Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.02.25]

A slap to his back almost made him fall on his face, instantly pulling him out of the meditative state he was in. He caught himself at the last moment as his awareness returned to his body.

“You are late!” Makani announced chirpily. “So I’ve decided to visit. Aren’t you meditating too much lately?”

But Zeph wasn’t hearing him.

Right before he was slapped, he clearly saw a Mana structure forming near the point of impact. Even if it was merely a wisp, he managed to take a glance at it.

No wonder I wasn’t able to notice it before, he thought giddily, jumping back to his feet. How could I’ve been so stupid?!

Makani frowned, otherwise unperturbed by his athletic comeback. “Your smile is kind of creepy right now, you know…”

“Oh, shut it. I finally know what to do,” he said, walking hastily towards the door. “Are you going? We can leave the Manacasting training for another day,” he asked over his shoulder.

Makani sent him a skeptical look but started walking nonetheless. “What are you talking about?”

“The structurized force transfer. I know how to speed up my study, at last.”

That caught the man’s interest. He started trotting to catch up. “Now, now. I believe I can forgive you for forgetting about our training and leaving me waiting for almost an hour, but only if you share some tasty secrets with me…” he said smartly, slowing down beside him.

Zeph smirked. “Actually, if you didn’t hit me a moment ago, I would be in the same exact spot as yesterday,” he looked excitedly at Makani’s face. “We were looking at it from a wrong perspective…” Zeph started explaining.

He had already asked a few knowledgeable people for their thoughts on the topic, but only Aisha had advice for him – she said that all Milestone Enhancements were inherently internal structures, so he should start looking internally first before trying to observe the effects in his Veil. He understood her intellectually – he knew already that this Enhancement was like an invisible tattoo covering his skin, powered by the outflow of Mana. He also knew that additional instructions were written in his Soul, somewhere, somehow.

But that knowledge led him nowhere.

The physical manifestation of the Enhancement on his skin was inoperative on its own, so he couldn’t simply copy it like an ‘enchantment’ to perform tests. And it was absolutely inflexible, too – all he could do was cut off the Mana flow powering it, or allow it to stay active. His attempts at forcefully manifesting its effects were somewhat successful, but he couldn’t see what was happening clearly enough. He had no way of shaping the microstructures or playing with the singular parts of the physical aspect of the Enhancement.

Worse yet, what he managed to observe was only because of his outstanding external Mana Manipulation. He was cheating the system while his true Mana perception was still lagging behind. As so, his ability to perceive things internally was much more limited. Also, his Soul perception was a work in progress in comparison to true Soul Arts users. Thus, his ability to analyze the Enhancement’s Soul aspect and its internal workings was a dead end.

At least until he found some Makrun to update his Source Net implant and fix his internal Mana Manipulation issues.

It wasn’t strange, then, that he turned to external observations instead.

“I could at least see something happening in my Veil, but that was a mistake,” Zeph continued. “I really should have looked internally first and foremost. The Mana structures are forming inside my body; they aren’t projected outside. Not directly.”

Makani nodded along. “Not unexpected, but not helpful as well. So, what has changed?”

“This thing is reactive in nature,” Zeph stated confidently. “Instead of trying to force an activation, I should’ve been activating it naturally while meditating! I was a fool.”

Makani stroked his goatee. “Hmm, understandable, understandable… And I agree with the ‘fool’ part. Still, it won’t help you to apply anything you will learn. So not much progress—”

“It should be plenty enough to try a few experiments,” Zeph said strongly, ignoring the jab.

A lot of energy left Makani’s body as he started to understand where it was going.

“You want me to help, don’t you?”

“Indeed! I can’t meditate while moving,” Zeph started with vigor, rubbing his hands together. “So you will have to punch me now and then during the process.”

That brought back some life into the man’s eyes. “Oh, that I can do. With pleasure, even.”

Zeph rolled his eyes. “I think you may be a bit too bored lately… You should join Aisha’s camp next time.”

Makani stumbled on the perfectly flat floor after hearing that...

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.03.10]

Congratulations! You successfully modified your [Spell]: [Force weave]! Calculating…

Zeph finally released his breath, allowing the Mana construct to dissipate. Closing his eyes, he allowed his body to limply fall backward to the floor.

His Will was dangerously depleted. The process he developed more difficult than anything he had done ever before.

