Royal Road
SomethingOtherThanRain
Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l
Chapter 22: Physical Transformation
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His gut was telling him to go with [Kinetic Reinforcement]. He didn't like that he was relying on his instincts to guide his skill choices so far, but they hadn't led him astray so far.
Congratulations, skill [Kinetic Reinforcement] (Uncommon) acquired
Biting the bullet he chose [Kinetic Reinforcement]. Typically, when he learned a skill the details of how to use it were ingrained into him. It made activation much quicker and easier. However, it seemed like [Kinetic Reinforcement] was not like normal skills. Julius had expected to learn how to apply kinetic mana to strengthen his body, but not this.
It started as a warm flow of kinetic energy suffusing his body, it felt good. For about a few seconds at least. Then it felt like fire ants were crawling up and down his body. It didn't hurt at first, just more uncomfortable than anything else. However, it soon felt like the ants started to eat him from the inside out. Molten lava was ripping through his veins and his entire skeletal structure felt like it was being broken down and rebuilt from the ground up.
Julius tried his best not to scream out loud, but it was too much. He shoved his bloodied and dirty shirt into his mouth to muffle his cries. To any observer, it would look like Julius was having an exorcism being performed on him. His back was contorted and arching backward, as he clawed the rock writhing in pain. He tried to use [Restoration] but the pain magnified even more and quickly stopped. It was by far the worst pain he had experienced, his entire being was broken down and reconstructed before his very eyes.
Despite that, Julius could feel his body becoming stronger, more flexible, and more dense. What was interesting, was during that slight moment when he activated [Restoration] he could feel his body respond to it. The pain increased, yes. But the process accelerated and used the energy being supplied by [Restoration] to make further improvements to his body. It swiftly returned to its prior pace, but Julius got the impression that [Kinetic Reinforcement] wanted more life mana. As if once it got a taste of it, it wanted more.
He froze and began contemplating. He knew that this might be a pivotal point in his advancement. Would he continue to go with the standard process? Or would he take a gamble? He had no evidence to think that using [Restoration] would provide him with superior results. However, he did know it would for sure cause him significantly more pain.
Julius didn't even hesitate. In this world, power meant freedom. It became clear to Julius that he needed to become more powerful if he ever wanted to have a say. A moment of pain for even a small possibility of a lifetime of freedom? It was an easy choice. He immediately activated [Restoration], feeding [Kinetic Reinforcement] with as much life mana as he could.
He was not the most talented, his affinities said as much. Most of his accomplishments were because of his previous memories. He knew that there were some options for gaining power that he could never have access to. But pain? If all it cost was a bit of physical pain, then he wasn't willing to back down. Physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional torment of being too weak to save your loved ones. It was an opportunity he wasn't willing to pass him by. So he gritted his teeth and let the pain in, welcoming it with open arms.
The pain twisted throughout his body, mana molding it to its desires. [Restoration] was aiding it, providing it with additional life mana to infuse into his flesh and bones.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain started to subside and dial back. It was still there but compared to before it was bliss. Julius just laid there, not able to move a single finger, it was like he had just gotten run over by a cement paver. His only movements were slight twitches and spasms from the lingering pain. He couldn't do anything but lay on his back panting in exertion, feeling immeasurable tiredness. The soreness on top of the exhaustion from the day's events pushed him over the edge and lulled Julius to sleep.
When he woke up he was still sore but could at least move. He thought about activating [Restoration] but the memory of the increased pain held him off. He hypothesized that [Restoration] would have positive benefits to whatever was being done by [Kinetic Reinforcement] but he didn't know for certainty. It was a calculated risk he was willing to make.
Steeling himself, he activated [Restoration]. The wave of life mana instantly shot through him. He could feel much of the soreness start to dissipate until all that was left was an uncomfortable itch under his skin. It was like wearing itchy underwear that was three sizes too small, but around his entire body.
