Chapter 489 - Mana Weaving (Patreon)

“Are they your disciples or something? You got lonely without that cute half-demon, so you adopted these two twerps?” Maya continues to walk around in circles in the living room.

Dennis and Aaron are too busy dealing with experimental Burden Enhancement Inscriptions to answer, so I do it instead. “They would probably say I treat them like guinea pigs instead of disciples.”

“Probably in a ruder tone?”

“Probably in a ruder tone,” I confirm.

“So, what did you do to them?”

“It’s a modified version of Burden Enhancement Inscriptions. The version given to me by Lissandra blocks all my movement and allows only movement powered by kinetic energy. Since these two don’t have kinetic energy, I had to modify it. They still can’t move, but to break through that, they need fine control over mana.”

“It’s not disrupting their mana, right? So what stops them from just powering through?”

“I thought of that, so I made some changes. If they mess up, they’ll hurt themselves, as it requires a lot of mana to power through. It’s still not as complete as I’d like, and it’s one of three variations I’m working on.”

Maya takes a swift step and smacks the back of Dennis’s head. Since he’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, he tilts slowly and crashes onto it in such a weird position.

I’m surprised by such use of force, but I don’t complain.

“You know very well what this is for, Dennis,” Maya declares with satisfaction.

“That was Aaron, not Dennis.”

For a moment, I see a flicker of surprise in Dennis’s eyes, but he quickly understands and I’m sure he appreciates it.

“Huh, they’re more and more difficult to tell apart.” She takes another step and smacks innocent Aaron, who also falls onto the floor.

“Are you happy with Bloodthirst?”

“Quite a bit,” Maya nods, glancing towards the claymore resting against the wall. “As we theorized, the more blood it absorbs, the more it ‘fixes’ itself. It also becomes sharper against opponents whose blood it has tasted. And it’s very sharp.”

“I still hold my opinion that you’re doing better with weapons made of mana that can change shape.”

“Yes, and I agree with you. I took inspiration from you, and I use Bloodthirst as a tool to get a new skill. It’s almost there.”

“You won’t tell me what it is, right?”

"Nope. I'd rather keep it a surprise. It'll be something that's all mine. After all, you wouldn’t want your knight taking the backseat."

“You’re going with that again?”

I form an energy orb and move it toward Maya, who takes over, joining me in mana exercises.

She also sits down to concentrate better. “I’m maybe more serious than you’d expect. By the way, did you also want to throw that tailor out of the balcony?”

“Multiple times.”

Her orb bursts, and she waits for me to send her a replacement. “Well, I already got the clothes, and they’re goddamn great, but people here act like arrogant nobles from old romances or some clan of noble vampires looking down at us peasants.”

“Vampires… I’m curious if there is such a race within the system.” I react to the fascinating thought.

“Well, we have demons, so why not? We have feylith that are akin to chicken-wing angels, lynthari are straight-up catgirls, vyssari are knock-off dwarfs. We’re missing elves, vampires; you say there are giant-like douches in Beyond, and then there’s that pink asshole Beatrice Sophie likes to insult.”

“And more.” I gesture at the orb she balances, “You got quite good at it.”

“Right? I just needed to get a grasp of your orbs. You can increase the difficulty.”

I do as she says, and even so, she keeps it up like a champ.

"Will you show me later what you did to your manabloc? Even Sophie still calls it amazing and says it would take a ridiculous amount of effort to disrupt. I'd love to try creating something similar," she asks.

“Why not, but don’t expect quick results. It took me six months to get there, and I had [Ley Line], [Connection] to observe, and bits of my other skills.”

“Can you show me?”

With a gesture, I burst the orb beside her and [Focus] to shape a dagger from the material I call manabloc, using the method I developed.

Thin, durable threads of mana extend, weaving into the form of the dagger. Gaps remain between the threads, but mana fills them—a small imperfection I'll address when the time comes.

The dagger made by these threads is as sharp as if I made it normally, and even the color is similar—changing according to the density of mana, just the difficulty is much, much, much higher. But it’s something I was able to shorten by a lot, especially if I don’t want to make the most powerful version.

“How long can it last?” Maya asks curiously, immediately noticing the parts that differ it from the “normal” version.

“The one you hold will probably last a few months if you leave it as it is. If you keep using it, it might shorten by maybe half. The version I made for Sophie should last for a year—I still haven’t had enough time to test and see, so it could be longer.”

“Cool stuff.” She waves it around, and her mana rises up around it. “I can surround it with my mana, but I can’t send it through.”

“Yup. I’d need to work with you and then spend a lot of time to have it match your mana. In the future, I might make it so everyone can use it.”

Maya keeps a close watch, enveloping the dagger with more mana and refining it, using the manabloc as a foundation. She then forms her own mana weapon and strikes it against the dagger. Like most who work with mana, she can disrupt it to some extent, so she tests it against the dagger—but it has no effect. I’m certain the result would be the same, even if she went deeper into mana disruption.

