Mana Bodies, at Tier 0, seldom had real physical substance. Heart Runes being placed so close to the important blood vessels and organs surrounding your heart would be much less common if not for this fact. Those organs became either far more resilient or unnecessary at higher tiers, allowing Mana Bodies to take up physical space without preventing key biological functions.

Alex’s Mana Body already had runes that took up physical space, but they were on his body instead of inside it. The tattoo-like vents David had designed to speed up mana flow barely qualified, but a minuscule amount of space was still space.

Generally, any rune with physical substance would be considered at least Tier 1 because of the soul attributes and control required. The soul attribute requirement wasn’t particularly harsh, and sufficient control lowered the level you had to reach. Less skilled inscribers would need their Power attribute to surpass twenty-five, and their Durability attribute to also approach that level.

Alex’s attributes were impressive for an Aspirant, but any Neophyte would catch up by the time they reached level seventeen or eighteen unless they completely ignored their soul attributes. Needing the control to compensate was part of why he was so deliberate about taking apart his Heart Rune. Any practice was helpful.

He’d spent a few hours sharpening his mana control after breakfast, he’d even managed to place the Enhancement where his skull and spine connected. Now, after reviewing his plans with the Stirlings over lunch, Alex was as ready as he could be for his first attempt.

If he wanted to power the Enhancement he’d designed, he needed to create Mana Veins to transport mana from his Heart Rune without being siphoned by his aura.

Basic Mana Veins were the simplest of Tier 1 “runes,” to the point where they required only minimal runework. The Heart Rune required minor alterations for the Mana Veins to connect, and the Enhancement or Ability would need the same. These veins didn’t need to do anything more than transport mana, making their creation quite simple, but time-consuming.

Even the most basic Mana Veins would take hours of hard work to create, and even then it was difficult to manage with Aspirant attributes.

Alex, unfortunately, would not be able to settle for basic Mana Veins. He needed to solidify his pathways to the point where they would gain physical substance, as otherwise, they wouldn’t be hardy enough to hold his mana. This was mainly thanks to the vents placed on his skin, one of which could be found near his left shoulder blade. Even creating Mana Veins so close to those vents would be difficult, as the vent would steadily tear the vein apart with its constant siphoning effect.

If Alex wanted to create Mana Veins that were strong enough, he would need to utilize a few advanced techniques. After a few hours of practice, Alex considered himself ready to go.

Creating basic veins was very similar to braiding rope. Thin strands of mana would be weaved together until a sturdy construct was created, and mana would traverse these veins without much issue.

Giving these veins solidity required a simple change. They needed to be compressed until the mana reached a threshold of approximately six times the normal density. Alex didn’t have the Power required to compress his mana that far just by pressing on it, so he needed to inscribe a rune on each strand that would become a part of his Mana Veins.

These runes were the ones he’d been practicing, effectively creating a vortex where the mana was sucked in towards the center. The precision required was prohibitive, and Alex needed to use his Minor Skill Guidance on mana control to bridge the gap. Even after that Guidance, he found the creation of a strand difficult.

“That strand is too close to your spine,” Mrs. Stirling informed him. The focus of the day was Mana Body creation, with Alex, Becca, and Jess all working under the mage’s observant eyes. After failing to notice Alex’s Heart Rune alterations that led to his Achievement, she had made certain to review the blueprints and designs each of them would be using.

Alex winced at the mistake, which he hadn’t even noticed. Luckily, he was managing the runework, but that was only half the problem. With the vein eventually solidifying near his spine, the placement needed to be precise or else he would risk hurting himself instead of enhancing his reaction time.

The Mana Veins would be incredibly small after they were fully compressed, but the chest and spine were filled with important blood vessels and muscles that he needed to work around. The final design for the veins was far from a straight line from point A to point B.

Alex grimaced as he let the strand fall apart, “Thanks.”

“Why aren’t you using Body Guidance?” Mrs. Stirling asked, “You would’ve noticed the mistake yourself if you were.”

“I don’t want it to become a crutch,” Alex replied, “It helps create new designs and confirm ideas, but if I become reliant on the reward my mana control will suffer.”

Mrs. Stirling shook her head at him, “Alex, open your status for me.”

At this point, Becca and Jess were both watching the conversation unfold instead of completing their own work. Alex felt a rush of embarrassment as he realized where this conversation was going. He complied with the instruction, anyway.