Suddenly, the smell hit him. Akin to rotten eggs and moldy cheese. It was all around him, suffocating him in its foul odor. Grabbing his nose to squeeze it shut, he felt something on his hands and face. He discovered that his skin was covered in a transparent film of black tar. It coated him from head to toe. It was definitely where the smell was coming from. And it was absolutely rank.
He climbed down from the shelf and made his way toward the small pool of water below. Julius tried to remove the disgusting muck attached to his skin, but it wasn't coming off easily. The water helped a bit, but after a couple of minutes, scrubbing it off with his fingers wasn't working. He didn't have anything to scrub himself, so he decided to use a flat rock he found lying around.
I mean, it's kind of like a pumice, if I think about it, Julius thought to himself.
Julius viciously scoured his skin with his rock, making sure there wasn't anything left on it. The pool was already becoming black, contaminated by the tar-like substance. It took almost half an hour until he was completely clean. Or at least as clean as he was going to get without a proper shower. The biggest problem was his clothes. His pants were soaked in the substance and even after scrubbing them for a good while, they still smelled like the back alley of a nightclub. He ditched his shirt, he could go without a shirt. But he didn't want to go completely native, so he bore with it and put his nasty pants back on, praying he didn't catch any unfortunate disease on his private parts.
Now that he was "clean", he noticed how different he felt. His skin was much stronger and more pliable than it was before. When he was scrubbing, he noted how aggressively he was able to exfoliate his skin without tearing or bruising it. He barely felt the rock on his skin even though he was going to town on it. He also felt more dense, like his bones became steel rods but at the same time he never felt so light in his life. It seemed like [Kinetic Reinforcement] had lived up to its name.
He wanted to check out his status to see if the changes he felt were reflected in it. Surprisingly, there were a lot of notifications that he missed.
[Restoration lvl 3 -> lvl 6]
[Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 1 -> lvl 5]
Julius was shocked. [Kinetic Reinforcement] had gained four levels although he just got the skill. He hadn't even used the skill yet and it was a third of the way until the next rank up. [Restoration] had also gained three levels. It appeared that using [Restoration] in conjunction with [Kinetic Reinforcement] had done wonders for both skills.
He also felt like there were other benefits from pushing himself that weren't represented in his status. Through the intense pain, Julius could distinctly feel life mana augmenting the process as well. He believed that after some experimentation he would find out if it was worth it. He was praying that the pain was worth it.
Name: Julius Von Hyperius
Tier: 1
Skills:
[Spatial Perception lvl 18] (Rare)
[Savage Dance lvl 4] (Rare)
[Thermal Compression lvl 7] (Uncommon)
[Firebolt lvl 9] (Uncommon)
[Restoration lvl 6] (Uncommon)
[Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 5] (Uncommon)
His status was looking pretty nice, he had a total of six skills and had four more open spots for additional ones. He still wanted a defensive skill, like a barrier or shield. However, [Kinetic Reinforcement] gave him confidence in taking more damage, even though he hadn't tested it out yet. Furthermore, he was seriously considering a movement-based skill.
In the fight with the trolls, Julius would have seriously benefitted by being able to disengage from his opponents. Blasting himself back with kinetic energy worked, but it was very inefficient. First, he couldn't dictate exactly where he would land, and second, his body couldn't handle such violent uses of kinetic mana.
However, now that he was thinking about it, [Kinetic Reinforcement] would most likely take care of the latter problem. Wanting to test it out, Julius walked from the pond to an open spot a couple dozen feet away. He started slow and gently fed a bit of mana into his legs. Except that instead of the slow steam of mana, his body sucked it up like a sand in the desert. He ended up putting way more in than he expected, but to his surprise, it felt fine.
At this amount, it was similar to how much he was putting into his legs while fighting the trolls. Before, Julius needed to feed [Restoration] into his legs to counteract the damage the kinetic energy was doing to them. Now, it wasn't tearing his muscles apart or putting an extreme load on his bones. It felt like his legs were humming with energy that was just waiting to be let loose. As if someone has hooked up a car battery to his feet.
He took a quick dash forward, releasing the pent-up kinetic energy. Julius noticed that he wasn't able to control the release of kinetic energy as well. However, that was to be expected, considering he no longer had [Kinetic Release]. With that being said, his legs felt fine afterward.
