Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 512: Bye Bye Focused Channeler

We hide inside one of the huge stone pillars connecting the floor to the ceiling. They turn out to be surprisingly durable, and it takes a great deal of effort to carve our way inside, with Sophie manipulating the stone to close the way behind us while I use one of my tiny black orbs to destroy any trace of our mana before allowing it to crumble away.

With our signatures hidden and the area shielded by a multitude of webs and arrays, we take a moment to sit around the gentle light of a normal candle that burns surprisingly bright in the dimness of our hidey-hole, keeping our usage of mana to a minimum.

The hideout is cramped, and the air within is stale and heavy, carrying faint traces of the dust shaken loose by our excavations. The walls, smooth yet imperfect, hold an eerie stillness, their muted gray surfaces serving to absorb the flickering glow of our single candle. It casts elongated shadows that stretch and twist across the stone in an unnerving manner.

As we settle in, so too does the weight of our exhaustion. Every breath feels heavier, every sound rings louder in near silence. Even the candlelight feels fragile, as though the oppressive darkness might snuff it out at any moment.

Put simply, the morale has never been better.

After a day of running and fighting, we all seem to have leveled up, but after having to heal all that damage and disintegrate these unhealing wounds, Lily, now with short black hair, is running out of her mana. So, currently, we sit here waiting for her to recover.

”Iʼm sorry, Grumpy,” Gareth apologizes. ”I’ve been working on modifying my skill so I can do more to help you next time.”

”Itʼs fine! I can heal a lot; I just want to have some reserves in case things go to shit.” She says, tapping her backpack.

Thankfully, no one asks what she has in it; it would be difficult to explain. Also, whatʼs up with her language recently?

(Will you keep watch for me?) I ask Tess.

(Go for it,) she confirms.

So I pull myself further into my corner and close my eyes, hoping that the process of upgrading my class wonʼt make me scream or anything. That would be awkward. I have an image to maintain.

First, for good old timesʼ sake, I check my previous class. I know I havenʼt been giving it a lot of attention lately, but it’s served me well.

Focused Channeler (Epic)

Active Skill: [Mana Domain] - Establishes a limited area, granting the user a heightened degree of control and influence over the flow of mana, providing various tactical advantages.

Active Skill:[Tether] - Anchors the userʼs mana to a specific location, enabling quick return or other location-based effects.

Passive Skill: Mana Reservoir (Epic) - Allows the user to slowly and gradually store mana beyond their natural maximum, effectively increasing their total mana pool.

Bonuses:

Constitution +20

Mana +100

I still have [Mana Domain] even now, and I’m hoping to keep it because of the applied effect of Pride to it. I used [Tether] in a skill fusion to create [Ley Line], a skill I still explore and have great expectations from, and lastly, the passive skill Mana Reservoir, which I’ve since upgraded into a unique epic passive.

Well, thank you, Focused Channeler, and bye.

Congratulations! You have chosen the Primary class - Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane). In the future, you may be able to upgrade your class or exchange it for a new one, befitting your actions at that point within the tutorial.

Another window pops up:

Congratulations! You have acquired a new Primary Class:

Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)

Active skill:[Empyrean Lance] - A luminous spear of refined mana, charged with harmonic frequencies that resonate with both matter and energy. The lance punctures its target, releasing concentric waves of destabilizing force that disrupts the target’s structure, causing a cascading breakdown as mana vibrations radiate outward. This overwhelming attack leaves a residual field of unstable energy.

Active skill:No available slot detected.

Passive Skill: Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane) - The wavelength of the userʼs mana imposes itself on the surrounding environment, forcing ambient mana in the vicinity to harmonize with their energy, creating areas of heightened mana density. This synchronization creates a natural pull that gradually collects energy. This field expands outward, drawing ambient energy into a controlled and harmonious stream centered on the user.

Bonuses:

Mana +500

Active skill slots fully occupied. Performance check initiated. Unique class classification confirmed. Champion Candidate status identified. Body modifications detected. Beyond attendee designation confirmed. Winner of the First Tournament, fifth round, detected.

Additional personalization parameters unlocked. Four options generated for selection in place of the Second Active Skill.

Passive skill combination token (mid arcane)

Active skill combination token

Active skill evolution (will not apply to high-grade active skills)

Trait evolution (will not apply to high-grade traits)

Note: Any of these options will be influenced by the Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane) Primary class.

Please remove one of your passives to apply the new passive skill or reject it.

Well, first, bye-bye, Cognitive Fortress, and welcome Wavelength Tyrant! Also, minus 100 mana because I just lost my bonus from the old class, but then I get another plus 500 from the new class, so thatʼs an additional 400 mana. It might be a lot. Way too much, in fact, but I’m not going to complain; after all the shit I got from the system, I’ll take all I can get.

However, I can’t help but find it a little funny that I’m not getting a bonus to the constitution this time. It looks like all my efforts have been rewarded.

Damn.

Why would the system do this to me? Please send help.

It’s probably going to hurt getting so much mana at once. For some reason, my poor body just isnʼt built for it.

I blame the system.

As I brace myself, the pain envelops me, and I do my best to hide it. I absorb the movement of my shaking. I use a few of Lily’s healing marks. I [Focus] my mind to better ignore the pain. And I observe the process.

The process as my body accepts and changes to accept yet another mid arcane passive. And this time, I begin to notice hints of the ways my active skills affect it. Unlike the passive, the changes are much smaller, but at the same time, they feel much more important.

Active skills are important, in fact, they’re probably one of the most important features of the system. But the changes they bring aren’t something I can observe all too deeply, not even with my eyes, not even with my passives working together to allow me to process the information. I think someone at the level of a Champion with the right specializations might be able to see and understand more. Assuming one doesn’t need to be an Absolute to do so.

