Chapter 36 | Progress The Magic

The morning came with a newly-found calm to the dilapidated shack. Long Tian was left out of the loop for now, letting him practice cultivation at peace. They would add him in if things came to it, but he was better cultivating for now. On the off chance he succeeded in contacting home, they would literally be blessed by the divine, after all.

They spent the night devising a couple of plans with Satou, going through his missions one by one, and deciding on their current course of action. For now, Theo would keep to the non-combat quests. It was better for him to avoid exposing his magical capabilities before he got an ID.

Mentioning magical capabilities, Theo noticed that he had been neglecting his magical practices lately. He did build some bricks for about an hour every day, before going to sleep, but he hadn’t even added them to his palace and placed them aside, leaving it for another time.

Frankly, he was too busy interacting with villagers and making potions all day. After years of being a shut-in, he had expected himself to struggle a lot socially, but after a day or so of awkwardness, he felt in his element. And he also didn’t think about his family too much these days. It seemed sitting in a dark room looking at a screen all day made it easier to spiral.

That day, marking his eighth in this new village, Theo didn’t have to go to Mr. Filip’s place. He could stay at home, or to be more precise, the dilapidated shack.

This was a great chance for him to finally make a comprehensive upgrade to his mind palace.

For now, his mind palace was made up of a room, and a hallway three-fourths complete. This gave him five walls to utilize in total. Inscribing more than one spell on a wall caused a sharp drop in efficiency, so having more walls was always a bonus.

So, without further ado, Theo settled across Long Tian who had started his meditation session with the rise of the morning sun.

He entered his mindscape and checked the pile of bricks he had put aside. He exerted some mental effort to lift one. Either because of his high perception or because of his increased stamina, it was much easier than before.

One by one he started slotting the bricks into place. The piles of pure, silvery mana bled into their surroundings and solidified.

His mana was a whopping 10.853 at the moment; the new bricks had pushed it up, but the real increase would only come when he finished the building in its entirety.

With the bricks already at hand, it took him only two hours to finish the rest of the palace. He increased the length of the hallway a little bit more, then created another, similar cube-room at the end of it. Now, he had a mind palace that looked strangely like a square-shaped dumbbell.

His mouth twitched. He wondered if this place would ever look presentable, or if it would stay as a mess for the rest of the time.

Nevertheless, he was satisfied with the increase in mana.

[Mana: 10.853 –> 12.781]

The silver lights radiating from his palace became brighter. His fingers twitched as he felt slightly bloated with mana. There was a second of fluctuation, as silvery gaseous mana leaked from Theo’s nostrils for a second. But then it stopped. The palace seemed to thrum with intent as it reeled back the mana inside. A moment later, he was just an ordinary person with no mana leaking out.

Mr. Cheas had talked about me not leaking mana. I can see why he did. My mind palace seems to have a strange ability regarding this matter, Theo thought. Since the start of his career as a mage, Theo had trouble understanding his skill, Logical Spell-casting, and talent, Mind-factory.

[Mind Factory (Legendary)]

[This main character’s mental palaces functions closer to reality than a normal mage’s does. Mental resistances increased.]

[Main Stat: Mana]

[Supplementary Stat: Perception]

[Logical Spell-Casting (Epic) (Level 3)]

[This main character has a spell-casting method rooted in semantics and internal logic.]

The rarities he had seen so far went as follows: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic.

These two aspects of his build were undoubtedly game-changing. He just… Didn’t know what exactly they changed. As he didn’t know how other mages functioned, they were just these weird concepts floating around his head. His hands itched to understand what they were.

Did it give some unknown buffs? The aforementioned mental resistance was clear enough. And maybe the no mana-leak stuff. Other than that, he would need to pay a visit to a mage tower.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The idea of having to go to what was practically a school once again made his stomach churn.

I will handle it when the time comes.

With that out of his mind, Theo went back to the matter at hand.

With his mind palace now once again complete, Theo checked the spells in his hands.

The first one was the arcane shot. A simple, pure mana ball that was effective against the entities of the tower. His guess was that it was an anti-ethereal affinity attack. Or anti-mana-construct. That, he would have to be able to understand more about those entities.

When I go back to the tower to explore deeper, I should try to figure it out.

Then there was the arcane net, a pure mana spell used for restraining and a minimal amount of damage. Again, it was only effective against ethereal beings.