After leaving the dungeons, they sold their loot, divided it and went their way. Fred soon got to the inn and rested. His clothes were full of blood, and even though his body was healed it still ached due to the exertion he made. Thankfully, the inn offered cloth washing service, which he enjoyed a lot.

After resting for the night, the team resumed their exploration the next day. Their teamwork was beginning to develop quite a bit. Diana was beginning to boost them more often with her blood enhancements, and Amanda finally got used to the team, making it possible for her to show more of her power without burning everyone.

Oliver made their work much easier by scouting ahead and exploring the pathways.

They defeated the boss of the dungeon five more times, using different tactics and formations each time. Fred himself was getting much better at controlling his conjured armaments, and could use them with more proficiency right now.

Three swords hovered around Fred as he engaged the orc. Its mace came downward like a force of nature. Fred sidestepped while his swords went to the creature’s eyes and throat. Even though he couldn’t insert mana on his conjured swords to make them sharper, he could use them smartly.

Its mace was embedded into the ground, and the vision was blocked by the sword attacks. As soon as blood was drawn from its eyes, the orc waved his hands to swat them away. Fred took the opportunity and sharpened the sword in his hand with mana. After practicing many times in battle, his sword aura, as it was called weapon reinforcement, was beginning to get sharper and sharper. It cut through everything on its way easily.

He stepped forward and swung it horizontally, cutting the orcs head off. The creature was instantly killed. He looked behind and the fight was also almost over.

The group sat on the ground amidst the carnage and talked for a bit.

Amanda said right after they sat. “I think we need to go to the next floor. This one is getting too easy, and the experience for our level ups has practically stopped.”

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

“The next floor is known as a step up in challenge. I think we are ready, but there are many things that need to be prepared before we do it.” Emmanuel said. Sometimes, he said something intelligent, surprising Fred, he was not a mass of muscle after all.

“That’s right.” Oliver said. “We need to prepare supplies, or at least know how to acquire them in the dungeon, and even though getting a map of the second floor is harder, if we could get our hand on one it would be helpful.”

“I think the hardest part would be the supplies… I’ve gathered a little information about the second layer, and it's presumably a forest. The monsters on it are a mix of big lizards and slugs, very dangerous slugs from what I heard.” Fred added. Jouti had said some things about the second layer before.

Diana looked a bit worried, but agreed for them to proceed to the next layer as well. They were adventurers and would explore the dungeons. They left the dungeons and went their own way, promising to meet in the guild two days from now, ready to go into the second layer.

Fred checked his money and saw that he had six gold coins and eight silver. Their week had been plentiful in both loot and experience. He opened his status window and finally got a good look at it.

Name:

Willfred

Race:

Human

Class:

Mana savant (L)

Level:

12

Strength:

45

Agility:

46

Constitution:

46

Intelligence:

78

Wisdom:

76

Status points available: 80

Class Skills

Name

Tier

Level

Mana source (S)

Common

100

infinity armaments (S)

Common

100

Mana body (S)

Common

100

Mana sage (S)

Common

100

General Skills

Name

Tier

Level

Mana manipulation (A)

Epic

8

Sword mastery (B)

Unique

100

Regeneration (B)

Rare

35

Literature (C)

Rare

85

Meditation (C)

Rare

48

Acting (F)

Uncommon

60

Identify

Inferior

28

Perks

Nature attunement

Your body is attuned to the natural elements. Gives the user extra resistance to the elements and more affinity to them.

First of all, he distributed his free attribute points between intelligence and wisdom. From what he had noted this week, his other attributes improved from something around 20 to 30 percent of the total he invested in them, making it quite the worthwhile return, he hoped that percentage would get higher in the future.

Right after investing the attributes, he felt a surge of power almost overwhelming his body. As soon as his intelligence got over the 100 point threshold, he felt his mana condensing and getting stronger. Much like the first time he did it forcefully to evolve his mana manipulation skill. After wisdom hit 100, his mana pool also grew considerably.

Next, he turned his attention to his skills. They had capped at the limit of common tier for a few days, but he had been holding back on evolving them in order to get used to the skills. If they evolved too quickly, he couldn’t keep up with the changes.

He used his skills for a while in his room while concentrating on breaking through, and finally made it. He looked over their description again to get a better understanding of the changes.

Mana source (S)

Your body becomes a source of mana. Mana capacity is tripled and its regeneration is eight times faster.

infinity armaments (S)

You can choose four models and create them out of mana. The strength of creation can vary due to complexity of chosen model and mana of skill caster.

Mana body (S)

Your body is naturally enhanced by the mana inhabiting It.

Your body naturally gets stronger with its mana. The skill user is able to boost the body and related skills by using mana. Can also boost objects that the user is touching.

Mana sage (S)

Wielding mana has become your second nature. Manipulating mana in specific ways is easier the more you become familiar with it.

