Lev found himself staring at the ceiling of the Inn he was staying in. His mentor, Alec, seemed to be extremely busy these days, rarely showing up. He had naturally offered to give Lev access to the suite but he declined.
Lev felt confident enough to stay by himself without relying on his mentor's endless kindness. The risk of his age getting leaked was always present but he was getting tired of that secret weighing down on him. If it accidentally got leaked, so be it.
Time passed quicker than he expected. For the past month, Lev woke up at dawn, ate from the years' worth of food in his storage ring, hunted monsters to level his skills, and spent the rest of his day in the library or just resting.
He was taking a day off to celebrate two important milestones, one that wasn't set in stone despite the high likelihood.
[
Arcane Barrier Manipulation - 2nd Rank Level 1:
Form a barrier out of pure mana in your base manipulation range. Any barriers formed by this skill are 65% more durable. Wielding barriers becomes more natural as the skill increases in level.
2nd Rank: Barriers can absorb different types of mana after repeated exposure. The infused mana can be transferred to another barrier in contact with the infused barrier. The efficiency of transfer depends on your Mana Manipulation skill(s).
]
[
Needle Precision - 2nd Rank Level 1:
All barrier manipulation is 35% more effective. Increases Intelligence by 20%.
2nd rank: Manipulating and transferring different mana types is 35% more efficient. Increases Wisdom by 20%.
]
Like the hundred previous times, his lips parted into a wide smile as he read that.
I have it. I actually fucking got a Wisdom Boost.
It was rare enough that there were only two known instances of humans getting one. The first and most important was Queen Martha, and the second was the person who shared the skill which offered it. The poor Master had met an untimely death, unable to make a name for himself.
Being able to manipulate different types of mana is expected, nothing new. My Mana Manipulation will also rank up by using them, which is nice. Everything's going to plan so far, even the Wisdom Boost.
Just thinking about his new skills made him antsy to try them out. He tried to keep himself calm and collected.
He really did.
Ten minutes later, he was standing inside Barrett's shop again. Susaine was reading a book behind the counter when he approached, and she held up a finger before putting it down after a few seconds.
"Sorry, didn't want to stop in the middle of something interesting," She smiled. "Welcome back. How may I help you today?"
Lev smiled back under his mask. "No worries, I understand how annoying it is to be disturbed reading something important. I am here for Mana Converters today. Do you deal in those?"
"Converters, huh? I was wondering if you would need them with that class. Which mana types are you looking for?"
"The standard. Fire and lightning," Lev replied.
"Those are pretty common," she remarked with a small nod. "What percentages?"
"Depends. What is the price range?" Lev asked innocently, like the innocent question it was.
Susaine's smile turned downright sinister. "Oh, not much. They start from a few silver and go up to a few platinum."
Lev's mind froze at the cost. "Come again?"
"Yes, platinum."
Platinum, the denomination above gold, each worth a hundred gold coins. It took several seconds for his brain to unfreeze. "Why the f- hell are they so expensive?"
Susaine snickered lightly at the aborted curse. "Efficiency gets exponentially expensive above 90%. Every single fraction of a percent requires a lot of effort and resources at that point. You can easily find something up to 85% with a few gold coins. Less than ten for both."
"Oh," Lev breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, okay. Show me what you got." She raised an eyebrow at the last bit.
What did I s- oh.
Lev coughed. "The converters, please."
She burst out laughing, apologizing as she disappeared through a door behind her. Lev shook his head inside the armor at the teasing.
Susaine returned with two cubes that shone to Lev's mana perception, indicating intricate enchantments. She put both of them on the counter before explaining.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
"This is a fire converter, the simplest and cheapest," She pointed at the orange cube, very clearly painted to represent the element. "It will cost you a gold coin, no haggling. The price is as fair as it gets."
Lev nodded for her to go on. "This one is more complex but still one of the most common converters. It will cost you three golds. The total comes out to four golds. That is a pretty decent price for two 87% efficiency converters."
