Enemy slain! +1 Copper I essence.
Okay, this should be enough.
He dismissed the dagger alignment quest, which had popped up once more, and wiped his weapon clean on the clothes of the unfortunate guy that had chanced upon him all alone.
“Not a bad fight, Arny, you can be proud of yourself.”
He knew the guy, Arnold, quite well. He usually survived until the boss fight, often even until after. Quite the decent fighter.
But it was too bad that he was alone, and that he only had a single passive skill so far. Namely the Swordsmanship knowledge skill. And although knowledge skills weren’t inherently bad, they were uniquely bad against Jett. The problem with knowledge skills was that… someone could already be better than you even without the skill.
Like a certain regressor.
What made it even worse for the poor guy was that Jett knew exactly what kind of knowledge the skill imparted, having chosen it himself a few times in the past. Which made the attacks of Arnold much more predictable.
Jett shook his head.
“Sorry for that Arny, better luck next time.”
He patted the corpse in consolation.
Jett had a hypothesis to test and he didn’t have the patience to try and find ungraded boars who had condensed a skill by chance.
It was easier and more practical to get some essence from humans.
Especially since he knew a lot of the people still alive by now and could judge how dangerous fighting them would be. And also how much essence they would give.
I guess I’ll just go for a basic mana shaping skill, right? I think that should be enough to make some basic items. Hopefully the usual 6 Copper I essence should be enough, I never tried doing it like this…
He picked up the fallen sword from Arnold, fasted it to his side using some cloth scraps and then sat down, cross legged.
With a gentle touch, he took out the blue glowing plant that he had stolen from a foraging boar and laid it on his lap. The mana treasure was exuding tiny wisps of cold energy that slowly dissipated in the air.
He sighed in resignation.
I guess we are really doing this…
Honestly, Jett felt like he was getting trolled.
Why, after his many uncountable regressions, had he only noticed the possibility of early crafting alignments the moment he had given up? Why, at the very moment he broke and wanted to live out the next few hundreds of regressions doing nothing, he found a completely new way for humanity to survive? It was like the System wanted to watch him suffer as long as possible, only to tease him back into work with that revelation.
But with such a big possibility, something that could change the whole future course of humanity, he really couldn’t just ignore it. He had to try and test it. But sadly, he couldn’t just find a tool and hammer away at random things to try and get his crafting alignment.
Not only because there were no pure tools in the tutorial yet, but also because crafting didn’t work like one would expect.
Crafting was a heavily mana based discipline. Mana was of course necessary for almost all high grade skills, but at the lower grades there were usually still skills without any mana usage. Like the passive Swordsmanship skill from Arnold next to him.
But for crafting, there was basically nothing you could do without mana, as anything made without magical properties didn’t count as an item to the System. And creating items was crucial to gain and upgrade crafting skills. You couldn’t get them as easily as combat or utility skills, where all you had to do was imitate a skill and then pay the required essence. And no, cobbling together mana treasures and calling it an item didn’t work either.
In conclusion, he was pretty sure to get an alignment change quest for a crafting alignment, he needed to actually craft an item. And to craft something, one needed to be able to imbue materials with magic. Or at least transfer mana. Hence the need for a mana shaping skill.
Sadly it was basically impossible to condense a mana shaping skill by oneself without being able to perceive mana. But likewise, it was also impossible to sense mana before enhancing one’s grade at least once. One simply didn’t have the necessary biology to do it.
Though weirdly enough, ungraded humans could already influence mana, even if they didn’t have the necessary sensory organs to perceive it.
Alright…
He looked at the mana treasure in his lap.
It was shaped similar to a thistle on earth, the only obvious difference was the faintly blue glowing flowerhead and the numbing cold that flowed from its prickly leaves.
Before he could hesitate any more, he quickly threw the glowing weed into his mouth, chewed a little and then swallowed it.
His mouth hurt from the sharp leaves, but the cold numbness alleviated it a bit. He could feel it travel down into his stomach, similar to a bunch of ice cubes sliding down his insides.
Only that the ice cubes seemed to be getting colder and colder.
Clasping his hands, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Alright… engage cultivation!
The wind picked up, making the tree crowns above him sway.
Leaves slowly fell down all around him, which, combined with the scattered sun rays from the evening sun, painted a serene, sagely picture of him in his meditative pose.
Icy pain started slowly spreading in his belly, unbothered by his efforts.
Okay… just kidding.
He wished he could just eat mana treasures and then sit down all day and become a flying saint without any work. But sadly, that wasn’t how this world worked.
No, there was a simple reason why he subjected himself to the torture of swallowing a volatile mana treasure. He needed more mana inside of him.
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He couldn’t sense mana, no one could yet, but he already knew how to control it. Thousands of years of intimate use made interacting with mana something instinctual and natural, just like breathing.
All he had to do was to shape the mana inside of him to convince the System he knew what he was doing. Then spend some essence in exchange for condensing the skill.
The problem was just that ungraded beings had basically no mana inside of them. It was usually barely enough to power a simple empower skill once or twice, but that was it.
Even with his instinctual control he couldn’t shape the tiny amount of mana inside of him, especially not without sensing it. And using mana external of oneself was much harder, so that was out of the question as well.
