A little over two hours later Azrael sat by his fire place, a small pyramid of sticks ready for the lighting.

His original plan had been to try and convert magic energy into thermic energy, while it was in a ball shape. He’d changed tack however, when he realised that his efforts didn’t seem to be leading anywhere.

All the energy he’d put into carefully drawing out and controlling mana had netted him a different type of award though. Another discovery that he made was that he could get short descriptions for skills, if he focused on them in his status.

[Mana Control]

Even the strongest iron can be as thin as silk.

Enables the user better control over their mana.

Despite the unique, yet still obvious description, it was actually a pretty useful skill.

With the skill aiding him he could notice a slight difference in mana consumption between now and before. Or rather, it wasn’t so much less consumption as less loss. Because his control was better he was losing less mana, which meant that he didn’t need to use as much for the same result.

In the brief time he’d had the skill it had already levelled up to level six, officially placing it as his highest-ranking skill. And even at such a low level the assistance was phenomenal.

If [Mana Manipulation] allowed him to draw out larger amounts of power and mould it into different shapes, then [Mana Control] was how accurate, or how tightly he could keep the mana together. It allowed him to gather mana tighter and move it with more control. Hence the name. The two were like the skills of a [General], and his mana was made up of little soldiers. [Mana Manipulation] was all the different and more complex tactics he could get his soldiers to do, while [Mana Control] was how well he ordered them and kept them in order.

Despite the new magical growth, his current experiment now was more of a mundane approach, back to the basics. Instead of changing mana into fire he was trying to use mana to try and start a friction fire. His reasoning was that if a mana bullet could cause a boulder to explode from impact, then in theory, due to the kinetic force it delivered, in some way it should be able to cause friction.

Except instead of wood on wood he was planning to grind mana on mana, thus trying to create enough friction to ignite the wood.

Drawing out a small thread from his already diminished mana pool, he gathered it into a clump over his hand. Now came the hard part.

Trying to maintain a steady stream of mana from his core through the first thread he began carefully working on drawing out a second.

As his concentration split, he felt his control waver, small puffs of mana escaping where the thread bucked against his control and threatened to unravel.

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Forced to release the second thread to calm the first he began rethinking his idea. Did he really need a second mana clump to rub against? Couldn’t he find another way to create friction?

Mentally grasping the mana clump in his hand, he felt his control skill ticking up as he slowly began changing the internal flow. Two halves of the mana sphere began rotating in different directions, like a grind stone. It was a bit like rubbing your belly and tapping your head. Seemingly impossible when you began, but soon becoming far easier.

Curious he closed his eyes and used [Mana Sense] to focus on what was happening in front of him.

Both halves of his rotating sphere ground together against each other, like a grindstone. Trapped between the two were small wisps of escaping mana. As the two halves exerted pressure this mana started to become agitated, rubbing against itself, until it were bouncing around like superheated gas. Reluctant to let it escape he clamped down on it, forcing it closer together.

All of a sudden there was a large explosion that sent Azrael tumbling backwards.

Dust rained down from the roof and for a moment all he could hear was a faint ringing from his ear. The whole world was muted, from the waterfall to the flocks of birds taking flight from the treetops in the distance.

He propped himself up as he looked at what once had been his fireplace. Truthfully, it looked like someone had chucked a grenade into his cave. Sticks had been blasted in every direction, shattered into splinters, while ash and dust hung in the air and made it hard to breath.

He gave his status a quick check.

HP 68/80

MP 40/120

His health had taken a hit, while his mana sat pretty low too, from the experimentation.

Two notifications popped up.

Congratulations!

For improving your control over mana you have gained a level in [Mana Control]

[Mana Control] (Lv.6) has advanced to [Mana Control] (Lv.7).

Congratulations!

For improving your manipulation of mana you have gained a level in [Mana Manipulation]

[Mana Manipulation] (Lv.4) has advanced to [Mana Manipulation] (Lv.5).

He smiled. At least he was doing something right.

No. He was close. He could feel it. The way his mana had reacted had been exactly like an explosive. Too much energy in too small a space.

All he had to do was isolate that energy.

Carefully drawing out a little of what mana he had left, he tried to replicate the agitated mana, except this time he applied pressure with his own mental control.

It was like getting soldiers in full heavy plate armour to dance. They resisted, before eventually caving in to his commands.

Slowly his mana started reacting, becoming more and more agitated and gaining force as it tried to rip itself apart. It took all the willpower he had in order to keep it together, but even then he had to constantly replenish the amount of mana that did escape between the gaps of his mental concentration.

Azrael glanced at his mana reserves, watching them shrink at a perilous rate. Barely thirty seconds had elapsed since he had started, and he was down to around twenty mana. He squinted, trying to protect his eyes from the ever-growing heat. A drop of sweat rolled down past his eyes. Although, whether that was from of the sheer amount of concentration he was forced to show, or due to the rising temperature in the room, he didn’t know. Behind his eyes he felt his head start pounding.

A flash of light and his fist sized clump of mana burst into flames. Heat rolled off it in waves, curling his eyebrows and evaporating his sweat. Relief rolled through Azrael as he started at the crude sun in his hand. He started laughing. He’d done it, he’d really man…

The ball of fire guttered out, as his mana reserves hit rock bottom.

Azrael slumped to the floor, out cold, his mana depleted.