After marveling at the patterns of mana being produced by the tree, I harvest an appropriate branch for my weapon upgrades and use my Bond to heal it; along with an enormous amount of mana.

“I suppose the only thing stopping these trees from being constantly harvested is the abnormal amount of mana required to heal them?” I ask.

“Yes, unless it’s a rare healing type. Most healing types only force the body to heal, but that still uses up mass that a body needs to replenish. In the case of the tree, it’s slowly converting mana to matter through a racial skill, but that requires a massive amount of mana which it doesn’t have on hand,” Kayafe replies.

“Well, I got my wood, so now I need to set up a ritual site to upgrade some of my items,” I say with a shrug, changing the subject to my goal.

“Already?” Kayafe asks. “I thought you would wait until after your Dungeon training to start on it.”

“That was the plan, but I really should upgrade some of my items to better my training, and this is a good opportunity to study rituals with an academic purpose, rather than testing it on something we might need to get right. Ultimately, these items aren’t essential to my Classes and Skills, and can be replaced if they are lost.”

Although I must admit I am rather attached to my diadem, if it works, it will be stronger. I don’t think it will be destroyed in the ritual; at most, the upgrade, which I plan to, in a way, combine the Diadem and weapons, may not be what I envisioned.

It only makes sense to combine them. Considering that these items will be for my clones and minds, I should build the ritual around them. The next thing to consider is location. I am not aware of any kind of special event any time soon, but I can still load the dice in my favor.

Having the ritual require being near the center of a Nexus is an easy requirement to achieve, but, in the wider world, it would be difficult. Next, having the ritual take place at twilight during a Mind and Beauty essence storm should normally make it very rare. However, considering how twilight happens twice a day and I can create the storm, which is generally a rare, if not near impossible, event given the timing, I can do it. The problem is that because I can do it, the rarity of things might not matter, only its specific conditions. This should allow me to create conditions that are so specific as to be impossibly improbable under other circumstances, which may help the ritual.

Of course, this is all hypothetical. I doubt I can actually game the system, but creating something with such conditions means that it can’t be used against me by someone else. Kayafe said that ritual spells likely fail, not always fail. In creating this ritual, I’d be setting a precedent that, if people don’t realize it’s from my title, they may generally think it does work and may increase their chances of success through placebo.

Then again, maybe I want people to be able to cast a ritual? In any case, I am making this ritual so only Kayafe or I can cast it, since limiting the conditions to make it work should make it more powerful, not so others can’t use it against me.

I discuss this and other details with Kayafe, who is more knowledgeable about rituals, while I set up the ritual site.

“Little is known since no one had the ability to cast rituals reliably,” Kayafe says as I form several statues of me to represent my clones. “In theory, this ritual should be incredibly powerful, but I agree that, relatively speaking, it isn’t difficult for you. This should confirm, however, if the conditions only, or partially, matter for the caster or creator.”

I listen carefully, linking the statues to each other to represent my mental connection to my clones.

“As for the strict conditions that make it possible to only those with very high [Manipulate Mana], I am unsure if that even matters. It can be like my trial of the gods, where it is easy to do with the enhanced [Manipulate Magic] and thus should not be worthy of a legendary feat, but it is actually worthy because the skill is so hard to enhance. In other words, that trial's difficulty relies on its prerequisites. This could be similar, but trials aren’t rituals, even if they may be related.”

“So this ritual will tell us whether or not the difficulty itself matters, or if it’s in relation to the caster?”

Next, I forge the spear and dagger in the hands of the statues in the form I envision their improved versions will look like.

“Yes,” Kayafe nods. “The one you did for your Kyhosa was a different type of ritual, in which there were no casters.”

“What do you mean?”

I then start on etching an inscription copied from my [Many Minds] magic framework on the ground, and placing the statues on the inscription’s line intersections.

“That ritual was precedent on a condition, and once that condition was met, the ritual was cast. This is the most reliable way to cast a ritual as no one is the caster, hence why what we are doing is so unknown.”

“Isn’t this the same thing, though? This ritual depends on the time of day, twilight specifically; it should work the same way.”

In the center of the inscription, I form an altar out of beauty and mind essence as the final piece to this ritual site.

“That is one of the triggers, but you are creating at least one of the conditions, making it an artificial trigger, not a natural one; that is why you are the caster. If you want powerful rituals, you will have to study the history of rare events all over the world; you can’t just stay here.”

With the ritual site close to being done, I look it over and let my new [Inventive Perfection] have its say.

Each statue is a mix of two essences, one Beauty essence to symbolize its tie to my Bond and one Mind essence to symbolize the mind. The first is made of serene Beauty essence and zen Mind essence. The second is made of elegance Beauty and id Mind essences. The last statue is made of Grace Beauty and ego Mind essences.

[Inventive Perfection] doesn’t have much to say, but I think that’s mostly because I am treading unknown ground. The skill only works off my knowledge, so it doesn’t work well on rituals.

The only thing left is to wait for morning twilight, when I will upgrade the Diadem. I only have a few minutes of opportunity, but with my Bond, I can quickly reshape the star tree wood and replace the old spear shaft and dagger handle.

As for the Diadem, I will upgrade it to super-solid and also make it capable of storing the weapons.

I conjure the Mind and Beauty essence mana storm I need over the entirety of Temple Island, and wait for twilight which should automatically start the ritual, signaling me when to start. I pass the time by talking to Kayafe about [Sense Mana] and [Sense Magic] until morning twilight. Once I notice a change in mana in the area around me which indicates the approach of dawn, I begin upgrading my weapons.

