Chapter 27

    Matt sat in the central gathering area. In the last week of delving, someone had created stone tables and chairs. Their creation was a source of entertainment, or problems, depending on how you looked at it.

    The raised platform had turned into a debate stage. Currently, there was an incredibly pale man standing across from a magic archer. Matt hadn''t caught the archer''s name, but the pale man was Brent Corosi.

    In theory, the debates were a friendly way to share knowledge and different perspectives. In practice, the platform had been taken over by people debating mana cultivation for the last three hours.

    The only thing keeping physical fights from breaking out was that the stage was hardly ever shared by a Republican and an Empire citizen at the same time.

    Currently, the archer was trying to say that the standard 1000 mana by Tier 3 was better. He had been repeating the same few points at least half a dozen times now.

    "The slight loss to the mana soft cap isn''t that bad in the first three Tiers. It''s worth the gains in maximum mana to take the mana concentration hit. The loss can be made up for at later Tiers."

    Brent refuted the assertion before the archer could meander through the same few talking points again. "No, only getting 800 mana at Tier 3 is far better. Your mana will be a little more concentrated, and then you won''t have any loss. Even a few percent of waste per Tier can add up quickly."

    "If you used a real weapon and not magic, it wouldn''t matter." The archer snapped at the mage, picking on his lack of visible weapons.

    "Yeah, well Im not going to take the word of an idiot archer. Who would choose a bow?"

    Matt looked to the only other person on his team that could actually cultivate mana.

    "What''s your opinion?"

    Liz jerked when he asked the question a second time.

    "Uhh... What? Sorry I was completely zoned out."

    Matt repeated himself, "You know me. What''s your take on mana cultivation. Which is right? The guide I read on my home planet went with the archer''s strategy."

    Liz scoffed at that, "Pshhhhhhh. No. Just no. That strategy gives you a slight advantage in the first five Tiers, sure. But then it corrects itself around Tier 5 or 6, and says to invest heavily in mana concentration to correct the issue. The spirit can only expand so much per Tier. The mage is closer to being right in my opinion. Youre a little weaker in the early stages, but there arent any peaks or valleys in strength to work around."

    As soon as she finished speaking, she sent a message to him through his AI. ''You probably won''t have that issue. You aren''t increasing your maximum mana or mana regen the conventional way. Talents are always able to break the conventional rules.''

    "Really?" Matt asked out loud. He didn''t mind if people knew that they were conversing with AI messages.

    ''You wouldn''t be the first to have a Talent that does something to your cultivation. Look up Taki I don''t remember his last name. But he ascended a few millennia ago, and he left a full AI verified record of his Talents and skills. His Tier 3 Talent made it so his maximum mana didn''t have a cap. He could regen to a bajillion mana if he waited long enough. Completely impossible for most to have that kinda max mana. But Talents are unique, and don''t follow the rules.

    That gave Matt more to think on.

    ''Whats a normal mages mana at around Let''s say Tier 5?'' He asked, hoping Liz would know.

    ''That''s really an impossible question to answer. It depends on how much they push the diminishing returns before they go into mana concentration, and if they cultivate to have more mana regen or max mana.''

    Matt went to open his mouth, but another message came through.

    ''I know what you want. Heres the standard maximum mana chart for Tier 25 if the cultivator in question doesn''t hit the diminishing returns of growth. But remember that this is deceptive, as it doesn''t account for mana concentration. At Tier 8 or 9, most will have nearly fifty percent denser mana. At Tier 10 or 11, theyll have seventy five percent. That makes a huge difference.''

    As the graph arrived, he looked it over and was still surprised, despite Lizs qualifiers.

    TierWitness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through N?o?v€l--B1n.

    Maximum Mana

    Tier 1

    100

    Tier 2

    400

    Tier 3

    800

    Tier 4

    1000

    Tier 5

    1500

    Tier 6

    2000

    Tier 7

    2500

    Tier 8

    3000

    Tier 9

    3500

    Tier 10

    4000

    Tier 11

    4500

    Tier 12

    5000

    Tier 13

    5500

    Tier 14

    6000

    Tier 15

    7000

    Tier 16

    8000

    Tier 17

    9500

    Tier 18

    12000

    Tier 19

    15000

    Tier 20

    17000

    Tier 21

    Matt kept an eye out as the stronger group got food, and cleared a table of the previous inhabitants.

    It was a good reminder not to be an asshole if he was surrounded by people weaker than him.

    ***

    The trio was at the final clearing of the bear rift. Matt stood with his sword at the ready, waiting for Liz''s throw. She had only missed once more in the week they had been delving this rift.

    Today, they were going to start soloing the final fight. The other two would be at the ready, but they wanted to push their capabilities.

