Chapter 25 – Holding Back
I didn’t cast Master In the Buff in a uniform manner. To do so at the necessary level to bring all of my stats to 10,000 would cost 2,457,600 Mana Per Minute. Instead, I buffed each system separately, only giving them what they required. It more than halved the mana requirement to 1,075,800 MPM.
It was already costing me 153,600 MPM for 11x Master Mind Buff. 12x Master Skeletal Buff cost twice as much at 307,200 MPM. I left Master Organ Defense at its base level only costing 150 MPM since it didn’t directly affect my stats, but Master Muscle Buff required 13x, which cost 613,400. An astronomical amount.
If it wasn’t for the buffs 10,000 Intelligence gave me, it would’ve only lasted seconds. My 179,400 MPM reduced the total cost to 895,950. Remaining in this state would only last me a little over 5.6 minutes. Thankfully, the buffs I received from reaching 10,000 in every stat would help make up for it.
Light Magic Synergy
As a being who is already one with the Light, your body’s progression is funneled through its Light Magic nature. Aspects of your Solar Mage and Light Surgeon True Forms have merged with your physical body, giving you greater access to their abilities.
All Solar Mage and Light Surgeon abilities have doubled in strength while in your Ascended Human Form.
Their limitations do not apply.
Advanced Ascendancy
Your mind and body have reached full maturity.
Permanent In The Buff
+1,000 Strength
+1,000 Dexterity
+1,000 Constitution
No mana cost
Note: These are in addition to past Ascendancy buffs.
Permanent Regeneration
+3,000 HP Per Second
+2,000 Endurance Per Second
No mana cost
Note: Unlike Permanent In The Buff, this is your total HP and Endurance Regeneration Per Second gained from your ascendancy.
I was right. It seemed I’d be able to channel less mana to In The Buff to keep it active at the appropriate levels. It also gave me a nice surprise in that increasing my physical stats also increased my casting ability, in a roundabout manner.
Variable Physicality
Every one of your physical skills and synergies have merged together and taken on Light Magic characteristics.
You will now receive +400 HP per point of Constitution.
You are now able to Focus your body’s makeup on Life and Solar aspects of Light Magic at will.
Solar Focus
200% Speed
200% Quickness
30% Internal Damage Resistance
30% External Damage Resistance
-50% Heavy Lifting
Life Focus
200% Health Regeneration
150% Power
150% Heavy Lifting
Healing Aura
+1,000 HP Per Second
Note: These buffs do not apply when in your Blue Magic Forms.
Despite all the changes, how I felt was what first stole my attention. As naturally as breathing, I was able to change the aspect focus of my body from Life to Solar and back to my Ascended Human Form. I could feel my blood pumping and heart beating with streams of Light Magic even in my natural state. It was like constantly being in the state of refreshment that I felt when using my Healing spell.
Adjusting my nature to Life Focus was like turning up the power to a state somewhere between Light Surgeon and my Ascended Form. I didn’t lose the ability to move, but I could feel the life flowing through me in great abundance. I suspected my Heal spell would be even stronger than in my Neutral Ascended state.
Switching to my Solar Aspect physical body had the opposite effect. I felt less sensation, but more pure energy as my body fell somewhere between Ascended and Solar Mage. My Solar Magic should be even stronger.
With the boost from Advanced Ascendency, I was able to immediately channel less mana to In The Buff. To keep my physical stats at 10,000, I reduced Master Muscle Buff to 11x or 153,600 MPM and Master Skeletal Buff to 10x, or 76,800 MPM.
They went from costing 896,400 MPM to 205,200. And instead of lasting me 5.6 minutes, my buffs would now last 24.5. That gave me much more breathing room. Even then, my stats were only equal to Leeman’s, not counting his Constitution which was over 20,000. At least my HP had grown closer to his 8,200,000. At 400 HP per point on Constitution, I now had 4,065,000 HP. I thought that I should be feeling more confident with it now 8 times higher than it had ever been, but with his as a clear comparison standing before me, I couldn’t help but look past the achievement. This was just another stepping stone.
