Compatible Skills Detected Would You Like To Merge [Condense Mana] And [Breathing]?

“Rob? Is something wrong? Rob? Rob!” Kaelan’s shouting brought me back to my senses, and I looked away from the notification that was taking up all of my focus.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine. It’s a little different from what I expected. Did you know that Skills can be merged?”

He seemed to relax once I started responding again, and his previously concerned expression shifted to one of confusion, “Yeah but only if you have multiple max level Skills. Are you telling me you can merge something with Condense Mana?”

I nodded, “Yeah, it says it’s compatible with Breathing.”

“You have Breathing as a skill? Why did you take that? Actually, never mind that, it can merge with Condense Mana? How are they even compatible?”

“Well, breathing lets you recover Mana faster so it makes sense,” At my proclamation Kaelan gave me a strange look but didn’t say anything so I kept talking, “Do you think I should take it?”

“If what you say about Breathing is true, then it would probably end up being something useful. At the very least it’ll free up a General Skill so even if it ends up being bad you wouldn’t really be losing much overall. What it really comes down to is whether you want the reliable choice of a more specialised Condense Mana, or something completely unpredictable,” He shrugged, and I guessed that I wouldn’t be getting any more help from him for this.

This is tricky. Evolving Condense Mana would probably end up giving me Condense Lightning or something, which would be pretty nice, but I’m really curious about what this merge would do.

I thought about it for a few more minutes, eventually ending up back in that meditative state that I’d grown so used to whilst training Breathing, and realised something about myself. All this time I’d been acting like I was saving up and waiting to find a house and a job, but in all honesty I’d barely thought about it in the last few months. There was something satisfying about growing my skills and, though I hate to admit it, fighting those hordes and The Rat King was fun.

There was something about the thrill of uncertainty, standing on a ledge where you could fall either way at any moment, that excited me. It was certainly better than going through life in the village, knowing that no one would ever believe me when I told them about my dreams.

And what’s more uncertain than taking the wildcard option?

Merging Skills [Condense Mana] And [Breathing] You Have Created The General Skill [Breath Of Mana]

The windows winked out of existence once I finished reading them, and I simply stood there. There were no immediately apparent changes, but I had an idea of how I could figure out my new capabilities.

I took in a deep breath, letting my lungs fill to capacity, and as I did so something rushed through me. It started at my lungs, but it didn’t stop until it reached the very tips of my toes and the top of my head. It was a feeling like no other, like power greater than I’d ever managed before was at my fingertips, if only I’d use it.

Then, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. I let out the breath I was holding and the feeling that I simply knew must be mana faded with it. A grin crept onto my face without me even noticing, and I checked my General Skills just to fully see the changes.

General Skills [4/5] Walking 9 Breath Of Mana 1 Sense Danger 4 Channel Mana 6

“Was something supposed to happen?” Oh yeah, I should actually pay attention to my surroundings shouldn’t I? Although Sense Danger means I won’t be at any risk…

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“This new Skill’s amazing. It’s called Breath of Mana, and I don’t know what it does.”

“Uh huh.” He didn’t look that impressed. Oh yeah, he didn’t notice that, did he?

“Well, I can’t be certain at least. But I think it buffs my magic when I breathe deeply or something,” That got his attention at least.

“Really? Let’s test it right away then. Try shooting an uncharged Bolt at one of these dummies without using it, then we’ll see what it’s like with it.”

I nodded and shot at the nearest dummy. The Lightning hit its torso and the entire thing was rocked back, collapsing to the ground with a brand new scorch mark on its chest.

Then I took aim at a different one, this time breathing deeply until that feeling of power welled up inside of me and only releasing a Bolt when I judged the feeling to be at its peak. This time, the effect was distinctly different.

The Bolt struck another dummy in the torso and rocked it back, just the same, but it didn’t end there. Sparks rolled across the dummy’s form, leaving rings of charred wood as they went. By the time it had fallen over it was covered in jagged black stripes, all seeming to curve out of a central black char.

Though that wasn’t the main thing that drew my attention, no, the thing that drew my attention was the bolt itself. Instead of its usual appearance, it shone with an almost otherworldly light. I couldn’t be sure since it only lasted a second, but I felt like it could easily burn my retinas if I stared at it for too long.

“Did you see that? That was incredible!” I yelled out, this was probably the most excited I’d ever been in my entire life. And a quick inspection of my Mana Pool revealed that it didn’t even cost anything more than usual.