    Watching the trajectory of the spear, he started running. It would hit. He made a note to suggest that Liz get a ring attached to it, near the head of the spear. It would help to negate her disadvantage of only being able to move the spear where blood was connected.

    As he reached the clearing and the three massive bears noticed him, the lizardman was already being skewered by the spear. It quickly ripped its way back to the woman behind him.

    He sprinted ahead and was on the first bear in two [Mages Retreat] empowered steps. Matt''s longsword bit deep into the bear''s neck and shoulders.

    Stepping back to avoid the skill enhanced bite of the giant bear, he lunged, with his blade tip leading the charge. As the blade was bitten, it sliced into the bear''s brain. The durability and sharpness runes made it a suicidal action, thus ending one of the trio.

    The second bear was on him before he could withdraw his blade, and it slammed into him. His AI had given him enough warning. He made sure his grip on his weapon was firm, and while he was sent sliding, the momentum of the attack actually pulled the blade out for him.

    As he rolled, the bear continued to rush him. It was not willing to use its maw as a weapon, wary of befalling the same fate as its fellow beast.

    Matt used the last of the momentum to spring to his feet, and chopped at the bear. It was an awkward blow that the bear decided it could tank. Since he was still disorientated, the blade wasn''t enhanced with the sharpness or durability rune when he brought it down.

    Still, the weapon was made with Tier 5 materials, and it sliced through the fur and muscle of the beast. Before Matt could take advantage and finish off the recoiling beast, he was swiped at by the third bear.

    The fight was slightly hectic for the lone fighter. He was able to take at least one more blow with his armor, before the massive bears were able to reach his weaker flesh. The two didn''t give Matt a moment to catch his breath before trying to run him down, and crush him with their weight advantage.

    Ducking a swipe, Matt advanced with a [Mages Retreat] empowered bound, slipped under the blow, and cut deeply into the bear''s back leg.

    The crippling slash allowed Matt to force the bears into a stalemate. They were unwilling to fight him without the others'' support, but he had forced one to a much slower limp. With the unhobbled bear unsure of what to do, Matt got within striking range and tried to bait it out. The tactic eventually worked, as Matt took an overreaching swipe as an invitation to thrust at the wounded bear.

    Either enraged or seeing its position was unsustainable, the unhobbled bear charged him. He dodged or deflected each wide swipe while pushing mana into his finishing skill embedded in the blade.

    The strain on his spirit built quickly. As he carefully watched his AI readout, he counted the mana he was sending the blade.

    The green tinged blade started glowing blue as the mana built up. As he deflected blows, Matt started to tire at an alarming rate from the charging skill. At the moment he felt the strain building to dangerous levels, he met the paw with a parry and unleashed his finisher.

    After the massive release of mana, Matt''s spirit felt like a deflated balloon. He wanted to drop to his knees and sleep for a few hours.

    Unable to give in to that impulse, he checked to see where the bear was, as the resistance had vanished.

    The top half of the beast was completely stripped of skin, and bone was missing in places. The only thing remaining was a mangled clump of exposed, bleeding flesh.

    Quickly, he turned to the final, crippled bear, wanting the fight over. He steeled himself, and charged at the bear with every ounce of energy he had left, sword trailing behind him. [Mages Retreat] gave him the dexterity to sidestep the beasts attack, and cleanly impale the bear through its exposed flank.

    As he lay crumpled against the third and final corpse, he let his sword go and rolled onto the soft grass covering the hill.

    Releasing all of his skills felt like cold water on a burn. It hurt, but as the strain of keeping the skills active disappeared, he gasped and went numb.

    He heard Aster and Liz approaching, but was unable to muster the effort to care. When the fox sniffed him, he snagged her with an effort of will, and pulled her into a cuddle.

    It wasn''t like a headache so the cold didn''t help relieve him, but holding his bond was comforting.

    Testing to see if speaking would hurt, he said, "Well, that was worse than I hoped, but better than I feared. I feel like a wrung out dishrag."

    Liz laughed and sat next to him.

    "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Her question wasn''t welcome, and he told her so with a raised finger.

    "Ok, bad news first. That won''t get any better the more you do it. The only thing that will help will be advancing beyond Tier 4. The good news is, this is a great time to work on your sensitivity training with the skills in your spirit."

    With his face in the blue-white coat of Aster, he murmured, "Yay for me."

    Sitting up, he delved into his spirit. Everything looked fine, but each brush of his spiritual sense felt like brain freeze. If his spirit could vomit, it would. Trying to identify each part of their structure was already difficult, doing it in this state was almost impossible. Still, Liz knew what she was doing, and the training would only serve to help him, no matter his condition.

