Chapter 27: Master Rank Skills

During the week, he hadn't just pushed his body to its limits but also his Mana Skills. One of these limit-pushing exercises was manipulating the surrounding Elements with MANA MANIPULATION as he did with the sunlight today. Manipulating elements like that was something that took him a while to succeed. Still, he was far from his technique to be perfect, as he knew these actions would be impossible without his Blessing's passive effect. Even with that, he barely succeeded in that action.

It wasn't because his INT was low but also his limitations of the Rank of his skill. Because of his Blessing, though, he used the advantage of his high INT to push through the other requirements.

During his craft of the hourglass, he felt the sunlight becoming more comfortable to control, but he didn't know that it was because he broke the limit of the Base Rank of his skill.

He could also feel that his MANA SENSE had developed because he used it during the last crafting session to replace his sight, but it didn't seem enough to reach the Master Rank yet.

After he waited and made sure that Annoue was asleep, he started his tests with the new limits of his skill, and this time, he did the same exercise that he gave to Little Phoenix. He manipulated and gathered the mana of his and Annoue's shadows.

Also, as he did with the sunlight, he didn't cut the mana's ties with its shadow, so he started manipulating the shadow entirely, and not just its mana.

Because this was supposed to be of Dark Element, it wasn't as easy as controlling Light Element. However, it was still way more manageable than when he managed the Light Element with his Base Rank skill. The difference was quite evident as he had tried it in the past, during his second meeting with Hineko at the storehouse, where he gave himself that darker look. Still, it took everything he had, but now he barely needed to put some focus on it, and the speed was multiple times faster than then and more precise.

After making a ball of shadow filling his hand, he spread the shadow to cover his whole body with the shadows, and it happened in a matter of seconds.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell CAMOUFLAGE (Low Grade) has been learned.

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'Oh, that is interesting. Then with some adjustments, I should be able to cast that spell.' [Shingi]

Shingi kept the shadows to cover his body. He tried to mix some of his Light Mana with the shadows, which wasn't easy as the two elements were repelling each other as it was in their nature.

That wasn't much for Shingi now, as he focused a little more and had everything under his control. Before he was sure that he might have a 30% chance of succeeding if he tried to do something like that, he used all his focus. Now he wasn't even using a fifth of his focus, and he had everything under control. This was the actual difference in the power of a Base Rank and a Master Rank skill.

And so part of the shadows combined with his Light became somewhat transparent and then invisible to the eye. Still, it wasn't like you saw through it as the body part of his cover was hidden, too. With the Light Mana's help, the shadow was like magnets for light, and it was manipulating the morning and gave the deception of not being there. But if one was pretty perceptive, he could see his figure, especially if he was moving, but it seemed the System thought of it as acceptable.

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SPELL LEARNED

The spell INVISIBILITY (Base Grade) has been learned

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'If someone heard that I learned a Base Rank spell and have no class, they would just think I am crazy.' [Shingi]

Ungraded spells were simple tricks that anyone who could use mana could learn, no matter how untalented or talented they were. Low-Grade spells weren't that much different really than ungraded ones. Their difficulty understanding wasn't that different except for those whose specific type of Element of Mana was required, like with ROCK THROW. As for Base Grade, that is when one was considered a real Arcane User.

A Base Grade Spell was way more potent than a Low-Grade spell, not just because it needed more mana, but their difficulty in casting was on another level.

Shingi had seen the INVISIBILITY been cast before, and he knew that his own was far from the same quality as it, but that is cause it was the first time he cast the spell. He could train on it, and the spell would increase in power when he would be truly invisible to the naked eye that not even his Player Character would see him. But same as that unlucky Rogue he faced last week, his spell will allow others not to see him, but they could hear him or see his interaction with his surroundings, so he had to be careful when using this against perceptive foes.