And it wasn’t the first time he felt spent to that extent. He was close to giving up many times in the past few days, but he stubbornly kept at it for as long as he could see that some progress was being made.

Progress that – in a few aspects – was traced by the System. Receiving a confirmation from a higher being was a godsend.

I was correct! he celebrated in his mind, even as his body begged him to eat and take some sleep – in that order. After all, his bodily and ethereal resources were being greedily devoured by Willforce Morphon Enhancement to stabilize and regrow his Will.

My theory works… All this training finally is…

Calculations completed!

WARNING! [Matrix] of modified [Spell] inaccessible! Prerequisite [Energy Enhancements] unavailable for the [User]!

New [General Skill] created as a substitute!

[T2] [L50] [Force Projection] was added to your [General Skills].

NOTE: This [General Skill] will be replaced by corresponding [Skill Matrices] when conditions are met!

Or not…

He sighed wearily.

I will need a lot more resources before I can even try using it manually in a fight… At least, it works well as a proof of concept…

However, as Zeph was commenting idly in his mind, the notifications continued unabated.

You have gained new [General Skills]: [Soul Imbuement theory] and [Spell Expansion introduction] from the [Knowledge Base]!

Congratulations! New [General Skill] created!

[T3] [L10] [Willforce Imbuement] was added to your [General Skills]!

You have earned [Soul fragments]!

You have earned 700 000 [Universal Points]!

Congratulations! Through extreme exertion, you have gained 1 [Greater Willpower]!

...

He ignored the rest, allowing it to roll into the summary he kept active from the start of his training. It required a little fiddling with the Interface, but it wasn’t difficult to enforce with all the modules the System inserted into his Soul.

Slowly sitting up, he dizzily looked at the nearby low table.

In preparation for the exhaustion he expected, Zeph brought a lot of food to the training room.

He would have preferred to experiment in his own room, but this one wasn’t disturbing his Veil as much. In living spaces, the overflow of his Mana would drip into gathering infrastructure to power the building. Also, the training rooms possessed limited capability of controlling the Ambient Mana density and its composition, and were generally better suited for such avenues.

He sluggishly shuffled his weakened body closer to the goodies, before digging into the small mountain of calories.

A few minutes later, he could already feel energy returning to him; his body, Soul, and Will balancing and stabilizing. As so, he slowed down and focused on this new General Skill of his – Force Projection.

He knew well what the System was plotting. The Skill was a reassurance, for both of them.

With it, it wouldn’t be possible for him to forget what he had managed to pull off. It was a ‘recording’ of Soul memory of his experimentation, and it would be much easier to read than the actual information contained in his Soul. Also, it couldn’t degrade naturally as long as he was connected to the System.

Still, he wanted to make sure nothing was missing. After all, the System had notorious issues with tracking his usage of Will. And this time, even he would admit that he overdid it in the Will department.

It all started when he started theorizing about possible applications of the basic laws limiting the ‘Enhanced structurized force transfer’.

It was a mixed Energy Enhancement that helped anyone with enough Power PE to disperse the kinetic energy they were producing or receiving. To have a wider footstep when moving. To influence the heavy weaponry they were equipped with. To shield their bodies from point-applied forces… especially because any fast movement would guarantee those to show up. Not to mention, the weight of any gear and the possible consequences of misaligning the weight distribution.

One’s armor could be as deadly as a weapon in the opponent’s hands.

Without it, Power would be useless and harmful at high values. Although, Zeph imagined people could reach similar effects by themselves if they trained properly, as internal Mana Manipulation was, typically, the domain of Physically-inclined individuals.

That nicely emphasized why the Enhancement was working as it was, and by whom it was meant to be used.

It could only be activated through his body – the physical medium – of which definition and borders were being defined by his Soul. And that was the most limiting factor. It required something spiritual, something written within his very unphysical being to be able to do what it was designed for.

Moreover, the effect itself could manifest only within his Mana – in his Veil. The resulting microstructures of Mana seemed to form almost naturally after that, as if they were half-finished Magicules that required others to stay stable. At least, that’s how he saw it after 14 days of deep analysis.

Those structures, though, interfered with his external Mana Manipulation and were very ‘reluctant’ to return any information upon contact with foreign particles. Instead, they seemed to decay fast, burning through his Mana reserves while directing the released energy in a way supporting a physical force transfer…

Almost like his coolant.

