The Way Ahead

Edwin picked himself up off the ground, hovering slightly. Flight was an unusual Skill in that it didn’t really have a single functional axis of improvement. Well, it technically did- efficiency- but that was a very broad category. If he hadn’t locked himself into such a low Basic Mana Manipulation level way back when, he could undoubtedly fly faster, higher, and with more power behind him like when Inion had been bound to him.

According to Lefi, it was pretty common- though not universal- that spells improved ‘mana efficiency’ in some way, which cast further skepticism on the adventurer’s claimed status as ‘not a mage,’ but whatever. Edwin was just happy that with each level his speed, maximum height, and power behind his flight all improved slightly. Sure, if he wanted to move at a normal jogging pace he had to be mere inches from the ground, and he was confined to a slow walk when more than a meter or so away from his support, but with every level he could go a bit faster a bit higher.

Really, it was all connected to his ‘tether.’ Activating the Skill brought the tether into existence, and it persisted until he either dismissed it or it broke. It wasn’t terribly hard to break, all told. Just moving- or being moved- out of his maximum range was enough. Fortunately, it automatically attached to the closest valid target to him, specifically something that could support him without too much strain.

Packing didn’t appear at first to work with Flight, but with some literal soul-searching thanks to Skillful Assessment, he did find that they were compatible… and already applied for his weight limits. Without Packing, he likely wouldn’t even be able to lift himself with Flight at his current mana rate, which he decided to label as 1 arcan per second. Why Arcan? Well… Edwin liked how it sounded.

He had tried using other people as an anchor, and he was really happy to find out that it technically worked, but they were still bound to the same limitations as anything else. Namely, that it had to be able to support him with very little strain. Inion while lying down? He could do that. Inion while standing up? …It worked, but it was very unsteady. Inion while she was floating around? Not a chance.

At least he didn’t weigh that much. He’d always been on the scrawny side, after all, and his habits of not eating for a week or two at a time didn’t help him gain weight, for all that it didn’t harm him either.

In any case, at level 41- assuming he just had his normal gear on- and at the rate of one arcan per second, he had been able to hover just under a meter and a half off the ground while moving, or about two meters while stationary. It was a far cry from true, untethered flight, but it did make getting things off the top shelf utterly trivial, so there was that.

In any case, Edwin suspected that his practice with Alchemical Dismantling and his Refined Mana had improved his non-System control and throughput of mana, and he was determined to test it once again. He’d gotten sloppy with maintaining his notes on Flight benchmarks, but he had at least not missed any levels.

So, here he was once more, flexing Numeracy in an attempt to measure how far he was off the ground. Compared to his previous range of ‘about halfway between 1.35 and 1.62 meters,’ he was now at ‘just over 1.62 meters.’ 3 decimeters higher with the same Flight level was… actually rather impressive. Certainly more than he had anticipated, at least.

He wasn’t going to complain that much that his previously-consistent mana flow was another factor to keep track of, but it did mean that all of his future magical measurements were all but useless if it wasn’t fixed at the System-provided rate.

Edwin’s non-scientific part of his brain was unconditionally pleased to find out that it was possible to improve his mana power outside of the System’s constraints. That was good to know, and while he didn’t expect that he’d be throwing around lightning bolts any time soon, he was happy to know he wasn’t totally hopeless as a mage after all. He also felt like he might have been slightly more dexterous with his mana as well, that he was slightly more adept at manipulating the strands of magic… but that might have been his imagination.

He knew that brute force, trying to shove all nine levels of Basic Mana Manipulation he had against the inexorable tide of Overcharge mana wouldn’t work. But he had real hopes for trying to tie it in knots with his newly developed proficiency in detailed mana manipulation.

Edwin found himself coughing up black phlegm by the time he called it quits on day one. Pushing himself to try and get a workable part-body Overcharge before they reached- was it Sherran? Shoroth? Ah, wherever they were going- was quite the feat, but one he definitely wanted to accomplish.

Man, if only he had some kind of alchemical ingredient which he already knew interacted with mana in a similar way as sinbalyne did with stamina. Maybe he could mix them, make a potion out of them which would enable his attributes to war with and block each other?

Wouldn’t that be nice?

Before bed, Edwin downed a new and improved stamina/health potion to try and help him get rid of the black sludge he was accumulating on account of his Overcharge abuse. Considering he woke up encrusted in a thin patina of what looked vaguely like charcoal… it probably worked? He still spent an extra ten minutes at the nearest creek trying to get it all off of himself, though.

Molai.

As he suspected, that turned out to be the key. Though he couldn’t quite Refine it thanks to its unique, mana-absorbing properties, he was still able to incorporate it into a potion alongside sinbalyne for a sort of medium between Stamina and mana, allowing them to more directly interfere. The resulting potion even let him mess with his Stamina by using his Basic Mana Manipulation as a very rough appendage, enabling him to vaguely poke at the Attribute with the Skill.