“That’s some of the most interesting metamagic I’ve ever seen. For something with that much of an effect, I doubt you were able to keep the previous bonuses of the skills unfortunately, but it definitely seems to be worth it.”

“Wait, will I not be able to Condense mana anymore?”

“You won’t get any help from the system but you could probably manage to do it on your own, but why are you changing the subject? This is a great skill, we need to see its full potential! Charge up a Lightning Bolt and let’s see what happens!” Why didn’t I think of doing that?

“Of course, I’ll put in half of my Pool for this one then.”

Without any fanfare, I held my palms together in front of me, feeling the familiar build up of power as I used Charge. I held in a breath, trying to keep Breath Of Mana active for as long as possible, but it became increasingly difficult after just a second. Still I persevered, pushing my Mana into Lightning Bolt as quickly as I could.

Once my Pool got below half, I stopped charging and just held the ball of Lightning in my palms for a moment, before I let out my breath and released it at the same time.

Usually when I Charge a Lightning Bolt, the attack becomes much more uniform. It’s still slightly jagged in the way that a default one is, but it looks much closer to a beam than a lightning strike. This time, however, it looked like neither. Starting as a beam the around 10 centimetres across, the same diameter as the orb it formed whilst charging, it quickly loses any kind of structure and becomes a raw outputting of force, expanding into more of a cone of brutal annihilation that becomes at least three times as wide by the time it engulfs the dummy’s torso.

I’m not sure that it needs saying, but the dummy does not survive the encounter.

I looked past the husk of blackened wood at the field next to ours to see that, whilst the people sparring there had been startled into jumping away, the attack barely had enough range to cover half the distance from me to them.

I think a regular Charged Bolt has a lot more range than that. I guess Breath Of Mana makes this stuff harder to control.

I hear clapping and turn around to see Kaelan standing there with a grin on his face, which I quickly realise was mirrored by myself.

“Now that is what I call a finisher. I’m definitely gonna have to tell the people back home about that skill of yours. Who knew that merging Condense Mana and Breathing could be so potent? Maybe people should try out some more overlooked skills at some point, huh?”

“How are you planning on telling them, you’re not leaving soon are you?” I hoped not, these lessons were fun, and I’d learned a lot already.

“No no, nothing like that. We actually have a Space Affinitied Courier who can teleport letters to me every once in a while. If I put my own letter in the envelope it gets automatically sent back, so we exchange letters once a month,” He pauses a second before realising something and raising his voice in mock anger, “Now just wait a second, don’t go changing the subject again! You can’t just be asking any question that crosses your mind, we need to focus on your skill!”

“Sorry about that. I just get curious sometimes I guess.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. Anyway, I think this is an important milestone. Perhaps it’s about time you got out in the field and took another job, eh? You’re strong enough that I doubt there’d be much risk in taking something simple. Plus, don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’re living out of an inn. I bet you’re running low on coin, and you need to start making some money before you go broke.”

I still had a few silver left from the reward Ironheart gave me (yes I spent most of it on potions, they’re more expensive than I thought, okay?) so it wouldn’t hurt to start saving. And I was starting to think it would be difficult to get that next level without putting myself into at least a little bit of danger anyway.

“I guess that’s true, but I think I want to fill my last General Slot up first. Do you have any ideas?”

“You already have two meta magic skills, so you don’t really need much in that area. Honestly, I doubt you need anything more for your magic, so you should start focusing on either something to help with travelling or something that you enjoy doing. Like a hobby or something.”

I already have Walking for travelling, so something I enjoy doing… Maybe Meditation? I’m not sure what that does though, and I’d hate to get rid of a less useful skill just to get another.

“Do you have any idea what meditation does?”

“Kinda, I don’t have any personal experience with it but I knew someone who used it a lot. From how they described it, it basically lets you ignore your senses and focus on the ‘metaphysical’, which I think just meant magic and the System. I could see it being useful for training Willpower and Breath of Mana, so it’s probably not the worst option, but it’s also not the best.”

“Well, I won’t be getting offered it again any time soon so I’ll just have to think about it some more before then. Thanks for the help though.”

“No problem. Now, let’s get back to training!”

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We tested the limits of Breath Of Mana some more and found that, whilst it might feel like it should affect the body, it has no noticeable effect on either my strength, running speed, or dexterity.

Other than that we didn’t find anything particularly interesting and just went back to the regular schedule and, feeling satisfied at a productive day, I returned to the inn and slept, ready for more of the same tomorrow.