Path to Transcendence

Before bed, he practiced his mana control using some creative techniques. One involved using an enhanced [Firebolt] and trying to mold it into a different shape. At the moment he was trying to manipulate it into a thin string, but the skill was fighting him the entire time, constantly trying to revert back into a bolt. When he got tired of that he would play around with mana by making small human-like figures out of fire mana, reenacting a scene.

His current favorite was made up of a couple of dozen really small stick figures trying to take down a giant dragon. The people look more like matchsticks and the dragon looks more like a worm with a tumor on its head, but the intent is what matters, Julius thought. It was great practice for training his ability to individually control each construct. He had tried to do the exercise with compressed mana constructs, but halfway through the entire thing destabilized. If it wasn’t for his quick reaction, he would have created a large explosion. Safe to say, he didn’t try that again.

[Thermal Compression lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

“...”

Huh, interesting.

Once he started to feel tired he climbed his way up to his makeshift stone bed and passed out. He only required about an hour or two of sleep nowadays. So once he woke up, he began his day with some physical training without any kinetic energy. Kinetic energy amplified his fundamental capabilities, which would theoretically mean that if he increased his base he would be able to display more power. Furthermore, [Restoration] helped a lot with physical training. Whenever he would start to feel tired he would activate it and it would heal him back to his peak. It also had another benefit of hastening his muscle tissue regeneration.

At first, Julius noticed that the skill was just healing him back to his original state and that wasn’t good for muscle growth. His goal was to tear his muscles and cause muscle hypertrophy, but the skill wasn’t allowing that. He made some adjustments to how the skill healed him. It wasn’t easy, all modifications had to come after the skill had been activated and he had to make all alterations manually. But eventually, he was able to modify the skill to allow for muscle growth.

It allowed Julius to stress his muscles far beyond what was considered normal and healthy. But with [Restoration] he was able to push himself without worrying about lasting damage to his body.

He was currently doing squats with a massive slab of stone slung over his back. With every rep he was repairing his muscle tissue with life mana, enabling him to continue ripping them apart without stopping. His face was crimson red from the blood flooding his face due to the exertion. He had even popped several blood vessels in his eyes and cracked several teeth in his struggle.

After one last rep, he let the slab of rock slip off his back and he slumped to the ground in a lifeless heap, while healing his injuries. The physical fatigue and exhaustion weren’t much of a factor anymore due to [Restoration] but the mental fatigue was still there. Although the skill helped with lessening how much sleep he needed. The psychological trauma of struggling and enduring the pain still took its toll.

Still, he could already tell some of the changes in his physiology in half a day’s work. He already had signs of building muscle, as if he had been working out for a couple of weeks instead of a day. Imagine what bodybuilders from my world would do if they had this ability. Julius laughed at the idea. They probably wouldn’t ever stop working out.

[Restoration lvl 10 -> lvl 12]

[Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

His efforts were rewarded in the form of two level-ups in [Restoration] and one in [Kinetic Reinforcement] to his surprise.

It was almost mid-afternoon at this point and Julius wanted to pick off another group by the end of the day. If he was feeling extra bold he would try for two groups. But it all depended on if he could isolate them. He didn’t want to be alerting the large group any more than he could help. It was still a possibility that they were already aware of something hunting them down.

He spent the next few hours practicing his [Firebolt]. It was the main skill he wanted to upgrade or get rid of. It was useful before, but now Julius felt restricted by it. It used too much mana and it was only useful after he compressed a load of fire and kinetic mana into it. The main benefits the skill provided right now were its casting speed and its ability to contain a lot of compressed mana. More than his other constructs, but even that was slowly becoming obsolete. He was able to compress more and more mana every day and the skill seemed to have a hard limit, while his other constructs didn’t.

In his upcoming fight with the trolls, he decided he was only going to use [Firebolt] in order to advance it. His spikes might have been the best way to go, but he needed to upgrade this skill as fast as he could.

Once it was around late afternoon Julius got up and headed toward the valley. It was a quick trip with his generous usage of his burst step and he could already feel the difference his stronger legs made on the skill. He could send even more mana into them before they became unstable. Once he got back to the ridge overlooking the encampment of trolls he just observed for a while.

Based on what he saw, it didn’t seem like anything was different from yesterday. He didn’t see any trolls panicking or large parties being formed to hunt him down yet. So that was a good sign that they didn’t know about his actions yet or at least didn’t care about the other trolls going missing.

Either way, it was good for Julius. Once it got late enough and he saw a party making their way out of the valley, he followed. There was another group of four leaving as well, but that one had a leader who was much larger and sporting a large axe. He didn’t want to entangle himself with another troll at that level until he had upgraded his skills more.

