A Cold-Blooded POV

Chapter 31 Leveling Up Mana Manipulation & New Skill

The unlimited waves and hoards of monsters that flood from out of the dungeons, the countless homes and cities that are destroyed, and the amount of death that is resulted from an Outage is ludicrous. Outages are certainly the most apocalyptic disaster that can take place in a Kingdom, Empire, or Dynasty.

Once an Outage is confirmed the best action to take is to completely abandon the Kingdom itself, for there is nothing anyone can do once the never-ending tides of monsters reach the surface. The chaos and destruction that could ensue during an Outage is immense and unpredictable.

Senior-Rank Mages and Archmages have rigorously considered all factors that cause such cataclysms. Over the long decades of experimenting and hypothesizing, their insights have led them to several conclusions to avoid these disasters, with the main one being dungeon sweeps.

"What are dungeon sweeps?" some may ask. Dungeon sweeps are the safest, most efficient, and most effective way to keep the chances of Outages, and any monsters for that matter from reaching the surface. They are expeditions into the lands below to either kill or push monsters that are over-evolved and are too strong for the stratum deeper within the dungeon. This is to, for one, not kill more monsters than needed, and two, get rid of any that could potentially pose a threat to the Kingdom.

Overkilling within the dungeon causes the dungeon to populate itself, switching from normal birth to simply and plainly spawning monsters, increasing the likelihood of an Outage. Yet there are records of outages occurring even when the dungeon is pact to the point of bursting, though it is far more rare for this to happen, to be sure.

Fortunately, the last Outage took place over 10 years ago within the Zivodor Dynasty, leveling the whole realm to nothing, leaving only ruins and rubble.

Excerpt from 'The historical advancements and progression of Asrich' by Hilary Dinkins.

***

Ethoss sat in a comfortable position and began his Mana Manipulation grinding. He was determined to get it to level 5 by the end of the day no matter how long it took. Though he still knew that it wouldn't be easy, Mana Manipulation had always been his hardest skill to level.

Without hesitation, he began to mimic what the blue tiger had done during their fight, following the same steps he previously used.

Ethoss concentrated, opening his maw he imagine the ice spell he wanted to use. Sharp and piercing icicle shards appeared in his mind and he will them to materialize. His brain was pumping blood at a quickened pace, trying to handle the process it took to cast an ice spell without an ice affinity.

Seconds later the air began to freeze over and frosty mist appeared in front of his maw, changing shape from that of a snowflake into an elongated pointy ice shard. He then infused a moderate amount of mana into the spell, enough for it to properly fire an attack, yet, prioritized saving as much mana as he could.

This was his progress, after all the practice he did he had gained much more control of his mana usage, though it wasn't much.

*Ssssk!*

*Ssssk!*

*Ssssk!*

The ice fired off, cutting into the air causing a whisking sound against the breeze. Ethoss closed his mouth and watched as the ice shards fly into the lake's water. Watching this, an idea clicked in his mind.

***

A couple of hours had gone by of Ethoss casting the same attack over and over until he ran out of mana, then he would refill his mana and repeat the same cycle. Just like all the other times, he finished casting the ice shards spell and fired it at a tree in boredom.

He had gotten extremely bored casting the same spell over and over, as he watched the ice spell hit the tree an idea clicked in his mind. What if he tried manipulating the mana to do something else with ice? Although he wasn't super proficient in mana manipulation it wouldn't hurt to try something new.

Ethoss began concentrating once more, he closed his eyes and lifted two of his six legs off of the ground. Before, he centered the mana buildup in front of his maw just as he saw the tiger do it, however, this time he wanted to try building up the mana and condensing it on his two claws. If he did this correctly then this would make his magical capabilities much more versatile.

As he lifted his claws, the mana started to become concentrated in his palm areas. White frosty mist flowed from his claws. Gently, he placed his claws onto the lake's water and began to freeze up the surface of the lake. He opened his eyes to peek at his achievement. It worked! He had done it.

Ethoss stood up, his claws still infused with the ice magic, he took a step onto the frozen water. Then another step, and another. He continued to walk further, freezing up more and more of the water until he had finally reached the center of the lake. At this point, half of the lake had been frozen.

The monsters that were drinking the water had all stopped and began staring at Ethoss, even the fire salamander. None of them could understand what Ethoss was doing, yet, he continued his magic endeavor.

Lifting his two claws, he began condensing mana in each of his two claws, the act of condensing two separate spells was a huge weight on his brain, it was already hard enough to cast one spell.

Regardless, Ethoss powered through, he brought his two claws together forming a giant ice ball that was growing by the second. A blue hue began to lift from the lake and mix with his mana causing the ice ball of mana to grow even more. The monster around the lake all grew silent watching this, some of the Mana Mosquitoes that was around the water was even drawn to the dense mana that was forming at the center of the lake.

Without warning the ball began to destabilize, vibrating uncontrollably and glowing white. Looking at his MP stat, he saw that his mana was continuously being sucked up. Ethoss's heart jumped from out of his chest, he didn't know the exact results of what would happen if this spell went out of control however what he did know was that it wouldn't be good.

He threw his mind into full concentration, however, he didn't know what to do, even if he tried to send the spell somewhere far away his strength could only throw the ice mana ball so far. The mana ball was the densest spell he had ever created and he felt, It would definitely reach him before he could escape.

Hiss!

Ethoss hissed as he used all his strength to squeeze his hands two claws together, keeping the mana ball from going anywhere, then he began doing a trick that he never thought he would try out with his current magic capabilities.

He started to reverse his spell to dissipate it, instead of infusing more mana into the ball he did the opposite, sucking in as much mana as he could. Still, even then, some of the mana was being leaked elsewhere due to his inefficiency. He continued doing this until…

[Mana Manipulation has reached level 5, upgrade available.]

[Would you like to improve Mana Manipulation to Mana Shaping? This will cost 1sp]

He immediately accepted.

Upon his acceptance, his control over mana increased dramatically. The pressure on his brain lifted a little more and bits of information began to appear in his mind, yet, they seemed incomplete. Regardless even without the complete pieces, he felt this was enough for him.

Soon the mana ball of ice grew smaller and smaller to the point was nothing but a pebble's size. Finally finished, Ethoss fell onto the frozen lake tiredly. He had stopped a self-destruction spell and even gained a lot of his mana back however he was mentally tired after all of that. He felt that he would fall asleep at any time.

The apathetic robot voice whispered as Ethoss's eyes closed slowly.

[Aptitude achieved, you have been awarded the skill Mana Recycle]