After the carefull cutting of a Yri herb's leaves, named after the first alchemist, Beyktarl Yri.
'That's the last one, now I can finally go back to what I was doing; Masteries!'
It has been a total of three days since the last time we've seen him, and he's set himself up with a simple gathering job in a bit more dangerous part of the forest where people without combat ability can really come.
Yesterday he had chosen to get a lay on the land and get a grasp on where the herbs usually appeared. You know, just too skip the first five years of experience a normal herb-gatherer uses to do the same thing that came come forth by just seeing patterns.
Now he had free time, real free time, and it was time for what he liked most in life; Getting closer to making an undead slave.
{Arcane-manifestion} was still alluding him, but he had gotten about half-way there. 'Arcane manifestion', the act, not the mastery, has a lot in common with drenching, though it's a good bit more difficult for him without the help from his one and only skill.
But he was close!
He took a deep breath and first enjoyed the feeling of 8-star mana manipulation, gained after having two rings in use at all times for the last two days.
Now with this, he would crack the code!
He pulled out ring one, and created a ball, the standard.
To 'Manifest' mana, you have to use your spirit, nothing extra. Which is why it so annoying, to project your spirit outside of your body is a difficult prospect.
With experience in drenching, the difficulty has been reduced by a good bit, but he still had to focus, keeping the sphere close to his chest to make the process a bit easier.
After a few moments, he stopped with a panting breath.
His expression was dark 'So close! I was so damn close!'
Though there was no sign that the mana had changed in anyway, but he was certain he was close.
He tried again, this time having the idea of using mental energy as a conduit for his spirit, making him waste less power bringing his spirit to the mana; And it worked!
===
Congratulations, Beyern, due to manifesting mana into the physical realm, you have gained the mastery; 'Arcane manifestation'.
===
Though {Arcane manifestation} is simple right now, just making it possible for mana to interact with physical phenomena, don't look down on it, at a high rank you can... Do something? It was redacted from the panphlet that Beyern read, just that it could do something really cool at a high rank was left.
But that was ways away from Beyern, and I mean far off, somewhere like rank 6-9.
So Beyern wasn't too worried about it, though it'd be a good reminder to not forget about {Arcane-manifestation}.
He looked at the sphere of mana, and it didn't look any different, but when he used the extremely prudent method of giving it a smack, it instantly shattered and rapidly dissolved into the air.
He had succeeded, which you could tell by the fact that the mana hadn't just ignored his hand.
Though it had instantly broken apart, that could be fixed with practice and and the use of {Mana-packing} later on.
-Speaking of {Mana-packing}, it was second on the agenda. It would be a lot easier now, since {Mana-manipulation} had increased, and he had 100.2 SP now.
It was better to just get the mastery first and then funnel some time into it later on.
He took the second ring, turned it into a ball in chest, and then got to work.
If you looked at beyern right now, you would think he was constipated.
This time, instead of forcibly doing the entire ball, Beyern had thought about it, and that was such a brutish way of doing things. He was truly ashamed of his old self, but he had reformed, and also gained enlightenment.
He picked a small, small part of the ball, and then forced it to compress with overwhelming amounts of mental energy, compared to it's size, and then guided it to the middle of the sphere, allowing the non-compressed mana to re-order themselves around it into a perfect sphere once more.
Now, repeat, and you've compressed an entire 12 points of mana. Since, remember; 1st ring = 10 points, 2nd ring = 12 points.
But suprisingly, it became easier with each fragment he compressed, and when he saw the compressed ball of mana, he thought to himself; 'I want to make a ring out of compressed mana.'
He cast away the screen, this was a matter of pride, and no screen could stop him. He was now locked into making a ring the same size as the 1st ring, but with double the mana!
It was mostly because he could see such an easy path to mastery, and couldn't help but savor that juicy oppertunity. But it was also a matter of pride!
Now that vowed as such, he would do it!
Since the first ring had 10 points, and he wanted to double that, you would be reasonable to assume it would have 20 points now, and you'd be right.
Sometimes magic is a simple matter, no need to over complicate it all the time. Just use the 12 mana from the 2nd ring + 8 minutes of mana, and take your time eating in small bites- I mean condensing.
With 20 mana in one ball that has a diameter of 2cm, just like the original 1st ring, he started to move it back to his heart-
'Move you stupid compressed mana!' His mana was refusing his orders, he was back to when he was but a young lad, just after gaining his 2nd star in {Mana-manipulation}.
Beyern put his all into slowly drawing a small bit of mana from the crompressed ball, and then throw it into orbit.
He repeated this hundreds of times, getting easier and easier with each fragment, each time a bit more being taken. Until he suddenly felt that it had become a good bit easier in a burst, {Mana-manipulation} had gone up again!
He would look at the notifications later, right now it was more important to return his precious mana back to him.
'That's better, it's good to have a ring on me at all times.' Beyern thought as he looked at the screens that had appeared infront of him, though strangely only the newest screen for a mastery.
===
Congratulations, Beyern, due to your unwielding determination to maintain your honor, 'Mana-packing' has reached 5-star mastery.
===
Congratulations, Beyern, due to the manipulation of condenced mana, and surpassing your previous ability, 'Mana-manipulation' has reached 10-star mastery.
Do you wish to rank up 'Mana-manipulation'?
===
Looking at the second screen, blinking confoundedly 'Already?! Wasn't it 8-star a few hours ago?!'
Even he, who didn't question why he got the necromancer class the moment a dead body appeared infront of him, and why the previous dead bodies didn't have the same effect, couldn't ignore this.
He had made a ring with compressed mana, even if he forced it to be half it's supposed size, it shouldn've warrented the 10th star.
He would not allow his nature of not caring about how things above his pay grade work stop him this time!
-----
In a castle within the capital of a great empire, there were three people; An emperor, an imperial princess, and a mage.
Said mage was standing, while the princess was sitting on a desk. And the emperor... He was intensely staring at the mage from behind 'Mana does not inhabit the heart, it inhabits the mana pool, connected to the heart by your mana circuit.'
"Mana does not inhabit the heart, it inhabits the mana pool, connected to the heart by your mana circuit." The mage repeated the words spoken to him by the emperor through a magic item.
'Mana can be controlled with mental power.'
"Mana can be controlled with mental power." The mage once again repeated, a sweat of fear obvious on his face, though he tried his best to hide it.
The princess yawned "Dad, I'm bored, give me a new teacher."
"-Of course sweetie," The emperor said softly, and then immeadiately turned towards the mage "Get lost before I get annoyed."
"Y-yes sir, right away!" The mage said, shuddering with fear, he would gladly accept the chance to escape from the dangerous situation.
The emperor took out a jade token and yelled at it "Get me another teacher for my sweet daughter, right now!"
From the jade came a few words "Sir, there aren't any more adept mages left, should we start picking out of journeymen?"
"Of course minister, now stop wasting my time!" He yelled at the token, frowning, and put it back in his pocket.
The princess turned back and asked "Dad, is everything fine?"
"Everything is perfectly fine, don't worry sweetie, I'll get you another teacher soon."