    Matt''s mind wandered to his Concept as he ran mental fingers over his skills.

    What do I want? A blade Concept seems fitting, and it would be useful. But I know it''s not, since I was touching on it without my blade in hand. And well, they are just weapons after all. I''d transition to a mage style in a moment and not shed a tear. What good would a blade concept do me then?

    He pondered that last thought. No, even if he went full mage tomorrow, he''d use the longsword as a backup. He liked the weapon and the dance he fell into when in combat. He was also self aware enough to know it wasn''t a perfect fit with who he was at his core either.

    The image of him blasting spells was just as prevalent in his imagination as slicing giant monsters.

    He next thought went to his armor and its defensive capabilities. [Cracked Phantom Armor] was his lifeline, and it was what had gotten him to this point. It was a core skill in every possible future he could think of. Even as a pure mage, being able to stay that safe was of vital interest. He would never need to copy Liz and wear bulky armor.

    Though, physical armor might be a nice addition to enhance my combat abilities. Even some thin armor could be a good second chance in case something broke through [Cracked Phantom Armor].

    Making a note with his AI, he forced his thoughts back to his Concept. The final idea he had about his Concept was his mana pool. It was unlimited and never ending.

    He popped open an eye, and looked to the mage, who was drawing in the dirt with a bear''s claw.

    "How will I know if I''m close to a Concept or not?"

    Without looking up, she responded, "Easy. You won''t. You might get really close, and that will resonate with you, and it''s possible you might feel that. That''s why I told you to list everything youve thought of so far. If you can''t remember thinking of one, theres a good chance of that being your Concept. "

    Matt gave his thanks, and pushed his thoughts back to his mana.

    He pushed a bit into his hands, and watched it dissipate. It looked like blue smoke, only less substantial. Like the reflection of smoke.

    He revised his thoughts regarding his mana being unlimited. That wasn''t true. Right now, he was at 2 mana, indicating he had been pondering for a good while. At least, more than the ten minutes it would take for him to reach ten percent of his maximum mana capacity.

    If it wasn''t his mana, was it his physical cultivation? He chewed on the new idea. Could he resonate with the physical growth his Tier 1 Talent enforced on him?

    Pushing the thought was fruitful. He was large for his age, at sixteen and a half and six foot three. His memories of his parents were hazy, but he remembered them both being on the taller side, though his father was only around six-two.

    Deciding to forgo the Concept search, he kept his mental fingers exploring both of the skills in his spirit, and let his mind wander.

    His parents were just foggy memories at this point. He had a file of pictures and recordings of them in his AI. The orphanage had provided them, and all these years later, he had still been unable to open the file.

    There had been more than a few sleepless nights of him crying for them to come back, but somehow opening the file felt definitive. It would be truly accepting that they only lived in those files, and his every blurring memories.

    He tried to picture his mother''s face. He knew he had inherited his sandy blond hair from her.

    While her features were blurry, he could clearly remember sitting on her lap at the salon. She had gone from shoulder blade length hair to a shorter, chin-length cut.

    They had draped the cut locks over his head and pretended he was wearing a wig.

    He could distinctly remember looking into the mirror and meeting her eyes.

    But what color were her eyes? Matt couldn''t remember. It was a blurry, wet paint memory.

    He turned to his father. The man had worked as a construction foreman, overseeing a group of specialty finishers for nicer, upscale housing. It was the work the rare AI ran machines didn''t do, nor the more common general laborers.

    Matt''s memories of him were even dimmer. He worked long hours,but still tried to make time for the young Matt. He and his father had spent a day together when an out of season hurricane hit the coast, and he didn''t have to work.

    He couldn''t remember why his father wasn''t working on the more finished and protected buildings. But as he had the day off, his parents had let him stay home from school and spend the time with his father.

    After having worked at Benny''s and done hard labor day in and day out, he was surprised his father hadn''t just passed out on an unexpected free day. He instead took Matt to an aquarium and museum.

    The aquatic creatures had scared him at the time, and it took coaxing from his father to touch the glass.

    The museum, on the other hand, had been far more interesting to the younger Matt. He was able to touch the stuffed remains of higher Tiered monsters. The ones shown were mostly the animal types, either for their fierceness or their cuteness.

    Matt could see his father''s eyes, a hazel leaning heavily to green. They were darker than his own, a shaded forest compared to his brighter shade of grass in the sun.

    But what did his nose look like?

    Unable to dredge the memory up, he looked at the blinking folder at the corner of his eye.

    Focusing, he asked Liz. "You ready? I need to fight things."

    He stood up quickly, shoving the thoughts of the past where they belonged. The past.