Seeing the change, Leeman took a step back, holding his sword between us. He whispered under his breath, “Undefiled.”
I’d been waiting for its countdown time to expire and cast Time Crawl as soon as it was available. As time stopped I considered my next moves carefully. I’d already healed Leeman once. It hadn’t just helped to show them the difference between our magics but confirmed that it was possible to heal him through his insanely thick armor. That was one mystery solved, but numerous other ones sprouted up in its place. I knew the entire reason humans wore heavy armor was that it was the best defense they had against Dark Magic. Fighting magic against magic was possible, but if any Dark Magic slipped through, or caught him by surprise, the contact with it could quickly become deadly. A succubus had taught me that very lesson once and it wasn’t something I wanted to learn again.
So how was it possible that they could Heal one another through their Metal armor, but also use it to defend against Dark? It was possible that Metal’s natural characteristics repelled Dark Mana and absorbed Light, but that would contradict everything I knew about every other School of Magic, and also the little bit of Metal aura I had already experienced from the weapons I’d toyed with in the past. It was more likely that there was something else.
As much as I wanted to just transform into my most powerful Form and try tearing Leeman open like a tin can, there were things that I needed to know, or the mana I spent could be a fatal waste. I had plenty of Minor and Intermediate Light Orbs to make up for the mana difference between us, but those I’d save until I had no other choice.
When Time Crawl came to an end, I switched to my Ascended Form and Skeleton Titan’s Defense immediately began to take shape. If I was going to be facing a couple of Metal mechs, I might as well turn into a skeletal variant of one.
Leeman surged forward, readying his sword to split me in two. His speed was a blur even with Mana Sight at full power.
I’d expected as much. Laser burned into his helmet too quickly for him to move out of the way. Metal Mana leaped from his armor, creating a protective aura. But how?
Slightly slower than Laser, a Shadow Bolt from my other hand struck him low on the breastplate. The Metal Mana didn’t fully block either attack, but once they cut through the mana itself, the physical armor met it like a concrete wall stopping the jet from a water hose and it dissipated into the air.
Casting Forced Learn, my perceptions plunged into the area of impact where my Shadow Bolt had landed. Just like a mana conduit, I was able to enter the mana stream of his armor and immediately saw how he was manipulating his armor’s mana. The Metal Aura acted like the first layer in a bulletproof vest, slowing my magic down, and the physical armor reinforced with Metal Mana took care of the rest.
As soon as my perceptions had returned, I jumped to the side to dodge his sword’s slash, only to find myself having to sidestep because of a follow-up lunge. In a similar fashion to Travis’s spear extension, Leeman’s sword seemed to lengthen as Metal created a thick aura around his sword.
He threw another follow-up attack before I could give much of a response. Lifting my bone-covered forearm to meet it, I funneled Alpha’s Neutral Mana into my thick bone bracer. The forceful nature of Neutral Mana met the Metal aura of his sword and there was a minor explosion, throwing me back. The armor over my forearm was left in a shattered mess, an
d a deep gash was etched into the back of my arm.
It healed almost immediately, and my armor started to reform. It didn’t look like it would be possible to imitate the effectiveness of his armor with my own. His armor possessed its own mana, so when he activated his Light Aura, it displaced the Metal Mana of his armor closest to his body. This pushed the Metal Mana out of the armor, creating an aura, but it didn’t saturate his armor with Light Mana, so it still had a thick layer of mana-reinforced physical armor that wouldn’t react with Dark Magic. It was almost silly how simple it was, but I couldn’t knock its effectiveness.
Leeman and I faced off with little more than ten feet between us. Even if our physical stats were even, he’d already shown his skill which was drastically superior to mine.
I Switched to Solar Focus, and my body became lighter. The Solar energy that flowed through me doubled my speed and gave me 30% physical and magic resistance. The only drawback was that I was unable to lift as much weight. I didn’t have to test it to read between the lines. My inability to lift as much weight also meant that I weighed much less. So it would make me faster, but I’d have much less weight behind each attack. Bludgeoning someone to death might be more difficult, but superior speed and quickness behind a sharp edge and point could greatly make up for it.
