Chapter 9 - Advancement

Adam sat unmoving for many long hours as his internal struggle raged on. His core had relentlessly devoured small pieces of the dense light mana which attempted to rip his core apart at every step. The immense focus he needed to stop that from happening had rendered him completely unaware of the outside world. He had vastly improved his ability to digest the gray core’s mana since he started and had now consumed about half of the lizard's core. His own core was no longer on the precipice of collapse but had instead become a lot more resilient and increasingly adaptable to fight the light magic’s properties and convert it for his own use. It now truly did resemble a ball of flowing steel threads and no longer got pushed back when the light expanded. On the contrary, after spending so long trying to devour the lights, the ball tightened its grip around the foreign mana automatically whenever the light tried to push back. It was like he had automated the core's response after having done it so many times, similar to muscle memory for his magic.

Adam was sweating and his body was lightly shaking with every piece of light his core was able to consume. He had no perception of his body's external state though and only broke from his light-devouring trance when an odd but familiar sensation made its way into the back of his mind. His status window had just changed and he already knew why.

Adam Hartwell

Mana core: [gray - early - (???)]

??? (???): [???]

Spells: [Mana sight - crude - common]

(???)

He had done it, he had skipped the late stage entirely and moved on straight to his first core advancement.

“Well I’ll be dammed, this actually worked? I’m surprised the different magic wasn’t considered poisonous and slowly killed me. Although it technically nearly did by exploding my core…”

His core no longer had its distinct black color anymore but was most definitely a grey shade now. He had watched its black color get washed away with each passing hour and fragment of the lizard’s core he absorbed. The core had grown again before condensing and shrinking once again. It now felt like a brand new limb had been grown out of Adam. It was distinctly different from his first core and even the later stages didn’t have such a drastic change. It was very difficult to finish the process of shrinking it back down when the core had started expanding. If he had failed to do so, it likely wouldn’t have evolved into a grey-colored core. The hard part was over and he could feel the core searching for more mana. He allowed it to grab more of the now much smaller light mana reserves he had been consuming and was surprised when a much larger chunk than before was quickly grabbed and consumed. He barely had time to regain control over his core to stop its idiotic behavior when something happened that made him grin wildly.

He had released his hold over his core to let it get back to doing what it does with the assumption that it would continue to act as he had repeatedly trained it to when consuming light affinity mana. He was very shocked to see it grab a chunk at least five times bigger than what he could safely convert before, but he resisted the urge to try to retake full control of his core when he noticed that it morphed and pulsated around the swallowed light causing it to be consumed in record time. The way in which it moved was a lot faster and smoother than he could manage with only his mental commands.

It seemed his core had not only learned from his actions about how to suppress the light mana but could now actively do so without his constant and direct control. Was this what the system meant when it made the core upgrade, it not only increased the capacity of its mana storage but everything from his mana’s pathways and the speed at which his core can move and make foreign mana its own had drastically improved. It was like he had suddenly grown a new fully functional hand to control his mana instead of the old limited and weak infant's hand that his core used to be. It also seemed different in a more fundamental way, it was as though he could now change the mana he was absorbing before releasing it from his core. That extra step could give more solid direction to the mana and seemed to make it a true part of himself instead of something he simply had a hold-of. Whereas his mana was always something that was pushed or pulled around, now it was as if the core had marked it as being an extension of itself so all the mana he pushed out from his core was now easy to control and respond to his will like his core. Was this a step closer to fireballs? He made quick work of the remaining light affinity mana since his core was so much faster and more efficient. Despite having spent hours absorbing small parts of the lizard’s core, his had only managed to consume about half. After his evolution to gray, Adam finished off the last of it in under ten minutes. His evolved core was no joke but his mana didn’t seem to have gained an affinity. It was immeasurably easier to control but didn’t look or feel any different. He couldn’t help a tinge of disappointment from dampening his huge accomplishment. That was until his core started sending out pulses all across his body. Now that the foreign core had been dissolved and consumed, his reward for not one but two upgrades was on its way. The amount of mana that was being sent all across his body was incomparable to the only other time he had witnessed this happen, the first mana tempering session. He had held off from allowing his body to be strengthened but now that he actually felt his muscles become stronger, he was very much excited once again.

