CHAPTER 49 (Patreon)

I immediately brought up my System and looked at the options. There were two, and they were both really cool. And they were both Rare evolutions! Naturally I immediately got upset. Why the hell did both of them have to be good?

Rare evolutions were not unheard of even in the archipelago. But they were definitely powerful, just like mother’s Sixth Sense. I looked at both options and felt upset. Why did I have to choose between them!?

The first option seemed to be an overall improvement in mental capacity caused by me using the meditation skill for focused work.

[Lucid Mind (Rare)]

Enhance the natural capabilities of your mind, greatly improving concentration, memory and mental discipline. Maintain intense focus for longer periods without distraction or fatigue, recall information with greater clarity, and divide your attention between multiple tasks with increased ease. Mind and Magic related Skills and activities requiring sustained concentration become easier to perform and maintain.

That was just… amazing. An overall improvement to all of the stuff I did. I was about as physical as a genie in a wheelchair. Almost everything useful I did involved my brain or magic, so this was basically an upgrade to my entire build. 

Ah, but the second skill was just as juicy, just for other reasons.

[Magical Trance (Rare)]

Enter a deep trance of magical focus, attuning your mind to the flow of mana around and within you. While in this state, manipulating mana and using mana-related Skills becomes easier and more intuitive. Mana costs are reduced, spellcasting is faster and more precise, and complex magical actions become easier to perform and maintain. The deeper the trance, the greater the effect.

Immediately my eyes lit up with excitement. This would basically improve my play with magic in pretty much all of its facets. I figured it would even improve my cultivation, because it was directly mana related. That meant it would make my cultivation more cost effective, right? Which meant I would get immediately more returns from this mana vein too? In that case—

Okay I had to cool it. I didn’t want to make snap decisions based on the current circumstances. I needed to try to be an adult baby and think of the long term consequences.

The nice thing about Magical Trance was that if I could reliably produce it in combat it would increase the chances of me staying alive. And staying alive generally increased opportunities to study magic. 

But then again, being better at studying would also improve the rate at which I learned magic, which in turn, would make me better at fighting.

Okay, I mean… damn. This was such a hard choice. On one hand I could improve my existing capacity. Deepening the focus I felt when I fell into a meditative state. This would likely improve all of the concentrated work I did, no matter what Skills I picked up. I might want to dabble with something like alchemy or enchanting later. Additionally there would be auxiliary Skills like Heightened Senses that would benefit from Lucid Mind. 

But the other thing said magic!

Ugh, this was too hard a choice. Even with the descriptions, I didn’t know exactly what each option would do before I experienced it. Additionally, I knew from my mother I would get a Perk when I chose one. But the stupid system omitted it! I tried messing around with the System screens to see if there was a way to see which Perk I would get from each Skill. But noooo, I would have to visit some snooty library where a Scholar had recorded these Evolutions, right?

Not having the full picture pissed me off. But then again, you could never make a fully informed decision in life could you? I laughed at the notion that I was ready to throw myself into the unknown in a deathmatch against a giant monstrous centipede, but then agonized over which of my Skill Evolutions was ideal. Duality of baby or something.

One thing was for certain. The sooner I made the decision, the sooner I would be able to continue my cultivation. And the sooner I would also feel better. If there was one thing I had learned in this new life of mine, apart from all the awesome magic, it was that life rewarded decisiveness. 

I leaned back and plopped on the cold stone floor of the cavern. I listened to the slow dripping of water from a stalactite above. The faint glow of the mana gemstone was soft and pleasant. I breathed in the cool air and thought.

Both options were good. Both would be an improvement on my basic Meditation Skill, so I could only win, right?

That made me feel a little easier. I took a deep breath. I liked learning, and I liked magic. 

Overall better brain or supernatural magical flow state?

In the end, the choice was simple. Would I rather be sorta better at everything, or would I be better at specifically magic?

Was Lucid Mind the optimal choice?

I shrugged to myself. Maybe. But I wasn’t optimizing. I was maximizing.

So I chose Magical Trance.

I didn’t immediately feel any different, but I had a sense that if I engaged in meditation, I would understand. I was going to save that for later.

[New Perk Unlocked: Keen Mind!]

Description: Spell formulas you have successfully cast are permanently committed to memory. You can recall their structures with perfect clarity.

[Achievement Obtained: First Evolution!]

Acquire your first Skill Evolution.

[Reward: +1 Skill Slot]

I grinned with pure excitement. That was so amazing! This Perk would cut my study time massively once I actually had a chance to sit down and study more spells. I was getting to a point where my water and kinetic magic were at a fairly good level, and expanding my toolset was a good idea. I had a very intimate understanding between the difference of remembering a spell formula and being able to cast it, and had no illusions about how much work I would need to expend to integrate a newly learned spell into something reliable.

But having an eidetic memory about spell formulas? Ridiculously good!

