Chapter 80

Keith made his way up to the third floor of Frey’s dorm and approached her apartment. The two had become good friends and frequently studied together over the past few months. Frey was a true genius when it came to arrays, and she could keep up with Keith even though she didn’t have the Mind Division and Mind Enhancement skills.

Adventurer Academy’s array department had several recommendation slots that allowed talented students priority access to the next available Mind Division and Mind Enhancement skills. Unfortunately, even though the faculty awarded Frey priority access, her position in line was 992nd. There were simply too many people from various fields that needed them, mainly the military.

The fact even someone as talented as Frey couldn’t get those skills left Keith feeling profoundly guilty. He saw firsthand how much effort Frey put in to get priority access and was ashamed he acquired them by relying on his family. It felt like he had robbed it from someone more deserving, especially because it was due to his actions that caused the two skills to skyrocket in demand.

That’s why Keith started looking for ways to help Frey a month ago. At first, since he was making so much money from selling herbs, he asked Adeiv to contact the people at the front of the queue so he could buy it from them. Alas, the military strictly prohibited such behavior, forcing Keith to search for other options.

It was yesterday when Adeiv called, saying he found someone with an innate gift that could create skill gems by duplicating a skill someone had learned. With such a useful innate gift, it went without saying that person had many clients, though they couldn’t refuse Keith’s lucrative offer.

After Keith knocked, Frey’s door opened, revealing an elf with shoulder-length green hair braided with colorful flowers and an angular face, surprised by Keith’s visit. “Keith? Oh no, did we have a session today?”

Keith shook his head with a smile. “No, I just came by to give you something. Can I come in?”

“Of course!” Frey tucked her hair behind her left ear as she guided Keith in. Plants and vines covered the walls of her apartment, with blooming flowers everywhere. Compared to Annallee and Elora, Frey took her elven heritage much more seriously.

When the two found a seat, Keith took out a small box and handed it to Frey. Wearing an expression of bewilderment, Frey opened the box and discovered two glittering skill gems embedded in slots.

“This!!” Frey’s face warped in shock, finding the situation incomprehensible when she inspected the skill gems.

When Frey looked to Keith for an answer, he smiled, “They’re real.”

“Where did you get these? How did you?” Frey struggled to accept what she held, her hands shaking from excitement.

Keith gave a brief explanation, declining to comment on the exact price he paid. Frey’s eyes widened in realization. “So you had these two skills all along.”

A moment later, Frey calmed down, and after some hesitation, she said, “I- I can’t accept this.”

“Why not?” Keith spoke sincerely. “You deserve it. Truly.”

Seeing Frey still indecisive, Keith pretended to get angry. “Hey, I’m not leaving until I see you activate them with my own eyes.”

Unable to resist, tears formed in the corner of Frey’s eyes as she abruptly embraced Keith in a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. This means so much to me, really.”

Frey let go and picked up the two skill gems with shining eyes, unaware of Keith’s stunned expression. When the skill gems disappeared in a flash of light, Keith recalled the dangers of Mind Division and quickly informed Frey.

“Wow,” Frey gasped as she looked around. “My thoughts are so clear.”

Once Frey became familiar with the new skills, she started imprinting runes with renewed enthusiasm. Frey was so focused she forgot about Keith, so he decided to leave. He knew from experience that once she was in the zone, she ignored everything else.

As Keith left the premises, he had no doubt Frey’s rune imprinting skills would soar over the following months and leave him in the dust. He didn’t mind and was even looking forward to it.

After visiting Frey, Keith went to Frisk’s lab and entered the time-accelerated Pocket Dimension, where Keith found Frisk lounging on a hammock. Keith was surprised. Frisk was either working or sleeping, never resting.

“Oh, you’re here?” Frisk glanced over and lazily got out of the hammock.

“Are you okay?” Keith questioned as he approached.

“It’s done,” Frisk said.

Keith stopped. “Huh? What is?”

“You know.” Frisk gave Keith a look.

“Uh, is it, you know, safe?” Keith asked, knowing how many fatalities there were in Frisk’s simulations.

“Yes. Probably. Should be,” Frisk said non-committedly.

Keith forced a smile. “Are you serious?”

“Watch.” Frisk took a deep breath and raised his palm as one rune after another popped into existence before shrinking to the size of a dot. In two minutes, a dense orb the size of a fist hovered above Frisk’s palm, over a thousand arrays forming one whole.

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum.

