Time continued to trickle away. In the span of two months, Jessica hadn’t moved from room five. Within that time, she went from middle stages of Grade F to the peak. When she continued to fill her body with mana Jessica felt a bit bloated. Normally, mana is breathed in, breath being a bit lacking. The mana doesn’t just get absorbed by breathing, it is possible to absorb mana through the pores in the skin. Only this isn’t something easy to imagine, therefore most absorb the most mana through breathing as while in meditation its proficiency goes up through picturing the process.
Once absorbed, mana is filtered through the body before settling in the heart. This process is done slowly. When a person absorbs mana, slowly over time the heart’s reservoir of mana is increased. For this reason, when a person meditates the first time and absorbs a certain amount of mana, they reach a threshold. This threshold is simply a small completion of a larger whole. Thus, when a person uses that mana it is quicker to absorb that amount in the future. Those with talent have more thresholds, those with less talent need to absorb mana longer without using the mana to reach these thresholds.
After everything is done. Just like Jessica, what one feels at the end is a fullness that can get a bit painful. Absorbing mana to a full completion requires a catalyst to breakthrough, this catalyst come from the dungeon bosses. Using that crystal that can’t leave the room will cause the heart and body to experience a breakthrough to the next grade.
“Show me again…” She spoke with a bit of reluctance. After a little over two months she had been staying in the chamber, she started to practice something else. While originally wanting to teach the old man a lesson, when she finally reached the point, there wasn’t a reason to stay. Each addition day, felt like her heart was being squeezed for the blood inside. Even when it wasn’t her money, she couldn’t help but feel this way.
Only halfway through reaching peak Grade F, Leo woke up. Once she explained the strange environment they were in. He was the cause of her staying. The reason for that was because he was teaching her the technique he had used. The same one that caused the explosion in the laboratory and a large ball to cause destruction on a level she couldn’t describe.
With no naming sense, he called it compression. It was a bit literal, only it was an ample explanation. With a bit of awkwardness, he sat on her lap. Leo’s body as a child made it impossible for him to reach around her to show her. Extremely resistant to the idea, it was beyond most affective. Placing his hands on the back of hers. The main reason they needed to be in a cultivation chamber was the mana usage to interact with the outside world.
In this room it was a possibility. With such a large collection of mana it was possible for him to sustain this activity for a far longer time. As Jessica closed her eyes, she could feel a warm feeling on the back of her hands. This wasn’t body warmth, instead, this was a byproduct of his mana manipulation. His use of mana was abnormal in almost all ways.
Usually, one can only interact with the mana of their talent level. Leo said it was different when he had the runes. Once they were gone, his use of mana became different. He didn’t have any mana, however, he could still forcibly control the surrounding mana. This process was very forceful.
Closed eyes, Jessica could see small spheres of mana. This took time, therefore he didn’t immediately start until she had entered a meditative state. One of the hardest parts of this was her ability to concentrate with the outside interference of Leo. She had to concentrate to stay in a meditative state while not completely closing herself off. The only reason this could be accomplished in her opinion was because of the seal between their souls.
Those small spheres would start to gather into her hands. Unlike before, these spheres didn’t enter her body. They were forcefully kept swimming around her hands. Soon they found the palm that was in the general shape of a cup. The mana spheres were refined during the time they moved around their hands. Only when there was a tiny sphere, far smaller than any natural mana she had ever seen. Once the process was done with both hands, she was basically holding two tiny spheres of mana.
Slowly moving her hands together, she focused on the mana in between. As her hands moved closer, the mana inside started to react a bit violently. They didn’t outright have any reaction outside of circling each other. Violently, they would produce a large amount of force that was difficult to control. Using her own mana to contain the two. Even in this environment it was very difficult to withstand this vast amount of mana usage. Unlike Leo, she wasn’t able to absorb neutral mana without refinement.
Beginning with a slow spiral, when her hand reached its limit they were around a foot a part. By this time, the mana had started to spiral without moving from the center. The two spheres were eating at each other. This was the most difficult aspect. Forcibly trying to fuse the two together, when the two started to become one there was a crack in her concentration as she wasn’t able to supply the mana to continue the process.
Once this crack appeared, the entire process was ended. Leo disappeared as she was sent flying out of the magic circle. Tumbling awkwardly backwards with a great amount of force. She finally stopped when she hit a wall. Feeling the sourness in her neck, Jessica couldn’t help but calling it quits. With this done, she went to the opposite wall and turned off the formation. Laying down on the bed, she slowly collected her thoughts.
“It is too early for you to be trying too hard on this. While the process is much easier for your refined mana, it will consume too much of your mana. Though in the end, once you’re able to compress your mana, I believe you will become far stronger than anyone of the same grade. If you really learn how to use mana, I believe your spells will have the destructive force of a spell of a grade above itself.”
“Just destructive force?” She couldn’t help asking in between deep breaths without opening her eyes.
“Yes, from what you said about magic, combined with the magic you have already shown. Magic isn’t simple at all. Even with compressed mana I don’t think it will be as affective as using mana with your physical body. Still, this doesn’t change that as a surprise attack, there is a great chance of you being able to use it as a special attack to use in an emergency.”
Seeing her open her eyes at his tone, he had been using mana a lot since learning the language instead of using the seal. It was to learn how to use the language, “Don’t forget I had twelve runes of unimaginable power inside my body. Even using neutral mana I wasn’t even using my own mana, since I don’t have any. This still required me to use up so much spirit, I wasn’t even sure I would wake up again.”
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Pausing for a second, “There are too many unknowns. If you use compressed mana in your heart. This mana will be used periodically to reinforce your body. While this could mean you will be able to use compressed mana, it could also cause damage to the body that will cripple you. Therefore, we should just focus on being able to compress the mana before we slowly indulge deeper.”
