Chapter 482 - Racist Witch (Patreon)

Dennis was unable to close his mouth for two days. That meant no eating and should have meant no drinking. I was ready to let go so he could at least drink, but they solved it somehow, and I don’t want to know the details. Because of his pride, he didn’t come to me asking to remove it.

I used these two days to pull all the information I could from Melel. Ignoring the fancy names she likes to use for everything, I quickly simplified it in my mind and immediately came up with ways to use these things for my training.

She hasn’t complained about not getting sleep for two days, and for someone around this level, it’s something simple enough for her to endure.

Most of her knowledge is theorical, mostly learned from her planet, her teacher being one of the oldest Champions from the First Generation.

When Melel was much younger, she did something terrible, though she’s refused to tell me what, and I respect that. That act led to her being sent to the Astral Prison.

After years here and establishing her reputation, she ended up in Hollowgate, where she joined an expedition to explore the deep mines below.

They became lost in those dark tunnels, barely surviving for weeks while battling monsters.

Melel suspects that one of the expedition members was influenced by the powerful prisoner there, who drew people down into the depths to seek out a talent capable of freeing it. That’s what happened: after months of wandering, Melel, the only survivor, eventually stumbled close enough to the prisoner for it to speak to her.

Exhausted, wounded, and vulnerable, the less experienced and back them much lower level Melel fell under the prisoner’s influence—not full control, as the creature wasn’t capable of that, but through subtle manipulation and trickery, creating a link that grew stronger as Melel did.

Luck had been on the prisoner’s side. It found someone as talented as Melel, yet not powerful enough to resist its influence. For years, she has been returning to the mines, gathering mana, joining expeditions, working to break the chains of something she came to see as a friend, even a mentor—despite everything telling otherwise. These warnings were ignored, silenced by the hold the prisoner had over her.

She told me because I was curious—and maybe because she feels she still owes me. If she didn’t, I’m sure she’d just tell me to fuck off, which I’d consider entirely reasonable. But that doesn’t stop me from being shameless, using it to my advantage to ask as many questions as I can to satisfy my curiosity.

Our relationship is simple. I helped her, and she is now repaying it by answering all my questions and sharing her knowledge with me.

I had thought of getting some items from her, but during these two days, I changed my mind. The knowledge acquired is more than good enough.

Melel is especially good at handling her [Mana Crown] and manipulating stone. She can do some really fancy things with stone, but it’s not that useful to me. So, other than information on the crown, I listen to her lessons on theoretical knowledge and ask questions to simplify it for me before marking it down.

I was never the type to enjoy studying, and even now, I prefer experiencing things on my own instead of learning theory.

There are also bits of information I get from her about challenges you are capable of making when you reach the rank of Champion Candidate or similar.

As shown a few days ago, someone under mind control or a similar effect is incapable of declaring one. You can also create some really wild challenges, but they must be accepted. The challenged person can often adjust the wager slightly before waiting for confirmation from the challenger. Then it’s up to the system to acknowledge it.

You need to possess, or own, the things you are wagering. That also tells me how wild it is that my challenge to Whitey passed. It’s something I even mention to him as I slip into my mind for our training and get a laugh out of it.

I think it’s possible to wager even things like traits, but you need to mean it, and a certain mastery over your trait is required for an acknowledgment that you “own” it. At a higher level or for beings with the status of Champion or Absolute, these challenges are easier and allow for some crazy stuff. You can wager your stats, you can wager passive skills, and more.

Active skills seem to be an exception, one of the very few things that seem impossible to wager. That confirms my thoughts that they are very important, maybe even more than I thought, and I already put them quite high up.

While I’m collecting this information, Biscuit is still unconscious, and examining him a bit more, Lily has a theory that he is still “digesting.” Him turning into a puppy could also be backlash caused by overextending himself, but of course, that silly corgi would be unable to hold himself back after seeing a deer.

Lily and the twins spend time slacking around and training. When I give my modified evil orbs to the twins, Melel shows an interest, and I make one for her as well, which, to the extreme annoyance of the twins, she handles like a champ. When she thinks I’m not looking, she carefully places the orb into a mana cage, probably planning to examine it later.

I want to ask her about the cage, but she looks so thrilled with the orb, like she’s just gotten a new toy, and I don’t want to ruin it out of mere curiosity. So, as a thank-you for all the information, I pretend I haven’t seen anything.

She then lies that the orb she just secretly stored burst open when she was examining it, so I create another one, this time with added difficulty. She gives me a wordless nod of thanks and examines it while launching into a lesson.

Even though this thylarin is racist, after these two days I know she is also an extreme introvert, capable of locking herself in this place for 10 years. Spending this time training, learning, and reading. It’s something I can’t help but deeply admire.

Led by some impulse, I also tell this to her.

“What do you mean? I’m not racist, I just don’t like being around people, no matter what race.”

That answer raises my respect for her more than anything else she’s done so far.

Melel then continues, “I have given you all the knowledge you wanted, some of it I would usually never share, and some I spent years learning. I value my life a lot, but I also value this knowledge a lot.”

Getting a hint, I stand up. “Got it, this should be enough. Consider your debt fully repaid.”

“Good, the exit is that way,” she gestures towards the wall where the stone moves, shifting and creating a door. Right away, she turns away, heading inside the cottage where she goes through the books, likely looking for something to read.

Reaching Dennis, I stop using kinetic energy to hold his mouth open, and he closes it very slowly, groaning, with his jaw making cracking noises as it closes. Aaron watches him with clear enjoyment, likely making sure to remember that moment to tease his brother later.

