Kapitel 208: Training combat ability (2)
"Now go and try it.", she then encouraged him.
Without showing any hesitation, Ivan made his way down the platform and towards the woods surrounding it.
It didn't take him long to find the first monster. It was a mushroom consisting of a long flexible stem and a hard cap. He had already fought against mushrooms like this before. While they couldn't move, their flexible stems allowed them to attack in an area of around two meters.
In this area it would use its cap to hit the target, trying to deal blunt damage to it and maybe knock it out. Then it would wait for the target to decompose, a process that was fastened by an enzyme it would emit. During the decomposition, nutritions would get into the ground which was then absorbed by the mushroom.
But all of that was irrelevant for Ivan. The thing that was important for him was its attack pattern and finding the best way to deal with it.
With it being immobile and only capable of attacking in a radius of around two meters, the most efficient way of attack was of course to use a ranged attack. Additionally, a fire attack would deal even more damage, since it was a plant-type monster.
Having come to this conclusion he then thought about the weakest part of the monster. If it was him before, he would have just used his sword in combination with his much higher combat strength to slay it. But now the goal wasn't to just defeat the plant monster, but to do so in the most efficient way while using only mana.
Because he was only allowed to use mana, the most efficient attack should be the flame blade, with the weak point of the mushroom being the relatively thin stem. By firing a horizontal flame blade, he should be able to cut through the stem without having to invest a lot of mana.
He carefully guided his mana into the formation of the flame blade. Usually, he used his sword as a helping tool to emit the flame blade but this time he tried to do without it.
Slowly a flame blade formed in front of him. It didn't seem very stable and was slightly wobbling around. He continued to stabilize it, carefully feeling the amount of mana he had to invest to keep it in existence.
While he stabilized the blade, the mana required also went down until finally, he was satisfied with the stability of the blade.
But something made him look at it with disappointment. He had tried to make it about twenty centimeters long, which was just slightly more than the diameter of the mushroom stem. But the flame blade which was hovering in front of him was more than a meter long.
The only way to look at it was as a failure. Sure, it was stable and also horizontal but it was way too large.
Anyway, now that it was there it would be a waste to just dismiss it. So he shot it towards the mushroom with just a thought.
And as expected the flame blade went through the stem like a knife through butter. The cut was clear with only a little bit of charring on both ends.
"You selected the right method of attack but the size was way too much.", Celine's voice lectured him from behind him. "It seems like you still need finer control over your mana, so you can reduce the size of the structures required to stabilize the blade."
She also told him the reason for his inability to make the blade smaller. Making the blade smaller wasn't as easy as just using less mana or reducing the structures formed by the mana. No, each spell had a certain structure that was required for it to work. It was like fine strings of mana formed in a certain pattern. This would then manifest the end result of the spell.
And these patterns didn't really have a limit to their size. If the control was good enough it would be possible to form them of extremely thin strings, making the pattern small as well. This would result in the same effect but on a smaller scale, for a lot less mana.
If the control wasn't there, then the only option was to use thicker strings of mana to form these patterns. Of course, this also meant that the patterns were larger, increasing the size of the spell as well as the mana cost. Of course, more mana also meant that the spell was stronger but with the wastage also higher it was much more efficient to just combine smaller patterns into larger ones to get the same result as a larger more rough pattern.
In the end, it all depended on the skill 'Mana Manipulation'. Ivan realized that it could be seen as a multiplier for all mana related spells. The higher it was the more efficient his spells would be, making it all the more important to increase its level.
"Alright. The best way to learn is to try. Let's find the next monster for you to train on.", Celine broke him out of his thoughts.
And once again he was on his way to find a new opponent. While making his way forward, he carefully tried to sense how much mana he had still left. Although it wasn't that bad, that he had used up a quarter of his mana, it wasn't far from it.
"Urgh, my mana amount sucks.", he couldn't help but sigh.
This made Celine chuckle, "Don't worry. This feeling will follow you for a long time.", she commented, "It is something that you will always wish for: To have more mana, to have more Qi or any other form of energy."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You can never have enough of it. Although there will be a point where it won't be as much of a problem as now. But in the end, you will always want to have more."
"That doesn't sound fun at all."
"Well, it will always be a part of why you will want to improve. It is a great motivational factor, the feeling of not having enough, the feeling of having it easier."
"Somehow I think I could live without such a motivational factor.", he complained.
She laughed, "Not only you, not only you."
It seemed like she too had had problems with it.
While talking they had advanced further and had now met the next enemy. This time it wasn't a mushroom but a flower-like monster. It could be said to have similar properties as the mushroom before since it too was a plant-type monster. The big difference was that this flower produced a form of acid inside its stem, which it could spit towards attackers.
Unlike the mushroom, it wouldn't attack on its own accord but instead only react to an enemy attacking it. If compared to a monster in a game, it could be said to be a ranged passive monster.
Although the plant had a ranged attack, the range of it Ivan didn't know, it wasn't much different to fight it, compared to fighting the mushroom. This was because of its passive nature, which allowed Ivan to once again form his flame blade without any disturbance.
This time he especially concentrated on making the mana pattern finer and more delicate but of course, there wasn't much improvement. It would be a wonder if it was possible to improve it much without a lot of practice and studying.
The only improvement came from the fact, that he especially focused on it, something that had an impact. An impact large enough for him to feel that the mana used to form the flame blade was less than the last time. But the difference was minuscule and the size of the blade didn't change either.
It was still way too large. The flame blade easily sliced through the flower, not giving it any time to react.
While the mushroom didn't have anything useful the acid produced by the flower could be used for creating medicine or blacksmithing. Thus Celine went over to it and used a glass bottle to collect it. After putting away the bottle of green liquid acid she turned towards Ivan and told him.
"I'm sure you have realized that it isn't that easy to improve. Don't worry, you can just keep practicing and you will get better at it. This also isn't the point of this practice, instead, it is about improving your decision making.", she then pointed towards a part of the flower directly below the blossom. "Nearly all flowers have a weak point here. Take a look."
Ivan got closer and following her words took a closer look at the part of the flower she was pointing at. It wasn't hard to see what she meant. It was possible to see, even without slicing through it, that the wands of the stem were much thinner here than at the point he had his flame blade cut through.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein