The alchemy salon closest to Franz turned out to be owned by the moonflower association, a society to which Alek's best friend belonged, speaking of Alek, communication between him and Franz had been constant in recent days.
Franz had wanted Alek to help him promote him to the beast tamers he knew, but after thinking about it, Franz discarded that idea at least for a while, at this point he was limited to copying only two skills at the same time, if he wanted to copy others then he would have to discard the ones he already had, the problem was that he had to have the beast with the skill he wanted to copy nearby or that skill would be ruled out until further notice.
But Franz didn't want to learn other skills without helping Pom Pom master the ones he already had, so he refrained from learning others unless he really needed money, in the end it doesn't matter what benefits money gives or the recognition they might bring him if his beast couldn't keep up.
As for why not teaching Pom Pom more skills, it was quite simple, the quantity and quality of skills that a beast could learn was limited to the quality and rank of the beast.
. . . . .
Looking between the various shelves, Franz read many strange names along with potions and artifacts whose use he did not understand because there was no description describing their specific use.
In the end, he had no choice but to look for an employee who could help him.
Approaching the counter, the person behind the cash register was actually a boy almost his own age from what he could deduce, about 23 or 25 years old, Franz tried to greet him, but he only looked at him with a tired and annoyed look, he said.
- Kid, we don't have discounts and we don't set aside either – The employee felt quite tired of having to answer the same questions so he answered without thinking, but after a while and the boy won't leave, he sighed and took his eyes off a book he was reading to attend to the boy in front of him.
- Anything else I can help you with? – The employee asked.
Franz could only laugh bitterly, remembering Jeff who was so kind in his work, thinking a little about him, he genuinely hoped that he was okay.
- I was looking for something that would make level advancements more stable –
The employee opened his eyes a little and as if he had heard something pleasant, he said.
- Well, if you're looking for something like that, I have artifacts and potions, although personally I would recommend artifacts, potions are usually cheaper but their drawbacks are quite evident in the long term, such as making your mana impure and decreasing your chances of advancing to another higher level, even level loss is possible if your talent doesn't make up for it my friend –
Unbothered by the employee's 180-degree change in attitude, Franz asked in confusion.
- To reduce the chances of advancement to another level, how is that? –
- Well, you see, potions always have impurities, some to a lesser degree than others, the problem lies in potions that few know how to make such as advance potions, these potions don't need such a high level of quality to be accepted for the same, you understand? – The employee asked.
Franz nodded, finally having to admit that a breakthrough potion wasn't worth it compared to a breakthrough artifact.
I had no idea why the employee would rather tell the truth than lie about potions, but after thinking about it for a bit, it was possible that even with the explanation, many people would still decide to buy it, many times it was due to talent that could limit the same person, plus it was possible that they could get into trouble if they didn't warn the customer about such an inconvenience, The world of Mana practitioners worked a little differently than ordinary people.
Of course another reason was the exorbitant price of an artifact compared to a potion, an example of this is the breakthrough potion, its value is 3 thousand to 5 thousand credits for a potion that helps to advance to the second degree, while an artifact with almost the same effect had a value of 20 to 35 thousand credits for one that could help to overcome the first degree and It could only be used twice if the quality was good enough, plus it didn't guarantee 100 percent advancement, so natural talent was still the most important factor.
Franz decided to ask about the different options that the moonflower hall offered, in the end he decided on an artifact worth 28 thousand credits that could be used twice, enough for him and Nepheli.
Although he sincerely felt that his heart ached from spending so much money, but thanks to the fact that he sold some potions made by Pom Pom and ran the odd errand in the Chimera association, Franz was able to save enough and still had enough money left over to go to the wizard's playroom with Nepheli.
The employee who was now full of smiles, personally dismissed him while Franz did some research on the artifact in his hands, unlike people and beasts, Franz was not able to see the information of the objects, although he was not much disappointed, after all he was only experiencing how far his mysterious ability could go.
Now that he had no other pending issues, he decided to try to make a breakthrough, he wanted to see if there would be any change in his skill when he advanced to the second grade, in addition, he had to prepare as best he could, Hans made it clear to him that 3 months before the annual tournament that would be held by an A-rank city, he would have to do his first mission as a member of the storm chasers.