"I don’t think you should make it so everyone can use your weapons. I quite like the idea of a personal weapon or armor, matched to your mana signature, that could only be used by you and just turns into a sharp, durable item in other hands."

That makes me pause, and I let that thought linger in my mind and think it over.

“I quite like the idea.”

“I knew you would.” Maya smiles, but that smile slowly disappears. “Nat, did you by any chance apply this thing to mana mecha?”

“What do you think?”

"Fuck, that thing must be terrifying. And here I thought I’d improved mine a lot… How big can you make it?" There's a note of competitiveness in her voice.

“A moment.” I stop her and turn away, staring at Dennis, who’s twitching his mouth, exerting extreme effort to move it.

He succeeds in the end and barely gets a few words through before he shuts again, “That’s what she said.”

His eyes are bold and filled with pride at his success.

"Anyway, I still haven’t gone all out—I mostly focus on quality and maneuverability over size." I shift my attention back to Maya.

“So you would say size isn’t all that matters?” Maya asks.

Both of us look at Dennis and wait. His lips are twitching, chin moving as he fights against Burden Enhancement Inscriptions, but even after a few seconds, he’s unable to say anything, and we turn away.

“Something like that,” I confirm. “I’m mostly training it on the side in case there’s a huge monster I’ll need to get close to, and my other skills won’t work.”

“There’s something cool about being able to fight face-to-face against some kaiju-like monster.”

“I can’t say it’s not,” I agree with her.

“Okay, then, can you please tell me what you did to your manabloc?”

“Sure. If I were an asshole or a pretentious douche, I’d say something like this: ‘The technique I made, named Mana Weaving, involves the precise and intricate practice of forming mana into interlocking, highly stable structures. Through a disciplined process, it’s possible to manipulate one’s mana at a high level, binding it into sophisticated lattice patterns that fortify each strand and amplify its resilience. This woven mana structure establishes a self-sustaining network, effectively enhancing its internal coherence, making it far less susceptible to external interference or hostile manipulation. The result is a reinforced mana framework that is exceptionally difficult to disrupt, challenging for anyone attempting to breach or destabilize it.’”

“Damn, do people really talk like that?”

“You’d be surprised how many do.”

“I guess there are assholes everywhere. Please explain it to me like a normal human.”

“You weave threads of mana together. Instead of disrupting all mana at once, the attack has to disrupt each thread, and even if it succeeds in disrupting some, plenty will remain.”

“Much better.”

“Right?”

***

Sophie returns from her first invitation to work on Framework maintenance, followed by Maya, who acted as her bodyguard, being the second most resilient against mental manipulation after me, thanks to both of us sharing [Focus].

Even they haven’t encountered Namior, leader of the city’s third most powerful group—someone I’ve wanted to meet several times already but haven’t seen, despite lingering around his tower multiple times.

This time, all of us sit in my room. Some on my bed, some on manabloc chairs, and some on the ground. I also sit on the ground, a piece of that huge golden chain in my hand as I try to examine it, hoping to improve my insight into the system and, with that, my skill.

“As I thought before, Framework makes it possible to combine the calculative power of all mind mages in the city. But not only them; they can include the mind power of every person controlled by a mind mage and every person within the city inscription. Plus, they also have thousands of monsters with useful mind traits or skills imprisoned under the city, joining the Framework.”

“Damn.”

“Yes, damn, Dennis. The amount of power it requires is immense, so they’re able to activate it only once every eight years.”

“Let me guess, it’ll be soon?” I look up from the chain.

“Very soon - according to how maintenance goes,” Sophie confirms.

"That's perfect timing, isn’t it?" Lily says excitedly. "We could clear the floor either before Beyond or right after we return."

“Yes, the activation of the Framework happens only every eight years. This floor being timed this way makes it almost certain that it’s one of the ways to clear this floor.”

“Isn’t that good?”

Tess explains instead of Sophie, “Try to remember how the floors we’ve gone through so far tend to look the closer we get to clearing them.”

“Oh…”

“Yes, oh.” Sophie looks from Tess to me. “The question is if we still want to try to check some of the remaining Containment Cells.”

“That sounds like a job for the Champion-grade being annihilation squad!” Dennis chimes in, excited. “We’re the best at ending weakened and tortured champions, right, Nat? There are still three more to take care of.”

“Count me out, I have things I want to do before reaching level 300.”

At that moment, something catches my interest, a sense I haven’t felt from our group member so far, and I turn to the right, meeting Tess’s eyes.

Oh my, what has she done?

“I think we should visit at least one of the Containment Cells before we go to Beyond and the Framework activation.” She smiles, knowing very well what I sensed.

Tess has allowed her title to be felt.

She is also a Champion candidate now.

***

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