NOVEL NEXT Chapter 79: The Second Skill Upgrade
Using the remaining kinetic energy, I propel myself forward, my hand holding a knife covered in oscillating mana. I read the direction of the projectiles that the sniper fires at me, a much weaker version of the skills she used to kill so many of the group.
I dodge two and block the last one, barely avoiding breaking my hand. Meanwhile, I once again absorb the energy of the rain and mold it into as thin a cone as I can, shooting it at her. She dodges it but a few orbs of mana start spinning around me faster and faster.
I dodge another projectile and, unable to dodge the second, let it pierce through my thigh and sling a mana orb at her, forcing her to dodge again.
This time, tens of projectiles appear around her and all fly at me. My surge bursts forth and I put everything into [Disruption], causing all the quickly formed projectiles to disappear like candles in the wind.
I sling a few more orbs at her and boost them with surge and even the kinetic energy I absorbed. The trees and the ground around the woman become trashed and multiple projectiles hit her. The woman finally staggers, putting a hand on her chest and then looking at her bloodied palm.
She screams and again tens of projectiles form around her. At that moment, another orb made of mana hits her and she staggers again, half of the projectiles disappearing. Still, she clenches her teeth and the remaining ones fly at me.
Once again, [Disruption] flares up and the projectiles disappear. All other than one that she made denser after seeing me cancel her attack before. The projectile hits my arm, which I barely cover in [Armament], and I hear the bone crack.
The force of the attack sends me to the ground, but I quickly absorb more energy, using it to propel myself back onto my feet and towards the woman who is already preparing for another attack.
Coming at her faster than she expected, I tackle her, both of us rolling on the ground.
Around my hand, I barely create oscillating mana and stab it into the woman's chest, making it oscillate as wildly as I can, tearing her flesh while her hateful eyes stare at me up until the last moment.
Then she dies.
[You have defeated the Phantom Sniper - lvl 72]
Two level-ups and I put all stat points into constitution, rolling on the ground to lay next to her, my heart beating wildly and mouth gasping for breath.
I rest for a minute while the rain continues to fall on my body and face, washing some of the blood off, then I send a pulse of mana into the surroundings, not feeling any monsters close. Still, I let one part of my mind monitor my surroundings, already knowing about the monsters that can mask their signature.
With the other, I open the notifications.
Congratulations! You have completed the Side quest and received a skill upgrade token. Currently, there are five skills available for upgrade. Choose wisely!
I pause for a second, really wanting to see all the options, but I know I can’t right now. I'll check them later to see the possibilities.
Right now I need to get my mana under control. I can’t continue to rely on [Focus]
to handle it all the time. Even now, one entire [Focus] keeps it at bay and a bit of another as well, not allowing me to use the skills as much as I would like to.So I glance over the options for [Mana Manipulation].
They are the same as before when I was using my first upgrade token.
Mana Amplification: Increase the potency of your mana manipulation, enabling you to generate more powerful magical effects.
Advanced Mana Manipulation:Enhance your control over mana, allowing for more precise and intricate manipulation of magical energies.
Mana Intensification:Strengthen the potency of your mana manipulation, enabling you to generate more powerful magical effects with less effort.
Mana Sensitivity: Heighten your sensitivity to mana in your surroundings, allowing you to detect and track mana sources more easily.
Yes, Advanced Mana Manipulation it is.
Half a second after I chose it, the pain hits my body and I groan, feeling it even more because of my pitiful state. My muscles spasm and my brain feels as if someone set it on fire and my heart feels as if it's about to explode out of my chest.
Slowly, after a minute or two, the pain dissipates, leaving me lying there staring at the sky.
These aren't tears. It's the rain. The raindrops.
Yes.
God damn it.
I groan and try to push myself up with my hand, too late remembering that it's broken and a groan of pain escapes my mouth. Great. Just great.
I carefully get up and send a pulse of mana as far as I can. Still no signs of life. I try to move mana in my body, keeping it strengthened. It feels much better than before but it's hard to tell properly. Yet another thing I will have to test later.
Slowly, I move towards the corpse of the woman and start looking through her pockets, being careful not to put too much pressure on my hand. At some point, I even form something like Biscuits' tentacles to open up the pockets.
Damn, I miss that little jerk.
In the end, I become a few gold pieces richer and even find some weird shining stones. I'm not sure what they're for but they crack and turn into the sand after I touch them. Other than that, she doesn’t have any documents or identification. Not even any other weapon.
For the last time, I look at her and move towards the corpse of the vice leader of the group whose head I blew off.
I take his short sword that looks of high quality, some silver from his pockets, and his dagger. Before leaving, I look at him one last time and turn around, leaving both corpses behind me.
On my way back, I find no monster, only one more man. He immediately attacks, clearly with the intention to kill, but one of my mana orbs, which now spins much faster than before, pierces through his arm. Then I absorb their kinetic emery and a cone of kinetic energy explodes his leg and the man loses his will to fight, only begging for his life.
He is 10 levels higher, but I'm a terrible matchup for him. His main strategy seems to be using telekinesis and hurling small iron balls, reminiscent of bearings, at me. Boosted by his skill, I can envision them inflicting serious damage. Furthermore, he appears to have literally hundreds of them at his disposal.
As he moved them, he also made them glow in a blue hue, probably combining his telekinesis with something else, but [Disruption] took care of that.
The man is still alive as I get to him, carefully monitoring him with my [Mana Perception].
There are multiple questions I could ask him. For example, I could ask him why he tried to kill me. But the answer is obvious, he was with the two I killed before.
Another question I could ask him is why they attacked the group. Why did they all have to die?
However, there is one thing I'm particularly curious about. Who did it? I want to know information about this person, their power, and the number of their men, in case they decide to cause more problems for me. Other than that, I do not care. I am not interested in the reason why everyone in that group had to die. It's surely something similar to what happened to me when I used to hunt with Aelric.
Before killing him, I get another use out of the man. He already tried to take my life, so I show no mercy. With my improved [Mana Manipulation] and [Disruption], I send my mana inside his body. Unlike Sophie, I do not have [Mana Infusion], but the result is similar.
I use him to practice creating constructs and to test a few theories I have. After the third test, he dies. A temporary construct messes with his mana pathways in a harmful way, causing an uncontrollable flare of mana to damage his insides.
But I learn a lot.
When Ruby appears near me, I attack her, not recognizing her at first, but she just hits my chest, almost gently, sending me staggering backward. Immediately, she gets drenched in the rain but she doesn’t seem to mind.
She looks down at the man near my feet and then back at me, seemingly unbothered.
"You look like shit," she says.
Yea, I bet.
"Well, it's raining," she says as if she only noticed it right now. "Are you done here?"
I just nod, too tired to talk.
The redhead then steps near me. My [Mana Perception] fires up and I watch, knowing that something amazing is going to happen.
With me by her side, she takes another step and immense mana erupts into the surroundings. The view in front of us disappears and the world by our sides seems as if shrinking.
The mana, the world, everything moves so crazily and so complexly that I can't even dream to follow right now. My head spins and I have a feeling as if someone pulled a carpet under me and stagger forward. Instead of into the mud, my feet step onto the wooden floor of a nice-looking room that we are inside.
The silence after hearing the thunderstorm and the rain for so long feels deafening.
With a tired sigh, I slide onto a chair nearby, too tired to even care if I am dirtying it because of the mess on me or not.
Then something sounds in my head.
(Asshole!)
The heck!?