So, after he figured out what he's gonna do in the future, he took a peek at his mana heart's status. You know, that thing's always a sight to behold, with all those glowing blue specks swirling around. It's like staring out into a sea of stars or maybe even the whole dang galaxy. But lately, he's been scratching his head a bit over its condition.
Alright, before he dives into the nitty-gritty, just a heads up for y'all: there's gonna be some rambling ahead. Feel free to skim if you want, but hang in there, okay? Let's get this show on the road.
The first time he leveled up to being a wizard, he had a whopping 3000 mp of mana. Picture this: the mana's all stored in the middle of this magical circle. It's like there's a hole right in the center of the circle that sucks in all that mana, compressing it from all around.
Now, here's where things get funky. Because he had way more mana than your average newbie level 1 wizard—like, ten times more—the lump of mana started stretching out at the ends. Imagine the magic circle standing up straight, with each side facing left and right. Well, the ends of the mana blob on the left and right sides started stretching out, making it look kinda like an oval.
He somehow pulled the term "prolate spheroid" out of his head to describe the shape. Don't ask how he knows it; he's just as clueless as you are. Anyway, luckily, the magic circle's growth kept up, making sure that space in the middle expanded enough to maintain that oval shape.
But then, after about six months, the circle's growth hit the brakes big time. So, it couldn't keep up with how much the ends were stretching out. And after another two months, those ends were so stretched out, they looked more like sticks.
So, picture this: those stick ends of his mana blob? Well, they started inching their way back toward the center. Once they got pulled back in, they picked up speed, zooming back to the middle. And after about a month of this cosmic reunion, those ends joined up again right in the center, forming this crazy shape that looked like the infinity symbol, with the magic circle clasping the center like it's holding a prized possession.
Now, he's just staring at this mesmerizing infinity shape of his mana, and yeah, it's pretty darn cool. Fits perfectly with his talent, [Infinite Mana Well], which, by the way, also has "infinity" in the name. But here's the thing: he hasn't got the foggiest clue how this whole transformation went down.
One big change this new shape brought about is that his mana now has a sort of circulation going on. So, the mana inside this infinity shape just keeps flowing around and around. And one sweet perk of this circulation is that most of the mana, which used to get sucked up by the magic circle all by its lonesome to get purified, now gets caught up in this flow. It hangs around the outside of the shape before getting brought back to the magic circle.
Once it goes through the magic circle, it comes out the other side all purified and packed with more punch. And this cycle just keeps repeating until the mana's as pure as what's already inside the shape.
Now, calling this thing "that shape" all the time is a bit of a mouthful, so let's just call it the mana core for now. Thanks to this new shape, his mana heart's gathering speed got a serious boost.
Remember how his custom magic circle had that downside compared to the traditional wizard setup? Well, now his natural mana recovery speed can actually stack up against theirs. And it's not just that—his meditation sessions are gonna be turbocharged with this speedier mana gathering.
Alright, so here's the scoop on some more changes. With the magic circle still expanding, albeit at a snail's pace now, there's plenty of empty spaces popping up. Normally, messing with those spaces by adding new spell patterns to beef up the magic circle would be a big no-no. Once you set up the circle, you're stuck with the patterns you got. Trying to change 'em up could wreck your mana heart big time.
But get this: now, there are these symbols or patterns naturally etched into those empty spots. According to his keen eye, there are two reasons for this. First off, every time he casts a spell, he gets so darn good at forming the spell pattern that he can practically do it right after the mana separates from the mana core.
These spell patterns kinda glide through the magic circle, leaving behind these grooves. He read about this in some spell pattern book at the library. These grooves form when a wizard gets really good at casting spells. They can actually help the wizard whip up spell patterns faster.
These grooves usually just hang around and fade away once the spell-casting stops. But because of how fast the mana's getting churned through the magic circle by the mana core, some of it spills over into those empty spaces, aka the grooves he's left behind. That's reason number two.
Then, thanks to some sorta wizardry mojo, those grooves start to get cozy and become permanent fixtures. They end up forming these natural patterns he's never seen before in the level 0 and 1 spell patterns.
So check it out: now he can just shoot mana over to these new symbols and whip up specific combinations of spell patterns in a flash. Long story short, he can cast spells waaay faster than before, even pulling off super complex ones almost instantly.
And get this, now he can bust out his proudest and most powerful spells right smack dab in the middle of a battle. He calls these bad boys the [God Series] spells. Before, he couldn't even dream of casting these spells in a fight because they were just too darn complex, taking more than a hot second to pull off. Maybe the reason he's been feeling so confident about taking on a level 2 wizard is because of these "God Series" spells.
But hey, he won't know for sure until he actually faces off against one of those level 2 wizards. Anyway, he's still scratching his head over how he lucked out with all this cool stuff. But hey, if it works, he's not complaining. He just pushes all those questions to the back of his mind, kinda like how he deals with the whole system thing and all its overpowered talents and abilities.