So in the end, what he had to do… was to drastically increase the available mana inside of him.
Ahhh… this shit hurts.
His stomach felt like it was freezing over. Deciding that the mana should have diffused enough already, he began to focus.
Remembering all the skills he used to have, all the different mana techniques he applied, he started drawing from himself, he grasped, stretched and bent, forcing the mana in his desired shape.
None of that he actually felt. However, his body knew what to do. It reacted to his commands the same way it had done many times, instinctively influencing the energy inside of him.
The blinking light of a System notification appeared.
Instantly he put a finger in his mouth and retched.
Forcing the icy weed out his body again, he collapsed on his back, his breaths heavy.
“Disgusting. Zero out of ten, would not recommend,” he said while wiping the bile off his mouth.
He took some moments to regain his strength, the pain in his insides slowly subsiding again. Then he finally opened the System notification.
New Skill available!
You’ve proven your skill in controlling the elemental forces of nature, bending them to your will.
You may pay 5 Copper I Essence to acquire the following skill:
Elemental Mana Shaping - Active - Copper I You are attuned to the elemental forces inside and around you, making it easier to shape and bend them to your will. Effect: Activate to influence and shape elemental mana. Efficacy is drastically reduced if shaping mana outside of your body.
He couldn’t help but feel excited about his accomplishment. It really worked! He had guessed it would work, but to actually attempt it for the first time and have it work out perfectly felt really rewarding.
As expected, it’s the elemental version. Would have preferred the neutral version, but it will have to do.
And surprisingly only 5 essence. I’m really quite extraordinary, eh?
He grinned.
It was one lower than the 6 essence he had expected to pay. Essence cost was determined by both the complexity and strength of a skill, and the abilities the user already possessed. If you had almost no clue how a skill worked, you usually had to pay more than 10 essence to condense it.
To get such a large discount for a mana shaping skill without even being able to sense what he did, surprised even him.
Alright, let’s get it.
You paid 5 Copper I essence.
Skill Elemental Mana Shaping gained!
Okay, this should be enough.
He felt the System imparting its knowledge into him, like a flowing stream filling an empty vessel. He groaned in satisfaction.
It was always nice to regain skills one had known before, it was like finally remembering a long lost memory. As if he was becoming slightly more whole again.
Jett enjoyed the feeling a few moments longer, then pushed himself up.
Focusing on his insides, he activated his skill, bending the mana inside him into the same shapes as before.
He felt nothing.
Yeah, this is weird.
It probably worked, the skill worked with System assistance after all. And he should still have some elemental mana inside of him.
But he still couldn’t perceive anything, due to him being ungraded.
Crafting is gonna be so fun… I’ll have to go completely off memory with zero feedback.
He sighed, then stood up completely.
The shadows were already getting longer, the day was nearing its end.
Glancing at the barely visible sun, he scratched his head in thought.
Hmmm… should I still attempt some crafting today? Or should I do it tomorrow…
He looked down at the dregs of the mana plant, covered in his vomit, and grimaced.
I don’t really wanna use that. And most of the mana is now gone anyways…
Since he didn’t get a neutral mana shaping skill, most of the tiny mana reserves inside of him wouldn’t react to his skill. And what little would react was far from enough to craft an item. No, he needed another elemental mana treasure to start crafting.
Which also meant he would probably have to go through that whole weed eating ordeal again.
It only gets better, huh.
He could of course upgrade his skill to Copper II, so that shaping outside mana would get much easier, but that would take an unholy amount of Copper I essence.
Nah, I’ll do it tomorrow. I really don’t wanna try to scrape together whatever mana treasures are still left out there today.
Tomorrow at noon better treasures would spawn anyways, alongside the new batch of beasts.
Though he really didn’t look forward to gathering treasures with all the wolves running around as well.
Do I really need to condense some combat skills too? This feels like so much work again…
The mana shaping skill in its current form was utterly useless for combat, he would have never attempted getting it this early if it wasn’t for crafting. It would have just been a waste of essence.
But it was dangerous to not have any combat skills on the second day, there were too many Copper I beasts one didn’t stand a chance against without at least one combat skill.
Grumbling about his upcoming workload and unfair lot in life, he started walking around the area in search of a good spot to spend the night.
It took him some time to find a somewhat decently sized tree, but it paled in comparison to his previous spot.
He would have continued searching if nightfall wasn’t approaching so rapidly.
Using Arnold’s clothes, which he had pilfered before leaving him behind, he created an improvised cushion and made himself as comfortable as possible on one of the branches.
Settled on his branch he stared up into the star dotted night sky. Observing the glimmering dots, he couldn’t help but think about the future. The time after the Tutorial. The chaos, suffering and pain that would accompany everyone for a few years, until the last of humanity’s holds got overrun and he started again.
But maybe… maybe he could find a path now.
Perhaps he wouldn’t have to fight for all too long anymore. Perhaps just a few more decades and they would finally all make it.
It wouldn’t be the first time his hope would be mercilessly crushed, but this time… this time it somehow felt truly possible.
Maybe soon he could experience real peace.
He closed his eyes.
A single tear ran down his cheek.