He stealthily tracked the group of five trolls, maintaining a safe distance so that he didn’t get spotted or sniffed out. These trolls didn’t take him in the same direction the other trolls did yesterday. This time they walked through the valley until they got to a narrow canyon with a stream trickling through it. The trolls then walked on the edge of the canyon’s walls that eventually opened up.

Up ahead was a flat grassland with a small lake to the right. Around the lake and grassland were large trees, towering over from all sides. Then surrounding the forest were large hills and mountainsides that sloped upward, containing the area in a bowl shape. It was quite the view.

Julius couldn’t see or sense any other trolls in the area with [Spatial Perception], just the five who were making their way toward the edge of the forest. He didn’t allow them to make it there. He launched five normal [Firebolts], one for each troll.

He already knew before he sent them, that they weren’t going to kill any of them. That wasn’t his goal today. His goal was to use [Firebolt] as much as he could before he ran out of mana.

Each troll took a strike to the back of the head, staggering them, with two of them falling to the ground. Overcoming their surprise, they quickly got to their feet and looked around to find the perpetrator of the attack. When they turned around they saw Julius standing there with another five [Firebolts] in hand. In typical troll fashion, they didn’t even hesitate and attacked as soon as they saw him.

Julius was watching the trolls sprinting at him with a calm expression on his face. The best way to push [Firebolt] past its limitations was to use it in ways it wasn’t intended to. That required him to think about its restrictions. For one, [Firebolt] was only able to shoot in a linear direction, there wasn’t much ability to change its trajectory once it was released. Secondly, there was a hard cap on how many [Firebolts] he could summon at one time, regardless of how much mana he put into each one. With compressed mana, he could only control around six before he was unable to create more.

The third but most important problem was its extreme mana usage. After learning about weaving mana, Julius understood how much mana was being misused in [Firebolt]. For some reason, he wasn’t able to create the skill with woven mana. He was still able to modify it, but creating a [Firebolt] with woven mana would require him to completely disassemble it and would defeat the whole purpose of using the skill.

That was why he had been trying to practice his ability to modify the shape of the [Firebolt] itself. It was a silly idea, but he thought if he couldn’t create a [Firebolt] with woven mana, then he might be able to change the shape of it into a strand and then weave the individual [Firebolts] together into a larger woven version.

He had gotten close while he practiced at night but the last step had eluded him. He had hoped that the added pressure of combat with the help of [Savage Dance] would allow him the mental capabilities to pull it off.

He sent three of the [Firebolts] toward the incoming trolls and started trying to weave the remaining two together. [Savage Dance] was already making it easier, the [Focus] aspect of the skill was making its presence known. Two strings of a modified [Firebolt] were created before the trolls had made it halfway to him. Then he gripped the two strings and began to twist them together. It was an ugly application of weaving and resembled a hundred-year piece of rotting twine more than anything, but they managed to stay together.

The second he saw they had fused, he sent the construct at the trolls who were already pretty close. It gouged the troll in front across the chest. Leaving a much larger wound than what two normal [Firebolts] should be able to. It was almost on the same damage as an enhanced [Firebolt] but for a fraction of the cost.

[Firebolt lvl 13 -> lvl 14]

Nice. Julius had an excited smile on his face. More.

The other four trolls were quickly on top of him, swinging their clubs trying to smear him across the grass. Julius didn’t even try to engage, he just used several generous blasts of kinetic mana to rocket himself backward. All the while he was creating three more [Firebolts] within an instant.

As he was evading the trolls he elongated the projectiles into strands and wove them together. This version had much more stability, it didn’t look like it would fall apart with a light breeze. Julius shot it at a random troll’s chest and it detonated with a resounding bang.

It ripped the monster’s torso to ribbons. Leaving its upper half a complete mess and it dropped to the floor in a puff of dust, blood leaking out onto the ground. It was the first time that Julius had managed to kill a troll without having to remove its head. It said a lot about the improvements to his offensive power.

No notification though, Julius thought to himself with a frown. He continued to duck and side-step the remaining troll’s attacks. It was easy to dance around the trolls with the open space and [Spatial Perception] letting him know every troll's position at all times.

While he was dodging he started to create another three strands of [Firebolt]. It was becoming easier and easier each time. After a moment he had another woven [Firebolt] ready. The trolls took notice of the attack that had killed their brethren so easily and became a little warier of him. However, Julius didn’t shoot it at them yet. This time he was using [Thermal Compression] to compress the finished construct.

He didn’t add much additional mana to it, and he didn’t even add any kinetic energy. It was pure compression. It was like trying to squeeze a rock to make it harder. And just like a rock, the construct cracked from the pressure. He tried to wrestle back his control, but it was already too late. The construct crumbled apart and detonated in his face.