My scepter had long ago become more of an accessory than a weapon. It was bound tight to my back under layers of skeletal plate armor. Most of my weapons from the past had been clublike in nature and wouldn’t be of much use. The exception was Skeleton Warrior’s Sword, which was a cheap spell that I’d long ago mastered and its shape was easy to manipulate.
My opponent saw the change in me the moment it happened and fell back into a defensive stance. Skeletal Warrior’s Sword appeared in my hand. It was simply a bone longsword with a plain crossguard. Even against normal steel, it wouldn’t last long. I couldn’t possibly leave it in its current state.
Removing Firazite Ore and mixing it with Fire Mana in the same way Mistress Nava had when she created her own condensed blade-like Fire Mana to stab me with, I used Skeleton Warrior’s Sword as a core and began covering my sword using Firazite Manipulation and the same process to condense Fire Mana as Crimson Incubus Form required. It didn’t surprise me when my Fire Mana penetrated the bone of my skeletal sword. What I didn’t expect was for it to begin solidifying in the same way Impenetrable Skin did. It could use some work, but after manipulating the edge to an appropriate sharpness, it was far superior even to the spear that the Faeastein Queen produced.
Leaping forward, my blade neared Leeman’s throat. His entire body turned. Even though he’d obviously expected my increase in speed, he had a moment of panic. His sword’s Metal Aura erupted in all directions, helping to push my sword aside even though his physical blade couldn’t make it in time.
He jumped back, and there to meet me was a javelin of Light. Amilia had finally made her appearance as her dense projectile punched through my armor like hot iron through a block of styrofoam.
I saw at that moment how well they worked together. He’d moved just in time so that the attack had missed him and caught me off guard. It was also traveling so fast that I was unable to push mana into my armor. Light Mana swelling in my gut to brace against the collision was all that I could manage.
It was like an echo of ripples that swarmed through my body the moment before I felt the pain. The attack landed above my core and felt like it pierced into me, but instead of continuing through me, it seemingly dissolved. I almost fell to my knees but caught myself.
-213,994 HP
I reached for Time Crawl, but it hadn’t even been fifteen seconds since the fight had begun. Looking past Leeman, I saw Amilia standing about fifty feet away with another Light Javelin already formed. It wouldn’t be enough to kill me, but it was also an attack that was impossible to ignore.
Before Leeman came at me again, Amilia loosed her javelin.
My skeletal armor had already reformed, but it had done nothing against her attack. Now that I was ready, I reinforced it with mana, but there was something I had to try. Instead of bracing or blocking it, I changed to Life Focus and took the attack head-on.
It punched through my skeletal armor once again with ease. I’d already prepared Master Heal when her Light attack collided with my chest. I expected it to be even worse than the first time, for Life Focus had no additional magic resistance. My chest was tense to meet it and my mana was pooled. I felt it strike me dead center of my armor and braced for the pain. It looked like the pain would be delayed as the first attack had been, but it lacked the initial ripples. Nothing came.
Both of my opponents seemed to freeze, but it was for no more than a second. Leeman turned to Amilia. She quickly summoned another Light Javelin and attacked me again. This one hit me lower on the chest and tore through my skeletal armor only to not affect my Life Focused Ascended Body. As I studied the effect and understood it, I received a popup.
Light Magic has leveled up!
Master Rank
Level 2
Since I’d reached Master Light Mage, my Light Magic hadn’t leveled up once. It looked like this little revelation about how different aspects of Light Magic worked was exactly what it had needed to advance. Reaching Master Rank had required me to push my Light Magic to its very limit. It seemed Grandmaster would require me to learn all the subtleties of how Light Magic reacted to itself, other magics, and the world around me. At least, so I guessed.
