Niall continues her lecture as she completes the circle, “Someone with a Potency upgrade is always going to have an easier time hardening their mana against external influence. You Amplifiers have to work harder for it. Looking at the modifications she told me to make, you seem to have some skill, or trait, allowing you to change the frequency of your mana. So this experience on its own should be of some benefit to your growth.”
I can already sense more work ahead of me. Each of these techniques alone is going to take years to grasp properly, and I can't focus on them currently because of the death sentence waiting for me if I do.
Damn, Lissandra and her insistence that I raise five skills to level 50. She’s straight up crazy; three alone was too much.
“Let me guess, as long as I’m in the dome, my external mana will grow more difficult to manipulate as time passes,” I say.
“It will, obviously. But past a certain level or when you find yourself faced with certain opponents, it's just something you’re going to have to deal with. There are classes, skills, and traits that will cause you a great deal of pain otherwise. Your first instinct might be to engage in melee at that point, but that's where they’re going to want you. And I'm sure you already know a few people you wouldn’t have a chance against in that scenario.”
Upon hearing her words, Tacita comes to mind. If I wasn't able to use my external mana, it could end up being… interesting.
“Can you declare me a Champion candidate?” I ask.
That makes Niall falter, and just for the shortest moment, her mana wavers before she continues.
“Fuck, you are shameless. Are you always like that?”
“You seem to prefer the direct approach, so I may as well take the opportunity.”
“You’re not wrong, but damn. A few decades ago, I would have splattered you against a wall for even asking. As for declaring you a candidate, no. In the future, assuming someone doesn’t just kill you for being a pain in the ass, you will learn just how rude these questions are. Then you will finally appreciate the beautiful Champion Niall, who once had the pleasure of being courted by hundreds of the finest young men.”
“Well, I appreciate that even now,” I say, and I mean it. I don't expect any of the Champions I meet in the future to be anything like her.
It's better now, but at times I still find myself wanting to dampen my emotions with [Focus], but that’s not on the table right now. Of course, I blame Cockroachsandra.
For now, I decide to silence myself. It’s been much the same with most of the powerful people I’ve met. They don't tend to mind honest answers; they far prefer it over lying, fake behavior, or ass-kissing. But in the end, they are used to being in control, so asking too many questions or trying to lead the conversation will cause them to push back. It could come in the form of a slap, a burst of mana, or finding oneself splattered against the wall.
I'm quite proud of myself for this observation. For an extrovert class tutorial attendee like Tess or Gareth, it might be simple, but I, as with many things, tend to learn through suffering.
Niall pauses in her work and turns to me, “I can still see that mischievous light in your eyes, and your mouth’s hanging open like a fish. I won't answer, but I'm curious, what questions would you ask if I were to allow it? Be honest; I promise not to punish you no matter what questions you mention.”
I observe her for a moment, and she honestly seems to mean it, so I decide to take her up on the invitation.
“What level are you? How old are you? How long did it take you to become a Champion? What did you gain by becoming a Champion? What does being a Champion candidate entail? What traits do you have? How did you split your stats? What effect does the second stage of your attribute have? How high level is an Absolute? Why can’t there be more than one Absolute? How do you become an Absolute? Being Absolute seems to be special, so what does it have to do with managing the planet? What does it mean for a planet to awaken? Are you from the 1st Generation? What happened during your 1st Pairing and what does it mean to win or lose a Pairing? Who referees the pairings? What happens to the losers of a Pairing? Why do planets have to fight if they're Pairing? Do they really have to fight? What have you learned about the Veil? Who caused your wound? At what levels do you get body strengthening? At what levels do you get primary class upgrades? What is your subclass? How do subclasses work? What are the differences between subclasses…”
“Enough, enough, enough.”
I shut my mouth immediately.
“I know I said I would let it slide, but I really feel like…” she gestures, a swing with her arm. “Well, anyway, I'm done here. It's fairly simple; I’m going to activate the dome, and it will stay up for five hours. I made it so it constantly disrupts the mana inside just like that woman wanted. It's not efficient, it’s more like we’re abusing the abundance of mana in our surroundings, so it should be easier for you to endure it.”
Well, now it makes sense that Lissandra couldn't do it. It uses too much mana on purpose, likely to mimic huge areas of effect, maybe even domains.
“There are three things the dome will do. First, it disrupts mana like many domains. Second, it imitates the kind of pressure a weak Champion could generate. It's not concentrated pressure, and I weakened it a bit, but it should be enough to cause you some serious trouble. Lastly, and that's what that woman wanted, the longer you stay in there, the worse the disruption and pressure will become. Five hours should be your limit after which it might be fatal.”
It looks like Niall misunderstood Lissandra. It's clear as day that this is a challenge for me, to stay there as long as possible. The goal isn’t to escape within the next five hours like Niall seems to think.
“How do I get out?”
“You only need to touch the wall of the barrier, and it will disappear.”
“And that’s going to be easier to do at the start, before any pressure has a chance to build and it’s going to become harder the longer I stay in?”
“Yes, the higher the pressure, the harder it is to reach the wall of the barrier. At some point, it becomes quite deadly. Kind of fucked up, but you can guess whose idea it was.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll be back in five hours.” She waves, and then the dome activates.
The dome covers an area the size of a city block.