It provided quite the nice surprise, too. Though perhaps he shouldn’t have been that surprised?

Stamina Manipulation

Accept Skill? Y/N

He didn’t take it yet, naturally. But unless he saw a convincing reason not to before then, he probably would after he evolved his Flight skill. It… probably wouldn’t slow him that much, he tried to tell himself. Not if he was going to try and push Alchemy to level 120. That process would probably take years, and he could definitely raise another Skill or two to level 60 twice in that timeframe, especially if it was likely to assist his alchemy. He just couldn’t keep using that logic in the future was all.

The problem was, if he drank it like an elixir, it just prevented him from using Overcharge at all, the Skill not finding any purchase in his body. No, he needed to do something more… selective. Something that would only be in one specific part of his body for a specific amount of time and would be washed away by his metabolism.

Was this a stupid idea? Part of him said it was. However, the other part of him- crucially, the part of him that had Anatomy and Alchemy on its side- said that he should be fine, just with perhaps some lingering side effects. Nothing as bad as using Overcharge itself, it was worth noting, but side effects nonetheless.

A few hesitant tests showed that yes, the potion worked just as good when injected directly into him as it did when he drank it, which meant the next phase of the test was a-go.

He created a ring of tiny syringes. Perhaps more accurately, he created a bunch of syringe needles, just barely hollowed out and only open on the one side. To fill them, he just pushed the tip into his potion and activated Improbable Arsenal, the expanded space sucking in the liquid.

The initial prototype fit around his forearm, and he felt the prick of the needles push into his skin as Inion helped him equip the item.

Edwin winced, and the fey looked up in concern, “Are you alright?”

“It pinches,” he answered, “And my Health is putting up a fit, which just makes it itch as well. Is it bad that I kind of want this to fail just so I don’t have to put up with anything like this on a regular basis?”

“You’ll live,” Inion dismissed him- though not in an uncaring way, it seemed like? Gah, these emotion things were complicated.

“What is a bit of pain for the sake of glory, my dear friend? If you can strike a mountain in twain, surely a few pokes is a small price to pay?”

“Yeah! Punch it even harder!” Yathal piped in, and Edwin shot him a halfhearted glare. Honestly, the little scamp was so quiet he almost forgot the boy was there half the time, but when he did speak up it was always in the context of Edwin either being beaten up or Edwin beating someone else up.

Then again, would he have been any different when he was eight, and if he had the chance to see movie-level fights performed right in front of him? Probably not, if Edwin was being honest with himself. So, he forced himself to not get annoyed at the kid.

“I know it’s worthwhile, that’s why I’m going through with this,” he grumbled. “Doesn’t mean I like it though. If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to keep looking for another way to control Overcharge. If I’m lucky, I’ll find a method that doesn’t hurt so much. But if this does work, I have better things to do with my time. Probably. Depends on how much it ends up hurting and if I figure out any alternatives.”

“Mhm. Okay, seems like it’ll stay in place,” Inion finished fussing over him, and Edwin pulled back his arm in annoyance, only to immediately regret his decisions.

“Sorry,” he muttered, then spoke up more clearly, “Did you listen to anything I just said?” he asked with a sigh.

“Don’t like the pain, kind of hope it won’t work so you’re forced to come up with a less painful version?”

“Guess you did,” Edwin acquiesced.

He took a deep breath, “Well… it’s not going to get any easier by waiting.”

Edwin snaked his mana-awareness to the tiny amount of magic keeping his needle-syringes expanded in size. He steeled himself in preparation, and after a moment to calm himself down, yanked out all the magic and Skill structure that allowed the needles to hold more than half a literal drop of potion, forcing the liquid into his flesh and his veins.

He was already lying down, so he didn’t need to worry about his balance as he turned all of his Perception inwards.

It… seemed to be working alright. It wasn’t a perfect ring of effect, obviously, as the potion diffused out into his bloodstream and beyond, but the cloud was very clearly affecting his Health and Stamina. They acted as though they were traveling through a pot of honey, and quickly accumulated in the area.

Then, he activated Overcharge from the tip of his finger, and Edwin watched as the magic flooded down the length of his arm… and was held back by the ring of concentrated attributes, just as he had hoped.

Some mana still leaked past, obviously, but that would be remedied with additional refinements to his setup and once he actually got a handle on how Overcharge worked exactly. Even now, it was probably within his Mana Manipulation capabilities to deal with.

Being able to confine it to just a certain part of his body was obviously huge, and beyond the obvious benefit of not making him feel like he’d been run over by a tank every time he used the Skill, the effect of the Skill seemed to be magnified. It made sense, really. The Skill still used the same amount of mana as it always did, but with it confined to such a small part of him…

Well, it was almost literally glowing with power. Awesome.

“Yay… but also dang it.”

“Did your endeavor succeed?” Lefi eagerly asked. Honestly, did he have no patience or something?

