The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 318: Cores and channels

Elaine and Nesha were fighting against a pack of Yellow hyenas led by a Green matriarch. They could have made quick work of them, of course, but they held back many of their tricks, focused on honing others.

As for Percy, he didn’t participate. Relying on his companions to keep him safe, he concentrated on something else. Semi-hidden at the foot of a medium-sized boulder, he was sitting cross-legged, his eyes closed and his boosting art running. Only Circulation though, not Synchronization. And with just the pure mana.

Upgrading the soul component of the spell was going to be a whole other challenge, but he wasn’t interested in doing that right now. That would come later. For the time being, he was content just copying what Tlaloc had shown him on Felmara.

‘My channels aren’t exactly the same as his. I hope that’s not a problem…’

Due to his different physiology compared to Micky’s people, and the odd placement of his second core, Percy had been forced to modify Circulation a little when he first learned it. The changes were small, as the overall shape of his mana network and the corresponding pattern were just shifted slightly. Still, Percy wasn’t sure if this would remain the case while practicing the final part of the technique.

He shrugged.

‘Only one way to know, I guess.’

Carefully recalling the Green-born’s demonstration, he focused on all the new components of the spell. He had to allow the mana to spill out of his pores, use it to induce a secondary flow outside his body, shape it into whirlpools linked with his mana channels to increase its efficiency, allow the ambient mana to mix with his own, and use his channels to refine the ambient mana before it even reached his core…

There was a lot there, and the specifics were a bit fuzzy in his mind. He’d only caught a fleeting glimpse of the spell before everything went to shit. From afar. And with lots of other things going through his mind at the time. Worse still, several months had passed since then.

But it was okay. He remembered plenty. The rest… he could figure out.

Starting with the first step, he pushed Circulation to its limits, fully saturating every inch of his body with mana. Next, he allowed some of it to leave his pores, forming a thin cyan layer around his skin.

This wasn’t that novel by itself. Every mage had to push mana outside their body whenever they wanted to cast a spell. And Percy had inadvertently stepped an inch closer to the Dance on his own, via Synchronization and his Mantle of Deceit. There was too much mana to store in his body, so he was used to keeping some outside as a temporary storage: a buffer until he cast a spell with it. The only difference was that this shroud was always static. Closer to a stagnant pool of water than a river. It never contributed to the flow itself, remaining separate from his boosting art. This was what he had to change to complete the spell.

‘What if I try to reabsorb it?’

Mages typically drew ambient mana into their lungs, before refining it inside their cores, converting it to their own affinity and adding their willpower. As for mana channels, they were mostly there to expel the mana from their bodies, and to cast spells with it.

Technically, it was possible to pull ambient mana through their channels. In fact, that was what every child had to do to clear the first couple of channels and activate their core. But the process was far slower, taking a few days at minimum.

Either way, the mana currently coating Percy’s body wasn’t ambient mana. It was his own. He could easily absorb it whichever way he wanted. Moving a large chunk of the cyan mana to his nose, he breathed it in. Since it already belonged to him, it coursed through his body without obstruction, passing first through his core and then his channels, before getting expelled from his pores again. Finally, it reached his nose and his lungs for the second time, completing the cycle. freēwēbnovel.com

Over the next few minutes, he continued to recycle his mana as he drew some ambient mana from the air around him as well, to refill his channels. By the time he got used to it, he felt a little different. His muscles had grown stronger, his mind clearer. In fact, this was how it felt whenever he activated the boosting art in the first place, proving he was on the right path.

That said, the change was minuscule. He wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t looked for it. If he had to put a number, he’d grown about 2~3% stronger. Still quite impressive, given how easily he had accomplished it.

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‘Wait, no… this boost is going to disappear immediately once I get in a fight.’

Right now, Percy was merely recycling his own mana. When he started using it, he’d have to replenish it with ambient mana from his surroundings. He could only breathe so fast, and his lungs had a limited capacity. He’d inevitably have to dilute this secondary flow, which would rob him of the new boost.

Replenishing the lost mana was something he already had to juggle when using his boosting art, but he usually only had to worry about keeping his output equal or lower to his input. If he breathed in his own mana, he was essentially reducing his input even further, which wasn’t sustainable.