The floating orb pulsed every moment, sending ripples through the air. Keith looked closely, mesmerized by its intricate structure. It was so advanced that he couldn't understand a thing. Feeling unconfident, he looked up at Frisk. “Are you sure I can construct this?”

Frisk unraveled the orb before crossing his arms in thought. “With your ability to divide your mind by 11 times, it’s barely possible.”

“Barely possible?” Keith felt helpless. “What happens if I fail?”

Frisk coughed. “Yes, well, that’s why I’ve made some preparations. I procured a divine grade Heart Calming Tea and crafted a divine grade Tranquility Array for you.”

Keith’s heart shook. “Divine grade tea? Have the pioneers already reached that level?”

He knew that over the past six months, professionals from every field researched endlessly to reach higher skill levels to make higher grade products. However, he hadn’t thought people could make divine grade items so soon. Amazing.

“Some have,” Frisk explained. “The problem is how stingy the Grandsky Realm is. Materials above mythic grade are hard to come by, so even though some people can craft divine grade items, they don’t have the materials.”

Keith made a guess. “Then the tea should be very rare?”

“Very,” Frisk nodded. “Besides granting a buff similar to the Mind Enhancement skill, it's also a super elixir. Consider it a reward for being a test subject.”

“Uh, thanks,” Keith gulped.

Frisk patted Keith’s shoulder. “Don’t overthink it. I’ve broken down the Mana Body I made into three sections, so start with one. Once you learn all three, you just need to combine them. That should lower the difficulty significantly.”

“Sorry for the trouble,” Keith sighed, knowing the gap between their array skills was still miles apart.

From this day forth, Keith secluded himself in the time-accelerated Pocket Dimension to study the runes required for Frisk’s Mana Body. Thankfully, his studies over the past few months paid off, allowing him to learn all the required runes in less than two weeks.

That was when things got tricky.

Creating the Mana Body Frisk envisioned required Keith to form 1,122 arrays in one go, and with every array he formed, he needed to maintain it until the end. That meant it grew increasingly difficult as Keith progressed—fortunately, his Mind Enhancement and Mind Division skills again showed their value.

By the time Keith reached 1,009 arrays, his mental endurance had reached its limit. Every time that happened, he quickly unraveled the orb before it exploded. After a period of rest, he’d try again. Every attempt brought him closer to success. Mind Enhancement and Mind Division gained levels daily, and Keith even felt some hidden growth in his mind’s endurance.

Finally, a month after repeated training, he successfully formed all 1,122 arrays needed, creating the same intricate orb Frisk had shown him. The difference was that Frisk only needed two minutes to form it, while Keith needed half an hour.

The following day, Keith sat crosslegged in the center of the divine grade Tranquility Array and found its effects startling. It provided about half the benefit his level 685 Mind Enhancement skill gave. Feeling confident, Keith looked up at Frisk, who stood nearby with a rare solemn expression.

Frisk nodded, giving the go-ahead.

Taking a deep breath, Keith picked up the cup of divine grade Heart Calming Tea and swallowed it in several gulps. Ignoring the gain of 50 points in intelligence, Keith immediately felt unprecedented calmness. His tense muscles relaxed, and his anxiety vanished in the wind. It was like he could take in the whole world – be it war or love – with a rational mind. No matter what happened, he would take it in stride.

While a small voice in the back of Keith’s head was afraid of this uncaring mindset, he knew that this mental state would excel at creating a mega-array in the center of his chest without worrying about the consequences.

Keith could already, albeit barely, form and maintain 1,122 arrays without the Tranquility array and Heart Calming Tea, and now that they affected him, he quickly formed one array after another.

100…

200…

500…

1,000…

When Keith finished the last step, the orb at the center of his chest affixed itself into place just as the effects of the Heart Calming Tea wore off. With a soft click, the outer layer of the orb unfolded like a blossoming flower.

Keith watched in amazement as five thick tendrils made of arrays spread alongside his skeletal structure, encompassing his four limbs and head. Then, like the threads of a rope, parts of the tendrils unwinded into several fibers that coiled around his bones and skull.

At that moment, Keith felt the orb become one with his being. His mana, which normally lay dormant, grew active as the orb at the center of his chest pulsed. With a great suction force, Keith’s mana flew into the orb, where the complicated arrays compressed it from a gas to a liquid.

