Surviving The Myriad Worlds (A Multiplanar LitRPG)

The question was, how?

Dante wasn't even sure if he could change anything. This was completely new territory, separate from any of the aura tricks he had picked up. The concept of physical space did not seem to exist for mana. It seemed to be all in his head.

I've got to try something.

Having no other ideas, he inspected his connection to the hex. Aside from the fact that he felt a presence similar to Vaso on the other side and that his mana was leaving through it, it was hard to intuit anything else. Unlike the connections to his auras, this felt obfuscated.

Likely intentional, I doubt Vaso wants her targets to track her through this. Still, at least part of this connection seems to be formed from a minuscule amount of my mana. If that's the case, perhaps I could just cut it off?

Dante concentrated, wishing the connection closed, but that failed to change anything. Thinking that he might be trying it on too hard a target, he attempted it on one of the connections to his auras. Also a failure. During this time, his mana pool was reduced to about a third.

Okay, that was foolish. If it were that simple to defeat a hex, then there would be no point in them. I wish that Moeris had been more specific on how to do this. All he said was that this was necessary to unlock those two skills, [Vitality to Mana] or [Stamina to Mana]. At the very least, I guess it tells me that the solution is to find a way to generate mana.

So, Dante waited and impatiently studied his mana pool while it dwindled. It took more time than he would have liked, but he did find something. It was subtle, and Dante likely wouldn't have noticed it if he didn't have [Hyper Focus], but there was a small accumulation of mana on the border between his mana pool and the outside. It was like condensation on the side of a cold glass. Smaller concentrations of mana would collect from seemingly nothing outside of him. Upon reaching a certain small size, it would abruptly merge with his mana pool.

Man, I would love to see what this looks like when I level cognition. Perhaps my mana pool gets bigger, or the external mana condenses faster? It's a shame that I can't seem to interact with anything out there, or else I could experiment. It's a shame after all of that effort, but this also looks to be a dead end.

Turning his gaze back inwards to his mana pool, he was shocked to see that it was now under a quarter full. Dante wasn't sure what to do. Nothing he had tried yet had made a change. All he could do was watch. And watch he did.

He could feel his earlier despondency creeping back in. Whatever limited protection he had gotten by using [Hyper Focus] was clearly insufficient. It got easier to sit back and do nothing. Dante had already tried his best. It wasn't his fault that he had been set up for failure. Had Moeris even tried to teach him?

Only a few trickles of mana were left and Dante found that his last remaining emotion was … boredom.

Who wouldn't get bored watching a glass slowly drain? Once you remove all of the stakes, that's essentially what this is.

And with the filter of panic removed, things became clearer. There were more connections here than he had first thought. They were just unused. Shriveled. Dante could tell they led somewhere else, still inside of him.

Picking one at random, he felt a resonance with it. It wanted to be opened. It only needed permission.

Granted.

[Vitality to Mana] has been unlocked

The gates opened. Mana burst forth from the connection, bolstering his last dregs. With it, as always, came pain. Sharp, piercing pain, like being needled in every cell in his body at once.

Initially, he viewed it with detached, machine-like logic. He had solved his crisis. What more was there to be concerned about? But with the return of his mana came a rising sense of panic.

Dante needed it to stop.

He tried to trace the same feeling as before, but his tranquility had been shattered. He could not find the connection again. Worse, Dante could feel things inside of himself breaking. Processes integral to life were coming to a screeching halt and he could do nothing about it.

He was going to die here. Killed by his own hand. Never to see his sister again. Never to find out what could have been with …

What is that?

His mana pool was quickly filling. It was coming from outside. Any semblance of slow condensation was gone. Dante's mana pool was surrounded by a thick coat of foreign mana. His core was filled in seconds and with it, the horrid life drain ceased.

Dante struggled to wake up and found his mouth full of fluid. He gurgled, spitting it to the side, trying to ascertain what had happened. He was lying backwards against something soft. His eyes were stuck closed.

Reaching a clumsy fist to rub at them, he managed to force his eyes open past the thick reddish gunk that had crusted them closed. Above him was the last face he expected to see. Pauwna.

Or was it?

As his eyes cleared, he realized that this Naula was slightly different. She was far too refined to be her. This woman had unscarred skin for one and Pauwna would never be caught dead in an elegant dress like that. It would be too difficult to fight in. No, this was another Naula that he knew.

"Attendant Siluv?" Dante muttered.

The face nodded, but stayed silent. He took the chance to take stock of his surroundings.

Dante was reclined against her, his limp body held in her arms. In one of her hands was a mostly empty cerulean potion. A good portion of which was spewed across the floor in front of him, mixed with a red, coppery-smelling fluid that could only be blood. That was not the end of it, either. He was utterly coated in a thin, red fluid that he was pretty confident was a mixture of sweat and blood.

Did I just bleed from my pores? Actually, if what I am feeling is correct, it seems like I bled from every orifice. That is certainly a fresh, new horror.

It had been quite a lot of blood too. More than he thought a person could live without. Likely, a health potion must have been used at some point. His clothes were utterly ruined. And so were Siluv's obviously very expensive clothes.

"Forgive me! I didn't mean to — " Dante tried to rise, but her grip tightened around him, forcing him back down. "None of that now," she said firmly, "It's only a dress. You need to lie down, rest, and recover. The first time using a mana conversion skill is always the roughest. Take a breather, then go back in and consolidate your gains."

Dante cautiously complied, relaxing and attempting to slow his racing heart. His thoughts were moving a mile a minute and it was a struggle to have a single unified thought. They did have a common theme, however.

Thank the gods that she is so considerate. What a difference from Moeris. I was afraid that everyone around the princess was going to be a royal asshole. It is just what I need right now.

Dante had been on edge around Moeris and it had been wearing him down. If this was how Siluv was, he was looking forward to her training a lot more. At the very least, she might explain the risks of something before it nearly killed him. Although …

Is this whole thing intentional? A good cop, bad cop routine meant to break me down and then build me up? Or maybe it's some kind of loyalty thing.

Dante's previously disappearing tension made a comeback and he sighed.

I don't know what to think anymore. But this isn't a productive train of thought. I might as well take advantage of this. I do have something I have been wanting to look at for a while.

Stolen novel; please report.

With more eagerness than anything else he had done that day, he opened his status and noticed that he had some new notifications.

[Mana Body Fortification] has advanced to Level 5

[Hyper Focus] has advanced to Level 5

[Strength] has increased to 10

Yeah, that tracks. My buffer is full yet again and I forgot to empty it during the healing potion. I am not surprised either that [Hyper Focus] leveled. I was in there for a while. As for the strength, I guess that poison was still running amok and I was being healed during that time? I wonder how long I was out of it anyway? I mean, it took a few hours for it to reach half and I was still in that trance when my mana pool was nearly empty. Anyways, time to look at those [Specializations]