I start the crafting by removing the spear shaft from the wolf fang spearhead and reshaping the star tree branch I harvested with my Bond. Next, I reinforce the star tree shaft with super solid Beauty mana, incorporating the identity of the awe of the cosmos when looking at the vastness of the night sky. I add decorations of Beauty mana in the design of stars and soak it in a blanket of magic so it’ll leave behind an illusory trail of cosmic stars and nebulae using Beauty mana.

For the spearhead, I upgrade the solid mana edge reinforcement and decorations to super-solid Beauty with the identity of grace like a flowing dance of an ice skater. Next, I renew the spear’s current enchantments and reinforce them with magic to strengthen them.

I use the same process for the dagger, and as I examine my work with [Inventive Perfection], it has an idea to improve the weapons.

I add Mind essence, a type that represents consciousness, and enchant the weapons with the ability to conjure a spectral weapon linked to it that can strike independently if willed. I reinforce this enchantment too.

I notice that each time I apply magic to the weapons, it becomes more and more saturated, until magic starts slowly drifting off of them. It’s possible that applying more effects shortens the lifespan of the magic, or I only have a certain allotment of time for which the magic remains effective. In either case, there is a limit, a trade-off of sorts.

Satisfying [Inventive Perfection], I take off my Diadem for its upgrade. I followed my plans for it, upgrading the mana to super solid and then enchanting it to resist mental attacks and reinforce it with magic. This is the only magic I can apply since it's already a magic item.

I’m not sure if Kayafe knows this since she doesn’t have [Sense Magic], but considering she planned on teaching the crafting part later, she probably hasn’t gotten to that lesson yet. In either case, already magical items have reduced ability for further magical reinforcement. I suspect it is related to its tier potential, meaning that a below-average major tier can be further enhanced with [Manipulate Magic], while an above-average one has less potential to work with. So a magic item like the Dryad’s Grace which pushes the limit of its tier, probably can’t be reinforced with any more magic.

I wonder if there’s a way to see how much magic a material can hold, and if there’s any risk of applying too much. Based on my previous observation on miasma in general, as well as its utilization in the creation of monster materials upon a monster’s death, it should increase the magical potential, but that is a bigger risk than I am willing to take.

I should discuss the ritual and my findings with Kayafe after this is over and see what she has to say about it.

While one of my minds is observing the magic phenomena in front of me, another keeps watch on the ritual as a whole, noting that all the mana in the ritual site has transformed into ritual mana. This transformation has even affected the super-solid statues that I made.

With sudden inspiration, I take some of the ritual mana and forge a super-solid maker's mark on the weapons and diadem. The mark is the halves of two separate inscriptions, copies of my [Sense Magic] and [Manipulate Magic], put together. Inside the core of the inscription halves is a diagram of mana, showing five MM and elementary particles. However, for those who don’t understand what it is, it looks close to a diagram of the elements, with each particle representing one of the eight elements, vitality, and reserved mana.

A thought occurs to me that I should be able to replicate ritual mana if I’ve seen it before; I should find some time to experiment with that and see if it can’t elevate my craft further. However, now that I’ve been looking at it for a few seconds, I can see that there’s a faint magical signature in the mana, much like how the alien mana from the Eldritch beings was being stabilized. Can ritual mana even exist on its own?

With the time left for the ritual quickly running out, I move on to the final two parts of the upgrade process. I add Space essence to the Diadem and enchant it to store the weapons. At the same time, I link all three pieces together.

Finally, I make more Mind Components with [Many Minds] in my soul, exhausting all of the ectoplasm my soul can spare, and then transfer six over to the diadem with [Astral Projection].

I finish the item upgrades just in time as the ritual consumes the ritual mana and even the mana in the statues, removing almost all traces of the ritual site. The magic washes over the area and flows into the items, leaving only trace amounts of the ritual mana as evidence which I gather into a small pebble-sized sample.

Magic Princess’ Diadem:

(Exalted) (Set)

This Diadem has been crafted by the Saintess of Mana and Magic in a ritual. This item holds her history of saving her entire people by replacing their missing Mind Component, even at the cost of her pain and solitude. This Diadem is capable of summoning ten copies of its wearer, each with its own Mind Component, which the wearer can control as if they were their own body and self, while making them more resistant to mental attacks and other trickeries of mind mages. Furthermore, each Clone is fully capable of acting autonomously and receives their own copy of the Magic Princess’ Dagger and Magic Princess’ Fang Spear.

When worn, grants ten additional minds and mind components to its wearer. Grants the ability to make ten realistic clones made of the wearer's unique mana that can each be controlled by one of the minds. Each clone uses one of the ten granted Mind Components gained by wearing this Diadem. Enhances Mind resistance by 1900%

Magic Princess’ Dagger:

(Heroic) (Set)

This dagger is made by the Saintess of Mana and Magic. This dagger is linked to its spear counterpart and is able to provide additional mana should the need arise, but each copy shares the same pool of mana. This dagger can also summon a starry spectral dagger, which is mentally controlled.

Battery 30000, Clone Linking, Spectral Strike.

Magic Princess’ Fang Spear:

(Heroic) (Set)

This spear is made by the Saintess of Mana and Magic. This Spear is able to store a charged spell for later use, but each copy has the same mana pool to draw from. This spear can also summon a starry spectral spear, which is mentally controlled.

Battery 50000, Discharge, Clone Linking, Spectral Strike.