He could probably repeat the same technique over and over now until he ran out of mana. Previously, his legs could only handle his burst step after [Restoration] healed them enough. Which took a few seconds of healing. Currently, his body felt like it could take much more mana and was reacting to it much more fluidly.
There had always been a small delay when he used this technique, but it was instantaneous now. Despite the noticeable drop in his control over the release, he was quite happy with the results. It reminded him why he chose to forgo [Mana Manipulation]. It would be better in the long run if he didn't rely on a skill for something that was integral to kinetic energy control.
Julius usually forgot that he didn't have [Mana Manipulation], but to be honest, he was thankful every day for it. He would be restricted by the skill parameters for most if not all his constructs. For example, [Firebolt] was his most offensively powerful skill, but there were some things he could not change about it. The activation sequence, the amount of mana it used, and the general construction of it were the same every time. If he wanted to change it, he needed to modify it after it had already been created.
Most skills were like this, you sacrifice flexibility for reliability and speed. However, in his opinion for an integral ability like manipulating mana or kinetic energy, skills become a crutch. He believed that these skills would restrict him and he would lose a lot of adaptability in the long run.
Julius hadn't heard about any other person modifying [Firebolt] or other skills like it. But he also hadn't heard of anyone not having [Mana Manipulation]. If someone wanted to change a skill, they did it during a skill advancement or evolution. He suspected that people's overreliance on the [Mana Manipulation], or the skill itself had constraints in its usage that prevented them from being able to modify their skills like he had done.
It was a lot harder to do without a skill and took a lot more practice, but he maintained his stance that it was worth it. If he hadn't trained so hard, and practiced in creative and challenging ways, he wouldn't have been able to create the compound [Firebolt]. He would be stuck using the normal [Firebolt] and he saw what they did to the troll. Or rather, what they didn't do. The troll had taken four [Firebolts] to the face and didn't even faze it.
Without a better way to do damage, his corpse would be roasting over a campfire, filling the bellies of the group of trolls. Now, he would just need to practice using kinetic energy without the skill. He expected it to be easier than when he was learning mana manipulation manually because Julius still used kinetic-aspected mana to generate the majority of his kinetic energy. Only a small part of it was harnessed from the environment. In the meantime, he planned to stay in this particular ravine until he got a handle on his kinetic manipulation abilities, at least until they were back to his previous level. It was important to allocate some time to explore his new abilities because he had a feeling that things were going to get a lot tougher down the road.
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Royal Road
SomethingOtherThanRain
Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l
Chapter 23: Acclimating his Gains
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Julius was currently holding two condensed orbs of fire and kinetic mana in one hand, while he was also trying to create a third one in his other. During his fight, he realized that he wasn't able to hold multiple compressed constructs at one time. If he was able to control four of his enhanced [Firebolts] he would have been able to take out two instantly, and then have plenty of time to prepare for the other two. He was able to create and control many weaker and non-condensed constructs, but he wasn't able to do the same with condensed ones. It was something that he wanted to change.
Admittedly, it was a little scary at first. He could barely control two condensed orbs at one time, and any mistakes would cause them to blow up in his face. Not to mention, the noise might alert other monsters in the area of his whereabouts. It was stressful but valuable training for Julius. His kinetic control had taken a noticeable dip, but he was already recovering to his previous level at a rapid pace. He also discovered that just as he was able to augment his flames with additional kinetic energy, he was able to weaken them as well. This meant he was able to create dangerous compressed orbs of fire and kinetic mana, and then slowly dissipate them.
Originally, he thought he would need to hold them while practicing and then shoot them across the plains after he was done. So he was glad he didn't have to resort to that. There had been another surprising benefit as well. While dissipating the orbs, he was able to recover some of the mana expended to make them. It allowed him to practice more, as he didn't need to constantly wait and regenerate mana.
It was incredibly taxing though, especially while holding multiple orbs that were practically bombs, but it was the perfect way to challenge himself. And if he was being honest with himself, the danger excited him.
