Still Seated on the ground, I exhaled slowly and opened my eyes, inadvertently causing the world of color to fade away back to its normal state. Then, trying to reign in my ever-expanding excitement, I took a few more calming breaths before diving into the bundle of floating notification panels that Tobs had thrown in my face upon my level up.
-Your body has adapted to having Mana Infused into it-
-Your Mana Codex has Solidified-
– First Tier Mana Circuit Formed-
-Your Tier 0: Mana Breathing Skill has Evolved into Tier 1: Mana Cycle-
-New Daily Quest Available-
Without wasting another second, I pulled up my Daily Quest Log, and the first thing I realized was that Tobs had adjusted the Mana Breathing daily quest into one involving my new Mana Cycling skill.
-Daily Quest: Cycling Mana – Incomplete (repeatable)
-Since your body now has a Codex, you can cycle your Mana through it and out into the rest of your body through newly formed veins called Mana Circuits.
-Since these veins are newly formed, and the Host has an Infantile body, Mana must be circulated to open these paths fully.
– Each successful Cycle will further open and strengthen these veins.
-Since both the Host’s Codex and Mana Circuit are newly formed, the process should only be completed once daily. Any further use at this time will cause serious side effects.
-Quest task will be updated once 100 Cycles have been completed
– Completed Cycle 0/1
-Reward’s – 20 Essence (XP),
+ 0.1 Points to Mana
+ 0.1 Points to Vitality (Upgrades to HP and Stamina will occur upon full Point Completion.)
Completed Cycles- 0/100
I exhaled the breath I had been unconsciously holding as I finished reading the new daily quest. While Tobs had told me about what a Codex was, the daily quest informed me how to utilize my Codex and placed a limiter on Cycling my Mana through my newly formed circuits.
It was about the time I finished reading that a startling realization went through my brain. ‘WAIT, the first daily quest of drinking mothers’ milk is gone. This means that once I complete both daily quests, I’ll be receiving 25 XP and 0.1 points to both my Mana and Vitality Stat. So every ten days ill be increasing both my Vitality and Mana by one.’ I tapped my index finger on my chin as I thought about this before continuing.
Between the Daily Quest information and the comments from Tobs earlier, there was no need for me to examine my new skill too profoundly. Both of my new skills were pretty self-explanatory; Mana Sight allowed me to see and feel the ambient Mana in a range of 5 meters. Meanwhile, Mana Manipulation gave me the ability to shape, bend and utilize Mana.
I did notice how Tobs had forcefully activated my new ability, which brought me back to the realization I had when I started using Mana Breathing some time ago.
Instead of being required to use a skill, all I had to do was think about activating it, then Tobs would take over from there and start it for me. So while there were pros and cons to this type of activation, it wasn’t necessarily challenging to adapt.
With that out of the way, I moved on to my new Panel. The Active/Passive abilities tab. Looking through each ability’s information briefly, Tobs informed me that when I had been focusing on my own body, I’d obtained the ability to see Mana as well as move it due to having both of these innate abilities in my bloodline.
Both of which I had inherently done when I conducted my little experiment earlier.
“OK, Tobs, you’ve got some splaining to do missy, I want information on this whole Tier thing as well as why there’s a proficiency percentage added onto my affinity now,” I said quietly while forcefully bending my head to the left, causing my neck to pop loudly, a habit that both Brandon and I had developed alongside cracking our backs and fingers.
-Accessing information database, locating information on Proficiency and Tier’s.-
-Host Authorization approved-
– In the Realm of Vinestra, two inherent values require a form of leveling. The first is the Status Called Level, which requires accumulating Essence or (XP).-
-The Second is Proficiency which pertains to increasing the Hosts knowledge, understanding, and useability of the mentioned factor; the Mana Codex, Mana Circuit, Affinity, and Skills all require the Host to accumulate 100 % Proficiency to evolve them to a higher power.-
– Tiers themselves are a form of classification. They range from 0 being the weakest form of a skill, Mana Codex, Mana Circuit, ability, or affinity; however, the Tiers continue increasing infinitely unless stated in their description.-
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but have more questions to ask.
“What about the Legacy Tier?” But unexpectedly, I was met by Tobs’s monotone voice telling me I wasn’t authorized to have that information.
Exhaling softly, I straightened my tiny body and continued asking questions such as how to increase my percentages. I was presented with dozens of ways to improve them, such as absorbing other Mana Codex, actively training the skills, or using Skill points.
But when I asked about these skill points, I was stopped in my tracks again by my unruly companion, who stated I am not currently at a high enough level to earn them.
Once I was done interrogating Tobs, I relaxed my body. I closed my eyes once and activated Mana Sight. The world of darkness once again lit up with bright lights as my vision narrowed on my little floating diamond next to my heart. The small Three-dimensional diamond-shaped crystal was no more than an inch in size and gave off a very soft light green shine.
‘Alright, let’s get this over with. I’m gonna have to start cycling my Mana at some point anyway, so why not now.’ Taking one last breath, I decided to activate the skill.
Just as I had started the process of activating my Mana Cycling, I was hit by a sudden wave of dread. Something was telling me that Cycling Mana through my Codex would hurt like a son of a bitch.
The something was absolutely correct.
About 30 seconds later, my Codex Flaired brightly internally. Then, as a small trickle from a spring into a lake, the dark-colored Mana stored inside the small light green gem began to leak out of my Codex and into my newly crafted Mana Circuits.
The second this process began, I had to clench my body tightly to stop any sound from being emitted.
‘DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! THIS IS JUST AS BAD IF NOT WORSE THAN AWAKENING.’ Using my Mind stat to the fullest, I kept my Cycling skill active while monitoring the fluid-like color move from my Codex outward to all my limbs and back.
In total, this process took almost 3 hours to complete. Luckily it was late at night, and Cinyah was already asleep while Rikard was out in an Egress.
After fully completing one entire cycle, I opened my quivering eyes and noticed not only was I no longer sitting cross-legged but instead sprawled on the floor. Not only this, but I was also completely drenched in sweat and uncontrollably quivering, as every fiber of my body was sore as if I had spent an entire day working out.
Standing up shakily, I moved from the floor over to my crib and, after several weak attempts to climb, finally landed my head on my pillow, where I proceeded to pass out for the night.
Unbeknownst to me, my sleeping face had a huge smile plastered on it as I subconsciously acknowledged what I had just accomplished at less than a year old.
Across the house in her room, Cinyah sat in the lotus position on her bed, grinning widely. There was no way someone of her level wouldn’t have noticed the fluctuations of Mana coming from her baby’s room. Like her husband, she had spent most of her life fighting and training her Mana.
Unlike what Cynrik was afraid of, Cinyah wasn’t worried; with her Distribution set to both Mind and Intelligence, she too was brilliant as a baby, similar to how Cynrik seemed to be. But, unfortunately, she had misunderstood how smart her baby indeed was and assumed that he was gifted with a double distribution just like she was in Mind and Intelligence.
What confused her was her inability to view his Stats with her Tier 3: Inspect skill. When she did, her System would give her a prompt stating she could not view the information. At first, this had led her to believe that something was wrong with her child, but as time when on, she just came to accept that her son was gifted and tried her best to support little Cynrik as he rapidly advanced.
However, little did she know that soon she wouldn’t just have one gifted son But two as currently in her womb a second life was beginning to form.