Chapter 19 - 20 : Seeker Of Knowledge (1/2)
Once Arthur left the underground arena with Lucy, they both headed for the next class, Mana manipulation. Actually, Lucy may seem very good at using her attribute but Mana manipulation had many other uses too, so she was quite excited for this class, the same thing applied to Arthur, heneeded to be more acknowledgeable about the Magic and how to control it and since Mana was the origin of all, it was more of a reason to attend this class.
They soon arrived at a classroom similar to the previous one except it was slightly bigger, it was filled with students but most of them were seniors and there were almost none of the new participants in this class and that's because Mana manipulation is extremely hard and it's not something a new student can handle.
Lucy and Arthur ignored the gazes thrown at them, they were used to it so they nonchalantly chose 2 seats at the back of the classroom and sat there, still not minding all the curious gazes they were getting.
Since it's still a little early for the teacher to come, Lucy began practicing again with her Magma attribute, as for Arthur he started fiddling with [Void Magic].
[Void Magic] was really special and hard to handle as it can't be used like normal attributes, for example, with [Dark Magic] and [Ancient Fire] Arthur can make a weapon or even a simple fireball but with [Void Magic] he couldn't even materialize anything, besides the skills of the Void, he couldn't conjure anything, like a sword or something similar to a fireball.
The only way he could use the Void Magic is by the [void slash] or [Hell Arrow]. After many tries, he gave up and decided to seriously practice when he was alone because now many people were glancing at him and he didn't want to anyone to discover he had [void magic] as it was his trump card.
Finally, the teacher arrived, this time it was a young woman, a young-elf to be exact. When Arthur appraised her he saw this:
Teharissa Crara (elf) : LVL76
The elves were truly beautiful, she had long pointy ears, eyes as pretty as diamonds coupled with a curvy body which would attract any man. Teharissa stopped at the center of the stage in front of all the students and spoke with a soft voice
”Hello, I'm your professor for Mana manipulation, I hope we can get along.”
Many males students cheered for her, but that was just an act for they just wanted to grab her attention as they were charmed by her beauty but she was still lacking a bit in comparison to Lucy. Nonetheless, she would still be considered kingdom-toppling by any man. The female teacher just raised her hand to quiet the class down then resumed talking
”You probably came here knowing that Mana manipulation is much harder than attribute training. Mana is the source of everything so training it isn't as simple as wielding an attribute you have a strong affinity with.
In fact, any attribute no matter what is it is formed by mana and when, for example, someone creates a fireball, he would subconsciously change the flow of mana into the [fire attribute]. This transformation is referred to as conjuration by many famous and wise mages. Mana's uses are not only this and to try and list them all is not possible as our current knowledge is not that big.”
She paused for a few seconds and stared at the silent crowd, which was listening carefully to her explanation. She showed a soft smile and resumed:
”You can use mana to permanently strengthen your bones or muscles, or to form a small protective barrier covering your body to reduce the damage for a bit but that's too difficult for you. Even old students wouldn't necessarily be able to do that.
First of all, let's begin with the easiest thing, to strengthen your body with Mana. To be able to do that, it depends on the individual and his talent, you must concentrate and sense the flow of Mana in your body and try to push it into your bones and muscles and like that, you may gainbonus stats ranging from 50 to 100 if you're decent, a genius may reach 300 increase.”
Even though her explanation was too plain, the students closed their eyes and proceeded in trying their best to achieve such a difficult feat, after all, 100 increase in stats is crucial for everyone one of them, who wouldn't want to have an indestructible body or a light as feather body. Arthur too was curious about this and tried it, he could sense the Mana since he possessed Zodiak's power but the Dark Magic is a transformation of Mana.
It's not like a conjuration of an attribute from Mana but it's the Mana transformed to some kind of a special type of Energy that works exactly like Mana so he always used the Dark Magic as a catalyst to form attribute.
He concentrated and tried to sense the flow of pure Mana in his surroundings but it didn't work as he expected. Not knowing what to do, he switched the Mana form of the Dark Magic and slowly guided it to his marrow, bones, and muscles.
Very soon, a notification popped in front of him which was a proof that what he did was right, more or less.
Congratulations! you were able to strengthen your body permanently with [Dark Mana] : +400 strength / +200 agility / +3000 intelligence
'huh, Dark Mana? Wasn't it Dark Magic?'
Arthur was confused for he didn't know of the existence of Dark Mana. After a much thorough checking with the help of the system, it ended up really being Dark Mana. Arthur unconsciously used it when he attacked with Dark Magic. This transformation from Mana to Dark Mana occurrs as pure Mana isn't compatible with Zodiak's powers. [Dark magic] is the magic formed by the Dark Mana, it seems Zodiak was able to create some type of special Mana different from the normal one.
He was startled by the amount of intelligence added, 3000 is a big amount and some mages can train their whole life without even reaching half of it. Just when he was wondering about this Dark Mana another notification came up 'ting'
Congratulations! A portion of Zodiak's power had been unlocked due to reaching necessary requirements!
You have gained Zodiak's research about the forgotten continent
You have gained Zodiak's title: Seeker of knowledge
Seeker of knowledge: When equipped +10% cooldown reduction to all skills
: can be stacked with other titles
Your [dark magic] has improved and became [Chaotic dark magic]!
[chaotic dark magic]: it's the second transformation of dark magic and is more powerful: +50% damage when using [chaotic dark magic]
if you receive an attack from a holy attribute, the attack will deal 30% more damage to you.
[Chaotic dark magic] (passive): +1250 wisdom / +4500 mana
Your stats have improved! please check status window for more details
Arthur was startled when he saw all those notifications, he didn't even understand what happened
'a portion of Zodiak's power? I thought when I possessed him I already got all his powers?..'
Truthfully he was confused but that didn't mean he was unhappy with this turn of events, however, he couldn't help but ponder for a bit and organize his thoughts.
After some time, he came to a personal conclusion. He concluded that when he possessed Zodiak's power, he only got a portion of it and couldn't access the rest due to his low stats, which is exactly why another portion was unlocked now, but he still didn't know how it was unlocked, perhaps it was the increase of intelligence or maybe other criteria.
Zodiak was a very strong mythical being, but he when he possessed him, the stats he received was not that amazing so he wondered why would this Zodiak, who was feared by all, only gave him this meager amount of stats.
Now, he understood that he only got a small portion of his powers so he dared not underestimate Zodiak ever again, plus, he was excited because he unlocked a 'portion' of Zodiak's power and which means there certainly is more portions, powerful portions!
All he has to do is reach the requirements, which he obviously knew nothing about, as he thought about that, his happy mood lessened a bit.
He tried forming a small ball made of his new [Chaotic dark magic] and what was created was a dark blue ball, everything seemed the same except the color was different but Arthur knew this new magic was much more powerful than the previous one. Once he finished inspecting his new magic, he opened his status window to see the changes:
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE
Level: 107 Class: Humanoid parasite
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Strength 14180(+3400) Intelligence 18491(+6000)
Agility 14413(+3200) Wisdom13384(+4250)
Vitality 16476(+3000) Dexterity11347(+3000)
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Health 15498(+3000) Health Regen 122.1/s
Mana 22231(+7500) Mana Regen 176.6/s
Stamina infinite Stamina Regen ????
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Attack: 12571(+3000) Defense: 13317(+3000)
Magic defense: 3174(+1000)
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