If he was able to create and control multiple powerful constructs he wouldn't be restricted to shooting one or two powerful attacks at a time. Instead, he would be able to unleash a barrage in an instant.
That's my plan, I'm not sure how long it might take to accomplish it though, Julius told himself. However, if he got to that point he would finally need to start worrying about having enough mana to power his attacks. This was funny because he thought that out of everything, he wouldn't be worrying about having enough mana. Now, with his new attack, he wasn't quite sure he would have enough for more than a few constructs.
Several days quickly went by like that. He would train like a madman for every second of the day. He had even given up sleep to practice longer. [Restoration] was able to take some of his mental exhaustion away, and he now only required about an hour of sleep a night. It was a game-changer when it came to training.
He also began practicing using kinetic energy with his improved body for several hours each day. He tried out everything he could think of, though primarily, Julius was practicing his ability to quickly move in a single step. In a fight, the difference in being an inch from where you needed to be could be the difference in life or death. It was crucial to be able to properly gauge his position relative to his opponents, which was easy thanks to [Spatial Perception]. It would allow him to capitalize on small openings or timings that would make or break a fight. But he also needed to be physically capable of precisely positioning himself.
It was much harder than one would expect. The amount of force he created when he released the kinetic load, launched him forward like a missile. It was fast and exactly what he was looking for in this technique, but it was too fast. At first, he was trying to stop himself with pure friction but the speed would be too much for him to stop in time. Instead, he would either trip over his legs or slide for several feet before coming to a stop.
The only way he prevented this, was by going slower. However, that wasn't ideal either. His whole reason for this ability was to move incredibly quickly, efficiently, and precisely. He didn't want to sacrifice one of them for another. It was greedy, but in his opinion, necessary.
So Julius came up with a new idea. Not only would he release kinetic energy to dash forward, but he would also absorb his kinetic energy to stop. Thanks to [Kinetic Reinforcement] his body could take the extreme force of stopping so abruptly. It was the technical aspect of it that made it hard. Much like when he was first learning how to properly unleash a kinetic strike, he was having a hard time with the timing.
Julius placed several rocks as targeting points for his training. He would start at one, then burst as fast as he could to the other, attempting to kill his kinetic energy right in front of the rock, pretending it was a monster. He would continue these drills for hours on end, until he was no longer able to physically, or got bored with it. Honestly, it was usually boredom that ended his training, because [Restoration] took care of physical fatigue. He hadn't even felt hungry yet, which he theorized was also because of his skill.
With that being said, his build was coming together. He evaluated his strengths and weaknesses and decided on a path for himself. He wanted to have strong long-range capabilities, but also be capable in close range as well. He had given up the idea of creating an absolute defensive skill for now. Realizing that with his affinities, it would prove difficult. If he had an earth or metal affinity, then it would be a good idea to create an unbreakable defense skill, but that wasn't the case for Julius.
He would focus on an elusive defensive style that relied on his speed to avoid attacks and [Restoration] to recover from any hits he took. It should work well, because [Spatial Perception] gave him an unnaturally good sense of his surroundings and incoming attacks.
After he finished his physical training, he would start on his mana control exercises. At the moment, he was trying to increase how many condensed constructs he could manage at a time. He was able to comfortably hold three now, but there was a lot of room for improvement.
There were other exercises he tried as well. One of them was weaving fire and kinetic mana together like how he did with life mana. He had mixed results. With fire mana, he was able to create small spikes of woven fire mana. By utilizing the weaving property, he had been able to create a hardened mana construct. Typically, fire mana was hard to create solid and tangible constructs but weaving mana seemed to change that. They were also stronger than his normal [Firebolt] but not quite as strong as his condensed [Firebolt]. However, it costs a lot less mana. They also took a lot more time to create compared to a regular [Firebolts] but that was to be expected considering he didn't have a skill for it.
Kinetic, on the other hand, was difficult. Kinetic mana didn't behave like normal mana. Therefore, when he tried to weave strands of it together it didn't work. They just slipped away, much like trying to balance several spheres on top of each other.
