Royal Road
SomethingOtherThanRain
Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l
Chapter 26: Oops
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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.
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Royal Road
SomethingOtherThanRain
Path to Transcendence - [Isekai/Litrpg] by l-Ryn-l
Chapter 27: Dual Skill Evolution
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The resulting explosion blasted him backward and tore apart the arm he had put up to protect his face. [Savage Dance] protected him from the influx of pain and he was still able to function, frantically evading the trolls who had taken advantage of his mistake. However, he was injured pretty badly. He had lost his entire right hand and half of his arm from the explosion. Furthermore, he had severe internal bleeding from the concussive force, which had ruptured several of his organs. For the next several moments he was trying all he could do to survive the troll's assault while running [Restoration] as hard as he could.
The troll's endurance showed and they didn't give him even a little breathing room, he was stuck within their flurry of attacks. They kept up the assault and he could feel himself slowly falling behind. [Restoration] not able to keep up with his accruing injuries. Finally, Julius realized he needed to take a risk. He allowed the next swing of the troll to hit his already injured shoulder and used every ounce of kinetic energy from the strike and what he had collected to launch himself as far away as he could.
He landed over a hundred paces away, and though he had tried to absorb as much kinetic energy from the attack as he could, the entire left side of his body was still crushed. Okay, no more playing around. Julius was preparing four condensed spikes to kill the rapidly approaching trolls. However, something stopped him.
If he killed them with the spikes then that would mean he practically admitted defeat. He had told himself he would kill the trolls without using his new technique and would use [Firebolt] instead.
Was it dumb that he still wanted to continue with his plan even if it meant he would die? Yes. Was it his arrogant pride that was driving him to make this decision? Absolutely.
However, was this the limit to how much he was willing to risk to get stronger? Hell no.
With a snarl, he immediately dissipated the spikes and summoned four [Firebolts], modifying them into strings. The last failure had Julius realize that he couldn't compress the entire thing after it was finished. He needed to compress the strings before he started to weave them.
Once he compressed them he began to weave four separate [Firebolts] together. However, it was like braiding four steel cables, they just wouldn't bend. Julius was rapidly blasting himself as far backward as he could so that he had time to finish this construct. His frustration reached its limit, not even [Savage Dance] was able to control the flood of emotions. With his entire will, he started to smash the four strands together. Blood was dripping from his eyes and nose. Slowly, but surely he was braiding the condensed cords of mana together.
Then they came together and created a beautiful construct of brilliant red. It was small, only the length of his hand and as wide as a finger, but it radiated power. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to admire his work, as the trolls were almost on him. He launched it at the group and it triggered on impact. The resulting explosion tore through the two trolls in the front like they were wet toilet paper and the two in the back were blasted dozens of paces away.
Julius didn't give them the chance to get up, he had already started creating another woven [Firebolt]. This one was created using only three strands and compressed to a slightly lesser degree. He was sacrificing a little bit of power for a much faster creation. In mere moments he had another ready to go and sent it at the troll staggering to its feet. It didn't even notice the attack before it was killed.
The last troll had lost its legs from the first attack and was regenerating its limbs quickly. But Julius created another projectile and dispatched it before it had even regrew its feet. He immediately dropped to the ground, exhausted. He had come really close to dying this time around. And it would have been entirely his fault if he did.
However, there were some nice rewards for his boneheaded risk.
[Savage Dance lvl 7 -> lvl 10]
[Thermal Compression lvl 14 -> lvl 15]
[Firebolt lvl 14 -> lvl 15]
[Restoration lvl 12 -> lvl 14]
[Kinetic Reinforcement lvl 11 -> lvl 13]
Julius had finally reached level 15 in both [Firebolt] and [Thermal Compression].
[Firebolt] has advanced to level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill?
Skill [Firebolt] is evolving… possible advancements: [Scorching Lance], [Thermo-Kinetic Javelin], and [Arcane Construct]
He was offered three paths the skill could take. [Scorching Lance] was the direct upgrade, while [Thermo-Kinetic Javelin] was an upgrade that included kinetic energy in it. However, [Arcane Construct] was an interesting one. The other two seemed to be limited to a projectile or a single shape. Yet, [Arcane Construct] sounded like it would allow him to have more freedom with the shape and manifestation of the construct.
It probably came at the cost of offensive power, compared to the other two, which seemed more like direct damage skills. Did Julius want a stronger offensive tool or something that could give him more diversity in its usage?
It was a hard decision. He didn't make a choice yet and wanted to see what he was offered for [Thermal Compression].
[Thermal Compression] has advanced to level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill?
Skill [Thermal Compression] is evolving… possible advancements: [Extreme-Thermal Compression], [Thermo-Kinetic Compression], [Mana Consolidation], and [Pure Compression]
Julius was offered four choices for his next skill. He would happily choose any one of them. They all sounded good. [Extreme-Thermal Compression] was a general upgrade, but he compressed fire mana the most out of all his mana affinities so it would have a massive impact on his fire constructs.
[Thermo-Kinetic Compression] would probably allow him an easier time compressing kinetic energy, which was nice because it was much harder to compress than fire or life mana. [Mana Consolidation] sounded like it would let him compress all his mana affinities with the skill, or more correctly "consolidate" them. He didn't know what might be the exact difference though. How was consolidating unique from compressing?
[Pure Compression] was the one that interested him the most. Based on his previous experiences with skill evolutions, the last choice was the one he usually ended up choosing. In Julius's experience, he believed the list of advancement options was generated in chronological order of when he had met the requirements for that particular evolution. So if he went by that logic, [Pure Compression] was the latest option he had met the requirements for. Moreover, he believed that it had to do with how he was able to compress the woven [Firebolts] together at the end.