The changes were not that great, but his power had vastly improved. He noted that he now could enhance objects he was touching with his mana. “I could use that in my sword and armor…”

The other skill had not changed much. Infinity armaments had gotten another model he could form, and his mana was now three times as big as it would naturally be, the regeneration speed had also gotten faster.

Those changes would make a huge impact on his power. He could now conjure more armaments, and use his boosts for longer. If he could boost his conjured armor and sword, he would get more resilient and his attacks deadlier.

Even though mana sage didn’t have any changes, he knew that its main ability had gotten stronger, which would help immensely in his fights.

He had two days to test his new power, and he went directly to Jouti the next day. The old man had instructed him to come back once his skills had evolved again.

After getting there, he greeted Jouti and they went to the platform once again. He told Jouti his gains and experiences over the last week, and told him about how his skills improved.

“You’re right in your thinking of how you could apply your class skills.” Jouti seemed to hesitate for some time, but finally said. “But I find it strange that your sword mastery has not become rare yet. It must mean that a grade evolution could occur once you get it done. You said you were working on your sword aura. Show it to me.”

Fred did as told and activated the sword aura on the weapon. “I can get it done much easier now…” He thought as he activated it. He knew it was due to mana sage evolving.

“Yes… you’re on the right path… Keep practicing it, and maybe an unexpected benefit may appear.” Jouti said.

On the days he spent training, he focused mainly on training his skills and honing the use of his sword aura. He was beginning to feel the potential that his sword mastery could show once it evolved to Rare tier, maybe it could even evolve its classification.

____________________________

Sweat dripped into the floor as Fred sparred with Jouti. He was improving fast, but the gulf between himself as his master only got bigger the more he realized how powerful the old man was.

Five swords hovered around while attacking, and Fred used his mana techniques to speed around Jouti. He used everything he had on his sword aura, making it as sharp as possible. Fred wanted to cut everything that stood in his way.

He boosted his body and sword to attack and his armor to defend against some attacks released by Jouti. “I know he is just playing around with me, but even a weak attack of his is stronger than the mace swung by the orc.” Fred thought while taking some blows. Fortunately, now he was able to reinforce his conjured armor, and because Infinity armaments got to Uncommon tier, everything the skill conjured was much closer to the original version, they even looked like their counterpart externally, instead of the opaque light blue color it had before.

After taking some blows, Fred began to use mana to move around Jouti quickly, weaving around the place. Even though his sword strikes were all deflected, he still tried with all he had.

After some time, they stopped. They had been training for a long time, and any more would be pointless. Insisting on it wouldn’t bring any more progress. “Now, let’s test your theory.” Jouti said as they sat.

Fred concentrated and activated infinity armaments to choose his new model, but instead of using an object, he chose himself. Mana began to circle inside his body, analyzing every inch of his body. The process was much quicker than normal. After a minute, it was done.

Fred felt he could now conjure a model of himself.

He put his mind to it, and conjured the copy. He trembled for a second when an exact copy of himself appeared in front of him. However, there was no movement, it was like a puppet. Even though the clothes it was wearing were like his own, its eyes were lifeless.

“Do it, try to control it.” Jouti nudged from the side.

Unlike his conjured weapons, he couldn’t instantly control it. Instead, he reached his mind for the construct and willed his mind into it. Fred felt his vision splitting, and he could somehow see through the conjuration’s eyes. But the vision was too confusing, having two points of view was not natural. He closed his eyes and concentrated on it.

Almost instantly, he felt his mind slipping into it. Fred looked down at his hands, and the feeling was strange. His body felt weaker, and not entirely his own body, but he still felt like it was him. He looked to the side and saw him sitting on the ground with eyes closed, and Jouti curiously looking at him. “Can you speak while using the construct?” Jouti asked.

Fred opened his eyes, and said. “Yes… I can…” He looked at his hands, and tried to move around for a bit.

“You have a perfect copy in there, at least in appearance.” Jouti got up and walked toward him. “Let’s test how much damage it can take.” The old man extended his palm, and Fred tried to use his skills, but to no avail.

He was thrown back like a ragdoll, and rolled on the platform. The arm he used to block the blow was bending sideways, and he felt a very dull pain. Blood began to flow out of his mouth and wound.

Jouti messed around with him for a while longer, and soon the clone couldn’t take it anymore and vanished. Fred opened his eyes on the ground and looked around with a small smile on his face. “It worked!!!” He was full of joy. This kind of skill could have many uses. “Let’s test its limitations.” Jouti said and he invoked another clone.

They tested the range in which the skill worked, and discovered that unlike a conjured weapon, that needed to be around twenty meters of him to be controlled, the clone could go much farther, being able to as far a two kilometers away from him. However, when he controlled the clone, his mind couldn’t perceive anything around his body, making him vulnerable.

The clone worked like a living being, it even had blood and functioning organs that disappeared once it dissipated.

They tested the skill and trained for a bit for the rest of the day. Fred was eager to go to the second layer, and would find his teammates the next day.