CHAPTER 43 (Patreon)

Absorbing the core was simple work. I wanted to do it while eating the gorilla meat, so mother fixed us up with a late night snack. Combining the ambient mana, the mana from the food and from the core would give me the best yield.

I worked late into the night. It took hours to absorb, even though the core was not as dense and powerful as the giant snake’s had been. 

Most importantly, since I was now extensively transmuting the mana to its purified form, I reached another milestone. 

[Mana Transmutation level 10!]

[+2 Magic Power]

[+2 Mana Flow]

[New Perk Unlocked: Purification!]

Description: Improves the precision and efficiency of Mana Transmutation when converting mana into its purified form. Reduces mana loss during the process and allows the purification of foreign mana, provided it can be accessed and controlled.

This was stellar. I wasn’t surprised to receive a Perk like this. After all, transmuting mana into its purified form was the only thing I’d been doing with this skill. I supposed it had wide applications. I suspected I could create water mana with it directly, without requiring a spell formula. I was already doing that with my cultivation. The purified mana in my arcane finger seemed to simply take the form of magical water and kinetic energy. But further testing was required and this was not the time.

But as I reread the Perk’s description, another idea came to mind.

Wait a hot minute. Didn’t this also have pretty profound implications beyond cultivation? Couldn’t I, say hypothetically, transmute a certain magical corrosive cloud into purified mana?

Who was to say I needed to use the mana I purified? I could use this Perk to dispel magical effects!

Well, I’d have to test it first, but I was eager to do so. Maybe it had some limitations. I doubted I could just transmute the magical structures of artifacts to nullify them…. Yet. I held back a supervillain cackle.

Purification made processing the rest of the core much easier. I could feel sooner when a transmutation was going wrong and correct it before I wasted the mana.

I still failed plenty. When that happened, the mana scattered back into the air. I caught what I could and tried again, but some always escaped.

Now I got more usable mana from each attempt and lost less along the way. More cultivation from the same monster core. Yes, please.

All this led to substantial gains in my Arcane Body Art.

It was deep in the night, when I finally managed to process the whole core. I was leaning against my mother’s sleeping form when the monster core crumbled into waste in my hands.

[Meditation level II 23!]

[+1 Perception]

[+2 Focus]

[Arcane Convergence strengthened!]

[Mana Precision: +22%]

[Mana Efficiency: +22%]

[Arcane Body Art — First Layer: 3.3%]

That was excellent! Even more than I had expected. Even though the gorilla had been much weaker than the Mamba, I still got more cultivation out of it. Purification for the win!

I breathed in the cool jungle night and looked at my hand. My Arcane Body Art had improved and spread. I had started making a line towards my thumb from my fully sky-blue index finger. I wondered what kinds of possibilities opened up if I had two fingers made of magic instead of one. But to fully saturate my thumb, I would need two or even three more beast cores.

I was about to test out the new capacity my cultivation had achieved, but leaning against my mother’s slowly breathing body, I just kind of relaxed and fell into a slumber.

I woke up strapped against my mother’s back. It was midday, and I must have been sleeping for a while. I yawned and stretched.

“Morning, little gem,” mother said and reached a hand to touch me. “You slept for a while.”

“It was a long night. Anything new?”

“I am still getting the sense we are being followed.”

“I see,” I said. “Do you sense danger?”

“A little bit. I don’t think it's a beast. It feels the same as before and what beast would follow us this far?”

“Whoever they are, they are skilled,” Betuko said. “I also sensed a flash of danger, but it was gone as soon as it came.”

“Well, if something happens, I will deal with it,” I said and yawned again. “Although I’m still tired from last night.”

“Did you improve your… magic?” mother asked.

I laughed. “Yes mom, my magic is better now.”

I created the faintest string of water above my mother and controlled the spell very carefully, causing a cool mist to descend on her.

“Oh, that’s really nice,” she said. “It’s so weird. Sometimes you are this destructive Little God, but then sometimes you do this…”

“Magic isn't just for fighting, mom. Why wouldn't I use it for fun things?”

Mother chuckled. “My gentle little gem. I like that you are not fully absorbed by your power and fighting.”

I laughed awkwardly.

Fighting Awakened Beasts was admittedly more exciting than making water mist, but it was ultimately the beauty of creating magic that I wanted to explore. 

“Betuko says there is another cave ahead with an Awakened Beast,” mother said.