The price was well within his inflated budget, so he picked up the orange and pale blue converters and put down four gold coins.
Susaine smirked at the casual way a Classer was handling gold coins but made them vanish all the same. "Pleasure doing business. Will there be anything else?"
"I was wondering if there's anything I can do to make using them easier. Like a backpack where I can slot barriers to transfer mana into them?"
Turns out there was something like that. It was a simple black backpack with slots for chargeable things. Most people usually used them for swords or shields to charge the cores or enchantments, but Lev easily found a version that fit his disks and arrows.
There were four converter slots, with their output sides connected with eight charging slots. Four for disks and four for arrows. Lev could add two more converters in the future, probably wind and earth, but for now it was more than enough.
Lev thanked her before crossing the inner gate again. The guards were familiar with the lone hunter with a mask, letting him pass without any identification.
The expansive grassland stretched as far as he could see, now a much more familiar terrain. He didn't sprint to the familiar rocky terrain but instead formed three disks before slotting them in the lightning mana slot.
Feeding mana into the converter was easy, the input side of the cube standing out to his senses like a beacon. It devoured his mana like a hungry horse, charging up the output side at a slightly slower pace. The loss hurt a little but Lev had so much mana to spare now, it wasn't even funny.
The Wisdom Boost had increased his maximum mana to a ridiculous amount. The attribute boost increased his base Wisdom, which was in turn improved by the class benefits.
The results were worth dying for.
Where he had an extra large bucket, it was now a small tub of mana. The difference energized him every time he felt it, and this time was no different.
The disks connected to the converter now had a switch in his mind, as if asking for permission to absorb the mana. Lev acquiesced, and it was like a valve opened in the barrier.
The part about transfer depending upon his Mana Manipulation became obvious when Lev had to manually grab the lightning mana and shove it into the barrier. It took several minutes to get a hang of it, only because he had reached a high level of proficiency with the common Manipulation skill.
The main difference between manipulating pure mana and an attuned type was simply accepting the change. Lev had to get a taste for the lightning mana for several minutes before grabbing it while keeping its erratic nature in check. It was much harder than manipulating barriers but that would change as his skill continued to level.
Speaking of which.
[
Mana Manipulation - 2nd Level 1:
The basic skill required to become a mage. The skill allows the user to exert control over mana more accurately.
2nd Rank: The skill allows for manipulating mana types other than pure mana.
]
Lev tsked. No bonuses? Even my Wisdom Boost came with an extra passive.
Shrugging off the lame rank-up, Lev focused on shoving more mana inside the disk. The amount it could handle turned out to be little. Only after 1% of his total mana the disk was on the verge of destabilizing and exploding.
Lev stopped pushing more mana into it and searched for a suitable target to test his shiny new skill. He sprinted to the rocky terrain with his eyes peeled open for any threats.
He killed any normal goblins with just his standard disks before he stumbled upon a lone troll.
Perfect.
Lev slotted four arrows into the lightning converter, filling them to the brim. They held even less mana than the disks, requiring only 3% or so of his total to fill up all of them.
The troll noticed him when he was a hundred or so meters away. Lev summoned his bow and grabbed the first lightning arrow. He smirked when he felt the arrow damage his armor slightly, depleting the mana stored in the projectile at a low pace.
Not letting it go to waste, he aimed for the troll now only two dozen meters away. The arrow flew faster than before, courtesy of the property of lightning mana, before lodging itself in the monster's thigh.
The limb spasmed, effectively locking up the troll's body as it fell. Lev grabbed another arrow before firing at its skull. The arrow penetrated the bone and just barely touched the squishy brain. That wouldn't have killed the monster but the lightning mana discharge sure did.
[
You have slain [Troll - Level 90]
]
Two shots. Lev noted with glee. The arrows were suddenly far deadlier with the simple addition of a mana type. He continued his sprint to the ivory terrain, firing and killing two orcs with the remaining two arrows.
