World Filter

After the class, Mark had moved everyone to the wall, which had once more been touch and go all night. The bright side was that exp was pouring in. Not just for himself but for everyone. With the new rotations that Sam had put forward, they were starting to eke out some breathing room.

Casters now started in the turrets in addition to having a platoon of casters already on deck, Captains had been assigned to each group and they managed the Mana use of the platoon. This way the moment the call was given they rotated out and the rested casters swapped in. At the same time, any injured were taken in by the casters and the medics did what they could for them.

More often than not they made their way back onto the frontline of their own accord when rotation was called.

Mark had not needed to create a shield for the section at all as it turned out the training had helped wonders. Though they couldn't cover as much ground as he used to be able to with his [Shape Mana] their advantage came in the form of numbers.

Three of them working in concert could almost cover the wall. When one was going to go down, another caster would step forward to take up the burden.

Mark had watched over them and made sure to keep them rotating. At the same time, he sent out Manifested spears of earth and [Force bolts] whenever he had the time. Making sure to throw out the odd [Bestowals] when he had the chance.

Overall his defensive casters first night went well. People were starting to fill their roles better and understand what was needed of them.

Captian Martina was on the wall once more with her men but this time so was Sam.

SAGE was still being split much to Mark's distastes but on the bright side, Sergeant Davis was a sergeant no more.

After serving in the position and fulfilling his duties for a considerable number of years, showcasing his skills on the wall and during his assigned missions, Sergeant Davis had been promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant. With full control over SAGE’s platoons up on the wall if need be. This allowed him to lead SAGE on the other sections of the wall. He would help lead SAGE while Joanthan and Sam were on missions.

All in all, even with the increased number of corrupted they managed to hold out without any breaches.

Mark crashed in his bunk satisfied. It had been difficult but the wall was managing.

In the morning Mark had made his way to the medical tent and was surprised to find they had a record-low injury rate for the night. Which the Doc was loving.

The turrets, shields, and caster rotations were synergizing to drop casualties to an all-time low.

This did not mean none; however, as a whole, there were almost no code blues, and the others weren't as severe.

Mark had finished up in record time. So much so that he spent some time using [Corruption recovery]. Which had improved. The active was still the same but his passive had doubled to 1% per 12 hours. He burnt around 12% before heading out for the day.

Now it was around one and he was sitting in the public training grounds munching on one of his favorite delicacies.

Putting the half-eaten apple down next to himself, Mark took another look at his new spell.

Sculpt Mana - Rank 1

Through extreme Mana control and imagery, the user can expand and create intermediate (Force) constructs.

Size and distance correlate to the Mana expended.

Complexity based on mental acuity

Mana can be retrieved if the form is reabsorbed by the user.

Damage to the construct will cause leaks in the framework, reducing the Mana returned.

Persistent constructs can be maintained as lesser versions

The strength and toughness of constructs are based on the Mana and Resistance attributes.

This spell can be altered by all other attributes.

This spell can be altered by all other types of magic.

Thankfully it still held all the functions of [Shape Mana] only with some impressive new features.

There were three major changes to speak of.

The first was the massively increased Mana cost. Although if he reabsorbed the construct that point was almost moot. But he had to factor it in. The spell seemed to need a lot more Mana to get going. Though he should mention that it correlated to a stronger, faster construct.

It Responded better to his manipulation and seemed to be much denser, able to take more punishment for less Mana.

To top it all off, moving and maintaining the spell for long periods of time became child's play. He could probably keep the thing up 100% of the time while he was conscious.

This is what he thought ‘intermediate’ meant.

‘Persistent constructs’ gave him ideas and it was part of the reason he was here now, but he still needed to test it out.

Finally, being ‘altered by other magic’.

[Bestowal] was the same and he had already knew how hard that was, but he thought it would allow him to combine other magics into the constructs and get something else. For example something like the fire shield he had seen during his class. Obviously using his magics. The spell was Force in nature so he'd have to do some experiments to see what he could get working.

Beginning his tests, he cast [Sculpt Mana]. A large dome of force exploded outward. Mark had to consciously rein it in.

The difference was like going from driving a modest sedan to a powerful muscle car.

If Mark looked hard enough he could see faint interlocking triangles making up the dome.

As a start, he began shaping it and moving it around. It barely took any Mana at all. Separating it from himself he tried concentrating on the ‘Persistent’ effect. Freezing it in a cube to float in front of himself.

Then once he had it locked down he fixed it in place. It was similar to how he would tie off a bundle or use [Bestowal]

The Mana remained fixed in place unless Mark called it. It took very little concentration on Mark's part, probably just above a light in terms of attention.

He even stopped concentrating on it entirely. The construct stayed put for almost a minute before slowly dissolving in pure Mana.

Now there were a few downsides to using it this way.

Firstly if he let it fade he wouldn’t get a single point of Mana back.

Secondly, his Resistance could not affect these lesser versions once they were set down.

But still having something like that as an option was great. Hell, he could have done with it earlier.

Done thinking of the past he moved on to the main reason he was here.

Mobility. Namely, flight. He finally thought he had all the pieces of the puzzle.

Pulling the construct in, Mark wrapped it around himself. It was even easier than he remembered, molding to his form with ease. Then he began to attempt to lift himself off the ground.

There was a brief pause, then he slowly floated off the ground.

The Mana expenditure was heavy but not back-breaking as it had been with [Shape Mana]. Putting continuous weight on one of his constructs before would always put tremendous strain on his reserves.