“Now, tell me,” Mrs. Stirling sighed, “What is that at the bottom of your status screen?”

“I get your point,” Alex replied, “I have less than a week left until my mana sink is taken back and the Trialbringer expects my soul to be breached.”

The mage nodded, “Until that timer is gone, you’re not safe. And until you’re safe, you take every shortcut available. Can we agree on that?”

Alex felt that she was being unnecessarily condescending, but forced himself to remain focused. Trading barbs with a woman centuries older than him wouldn’t get him anywhere, and he agreed so she would get to the point, “Yes.”

“You have years to improve your mana control after you reach Tier 1, but you only have days to get strong enough for Hell Mode. If you want to focus on your control instead of your power, I’m happy to have your team finish with Hard Mode trials.”

Alex could see where the woman was coming from as she explained her point. The sense of urgency he’d felt right after gaining his Achievement had faded away after his team had grown powerful enough to handle Hard Mode trials without injury.

Without that urgency, he’d started planning for the long term. Worrying about his mana control standard and contemplating Tier 1 Achievements. Hell Mode promised to be difficult, but it was still a Tier 0 trial.

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He’d already mentally moved past this obstacle and Mrs. Stirling had noticed. Her condescension was annoying, but it was better than getting chewed out in front of his friends. Grand ideas for the future, when he was able to gain a mana type that was truly his own and design Abilities that actually interested him, had to be put off.

Alex closed his eyes and worked to think things through. A small part of him still wanted to argue about the way Mrs. Stirling had spoken to him, but it was better to focus on his thought process. Why had he started focusing on the future prematurely?

Putting aside his dreams to focus on the present wasn’t one of Alex’s strengths, but he couldn’t afford to let his discipline slack. If anything, this might be another manipulation from his parasite. Assuming that Inspire was leaving him alone just because he and his friends hadn’t noticed irregularities the past few days would be foolish.

That realization was enough to make up Alex’s mind, he needed to stay calm and just keep working. Arguing because he didn’t like being condescended to wouldn’t bring him any closer to fixing his problems.

“You’re right,” Alex nodded, “I need to focus on becoming more powerful.”

Mrs. Stirling nodded, not pushing him any further. Alex got back to work.

Would you like to use Body Guidance to design Mana Veins?

Yes/No

The prompt was quickly accepted, and Alex’s focus returned to constructing the first strand. The most difficult part, from a fine control perspective, was how small the empowering rune had to be. It couldn’t be compared to the precision David had used for his aura, but it was still quite difficult.

The rune was designed for this purpose, and Alex had decided to place it right at the start of the strand he was inscribing. He was using a rune designed for this exact purpose, and it stretched along the strand relatively easily.

The Body Guidance let Alex focus more on the inscription, confident that he would be prodded away from any mistakes on the placement. The first helpful nudge came barely an inch and a half into his design, but surprisingly it wasn’t the Trialbringer reminding him to avoid anything.

Instead, it was a helpful idea. Alex needed to create the base of another strand, instead of trying to push this one along towards the Enhancement he’d created.

The precision required to inscribe another rune while maintaining the unanchored strand he’d already started proved significantly more difficult. Helpful nudges pointing out slight mistakes or preventing the dissolution of the first strand came over and over as a frown covered his face.

The reason for the change in technique quickly became obvious. It was the effect of his aura, especially the vent near his shoulder blade. If he completed a strand, the mana he’d used for it would be siphoned out of his body in the time it took for him to create another one.

His only chance of completing the Mana Veins would be to design several at once, using the force they exerted on each other thanks to his empowering rune to keep them in place.

The problem was that it seemed like just creating two strands wouldn’t be enough. The vent near his shoulder was so strong that he might need to build five or even more strands at once just to keep it together.

This scenario was one of the potential problems that the Stirlings had pointed out over lunch. They’d been certain that the aura would make things significantly more difficult, and this wasn’t even the only problem it would cause. While the rune he was using would normally cause the veins to condense after only a few dozen strands were braided together, Alex might need to inscribe more than a hundred strands before they exerted enough force on each other to overcome the aura pulling them apart.

After nearly ten minutes, Alex managed to finish the base of a second strand. He’d given up maintaining the first vein past the rune which made things easier since the base was the most stable part by far.