‘Alright. I can see why Micky’s ancestors learned to absorb mana directly from their pores…’

It was tantamount to breathing with every inch of their body: at least as far as their mana intake was concerned. It was the only way to boost not only their capacity, but also their mana regeneration. This was especially important, because mana kept outside the body tended to leak over time, meaning they would have to absorb an even greater volume to benefit from it.

The only question was… how did they do it?

‘I suppose I can worry about absorbing and converting the ambient mana later. For now, let’s focus on the breathing part.’

Percy stopped moving the excess mana to his nose and slowed down his breaths, allowing his channels to empty slightly. Next, he absorbed the cyan film directly through his skin, pulling the mana through some channels, and expelling it through others. It wouldn’t have looked any different to the naked eye, but Percy’s eyes were a little more special than that. He instantly noticed the motes snaking in and out of his body, forming lots of tiny loops.

He kept this up for a few minutes, until he grew accustomed to the feeling. Then, he added some more mana to the system, saturating his channels again. And the effect was immediate!

His strength grew by a couple percentage points once more!

Next, he re-established the other external flow passing through his lungs, pushing the boosting art a little further still.

‘5%. Not bad. But again, it’ll crumble the moment I try to add more ambient mana to the mix…’

At least, the mana looping through his skin wouldn’t be affected, but a 3% boost was barely worth mentioning. Percy was a lot greedier than that. He had to find a way to boost his regeneration as much as his capacity. Clearly, he had to draw the ambient mana through his channels: there was no avoiding that.

But there were two problems with that idea. First, the flow would be slow and inefficient: as mentioned previously. Not just that, but both his channels and core were already saturated. He couldn’t fit any more inside his body, nor could he make it flow any faster than it already was. This was why he even needed to create an external flow in the first place.

‘Okay. That explains why Tlaloc had to use his own mana to refine the ambient mana outside his core. But how is such a thing even possible?’

Mana cores were extremely intricate organs, with lots of functions. As far as Percy could tell, every core was equipped with some innate concepts corresponding to one’s affinity. This was what allowed them to cleanse mana of other types and to assume control of it. How could he seize the ambient mana without his core’s help?

Through his mana channels, perhaps?

But that didn’t make any sense! It was widely known that mana channels were different from a core. Sure, they could store and transmit mana, but they lacked most of a core’s key functions… didn’t they?

‘Or maybe that’s wrong?’

Perhaps, the distinction between one’s core and mana channels wasn’t as clear as he thought it was…

Micky’s Regulation did work differently from Percy’s Soul Conversion. It allowed him to convert some of the ice mana to beast mana as it travelled through his veins: his channels, essentially. Percy had chalked this up to a feature unique to the beast affinity. But maybe it was a broader property of mana channels.

‘Actually, how does Circulation even work?’

Obviously, it allowed him to absorb and store more mana in his body. But it affected so much more than merely his capacity and regeneration… Why did it enhance his physical strength? His muscles weren’t fuelled by mana, so where was the extra power coming from?

‘Come to think of it, activating the boosting art has always felt a bit like when my cores advance to the next grade…’

It wasn’t exactly the same. The feeling was shallower. Weaker. Temporary. Still, Circulation did offer the same holistic improvements to Percy’s very existence. From strengthening his body, to sharpening his senses and calming his mind.

He’d always thought of his tempered channels as an “extension of his core”, and the boosting art as “elevating his strength by half a grade”, because that was effectively what the spell did. But perhaps, this was more literal than he had thought.

‘Well, that can’t be completely right.’

He knew for a fact that the Dance didn’t triple one’s lifespan. If it did, then Yellow-borns on both Huehue and Felmara would have been able to reach godhood, yet neither of the two planets was considered a greater spring.

It seemed the spell’s effect was less substantial than a true advancement. It increased the quantity of one’s mana, but not its quality: its grade. Perhaps, that was the difference between boosting one’s strength and extending their lifespan.

In any case, that didn’t matter right now. If his mana channels could truly function like an extension of his core, then he should be able to refine the ambient mana in there.

Happy with his guess, he grinned.

‘Now we’re getting somewhere.’

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