Julius also felt something else other than fire mana had been compressed alongside it. It felt like a part of himself was being condensed into that construct. It was a possibility that [Pure Compression] might be a skill that enabled him to compress other things, and not just be limited to mana compression.
In the end, he felt like he had good enough control over his ability to compress fire mana even without the skill so he didn't go with [Extreme-Thermal Compression] and eliminated [Thermo-Kinetic Compression] because if he wanted to generalize, he also had to consider his life mana. Therefore, it came down to [Mana Consolidation] and [Pure Compression].
They were both similar sounding skills, but eventually, Julius chose [Pure Compression] due to its potential to compress things other than mana in nature.
Congratulations, skill [Pure Compression] (Rare) acquired.
Julius also didn't wait any longer to choose the evolved skill for [Firebolt].
Congratulations, skill [Arcane Construct] (Rare) acquired.
He was not lacking when it came to offense. He could already one-shot most of his opponents when he put his mind to it. What he needed right now was an ability that allowed him some breathing room whenever he got hurt, so that [Restoration] had time to heal him. And he believed that [Arcane Construct] might finally allow him to create a defensive technique.
However, he had finally ranked up two of his skills, leaving [Restoration] which was on the precipice of advancement already, and [Kinetic Reinforcement] to rank up as well. It left him in a good mood. It was nice to see the progression after putting in the work.
As he walked back to the valley, Julius was quickly healed of every injury except for his hand. No matter how much life mana he jammed into it or what he did, it wasn't growing back. It appeared like [Restoration] had a limit as well.
So as he was making his way back, he attempted several ideas that he thought might work, but to no avail. It remained an ugly stump and had healed over creating a round nub where his fingers used to be.
Although he had been concentrating on his hand, he maintained vigilance of his surroundings. Which was how he noticed a group of trolls dragging along a large creature back to the valley. They hadn't noticed him and Julius was thinking about what he would do.
Honestly, he was tired and wanted to get back to his ravine but he also wanted to test out his new skills. The only thing holding him back was the potential noise a fight might cause. They were close enough to the large camp that someone might hear the conflict. It wasn't likely, but there was still a chance.
However, he made up his mind, justifying that he would have to deal with them in the future anyway, and started to create five spikes. The process had become quite simple after constant repetition, but now with [Arcane Construct], it felt like it was faster than creating a [Firebolt]. He also could sense that he wasn't restricted by the skill during the process. He could adjust and modify the construct on the fly. It was already providing much more freedom than [Firebolt] did.
On the other hand, it wasn't as simple as calling upon the skill and feeding it mana. To create a [Firebolt] like his old skill would require more input. However, at this point, he had become comfortable enough that those extra steps didn't take that much more time, just effort. But [Arcane Construct] streamlined the process of every detail of his creating process. Even when he used [Pure Compression] on the spikes, he could feel [Arcane Construct] working in tandem with [Pure Compression] to expedite the process.
In the blink of an eye, he managed to create five heavily condensed woven spikes of fire and kinetic mana. Something that might have taken him a few seconds before he evolved the skills. He didn't shoot them at the unaware trolls just yet. He had just gotten an idea and wanted to try something.
Julius took a spike and slowly started to change its shape. He flattened the construct out into a sheet of condensed mana and formed it into a thin disk about two feet wide. Then he focused on making the edges as thin as possible. Something like this was previously impossible, he had tried for a long time but still never was able to create a razor's edge on anything he created. It wouldn't take shape or it would be too brittle, but that wasn't the case anymore. [Arcane Construct] was a rare skill for a reason and it made a massive difference. He could feel the skill helping align the construct along the edge, thinning it out without breaking it apart and enforcing the sharpened blades. It was quite a fascinating way to create a sharp edge on an object and Julius took note of it.
Once he got a feel for it, it was quite easy to finish creating a wicked sharp edge on all sides of the red disk. Soon enough he had five crimson-red disks hovering in front of his nose. They were gently spinning and releasing a pleasant thrum of mana.
Julius tracked the movements of the trolls and started to dump a lot of concentrated kinetic energy into the disks. [Pure Compression] made compressing kinetic energy a much easier task and it felt like he was compressing fire mana instead. They started to rapidly spin in place, releasing a humming noise from the speed they were gathering that quickly turned into a high-pitched whine. The disks were radiating mana around the edges in a dangerous gleam.
Once he felt like an appropriate amount of force was collected, he slung the disks of compressed fire and kinetic mana at the group. To his astonishment, they shot toward the trolls like a railgun, it was almost impossible for him to track them. Luckily he still had control over them and could feel their trajectories with his mana sense.
They reached the trolls within an instant and missed them, continuing to fly past them. Julius hurriedly controlled them to turn around before they ended up hitting the canyon walls and getting stuck.
Julius looked at them to see their reactions to the attack. However, they were oddly still. They hadn't moved an inch since the attack but Julius didn't let that stop him from trying again.
The flying sawblades were about to attack them again when Julius saw the entire group fall to the ground in a lifeless heap. Julius stopped his attack before he released them. Then he absorbed the excess kinetic energy from the disks and let them return to hover over his shoulders. Afterward, he walked over to where the trolls had fallen and inspected them.
Julius hadn't felt any resistance, that was why he thought he had initially missed. But it seemed like he was mistaken. Each troll had a perfect cut across its upper half, severing each of them into two distinct pieces. The disks had been so sharp and launched with such speed, that they had sliced right through their tough skin and hard bones like they were butter.
It was a silent execution. For someone who had been using explosions as his offensive power all this time, killing something so cleanly was new to him. He just stood over their bodies for a moment taking in what he had just done.
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