[STT] Chapter 99: Disappointing? (Patreon)

Imagine a ball of mana the size of an apple, pressing in on itself, getting smaller and smaller, condensing until it was the size of a grape, then a pea, then a grain of sand, and finally, a speck of dust.

The density of the mana would be immense, and the power it would hold would also undoubtedly be incredible.

Ben wanted that power at his fingertips, and the road to getting that power was quite simple, actually.

With him already having [Mana Compression] and [Mana Cannon], it was just a matter of time before he could do something like that. The only real issue was figuring out the best way to do it.

So, when he got home, he tried to do just that. As it was the first idea that had entered his mind the moment he'd gotten [Mana Compression] as an evolution path for [Mana Manipulation].

He wanted to compress [Mana Cannon].

But it was hard. The more he pressed down on it with [Mana Compression], the more it fought him. Which was understandable. Mana, as he understood it, wanted space. It was the whole nature of mana.

It wanted space, it wanted to dominate, it wanted to be the one in control. It was almost living, and pushing it into a smaller shape was much harder than one would think.

It was hard until he got [Mana Shaping] into the mix, remembering that his skills weren't necessarily limited to what they started as.

With [Mana Shaping] holding the shape as he compressed it with [Mana Compression], it wasn't long before he compressed it down to the size of a lemon.

It started shaking almost instantly.

Okay, calm down, you just have to hold it there for a bit.

[Focus] helped, but it was still hard. He was sweating, his arms trembling, and his eyes locked on the lemon-sized ball of mana that was struggling to break free of the cage he'd made for it.

He held it for a few seconds, then let go with a sharp breath of air, as if he'd been drowning in water and had just broken the surface.

The ball immediately popped and dispersed, releasing its mana into the surroundings. Thankfully, he was skillful enough to absorb that mana right back into himself lest it cause some sort of incident.

Still...

[Mana Compression Lvl 2 > Lvl 3]

...it was definitely possible.

Ben smiled. He did it again, trying to go past the lemon. He was curious.

How far does it go?

He didn't know how much he could compress it, and that was exciting.

It was getting dark inside by the time he was done playing around with [Mana Compression], and he felt closer to another level up in more than one skill. 

Looking outside the window, it was getting dark.

The grounds should be empty, right?

###

The archery range section of the training ground was at the far end, fortunately, so by now there weren't many people there.

So Ben could find a spot for himself to practice in solitude. The archery range was rather big.

Bigger than he thought it would be, actually. And he was in front of a row of thick targets, each with a different distance assigned to them. A tall stone wall behind them caught whatever missed the targets.

Thankfully, he truly was alone right now, so he could just let go and mess around.

The guards that had been following him for a while weren't here, they'd disappeared the moment he met Alice, and hadn't reappeared. He couldn't sense them nearby either with the limited range that [Mana Sonar] had.

So he was good to go.

He picked a target and pulled mana out of his core, pouring it into a [Mana Cannon] as large as a watermelon, then compressed it with the help of [Mana Compression] and held it with [Mana Shaping] while [Focus] did its job on his brain.

In a few moments, a [Mana Cannon] the size of a peanut sat at the base of his hand. Mana so dense that it created a wave of pressure around it, like a bubble that was ready to burst at the slightest touch.

He was ecstatic.

If he could throw this with his [Ignition Step], then he could cause some real damage. But he didn't want to tinker with [Ignition Step] with all this going on, so he just blasted it out from his palm.

The peanut shot forward, the sound barrier breaking with a sharp crack as the projectile tunneled through the air, a dust cloud being left behind. It was a bit hard to see the thing, and it hit the target in the blink of an eye.

Giddy to see what it would do, he jogged up to the target.

There was a small hole the size of his thumb, but it didn't actually go deep. It looked as though it had barely scratched it, actually, just that it'd hit.

That's it?

Ben was disappointed. It looked like his idea was misguided, and needed some more work.

Why did the [Mana Cannon] not explode?

He had hoped the moment the dense mana cannon hit something solid, it would expand and explode, but it did not.

At the very least, he wanted it to be like a bullet and maybe pierce through the target.

So why didn't it?

A normal [Mana Cannon] that side would've vaporized the target altogether, but a compressed one this size barely made a scratch.

There was a flaw in the idea somewhere, and he didn't know where.

Sure, he didn't make the [Mana Cannon] destructive as he usually would, as he didn't want to make a mess of this place, but still, it shouldn't have been this weak. There was so much mana in there that the recoil was enough to push him back a step.

At least I got some levels out of it...

[Mana Cannon Lvl 14 > Lvl 15]

[Mana Compression Lvl 3 > Lvl 4]

Two levels for that small of work, he'd take it honestly. Better than nothing. Regardless, he went back to the guest house and decided to call it a day. It had been a hectic day.

###

Guard POV

He waited until the new guy was gone from the training grounds before he approached the target he was practicing on. He'd been hiding. The orders were clear, given that the boy, Ben, had sharp senses and what they assumed was a sensory skill of some sort.

He'd been told this morning to tail Ben by the guard captain. Since Ben met up with Lady Alice, the orders had changed to stay out of range and observe.

The guard didn't mind. It was as much his job as it was the captain's. It was understandable why the captain put him on the boy's tail. It was the captain's job to keep the people inside these walls safe from everyone, no matter who.

And the boy was new.

So he'd watched as Ben tried out some kind of skill, shocked when he realized he was compressing mana. Doing that this early was insane.

The condensed ball he shot was most certainly a [Mana Cannon], but the aftermath had been rather disappointing, or so he thought until the boy left and he had a proper look himself.

There wasn't a big enough hit on the dummy itself, but what he found was that the [Mana Cannon] had just passed through it.

What is this?

How...?

The [Mana Cannon] had hit, but seemed to have just passed through the target without exploding or causing any damage to it. Like a ghost. Following the trajectory, he walked up to the wall behind to see if it made an impact.

It had, but as expected from an enchanted wall, there was no damage.

It was a wall built to bear attacks of even Tier 3s, so how would this attack even scratch it?

But the guard was curious.

This thing punched through a dummy, and made a mark on the wall?

What if it passed through the wall, too?

Curious, he jumped over the wall to see if there was any hit on the other side, and...

No way...

There was a huge crater in the wall, as though the enchanted stone had just vanished, vaporized, without a trace. As though it was never there. The [Mana Cannon] had hit the wall, phased through, and then punctured through this side, only to explode and take a chunk with it.

But how? It was silent.

There had been no explosion or any indication.

What kind of [Mana Cannon] was that?

It was probably a mixture of several skills.

A delayed explosion.

What an interesting creation.

To think it would pass through things and then explode behind them. Wicked. He'd have to write this down in his report.

With the day pretty much over, he made sure to double check the boy was asleep and then wrote down his findings of the day, and reported to the captain. The man was a very strict, no nonsense kind of guy, and his strength was known across the House, which was why the captain was respected by all.

"Delayed detonation?" The man repeated, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes, sir. I have no idea what he's mixed it with, but it seems to pass through objects before exploding on the other side. It punctured through the wall, but there was no indication more than a slight grazing, but the other side..."

"I see. A scary one, this Benjamin. Still, it's good we're keeping an eye on him. He will need the support we can give him if he is to be an asset of this House, and if he's to stay on the path he's on. Though, if he has any ill intentions..."

"Of course, sir."

"Get my son."

"Pardon?"

"Get my son, it is time I assign him his first mission."

"...yes, sir."

With that, the guard left.

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