Now with the evolution, it was manageable.

Lifting up faster now he rose two meters in the air.

It felt strange and incomplete like he was missing something.

His movement was slow and stunted. He realized it was because maintaining a consciously changing shape while moving was taxing on his mind.

He could fly it was incredible, but he still felt cheated. He wouldn’t be able to pick up great speed like this.

Manuve, sure. But escape fast-approaching danger, not so much.

Mark lowered himself to the ground and contemplated his problem. He had thought something like this might happen. It was as if he had half the formula.

Well, what he needed was a driving force right?

If one spell couldn't yet handle his full weight then what about two? Perhaps he could lessen the mental weight and increase his speed at the same time.

He had the perfect idea.

Force magic had the perfect spell for this. [Telekinesis] he’d seen it in the spellbook recently.

It did exactly what it sounded like.

Allowing one to life objects with force magic. Kinda like those old tv shows where the supervillain used his brain to levitate objects.

Now Mark was obviously not the first person to try and use this spell to fly. If fact all the comments warned against trying this and it was the main reason he had left it till now to test out.

As it turned out lifting one's self with [Telekinesis] was in no way as easy as it looked in the movies.

You see the spell used force to lift mass and then direct it, however, it worked best with explosive bursts of force rather than sustained durations. To top it off selecting where the spell would latch onto your mass was harder than just targeting an area.

Complex problems aside it was like having only a gas pedal and nothing else. Learning to chain them required a ton of practice and pain that not many were willing to spend too much time on. Try maintaining your concentration when your feet are suddenly ripped out from underneath you and you are hoisted backward into the air only to crash down face-first in the dirt, in one fluid motion.

The difference here was that Mark thought he could use [Sculpt Mana] to stabilize himself. Kinda like riding a bike with training wheels.

Pulling out his phone he went looking for the spell. As it turned out the precursor to [Telekinesis] was [Telekinetic push] which was almost the same thing but limited by direction.

Mark looked at the intents for [Telekinetic push].

Absorb. Direct.

Then he went looking for [Telekinesis] he found it much further down. Someone had put it up more recently. It had more intents or threads as the system called them and those threads were harder to grasp.

Create. Vector. Release.

So as a very basic concept. The more threads a spell had the more complex and harder it would be to achieve. They also correlated to the strength of the overall spell.

Closing his eyes he moved the Mana to the threshold of his skin and began slotting the intents.

It was easier because he was very familiar with force magic. That did not mean it was smooth sailing but as he wrestled the concept into place over the spell he knew what to expect. Leaving Mark only slightly lightheaded after the spell was completed.

A Ping sound out and Mark opened it right away.

Spell acquired: Telekinesis

Through the mental implementation of kinetic energy, the user has learned to manifest a basic physical force of reality.

Generated kinetic energy depends on the targeted mass and desired velocity.

Mass and distance correlate to the Mana expended and the strength of the Mana attribute

Fine control based on mental acuity.

Caution: This spell offers no protection against the creation of kinetic energy or the resulting effects.

The description was short but sweet, giving him all the detail he needed. Looking for a target his eyes fell on the apple he had left on the ground earlier.

Making a scooping motion he put a single point of Mana into [Telekinesis] and targeted the apple, directing it upward. As it turned out this was way too much energy for such a small object. The apple went from zero to one hundred all at once. One moment it was on the ground stationary and the next it was launching itself dozens of meters into the air. Mark craned his neck to see if he could spot where it would land and could no longer see it.

Frowning he reinforced [Scalpt Mana] hopefully that would not be him. Once more he cast [Telekinesis] with a single point of Mana. Hopefully, his weight would make a difference. Directing the force upward he targeted himself. Feeling like he was about to do one of the first launch missions he hoped his fate would not be the same as those first rockets.

Triggering the spell there was suddenly an updraft of force targeting his center of gravity. It felt like he was falling upward at a slower pace. After reaching a meter in the air he started going off course. Using his [Sculpt Mana] to correct his direction made him rise at an even pace. By allowing his construct to simply alter his course he cut down on the constant changes he had to make. Lessening the strain on him. The speed and flow were worlds apart from just using [Sculpt Mana].

The combination defiantly reduced the huge mental tax on his mind but as compensation, the addition of the second spell brought the Mana cost up.

So more Mana for more control, something Mark had no problem with.

Deciding to really push it he began putting bigger and bigger amounts of Mana into [Telekinesis] launching himself upward at greater and greater speeds. Chaining the spell over and over again into one smooth-flowing flight. The sensation was incredible, tearing through the air free of gravity. It was like running from the rooftops only a thousand times more intense. Looking down he saw the camp below it looked kinda small from up here.

The two spell work seamlessly together. If [Telekinesis] was the engine [Sculpt Mana] was the direction.

Moving was effortless, then it came time to stop.

Mark learned the hard way that sudden decelerations in speed without gradually tapering off the force was the equivalent of smashing into a wall in midair.

Halting his force all at once felt like he was in the car and had suddenly slammed on the brakes. His [Sculpt Mana] acted as a seatbelt suddenly arresting his momentum all at once.

He definitely heard his bones creaking under the strain. Luckily his resistance was so high.

He wasn’t sure how fast he had been going but he was nowhere near the practice range anymore.

Even with all that he was still in a great mood.

He could fucking fly, superman style.

Though he had to keep an eye on his resources. That short joyride had cost him a fifth of his total Mana.

Happily Shaking off the daze, he began to descend. Directing himself towards the mess hall. He had to see if Joslin had his order ready.