World Filter

As it turned out [Invigourate] had been one of the Knight's favorite things about Mark tagging along. Their speed had doubled because of it, especially for the weaker members. Tommis had asked him to explain that one as soon as they had gotten back to base. There had been no casualties, though it had nothing to do with Mark. Their system was well practiced and worked efficiently.

Daphne never forced things, instead, she and Ethel encouraged a steady pace. Show up, do the work, but don’t overdo it. Ethel drove home the need for consistency in their training and it might not make them overpowered in a single night, but each day built on the last.

They’d left early morning and returned around oneish. Just as everyone was dispersing Mark spotted Andy, he had seen him during the hunt but they’d both been busy. So Mark called out to him.

Turning Andy spotted Mark and with a grin made his way over.

“Yo, Mark my man, how you been? I heard you made it back looking like a total villain.”

Mark wasn’t too sure what Andy meant but it was clear he meant it as a compliment and when Andy offered his hand Mark took it.

“Thanks, Andy. Been good. How’s Sophia? How are you?”

“Dude, I’m great, been working hard. Soph’s been good, great in fact. We decided to keep the kid. No matter what I’m gonna make sure she’s got everything she needs”

Mark smiled at that.

“That's great to hear man, want to grab something from the mess hall? I got something we should chat about.”

Andy smiled but he looked apologetic.

“Ah sorry Mark, kinda promised Soph we’d do something together when I got back, can it wait?”

Mark just nodded in understanding.

“No problem, enjoy yourselves, but find me soon”

When Andy ran off, Mark said goodbye to everyone and headed toward the mess hall. Arriving, he got into the line and took a look around the room. People were flowing into the space. The mess hall was right where it had been previously, though the tent had been partially destroyed, so right now most of the area was open to the sun. Luckily, people endured and everyone just went on about their day. So, like this, Mark stood bathing in the afternoon sun, and finally, when he got to the front, he was lucky enough to see Joslin there. He had to wait a little bit of time for her to become available, but he didn't mind. When she was free, they chatted, and Mark took out the recipe file he'd gotten from the pastry shop. She smiled at the gift and slipped him something extra onto his plate. As it turned out, she and the kids had taken refuge at the fallback point, while George had gone to help the main wall. It had been hard, but she was just happy they were all safe. Mark struggled about whether or not to tell her about the impending retreat, eventually deciding to give her a day or two to be happy before he worried her again. Mark said his goodbyes and went to eat outside.

When he was done he popped in at the medical tent to see if there was anything he could do to help. Upon arriving there he found that the medical tent had seen heavy damage in the chaos. One of the walls had collapsed inward, so Mark just entered through there, as he did he saw the doc leaning over inspecting a damaged piece of equipment and muttering to himself

“Damn it! When they called a retreat I grabbed as much as I could, but look at this mess” he grumbled to himself.

“Hey, Doc!” Mark shouted into the tent.

This caused Friedrich to jump and turn around with his hands raised in front of him. It was just for a second but Mark saw he had blood floating around his hands shaped like blades before disappearing into small cuts on the docs skin.

“Woah Doc, I’m here to help!” Mark said with his hands up in surrender.

“Don’t fucking sneak up on people after the day we just had!”

Mark smiled because he hadn’t been sneaking at all, the guy was just really wrapped up in his own world.

“Was that blood magic? Have you been practicing?”

Mark knew he’d been right the first time he’d seen the doc working.

The Doc looked like he was about to deny it but then thought better of it and nodded his head slightly.

“The army is now expecting all non-combatants to at least have some way to defend themselves. I’m just taking inventory now apparently they are packing me up to move to another tent by the end of the week”

Mark realized then, that by some unfortunate stroke of luck, the army's retreat was actually covered in some ways by this disaster. People would be packing up to relocate and it didn’t look that suspicious in the slightest.

“Right, well that's good, can you manifest blood, or is that just pure manipulation”

As it turned out the Doc could create blood, down to the blood type of a person but it took a frankly enormous amount of Mana.

While they chatted Mark helped him clean the place up. There were people coming in for examinations so soon enough Mark left to let him work.

He walked down the narrow roads, things were in a state of disarray where ever he went. Though to offset that, people were working hard to put things right again. There was a significant absence of soldiers but Mark chose to put that out of his mind right now. They were probably off getting briefed or something.

Making his way to the public training ground her saw this place had not suffered as much, though there was not much here to destroy in the first place. Mark went to sit near the edge of the tree line. There weren’t many people here and that was to be expected, everyone was still recovering.

Sitting down Mark cleared his head, he had some breathing room it was time to test a couple of things out.

First. Did energy density matter to the gains [Meditation] offered?

Dropping into the skill he searched the surroundings for Prana, Right away it flowed towards him in abundance. The complete opposite of outside the camp. As he sank deeper, his mind wandered and he remembered that he’d also used [Meditation] in the green zone when they all passed out.

Did that affect it? That was mostly Corruption, right? If he thought back he’d managed to gain about six points, so how had he gotten that much?

Mark thought about this for over an hour, when he felt the first point. Opening his eyes he saw.

Source: Mediation (+1 Prana, +2 exp points)

Alright so definitely made a difference, now could he increase this pace? Mark dropped back into the flow but this time, instead of just accepting what was readily available he began to actively call to the Prana in the surroundings.

To pull it towards himself.

The energy seemed to respond, tricking in at first but then building into a small torrent. Mark realized the more concentration he diverted to the process, the faster the flow.