Jessica couldn’t respond. It wasn’t like, nobody had ever thought of compressing mana before. In fact, this wasn’t an original idea. People had done it. The results were clear. The issue was, exactly like he said. The violent process of refining it caused most to die in the process. Those that did succeed caused irreparable damage to themselves. Their plan was slightly different and would be taken slowly, she would speak with the old man before she actually went through with anything. Though different from everyone else before, they had access to neutral mana.
Coming to an end. She slept for a short period before having one last meal before leaving. When she opened the door, she found the man she had seen a few times. When they were testing the fusion of mana into a compressed state, it appeared to cause a bit of a ruckus. When he saw her leaving, he tried to hide the smile, but it was difficult to hide it completely.
Paying for her stay, the two soon left. Her face was rather pale when she found out how much she had just spent. She could only go helplessly to Uncle Beast’s shop. Without needing to be told, when she caused the first disturbance, the employee came and knocked on the door. When she opened the door, he saw him looking inside and breathed a secret sigh of relief while asking if everything was okay. During the process of leaving, he also informed her that someone had left her a message.
It was finally time to pick up the replacement daggers. This was able to lower her attention on the trouble she would receive when she returned home with the bill. No matter how many times she told herself, “He didn’t tell me what room to stay in…”
With a quick walk, the two made it down the bustling streets until they reached a store that didn’t see any customers. The sign on the front door said the shop was closed. With a heavy sigh, she couldn’t help but lament at her uncle’s lack of business sense. It was peak business time, one could easily see that by just looking at the bustling streets. Without much suspense, she reached for the door and found it unlocked.
Inside matched the door behind the counter. If someone unregistered tried to enter, they would be met with a danger that she didn’t even want to imagine. Moving to the smith, she found the two working downstairs. Victorina had his shirt off as it was clear to see he really didn’t like the fire. It had nothing to do with being an elf, most elves were very good at magic. Even in the settlement, there was a bunch of people that used fire magic.
Then again it was easy to imagine why he would force himself to be a smith, if the teacher was right, what did the little things like that matter. When he saw her, he smiled as he tried to use it as an excuse to take a break before being berated harshly before he was forced to continue on his work. Uncle Beast took her into his room to the side.
Once inside, they could see a table with a cover. It was impossible to see what lay on the table. This caused her to be a bit dissatisfied. Not like his appearance at all, her uncle loved to showcase the items himself. This was a sign of affection on his part, but she was too excited. The dagger she had seen wasn’t simple by any means. It reminded her of the old man’s sword. For this reason, she couldn’t help but want to see and hold it immediately.
Seeing her expression, Beast couldn’t help smile before starting his showcase, “I recently had a breakthrough. So what I have prepared for you is not just one thing but two.” Moving the cloth, he lifted it up before showing two pitch black wrist guards. A bit bulky, the two were lined with a silky soft cloth inside. She couldn’t help but wonder why they felt too heavy. She wasn’t expecting this at all.
Picking them up, those were the two first thoughts she had. Softness and heaviness. There was a metal plate on the outside that would allow her to use her arm to block a blade or projectile. Once she put the cloth on, she felt something inside react to her mana. Once she injected mana in, she released a bit late that there was a string. She almost couldn’t see it, if it wasn’t for the light on the table she wouldn’t have been able to see the string without the gleam that appeared.
Sending a shiver down her spine, she couldn’t help but ask with a shaky voice, “What is that? It looks like the wire traps from the laboratory…”
Jessica was too preoccupied to see the noticeable frown on her uncle’s face, this didn’t stop him from excitedly explaining, “Of course, that is what they’re made after. While I can’t reproduce the effect of the legendary original. This is arachne fiber. It is woven together and coated in diamond dust, which is stored inside the guard. By putting mana in the first time, it will cause the fiber to release. Now if you feel closely there are two places to put mana. The forward position you originally injected mana will release more while the other will retract the fiber.”
Pounding his chest in pride, “While it is small, its strength is without question. At least for the time being. As you might already know, arachne only appear in grade B dungeons. Combined with the diamond dust, it can deal with the majority of difficulties it comes across. While coated with a light absorbing material, it isn’t perfect and if shone on in the right angle it will be easily seen through. This is something that not even Izic was able to accomplice, therefore there was no chance of me eliminating it either.”
They were both comfortable and easy to use. It would take time to make them her own, but it was beyond her wildest imagination to see this so soon. Soon the cloth was lifted completely off the table. The blade was rather exotic in blade design. Not for its shape or curves. Almost etched into the blade was wavy pattern that showed the original curves she had seen in the blade. It was impossible to know how what she saw had turned into this.
If not for the familiar outlines, it was unimaginable that the two were part of the same design. While there was a slight curve, the blade was fairly normal with a four finger thickness width wise. The thickness of the blade itself was only about a finger, while still being very light. The blade curved slightly near the tip. By the time the tip could be seen, the width had lowered to around a two finger measurement.
Before she could pick up the blade, her uncle took up the blade before taking out a black powder from somewhere before carefully running his hand through the blade before the patterns disappeared. Handing the blade to her, she could feel the grip was perfectly made with her hand in mind. With a bit of hesitation, she ran a finger on the body of the blade. She could feel the pattern, but whatever her uncle used didn’t come off. The blade looked completely normal, only by touching it herself, was she able to even feel the patterns on the blade she had originally seen.
Looking at the extremely normal looking blade in her hand. She couldn’t help glance at the second one that was left without the coating. The shape was exactly the same, only the pattern changed the simple and normal looking blade into something extraordinary. The handle and weight of the blade was perfect for her. As someone that she got almost all her weapons from, he had seen her grow up and knew exactly what she liked. She couldn’t imagine a more perfect dagger.