Chapter 44
Later that morning, Michael went to the private care facility that he owned to perform some partial healing on a few patients. With the improvements to his skill, it felt easier and quicker than ever to do the miracles, and a new streamlined procedure ensured that there were no incidents.
They had changed the procedure in order to address two problems. On one hand, a partial heal meant that Michael did not have to burn through his limited supply of coins which, even though it was growing quite large, was still limited. Already he had Travis to supply with coins whenever the man ran low on mana, and his council (Old Dave and Travis himself) agreed that in time this demand will surely increase. Granting people magic and then controlling the supply was a very good way to have loyal minions. There was danger, but it could be mitigated and was often worth it.
Other than saving coins, the other reason was the new procedure. Learning from their mistakes—even though once again it was Travis who had really put his finger down and forced them to implement the change—they decided that Michael was too exposed to the public whenever he healed people. This was what had allowed Travis to get a hold of Michael, as well as Carmela back when Michael was first starting. Too many people were in the know already, and incidents were bound to happen unless they changed things.
Now Michael was healing people through a thin wall. They made sure that the patients' beds were always against a wall, and he had to do was go to the other side of the wall and they would be in range of his healing aura. Then, he would heal them a little bit, and the small improvements to their health could easily be explained by some miracle drug. Much better than a sudden return to full health done by suspicious nanomachines.
Another side benefit was that it pushed Michael's skill to grow in range, something he felt he was sorely neglecting in his training. He had sacrificed range for efficiency when he triggered the skill's level-up, but this didn't mean that he had made peace with the miser range of the aura. On the contrary, he was quite aware of the limitations the pitiful range imposed on him. During the fight against the stone king, for instance, Drullkrin could have died even though he was quite close to Michael, all due to the skill's range.
Michael was on his way to the dungeon, and Travis was accompanying him. They would do the first floor together, and then Travis would leave while Michael continued to the second floor.
"I don't know if it is just me, or if magic really isn't good to people," the CEO said, "but I was feeling like I needed to come back, to fight some monsters with my new magic skill."
"I get it," Michael said. "After some time, it's not even about the rewards anymore, is it? Although the second floor made me change my mind a little bit. Too tedious."
"You keep the tedium," the man said with a smirk, "personally, I'm going to go all out in the first circle of hell and leave with the spoils."
Michael hummed.
"Anyway, since we're here let me update you on the Carmela situation. My sources say that they saw a young man enter her office and then leave some time after." Travis said, "he's awfully similar to a guy we have been tracking. He's been popping up all over the place recently, involved in gas leaks, incidents at gas pumps, cars exploding… all sorts of nasty business involving fire. You don't want to see the photos."
"You think the magic user is working for her?" Michael asked, worried.
"You said it, not me!" there was a wry laugh, and Michael could tell that even the CEO was stressed out. Then Travis' face turned serious. "Mike, I thought magic was exciting and fun. And it was, it really was. For all of two hours." A pause. "Then I got the point. I ran out of mana and charges for my ability, had to use the coins. Then I looked around and saw what I did to the poor field where I tried my magic out. This shit kills people. It's dangerous. But it's also thrilling and addicting. One of the reasons I wanted to come helldiving with you, I need to let it all out or I feel like I'm going to burst."
"Aren't you a ruthless CEO and all of that?"
The CEO shook his head slowly. "Michael, you don't understand the difference here. Let me enlighten you. I still remember how you looked at me when we were flying here last time, and I was boasting all the weapons I was bringing inside. You thought I was some naïve fool, didn't you?"
"A little bit."
"It's the same thing here. Magic is so far removed from reality… how do I explain it to you? Think of it this way: with my wealth and power I have caused a lot of pain and did a lot of good. I could influence governments, still do, and move and shake nations. You follow? But all that… it's mundane power. It's something that everyone can understand. It's something everyone could theoretically get, even though society is hardly that fair. It's something everyone expects. Now, magic?"
Travis Tyrell sighed. "Magic is unexpected. Impossible to predict. It's impossible to tell what it can do. What someone who wields it will do with it. Even I, as I use it, find myself tempted to just do whatever I want and it's fucking awful. I am used to doing whatever I want, you get it? But this is temptation beyond just that. Most people, human nature will turn them into monsters in the eye of society."
"I think I get it," Michael said. The conversation had suddenly turned heavy, and he was re-thinking many things about his place in society, magic, and re-evaluating his opinion of the CEO. "Hopefully this run will make you feel better."
"All this to say, we need to be careful. If that woman really has a magic user under her control, she's extremely dangerous."
Michael hummed. "It would explain why she fell silent all of a sudden."
"Yes, it would." Travis said, "I still think it was an idiot move, she could have kept her assets hidden if she just pretended to work with you, but people are rarely completely logical, are they now? I think she acted on impulse, wanting to break free of your grasp. But no matter, we need to be careful. I'll have my men watch her until we know more."
