Chapter 58：Quintessence (2/2)
'Is she dream-talking? She must have overworked herself.'
Arthur ignored the girl and resumed his reading. The author of this book had a unique way of writing that drew his attention even if he didn't want to.
”An experiment done by a magic engineer name Hassan Alrami two hundred years ago showed results that shocked the world. Hassan worked in a potion lab, using mana to create medicine that surpassed the normal drugs used. He wanted to create a mana potion that would be crowned as a Dragon Leap, creating dragons from men by giving them extraordinary amounts of mana.
”In the end, his project failed and such a potion was never created. However, like most discoveries, he found something far more interesting by accident. The condensation of mana caused it to evolve in quality, creating – what we now call it – a mana essence.
”It was then that many started using this method to create a mana essence, advancing magic engineering by leaps and bound. Mana essence explained a lot of things we didn't know the reason for, like mana cores and how humans were able to evolve further.
”Mana cores were the manifestation of mana essence in monsters, only differing in their quality. The evolution of monsters and the way monsters evolved – by eating the flesh of other creatures – made us unable to use the mana cores as essence.
”With the realization of its existence, extensive research went into mana essences in humans. They were able to establish a systematic way to rise from rei-rank to Vetus-rank, unlike the undeveloped methods used in the past. They also discovered the difference between people's mana essence, giving their mana different properties. People with green essence could use green mana, specialized in healing and life-energy. Red essence was a sign of instability and amplification, used mainly by berserks. From this, the existence of quintessence came into the world.
”Quintessence.” The girl opened her eyes next to him, standing up from the seat and gazed at Arthur. ”The difference between a rei-ranker and a Vetus-ranker. Boosting their abilities further and allowing them to evolve.” She recited as if she was reading a book. Arthur looked at her, scared out of his wits.
”How did you know I was reading?” Arthur felt like his thoughts were invaded, fearing it was another mind-reading ability.
”Quintessence depends on each person and their mana. People with red mana would develop a red quintessence. The main function of the quintessence is to supply mana to the relevant skills. If a berserker can make his quintessence, then skills with amplifications or similar traits would be a lot easier to use.”
”Seriously, dude, you're creeping me out.” Arthur closed his book as he stood up from his seat, deciding to take the book home. He left the library under the eyes of the creepy girl he just met.
He got home using the train and told his brother that the issue has been taken care of. Seeing his brother safe and unharmed, Oren sighed in relief. Arthur took the book back to his room before continuing to read.
The rest of the things Arthur read were as the bob-cut girl said, talking about each person having different types of mana and their properties. It also explained that there were some disadvantages to the difference in mana, as healers would pay enormous amounts of mana to use the skills of a berserk. This has established boundaries between skills, as people wouldn't learn the skills that would be disadvantageous.
Arthur read that most people had blue mana because the human body was composed of 70% of water. Luckily, they can change the properties of their mana through some training, potions, and rituals before reaching the Vetus-rank.
”Does that mean I can use different types of mana by absorbing their essence?” Arthur wondered, unsure of the results.
Arthur remembered the skill he last obtained from the underground tunnel, called Shadow Swap. It had a five meters radius but it consumed a lot of mana. With a thought, Arthur used the skill and appeared on the other corner of his room.
This skill used to consume 10 points of mana before, a sixth of Arthur's total mana. This was the reason skills were unfavored in the lower ranks since people would have less mana than the upper ones. It seemed that wasn't the only reason, as people above the Vetus-rank could use their quintessence to reduce the cost of mana.
The skill Shadow Swap consumed only 8 points of mana after absorbing the dark essence. So even though Arthur had yet to reach Vetus-rank, his mana consumption would still change.
The only worrying factor was if it was possible to have more than one essence per person, and Arthur would have to look into the matter more.