The four rank five Skills were melting down and blending together inside my mind, forming a new pool of knowledge that was greater than the sum of its parts. Excitement was bursting inside my heart. What would come of this powerful fusion? My only fear was that it wouldn't reach my expectations. I was forced into grinding for this due to Gravity Mana speciality not showing up in my Skill list after all this time. Before I moved onto the next tier of magic and started grinding away at it, I wanted to secure the best possible foundation I could for the first tier.

A part of me still regretted that I didn't stick it out for the rank six fusion, but grinding for so many levels would take years, time I just didn't have. I could only hope that what I gained here would be enough to carry my magical offense until more powerful options became viable for me.

Judging by the information flowing inside my mind, it just might do! The sheer volume of what was entering and forming was indicating that this fusion was going to reveal something particularly juicy. All I could do was wait. Like pieces slotting into a puzzle, new knowledge slowly took shape, each passing moment making the picture that little bit clearer. When I finally realised just what it was that was forming, I couldn't help but clack my mandibles in appreciation.

Holy moly. This wasn't just juicy, it was a juice festival. This was a river formed by the pulping and squeezing of fresh fruits. No getting away from it, I was in juice town.

The fusion took a long time, a period of hours, but what was revealed was well worth the time investment. It was a new type of construct. Every construct was a fiendish, demon puzzle formed of mana that allowed raw, unattributed energy to transform into one of the myriad of types. Forming the construct, maintaining and operating it, consumed one of my brains most of the time. It was difficult work that required fine mana control and a powerful Will. It was like holding a squat, not for minutes, but hours at a time.

This new design that was revealed took the puzzles I had already seen and blew them out of the water. It was absurd, obscene even. This sort of thing would be censored in any normal society, it wasn't safe to look at.

It was like a globe within a globe within a globe, repeated down to the molecular level, each level inscribed on the inside and outside with intricate runes. The number of lines and layers of mana that needed to be formed would be in the hundreds of thousands! Taking in the sheer scope of the thing I can't help but cry out.

Damnit, Gandalf! What the heck is this thing?! Next time I evolve I'm gonna bite you right in the beard!

I could already tell it was going to take a lot of practice to even be able to form this construct correctly, let alone do so quickly under pressure. But for what it was able to do, it was worth it.

My four elemental Skills were gone, no longer did they clutter up my Skills list. Instead, a brand new Skill had formed in their place: All Element Mana Speciality (V) Level 1.

I wasn't sure what I expected, but this is good. That single construct, that monstrosity of a contraption, was able to produce all of the elemental mana types. All of them! The basic forms, the advance forms, and the combined forms!

Water mana? No problem. Ice mana? Done. Fire mana? Blue Fire mana?! Wind! Gas! Earth! Stone! Lava! Steam! Mud!

No longer did I have to hack together the combined forms by making the elements separately and forcing them together (something of a hack), an inefficient and wasteful method at the best of times, now I could form them directly! Not only that, the proper spell patterns had been imprinted in my mind along with the construct. It was as if I had been given the Specialities of each of the fusion types along with the knowledge of this new construct.

This would be incredibly valuable for me when fighting. If my main sub-mind was able to maintain and operate this construct then I'd be able to throw around three different types of elements at once using my other three brains. That would be huge! The flexibility alone. Not having to break down a construct and form another in order to change elements… the amount of mental effort saved during a battle would be massive!

The truly remarkable thing about this fusion was that its true strength wouldn’t be revealed until after my next evolution. Once I was able to increase the raw oomph of my four brains and mastered mind magic to a sufficient degree, I'd be able to make use of the mind construct technique, stacking multiple minds in each brain! I wouldn't have just four minds then, I'd have eight, or twelve! And if each of my brains were to form and maintain this new construct… I'd be able to throw out eight or twelve different spells at a time and every single one of them could be any of the basic mana elements.

The very thought of being able to switch up my element of attack at a moment’s notice was enough to make me feel giddy. Always the right tool for the job.

I'm super satisfied with this rank five fusion. Very satisfied indeed! It feels good to achieve goals like this. Now I suppose I need to look at what I need to be training and grinding next… practicing forming the new construct is a massive priority, and after that I'll need to focus on mind magic. I don't want to be lagging behind, when the time comes to evolve, everything needs to be ready!

Ah, an ant’s work is never done.