“That’s good,” I said.

Veena came to walk by our side. “You have absorbed two cores now. How strong are you now? Strong enough to defeat Ranok?”

“Getting there,” I said. 

I used Kinetic Pull with my magic finger and immediately managed to snatch a branch off the ground and bring it to my hand. Then I launched it with a Kinetic Push against a rock.

“Fun!” I said and grinned. 

“Tsk,” Veena said. “That is a nice trick, but not enough to fight.” 

I gave her a mischievous smile and used Kinetic Pull on Veena, hoisting her off the ground to dangle in front of me.

“Hey!”

Then I used push to launch her a few feet away from me. She had great balance and didn’t tumble.

“Brat…” she muttered. “That only worked because I wasn’t expecting it and I let you.”

“Oh,” I said. “Should I use a stronger version?”

“Hmph! Bring it!”

As we traveled through the jungle path, I used kinetic spells to attack and control Veena using only my Arcane Body Art. By now I was good enough at it to send her flying, but that was no fun. Instead I focused on making precise pushes and pulls at her legs and arms at the right times to throw her off balance. But my magic was clearly weaker on her than it had been against the monsters. I had noticed this when we sparred, but the effect was pronounced when I was using unstructured magic through my cultivation.

“Why are you so resistant to my magic? Is it because you have a Class?”

That didn’t make sense to me. Marek had had a class as well, and I had blasted him off my father easily.

“I have a Class Ability called Resistance. It's more of a passive effect,” Veena said. “All combat classes get a variant. It makes all attacks less effective, scaling with Class level and some Attributes. It works on both physical and magical attacks.”

Damn. Classes were so useful. I wondered what kinds of magical classes were out there and what they could do.

“Is there a counter to that?” I asked. “Like if I got the Sorcerer class, would I get a Class Ability called Penetration or something.”

“Yes,” Veena said. “That is exactly how it works. They also scale the same way resistance-Abilities work. Then the System decides how powerful your abilities are against an opponent.”

“What about the Awakened Beasts?”

“Oh, they don’t have it,” Veena said. “They have something that’s more like cultivation. Or so I’ve heard. I don’t know much about that. Classes are more immediately useful and don’t cost stupid amounts to develop. Cultivation is for the powerful families and clans with resources.”

Then she gave me a side eye. “And you apparently. How did you even get a cultivation technique?”

I shrugged. “I’ll tell you another time.”

She glared at me. “Tell me now! I want to know now. Why are you hiding things from me?”

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell. I will have to ask my teacher.”

“Hmph, fine,” Veena muttered. “But you will help me get stronger, right?”

I nudged her with a small kinetic spell. “As long as you’re not too much of a pain in the ass.”

Mother reached out to grab my cheek. “Language, little gem.”

“Owww, fine!”

Betuko led us to the cave and I prepared to do my thing. Unfortunately the monster was not in its lair, so we had to wait for most of the afternoon. According to Betuko, this one had recently taken over the cave. The remains of the cave’s previous owner were scattered outside like a show of triumph. 

To pass the time, I sparred with Veena and focused on improving the dynamic effect I had recently discovered. I was getting the hang of Barrier Pulse, which annoyed the hell out of Veena.

“You’re even harder to strike now!” she said and pouted.

I also practiced switching between different ways of casting Water Bullet. Some I fired straight from my cultivated finger. Those were fast to create but weaker than structured magic.

For others, I used the finger to make the water and a spell formula to launch it. My favorite method was creating a template of kinetic components with Spellcrafting and then just transmuting my cultivation reserve into water within that structure. It was a good mix of speed and power, and I was getting good at it.

I mostly didn’t bother with structured magic. Pure Spellcrafting allowed me to create elaborate magic, like Water Spear, but there was no way I was chucking one at Veena.

Water Bullets were my main weapon. I wanted them to hit harder, but there was a problem. When the projectiles struck their targets, they splashed everywhere, reducing the force of impact.

I needed to apply to Water Bullets what I had learned when killing the Mamba, but it was difficult in real action.

Right now I was solving the issue by adding a bit of continuous casting so the projectile would retain its shape. But I wondered if there was an artifact enchantment that could do the job better…

The wonders of magic were endless! I was so happy to have chosen this path and had these mystical problems to solve.

However, I had to stop once we finally saw the Awakened Beast return to its lair.

To my delight, I recognized it.