Before I have a chance to wonder why the domain had to be so big, something pushes at me from all around. Creating a feeling of constant danger. My mana senses are gone, every bit of mana pours from my body, torn apart and reduced to the tiniest of particles. It even begins to affect the mana clinging to my skin, and weaving through my hair, leaving me with what I have inside my body.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
The pressure then starts increasing, along with the disrupting effects and the constant feeling of danger that’s begun to twist at my insides.
As a test, I channel mana into my surroundings, only for it to be destroyed all over again.
I walk for a bit and stop in the exact middle of the dome. For now, I wait, observing the effects as my senses are distorted by the dome.
I try to create a dagger while using [Resonance] to test different frequencies. The result looks terrible, and it's hard to maintain.
Niall said the field was meant to mimic the pressure generated by one of the weaker Champions. However, what she probably meant was the pressure of their unrestrained mana combined with some sort of domain.
She probably expected me to react worse, but so far, it hasn’t been all that bad. It may have only been a moment, but it wasn’t long ago that I felt the pressure of Lissandra’s Avatar. And I still remember the 2nd floor quite vividly, even though it was almost a year ago.
So this is nothing. I have any number of ways of fighting its influence.
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One hour passes.
The pressure increases, gradually approaching the levels Niall warned me about.
I find it fascinating that they use something like this to train the warriors and mages before sending them off to face Champions and Absolutes. Just so they don’t panic when the time comes.
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Two hours pass, and I’m sitting in the middle of the dome. Everything beyond the blue walls of mana is blurry, and the ground I’m sitting on is unnaturally smooth. Polished by Niall's mana to create a workable surface for her inscriptions. I examine them for a while, remembering some of the more interesting twists.
When I try to locate the power source, I fail to do so. For the next thirty minutes, I attempt to find it but to no avail. Even my eyes do not help.
[Resonance] levels up once as I struggle to keep the dagger from breaking down. At this point, it's just a short blade more reminiscent of a nail than any knife.
Another unrelated thought comes to my mind. Back then, I thought black mana was the second stage of the Potency mana upgrade. But as I’ve come to see Lissandra’s Avatar and sense Niall’s mana, I think I may have been wrong, perhaps my black mana is something else entirely.
----------------------------------------
Three hours pass, and my dagger flickers and finally disappears. At a high cost to my mana and concentration, I attempt to activate it again.
I repeat it over and over again.
A tiny bit of mana forms in the palm of my closed hand, which I open only to watch the resulting construct disintegrate.
But I refuse to stop.
Again.
And again.
[Resonance - lvl 47 > Resonance - lvl 48]
Then, a few minutes later, it becomes impossible, and I feel that pressure amplifying around my body without reaching inside. Yet.
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Six hours pass.
[Mana Domain - lvl 40 > Mana Domain - lvl 41]
[Mana Domain - lvl 41 > Mana Domain - lvl 42]
[Infusion - lvl 29 > Infusion - lvl 30]
[Perception - lvl 47 > Perception - lvl 48]
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Seven hours pass
[Mana Domain - lvl 42 > Mana Domain - lvl 43]
----------------------------------------
Eight hours pass.
My domain is gone, and I'm unable to activate it at all, I can’t even push it a hair’s breadth from my skin. Not even with help from [Resonance]. The pressure at this point is strong enough that I'm sure if Niall hadn’t prevented it from being able to pass inside my body, it would be causing me quite a bit of trouble.
I haven’t got a single wound to speak of, but I'm sure if I stay just a bit longer, something bad will happen.
I stand up and take a step, immediately falling to my knees. When I push myself up, it happens again.
Amusingly enough, I catch myself being annoyed by my inability to find a cause. Is it another effect of the dome? Any problem with the simulated domain? The strength of the mana disrupting effect? What? How? Why?
Finding myself unable to rise to my feet, I start crawling. Questions and frustrations flashing through my mind. It's funny.
It takes me five minutes of crawling before I'm halfway to the dome's wall and the pressure increases. The disrupting effect starts seeping through my skin, ignoring my Mantle.
Of course, it makes sense that someone at the level of Champion would be able to do that, but it once again reminds me that there are still a lot of people more powerful than me.
It’s only been a year since I started, so that’s no real surprise. I still have a long way to go.
But I will get there.
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Thirty minutes of crawling later, I finally touch the wall, and in a blink, the dome disappears. The sounds of nature around come rushing in, and I feel a soft wind on my skin. The pressure is gone, and I finally grab control of the mana raging inside my body.
I’m covered in dozens of wounds, small and large. Disrupting my control over the mana inside my body proved to be quite an effective attack. I have to constantly use Mana Cycling to keep it under control because of my stat imbalance. Having it run wild reminded me of the good ol’ days.
Catching my breath, I lay on my back and send thermal energy from my core through my body.
I reach my hand towards the sky, and a drop of blood falls from a torn finger, landing on my cheek as I watch the wound close.
I hear a voice say, “You are one crazy motherfucker, aren’t you?” and recognize it as Niall, watching from her perch nearby.
“I dozed off in there; the pressure was too weak.”
“Cheeky little shit.” She snorts, sitting down on the grass next to me.
“Did anyone tell you your language is kind of…”
“Many times. They tried to beat it out of me when I was younger. But it’s hard to do, and I still blame the five older brothers I grew up with.”
“Sounds like a good excuse. Can you give me ten minutes? I should heal enough to walk by then.”
“Take half an hour.”