Timothy usually loathed spending a massive amount of system points, or mana points come to think of it, but in this particular situation that they were in, the prior was justified. A purer mana quality on its own wasn't enough to survive the squabbles of The Old Sea, not with the team's current levels that is, so he had to rely on the grand modifications that the system offered in order to survive. With enough upgrades, even his level six mana could look and act gigantic!
The purchase that the system recommended the most, was the amplification of the Dual Casting trick that he used so often! Dual Casting wasn't a power or an ability per se, it was just a thing that came naturally while a mage progressed, and in this case, the system could alter it so Dual Casting would cost less mana points to initiate!
[You can amplify the Dual Casting option, by 25% in exchange for 8,000 system points. It's an expensive purchase, but at least your mana pool won't be in shambles every time you try to dual cast.] She beeped.
“Hell, I’d pay double the price for something like this!” He answered, through a thought.
The system then initiated the upgrade immediately! Unsurprisingly, pain came hand-to-hand with this upgrade, so he ended up bouncing out of the sand for a second. He had covered himself in sand, as an instinctive way to hide himself, and or cover his current abrupt pain, but it didn't look like he could keep his attempts a secret right now. Something was gnawing on his gut, likely because this upgrade was related to mana one way or the other, so there were little to no ways for him to hide the pain from his friends!
“What's wrong with him? Did he get bit?” Arvena asked, as she was close by.
“No,” Skendus answered, and although he wasn't oblivious to what Timothy was doing, he preferred to keep the rest of the team oblivious on the matter.
So, he then lied. “The kid has a unique way of discovering new abilities, that is, he tends to discover them quickly when he wants to. My guess is that he tugs at his mana pool, until something useful happens.”
“Sounds downright demonic!” Arvena argued, “I've read that some necromancers attained new powers just like this, well, almost like this. They begged demons, and then experienced brute pain until they got new powers! If he's begging a demon, I’m going to take him out of his misery right here and now!”
“Don't be insane! If he can't worship the Mana Gods, he sure as hell won't worship a demon. Timmy is not a very tolerant person, erg, fish.” Skendus argued, as he tried to protect his friend from unnecessary accusations.
Timothy didn't need to be physically attacked, while he was going through an already painful upgrade, thankfully he avoided the prior as his friends calmed down! He endured the upgrade-related pain for about an hour, clenching and screaming, until it finally let go of him once and for good!
[Upgrade complete! 70,000 system points remain in your sum.] The system beeped.
Then, she added. [Dual Casting won't cost you as much mana anymore, well, it'll cost you a solid 25% less! To put it into perspective, if you Dual Cast the Freezing Blood ability, together with the Flaming Fins ability, and exhaust the two of them to the maximum, it'll only cost you 7,500 mana points a second to maintain those powers, rather than the previous 10,000 points! It's a decent saving!]
“It'll be a decent saving once I densify the rest of my shit, otherwise tossing something as simple as a fireball is gonna be expensive for a while!” He added, and he had a point.
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Using any ability whatsoever was super expensive now, regardless of how huge his mana pool was, and that was a fact! Unless he densified each ability of his in order for them to spend less mana, then the depth of his mana pool was utterly useless!
Anyway, after that painful hour, Tim relaxed a bit, and was ready to feel pain again, because the next upgrade was very relative. The following one was about tri-casting, and it too was about reducing mana expenses!
[You can amplify the Tri-Casting option, by 15% in exchange for 12,000 system points. It's the most expensive purchase yet, but at least you're less likely to lose your entire mana pool every time you Tri-Cast!]
In response, Tim said. “Sounds like a useless purchase, really, because I almost never Tri-Casted. But I’ll take your word for it, system, give me the upgrade.”
[Confirmed,] She beeped.
The response was immediate, Tim already felt his spine tightening up, and his stomach sinking in a wave of knots! What followed along was a three-hour episode of pain, this upgrade really beat his body down in comparison to the prior one, it had no mercy, because after all, his mana pool was being modified here! It wasn’t a simple process!
The immense pain stopped eventually, it had to, but the sad part was that so far, he only went through two of the several available purchase options! This was going to be a long night, unless he chose to leave the rest of the upgrades for another day, and considering the fright he got today, it was unlikely that he was going to neglect these upgrades any longer than he already did! After a five minute break from the pain, he started deciding on which upgrade to buy next!
[Upgrade complete! 58,000 system points remain in your sum. Though I don't recommend you to Tri-Cast your powers, you can do it at a 15% cheaper rate now. Congratulations!] The system beeped.
The system also made it clear that his sum of system points was dropping at an accelerating, if not worrying pace! This set of upgrades was very expensive, especially since a few of the upgrades were trying to keep up with his recently improved mana quality, so with that fact considered, it wasn’t a surprise that he spent twenty-thousand system points on two upgrades alone! It was baffling, but it was progressive nonetheless!
“What's this MQ thing, system? I understand that it stands for Mana Quotient, but isn't it too expensive for an intelligent upgrade?” Tim asked, and he was willing to buy this upgrade, but he was also hoping for a discount.
Quick as a flash, the system argued. [Mana Quotient, or a general understanding of mana, and its related powers, is one of the most valuable forms of intelligence! Books will be unnecessary for you if you have a high MQ, because you can either obtain new powers without studying them, or without killing an enemy to get them, but also, you can create new powers out of thin air! Your MQ has bounced around a lot recently, I even have a log that tracked it, however, the log is really huge so I'm just going to highlight the most important examples now, and the last highlight is your current MQ…]
[Reincarnation = 3 MQ points]
[Unlocking of mana pool = 10 MQ points]
[First upgrade of your mana pool = 25 MQ points]
[Unlocking of the three, pre-necromantic abilities = 52 MQ points]
[Entering Valporovus, and shapeshifting into a degranus goblin = 60 MQ points]
[Ascending to level six in the God's Punishment Realm of mana = 100 MQ points]
[Leaving the God's Punishment Realm behind = 130 MQ points]
[Ascending to level six in the Fintelus’ Apprentices Realm of mana = 150 MQ points]
After listing that lengthy log, the system then added. [You can see that one's MQ increases over time, it's supposed to, however, having a high MQ in the early stages of a mage's life, is what determines a bad mage from a great one! You didn't have a good start, however, if you upgrade your MQ by another 150 points now, you'll be one of the greatest mages ever, or, you'll be one of the greatest throughout a couple of mana realms at the very least!]
“I guess it's worth the 25,000 system points, then.” Tim sighed, “I'm buying the bastard.”