Chapter 54 – I Think I’m Good at This (Patreon)

I walked back to the tent, humming my “new” ability points song:

“Bye Bye my ability points

I gave my points to my boy and now the well is dry

And them good ability points make me drink Rye

Singing this will be the day that they die,

This will be the day that they die ..."

Yeah … I still needed to work on that; I was no Don McLean.

The air felt different when I got about half a kilometer from the tent. It took me a second to understand why—there was no mana in the air; it was empty. I continued walking to the tent, and only about two hundred meters from it, I started to feel some mana in the air. I remembered that I experienced a large infusion of mana both into the ritual and into myself during it, but it surprised me that it emptied the air.

I was in for another surprise as I stepped inside the tent: no trace of the ritual remained, except for the grooves on the floor for the purification mixture. Everything else just disappeared. I got on all fours and examined the floor; there was nothing. I did not find even one speck of ash or grain of salt. Everything was just gone. At least the vent was still pumping out mana as if nothing had changed.

I built up the "mana absorption" aspect in my channels and sat down to regenerate. Every so often, I had to add more absorption because the itching decreased, and by evening, I was already at 3251/8800 mana. When I examined my channels, they looked almost twice as wide as they were when I started my technique, and the channel in my left hand was more than double the width I started with. I decided to take a chance and cast the Absorb Mana spell on myself.

I felt nothing for about three minutes, then I started to get a minor itching, and the spell ended without the feeling getting stronger. This concretely indicated how much I had progressed with expanding my channels. It once took me three full days to regenerate 3,000 mana. I filled the same amount today in less than a day. I have to do it consciously, but it's worth it. That thought stopped me in my tracks. Maybe I don’t need to do it consciously? Perhaps I can build an automatic mana regeneration system?

I continued to regenerate, and at the same time, I started building my idea. My first attempt was to create a mesh of mana lines with an absorption aspect. However, I quickly gave up on the idea; the mesh didn’t fit the structure of the channel. Then, an idea came to me. I began to build a spiral that started in the palm of my left hand, and I gradually progressed with it until I reached the Spirit orb. It took me over two hours to build the spiral, where I ran into a problem. One of the primary things I learned about spells is that they cannot have open ends. If there is an open end, the mana will leak out, and the spell will collapse. However, turning around and sending the spiral down my arm and hand will draw mana from my body and direct it out of me. I will essentially cycle mana in and out.

Hmm, I ran into a problem and decided to sleep on it. Rue joined me in the tent an hour ago, so we ate dinner together and slept in it. In the morning, I checked my mana: 3617/8800.

I must have needed that sleep to clear my mind because I had a new idea that I thought would work. I began to build the spiral in my Mind orb. I built the spiral around the sides of the orb, then built a spiral in the channel that connected the Mind orb to the Spirit orb. I began again to build a spiral around the sides of the orb, went down the channel to the Body orb, and built another spiral the same way. When I got to the bottom of the orb, I started the whole process in reverse by heading upwards as I built another spiral in the Body orb, again up the channel to the Spirit orb, and continued up the last channel and started to build the spiral in the Mind orb. When it was done, I connected the two ends, the start and the end, and "locked" the spell using a technique I learned in one of the books on mana.

I checked, and yes! The blinking light was back.

First Spiral Completed

Quality: 17%

I felt judged.

“Seriously? 17%? It’s not that bad!”

I didn’t get a reply.

I sighed deeply, broke the spell’s lock, and unraveled the spiral. I sat thinking about what might be the issue. My goal was regeneration, so how can I increase it?

Maybe more rings in the spiral? That should increase the regeneration.

Again, I began to build the spiral in my Mind orb, and I built the spiral around the sides of the orb as tightly as possible, so I would have as many rings as possible. When I couldn't fit even one more ring, I built a spiral in the channel that connected the Mind orb to the Spirit orb. I began again to create a spiral around the sides of the orb with tightly packed rings, and when it was ready, I went down the channel to the Body orb and built another spiral the same way.

When I got to the bottom of the orb, I started the whole process in reverse by heading upwards as I built another dense spiral in the Body orb, again up the channel to the Spirit orb. By this point, I started to get a headache from overexertion. It was tough to keep all this mana under control with the correct aspect and in the proper form and not let it fall apart. I continued up the last channel and built the spiral in the Mind orb. At this point, my whole body was shaking, but I knew, I just knew I was on the right track, so I didn't give up. The last few rings at the top were a David vs. Goliath fight, but I managed to build the last rings and connect the two ends, the start and the end, and I "locked" the spell.

As soon as I could let go of this complicated construction and effort to keep it under control, I almost fainted from relief. I sat for a few minutes, took deep breaths, and waited for the spots before my eyes to clear.

First Spiral Completed

Quality: 81%

“Hey, that was hard. I think it deserves at least a 95% score. Not a measly 81!”

Of course, I didn’t get an answer.

I thought about what might be the reason for the low score and decided that it was probably because I didn’t pack the spiral tightly in the connecting channels, only in the power orbs.

My channels were tingling on the verge of itching, so I knew I couldn’t add another spiral just yet; it would be too much for them. I considered unraveling the one I built, but it took me hours, so I didn’t feel like doing it again right now. To verify, I created a tiny amount of the absorb aspect in my right arm channel, and my channel began to itch immediately. As I thought, I wasn’t ready for the next one.

I checked the Wizard part of my profile, and the spiral was there, as well as another surprise.

______________

Sub-class 2

Wizard Level 2

Wizard Abilities

Mind Split x3
Mana Sensing [Junior]
Mana Saturation [Apprentice]
Mana Manipulation [Medior]
Mana Regeneration x 1

Wizard Spells

Harvest Mana Crystal [In Progress]
Harvest Game [In Progress]

_________________

What the hell is a Medior? I never heard this word.

Before leaving Earth, I bought a lot of textbooks on various subjects and some dictionaries for technical words. I facepalmed; I should have given Lis an introductory engineering textbook.

In one of the dictionaries, I found Medior: “A Medior is someone with three to five years of work experience who can lead projects independently. The Medior has sufficient knowledge to perform executive tasks successfully and mentor Juniors, but is often supported and supervised by a Senior.”

For the first time, I thought about the fact that the Archive and all the system messages were in English. I never gave it a second thought; I just opened it and read. But now, it was apparent that everything was translated. The system needed a word for the level I reached and took the closest word. Huh! Again, I felt like an idiot; I should have wondered about it sooner.

After a few minutes of feeling like a clueless idiot, I reminded myself of Lis’s words about first walking before running and decided that I was too harsh with myself. I was learning, and because I discovered many things myself, without any guidance, I concluded that I actually might be good at this wizarding stuff.