NOVEL NEXT Chapter 63: Mana Compression
<Alex, Real - Endure, High School>
Alex sat cross legged out under the stars somewhere after midnight.
He'd showered and slept for a short time. In fact, he'd slept for longer than he'd needed in the very beginning of the tutorial, but a bit shorter than after he'd hit level 5 and moved to 'E' tier.
At the moment, he was trying to get in a state to focus. So, rather than pushing the minor curiosity aside to sit there, niggling at him, he focused on it briefly.
As he tried to figure out why his sleep needs had changed—pulling on all the things he'd experienced and learned—he got a bit of a sense that his progression to E grade had increased the sleep and other things his body needed. Create Rations hinted at something like that, yeah.
He still had a massive advantage due to his stats, and he only needed a few hours of sleep rather than the eight, minimum, that he'd required essentially all his adult life, pre-System.
So, stats can reduce my requirements. While advancing in grade—or tier, or whatever it was—increased them?
That made some sense, but he saw a trap in there for people with Simple or even Common classes.
He'd gone from needing only a couple of hours of sleep at level four to needing nearly six again when he advanced. It had been a rather stressful time, and he was used to needing eight even in the best of times, so it hadn't really registered until he thought back on it. Now he was getting by with about four.
If everyone advances in the same way, with the same increase, someone with lower stat growth might end up needing sixteen hours a day. If they somehow kept from getting sufficient stats, and the progression is the same? Advancing to D would either leave them catatonic, barely functional, or kill them outright?
Maybe the System wouldn't allow them to take that step if it was so detrimental. Since it is possible to train stats in mundane ways, theoretically, that could let the person attempt to grow their stats high enough to stand the advancement.
Is this a limiter on leveling? It seemed to be at least one such. He doubted that it would be the only one. Well, that and experience gain restrictions based on class and level.
If he understood correctly, he couldn't just advance all the way to the top by 'killing boars.'
There were hard diminishing returns when killing anything lower leveled than himself… in theory. He hadn't actually encountered many things below his level yet. He had to imagine there were similar things for crafting classes and whatnot.
A blacksmith couldn't level to the top just making millions of nails… or so Alex would assume based on what he'd seen so far.
But he was past his initial inquiry, and he could follow rabbit trails for eternity. He had thought it through enough to be satisfied for the moment.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, focusing inward.
Mana.
He'd gotten a lot more experienced at following the innate prompting of skills, thanks to Master Adams and his own, other recent experiences. Even so, he understood that he was still likely a novice when compared to what was possible.
That said, if using skills was like playing chess, he had moved from examining the pieces and thinking they were pretty to knowing how each piece was allowed to move under most circumstances.
Now, I just have to figure out the equivalent of 'castling'. He chuckled at his own overly-extended metaphor.
With his Basic Mana Sense, he could sense the mana within himself… basically.
That's really helpful, Alex. Amazingly insightful.
Regardless of his own self-recrimination, that was as accurate as he could say. It was like holding a flexible water bottle and being able to realize roughly how full it was. As to his mana manipulation? It felt like he was squishing the water bottle, either restricting or increasing the pressure on the spout, whether it was open or not.
In this case, however, the mana-bottle was him, and he had spouts everywhere.
He could open and close them, with relative ease, and he could sort of swirl or compress the mana within himself.
That's how he was able to use Spells through the System.
He knew where the mana was needed. With that provided information, he opened the necessary valve, and 'squirted' magic out for the System to form into the spell.
Alright, let's start doing this.
He began by forcing his mana away from his right arm. He then opened a valve in that arm, so to speak, trying to keep his magic inside despite that.
A bit leaked out, but not much, and even that bit trickled off. Not a great start, but it is just a start.
He shifted, straightening his back and getting to work.
By the time the sky had lightened fully to the blue of day, Alex was able to make any part of his body permeable to his magic while keeping his mana away from it so as to not lose any.
He was also able to 'compress' his mana entirely into his right arm, leaving the rest of his body seemingly utterly empty.
He had a singular remaining thing to test before he started his day.
There were already people about, though they all gave him space. So, he wanted to be quick about it.
He did hear some almost-comical grumblings as the System continued to go out of its way to let him know that some of the base's populace was unhappy with their 'training day.'
After breakfast, he would be training with James first, by the schedule they'd all worked out, so this was his last chance for a while to test his idea out.
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So many 'cultivation' stories talk about compressing internal mana to get benefits. He hadn't read a ton of such stories, but he'd read a few, and heard about a lot more through various channels. Regardless, the idea was worth a try in his book.
He shifted and settled himself once more, then moved all his mana to his right arm as he'd done before. Then, he did his best to compress it further, working from his shoulder and forcing the mana down.
It was like trying to get all the toothpaste from the tube, and the very idea made him smile. She always just gripped the middle and squeezed, not a care in the world.
He dismissed the memory after only a moment's reverie, then continued with his experiment.
At first, it went surprisingly easily, his mana feeling a bit like air in a limp balloon. Sure, as he compressed it more and more, his arm—then restricted to his forearm, then just his hand—felt more and more swollen with power, but that made sense.
It wasn't actually painful, not in any sense that he was used to, but it was becoming uncomfortable.
