As I regained consciousness I noticed something. The sky overhead was visible, its once obscurity by the many trees that hide it now gone. With shaky strength and resolve I managed to slowly stand up from where I was. The pulsating headache I was feeling only added to my discomfort.
“Ugh, what happened?”
Managing to speak out my question in a dazed voice my memories of the events prior flooded my mind. To prevent my digestion I had packed as much mana as I could into a tiny sphere. During this event I had managed to solve something about the problems I had been having with mana constructs. Right as I had that revelation the mana within the compact sphere exploded, no doubt sending me and that vermin rabbit to oblivion.
Slowly checking over my body I discovered that I was still in one piece…mostly. My right arm seemed to be missing from the elbow forward, but I was as it was slowly regenerating even without me consciously trying to do so. I had most likely been subconsciously regenerating my body as I was unconscious.
Regaining my thoughts I had realized something important. The sky overhead was in clear view with no obstructions in the way. Looking around I quickly realized why that was.
“What the fuck.”
Saying that in the stoic way that I did just showed how short circuited my brain was after seeing the damage to the area around me. Opposite to my regenerating limbs, the forest seemed like it went through hell. Sitting in a crater that was over ten feet deep and fifty feet wide was me. Trees were blown and toppled all around the site of the incident. Did my Mana Bomb really cause this much damage?
Compared to the weak constructs I had made and their effectiveness this was on a completely different level, in a league all its own. If I continued using this power and others saw it then they might stick weird names to me like Mr. ‘Splodey or even Sparky Sparky Boom Man.
I decided to put the Mana Bomb under the “Emergency Use Only” options that I had developed. Not so much for the weird names --though that is a reason-- but rather the fact that I think I also completely exploded along with it. While my physical self had died rather quickly I wasn’t the type that liked exploding for no reason.
“That’s right!”
Recalling the incident of the mana bomb revelation I had in the pits of that foul creature’s stomach I quickly shifted mental gears. The problem plaguing my mana constructs were mana leakage and proper control. Both of these problems could be solved with the solution I had perceived.
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The shell. The outwards area of a construct, their shell, was the key to solving this problem. Originally I contained and manipulated ever particle of mana in a construct, but that proved difficult to pull off. However if I only focus on the shell of a construct then not only can I ignore the mana inside that shell, but I can focus more on closing any holes in it. It’s like the difference between holding water in your hands to drink from or using a glass to hold it in; from your hands it will slip through the cracks but the glass would hold it indefinitely.
With such a revelation I quickly constructed a Mana Javelin, this time focusing on the outer shell of it rather than its entirety. The results were far better than I could imagine. While my constructs were a fair blue color with some transparency that made it seem incorporeal, the current one in my hand seemed to be a darker color and seemed more physical.
With excitement I quickly began to pour and condense more mana into the javelin. More and more it filled as I waited to see the current max I could stuff into my constructs was. Bit by bit the shell became more and more condensed and hardened as I focused my mind on it to contain the mana torrent in it. With a little too much mana now inside cracks began to appear on the constructs. The sound of glass breaking began to enter my ears. With a quick toss I launched the unstable javelin upwards in the air. It flew higher and higher until…
BOOOOOM!!!
Like roaring thunder the javelin exploded in the air as compact mana shout out like scattershot bullets. Dust raised as the forest was yet again put through such a frightening experience. Using this theory on my Mana Shield I managed to deflect most of the damage heading towards me. Looking at the cracks in my Mana Shield from the assault I could only imagine the implications of such an attack. A Scattershot Javelin was definitely an unexpected outcome of this experiment.
Luckily the Mana Bomb I created didn’t have an actual shell otherwise the stored energy would have been more devastating than its initial energy wave release form. Working on the Mana Javelin construct again I toned down the mana within it to keep it more stabilized. Wanting to test it out again I quickly ran to the nearest tree I could and thrusted the javelin into it to find it pierced through fine. Yanking it out I waved it around in admiration of my work before accidentally striking it too hard against the tree again, breaking it in half during my time of mental distraction.
BOOM!
Out came yet another explosion from the construct. If I didn’t pay too much attention to it then the shell would become too flimsy to contain the mana or even too brittle to attack. Realizing I needed to gain more control over the new Mana Shell Theory I quickly began to get to work mastering it.
As I remained there waiting for my body to regenerate from its injuries a stray thought had occurred to me during insight. Why does my new life seem to consist of explosions?
Chapter End