As Michael approached the dungeon, he checked the many trail cams he had set up in hope to catch whoever it was who was using the dungeon and increasing the difficulty of the first floor. It was with some trepidation that he approached the first spot where he had set up the cameras, hoping to finally be able to put a face to the rogue magic user, and perhaps figure out if it was the same person who had been seen hanging around Carmela and her goons.
However, when he reached the spot, Michael's face fell.
Someone had destroyed the trail cams. They were charred and the plastic molten, their memory cards damaged and bent. Around them the trees were blackened by fire. Michael was fuming, feeling his chest constrict with anger and anxiety mixing together. Breathing, he struggled to regain his composure, his mind whirling with possibilities none of which pleasant.
"I'll have someone try and recover the data," Travis said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Thanks."
Michael continued to check his cameras as he approached the dungeon, but they were all destroyed. As he got close, he saw a blur in the distance, in the direction of the dungeon itself, along with a displacement of mana. Having never seen something like this before, he was on edge and tried to approach carefully.
The displacement of mana had come from inside the dungeon right before the blur appeared, and as he got closer Michael saw that the blur was actually the shape of a man, doing some stretches to loosen up and checking his clothes. Then he was gone, a blur once more, a streak of color and mana vanishing into the forest, impossible to track.
Skill Level up!
[Fast Reflexes] reaches level 4, increasing the bonus to 40%.
Too little too late, system.
Michael took a deep breath, smiling wryly and trying to not complain too bitterly. Outside of the dungeon, it wasn't like there was a malignant entity who was having a laugh at his expense, and it was only due to chance that his skill had upgraded a moment too late.
Deep in thought, he tried to recall what he felt when he noticed the displacement of mana. There had been some similarity between that and what he felt whenever the dungeon transported him to the second floor, which made him think.
The displacement of mana was probably just the dungeon depositing whoever that guy was back at the exit.
This mollified him slightly. The mana disturbance had been great enough to make him worry.
Not that a potential enemy with a movement ability is much better.
Then Travis and Michael were inside the dungeon, and he felt like he could put his worries on hold for the time being. They cleared the rooms quickly, Travis going all out now that he did not have to worry about running out of mana, blinking through space and rending the air with lightning.
The boss room was cleared soon after, and the two blood soaked men watched the loot materialize. Travis was heaving for air, unhurt only thanks to Michael's healing, blood still pumping through his veins fueled by adrenaline. He was disappointed to see that he had not gotten a new card, only coins, but recovered quickly. He had come to vent out some stress, and he felt a new man. Bowing his head to Michael, he left the dungeon.
Michael sat down to train, not wanting to waste the opportunity.
Following a hunch he got the last time he trained the skill, he summoned [Distortion Field]. The familiar bubble materialized and disappeared quickly, disturbing the air and mana flows of the room, while a faint sensation of hollowness told Michael that he had spent a fraction of his mana.
Even though he didn't want to waste coins to precisely gauge the capacity of his mana pool, Michael was pretty sure that he had broken the fifties and was steadily climbing towards a capacity of 60 Copper coins.
His mana pool wasn't what he wanted to focus on, however. Using his level 5, bottlenecked [Mana Manipulation] skill to suck the mana in the air into his body, he refilled his mana pool and summoned another bubble. He did not deactivate the manipulation shill, however.
The level-5 description of the manipulation skill stated that he could force other skills to act outside their scope. This was his best bet if he wanted to push [Distortion Field] past the bottleneck, and he had thought hard about how he was going to do this whenever he had some free time.
Why not make it follow my hand around?
It was a similar principle to when he had tried to move it around with his mind, after he had realized that the bubble was not stationary relative to the planet but only stationary relative to his body. He had failed to make it move freely, but perhaps he could force the skill to change the anchor point from where the bubble calculated its position so that it would follow his hand.
High-level stuff, big words. I'm pretty sure I am getting smarter.
It took hours before he saw the beginning of a change. It manifested subtly but suddenly, with the bubble shimmering and deforming for a moment before vanishing, and then the next time he summoned it he felt that something had changed. The bubble moved, almost imperceptibly, as he waved his arm around.
The effort to make it move was monumental, but no longer did he feel like he was trying to smash a concrete wall with his head. Now it only felt like he was trying to wade through molasses, having to concentrate all of his willpower and mental power to bend the skill to his needs.
But it was a start. Now the skill fractal in his astral body was glowing more brightly, a section of the skill getting ready to change.
Three hours, and many attempts later, Michael felt the wall shatter. One moment he was struggling, the next the bubble moved around effortlessly as he waved his hand. He tried with his feet, his legs, and many parts of his body and it was all the same.
In the moment when he felt the wall break, a sweeping change overtook the skill fractal in his astral body. A shimmering waterfall of energy swept through it, changing the fractal itself forever. It was not a rarity upgrade, but something else entirely, a qualitative change to the skill that made it better and stronger. Indeed, the message confirmed his gains.
Skill Level up!
[Distortion Field] reaches level 6, pushing past its bottleneck. It will last for up to two seconds and will now follow your movements.