Adam assumed that the level at which one’s body is strengthened is determined by the core’s capacity. His core can only hold so much mana and the pulses fade when the body reaches a higher mana saturation. Since his pathways had grown significantly and he had not only upgraded his core but also advanced it, the amount and quality of the mana was incredible. He watched in awe as the white strands made their way to his every muscle and seemed to make his cells tougher and more dense. His body began to light up in white as his muscle fibers tightened and his bones became denser. Even his brain was being infused and his mind was sharper and clearer than ever before. It was like he had his head underwater his entire life as he looked around the jungle from his sitting position. The sounds, smells, and images were so clear to him. It was like upgrading your TV to high definition for the first time. His body had become even tougher and muscular. He stood up after the pulses had died down and reactivated mana sense. He looked around with mana sight and found that adjusting what was visible was now extremely simple, he could instantly show only his dense core or allow all the ambient mana to be visible. It was like he was using a telescope and simply zooming in and out to focus on the different levels of mana density. Adam felt it made such a huge difference that he knew the spell had advanced. He opened his status screen and was happy to see he was right.

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Spells: [Mana sight - refined - common]

“Hell yeah it is, my first spell is already refined only hours after getting it. Am I awesome or what?”

He immediately started circulating mana and began strengthening his muscles. He pumped them full of mana, while keeping it from leaking as he tried to have his whole body strengthened in the most optimized and effective way possible. He was annoyed when he didn't get the tingling in the back of his mind to indicate that his status screen had changed. Deciding to practice that later, he forced a ball of mana to form in his hand and was shocked at the difference. The first time he did this, he could barely see the thing and controlling it wasn't even possible for the most part. With his refined mana spell active and his new highly controllable mana, it was as if Adam was actually holding a white ball in his hand. He could easily see through it with a mere thought since his mana sight was very easy to adjust but he was more interested in how mana leaked when outside the body. It was as though it simply lost its density and returned to the environment. He assumed the reason he hadn't gained a body enhancement spell was because he wasn't able to sustain the spell for very long even with his new core. If he could make his mana last longer without dissipating then he should be given that enhancement spell. He tried to condense the mana even more as the ball in his hand began to shrink to the size of a tangerine. He pushed more and more into it but kept it densely packed. When he had trouble adding more without increasing its size, Adam started to accumulate more mana on his palm. He spread it flat and piled more in until he couldn't fit anymore either. Adam aimed the mana projectile at a large tree about forty meters away. He willed the mana built up in his arm to burst out and push the mana projectile forward. He wished for it to go as fast as possible to see if it could actually do some damage. The last time he did this, he shot it out of the cave and was unable to test its damage capability.

When his palm released the stored-up energy, Adam thought something had punched his hand since the blowback was so strong. He quickly caught himself and watched as the white ball of densely packed energies flew straight for the tree since by some combination of heightened coordination from his core and a miracle, he hadn't missed. The ball made contact less than a second after being shot and the results were underwhelming to say the least. You have to remember, this is a world full of magic since the very air is rife with the stuff. The result is that the vegetation is incredibly tough. Just like he was strengthened, so was pretty much everything else. That being said, he would never have been able to leave a scratch on that huge tree before, but the huge concentration of mana in the ball and the speed at which it was propelled let it fly straight into the tree and lodge itself three-quarters of the way through the trunk. A mighty impressive feat…

“Dawm, no giant cinematic explosion of wood and splinters? Talk about anticlimactic. I spent five whole minutes preparing that thing”