While he’d been doing this, Mrs. Stirling had been working directly with Jess. Once Jess was back to focusing on making alterations, the Imprinted returned to Alex, “You need to complete the Heart Rune first.”

Alex stopped focusing on starting up a third strand as she spoke, “Isn’t that just a waste of time, if I can’t even manage the Mana Veins?”

“You’re obviously capable of the inscription,” Mrs. Stirling answered, “The problem is the need to split your focus. Anchoring the strands to your Heart Rune will help ensure the runes don’t fall apart while you’re in the middle of creating a new one.”

Alex grimaced, he should’ve come to that conclusion already. The Trialbringer had been helping him with creating the veins, but he’d made the prompt too narrow. Making a few alterations to his distributor rune would make the mana veins part of his heart, giving them significantly more resistance to the pull.

The problem was that Alex’s scenario was so bizarre. In any normal circumstance, the answer to an Ability which was siphoning too much mana was to change or remove the Ability. Even if someone had to work around such an Ability, the siphon wouldn’t be nearly as overpowering as Alex’s aura. The Stirlings had lots of experience with Mana Body design, but even they were just making educated guesses about what Alex would need to do.

Their initial plan had been to start with the Mana Veins because they needed to see how he would manage up against his aura. While he’d been frustrated by the relative lack of success, it was clear that he could manage the inscription and the Trialbringer could smooth over any problems with how he placed the strands.

In a circumstance where his biggest problem was maintaining the runes, anchoring them to his heart was the clear answer. His Heart Rune was under the same pressure as these strands, but because of its size, it was stable enough that he hadn’t noticed any problems over the past few days.

He nodded his agreement with Mrs. Stirling, who moved over to help Becca with a new Enhancement she was creating in place of her Strength boost.

Body Guidance happily answered the call, and he created the first part of his reaction Enhancement fairly quickly. He had so much practice with Heart Rune design that it only took a few minutes to create the rune. After that, he made a few alterations to his already present distributor rune, making it so that mana would enter attached Mana Veins instead of being pushed in the right direction.

After that, he began to create the small runes that would anchor to his heart. He knew that he wouldn’t actually be able to inscribe runes small enough to attach all of them, thanks to his Heart Rune’s two-dimensional nature, but there were ways to avoid that problem.

A small connecting rune was inscribed, widening the area he could anchor the veins to, and he got to work.

He quickly found that the stability provided by his Heart Rune made things significantly easier, and created the base of his first few strands without much issue. After he had six of them, the Trialbringer pushed him to start braiding them along his planned path to the point where his spine and skull connected.

This was where things grew difficult. Controlling six strands at once was incredibly taxing, and the empowering rune that made them pull on each other was already active thanks to his Heart Rune providing power. Weaving them into a braid proved annoying when they were constantly trying to pull together without any structural consideration.

The biggest reason he needed to weave the strands showed itself after nearly thirty minutes of work, as he started to approach the shoulder blade. The vein was built on the right side of his spine, but the vent on the left side of his back was still exerting a tremendous pull. Now, he needed to focus on weaving the strands together and making sure they weren’t pulled out of position.

His pace slowed even further as he inched past the shoulder, and sweat had started to bead down his forehead by the time the strands reached his neck. Having six strands proved quite useful at this point, as they were able to keep each other in place without his input. If he’d attempted this with fewer strands, he would have needed to hold them in place with his will instead. That wouldn’t have been manageable, with the intricacies of connecting the veins to his Enhancement yet to come.

By the time he reached his neck, Alex was feeling more sure of himself. He didn’t start to rush, but the stress faded. His focus let him block out his surroundings as he traversed the last inches before finally reaching his destination.

Connecting six strands to the Enhancement required incredible focus, but Alex was in the zone. He managed the feat on his first try, and almost immediately collapsed onto his back from exhaustion afterwards. Unwilling to wait and catch his breath before seeing the results, he opened his status screen and navigated to Enhancements.

Inspired Reaction

Reaction time enhanced by 0%

The six strands he’d created were stable, but not yet strong enough to hold onto the mana he needed to power the Enhancement. Already, he could feel how mana was transported up the veins only to escape by the shoulder blade. Even once he solidified these pathways, he still had another array to inscribe near the base of his spine to further improve the effect.

There was a lot of work left to do before this Enhancement had a noticeable effect.