Still, he hadn't gotten any sort of notification for it, and he wasn't ready to check the ones that were already waiting for him, feeling like they had updated a few times over the course of his training through the night.
I'll get it into my pinky, if that doesn't do anything, I'll pull back and reassess.
The breakfast bell rang, and Alex growled.
Alright, gotta go fast. I don't want to miss out on food.
He squeezed down on his mana, getting it into half his hand, then a third, then a quarter. It was out of all his fingers save his pinky, and it was almost out of his palm entirely, about to reach his goal when—
BOOM!
His pinky exploded outward in a shower of… green?
As it was happening, he instinctively released his compressive hold on his mana, but a huge amount still flared outward, looking almost like a green fire, the same, deep color as the repaired cracks on his dadao.
Thankfully, it was more like a flash-bang than a grease-fire conflagration, but it still left a large section of the grass to his right… overgrown?
His mind was in shock as he grabbed onto that odd little detail.
Still, one System Notice overrode his shock, forcing itself into his awareness.
Wounds:
Severed stump, mostly cauterized x 1
[10 HP x 1 required to heal]
Impairment
Missing finger, cauterized x 1
[6 Life x 1 required to heal]
Apology Tutorial Addendum
I'd say you deserve a hand for that demonstration, but the System is apparently a bit more restrained than I would be.
Alex blinked at the notifications, seeing the new type of damage sustained even as he ignored the addendum.
Impairment? It would take Life to heal and—
Then, the shock rolled back, and the pain hit him, drowning his thoughts in an internal scream that was more at the suddenness of the pain than the pain itself.
He was getting a bit too used to pain…
Still, the wash through him caused his vision to blank momentarily, and when he was able to refocus, he found John sprinting his way, guns out and held with one pointing up and one down, ready to address any concerns with precision violence, delivered from range.
Alex shook his head, feeling a bit dizzy, and as the other man knelt before him, scanning the surroundings, he was finally able to hear what was going on around him.
Some people were screaming, some babbling. It sounded like somewhere behind him a dozen people were trying to tell others what had happened all at once.
John's calm, firm voice cut through the noise. "Alex. What happened? We heard an explosion, or maybe a gunshot? Did something attack you?'
Alex grimaced, finally able to look down at his right hand. John followed his gaze.
"Did… something bit off your finger?"
The stump of his pinky was seemingly long healed from a burn, and to his mana sense it practically glowed. With a check to his MP, he found that he'd used about 10 MP up in his mistake.
That didn't really sound like a lot until he remembered that 10 MP was the cost of his Force Burst.
This effect had been contained to just his finger.
Alex shook himself. "I… I accidently blew off my own finger, John."
John hitched at that. "Come again?"
"I detonated my own shattered-plastic-fork-tines-in-my-food finger." Alex grimaced. "And the System is trying to give me the 'ability' as a new skill…"
System Notice:
New Skill Available:
Self-Detonation.
Self-Detonation
Explosives are an effective weapon when used properly, but what if you don't have any? That would be a crying shame.
Say, you never go anywhere without yourself, what if you could be the explosive?
This skill lets you do that… if you want.
Do you wish to learn this skill?
Y/N
System Courtesy Notice:
Skills once learned are all but irrevocable, choose wisely.
Skills once offered will be offered again if the situation that granted them is repeated.
Apology Tutorial Addendum
This should be a spell, but because it's so crude and awful, the System has decided it isn't worthy of the designation.
I didn't even know that was possible.
Congratulations on doing the impossible once again, I guess?
Alex immediately said 'No' to the prompt.
He had no desire for such a skill, and if he ever changed his mind, he could just blow his finger off again.
John chuckled. "A good one?"
"No… not at all."
The man grunted, then nodded. "I think I'm glad to hear that."
Alex frowned. "What? Why?"
"Well, if the System gave you an awesome skill for destroying a part of yourself, it would say a lot of not-so-great things about the System as a whole, not to mention how it functions."
"That's… fair." He sighed, then shook his head to clear it. "Aside from the end there, I think I actually did get some good things from my training."
"Oh? Well, come on. We can talk about it over breakfast. It's sweet rolls. Apparently, we have plenty of sugar, flour, and even cans of sweetened-condensed milk, among other things. I hope you like breakfast pastries, because they're going to be a caloric mainstay for a while."
Alex's stomach rumbled, and he smiled. "Yeah, one moment."
He didn't want to deal with the finger being missing, and the 'wound' was already fully healed. He grabbed his Life as he'd done several times before, and moved a chunk of it to where his pinky had been.
Before his eyes—as well as under John's watch if sharp intake of breath was any indication—Alex's finger regrew, practically springing from his hand like a sped-up video of grass growing.
It grew outward all at once, unlike healing as he'd seen it described in other fiction. It wasn't the bone first, followed by the rest. No, it was just the stump growing outward, the joints appearing as each reached proper length.
It was thankfully normal looking when the process finished. He hadn't made himself green or anything. "There, that's better."
John huffed a laugh, shaking his head. "The System does seem to allow for some amazing things."
Alex grunted, mind moving toward another notification, and the handful of them that waited for him. "Yeah… I'm going to check my notifications while we walk. Talk more once we get food?"
"That sounds like a plan."