Thinking about it further, he almost slapped himself for how stupid he had been. The first time he did this, he had no control whatsoever. Now though he could see and sense the mana even outside his body. Why would he still use the poor man's bullet system with all his new improvements? Adam started forming another mana ball with a lot less attention to detail and without wasting time on compressing it. He would have no time to do that in a real fight so he pumped as much mana he could for a second straight then focused on his connection to the mana. It was now a part of him and he willed it to move forward. To his shock, the mana did just that. It didn't move nearly as fast as what he had done previously but it instead moved about as fast as a ball can be thrown. Not quite a bullet yet but the awesome thing was that he could nudge it's course while it was ten meters in front of him. This was a game changer for Adam, he could now see many scenarios where this method can be advanced and developed to be truly powerful. The small white ball dissipated after it went too far but a range of about fifteen meters was already impressive for the little amount of mana he had used. The first projectile that made a round tunnel in the large tree trunk was much more mana demanding so he would probably only be able to make three or four before he ran dry. His lighter version on the other hand didn't use up much at all and in fact he could replenish the amount lost after half a minute of simply breathing.

Adam spent the next hour making bigger and smaller versions of his mana ball. He tested his control and how far he could extend his range. Adam was able to summon two white magic spheres at once and had them fly around him in opposite directions. Funnily enough, that was the hardest thing yet since it required him to stay extremely focused on both as they moved in opposite directions. It was quite confusing and if he slipped up for a second then the spheres would dissipate. The mental exercise was not only very frustrating but also the most rewarding. He was now able to conjure two mana bolts in under a second and have them fly around in completely different directions. His range of control was about twenty meters but his mana was very weak the further it got from him. Shooting his white ball into the ground in front of his feet would make a small hole, but doing the same thing twenty meters away and it almost immediately dissipates on impact. That was okay though since he would only get better at controlling and condensing his mana as he went on. His control was not very fine either since he could make general decisions about the mana but that was it. He could will it to move faster and swing left but he couldn't get it to stop very fast or even make it turn in different directions. He was basically limited to throwing it in a direction and slightly moving its course half way through. When keeping the mana close to his body, his control was better but he didn't have it move very fast either. Not only because the mental exercise required great concentration but also because having it go too fast would only have it fly away or slam into him. He continued his practice of refining his mana spheres until he got another feeling and excitedly opened his status window.

Adam Hartwell

Mana core: [grey - early - (???)]

??? (???): [???]

Spells:

- [mana sight - refined - common]

- [mana missile - crude - common]

(???)

“Mana missile? Guess that's actually a pretty good name. Not much of a missile right now but it is only crude after all”

Adam's first offensive spell was a huge step but he then realized that he had come out into the jungle many hours ago in order to cut down some materials to use for clothing but he was so sidetracked by the sneaky lizard, the blood sucking vines and then his burst of magical learning and advancement that he had completely lost track of time. He had also become a lot stronger since he left on this trip and his stomach was starting to feel empty again. Leveling up was hard work after all and despite himself, he decided to skip making his own clothes from natural resources, not just because he was hungry but also because he remembered what the spiky vines had done to the lizard and wasn't sure what plants were actually safe to use. After all, just because something doesn't chase him doesn't mean it can't poison or harm him in other ways. That coconut heart fruit was a monster magnet too. The thought reminded him that he would have to go back there next time, but for right now, Adam took out his claw blade and cut down some of the most dry and flammable looking plants and branches around. It wasn't easy since this alien jungle had a distinct lack of any non green or blue rubbery stuff. Even the leaves on the ground seemed to be made of a rubbery fiber. He nevertheless grabbed everything he could and made his way back to the cave.

Sure, he was still only wearing boxer shorts and a worn and torn t-shirt but right now he felt safer than ever in his newly evolved body. He still took the long way down to the cliff as wandering on the beach still seemed stupid right now. But Adam was only looking towards the future. He would learn everything there was to know about this new world and magic as a whole, he would hunt stronger mana beasts from now on and he would start thriving in this strange and magical land… But first, Adam has a neatly wrapped sloth monster to barbecue because screw eating raw meat, that was horrible and he swore never to do it again.