He could already kill orcs with a single disk or arrow so it wasn't anything impressive. His range, however, was. With his archery skill on the cusp of ranking up, he could snipe orcs from nearly fifty meters away now. That was only made easier with the lightning mana increasing the speed of his projectiles.
It wasn't all good though. The element was violent by nature, requiring Lev to adjust and accelerate the arrows to the limit lest their flight path be disrupted.
The ivory boulders were just as jagged and tall as he remembered but climbing them was second nature now. One leap took him to the top of a six-meter-tall boulder. Squinting his eyes, he found nothing except goblins. He turned toward The Pit, wondering if he should go closer to the cavity in the ground. He was much stronger after the recent skill rank-ups.
Reality quickly reasserted itself, banishing the thought. First-threshold monsters became more and more common the further one went, and the guardian patrols also became less frequent further away from the training grounds. Whoever went to The Pit knew they wouldn't be protected anymore.
For several minutes, he found nothing. No goblins, orcs, trolls, or brutes. He was starting to get worried when he felt a cold prickly sensation on the back of his neck. Quickly dashing away as far as he could, it probably saved his barrier armor from getting breached. The blow still sent him spinning, sliding to a step after several meters. He identified the assailant.
[Shade Prowler - ??]
Oh, hello there. Nice to see another one of you guys. Lev mused while forming three disks and four arrows in the lightning converter slot. The monster gave him no more time to ready himself, pouncing on him without care.
His increased Perception barely let him track the prowler's movements, telling him in no uncertain terms that it was much stronger than the one he had fought before. This time, however, he was confident in his victory.
Knowing they were barely more intelligent than a goblin, Lev darted to the side. The prowler flew past him, giving him ample time to keep his distance. His Wisdom boost was already paying dividends as he felt his mana barely dwindling. He could continue the game of cat and mouse for hours.
For a few dozen seconds, Lev dashed around. He wasn't scared of the monster, not truly, but the exercise helped in both training his movement and associated skills and getting used to the monster's speed.
True to his mentor's words, the prowler had no new skills except camouflage and jaw strength. That wasn't to say it was weak, the higher attributes and their increased effectiveness from the first evolution were enough to keep him on his toes.
The next time it pounced, Lev side-stepped just wide enough to launch an overloaded kick at its underside. His foot sunk pretty deep into the soft underbelly, eliciting a growl that promised a gruesome death.
Before it could pounce again, one of his disks reached its back leg. It failed to cut through the limb, leaving a deep gash but the lightning mana inside caused it to pause. That moment was long enough for another two disks to reach it yet the monster's instincts let it dodge out of the way of both.
Which gave Lev enough time to summon his bow and fire lightning arrows.
The first connected with its shoulder, tripping the four-foot-tall monster and robbing the prowler of its mobility. Still, it recovered quicker than expected, dodging the next arrow aimed at its skull.
Lev noticed it pounced slower after the two wounds, letting him dodge rather easily. Clearly, the monster was heavily dependent on its speed, which Lev could just barely deal with before due to his insane Perception.
With that advantage almost gone, Lev waited for the prowler to pounce again. Jerking back at the last moment, he grabbed a lightning arrow and stabbed the prowler's neck as it tried to bite his face off.
The lightning mana stunned the monster thoroughly this time. Lev didn't hesitate to grab another arrow from his backpack and stab it through the eye.
[
You have slain [Shade Prowler - Level 117]
Arcane Sentinel has reached Level 89
Incisive Edge has reached Level 9
Whirling Rim has reached Level 9
5 Free attribute points.
]
Just a few levels made that much of a difference? Lev thought with a frown. He had fought the last prowler a month ago when he was much weaker.
In comparison, his attributes were now much higher, his disks much sharper with an added mana type, his Intelligence and Perception along with his increasing skill levels improving his damage by leaps and bounds, yet it was all countered by, what, 11 more levels on the monster?
That was a worrying prospect. Lev had always known that monsters grew stronger than humans at higher levels, but that much of a difference at Adept rank was larger than he expected.