NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22: You Have Cooked
Lainark Town was roughly 80 kilometers away, and Ainen didn't plan to rent a carriage.
He also wanted to take an uncommon route that went through a forest, where he would open the Mystery Boxes and cook food that he would sell in Lainark Town.
He also had a Mana Cultivation Tower ticket, where he could get a Mana Cultivation Method, which he would do in the forest as well.
The reward from the Mana Cultivation Tower will depend on his performance. He wanted to make himself as strong and capable as possible before entering.
The sun had set already, and Ainen departed the town on foot with Ron and Syl.
But once they were on a roadless route that regular people and carriages didn't take when travelling, Ainen summoned Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea.
Ron and Syl got on the foxes while Ainen began flying with his Jet Blaze Flight.
'Before I reach the forest, I am hitting 100% in proficiency in Flight.' Ainen's eyes glinted, fully determined.
As Ainen flew alongside the foxes, he observed the veil around his body formed by activating the Flight skill.
"Brother, what are you doing?"
Ainen was flying in a volatile manner, exerting his control over Flight to maximum, not just in output, but in the manipulation of the veil, which was responsible for keeping him stuck to the invisible space all around him.
After doing that for half an hour, Ainen tried breaking the speed limit, feeling it was also a bottleneck that stopped him from reaching 100% proficiency.
Today, he had progressed to 89%, and before reaching the forest, which was roughly 50 kilometers away, he wanted to reach 100%.
They weren't flying fast, but Ainen was flying around a lot and exhausting himself, so they took a break of five minutes every fifteen minutes so he could recover his Mana and rest a bit.
And with their speed, they were crossing 10 kilometers every 15 minutes as they were moving at around the speed of 40 kilometers per hour.
Ron and Syl played with the foxes during breaks and while flying. For example, Ron and Syl were getting swapped from one fluffy tail to another as the foxes juggled both of them while flying, drawing merry laughter from the duo.
"You all are having too much fun, eh?"
"Yipp!!"
"Wrrauoo!"
Ainen chuckled as he paid attention there for a bit before he continued training.
They were already almost halfway to the forest and would soon reach it within an hour.
…
Ainen expanded on the Flight skill, understanding how it was his own mind that was directly connected to the veil and understood his underlying structure, allowing him to actually shape the veil.
He was rather surprised when he managed to understand it fully, and then he was amazed when he saw the 'thing', the 'space' that was anchoring the veil, allowing him to fly.
After acquiring that understanding during the second break, Ainen and others finally arrived in the forest.
Dakuta Forest, connecting to the mountain range that acted as the border between the Belrik Kingdom and the Torion Kingdom.
This forest was bigger and more dangerous, as there were even Adept-rank monsters deep within.
But Ainen and others didn't plan to go that deep.
In fact, right after entering the forest, Ainen camped at a good place near the pond and started training.
He had gained a solid understanding of Flight and reached 100%, but he wanted to do more since he got an idea.
Previously, the heat pockets he had created to burst out flames for a speed boost to work in tandem with the veil were not a true combination.
He had merely put the heat pockets around the veil, within a heat sphere that would manifest according to his design of the Jet Blaze spell.
But after gaining a proper understanding of Veil, Ainen reshaped the entire veil and truly combined the heat pockets within the veil's structure.
The difference was so much that Ainen was dumbfounded.
For instance, previously, he had to control two things. The veil of his Fight that was responsible for making him able to fly around, and Jet Blaze that he had to control when maneuvering.
Since he had created a total of 45 heat pockets all around him, he had to choose which ones to burst out with flames during the fight when dodging, maneuvering, or closing in to attack.
It was a mental gymnastic he had to get used to, but it wasn't that hard. Having superhuman stats made it possible for him to control two magic applications—Flight and Jet Blaze, creating Jet Blaze Flight.
But now…all of that mental gymnastics was gone.
He had perfectly combined Veil and Jet Blaze, so everything was connected to his whole mind.
All he had to do was think about dodging or moving in a particular direction, whether normally or with a burst of boost, and it would be executed instantly, reacting to his consciousness.
No more keeping track of the heat pockets. No more controlling two things at once.
The veil was now installed with 100 heat pockets, smaller than before, wider spread than before, and less consumption of Mana than before.
But the scariest addition he made in this new skill he created was adding Mana Absorption.
With veil in his complete understanding, he could make it bigger briefly by using some Mana and release tiner heat pockets all around him, absorbing Mana from the atmosphere for faster recovery!
And when he was done with this, the notifications rang.
[You have cooked.]
[You have created a new skill by gaining understanding of Flight's Mystic attribute, combining it with your design of Jet Blaze using Fire Manipulation. You have managed to gain insight into the basic fundamentals of Mystic attribute and created a skill surpassing its initial rank.]
[For this achievement of limitless cooking by breaking the known limit of your arsenal, you are granted a Limitless Skill Tower ticket.]
"Let's go!"
Ainen shouted as his ultra-focused training paid off!
Most importantly, it just felt so good to gain an understanding of a power and acquire complete control of it.
It was just like perfecting his cooking dishes, but more thrilling!
"Brother, what happened? Why are you cheering?"
"Share with us, hehe."
Ainen smiled. "Well, I just became more powerful. Now, if that leopard was in front of me, I could toy with it and easily finish it off without breaking a sweat."
"Really? That's amazing!" Ron's eyes shone. "Hehe, you're a genius, brother! People were talking about it."
"Of course, our brother Ain is awesome. I wonder when we will awaken powers like you…" Syl was excited for her future. "If possible, I want ice power!"
"Hehe, I want lightning power!"
'I hope I can make food that can awaken elemental manipulation skills. It should be possible if I get the right ingredients.' Ainen thought.
'For now, I should break through. But before that, let me open the mystery boxes I got from leveling.'
Since he was going to use the Mana Cultivation Tower ticket and disappear for a bit, he wanted to open the boxes and see if he could get some barrier-type items.
Although Saffa, Clovelle, and Fraisea could definitly protect them, a barrier around this camp wouldn't be a bad idea.