Weapons of Mass Destruction

In the end, I decide to go with

Passive Skill: Mana-Fortified Mind (Low Arcane) - The user's mind becomes an impenetrable fortress, fortified by impossibly complex mana weaves. This passive grants immense resistance to all forms of mental attacks, including illusions, mind control, and psychic attacks. Additionally, the passive allows the user's mind to endure the immense strain of using powerful skills and traits.

It's shameful to admit, but as of late, I've been having trouble focusing my mind when I need to use my skills on a really big scale. At this point managing some of the larger constructs, inscriptions, and splitting my mind into the necessary parts with [Focus] has begun to prove difficult. And I find myself wanting to act on ever larger-scales.

Not to mention all the ways it should improve my capacity to use [Ley Line], and a lot of other skills now that I think about it, even my domain, I should be able to expand it further now without a lot of extra strain.

And I can't forget my eyes. With this passive, I should be able to strengthen my trait even further. I just need to get the token for 1st stage, after all, I don't want to waste my 2nd stage token.

I know its main effect is to defend my mind, not to make it stronger—that would require a different passive. Still, even that small additional effect is a nice bonus.

Mana Sculptor was tempting too, but I think I should be able to recreate it on my own.

Though I’ll probably find myself regretting not choosing something with a healing effect. No, I know I’ll regret it, but I'm kind of used to bleeding and losing limbs for the sake of progress. I've always preferred to be a glass cannon.

Hopefully, my epic healing passive will hold on for a bit longer. I’m still working on those new body modifications with Lily, and then there are those healing marks she’s been working on.

I seriously considered taking Mana Pulse Circulation and I came close to choosing that. But there are reasons I didn’t, and I need to think those over a bit more to know if I should be smacking myself in the back of the head. Mana Cycling is especially something I need to look deeper into.

My main priority will always be protecting my mind and its freedom. It's something I’ve been forced to worry about ever since the 1st floor when Sophie got her hooks in me and used that to manipulate my actions. I fully intend to learn how this passive works for future abuse. And just as an added bonus, it’s due to come with a boost to my concentration and insight when it comes to researching new skills.

As just over 230 thousand shards disappear, the passive appears in my status, leaving me with just under 40 thousand shards.

My new passive doesn’t flare into immediate action, as pain floods through me. And I mean, a lot of pain. My entire head feels like it's about to melt, and I feel like some vast and unknowable thing has decided to skewer my brain with a red-hot iron.

Note to self: having a high-tier passive applied hurts like hell.

I begin doing mana shaping exercises in an effort to ignore the pain, resuming my work with the evil orbs. I glance at them now and again, curious to see if the passive has made any difference, and it's clearly noticeable even in this incomplete state.

There were levels in mana shaping I could delve into, but the pressure on my mind wouldn’t allow for much probing when I first started, so, of course, that means I’ve gained a new avenue for training!

Right away, I add two more evil orbs, totaling seven before I get slowed by my inadequate mastery over mana rather than a weakness of my flesh.

Over the last few days, I’ve been planning to set up a large-scale web, similar to Sophie’s using [Ley Line], I should be able to put this new passive through its paces then. After that, the next test will be to focus on compressing my mana and delving deeper into the kind of things Mana Sculptor passive described.

I will improve my mana armor, weapons, projectiles, and manabloc chairs.

Actually, the more I think about it the more “manabloc” makes sense as a name for the compressed mana I use." So by that token, I would be using manabloc swords and armor.

And damn if I don’t know my share of people who would absolutely hate it.

Anyway, my big mecha armor requires testing. With my new passive, I should be able to make it bigger and stronger, and the self-repair function would certainly be nice to learn. I’ll definitely need to make the longest lasting creation possible. I’ve even got a head start with the chairs I made a few nights back.

The events of that night are still awkward to think about, and I’m going to need to kick something’s ass just to feel manly again. Bullying the twins could work, but they’ve been suspiciously not annoying, and something in me thinks it has something to do with their adaptability as if they’ve figured out my patterns and made an effort to avoid giving me an excuse.

Tsk.

“How’s your training going?” I ask, stopping by to check on them, and finding the lazy asses sitting in the chairs I made with modified evil orbs floating over them.

“You’re a frigging monster,” Dennis groans.

I track his eyes and find them on the seven orbs following me.

“Skill issue?”

“Please, Nat, don’t use that jargon.”

“I heard it from you, so who’s really to blame here? I’ll remind you once again: if you fail to meet my expectations within the next few months, I will force you to switch to Hard difficulty. You would be dumb not to take me at my word.”

“We know, we know, damn it. You are not the type to back down from this kind of stuff,” Aaron, sighs from his position next to me, his evil orb vanishing.

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I modify one of mine, move it over to him, then replace it with a fresh one.

“Any reward if we succeed?”

“Becoming stronger?” I ask, mild confusion evident in my tone. “If you work at it you’ll improve your control over your skills, and maybe you and your brother won’t have to keep being the weakest members of group 4. You could even beat Min-Jae if you do well. I’m sure Tess’ working on a training regiment for him as well, so you can’t really afford to lose.”

“Are you maybe competing with Tess to see who can raise the stronger pet?”

“Are you trying to turn us into your disciples?” Dennis smirks.

Now that’s an amusing thought, I think, making the orbs a bit harder to handle. “In just a few years, Vega will wipe the floor with you. Both of you at once. If she maintains her current rate of improvement, and I get the chance to summon her during the tournament, no one from Hard difficulty will be able to face her.”

“She’s a demon, that girl,” Dennis says, swatting away the remains of his burst evil orb with a free hand.