Something was there—in the microstructure of these particles—that seemed to make them work similarly to nanotubes transferring thermal energy. He was still ways away from discovering what it was exactly, though.

But that didn’t stop him from playing with fundamentals.

If he needed his Soul to activate that Enhancement, then why couldn’t he bring it to an object outside his body? Wasn’t Soul already connected to Mana, why not use that? Wasn’t his Will directly interacting with said Mana?

So, he started testing and testing, until he found a possible solution.

Willforce – the strange Mana construct resembling more an overcomplicated Magicule. The thing produced in his Soul by a component of his Willforce Morphon Enhancement, and a fundamental ‘fuel’ allowing it to work in the first place.

He was unable to force his Soul to influence matter outside of the established Soul links. He was unable to transfer the instructions—or whatever it truly was—coming from his Soul through sheer Will.

But Willforce was bound to his body and Soul through Mana. And, as it turned out, with enough stubbornness and resources, it could indeed imitate both to a degree.

Truthfully, he wasn’t yet sure what he was doing. It felt like something between stretching his Soul and transferring information at the same time. Especially because he added the dangerous Soul Manipulation, vast amounts of Mana-L, and physical Mana Manipulation through his ‘Mana-shaping internal amplifier’ to the mix.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He had used everything in his arsenal to make that happen – from his abilities and techniques to his knowledge.

And yet, the results were not only useless as of now, but they were also potentially unhelpful to his future self.

Why? Because he had created a force funnel. And that’s it.

True, he could immediately say that it was working with almost 100% efficiency and could easily penetrate any material saturated with his Mana. But that wasn’t enough for any meaningful effects.

The Spell itself, though… It was a child of beauty.

Pooling together everything he had learned about junction nodes of Tier 2 Spells, he created a facsimile of one to support the transference of necessary parts for the Enhancement to not only activate it externally, but to connect it to the Mana construct surrounding it. The construct itself was a bastard child of his Force Weave and Space Spells with many, many parts added from other Tier 2 constructs. Parts he managed to decipher and understand enough to assume what they were doing, at the very least.

Even if the Spell was ugly, inefficient, and wouldn’t work without all of the manipulation methods he was applying, it was his first true Tier 2 Spellwork.

His normal Telekinesis was merely an advanced application of Mana Manipulation over a few separated and simple Spells. This was different. So very different.

“I wonder if that would be enough to make me a true Magistrus…” he spoke to himself after confirming the contents of the General Skill. “Definitely not Adeptus, though.” He shivered at the memory of Adeptus Miu and the destruction he wrought. “Not even close.”

Shoving away the scary memories, he looked down at the food littering the table, wondering if he could fit anything more.