“More or less,” he admitted, “give me some of the rocks.” He made a grabbing motion with his right hand while still reclined.

Either Lefi or Inion slipped a pebble into his awaiting palm, and Edwin easily cracked it with his increased strength. He couldn’t crush it, no, but he could break it into pieces so long as he had a bit of leverage to use against it. So strength was working, good. Now… was the time Edwin wasn’t looking forward to.

He nodded, “Okay. Stab me.”

They didn’t have long, of course, so the tests were kind of rushed and not to the standards that Edwin normally liked, but getting an approximation was better than nothing.

Of course, because he was getting stabbed, Edwin would have preferred it if he didn’t need to test this at all… but it was better to be stabbed in a clinical trial than in the field. He just needed to know how capable he was of surviving a stab.

Lefi obliged him, holding down Edwin’s wrist and trying to slice into his forearm.

While the initial stab used no Skills, Lefi quickly reactivated first all of his truly monstrous number of passives one at a time, his body and wrist being flooded with a tapestry of colors, though definitely trending towards the yellow-brown and red end of the spectrum.

When none of them managed to break his skin- Edwin silently cheered behind gritted teeth of nervousness- Lefi started bringing more active Skills into play. These overlapped on the red Skills (maybe some were just active versions of his passive skills?) but also had more black, silver, and white Skills in the mix, representing quite the array of Skill types.

Lefi kept adding low-powered Skills to the mix, and just before Overcharge ended, he finally broke through, the blade piercing Edwin’s skin and drawing blood. Before it could get too deep, the adventurer pulled back the blade in a truly phenomenal display of finesse.

After the Skill ended, of course, it felt like Edwin had dipped his arm in burning acid, but that was hardly new. The shallow cut was annoying, but similarly within tolerance. His pain tolerance was significantly higher than they had been before Joriah, after all, to say nothing of Adaptive Defense’s work in that regard.

What was more annoying was the cut’s stubborn refusal to heal. He should have expected it, but the serum designed to capture Health and Stamina did a great job of doing exactly that, and accordingly prevented his Attribute from healing the wound.

He sighed and applied a drop of healing salve to the cut. It wasn’t as quick as it normally was, no doubt because Health wasn’t there to guide it properly, but by the time his blocking potion wore off, the cut was already scabbed over, and he felt Health take over as he turned his attention more to Lefi.

“So? How did it go?”

“Marvelously! Your skin withstood hundreds of levels of passive Skills! And nearly a hundred active as well!”

“What does that translate to, though?”

Lefi’s eyes flicked back and forth in thought, “Ah! Well, an active Skill- Piercing Cut was what finally broke through- could be thought of as being twice as potent as a Passive, such as Steady Cut. As most will have but a single passive Skillset- that is, a single basic Skill and its evolution- for their weapon and a single active Skillset, or some average thereabouts, you should be fully capable of withstanding a blow from a Third-tier or Fourth-tier wholly unscratched!”

“…What does that translate to, though?”

Lefi let out a short laugh, “You’ll be able to withstand the attacks of most non-dedicated Classed you come across. Few bandits will have the strength to pierce your defenses as they are rarely that strong in their combat Skills, and only the strongest beasts will be capable of scratching you. However, any who have a combat Class will undoubtedly have little trouble wounding you assuming they bring their active Skills to bear.”

Edwin nodded in thought. Honestly? The benefits were exactly what he wanted. A way to resist strong attacks and shrug off weaker ones? It might actually give him a fighting chance, the ability to defend himself!

If only the side effects weren’t so painful. Heck, he’d settle for side effects that he could solve, that weren’t just an inherent part of the potion doing exactly what it was supposed to. The most obvious of them was the method his very Attributes were ensnared. It wasn’t instantaneous, which meant he would need to activate the potion full seconds before he actually used Overcharge.

Now, that might not have sounded that bad, but considering the situations in which he was likely to use the Skill tended to be super high-stress moments of already stressful fights, a few seconds was a lot. He could probably make it work, though. Once it was in place, it lasted for about a minute before the Health and Stamina it had collected overwhelmed the toxin and broke it down.

He didn’t know what would happen to the mana powering Overcharge if it was still ongoing after that minute had passed, but he didn’t need to worry about that! It still only lasted about twenty seconds, but that was quickly growing with every passing level.

It was a bit like applying a tourniquet, really. It completely cut off all Attribute circulation to and from his limb, and because it was his arm, there wasn’t a whole lot of Health or Stamina to begin with. If anything somehow managed to injure him through Overcharge, or struck in the time between Overcharge ending and the potion fading away, he was in for a very rough time. He would be… well, fully human. No supernatural durability or endurance in the slightest. That… was slightly worrying, really, given how fragile humans were.

He’d just give a couple more tests to find out how it impacted repeated use of the same area, and maybe what happened if he used full-body Overcharge while his bracer was active. Now, he just needed to refill the delivery needles….