"Let's see what's the difference between the two methods," I muttered even as I focused, and attempted to activate my newly obtained skill. An imaginary orb once again started rotating, though both the speed of the rotation and the pull were far less than I had expected. I actually had to open the hatch and disperse most of the tainted energy that had been collected to succeed.

[Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) - 1 - 7]

"At least it improves faster," I said, and I shattered a few more shells. Another minute of meditation gave me two more mana points.

[Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) - 7 - 19]

"Well, no perks," I growled. While I didn't expect more perks, I had still been hoping for that to be the case. I pushed again, which brought my skill's proficiency to its thirties. The sphere started rotating even faster, already surpassing the performance of the Common variant had on its level fifties.

However, the more interesting part was that, once I passed level twenty-five, I could feel that it wasn't a singular method anymore. Instead, I could feel a second option, a sphere with a deep gap around its equator line.

It was not a straight line, but a wavy gap, almost like a trench, or a water canal.

Switching between the two had been instinctual, but the actual application of the skill was not. As I rotated, the sphere moved sluggishly, with the foreign energy clogging its flow. It was an interesting experience. The skill was giving me direction, but I failed to actually push it.

The reason soon became clear. The tainted energy, for lack of a better word, was clogging the structure. I had a good idea of what the function of that line was, so I opened the hatch once again to cleanse the room of the tainted energy, slowly increasing intensity once more.

The gap at the center almost worked like a centrifuge, the mana was gathered there, while the tainted energy was pushed to the surface, essentially separating the two factors.

"Interesting," I said even as I focused on the shape of the channel. It felt immutable. But then, as I repeated the process a few more times and pushed it above fifty, it changed. I could feel that I could transform both the surface of the sphere, and the shape of the ditch.

However, when I tried to do that, I was met with something I hadn't faced ever before. The Skill refused to engage, like I was trying to lift a weight I wasn't capable of lifting.

"I wonder if it's due to my lack of stats," I muttered. I vaguely remembered the sensation when I had first acquired Mana Forge, but back then, I didn't have too much time to process it. I couldn't help but feel excited, wondering whether it would mean I could unlock another Stat while leveling up.

But, I wasn't in a hurry for that. I still had a lot of experiments to run. Level fifty was the biggest opportunity I had to upgrade my class once more, and I wanted to maximize the opportunity there.

Still, while it didn't rotate automatically, that didn't mean I couldn't reshape it. Curious, I transformed it to a simple hexagon and rotated … it pushed both mana and tainted energy away. "Interesting." I maintained the hexagonal shape and used it to run the process in reverse and discharge my mana.

It worked far better.

I ignored it temporarily. I had a lot of time to experiment. Instead, I started gathering and releasing mana again and again, increasing the density of the tainted energy whenever the skill development stalled.

Soon, another bonus arrived.

[Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) - 98 - 102]

[Perk Options — Advanced Purification (Purification) / Superior Sensing (Enhanced Sensing) / Efficient Absorption / Channeled Flow (Controlled Flow)]

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I chose Superior Sensing, as it was the one that would help me most when discovering the secrets of mana. I was glad to do so. I could actually see some more details. Unfortunately, they were hard to describe, and that enhanced visibility only worked while I was meditating.

Soon, the maximum density of tainted energy I could achieve stopped giving me benefits, which meant that the immediate benefits had stopped. Not that I was complaining. I had already pushed my meditation to an incredible level.

[Cleansing Meditation (Uncommon) - 134 [Controlled Flow, Superior Sensing, Purification]

"That's enough meditation for today," I said to myself, even as I stood up, and left the hatch. With two of my tasks complete, I was about to focus on creating the steam-powered crusher.

Now that I could refill my mana completely in seconds, breaking the shells actually turned into my biggest problem. However, once I stepped out of the steel coffin I had created for myself, I had to delay that. The reason?

The density of the insects around my base had increased significantly as if someone had broken a weak lure potion. But, I didn't start looking for a spy because of it, since the aired-out concentrated tainted energy was a much better explanation for their presence.

"Interesting discovery," I muttered even as I rushed forward. I chose to use a sword, as it was a good opportunity to work on the mana attack. I was prepared to work hard to create something even halfway usable.

So, when I bisected the first giant insect effortlessly, I was actually surprised. Unlike my previous attempts, the mana edge solidified around the blade effortlessly, enhancing the cutting edge perfectly. It almost looked like I was using a skill … but then, it was not. Whenever I used a skill, there was always a slight sense of separation.

The difference was subtle, like the difference between riding a bike and swimming. Both gave a sense of control, but the former was reliant on the shape of the tool more than the latter.

In my case, the skill still handled my movements, but the mana around the blade was under my direct influence, changing shape through my control, weakening, and strengthening as I focused on the mana field.

It didn't take long for me to understand the source of the sudden improvements. My experiments.

After all, I had spent several hours working with mana. And, more importantly, it was not mere repetition work, but experimental work that had forced me to interact with mana, both directly, and based on different materials.

The more I practiced, the more I realized that change came from many different directions. One was simple. By repeatedly using Mana Control to shape and release mana again and again, I had gotten more familiar with the way mana moved, and the uncommon variant of the Meditation had further improved my understanding.

Of course, what I was doing with the mana blade was nowhere as tight as using Mana Control. Still, using it repeatedly gave me a better instinct for mana's liquid form — or, at least, what I temporarily named, as it was not exactly an accurate descriptor — which translated somewhat into the more solidified form a mana attack used.

Then, there were my insights on the movement and dispersal of mana, particularly understanding how it roughly followed a similar path to Newton's Law of Cooling. That alone gave me a better idea of how much mana to push into the structure. More importantly, knowing that there was still a mana cloud around me even if I couldn't detect it allowed me to compensate for it.

However, the biggest benefit came from an unexpected source: How the mana interacted with the metal itself.

During the experiment, I had created hundreds of different alloy variants, focusing on nothing but the way they interacted with mana. Of course, I had just focused on observing the way they kept the mana contained, but since that was done with Observe, I had caught far more minute details than just the speed of dispersal.

And, after thousands of observations, I had managed to get a better sense of how to maintain that mana field. "Suddenly, I'm glad that I haven't destroyed the containers," I chuckled even as I continued to cut down the giant insects, trying to angle my attacks so that I could kill the beasts and remove their shells at the same time.

Of course, that way, I was only able to get a broken shell, and it dropped the skill quality considerably, but I didn't care for either the sales potential or the skills. The most important thing was to have even more material for my experiments.

Once the density of the monsters had been dropped to a certain degree, I went back to the shelves, and forged another set of containers, this time going the opposite direction, and focusing on creating a metal that allowed the mana to flow freely.

What followed was another cycle of experimentation. I alternated between using a hammer, sword, and spear, sometimes using the mana blows through the Mana Forge skill, and sometimes experimenting with it directly. It was another session of experimentation someone else would have classified as boring, but not me.

No, I was too busy inventing a new mana attack for my Quake Hammer.

[Quake Hammer (Rare) 83 - 85]

"Success," I said even as I looked at the horde of monsters surrounding my base.

But, as I looked at them, I only saw walking proficiency points.