Spending a big part of the night training, Zarin made some decent progress.
Firstly, he became more familiar with the Inner Place and the transition of entering and exiting it. Even if it took him no time to enter and exit it, making his Inner Body took some time. He had reached the point that his Inner body's moves were very close to how he moved in the real world.
With his familiarity with his Inner Body came some unexpected benefits. His Mana Control had increased, leading to his MP also increasing. Before, he had 210 MP, but now he had 217. The increase wasn't too much, but considering that each point in [Mind] was increasing his MP by 14 before, it was like earning a free half point at his [Mind].
Of course, if he had increased his [Mind], it would have a more significant effect, as his Spells would also get boosted.
Besides training in the control of his Inner Body, he also trained over his Spell gestures. Even if his movements weren't as smooth as in real life, he still had made some breakthroughs. Mainly since he had used both of his Spells recently at a battle, he had some more ideas about what he lacked. In his battle with Oriel, he had the upper hand of being stronger than her and her guard, so he learned little from it.
He had also noticed in the past that training and using Skills in combat had a different effect on his Skills' progress. So, during the last battle, he leveled up his [Dice Manipulation] and [Dice Summoning] three times each, bringing them to Lvl 35 and 45, respectively.
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DICE SUMMONING
Level: 35/100
Description: You can summon any kind of die in your imagination, buts their size is limited to normal. Once a die leaves your hand, it will disappear after 40 seconds. If you summon another die over the limit, the previous dice will disappear in the order you summoned them.
Dice Limit : 3
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DICE MANIPULATION
Level: 45/100
Description: You can control any dice of your creation like an extension of yourself. You can also control dice not created by you as long as they are within 2 meters from you.
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Both Skills changed slightly, besides the summoning dice staying for more time. But even if the description of the Skills didn't show any changes, Zarin had noticed some changes. This control of both Skills was much more manageable and precise with each level. But the change was minimal with each level up, and only combining the effect of all three would be a noticeable change.
Zarin couldn't use any Skills in his Inner Place, but he had found out that he could create whatever he could imagine there. He was like a God in that place, all he needed to do was focus on something, and it would be. Still, there were limitations, and nothing he did in there affected the real world.
He also discovered that spending time in his Inner Place wasn't as unrestricted as he thought. After spending hours in it, his connection to it was cut, and he was back to his normal body.
It didn't take Zarin long to find out the problem, as he noticed it right away when he opened his Status Window. His MP was utterly empty.
'It seems like it isn't completely free of cost. '
He didn't know how much time passed in real life, as he didn't have a counter like the countdown of the potion's effect. It was still the middle of the night, meaning that not more than a couple of hours could have passed. He didn't have any trees to cover the sky of the clearing, so he could tell what part of the day it was easy enough.
He, of course, couldn't tell what the exact time was but could make some estimation.
Fortunately, he had his [Mana Regeneration], which now that it had reached level two and he didn't have the enchanted tool on him, his MP was recharging at a decent rate. But unfortunately, he needed to wait for a little less than five minutes for his MP to get fully restored.
This was ways better than before, primarily from when that enchanted tool affected him, as he recharged a single MP every two minutes. He hadn't checked to see his MP regeneration rate while he had the enchanted tool on him, but he had no benefits to earn from it, so he left it with Eddie.
While waiting for his Passive Skill to fully recharge his MP, he decided to use the second ability. The ability to strengthen his Mana Pool by absolving a specific Element.
Even if the description said that the picked Element would get auto absolved, that was only if Zarin had the option active. So it wasn't the same as with the primary ability of the Skill that was always active.
Also, he couldn't use the second ability while in combat, and there was also a limit he could absolve. The limit depended on how much he could handle, which wasn't calculated by his stats, which was why it wasn't mentioned in the Skill's description.
He currently could only choose between Neutral and Water Element. He knew that depending on what Element he decided on, it would have different effects on the development of his Mana Pool. But he wasn't familiar with the details of said effects, as the Element of the Mana absolved wasn't the only factor.
Other than the more Mana he absolved each time, the greater the effect. He also had to focus on its quality. Depending on his surroundings, some areas may have more potent forms of specific Elements than others, and absolving them would have a more significant effect.
Zarin knew that other than Neutral and Water, there were 7 more Elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Earth, Dark, Light, and Spatial. Some of them were easier to find dominant sources of than others.
Since he was in a forest, Earth would be the primal Element in the area, but since it was a cursed place, Dark Element was also quite strong. Zarin could also tell that the Monoliths emitted Light Element, which was probably why this place was safe, as those two elements were natural enemies.
'I will focus on Water Element for now. It may help me on improving [Burst of Frost]. '
There was some Water Element in the area, as the humidity in the forest was great. His [Burst of Frost] didn't use only one Element but combined Air and Water Elements. [Wind Rocket] was just an Air Element Spell, but that didn't mean it was easier to learn than [Burst of Frost].
Double Element Spells were more complex to learn than Spells of a single Element, but there were grades of Spells of the same Rank. The Grades were Basic, Advanced, Master, and Divine. Only Spells of A-Rank and over had Divine Spells, which were many times harder to learn than usual.
As for the Spells that Zarin had, [Burst of Frost] was a Basic Grade C-Rank Spell, while [Wind Rocket] was an Advanced-Grade C-Rank Skill. Even if both dealt with the same amount of damage, but of a different type, and the extra effect of [Burst of Frost] could be considered more useful for some people, Zarin still hadn't reached the limits of the Spell.
The difference between a Basic Grade and Advanced Grade Skill was that Advanced-Grade Skills could evolve once. Evolving meant that the Skill had the chance to raise their Rank by one, meaning [Wind Rocket] could become a B-Rank Spell.
But because a Skill could evolve, that didn't mean it was easy to do so, even if one reached its max level. Zarin had no idea what he needed to do to evolve it, even if he knew so much about it like he was the one who created it.
As for how he knew the Grade of his Skills and Spells, it was part of the knowledge coming with them. So, for example, his [Dice Summoning] and [Dice Manipulation] were Master Grade Skills, and they could evolve twice, meaning they both could reach B-Rank.
His [Sword Mastery], [Stealth], [Pickpocket], and [Mana Regeneration] were Basic Grade Skills, meaning they could raise their Rank.
As for his [Pain Tolerance], it was also a Master Grade Skill. Since it was also a B-Rank Skill and not a Class Skill, raising its level was extra hard, not talking about evolving it. But in theory, it could develop into an S-Rank Skill since, as a Master Grade Skill, it could evolve twice. Still, evolving that Skill was just an uncatchable dream for Zarin.
As his MP was almost full, he felt that a part of him was also being affected. It was close to him having overeaten and the food wanting to get out.
He felt his neck more watery than usual like he had drunk gallons of water.
'Why did I reach my limit so soon?'