A weapon of that much power…he wasn’t sure what he’d wanted to do with it.
It was the last thing he expected to get.
The Fae were tragic enough—cursed by a cosmic entity and twisted into undead trees. He personally wanted no beef with them.
But Fae wouldn’t share that sentiment.
They would do anything to eradicate the ultimate weapon and, by extension, its current wielder —him. He smirked. In case they lash out, he could probably send them some threats.
I will make them all pay forgiveness taxes! Infinite money hack! Hahaha!
That didn’t sound too... terrible.
Stop joking around.
He scolded his mind for wandering. Now that he had let the two spheres combine, he didn’t have much to do other than to wait.
The Ape cast a pretty darn strong [Steel hard] on itself. Breaking that would take Faeria an arm and a leg, and given he already blew out one of her arms, it would take a while.
The two spheres fought for control, and it was hard to tell who was winning, but Zayn rooted for yellow. Not that it mattered, but he wanted the yellow sphere to win just because he found it first.
Things, however, didn’t go as he expected.
At first, the mix of spheres was stable, seemingly tasting each other. Then, a wave of energy burst out, and everything went haywire. Yellow and white folded inward, spiraling into each other.
Then…mana rippled outward like a pulsar flaring into the void.
The intense energy showered Zayn. The mana receptors in his skin gagged on the overwhelming mana, struggling to channel. As though he stood inside the storm itself.
Mana: 230/164(Overload!!!)
Bloated and tipsy, he struggled to stand. Worse, the ambient, rippling mana pushed him back like a tsunami of viscous, gooey liquid. Out from his forearms, red, glittering chains of bloodmetal erupted.
He plunged their tips into the rock and anchored himself straight.
He breathed into the mana, closing his eyes.
Mana: 250/164(Overload!!!)
Could this be a bad decision? Absolutely, there were a thousand ways this could go wrong. But he would regret it more if he let go of this opportunity. A chance to observe something like this from this proximity was something many would kill for.
Letting go of distracting thoughts, he opened his eyes, and they glowed red with mana.
‘I see through it’ active!
He observed the spraying mana with wonder. The fiery red surrounding had suddenly gained a lot more colours. Pale. Dark. Shiny and glittering. All intermixed together and exploding in streaks of pale, dark, and glittering hues—like paint flung across the void.
Too many things were going on within the mana, though.
Mana bending, flowing, and converging onto each other. Other intricate movements slipped through his comprehension, too fast to observe or recall.
Mana: 350/164(Overload!!!)
Even his soul felt bloated, almost as though it was going to explode due to the ambient mana. He matched his breathing to the sphere’s rhythm. Mimicking its flow pattern, adapting and learning.
To his surprise, once he began, his soul gradually expanded. A slow, painful process. But watching his mana threshold slowly go up was an exhilarating feeling, and he didn’t dare to stop.
Mana : 650/174….180…200….250.
Pain and pleasure blurred. Chest expanding, he inhaled more mana. That was not all. As he channeled his mana through his body, he felt something happen within the surrounding area. Particularly with the aspects.
The Aspects of Flame connected with him and rotated around him. Among them, he saw many of the aspects that had rejected him once. Slowly, curiously closing onto him.
He lit up [The First Spark], sneering at them. To his surprise, the flames began circling him even more intensely. Orbiting around him in the same patterns as the fire circling within his body.
[The First Spark] is resonating with you!
He cycled faster and faster, like a wheel rotating inside his veins.
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His mana recovery became faster.
Recover 20 mana every minute!
A couple of more things began to circle him. Aspects of Wind, in particular.
[WindStrider] is resonating with you!
The mana in his system became more plentiful and free. His soul widened once again.
Mana : 600/250…280…300
Witnessing the wind and fire gather around him, his eyes glowed in realization, “Mana is…resonance.”
Ding! Feat Unlocked!
Mana Resonance (Bronze): And one of the core properties of mana is that whatever is inside controls the outside. Master yourself, and the world will follow. You have understood the core truth of mana!
Effect: +3 intelligence.
He sighed, revelling in the feeling.
But that was the extent of what he saw through. Everything else was still out of reach.
The mana began to pass by without him making any breakthroughs.
He clicked his tongue.
He should be happy; he got a [Bronze] feat, something that was still hard to come by. If he walked away now, it would still count as a win. A small one, but a win, nonetheless.
But Zayn wasn’t satisfied with just this.
His soul voraciously asked for more. Whispering in his ear to go all the way, put all his chips in. And he knew he would regret it if he didn't listen to the call.
He decided to take another gamble.
Objective—Kill 5 Stone Turtles—reward available!
-
Roll for an Adept-tier Skill!
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Roll for a Card of Flame of Gold grade!
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Stone of Enlightenment (Silver)
At first glance, it would appear the rolls were the gambles. By rolling it, he could get any skill or card, and it could be something that he didn't like or need. But the truest form of risk out of the three options was….the ‘Stone of Enlightenment’. It would increase his intellect for a while, but whether he could make anything out of that was up to him, really.
