Chapter 512 - Bye Bye Focused Channeler

We hide inside one of the huge stone pillars connecting the floor with the ceiling. They are surprisingly durable, and only with great effort do we carve a way inside, Sophie manipulating stone to close behind us while my tiny black orb destroys all the signs of our mana before crumbling away.

With our signatures hidden and the area shielded by webs and multiple arrays, we sit around the gentle light of a normal candle that burns surprisingly brightly in the dimness of our hidey-hole—our usage of mana reduced to a minimum.

The hideout is cramped, the air within stale and heavy, carrying faint traces of dust. The walls, smooth yet imperfect, hold an eerie stillness, their muted gray surfaces absorbing the flickering glow of our single candle. It casts elongated shadows that stretch and twist across the stone.

As we settle, the weight of exhaustion settles too. Every breath feels heavier, every sound louder in the near silence. Even the candlelight feels fragile, as though the oppressive darkness might snuff it out at any moment.

Simply said, the mood here is cheery.

After a day of running and fighting, all seem to have leveled up, but having to heal all that damage and disintegrate these unhealing wounds, Lily—now with short black hair—is running out of her mana, and currently we sit here for her to restore it.

"I'm sorry, Grumpy," Gareth apologizes. "I already started modifying my skill a bit so I should be able to help you more next time."

"It's fine! I can heal a lot; I just want to have some reserves in case things go to shit." As she says so, she taps her backpack.

Thankfully, no one asks her what she has in it; it would be difficult to explain. Also, what's with that language?

(Will you keep an eye out?) I ask Tess.

(Go for it,) she confirms.

So I pull myself a bit to the corner and close my eyes, hoping that applying my new class won't make me scream or anything. That would be awkward. I have an image to upkeep. First, for good old times' sake, I check my previous class. I know I haven't been mentioning it too much or thinking of it too much, but it has served me well.

Focused Channeler (Epic)

Active Skill: [Mana Domain] - Establishes a limited area where the user has heightened control and influence over the flow of mana, providing various tactical advantages.

Active Skill: [Tether] - Anchors the user's mana to a specific location, enabling quick return or other location-based effects.

Passive Skill: Mana Reservoir (Epic) - Allows the user to slowly and gradually store mana beyond their natural maximum, effectively increasing their total mana pool for subsequent actions.

Bonuses:

Constitution +20

Mana +100

[Mana Domain] that I have even now, hoping to keep it because of the applied effect of Pride to it. [Tether] that I got to [Ley Line], the skill I still explore and have great expectations from, and lastly passive Mana Reservoir, now turned into a unique epic passive.

Well, thank you, Focused Channeler, and welcome to the new boss in the city.

Congratulations! You have chosen the Primary class - Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane). In the future, you will be able to upgrade your class or change it for a new one, fitting your actions up until that point within the tutorial.

Another window pops up:

Congratulations! You have acquired your Primary Class:

Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)

Active skill: [Empyrean Lance] - A luminous spear of refined mana, charged with harmonic frequencies that resonate with both matter and energy. The lance punctures its target, releasing concentric waves of destabilizing force that destabilize its target’s structure, causing a cascading breakdown as mana vibrations radiate outward. The overwhelming attack leaves a residual field of unstable energy.

Active skill: No available slot detected.

Passive Skill: Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane) - The user's mana wavelength imposes itself on the surrounding environment, forcing ambient mana to harmonize with their energy vicinity, creating areas of heightened mana density. This synchronization creates a natural pull that gradually collects energy. This field expands outward, drawing ambient energy into a controlled and harmonious stream centered on the user.

Bonuses:

Mana +500

Active skill slots fully occupied. Performance check initiated.

Unique class classification confirmed.

Champion Candidate status identified. Body modifications detected.

Beyond attendee designation confirmed.

Winner of the First Tournament of the Fifth Round detected.

Additional personalization parameters unlocked. Four options generated for selection in place of the Second Active Skill.

Passive skill combination token (mid arcane)

Active skill combination token

Active skill evolution (will not apply to high-grade active skills)

Trait evolution (will not apply to high-grade traits)

Note: Any of these options will be influenced by the Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane) Primary class.

Please remove one of your passives to apply the new passive skill or reject it.

Well, first, bye-bye Cognitive Fortress, and welcome Wavelength Tyrant! Also, minus 100 mana because of no bonus from the old class, but then plus 500 from the new class, so that's an additional 400 mana. It might be much. Way too much, but I won't complain; after all the shit I got from the system, I take all I can.

I also consider it somewhat funny there is no constitution this time. It looks like all my effort was rewarded.

Why would the system do that to me? Please send help.

I bet it will hurt getting so much mana at once. For some reason, my poor body isn't built for it. I blame the system.

As I brace myself, the pain envelops me, and I do my best to hide it. I absorb the movement of my shaking. I use a few healing marks from Lily. I [Focus] my mind to ignore the pain. And I observe the process.

The process as my body accepts and changes to accept another mid arcane passive. And this time I notice hints of how the active skill affects it. Unlike the passive, the changes are much smaller but at the same time they feel much more important too.

