Chapter 43

Getting rid of the monsters heading toward the Lightcaller had been almost too simple once he didn’t have to regulate how much mana his Skills consumed. The ordeal itself was straightforward. And once Eren was able to fend for himself, Hakon could finally join the others at the ‘main’ battlefield further behind.

Björn looked like a mess, blood running down his well-trained body in streams. Antler fragments stuck out of his chest and right upper arm, with one whole antler lodged deep in his abdomen.

Not that he seemed to notice. Björn severed the head of the beast attached to the antler before ramming his war axe into the Terror Deer’s skull, splitting it in two. With that taken care of, he pushed onward, leaping into the masses with a manic smile.

The Blessed warrior’s combat style was destructive, yet it was not the most lethal. It wasn’t as bloody either. Astrid, on the other hand, was both bloody and deadly. She was drenched in blood, probably her enemies’, and so was the area around her. A familiar crimson hue oozed from her body, fluctuating as soon as she burst forth.

Using her Runeskin, Astrid danced around a group of six Terror Deer with grace and swiftness. Her daggers flashed through the air, leaving red marks on her targets with practiced ease. The wounds burst open moments later, flooding the surroundings with even more blood.

Hakon expected Astrid to outperform Björn, but he did not expect her to be this powerful. Then again, he had to remind himself that Blood Fury worked best against larger groups. The more blood there was, the greater Blood Fury benefited her.

As he maintained [Pack Coordination] and joined their fight against tens of frenzied Terror Deer thirsting for their lives, he quickly realized that he was not as needed as he had first suspected. Björn was doing his own thing regardless, and Astrid never truly needed him. That gave him time to focus on his own abilities.

Crusher was back with Eren, resting near a lifeless deer, and that was fine. He didn’t want to rely too much on the reward the Ancestors gave him for completing a Deed just because it would make things easier. To truly grow, he would have to suffer.

Doing so required him to push a plethora of Skills to their limit. [Split Focus]’ passive effect was useful, but he currently had enough mana to push it further than ever before. So that’s what he did. It felt like his mind grew sharper than it had been before splitting apart. The sensation was no longer as confusing as it had been, but it still felt like the voices in his head had quadrupled. While that did not necessarily include the prompts of his Ancient Power, it did affect Enhanced Comprehension as soon as he activated the other Skills.

[Mana Sense], [Sensory Expansion], and [Flow Observation] activated simultaneously, consuming a considerable amount of mana. If not for the recent level-up, Hakon wouldn’t have unraveled their full power, but the Skills were needed for what came next.

Mana pumped through his entire body without triggering [Circulation]. However, he did trigger [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Shaping] as he extended his senses beyond his physical shell. Mana flowed outward, forming several spheres at will.

He narrowed his eyes at the fluctuating structures floating before him and lobbed one through the air. It struck one of the Terror Deer closest to him but failed to do any damage. The mana sphere barely sustained itself long enough in the first place. Most of the mana within dissipated in the air before it splashed against the target, leaving it more baffled than anything.

Heat rose to his cheeks when Astrid appeared beside his target, her blades carving deep gashes across its neck. She raised an eyebrow at Hakon but was fortunately distracted by the bleating monsters charging at her.

Brushing the embarrassment aside, he shaped one of the mana spheres into a blade. It was rough and fluctuated even more wildly than the sphere had, but it didn’t dissipate right away. Closing in on one of the Terror Deer with [Stealth], he reached for the mana blade, his intent clear. Alas, the execution failed miserably.

While he felt something when his fingers coiled around the mana blade, clutching it shattered the construct. Eyes narrowed, Hakon shaped another mana sphere into a dagger. He didn’t follow the sense of wrongness from his Ancient Power right away and instead watched as the construct formed before his eyes. Reaching out with [Mana Sense], [Mana Manipulation], and [Mana Shaping], he tightened his control over the weapon before releasing it at the distracted target.

The structure didn’t lose any of its mana as it crossed the short distance, yet it couldn’t have done more damage than a feather. If anything, the mana blade tickled the target as it impacted. The mana within burst in all directions, and the Terror Deer’s head yanked to the side.

Hakon groaned and conjured a [Mote of Light] in the monster’s face. A moment later, [Circulation] burst to life, and he closed in on the beast with his shortsword in hand. The execution was swift and merciful. He doubted the monster even realized what happened when it collapsed to the ground.

Unfortunately, the Terror Deer’s death didn’t solve the issue at hand. If anything, it annoyed him more than before. He had to search for a new target, which had grown into a problem. One reason was the monsters’ brethren collapsing dead to the ground right beside them. [Stealth] was great for staying hidden, but hiding a broad-shouldered Barbarian in the center of a clearing was too much even for such a cowardly Skill.

With that in mind, Hakon pumped an immense amount of mana into his next mana sphere. The other conjurations dispersed from a lack of focus, while the one before him expanded rapidly. The influx of mana ebbed down, the gains from his level-up complete, but that mattered little.

There is no weight to mana. He concluded this after analyzing the latest of his conjurations.

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No matter how he shaped and shifted the mana before him, it didn’t change the core issue. It wasn’t a physical structure. Not like that, at least.

Fire could be destructive even if it did not have physical weight. The same could be said of water. Once boiled, water would evaporate, and–that was something he’d learned in the harshest of winters the tribe had faced in many cycles–it could also freeze. What did that mean? Hakon did not know yet, but he felt like mana wasn’t too different from fire or water.

It was everything, yet nothing. Rootkeepers, Lightcaller, as well as any other Barbarian had the same type of energy. Sure, it might feel like they were different, but if they were truly all that different, Hakon wouldn’t have been able to replicate Eren’s Skill, [Mote of Light], let alone Astrid’s [River of Blood]. His recreations consumed far more mana, and they were nowhere near as effective, but that was no permanent issue. It was something he could solve by improving his Skills. All he needed was time and effort.

Mana was everything in a way, was it not?

Again, he had no idea how true that was, but he’d heard, read, and seen enough to know that it was possible to change mana’s structure. Its frequency. He had done so himself already with [Mote of Light].