“That’s it?” Lily joins, walking by my side.

“Yes, it took longer than I thought, but to make up for that, I will fly us or teleport us faster. What did Tess say in the Community?”

“The plan changed a bit, and we will be heading to where Sophie and Izzy are.”

“Huh? They made up?”

“Likely, Izzy pacified Sophie already. But I really want to go there fast to see the two of them meeting.”

“So, Mindblender City it is?”

“Yes, there is an old fort nearby where Sophie will meet us. Apparently, it’s dangerous to just walk into the city.”

“Well, I hope the three of you trained your mental defenses properly as we practiced. But let’s hurry, we don’t want to be late.”

***

Before leaving, we visit the place where I sent all the materials I got from the expedition. The hammer, anvil, and chains aren’t something we could take with us as they are way too big, heavy, and require too much mana to teleport. So they stay where I teleported them, in my underground lab that is now heavily damaged and nearly destroyed by them.

I just grab the bust and pieces of the most valuable and interesting metals. After leaving the lab, I also remove Ley Lines heading there and clear all the signs I can. The shielding of the room should take care of the rest.

After thinking it over, I create a smaller hideout far from my lab and place a few pieces of chain and some metals there. This way, I can retrieve them if needed without leaving any trace back to the main hideout.

We depart using my teleports and flight. As always, when I need to move more people, it’s very janky, but so far, still the fastest way of movement.

There are a few monster attacks and some random groups that we have to deal with or avoid; otherwise, it’s simple as we head deeper into the central region.

When we land, there is an old fort in view, and far in the distance, I can see the shimmering of the lake and city with many towers nestled on the bank of that lake.

Deactivating the Restrictive Training Emblem, the pressure on my body alleviates, and I activate one of Lily’s healing marks.

Examining my body, it’s still not fully healed. Muscles are weaker and don’t feel right, mana is much more difficult to move, and sometimes I get spasms of pain, or even my right arm becomes paralyzed.

Fracture is a very powerful weapon, graded mid arcane—something I didn’t expect when I set out to make it. The payment for it being that powerful is the danger of its use and the fact it constantly crumbles, but even now, I’m still learning from it.

So now, as we head towards the tower where I sense a single mana signature, I check my status and with it, the results of my training.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Title: Champion Candidate
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 6 - Astral Prison
Time left until forced return: 3y 120d 11h 36m 11s
Traits (2/3): Mana Circuit 2/3, Mana Wavelength Iris 1/3

Lvl 297
Strength: 164
Dexterity: 160
Constitution: 342
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1197 + 1197

Primary Class: Focused Channeler (Epic)
Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]

Active skills (10/10):
Focus - Lvl 59
Perception - Lvl 54
Redistribution - Lvl 57
Resonance - Lvl 59
Mana Domain (Pride) - Lvl 55
Infusion - Lvl 47
Mana Crown - Lvl 49
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 60
Ley Line - Lvl 39
Bone Knitting - Lvl 20

Constructs:
Reinforcement (Construct)
Thermokinetic Mana Heart (Construct)
Mana Regulator (Construct)
Mana Sovereignty Mantle (Construct)
Vortex Core (Construct)

Passive skills (5/5):
Arcane Resilience (Mid Epic)
Phoenix Embrace (Mid Epic)
Cognitive Fortress (Mid Epic)
Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)
Mana-Fortified Mind (Low Arcane)

Tokens:
Trait strengthening token (2nd stage)
Beyond 3 day stay token
Beyond 3 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token

Shards: 279,936

That’s close to 30 levels of free stats I have gained, mostly evenly split into Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

But best of all, there’s also my first strengthening of Mana Wavelength Iris—something I’m quite used to now, but damn, the beginning hurt. The strengthened trait allows me to see mana particles and the structures of skills with even greater clarity. The cost for this enhanced ability is high, and I still feel I haven’t fully uncovered the trait’s potential.

With the second-stage strengthening token, I could enhance it further. I just need a bit more time to fully adapt and will use it, especially before I get my Primary Class selection.

I have my hopes it will make the offerings better. Having Mana Wavelength Iris at the second stage by then could be huge.

As for my constructs, all of them are upgraded—all.

Reinforcement and Thermokinetic Mana Heart are something Lily helped with; Reinforcement is now doing a much better job when I decide to use it, and with my mana reserves, it’s quite powerful.

The output of my heart is now also higher, especially when it comes to kinetic energy—something I could observe in Whitey and bits of information Lily got from pieces of his heart before they disappeared. That made the white-haired demon shut up about my weak heart for most of the time, and he mentions it only when, according to him, I do badly.

For a bigger upgrade of the heart, I will need more and have some hopes in the Champion’s heart from the pyramid Sandra promised to get me. If it goes well, I could give it a good strengthening during the tournament - if the healing field doesn't mess with that again.

The mantle got the second most noticeable upgrade after the heart, inspiration gained from [Ley Line], [Resonance], while working on Fracture, and even from my arcane passive. To be honest, the Mana Sovereignty Mantle might be close to getting to the level of an arcane passive, nicely rounding up my defenses against mental attacks and attempts to hijack my body, mana, or block me from using it.

I now have plenty of stay tokens, and when it comes to passive skills, there is no change, but there is a good reason for it.

Shards: 279,936

Gaining over 150 thousand shards during these months, I am currently saving for a mid arcane passive, and I swear, I will sell Fracture if needed just to get it before the Primary class upgrade, Fracture being possible to sell for another 150 thousand shards.

***

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