At this point, Hakon could use the Skill to infuse just about everything. But that didn't mean it would help him here, no matter how useful it could be in other situations. For now, Hakon needed something else entirely.

A new Skill to form the foundation of what he actually wanted to achieve.

"That's it. I am trying to leap at a monster when I can barely stand," he mused to himself and discarded all thoughts of replicating the Monolith's glistening mana. It was powerful in its raw form, but at the end of the day, it was not what he was after. Hakon reached out to his Ancient Power as he closed his eyes once more. His lips curled into a smile when the thunder of wrongness shrank into a small rainstorm.

It was still on his mind and occupied nearly every part of it, but he could separate the wrongness and work on them one by one. That was how he earned another level in [Mana Sense] fairly quickly. He focused on the Skill and the tale Enhanced Comprehension spewed and modified it ever so slightly. Getting used to the changes took a little longer, as they were more substantial than before, but that was more than acceptable. Modifications to Skills were bound to become more and more troublesome as he progressed.

At some point, he might not even earn a Level after working on a Skill for moons. Fortunately, he was still far away from such atrocious work. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. With [Mana Sense] at Level 15, Hakon returned to the traces of mana gathered in his palm. He didn't separate the traces' properties like he had done in the Battle of Generation, but moved them away from his palm once more.

That much hadn't changed, so the challenge did not suddenly disappear either. It was just that Hakon had more tools to rely on now. Better tools. He activated [Mana Sense] and even went as far as to use [Sensory Expansion] the moment he realized that he was getting close to his goal. Then… Then Hakon did it. Just like that, he removed the trace of mana from his body. No part of his body stayed in contact with the traces, yet Hakon retained full control.

"Yes!!" he exclaimed, shattering his focus at once. The mana traces fizzled out and dispersed, and the throbbing in his head only grew worse. Right. That… was stupid. He thought, but the smile on his lips never faded. It only grew wider when he tried again a little while later. Enhanced Comprehension told Hakon that he did something wrong, but when did his Ancient Power ever say that he did something perfect? What even was perfection? Hakon certainly forgot the meaning of the word after the Rite.

He succeeded the second time, failed the third, and succeeded in separating his mana from the rest of his body on the fourth, fifth, and sixth tries. By the seventh try, it worked without [Sensory Expansion], and a few dozen times later, Hakon didn't even need [Mana Sense] to make it work. Even though it worked better with the Skills, Hakon could experiment more without them. They drained his mana reserves, for one, forcing him to rest and recover mana in between, and they guided him.

But what if he did not want to be guided all the time? Just how powerful would he grow if he could use mana in ways most could only achieve with their Skills? Hakon thought about it deeply, and he had no idea what the answer would be. Most Barbarians did not have the patience to acquire [Mana Sense], let alone practice it as much as he did. To push further and improve his mana control to reach the same level as [Mana Sense] helped him reach was foolish. But was it, really?

If he improved his control without the Ancestors' help, wouldn't his Skills be far more potent once he used them on top of his high proficiency at wielding mana? And what if there was more? If the Ancestors were hiding Skills for those willing to do what Hakon was doing? How was he supposed to find out if he wasn't trying? Hakon didn't want to miss out on anything. He could not afford to, especially with an Ancient Power that helped him so much. After all, it guided him even when he did not use any Skills.

Maybe Enhanced Comprehension worked even better when he wasn't using a Skill. No, that makes no sense. Hakon chided himself before resuming practice. Night came and faded, but he did not stop. Exhaustion was yet another weakness he had to endure to grow stronger, after all. He continued, his full attention on the task at hand. First without any Skills, and then with his Skills to understand his new limits. And when he pushed past the previous limit, Hakon simply continued.

He went on and on, not even realizing that the morning was replaced by noon, which quickly turned into yet another evening. By the time he stopped practicing, the new day had already ended. And, in all likelihood, yet another day would have passed if his eyelids hadn't been that heavy, or if his stomach hadn't started to growl like a starving wolf pack earlier that night. But neither exhaustion nor hunger could take away Hakon's sense of satisfaction as his attention returned to the newest Scriptures around him.

[Proficiency gained. [Mana Sense Lv. 18] improved to [Mana Sense Lv. 19]] [Proficiency gained. [Sensory Expansion Lv. 9] improved to [Sensory Expansion Lv. 10]] [Proficiency gained. [Split Focus Lv. 11] improved to [Split Focus Lv. 12]] [Skill [Fatigue Resistance] has been learned.] [Skill [Mana Manipulation] has been learned.] [Skill [Mana Shaping] has been learned.] He may not have earned a Level just yet, but the Skill improvements and new Skills were just as valuable, if not better.

[Fatigue Resistance] kept him awake all this time, while [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Shaping] represented the Skills he wanted to move forward with. By now, Hakon could effortlessly move mana through his body and emit it from his palm. With his new Skills, it was no longer problematic to change the shape of the mana outside his body either. He had yet to figure out how to turn mana into a weapon, or how to further utilize it, but he could shape small translucent balls of mana and rotate them around him.

Then again, the mana shapes did not have much weight to them. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't throw the mana balls at anyone. Yet.

"One step at a time." He mused to himself before collapsing to the ground just as the first ray of sunlight rose from the horizon.