The feeling of dispersing his soul was more like untangling a knot. The mundane experiences he had were easily untied but the more serious experiences were so complexly knotted, he could only partially untie them. Hence he couldn’t disperse them well.

Without his knowledge 3 hours passed before he had dispersed his soul to an acceptable extent. Compressing it back was like piecing a puzzle together. The experiences were scattered and he had to arrange them in order and connect them with the right feelings or they wouldn’t hold.

This process took longer and 5 hours passed before he was finished. Jade felt a tight bond connecting his soul, mind and body. The bond formed a sort of flower shaped knot, what it was formed from? Jade couldn’t say.

Ocean in the tutorial said “There are 4 currently known major types of abilities; physical, mental, power and law. The physical types enhance or give manipulative abilities that affect physical prowess of the Mandala artist. Their flowers have between 2 – 15 petals.

Mental types often allow the Mandala artist perform certain magic spells or martial arts that are impossible or just too complex for the person normally. In rare cases they increase the mental prowess of the Mandala artist allowing the person think or even react faster and with fewer mistakes. Their flowers have between 16 – 63 petals.

Power types are rare and give a fundamental change to a person’s energy, stamina, life force and biomass. It basically changes the way they work like a person can suddenly get the ability to convert life force into energy or the lesser the stamina gauge the more amplification the person’s energy gets. There has only been one rare case where a source of power was changed to a higher form by the Mandala. Their flowers have between 64-127 petals.

Law types are the rarest of flowers; they change how the universe itself works with respect to a certain point of reference. The point of reference can be the user, as it is in most cases, or something else. Their flowers have between 128 – 362 petals.

Most Mandala arts have temporary effects, meaning they work for only a limited amount of time or that they have cool downs times. Few have permanent effects that cannot be easily controlled. What type of Mandala do you have?”

When Ocean asked, Jade focused on the shape of the knot and found out that it was a 347 petal flower. Jade thought ‘That’s a lot of petals, well I did have a lot of achievements before unlocking my Mandala. I got a Law type, nice’. The tutorial continued “Now that you have made the first flower of your Mandala the next step is to test what it can do. No matter how many petals you get, there is only one ability per flower. Connect to it and follow your instincts”

Jade thought ‘Instincts… I’m not used to using them’. He submerged his focus in the flower and found the most amusing ability. The ability was simple but how it worked was beyond Jade’s current intelligence. It greatly reduced the effects of any sort of influence the closer it got to him and amplified his abilities the more close ranged they were. Jade thought ‘I got the perfect ability for a close ranged fighter! This kinda sucks’

As if sensing that Jade had done what he had said, Ocean continued “The difficulty of understanding a Mandala increases exponentially with the number of petals. Comprehending a 10 petal flower enough to get the next flower requires about 50 times more effort than comprehending a 3 petal flowers… In most cases, there are so very rare cases of a flower with few petals being harder to comprehend than one with more petals.

The effort isn’t wasted though as the more you understand a flower the more freely you can use it. The most proficient Mandala artist, Quake, has comprehended up to 70 petals currently, enough to unlock a total of 3 flowers for him.

From his experience it has been noted that the type of flower doesn’t remain the same as you progress. All his 3 flowers are completely different types. The control a person has over his body, soul and mind and their resistance to external influences increase the more petals you comprehend.

Do note that there is always a deeper understanding. Just because you’ve unlocked a second or third flower doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to increase your comprehension of the previous flower petals. It’s best to have a very powerful ability and another that you’re still training rather than having two mediocre abilities”

Jade thought in frustration ‘Great! That means I’ll be stuck trying to understand the workings of this Mandala that I have no idea about for a long time… I wonder what I should call it? I’m sure the merfolk don’t name their flowers. Either that or they give them very practical names…

‘I’ll call it… Drown. I learnt it underwater and it basically kills the abilities of other people the closer they get to me…” Jade’s thoughts were silent for a bit before he thought ‘Wait, doesn’t this mean that it will hinder the abilities of people who try to help me? I mostly fight alone but it’s not always going to be like that!

‘And the ability is a permanent type, just my luck! I have to find a way to exempt some people from the influence. Drown is so not a good name, Anti-team? No… Selfishness? Selful? Center of the Universe (COU)? Egomania, yes that‘s more meaningful, it makes me seem like the only important person.

‘Disadvantages aside, the flower is a good one since I mostly work alone. It will help a lot when I make stuff too’.

Jade looked at the tentacle armor, Undying Hatred and thought ‘I should also absorb the magic knowledge too. Making a Tier 5 huh? This is going to be a grueling process but it’s necessary if I want to be the best. Other people will certainly improve, so I go down the list if I dawdle’.

…

Meanwhile, when Jade left the lab, Mira connected her mind to the space ring Jade had given her before he left and information about various capabilities came to her knowledge. The ring could teleport… without distance restrictions as long as she could provide the required energy for the portal. It could increase and decrease in size and it could store matter in a separated dimension called a Vault, but it was more than an upgrade of the Space Bracelet.

When Mira linked her body with the ring she could increase her size, manipulate distance, scout distant places that she hadn’t teleport to yet, and use Spacetime freeze on any object the ring touched. The ring could also be used to mark people or locations she touched with the ring. She would then be able to teleport, open portals or scout those places with reduced energy cost.

A map of the world opened in Mira’s mind and she teleported to the location Jade had marked on the map. She appeared on the streets of a large city with many high rises and floating structures. She looked at her map and noticed that she was a few kilometers off from where she wanted to appear for some reason. There were various people walking or flying throughout the city.