In the end, a warm stew sitting at the back convinced him that he, indeed, could.

~~~

“I think that’s enough,” he spoke aloud between slurps. After days upon days of solitary meditation, he awoke to this strange habit. Especially in Gru’s continuous absence. He would never admit that their early conversations could also be categorized as speaking to oneself. “I have 20 days left, more or less… A good moment to switch gears… I need to get used to my Spells, and equipment, and… well...”

He stopped speaking to himself at that. He really didn’t want to think about physical training with Aisha that was awaiting him. Even if it had to be done as his fighting style was in shambles. Also, his neglected techniques required training and he even had new tricks to work through. The new additions were the most demanding, though. Like the ‘Enhanced’ module for his Martial Arts that he was yet to even touch upon.

Sighing with resignation, he called out the summary notification.

For the most part, he knew what had changed. That didn’t change the fact that he needed to understand where he developed the fastest and why. Moreover, those were the basics of his combat capability. If he could help it, he would rather brainstorm about different scenarios and application of his abilities in the calm room of his Guild than right before a fight.

The first notification was a proof that his suffering wasn’t wasted on nothing. A feat only possible because he was abstaining from investing in his Willpower all this time, postponing the inevitable ceiling he would hit sooner or later.

Congratulations! You have gained 3 [Greater Willpower] in total!

47 total… It’s getting close, he noticed.

It was the value of his manually trained Willpower. A thing that would get harder to raise the more he increased the overall value artificially – through his Profession and Class. But, more importantly, at the threshold of 50 an achievement awaited him. An important and, potentially, very powerful one – an achievement granting a Trait that multiplied every artificial point spent on this Passive Enhancement.

Like in the case of his Intuition – he managed to train it to the very limit of natural possibility, achieving a multiplier of 2 after raising it to 100 before selecting his Class.

Even if he couldn’t hope to gain the same results, every additional point of Greater Willpower was worth its weight in gold for him. Moreover, his Willpower seemed to break out of the conventional reasoning. No training should be able to influence the natural value at this point, and yet there he was, gaining three points.

The first point was expected – he had been using his Will excessively for months. The second one – a result of his Mana training – was unexpected. And then, the third and final came just as he had a breakthrough with his Spell. It was more than he could ever expect.

Because of that, it was even more exhilarating.

But, as important as that was, it wasn’t the most exciting part. For the first time in ages, Zeph was being rewarded with Soul fragments for his hard work and troubles. The level in his Class was an unexpected result, caused by him overcoming the last hurdle with his new Spell. But the levels in his Profession were well earned – he was meditating every day, training his budding Soul Arts’ techniques. He even found an application for Shaman’s new Skill during the process – the Spiritual Synchronization.

Congratulations! Your [Profession] [Shaman] leveled up!

Congratulations! Your [Seeded] [Class] [Force Generalist] leveled up!

Major upgrades:

Willpower [+3]

==> Mana Generation [+5]

Shaman [+1]

==> [Memory] [+1], [Unallocated] [+2]

==> [Matrix Space] [+5], [Mana Capacity] [+44], [Mana Generation] [+7]

Force Generalist [+1]

==> [Intuition] [+2*2], [Greater Willpower] [+1], [Unallocated] [+2]

==> [Matrix Space] [+4], [Mana Capacity] [+119], [Mana Generation] [+20]

It seems like Mana Capacity and Mana Generation are rising faster than before, he noticed with a start. Did I hit a resonation spot?…

It was a term used in the Towers. Mathematical functions describing relations between Passive Enhancement and the resources were anything but simple. They definitely weren’t linear or exponential. Sometimes, a person could hit a hotspot where the numbers suddenly skyrocketed, and it was unclear why that was happening.

There was more to it than sheer numbers, for sure. Those only represented parts of one’s being and how well everything worked together. It was no surprise that some configurations would bring outstanding results.

Yet, his unallocated points were amassing, left intact without increasing any of his resources. He wasn’t going to spend them just yet. He wanted to finally start increasing his Willpower, but he couldn’t do that when a perfect opportunity to raise its natural value was dangling before his very eyes.

Yes, he had very high expectations for his Shamanistic studies.

Looking back at the Main page of his Interface, he couldn’t help himself and started laughing a little.

image [https://i.imgur.com/PYFXpVl.jpg]

Everything is in blue, heh. Not much information to be presented for me here...

Next in the line were his major Spell upgrades.

The minor upgrades to the Spells he was already using were irrelevant – he managed to decrease their construction time, moving towards mastering some of them, but that was all. There was no sense in analyzing the System-presented summary when he could already tell by feeling how good he was with a given Spell. It would be doubly irrelevant in combat situations where his trained reflexes and instincts took the wheel.