Now much denser, the orb sent the mana towards the pathways it had attached to Keith’s skeletal structure. Soon, all of Keith’s mana transformed as it followed a complete route through his body, ever flowing. At that point, a portion of the moving mana entered the arrays connected to the central tendrils, causing some 500 arrays along Keith’s limbs, skull, and chest to whirl into action.

Among them was the Fire Protection Array, Water Protection Array, Projectile Warding Array, Blunt Force Deflection Array, Speed Enhancement Array, Weight Reduction Array, and Physical Strength Array. Basically, they were all status-enhancing arrays. Their combined effects gave Keith an all-around boost, yet that wasn’t even the main benefit of his Mana Body.

The most important part was the orb at the center of Keith’s chest. Not only could it draw in mana from Keith’s surroundings at an astonishing speed, it diffused a layer of liquid mana around Keith’s body, causing his body’s parameters to skyrocket.

Keith had never felt better.

The liquid mana flowing through his body gave him a sense of comfort and security, which he felt even more profoundly through his Mana Manipulation skill.

“Well?” Frisk’s voice brought Keith back to reality.

The first thing Keith saw was a notification.

Mana Body Completion Rate: 96%.

Please choose whether to confirm or deny your design.

Warning: Deconstructing an established Mana Body results in immense pain.

Without hesitation, he chose to confirm. The moment he did, multiple notifications appeared.

Congratulations! You’ve performed a meritorious achievement!

You’ve acquired a new title: Mana Lifeform

Calculating effects of Mana Body…

Calculating effects of Mana body…

Effects concluded.

[Transcendent] Mana Body (96%)

-All stats +70%

-Damage from skills at or below level 500 -90%

-Damage from skills at or below level 750 -60%

-Damage from skills at or below level 1,000 -20%

-All damage from regular attacks reduced by -50%

-All critical damage taken reduced by -50%

-Debuff resistance +50%

-Mana regeneration rate +1,000%

-Skill casting speed +200%

-Skill cooldown reduction +25%

-Skill mana cost -40%

-All skills behave as if they’re 1 grade higher (Limit: Transcendent)

[Title] Mana Lifeform

Description: Given to those who’ve elevated their life level. Grants +1 affinity to mana.

Keith’s mind went blank, and he struggled to find the words to describe his reaction when he read the effects of his transcendent Mana Body. To be honest, he didn’t expect it to be like this. Weren’t the bonuses a little too exaggerated?

“You succeeded?” Frisk asked rhetorically with a wide smile as he swiped away a notification of his own for being the creator of the Mana Body design.

“All thanks to you,” Keith laughed while trying to get over another bout of sensory overload.

“Huh,” Frisk narrowed his eyes and observed the air before him. “The effects are more than I expected. Did the System summarize everything?”

“You know the effects?” Keith was surprised, considering he didn’t share his Mana Body’s info.

“Don’t forget it's my product, grandson. The System gave me a copyrighted design and a title for creating it,” Frisk explained.

The two looked at each other and smiled, knowing their project was successful. They enjoyed the moment briefly before Keith asked, “So, what now?”

Frisk shrugged. “I suppose Yara would want to have as many people as possible acquire this Mana Body to strengthen the Innate Nation’s military forces. Too bad for her, the requirements are too stringent to mass produce. I can solve the Mana Manipulation problem, but how long would someone need to learn the required knowledge in arrays?”

Keith thought about it. “If you gained the Mana Manipulation skill, couldn’t you form a Mana Body for people?”

“No,” Frisk denied. “You forgot mana is attuned. If I used my mana and injected it into someone else’s body, they might get injured or worse. I’d need a method to control other people’s attuned mana for it to work.”

“Right,” Keith realized his mistake. “Then you just need to lower the Mana Body’s complexity.”

“I came to the same conclusion and already created a lesser design,” Frisk responded. “While the effects are much worse, it’d only take a person with average talent in arrays a few months to pick up the necessary knowledge.”

Frisk gave Keith a stern look. “Grandson, I suggest you put your array studies on hold and focus on improving your strength.”

“Why?” Keith was confused. Did Frisk not want him to use the time-accelerated Pocket Dimension anymore?

“Ah, well,” Frisk ruffled his hair with an annoyed expression. “Yara’s been hounding me lately to produce new weapons and arrays for war. Looks like she’s feeling some pressure.”

That gave Keith a start. “Did we make contact with the other dimensions?”

Frisk shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just the science guy. You’d need to ask her.”

Keith looked down at his clenched fist, alarmed and worried.

Was the Innate Dimension’s era of peace about to end?