Even from fifty feet away I could see the fear in Amilia’s stance even if her face remained covered. Her Light Javelin was impressive and much faster than any of my normal Light Magic attacks. The reason was that she had found a way to build her spell with mostly Solar Aspect. It made it remarkably fast. Nearly as fast as Laser, but with much more weight behind it because it still contained a small percentage of Life Aspect.
I still didn’t fully understand why it didn’t do any damage at all to my Life Focused Form, but it definitely had something to do with the interaction between Life and Solar Aspects. My theory was that Life Magic absorbed Solar Magic entirely. It also seemed that Life Magic would have little effect against opposing Life Magic as well. So why had her Solar Aspect spell harmed me in my Solar Focused Body? I almost dared to ask her to attack me again to test it, but instead, a small avalanche of Light Magic passed from her to Leeman.
The Light Magic Tank grew physically in size and his armor grew with him. Even though the armor helped to hide his abilities, they became even clearer as his armor struggled to contain his newly inflated stats. There was no way to know how much she was actually buffing him with his armor fully covering him, but it wasn’t a small amount. The mana being channeled between them was like an eight-lane highway with a constant flow of traffic in every lane.
I gulped down my rising nerves and switched to Solar Focus as Leeman charged.
Chapter 26 – Loosening Up
My sword met Leeman’s and was knocked away under the weight of his two-handed swing. One attack after another drove me back. His speed now matched mine, and his strength far surpassed me. Mana Sight gave me just enough of an edge to keep myself a step ahead, but my body was only just able to keep up with my mind. My sword was impressive in its ability to survive his assault, but there was no time to appreciate it.
The danger I was in was plain as day. Switching to a different form was an option, but I’d have to do something to gain a moment’s advantage in order to have the time to transform. It still took a second or two to change to my greater forms, which was time Leeman wasn’t giving me. I knew the moment an opening appeared, Amilia would fill the gap, forcing me to switch to Life Focus to block it. That limited my immediate options.
I decided to get a change of scenery. As I stepped back and did my best to parry another of Leeman’s blows, Rog Form covered my off-hand like a glove. Gathering thousands of MP into a ball of Smog, I held it up like a shield so my opponent could see.
He didn’t hesitate to attack the
ball of accumulated mana in hopes of interrupting my casting. As his sword met it, the ball burst, and smoke filled the area. I’d tested it enough to know that the amount of mana I’d used should cause the smoke to fill the entire cavern and then some.
To my surprise, Leeman didn’t stop, but I could feel his movement inside the Smog. His sword was coming right for me. Using Crystalized Fog, the smoke between us hardened, slowing him down. He was far too powerful for it to stop him completely.
My Rog Form’s Smoke Mastery had already reached Level 23 just from having it constantly active while in my Ultimate Form.
Smoke Mastery
Level: 23
Maximum Smoke Density: 25 out of 100
Toxicity Level: Minimal
Heat Level: Intermediate
Next Level:
Level: 2
Maximum Smoke Density: 26 out of 100
Toxicity Level: Minimal
Heat Level: Intermediate
The Toxicity Level of my smoke was still minimal, but the Heat Level was something I could now manipulate at the Intermediate level. It was limited, but still something. I upped the heat to hopefully drain some of their stamina.
Jumping back, I placed multiple layers of hardened Crystalized Fog between us as walls to slow him down. I considered switching to Crimson Incubus Form, for another boost to my physical stats and the form’s Impenetrable Skin, but it wouldn’t have nearly the same benefits as my Solar Focused Ascended Form against Amilia’s spells. There was another avenue I could take, but it was more of a gamble since I’d be manipulating Light Magic in a way I’d never tried before.
Just as I’d condensed Fire Mana inside my Skeleton Warrior’s Sword, I summoned my Skeleton Warrior’s Shield and tried doing the same thing with Light Mana. Not just any Light Mana, but I needed to try to filter out the Solar Aspect and fill it with mostly Life Aspect. I wasn’t exactly sure where to start.
Underworld - Vampire Gate: A LitRPG Series Page 21