That was when he started to notice something else.

He was only targeting Prana but seemingly by accident, both Mana and somehow Aura were being drawn in, to a lesser extent.

Mark was even more interested and watched the flow and its path. What he saw was the Prana and Mana entering their respective cores, while Aura simply escaped as soon as it entered the threshold of his body. Mark realized he was swallowing the energy as a whole and even though he was only calling one type, the others were linked so closely that they naturally drew in each other.

He kept this up for around fifty-five minutes before he felt the next point settle in.

Source: Mediation (+1 Prana, +2 exp points)

Mark opened his eyes panting, that process had been as intense as when he first learned the skill. The time difference was minor but it was a proof of concept. The energy in the area mattered, but so did one's effort.

If he continued would his Mana go up too?

Mark wanted to continue testing but this method was time-consuming and he still wanted to figure out how to use [Bestowal] to buff casters.

Taking a mental step back he relooked at the idea he had earlier.

As [Bestowal] was, it could only enhance what was already there, which is why it didn’t really help him in the speed or strength department. However, Mark had worked in depth with Mana and this seemed like something he’d be able to use on himself to great benefit. The worrying part was if he did manage to create something like his limit release and it went on for ten minutes he could very well make himself brain-dead.

He could toggle his skill on and off but if he got this wrong he’d hurt himself as the only way to undo it was to let it time out or use all of the energy available.

Meaning caution was his friend here.

Starting out he formed an idea of mental stability, if he could get the spell to provide strength to the mind it was affecting then maybe that would help support his idea.

After that, he shaped the idea to enhance someone's Mana attribute. Their mental capacity. He’d noticed this when he’d helped Ethel with the interviews but Mana was not only how much energy one had or their mental defenses. It also affected one’s brain or for lack of a better word ‘Intelligence’. Now even with over a hundred and fifty in the stat Mark was not some unparalleled genius, but he was able to hold way more in his brain and concentrate on more at once.

It didn’t give you knowledge, just the ability to handle more variables, faster. Aura was the same in the way it affected one's control over their body. Unfortunately, Prana was a little more difficult to pin down as it was not as obvious as Aura or Mana.

Mark got back to the spell, directing the flow he focused on simply supporting the mind, and when that idea set in he let the spell’s Prana fuel the change of pace. Using his skill as a framework.

The spell consolidated into a purple glow and sat in Mark's hand. This time he’d made the spell as small as he feasibly could and without hesitation, cast it on himself.

The spell took hold and just like his skill the world began to slow down. The effect was definitely weaker and at the same time he felt the spell helping bear the brunt of the strain. It almost felt like a smaller mind he could offload some of the mental burden onto. Sorta like having a calculator in an advanced mathematics exam, it helped but he needed to know how to apply it.

Mark waited the spell out, to see if there were any problems and after ten minutes it faded without any negative effects. Thinking things through he would guess the buff had been a 30% increase like the other ones. By comparison, his skill to break his limits was near 100%, which is probably why it hurt so much to use.

Looking at the spell he wondered if he’d be able to cast it on someone else, his other version worked but this one was actually going to affect someone's brain, and as far as he understood that would cause their Mana to fight the spell. Even if he intended it to be a positive buff, did their Mana know that?

It was at this stage Mark looked up at the training area, and as luck would have it he spotted someone he recognized. Or rather two someones, waving his hand to catch their attention he called the twins Isabel and Sofia over. The last time he’d seen them was on the wall last night, they’d become really proficient with barriers since his class. The two of them could handle a whole section of the wall on their own.

When they saw him, they came over together.

“Hey, teacher Mark!”

They both said in a sing-song tone in unison.

“Hi girls, I was wondering if you’d be willing to assist me with a spell I’m working on. It shouldn’t take long really”

The two looked at one another and some sort of understanding seemed to pass between them.

Isabel started talking

“Sure, but we were just about to use our lunch to practice flying magic. Soo… how about 25Sp for our troubles”

They were both smiling and Mark didn’t know whether to be amused or feel taken advantage of.

Though he appreciated the hustle and seeing that he was not hurting for cash he decided it was worth it.

“Done. Now I’m going to cast a spell on you both tell me how your Mana responds”

Mark Started off by casting [Bestowal] on just Isabel. Contrary to his expectations the spell took easily, so he cast it on Sofia too.

It worked as he expected and they both loved it. Their spells came out faster and stronger, at the cost of more Mana, but Mark had always found that casters had more Mana than their spells could use. Of course, this was necessary for their endurance, but this spell could temporarily make casters more potent.

When he asked them if there was any problem he found out the reason his Mana had not interfered with theirs. They went on to explain that the moment he had cast his spell on them, their Mana took hold of his spell, so there were no issues.

That's when it hit him. The reason Mark's spell did not interfere with them was because, while it still held his intent, it had none of his will in it.

When the spell moved to someone else their Will naturally took over the spell. This was also why he couldn’t control the spell after it had been cast and they could.

Mark had looked at it closer and something about the way The Mana and Prana interacting allowed for this, or he wouldn’t even be able to get any version of the spell near someone. The nature of the two energies seemed to change when they worked together in one spell. Having learned something about the way the two energies interacted, and that his spell was a success, Mark was happy and called it quits.

At that point, the twins had held out their hands and Isabel said.

“That’ll be 25 Sp each please”

Mark looked at them and sighed, as he had to wash the sweet taste of success down with the bitter taste of defeat.