Cultivating Talents [LitRPG Mana-cultivation]

Glancing down at the swirling green Talent sitting in his palm, Hector's lips quirked into a tight smile. The soulwaters of his Talent garden lapped at his ankles, the cooling sensation a dull throb in the back of his mind. He hadn't been wrong.

Hector mumbled as his eyes scanned the text in front of him, the glowing light from the system panel washing over his face. "So, I lose the original Talent. But, you know what, this is an okay substitute."

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///: Crowd Compass (Uncommon): The user can understand any unusual patterns in a crowd's movements that might indicate hidden activities or patrols. Using this information, they can more easily carry out actions that exploit the crowd's movements.

[•○○] (1/3) Duration: 2-Mins Cooldown: 2-hours
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After a while of thinking it over, Hector upgraded the [Street Reader] Talent. The fear had been there the entire time. Would he be able to sense the crowd the same way? Would the Talent be as useful?

Though thinking about it again, Hector accepted that an uncommon Talent would always be better than a common one. Even if it wasn't useful in the same way. Luckily, this Talent—while not as general as the Street Reader—had become focused in a way Hector needed.

Hector glanced above him. There, two rings of white light swirled with vicious intensity, growing tighter and tighter with each passing moment. [Street Reader] hadn't been the only Talent Hector had upgraded. The Talent Garden had been gracious. [Resonant Shout] and [Static Field].

With both these Talents stepping into the uncommon level, his strength would surely spike. Hector's eyes drifted to the waters below; his feet shifted slightly, water swirling around his ankles. He still wouldn't be strong enough, though; that monster at the Collar Gang safe house had shown him that even with Talents, he wasn't unbeatable.

With its strength at Gravity Forging-Seven, it had almost killed him. Moving his arm towards his chest, Hector pressed the Talent against the fabric of his tunic. It passed through the fabric with ease, like a pebble slipping into a puddle, and a breath later, the Talent clicked into place within him. Street Reader was gone, replaced by [Crowd Compass].

In the next few days, he planned to hunt Hairless Rats with Jodie; this Talent would go a long way in helping that. He could track patrols and sense any threat before it even got close to them. It was a significant advantage in a sense.

Though I guess [Street Reader] kind of gave me that ability already, since the only things down here are Hairless Rats and those Earth Spiked moles. But this finer control is good.

Green light radiated down onto him, dappling his arms in its soft light. Two shimmering green Talents lowered before Hector, their surfaces swirling with deep snakes of green. A subtle warmth hummed off of them, washing over Hector's skin. Had they upgraded to something good?

His eyes swept over the first one to his right. The system box popped up.

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///: Circuit Surge (Uncommon): Static floods the user's body, empowering the arms and legs. Any ranged projectile launched at the user is considerably weakened, and allies within the field have their movement slightly boosted. The latent static field is maintained and boosted by five meters.

[•○○] (1/3) Duration: Indefinite [limited]
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He nodded. [Static Field] had been one of his most useful Talents so far, and with this upgrade, it had now solidified that position. The field could now slow things coming at him as well as people, and, as a bonus, it could even help his friends. The increase in the distance it covered wasn't bad either.

I wonder if it can now seamlessly differentiate between my friends and my enemies. That would save me a bit of time, not much in the moment, but a lot in the grand scheme of things.

Hector's eyes then shifted to the second upgraded Talent. What had [Resonant Shout] become? The system box shimmered to life just above the second Talent's surface.

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///: Force Cry (Uncommon): The user channels a ball of energy into their throat in rolling waves. Once at capacity, the waves are unleashed, throwing the target from their feet, sending them flying backwards and impacting their perception for several minutes.

[•○○] (1/3) Cooldown: 1h

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Hector's lips drew into a slight frown. This upgrade was perhaps the most disappointing by far. While [Resonant Shout] had grown stronger—being able to hurl a target away from you was no small feat. It hadn't changed much as an ability. If anything, it would make it slightly more difficult to quickly put down an opponent. After all, it gave them some distance, even if that distance came with some dazing.

Shrugging, Hector spent a few moments slipping the Talents into his chest, putting them back where their common counterparts had once been. "Well, that's done. I've got three upgrades as well as five more Talents growing. Now it's time to look at what I really came to see."

Stepping back from the Talent pot he'd been standing in front of, Hector sighed, his gaze shifted to the Talent workbench. He gained a few fragments from the Collar Gang member he'd put down yesterday, and it was time to see what these Talent buffs could do.

Hector sloshed through the soulwaters, small waves slapping at his ankle and splashing onto his shin. Stopping in front of the workbench, Hector rested his hands on its smooth marble, a shiver of cold tingling up his spine.

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He'd seen how Talent grafting worked—something he was excited to get a bit more of. And if this was anything like that, he'd need a lot more fragments in the future. "System, activate [Trait Up] and begin the Talent buffing procedure."

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///: What Talent would the host like to buff?
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Hector's gaze lingered on the text before him as he weighed his options. He'd been cultivating before entering the Talent garden, and during that time, he'd considered upgrading the [Awakened Soul] Talent. But something at the back of his mind kept gnawing at him to wait until he'd harvested the Talents from his Talent garden. That feeling wasn't wrong.

During this harvest, not only had he gotten the required Talents to upgrade his three common Talents, but he'd also acquired a second [Moonlight Marionette] Talent. He could now give this to Mirae to strengthen her puppet while also testing out how effective the buffs would be.