Instead, he once again scanned his newly learned Spells. Some of the details recorded in his Interface made him especially giddy – the ‘Safety Protocol’ interrupted the System at some point, promising better results in the future.

New [Spells] detected!

Congratulations! Corresponding [Skill Matrices] have been unlocked!

You have gained:

Designation: [Class Skill Matrices]

Type: [Spells]

[Gas-thinning] [Tier 0] [Spell]

[Fluid-thinning] [Tier 0] [Spell]

[Gas-thickening] [Tier 0] [Spell]

[Fluid-thickening] [Tier 0] [Spell]

[Modulated Sound Detection] [Tier 1] [Spell]

[Modulated Sound Creation [Tier 1] [Spell]

[Vibration Modulation] [Tier 1] [Spell]

The ‘Designation’ didn’t mean much. The System simply categorized his new Spells as belonging to his Class instead of his Profession. The Matrix Space between the two was shared, so he wasn’t sure why the System was caring about making that distinction.

Maybe the Onji was just that pedantic…

Congratulations! [Class Skill Matrices] from [Sound] [Spell] [Subdomain] have been unlocked!

Congratulations! You have gained new [General Skill], [Mana-tech Engineering] from the [Knowledge Base]!

Note: Aggregate reward of overlapping type exists. Assimilation of [Mana-tech Engineering] is strongly advised.

…

Reevaluating…

Aggregate reward of overlapping type confirmed. Achievement pending evaluation.

[Mana-tech Engineering] [General Skill] assimilated into pending reward.

There it was. A reward he was yet to receive, but one that already devoured a potential ‘Bioscience Alchemy’ General Skill. Zeph was convinced that more of his scientific achievements were being integrated into that mysterious reward, but it was the first time he saw Spell’s reward being used in such a manner. He wondered what would that mysterious ‘egg’ hatch into, as it already had too many components to itself.

Shrugging his shoulders, he quickly scanned the list of improvements in his new Spells and General Skills related to Will and Mana.

Congratulations! [Class] [Skills] leveled up:

[Gas-thinning] [Spell] is now [T0][L53]! (+52)

[Fluid-thinning] [Spell] is now [T0][L57]! (+56)

[Gas-thickening] [Spell] is now [T0][L51]! (+50)

[Fluid-thickening] [Spell] is now [T0][L50]! (+49)

[Modulated Sound Detection] [Spell] is now [T1][L28]! (+27)

[Modulated Sound Creation [T1][L26]! (+25)

[Vibration Modulation] [T1][L25]! (+24)

Congratulations! [General Skills] leveled up:

[Will] is now [T2][L87]! (+2)

[Will manipulation] is now [T2][L95]! (+2)

[Will Powered Mana manipulation] is now [T2][L88]! (+3)

[Ambient Mana channeling] is now [T2][L5]! (+4)

[Mana perception] is now [T2][L30]! (+13)

[Willforce] is now [T2][L78]! (+23)

His Mana perception was probably the only normal General Skill that leveled up in the process. It was all because the ‘Will Powered’ version was impossible to exist. Yet, for the first time, it saw a real progression. 13 level in a little more than a month was more than impressive. Funnily, it was more thanks to his long meditation sessions than any Mana training. The ‘perception’ was, after all, his ability to read the Mana flow and information sent back, not the ability to manipulate anything.

And finally, there were his General Skills related to Soul. Although, he never created that category in his Interface.

Congratulations! [General Skills] leveled up:

[Soul] is now [T1][L97]! (+22)

[Shamanic visions] is now [T2][L20]! (+5)

[Will Powered Soul manipulation] is now [T2][L33]! (+10)

[Will Powered Soul perception] is now [T2][L85]! (+7)

He was still disgruntled that no Soul technique nor a Soul Arts entry was granted to him.

I really hope that it doesn’t have anything to do with the deal blocking off the Tabu and Interface Skills. It’s Soul-related business, sure, but should be safe enough. I am basically learning Soul Arts from scratch… But if the System is just greedy and is using a loophole in our deal… No rewards, you say? What about no information whatsoever for you?!

Zeph had thought about blocking the System’s perception of his person many times before. All of the methods were merely wild theories, but if the ungrateful ‘god’ was playing around the rules then maybe it was time for him to start testing the waters.

We will see when I finally master one of the techniques… he thought resolutely.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.03.11]

“Soul Imbuement theory? What in chasem did you do to earn that?!” Aisha asked incredulously.

“Created a new Spell?” he said tentatively.

“Why is that a question?” she huffed, shaking her head. “Are you even able to use that Spell of yours?”

“Ehehe… no.”

“Figured.” She sighed, somewhat irritated. “Soul Imbuement is an Energy Enhancement that you gain at the 500 Power milestone. The fact that you have the theoretical knowledge about it is a miracle in itself. You achieving that while working on a Spell when you didn’t even reach the first Class sub-specialization? It’s simply incomprehensible!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up.

Zeph cowered as she smashed her hands back on her desk.

“I don’t know what you have done, but we will need to see if we can detect anything abnormal when you use it,” she stated; her teeth grinding slightly as she spoke. “Be prepared for vigorous testing—the thing you like the most—and training.”

“Can’t I just… ban this thing and not use it ever until I return?” he asked sheepishly, a small hope present in his voice.

“No. Now, catch and follow!” she said, throwing a heavy slab of metal at him. The training pole was, as always, more beat than anything in Ghrughah’s workshop. The difference was, the giant at least respected his tools. “We are going to call all the Heads into the training room. You”—she pointed at him while leaning forward—“are going to make a presentation. Then, we train.”