Active skills are important, likely the most important of all these powers by the system. But the changes they bring are something I can't watch deeply, not even with my eyes, not even with my passive that allows me to accept all that information. I think someone at the level of Champion with the right specialization might be able to see it more and understand it more. Or maybe you need to be an Absolute to do so.

As all of this changes, my subclass is also active. Not in a way I could use it actively on my side. It feels like it affects all of these skills, these changes. In the same way, active skills change your body, my pride subclass affects it all to pull it in a certain direction.

Then my mana pool expands by 400 points and then another 400 by the effect of my mana attribute upgrade. Even with Mana Cycling running and Sneaky Mode trying to hide it all, I fail.

My mana radiates from me for a moment like a match lighting up a bigger flame. It surrounds the small area we are in. It pierces through our defensive arrays and seeps outside, announcing my presence to anyone looking.

A few seconds pass in silence before dozens of senses outside reach our way, touching upon the pillar we are hiding inside and locating us. I would swear Luna seems to be the most disappointed out of all the people here.

Jean punches one of the walls, destroying it, and we jump outside before the first attacks crash against the pillar.

A pain in my head and running through my body makes me furrow and twist my expression, but I surround us with Resonance Flow, all the material projectiles slowing down as if stopped in time.

I activate [Eclipse] to stop them from detonating, but a huge surge of mana moves through my body, ruining all the fine control I have acquired and ruining the fine balance, and [Eclipse] just flares up strongly before deactivating, only half of the projectiles losing their shine.

Already far away and noticing I have failed, Sophie's shadow seeps around her, expands, and mixes with the ground that rises into the air, blocking the shockwave of the attack that tears the environment around us.

At the front, Jean crashes against a group of skeletal monsters, and Tess uses her [Psychokinesis], grabbing chunks of stones and throwing them against incoming projectiles to detonate them while they are far away from us. Even then, the shockwaves from the explosions push us and crash against our defenses.

Once again, I move my mana to activate my skills, but way too much is taken—a carefully made balance of my body mana ruined—and in the process, mana swirls inside my body, tearing a hole through my chest near my heart.

All my constructs strain, parts of them breaking, pathways unable to endure heightened strain and movement of mana. With my eyes and mind, I watch it all happen. This information flows to me easily, even this is not enough to strain my mind.

It's a funny experience, to be honest, and a strong reminder that even with all these free stats from the Restrictive Training Emblem, my body still relies on my fine control and my firm grasp on my mana to control it all. Increasing my body reserves affects me more than using mana from the crown or reservoir—even if they hold more mana. It’s the shift in the amount of mana generated by each pulse of my heart and sent coursing through my body that throws me off.

When another attack pushes me to my knees, I boost myself with kinetic energy to the side and reach my arm behind me, forming a shield that blocks yet another projectile. Before it explodes, my mana surrounds it into a bubble.

The red light explodes inside the bubble, stretching, and a tight membrane of mana stops it from releasing before I actively compress it and launch it at the attackers, where it bursts, causing another explosion.

[You have defeated Reanimated Marauder - lvl 304]

[Lvl 300 > Lvl 301]

I quickly reinvest the stats, only to stop at it. A strong amusement washes over me.

Even with all the troubles I have currently, I have automatically invested these three stat points into mana. There is something extremely hilarious in that to me.

With an improved mood, I straighten my back even with all that pain. A big part of my mind separates and starts on the task of temporarily fixing my constructs and strengthening the pathways of these constructs and repairing broken parts. The second turns to Mana Cycling, getting used to all that mana roaming through my body. Grabbing it and making it move in the way I'm used to, with some changes to adapt to my increased pool.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 60 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 61]

The third part turns to the attackers, switching to kinetic energy and supporting the others as much as I can. But there is a tiny fourth part. A most curious one.

That one opens my status, impatient to check it.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn
Title: Champion Candidate
Difficulty: Hell
Floor: 7 - Battlefield
Time left until forced return: 3y 99d 16h 36m 1s
Traits (2/3): Mana Circuit 2/3, Mana Wavelength Iris 2/3

Lvl 301
Strength: 189
Dexterity: 181
Constitution: 361
Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1609 + 1609

Primary Class: Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)
Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]

Active skills (10/10):
Focus - Lvl 60
Perception - Lvl 55
Redistribution - Lvl 58
Mana Domain (Pride) - Lvl 57
Mana Crown - Lvl 51
Mana Manipulation - Lvl 61
Ley Line - Lvl 44
Bone Knitting - Lvl 25
Eclipse - Lvl 14
Empyrean Lance - Lvl 0

Constructs:
Reinforcement (Construct)
Thermokinetic Mana Heart (Construct)
Mana Regulator (Construct)
Mana Sovereignty Mantle (Construct)
Vortex Core (Construct)

Passive skills (5/5):
Phoenix Embrace (Mid Epic)
Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)
Mana-Fortified Mind (Low Arcane)
Mental Attunement Loop (Mid Arcane)
Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane)

Tokens:
Beyond 3 day stay token
Beyond 3 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Beyond 1 day stay token
Communication with your disciple for 10 minutes

Shards: 97,939

***

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