Because using buffs came with a tradeoff; that being for each one he used, he would lose out on a potential Talent. If the buff was strong enough, he didn't mind using the fragments to improve his Talents, but if it barely did anything when compared to an actual Talent, then he'd have to choose when he used the fragments carefully.

Besides, I'd rather use this buff on something I'm going to give Mirae. Any increase in strength for her just means she'll be safe that much longer.

"System, I'd like to buff [Moonlight Marionette]," Hector said, his eyes drifting to the void above. Waiting.

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///: Bringing down Moonlight Marionette.
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A breath later, Hector spotted it. Streaking across the void, a tail of burning white sparks behind it, [Moonlight Marionette] roared towards him. The Talent arced through the blackness before slamming down into the air in front of him, a wave of light washing past him and rippling out into the darkness.

Hector's white locks bristled before falling back down. The system was just as extravagant as usual. Hector raised a hand and brushed his fingers along the surface of the Talent. Snakes of energy swirled beneath its surface, dipping below its crust before rising to the top a moment later in a rhythmic display of beauty.

"Alright, how do I buff the Talent now?" Hector muttered, scratching at his chin.

As if to answer, the system box shuffled to life before him in a glistening display of white light.

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///: To buff a Talent, the host is required to spend two fragments of the same rarity. A singular Talent can only be buffed a maximum of three times.
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"Just three, huh?" Scooping his hand underneath the Talent, Hector brought it down in front of him and rested it just above the workbench's surface. Spending two Talent fragments on a buff was quite the investment. And with it only being able to be done three times, Hector was essentially losing out on one Talent to buff another. "By the Great Lake, I hope this is worth it," Hector said, letting out a sigh.

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///: Shall I spend the required fragments to buff Moonlight Marionette once?
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Hector nodded. "Yes," the word came out weaker than he had expected. It was hollow and unsure, resembling exactly what he was at this moment. Perhaps he was overthinking it, but his not fully utilising his system had been what led to his father's death. He couldn't have that again.

On the table, a small hole opened up just a little to the right of Hector's pinky finger. From the hole emerged two white lights—Talent fragments. Crystal-like, the Talent fragments floated out of the hole and moved towards the Talent. The fragments practically swam towards it, circling once, and then twice again, before eventually plunging into the Talent's surface.

Waves rippled across the Talent's surface, going around it before crashing into each other in a subtle ripple. The system text box popped up a moment later.

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///: Talent buffing has been completed; would you like to review the changes?
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Hector nodded.

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///: Changes (1/3):
Puppet's strength and fluidity are boosted by 20% (Now at 50%)

#Note - Buffs can be carried over into a stack, but once a stack is complete and merged, all buffs are lost.
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Hector blinked. His mind drew a blank. It wasn't so much the increase in the puppets' ability—that was fine—but the note at the end. Not only was he losing a potential Talent, but that same investment would be gone as soon as he upgraded the Talent he buffed.

Raising a hand, he pressed his palm against his forehead and hung his head. It was a bad deal, in a sense. But the only good thing was that the buffs seemed to be quite strong. The twenty percent increase put the marionette at fifty percent of Mirae's strength.

Which meant that when there was a moon present, the marionette's strength would be a hundred percent. His sister, for all intents and purposes, would have someone at her strength to protect her—provided it was a moonlit night.

"Okay, now I just need to give this to Mirae," Hector said, stepping away from the marble table. This, paired with the other Talent he'd gotten for her, would be quite useful.

—- —- —- —-

Hector pushed free of the tent flaps, stepping out into the fresh air within the [Gentle Sanctuary] dome. By the fire, Mirae sat with Pippa, the two of them chatting and laughing with each other. Mirae had been smiling since Pippa settled down yesterday. That was good. While she hid it, their father's death surely still weighed on her.

Across the dome, a few feet from the fire, Pippa's mother, whose name Hector still hadn't learned, sat and watched the two of them. Her eyes shifted to Hector, and she nodded, pushing off the bundle of cloth on which she sat. It had been one of the sleeping bags Hector and Mirae had used on their first night.

The woman, her brown hair tied up in a bun, walked over to him. She wore a simple grey tunic overlaid with a brown coat-like jumper and a thick pair of leather breeches. A strained smile came to her lips as she stopped before him.

Hector returned a slight smile of his own. His eyes flickered to the side, to Jodie, who stood talking to Harry at the front of the dome, just a little way from the cave exit. What were they discussing?

"May I ask you a question?" the woman asked, drawing his attention back to her. She stood, half a head shorter than him, her brown eyes seemingly searching his for something.

Hector tilted his head, urging her to continue.

"I'm grateful for what you did," the woman said, shaking her head and letting out a nervous chuckle. "You've saved me and my daughter. Even if we lost everything, we kept our lives, and for that I'm grateful. But what are we going to do down here, and how can we help?"

Hector blinked. He hadn't considered what to do with the two of them yet. In all honesty, his biggest priority was making himself and his friends stronger. If they were strong enough, they could handle most problems easily. In his view, Pippa and her mother, as well as Harry, would hopefully prove themselves with time and join the mercenary group in some capacity. After all, Mirae couldn't be the only one with support Talents.

"Well, miss…" He squinted at her.

"Ah, Aurora, Aurora Strongmail," the woman said, shaking her head and letting out a soft chuckle. "I can't believe I haven't introduced myself."

"Well, Mrs. Strongmail, it depends on you. Have you got any skills?"