It hasn't been that long since he had been here, since the Faceless one had trapped him in that place. Even if Zarin didn't understand this place fully, the System didn't give him any information about it. Still, he knew this was a great new tool to use.
He didn't have a body there, but because of his last visit, he was somewhat familiar with the process of making one. Still, it wasn't perfect, but unlike last time, it was a whole body.
He had all his limbs. Just the surface of his body was very straight. It was almost like he was a character of an old graphic game where the characters were made of a dozen of polygons.
Still, it was functional.
The moment he entered that place, he felt the drowsiness effect having no effect on him, and his mind was as clear as normal in a matter of seconds. The last time he was here, he had a hard time perceiving his surroundings, but that was because he did not understand how Mana worked.
Even if he had his two Mana Skills and all the theoretical knowledge about manipulating his Mana to use them. But back then, he could not use any Mana at all.
But now, even if he had only used his Mana Skills once, his time with the Mana Battery gave him more experience in Mana and controlling it. Combined with the knowledge from the two Mana Offensive Skills and the recently gained and improved [Mana Regeneration], it was just enough to access his Inner Place and make a 'body 'like that.
Zarin had read in the Journal mentions of the Inner Place and how it was an excellent way for Mage Based classes to improve their abilities. But this information was not extended by the [Knowledge-Otherworlders]. So he only knew what it was in the Journal, which only mentioned it a couple of times, but didn't go into detail about how it worked.
Most of the information in the Journal was like that, though. Some of the information had triggered to unlock pieces of information in Zarin's mind, further than what was in the Journal's pages. One of them was how to improve his [Sword Mastery] Skill to enter its Advanced state, meaning to pass level 25.
If he didn't count [Dice Summoning] and [Dice Manipulation], [Sword Mastery] was his highest leveled Skill, which he had learned the usual way. [Dice Summoning] and [Dice Manipulation] were core Skills of his Class, making them much easier to level up than other Skills of similar rank. Without the information he learned from the Journal, Zarin was sure he couldn't pass the bottleneck of the Basic State of the Skill instead and reach its Advanced State soon.
Even if the Journal made just a light mention of the Inner Place of someone, Zarin was sure of some of the benefits.
The last time he was here, he was unaware of how much time he had spent in it. In reality, close to half a day passed in the real world, but thinking it back with a clearer mind, he was confident that in this place, it felt that much more time had passed.
The Journal may have not mentioned that time could pass differently. Still, since it said that it was something that would improve a mage's abilities manifolds, it made sense to have that effect.
Zarin waited a few minutes and then released his focus before exiting his Inner Place. As he did so, he checked the remaining time to the [Aura of the Holy Faith].
He remembered how much time was left when he started focusing on entering his Inner Place, so he couldn't know if time had passed differently while he was there.
However, checking the remaining time had surprised him, as not even a minute had passed. He couldn't see the seconds left for the aura's effect unless it was less than a minute left, so he couldn't tell if only a couple of seconds had passed.
Still, if minutes became seconds, that was more than he had hoped. But that wasn't all.
The moment he exited his Inner Place, instead of his mind going back to being as drowsy as before entering his Inner Place, it was just like he had just started to be affected by the forest's curse.
Zarin didn't waste more time as he refocused, entering his Inner Place.
Unfortunately, he couldn't open his Status window or check the remaining time of the [Aura of the Holy Faith] while there. He also wasn't aware of his surroundings in the real world, so he couldn't stay there forever unless he was in a safe place.
Zarin tried to cast [Wind Rocket], but even if he could manipulate his man in his Inner Place and make the gestures to a degree, he couldn't speak the arcane words. Even with his understanding of the Skill, and the help of the System, he couldn't use it without chanting.
Even in his fight with Oriel, he had chanted the Arcane Words needed, but he did it subconsciously like it was just a reflex move. Mana Skills or also called Spells from most, had at most four factors that one needed to employ to use them.
The first one was the most common among them, and that was that they needed mana. But, of course, the amount of mana and sometimes its element varied on the Spell.
The second factor, which was also very common for each Spell, was the chanting of Arcane Words. The longest and more complex the Arcane Words, the more powerful the Spell, but that wasn't always the case. The power of a Spell, after all, depended on the user too.
The third factor, a little less common than the chanting, was the sets of gestures. Those gestures could be bypassed sometimes if the user's control over their mana had passed a certain degree. After all, those gestures existed to help change the user's mana into the desired form in the fastest time possible.
But if one had developed their own mana manipulation enough, they could do those changes themselves, saving time. But, of course, doing so was easier to say than to do.
As for the last factor, it was one that high Ranked Spell or very Rare ones needed—- a materialistic sacrifice.
It was like the reason the user had to use mana to empower the Spell. But some Spells needed unique Mana that resided on specific items. So the user must use those materials combined with their mana to use those Rare Spells.
But according to the Journal, those Spells were very challenging even among the Otherworlders to gain. Earning one through a Quest was impossible, or at least Lady Emlyn's father hadn't heard of anyone to have done so, including himself.
Even if Lady Emlyn's father had met other Otherworlders during the tournament he participated in, he apparently had some way to communicate with some friends he made there.
However, Zarin didn't know what that way, as it wasn't mentioned in the Journal.
Zarin tried to train his gestures in his Inner Place. Still, his movements in the 'visualized body 'were far from even being considered smooth. On the contrary, the motions were very rigid, making it challenging to do the needed hand movements.
'It seems I need to spend some time becoming more familiar with this place first. '
Even if Zarin wanted to improve his abilities in the Inner Place, he didn't have the time to do so. Even if the time was much slower, he didn't think it was something he needed just a couple of minutes or hours to complete.
Zarin had to use another approach since he couldn't train that way. Improve himself through combat.
He repeated the [Burst of Frost] gesture once more, but this time he also chanted the corresponded word of the Skill. As he finished his gesture, a ball of cold air formed on his palm.
He then extended his palm towards the Spirit, which still was punching the tree. The [Burst of Frost] headed towards its target at an incredible speed and reached it instantly. Zarin was, after all, a little less than two meters from it, and the Spell could cover its maximum range of 20 meters in less than two seconds, not to mention two meters.
The Spirit, unfortunately, didn't die, but now Zarin could see its level.
He had discovered this during his fighting against the Demon Wolves. Since monsters usually didn't have names like people, he couldn't see their level that way, but that changed once he fought one. Once he dis a single point of damage to a monster, its species name and level would appear above its head, similar to how it appeared on people he knew their name.
The Spirit's level was level 16, which was called just 'Spirit,' meaning it didn't have any special abilities. Still, it had a higher level than Zarin, meaning his attack was less effective than expected.
Once a Spirit got attacked while in their punish-loop, no matter their willpower, they would be granted control over their bodies to defend themselves.
The Spirit had started turning, but its speed was very slow.
That was because of the [Burst of Frost], of course. The Spell had the chance to freeze an opponent, which generally would restrict its movement completely. But because of the level difference, it weakened the effect of speed reduction.
It did not surprise Zarin that his Spell's effect had weakened like that since he was aware of that fact already, as it was part of the knowledge he had gained by the System over the Skill's power. That was why just raising the level of a Skill didn't mean that one Skill was vital if the user wasn't strong enough.
Wasting no time, Zarin used [Wind Rocket], which hit the Spirit without any problems. After all, the [Wind Rocket] was faster than [Burst of Frost], and the Spirit was slowed down by his last attack.
As he used his offensive Skills and hit with both, with one being a surprise attack, he prayed the battle was over.
But unlike his prayers weren't answered since the Spirit was still standing and charged his way.