As soon as the Silver Sea Tournament was over, I would leverage this Perk to its fullest extent with my spellbook.

The achievement reward also made me happy. Having spent my last free slot on Heightened Senses had been a good idea, and I believed it would continue to pay interest. However, I just got a little squirmy when I didn’t have a Skill Slot available. What if I discovered some kind of awesome magic and couldn’t obtain it?

Devastation of the most severe kind would surely ensue.

So yeah, give me all the free Skill Slots, System, thank you!

Now that I had all this System stuff sorted, it was time to test Magical Trance. I couldn't wait to see how much faster I would be at gobbling up the mana gemstone.

Getting into it took a while. Then the work started to feel different.

I drew in mana, purified it within my solar plexus, and guided it into my hand. Again and again. The steps flowed together smoothly and aligned with the rhythm of my breathing. Inhale to draw in the mana, exhale to transmute and purify it. All this while a trickle of purified mana flowed into my hand, strengthening my cultivation. While some mana dissipated in the inevitable waste of the process, I picked some of it back into the circulation and fell deeper into the trance.

I lost track of the cave, the time, everything except the mana. I entered into a deeply rapturous bliss and just worked, forgetting even myself in play.

Then the System interrupted with a whole cascade of notifications.

[Mana Transmutation level 12!]

[+2 Magic Power]

[+2 Mana Flow]

[Mana Resonance strengthened to 11%]

[Mana Absorption level 16!]

[+2 Magic Power]

[+2 Focus]

It was hard to say how long I spent in the trance, but it must have been several hours, because my cultivation had increased to now envelop half of my hand. The thumb, index and middle finger, and a third of my palm. My mana reserves deepened, and with each increment of transforming my body with the Arcane Body Art, wielding the magic got ever so slightly easier. So I just kept absorbing and working with increasingly larger amounts to keep the trance going. At some point I must have collapsed from exhaustion and fallen into a stupor.

I woke up after an indeterminate amount of time and got back into it immediately. I was a very focused baby and completely lost track of the hours. Sometimes I stopped to eat. Sometimes I slept. Most of the time I cultivated.

Every time I woke up, I got straight back to work. The gemstone grew dimmer and my cultivated hand grew brighter. Two days later, I was finally done. I opened my eyes after my final meditation session and looked upon my works, and found them deeply satisfactory.

The mana vein was drained.

The bulging gemstone had glowed strongly enough to illuminate the wide cavern that had been home to the giant centipede. Now I stood in darkness. The silvery veins on the walls were still leading towards the gemstone, but that itself was dim. There was a slow trickle replenishing it, but it would take years to fill again. I was done. My rescuers were already done with the rope and clearing the rubble, but I had refused to come out until I was done. 

Mother had threatened to come down the rope and drag me out herself. I eventually convinced her that I was completely safe and that forcing my way through the remaining rubble would be more dangerous than waiting another day.

Veena had supported Mother.

Well ‘supported’ wasn’t exactly the right word. She had been practically frothing at the mouth and told me if I don’t win the Silver Sea Tournament, she would find a dragon and feed me to it.

I believe she meant every word.

But after having drained the mana vein, I thought it had been worth risking Veena’s wrath. I had increased my Arcane Body Art’s cultivation to 12%.

I had gotten stronger, much stronger. If I activated my Mana Sight, I could see my whole hand shimmering with the beautiful hues of blue and white mana. It did not fully permeate my hand, but I had a layer of arcane power as a second skin. It cut off halfway up my forearm. I would have loved to try out what my magical capabilities were right now, but I was way too exhausted. I didn’t even have the strength to climb up. So after I was done with the cave, I just tied myself to the rope and let mother pull me up.

As I did, I took one last proud look at my Status and grinned to myself. I was ready for the Silver Sea Tournament.

Name: Luka

Attributes:

Perception: 114

Focus: 63

Mana Flow: 110

Magic Power: 114

Reflex: 4

Skills:

Magical Trance (Rare): 25

Mana Sight (Mythic): 20

Mana Manipulation II (Uncommon*): 24

Spellcrafting (Rare): 17

Mana Absorption (Epic): 16

Mana Transmutation (Epic): 12

Heightened Senses (Uncommon): 4

Total Level: 118

Skill Slots: 7/8

Cultivation:

Arcane Body Art — First Layer: 12%

Insight: Purified Mana

Perks:

Sage, Contemplative, Unique, Magical Insight, Arcane Convergence (22%), Mana Weaving, Continuous Casting, Perfect Initiation (Mana Absorption), Mana Augmentation, Mana Resonance (11%), Multicasting, Apex Predator, Prodigy, Arcane Deconstruction, Purification, Keen Mind

Special Achievements: Awakened Mind

Achievements: First Skill, Unique, Cultivation, Beastslayer I, Prodigy, Attribute Milestone I — Perception, First Evolution