There were about 9 months left for the tournament and 6 or 5 months for his first mission outside the city and the field of humanity, by then the date agreed with Hans should have arrived, although if his calculations were correct, he could easily reach the third grade, as for the fourth degree, I wasn't really sure about it because from that point on the barriers to crossing levels were higher.
In Hans' words, if the barrier that stopped Franz's advance were a few bushes that prevented him from passing, the barrier of someone who wants to reach the fourth degree would be the same as trying to tear down the wall of a fortress with only his hands, which is why many people stopped at the third degree with no possibility of future progress.
Once being in the house, Franz greeted his parents before going to their room, now he only needed a mind and an optimal state to begin the advance, luckily he had learned a skill that to a certain extent could soothe the soul and, consequently, calm the mental state of a person.
The artifact was simple, it was a small sphere that seemed to be made of gold and silver, its use was also quite simple, you just had to have it at hand when you made an attempt to advance and the artifact would activate automatically.
With all that said, Franz took a deep breath and stabilized his condition, once that was done, he began to absorb the mana from the surroundings with the help of his soul seal, he did the same as when he normally absorbed it, he cleaned the impurities until he obtained a strand of pure mana, only this time he did not absorb it and began to do another round of mana absorption, He repeated the same step until he obtained seven strands of pure mana.
With those seven strands of mana, he started with the first step and also the most dangerous, the beast tamer needed to break and repair his soul seal while shaping it and making sure he didn't completely break the seal or he would have to wait four months to try to move forward again while his soul seal was repaired.
Once Franz reviewed his knowledge he began to surround his own seal and began to break it several times, he began to use the strands of mana to repair his seal whenever it was about to break completely, in the process he began to give the shape of a smooth plate to his seal and carved the image of him and his hired beast as if he were painting a painting, the reason was because the soul seal in the end was a bridge between tamer and beast, the more connected that bridge was to the beasts of its tamer, the greater the bond and for Franz that meant more power due to his innate talent.
All this, known as temple construction, was said that a beast tamer the more he advanced, gradually created a kingdom within his own body, something wonderful for Franz who did not know how true that was.
Once Franz was about to use the last strand of mana, the breakthrough artifact activated and began to help with the repair of the soul seal that after being repaired six times had already undergone a significant change.
Before, the soul seal had the appearance of a simple coin made of silver, it also had no detail whatsoever, now the coin had taken on the appearance of a smooth plate with the image of Franz holding Pom Pom in his arms and around the soul seal there were some written words that seemed to have a mystical halo, although Franz was not sure if he had written them on his soul seal, but he did not give it much importance because perhaps they had something to do with his mysterious ability.
At this point it could be said that Franz had managed to advance to the second grade, but there was still one last step to go, he had to empty the mana from his body and exchange it for mana of higher quality to be a true second-grade practitioner.
To differentiate the highest quality mana was simple, the first grade had a dark and opaque colored mana, the second grade had a red mana, as for why the practitioners divided the mana into degrees as well, it was because pure mana was naturally poisonous to the human body, In fact, it took humanity countless centuries to adapt to it in order to use it in combat and to be able to shed its human limits.
And so Franz needed to fill every space of his body and soul with a new type of mana, because pure mana also had greater power and versatility, although that would take about two to three weeks, it was a fairly long process to tell the truth, and mana practitioners preferred to stay in an isolated place or in one where they would be relatively safe because it is in the breakthrough stage where they run more dangers, because not only does the practitioner's mana become unstable, but also the amount stored in the body decreases a lot when having to exchange the mana for another of higher quality.
Even so, the result was worth it, not only did Franz feel more rejuvenated and stronger, he had also acquired more spaces to learn new beast skills.
Franz Merrick
Current level: Soul knower (Second degree).
Pom Pom (vinculada beast)
Abilities (5/2)
Mana Pool (D)
Minor Healing Fluid (D)
Combat Skills
Calm (D)(Advanced)
Talent: Close bond
Description: You are bound to a single beast as a tamer, in return you share between 10 to 100 percent of the profits of your linked beast (43/100)
Quite pleased, Franz looked forward to showing off Nepheli.
Author's note: how about dear readers, I hope you are enjoying the reading, what did you think of this chapter? Try to be concise without giving too many explanations, but if enough to understand the process of progress, if you have any doubts do not hesitate to ask and if there was anything in which you think you can improve do not hesitate to tell me, thank you!
By the way, mana stops being poisonous as a person advances in grade, so they can acquire a little purer mana.