He felt like it should be possible, but if it was, Julius hadn't found a way to do it yet.
It was hard to tell how long it had been since Julius started his secluded training. He thought it was around a week, but it was difficult to tell when he was in a dim ravine for almost the entirety of it. That being said, Julius made some nice improvements to his skills in that time.
[Firebolt lvl 9 -> lvl 11]
[Thermal Compression lvl 7 -> lvl 10]
[Restoration lvl 6 -> lvl 7]
[Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 5 -> lvl 7]
Julius was very happy with his progress. [Thermal Compression] reached level 10 and was two-thirds of the way until its next advancement. Also, his control of kinetic energy was finally back to where it was before. It took less time than he originally thought. Although, it was worth it to mention that [Kinetic Release] only helped with the release function, and all his control over absorption was left untouched.
He also made some huge strides when it came to how proficient he was able to burst step. It was starting to feel instinctive, he was using the technique so much that he caught himself utilizing it accidentally when he was walking normally. Once he started to get a handle on the timing, everything came together like pieces of a puzzle.
It was also a wonderfully mana-efficient technique. Now that he was absorbing his kinetic energy to stop himself and kill his momentum, the excess would be stored and reused for later purposes. Previously, it was a mana-hungry technique that had him throwing kinetic mana by the barrels to move him a few paces. Now it felt like he was almost gaining a net positive when he used it.
It was about time to leave the ravine. He felt like he had consolidated his gains properly and was ready to delve deeper into this rift. For the entire time he had been in the ravine, he hadn't come across any more trolls or monsters of any kind. It had been a fortunate place to find, especially in a dangerous place like a rift.
However, all good things must eventually end. Julius didn't have anything on him except for the pair of grimy pants and the six cores he accumulated so far in his pocket. Thus, he didn't have much to pack. He did regret not taking a chance to look at the troll's weapons when he had the chance. He hadn't even thought to use the axe or clubs, because they were obviously heavy and he wasn't well-versed in fighting with weapons other than his fists anyways. But having something might be better than having nothing.
Eh, doesn't matter. I prefer to use my fists anyway. There is a distinct satisfaction you get from punching something in the face. I can see why Edwin did it to me so often, Julius reminisced with a somber smile.
The deeper Julius went, the more cavern-like it became. Now the sun was no longer visible, it was just darkness. If it wasn't for [Spatial Perception], he would have needed to create several lights with his fire constructs, but that might have drawn attention to him. There were a few monsters he spotted along the way. However, they seemed to be around Tier 1 or 2 at most. There was a big group of Tier 1 bats that were hanging out in the ceiling above. Julius was sure to be quiet and made sure not to disturb them, but the several who did notice him didn't attack and seemed docile for the most part.
On another note, there were some reptilian species that had some really good camouflage. Most were around Tier 1 but Julius noticed a couple of them hovering around Tier 2. But as long as he maintained his distance, they didn't bother him.
Whenever he didn't sense any monsters, he would continue practicing. Along with his training to control multiple condensed constructs, Julius had been creating dozens of woven fire orbs that floated around in patterns and various manners that trained his ability to manipulate constructs independently from each other. It had done wonders for his mana control.
After walking for a long time, Julius approached a large tunnel with sunlight coming at its end. It was the first sign of light in a while.
He slowly walked up to it, the contrast in lighting made it very difficult to see past the light and to see beyond the end of the tunnel. However, once he walked through the exit his eyes adjusted quickly.
What he saw blew his mind away. He had been prepared for a lot of things, but not this. What stood before him was an enormous lush valley. Large swaths of trees littered the entire landscape with patches of brilliantly colored flora decorating it. There was also a massive waterfall crashing down from a towering cliff in the center of the valley. The water was collected at the bottom to form a crystal blue lake that spanned beyond his sight and could be seen wrapping around the forest and hills. It was late afternoon by the looks of it and the sun overhead was shining brightly, shimmering against the water and the mist of the waterfall like little sapphires. It was absolutely breathtaking.
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