Phew, all that rambling's finally over. But hey, he figures he oughta fill you folks in on all that, just in case you're wondering how he might go toe-to-toe with a level 2 wizard, you know? Not that he's itching for a fight or anything. He's planning to keep a low profile for a bit. So, he won't end up facing a level 2 wizard... right? Ah, dang it, shouldn't have said that out loud. Now he's just asking for trouble.
Anyway, it's grind time...
…
It's been a solid year since he rolled into Mossley. His grind pretty much consists of overseeing the arrays that come in from the tower at the workshop, whipping up a few arrays himself to sell, handling requests to set up or maintain formations, giving Fannie some lessons, dabbling in spell and formation research, diving into enchantments, and of course, fitting in some meditation time.
Since he only needs to keep an eye on Fannie once a week and can knock out a week's worth of array-making in just one day, he's got loads of time to dig into array research. And he squeezes in some spell refinement too. Even though he's maxed out his knowledge on spell patterns and formations, he's still finding ways to tweak and improve his spells to make 'em even fancier.
Anyway, even though it looked like he had a lot on his plate, his days were pretty darn chill. He'd often find himself just lounging around, staring off into space in a daze. Yep, that's his favorite pastime. Or sometimes, he'd mix things up by switching up the restaurants where he ordered his meals from, then taking his sweet time savoring the food delivered straight to his door.
You might be wondering how he switches restaurants. Well, it's simple: through his communication tablet. Most high-end restaurants can be contacted that way. There's no way he's hoofing it to the restaurants himself. Might as well stick to one place if that were the case.
Now, one recent shake-up in his routine is that Fannie's gearing up to level up to being a level 1 wizard! Actually, she's had enough mana for months, but nailing down that level 1 spell took some serious time.
See, it's not just about learning the spell itself; she's gotta tweak it to fit the magic circle formation. She's going with [Thunder Armor] instead of [Lightning Flesh] to match her style, which is all about zapping enemies from a safe distance. That's actually the go-to style for most wizards. Fannie found it odd why Zack went with [Lightning Flesh] in the first place. But Zack's all about speed trumping everything else, being able to make the first move to either bolt or keep foes from fleeing. Hey, everyone's got their own flavor, right?
So, Fannie's got her magic circle blueprint all set, but now she needs to track down a magic vein with a lightning attribute to level up. And the easiest place to find that? The forest of death, of course. There's a reason why the lightning magic tower set up their tower near there.
Zack's not tagging along with Fannie on this quest. She's more than capable of handling it solo, even though she's just a level 3 apprentice wizard right now. Heck, she could give some early level 1 powerhouses a run for their money.
Zack knows he can't baby Fannie forever; she's gotta learn to hold her own in a fight. And based on their practice sessions, he's pretty confident she'll manage just fine. But just in case, she's got a backup plan in the form of an artifact Zack gave her.
It's this nifty armguard that, when activated, pumps out Zack's mana in small doses to Fannie. Oh, and Zack tweaked it so it activates [Hidden Strength] constantly. So as soon as that mana hits Fannie, she's practically invisible, hiding her presence completely.
Sure, Zack could mess with the settings to make her seem like a regular human instead of a wizard, but what's the point? Making tons of these mana containers with different effects would be a hassle, and Zack's got better things to do than spend all day crafting them.Plus, Fannie's not keen on burdening Zack with all that extra work anyway.
Each container only lasts a day, and Fannie's got 30 of 'em stashed away. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep her under the radar until she's done leveling up and can dodge the church's prying eyes.
So, speaking of the church, once Fannie levels up to being a wizard, she'll have the ability to mask her magic signature. That way, the church won't be able to track her down precisely, just get a general idea of where she might be hiding out.
Zack got the scoop on this from a shady informant in the black market—who, no surprise, has dealt with plenty of fugitives and wanted folks from the Holy Empire in the past. So, if Fannie ever finds herself on the run from the church after hitting level 1, she can slip into a city and blend in with the crowd, making it tough for those church goons to pin her down.
Anyway, once everything's squared away, Fannie says her goodbyes to Zack. Watching her walk away, he can't help but feel a twinge of worry.
It's only natural, right? Even the coldest heart would feel some kind of attachment after spending so much time with someone, especially a human. But hey, he's done all he can. The rest is up to Fannie and whatever fate's got in store for her.
But hey, he's got a good feeling about it. After all, fate went through all the trouble of getting him to teach her in the first place, right? So surely, fate's got some blessings in store for her.
************************
Name: Lucius (Zack)
Age: 13/150 (300)
Occupation: Apprentice wizard
Contract: -
Hidden Contract: [Lightning Magic Tower - Member]
Mana: 1000/1000 (7012/7012)
Overt Talent: [Low Mana Manipulation Correction], [Low Mana Sensory Correction]
Hidden Talent: [Limitless Mana Well], [Advanced Mana Manipulation Correction], [Advanced Mana Sensory Correction], [Advanced Intelligence Correction]
Hidden Boss Abilities: [Hidden Strength] [Thousand Faces]
HBP: 0
HB Progress Bar: 10/100%
Expand Hidden Boss abilities Store? yes/no
************************