In response, I immediately create a new one.

“So, what happened with the group after you left the Champion’s prison?”

“Well, we were confused at first, what with the missing thylarin douches and the fact that you’d stayed behind, but we checked the Community, and you were still there. Izzy seemed to know something though, so she got us all calmed down,” Aaron says lazily.

The way he handles the orb tells me he’s starting to get the hang of it, so I increase the difficulty.

Dennis continues in his place, “We appeared in some old, abandoned fort. We cleared the surroundings of monsters and posted a guard while we rested. Then, Sophie and Tess started fighting sometime during the night,”

“More like Sophie started drilling Tess,” Aaron adds quickly before returning his focus to managing his orb.

“She is always like that when it comes to Izzy’s safety,” Dennis confirms.

When Aaron’s orb bursts open again, he leans back in his chair. “They fought and damn, if Sophie decides she wants to cause trouble, she can really do some damage, even to Tess. Izzy had to step in before someone died then Sophie took her and left. I really didn’t expect it to happen, and neither did Tess. She seemed… hurt. Are you okay with that, Nat?”

“You guys act like it’s the end of the world or something. Just give it a few months. Maya will keep poking and prodding at Tess, Izzy will manipulate Sophie, and the gang will be together again. Have you met anyone from the central region?”

“Not a single one so far, honestly I think we’re way off target from where we were headed. Kallus seemed lost too, but he was a bit more open about sharing information on the central region, and any hints and rumors he had about the remaining containment zones. We’ll have to get you up to speed on everything we’ve learned since then.”

“Good, the Champions’ containment cells seem like a solid lead to getting us off this moon.”

“That’s what you call a solid lead? After the blue maniac in the hole? Are you sure you want to mess with even more Champion-level beings?”

“Why not? It ended perfectly well last time.”

“Suuureee.”

I increase the difficulty of the orb and then create a few more which I set to hovering nearby. That way the twins can grab new ones if the ones they’re training with burst. I’m quite happy with the new orbs. They’ll only activate their ever changing frequency and mana level requirements when one of the twins takes them. Until then, they’ll remain inactive. Sandra would be proud.

Well, if I were being honest she would probably just compare me to a pet or something.

Walking towards Lily, I spin the evil orbs around me and examine each one. I could probably manage a few more, and that annoys me as much as it makes me happy. It shouldn’t be this easy. I should be straining as blood seeps from my ears and nose just to handle the one. Just like the good old times back in the pyramid.

Tonight, I will have to sit down and check the mana stones Lady Lissandra gave me and ramp up the difficulty. I’m sure she modified the orbs for me, just as I did for the twins, surely I can modify them again.

The thought of me being to her what the twins are to me prickles at my competitive spirit. If I don’t come up with a way to make this significantly more difficult, I’ll check out the other shaping exercises, even though Lissandra recommended starting with this one.

I check on Lily to find that she’s currently resting with her back against a boulder with her eyes closed, her hands clasping the finger bone of the champion from the 5th floor and some of the others I’ve collected.

Careful not to interrupt her, I connect to my Ley Lines, and they appear, flaring in my sight. A dozen invisible pale blue threads stretching in all directions. They’re part of a new test I thought up. Each one is tied to a different item. And though it’s something I could easily do with normal mana, these are something people can pass through and still have trouble sensing.

They don’t have any effect on the physical world yet, but I’m sure I can come up with something clever once I have a few more levels in the skill.

I touch one line, and for a moment it shines, and I give the anchor a strong pull, yanking it towards me. A chair gets pulled to me through the open area, and I grab it by the leg, setting it upright so I can take a seat.

As I do, I think about this new skill of mine.

These threads that make up my Ley Lines—what can I make with them? They are of a material I have yet to meet, and I know the intention is to make them hidden, but during previous testing, I was able to make part of one line show in the physical world. That single short thread was stronger than anything else I’m currently capable of creating.

It took a lot out of me. It scared Biscuit, and the twins said they felt like they were about to pass out as I strained my skills, pushed my limits, and burned through a metric ton of mana to make it happen.

I can usually estimate how much strain something will take, and honestly, I don't think I can push it any further at this point—at least not without seriously hurting myself.

Fortunately, I just got a new arcane passive and that should allow for more testing.

The materialized Ley Line is impossible to disrupt, and impossible to cut, at least with my current level of skill, even running [Resonance] at full power didn’t do anything, I couldn’t burn it either nor could I affect it kinetically.

It took a lot of effort just to materialize this weird, finger-length, thread.

But at that moment, I decided it was something I wanted to exploit. Together with the intended use of the skill, I will try to materialize it as much as possible. I have the skillset for that. I can do it.

And once I’ve mastered it I’ll weave things from the thread.

Weapons, armor, barriers. I’ll learn to make the threads, the Ley Lines, as thin as possible, if I can make them fine enough they have the potential to make my creations infinitely more delicate. I will learn as much as I can from this skill and add its properties to everything I create with [Mana Manipulation].

One day I’ll even weave it through my mana mech, making it that much tougher as I use the lines for muscles and tendons.

The sheer amount of processing it will require to materialize that many Ley Lines makes my head spin, but my arcane passive will help.

And it’s not like I don’t have options: I can level my [Focus], allowing it to handle more of the strain of that, and split my mind into multiple parts to process everything I need to control. I could also make an item, something to handle part of the strain.

The Ley Line thread is already gone, I couldn’t keep it materialized longer than a few moments, but its image is still fresh in my mind. A delicate, pale blue shimmering thread, a color so similar yet distinct from the pale blue of normal mana.

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