Shingi recast the spell, and it took him around 10 seconds to cast it, which wasn't too fast but not too slow either. He noticed his figure was less noticeable when moving but still needed work. He could hold the spell for one minute, caused by his mana to be almost over. After casting the spell, he needed to use his mana to keep the shadows around him and feed them with Light Mana, which was pretty expensive for him. He calculated he could probably stay invisible for two minutes in total if he had his mana full, and that was with one casting of the spell. If he had to cast other spells or recast it, the time would be less.

So then he focused on his Mana Tree. Since his MANA MANIPULATION was higher Rank, he could now manipulate more mana, feed it, and make its growing progress faster. With his work to the shop and helping Annoue, he made a minor breakthrough during the week at growing his Mana Tree, as it had barely grown a few centimeters in height.

But after he restored some of his mana, he stood up. Then, he cast his CAMOUFLAGE spell, which wasn't as good as his INVISIBILITY Spell. Still, since it was dark outside and combined with his STEALTH, he was sure that no one would notice. And so he made his way out and to the old storehouse, which he considered a remarkable open space to develop his Mana Tree.

Of course, he knew he didn't need to use a spell since his STEALTH should be more than enough. Still, it was an excellent way to consider it as a practice round of how it would be when using his INVISIBILITY.

And so he made it to the storehouse. In theory, even if he was, he should be slower, as he was the more careful cause of his stats change. So he made it a few minutes earlier than usual.

He sat over the box that he always used, but this time he didn't need to take his clothes off, and while keeping his MANA SENSE and PERCEPTION on to make sure he didn't have any guests, out of nowhere, he focused on feeding mana on his Mana Tree.

He tried to focus on attracting at the moonlight, but it was a cloudy night, and it wasn't a full moon either, so he couldn't get much, but there were quite a few Earth mana sources he could work with. He needed to strengthen the Earth side of his Mana Tree, which was lesser than his Light one, which could easily succeed by feeding Earth-based mana, the easiest one to find. But he didn't want to change the balance of his tree too much. Some of his spells needed the Light Mana, so it was good that his Mana Tree could make a lot.

He had now calculated that his Light/Earth Mana ratio was 70/30, with Light ELement being higher. He considered trying to make it 50/50, but after getting a spell-like INVISIBILITY, he aimed for 60/40. It wasn't like 30 percent wasn't enough, but he was seeking to learn more offensive spells in the future, and they would mostly use Earth Mana.

Also, he was using more of his Earth Mana during his crafting, especially using Earth MANA HAND. It could withstand heated metals better than his Light MANA HAND. Light MANA HANDS needed to keep feeding them with mana or get dispelled after a while as the heat damaged them. Of course, it wasn't like he couldn't work without it, but it was a way to improve the final craft's quality.

So for the rest of the night, he kept manipulating mana, and this time, it wasn't just strengthening the tree itself, but the ground of it too.

And so, after hours, a change finally happened. It created a cocoon around the tree and looked like an oversized seed. The left half was bright lime made of light, and it made the right half of earth. But the two parts weren't the same size as the Light part seems to cover more than the Earth one.

After a few minutes of nothing happening and it rejected any mana that Shingi tried to feed. A small tree grew more and more. It stopped when it reached almost a meter and a half in height, much bigger than its shrub form. And it grew some Mana Seeds on its branches. Shingi counted them, and they were 12 at a number, which was less than what Annoue had, but it was still at the Base Rank. As for Mana Fruits didn't have any, but it made sense since a Mana Fruit was a full-grown seed, and he just grew some Mana Seeds.

He made some careful tests to understand the nature and power of the seeds. Finally, after almost an hour of thorough examination, he was confident that they currently had enough mana to cast a ROCK THROW Spell of his.

That wasn't much, but they were just grown, and in time, he could even be able to use them as a replacement to cast an INVISIBILITY spell. But if they become a fruit, he should be able to cast his INVISIBILITY and keep it active for a minute, using none of his mana.

But growing fruit on a Mana Tree wasn't a simple task as far as he understood, and it took time. He wasn't sure how many he could grow. Even if he had one, he wouldn't dare to use it unless he had no other choice.

He still had a couple of hours before he needed to return, so he kept feeding his Mana Tree and his Mana Seed.