As all of this changes are getting applied, my subclass is also active. Not in a way I can actively sense. I would think it’s like it’s having an effect on each of these new skill and the changes they bring. As a subclass, Pride seems to be pulling everything in a specific direction in much the same way active skills influence the body of the user.

Then my mana pool expands by 400 points and then again by another 400 under the effects of my mana attribute upgrade. Even with Mana Cycling and Sneaky Mode working double time to help me contain it all, I fail.

My mana radiates from me for a moment like a match igniting a large flame. It fills the small area around us. It pierces through our defensive arrays and seeps outside, announcing my presence to anyone who might be looking.

A few seconds pass in silence before the dozens of presences lurking outside extend their senses our way, brushing against the pillar we’ve hidden inside and finding us. I would swear Luna seems to be the most disappointed out of all the people here.

Jean punches through one of the walls, and we leap out into the open before the first wave of attacks can crash into the pillar.

A pain in my head and running through my body makes me furrow and twist my expression, but I surround us with Resonance Flow, all the material projectiles slowing down as if stopped in time.

I activate [Eclipse] to stop them from detonating, as a huge surge of mana moves through my body, ruining all the fine control I’ve worked so hard to master and ruining the fine balance of my skills and techniques, causing [Eclipse] to flare up violently before deactivating, only managing to neutralize half of the projectiles as they lose their shine.

Already far away and noticing I have failed, Sophieʼs shadow flows out around her, expanding and blending itself with the dust rising into the air. It blocks the shockwave of an attack that tears through the environment around us.

At the front, Jean crashes his way through a group of skeletal monsters, and Tess uses her [Psychokinesis] to rip chunks of stone from the ground and fling them into the path of incoming projectiles to detonate them a safe distance away from us. Even then, the shockwaves from the explosions push us and batter our defenses.

Once again, I move my mana to activate my skills, but I end up using way too much, ruining the carefully cultivated balance of mana in my body and leaving the excess mana to swirl within my body, tearing a hole through my chest near my heart.

All my constructs strain, parts of them breaking, as the pathways fail to endure the heightened strain and movements of my mana. With my eyes and mind, I watch it all happen. The information flows through my mind with ease, failing to strain my focus even under the circumstances.

Itʼs a funny experience, to be honest, and a strong reminder that even with all these free stats from training with the Restrictive Training Emblem, my body still relies on my fine control and my firm grasp on my mana. Increasing my body’s reserves has affected me more than using mana from the crown or the reservoir—even if they do hold more mana. More than anything, it’s the shift in the amount of mana being generated with each pulse of my heart and being sent coursing through my body that’s throwing me off.

When another attack pushes me to my knees, I boost myself to the side with kinetic energy and reach an arm out behind me, forming a shield to block yet another projectile. Before it explodes, my mana encloses it in a bubble.

The red light explodes inside the bubble, stretching the tight membrane of mana before I actively compress it and launch it back at the attackers, where it finally bursts, causing another explosion.

[You have defeated Reanimated Marauder - lvl 304]

[Lvl 300 > Lvl 301]

I quickly reinvest the stats, only to stop at it. A strong sense of amusement washes over me.

Even with all the trouble I’ve got on my hands right now, I have automatically invested these three stat points into mana. There is something extremely hilarious about that.

With an improved mood, I straighten my back even with all that pain. A big part of my mind separates itself from the chaos and starts working on the task of temporarily fixing my constructs and strengthening the surviving pathways while repairing the broken sections. The another part turns to Mana Cycling, getting used to all that mana roaming through my body. Grabbing it and forcing it to move in the way Iʼm used to, with the occasional tweak to adapt to my increased pool.

[Mana Manipulation - lvl 60 > Mana Manipulation - lvl 61]

The third part turns to the attackers, switching to kinetic energy and supporting the others as much as I can.

But there is a tiny fourth part. A most curious one. That one opens my status, impatient to check it.

Name: Nathaniel Gwyn

Title: Champion Candidate

Difficulty: Hell

Floor: 7 - Battlefield

Time left until forced return: 3y 99d 16h 36m 1s

Traits (2/3): Mana Circuit 2/3, Mana Wavelength Iris 2/3

Lvl 301

Strength: 189

Dexterity: 181

Constitution: 361

Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 1609 + 1609

Primary Class:Mana Weaver (Unique Arcane)

Sub-class: [Adept of Pride]

Active skills (10/10):

Focus - Lvl 60

Perception - Lvl 55

Redistribution - Lvl 58

Mana Domain (Pride) - Lvl 57

Mana Crown - Lvl 51

Mana Manipulation - Lvl 61

Ley Line - Lvl 44

Bone Knitting - Lvl 25

Eclipse - Lvl 14

Empyrean Lance - Lvl 0

Constructs:

Reinforcement (Construct)

Thermokinetic Mana Heart (Construct)

Mana Regulator (Construct)

Mana Sovereignty Mantle (Construct)

Vortex Core (Construct)

Passive skills (5/5):

Phoenix Embrace (Mid Epic)

Mana-Kinetic Conversion Reservoir (Unique Epic)

Mana-Fortified Mind (Low Arcane)

Mental Attunement Loop (Mid Arcane)

Mana Wavelength Tyrant (Mid Arcane)

Tokens:

Beyond 3 day stay token

Beyond 3 day stay token

Beyond 1 day stay token

Beyond 1 day stay token

Beyond 1 day stay token

Communication with your disciple for 10 minutes

Shards:97,939