Any other person would have made a more informed decision. Take the skill or card, and leave this place. Zayn had a few screws loose.
He wanted more.
‘Stone of Enlightenment’ has been chosen!
Stone of Enlightenment (Silver): A rare treasure of heaven and earth that activates your mind and increases your intelligence for a period of time, allowing you greater comprehension, understanding, and analysis. Usually used together with Cards to facilitate better understanding and mastery.
Warning!
The side effects of ‘Stone of Enlightenment’ can include subtle shifts in personality and behaviour long after the effects have worn off! Some of them tend to be permanent.
“Whatever.”
Not heeding the warning, he crushed the fingernail-sized crystalline rock, sucked it all in.
Immediately, something within him changed.
His brain didn’t explode out in activity as he expected it to. Instead, the opposite happened. Everything became quieter, nearly silent.
Then something incredible happened.
The parts of himself that never quite saw each other began to work together in perfect synchronization. Rusty gears fused to create an engine and pushed open a door that he didn’t realize was even there.
He felt himself awakening. A similar feeling to waking up one day as a kid and suddenly realizing he had consciousness and will. That, hundreds of times multiplied. Without wasting a second, he sat down and inspected the flowing mana.
His perception had become lightning fast, allowing him to see everything…even the tiniest of mana movement. The incomprehensible movement of the sphere and mana began to make sense to him.
Using ‘I see through it’ to its maximum potential, he zoomed into swirling mana around him. Fire was the first to reveal itself. He saw a flame…unlike his own. As though it was sitting on a volcano on the verge of eruption.
The scalding heat within those broken, molten rocks seeped into his soul.
His understanding of flame increased by leaps and bounds. Particularly about the cyclic nature of both Eruption and [The First Spark]. The process of volcano activating, deactivating, and becoming dormant worked on the same fundamental logic as [The First Spark].
Flame: 7…8%
He drew in more flame than his body could contain. Equivalent to climbing down a burning furnace just to see the fire. It was a different pain compared to anything he had felt in the past.
If he stopped there, the pain would have pushed him over and out.
Zayn didn't know when to stop.
Flame : 10….14…18…20%
As he kept absorbing, the pain became diluted by the epiphany.
Unbeknownst to him, he fell into a trance.
He saw flames.
Endless flames devouring rock, shearing and melting earth underneath their immense heat. Plates colliding upon each other to form rivers of molten fire. He saw volcanoes erupt and die.
Their grandness meant nothing to him.
So, he kept going smaller. For smaller aspects. Scenes kept changing until, in one of the visions, he was just a small piece of floating lava, moving downstream.
Just an insignificant piece amongst trillions of such pieces. It moved tirelessly, within a dying volcano that hadn’t erupted in ages. It had heat, yet it couldn’t burn. So it floated, bided for time, absorbed heat, and coiled it inside.
In hopes that one day, a chance would come.
One day, it would burn until the volcano was alight. One day, it would burst out and fly. One day, it would rekindle the skies.
An unknown aspect is resonating with you!
The ember hesitated. As though it was unsure of leaping out.
Unsure of him.
Yet decided to take the leap of faith. To take the gamble. Maybe one day, it would grow and become a wildfire. Maybe it would fizzle out into nothingness.
It didn’t know, and that was the gamble.
Feat — The Biding Ember (Silver) — Unlocked!
The Biding Ember (Silver): It is the smallest piece of flame found in the heart of a dying volcano. A heat not fated to become fire, yet it wishes to achieve the impossible. A heat that…burns inside of you.
Effect: +3 Vitality, +3 Fortitude. +3% Flame affinity.
The flame within him stabilized. No longer dissipating so quickly. It coiled and compressed into packets of heat, waiting to be unleashed. Perfectly synergized with [The First Spark] to make a system of fire within him, solving the problem of heat retention.
Flame: 25.00%
He exhaled giddily.
When he opened his eyes, he was back, and the sphere no longer let out so much mana. From its rotation, he felt a sense of completion. It was almost on the verge of finishing up. The hardening skill cast by the ape held together even now, and Faeria seemed to have given up on breaking through.
Thankfully.
His mental capacities had almost returned to normal. He grinned happily, waiting. Once the weapon formed, the leverage would be his. At the very least, with its power, he could negotiate terms with Faeria and Fae.
He forgot to blink as he watched the weapon slowly take form, wondering what the weapon and its power would be. It swirled and let out another wave of mana.
As the final bits of mana were let out, he felt a wave of nostalgia strike him.
‘I see through it’ has detected Dream mana!
He frowned.
If it were a memory belonging to the ultimate weapon, then…it might be important.
He shook his head. He really…shouldn’t. He—
But he decided to gamble…again.
A memory is playing!