The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 319: Ambient mana

Several months had passed inside the Valley.

Everyone was making good progress towards the next grade, having never missed a single cleansing session. None of Acton’s guards had advanced either, which was great news.

Other than that, Elaine and Nesha were both growing stronger by the day, constantly fighting against the beasts and honing their magic. They’d registered a couple new Crude spells each, with Nesha having even started practicing with her earth affinity.

In fact, she was this close to mastering Circulation with her space mana too, having made a ton of progress with the corresponding pattern. She said the trick had been to teleport her mana from one channel to another, essentially closing a few invisible loops in her body. There was still some work to be done, but it looked like she’d have the technique down by the end of their first year in here.

“Ugh… I’m so sick of sitting all day!” Percy groaned.

He wanted to join them, itching to stretch his limbs and get some combat practice of his own. But he’d decided his time was better spent focusing on his boosting art, at least until he could use it while fighting. That way, he’d be improving on two fronts at the same time.

Sadly, progress was slow.

He knew he was on the right track: not only because his ideas made sense in his mind, but also because he’d seen Tlaloc do something similar in the past. Still, putting everything to practice proved quite difficult. Pushing the ambient mana through his channels felt like trying to pump tar through a thin water pipe.

‘Not that surprising, really.’ he smiled bitterly.

It was common knowledge that ambient mana was made of all sorts of mana types. And each of them wanted to do its own thing: to move through his body in a different manner. This was why each affinity had its own set of mana channels.

But Percy only had a pure affinity: at least for the purposes of this exercise. His core tugged at a specific component of the ambient mana, forcing it to pass through the corresponding pathways. Naturally, the other types resisted, dragging the pure mana down and slowing everything to a crawl. It was so bad, in fact, that injecting ambient mana into his body actually made his boosting art weaker than plain old Circulation, making him second guess everything.

‘No, I’m on the right track here. This HAS to be it. I’m just missing something…’

The good news was that he’d at least proven his hypothesis correct. By the end of the first week, he’d managed to convert part of the ambient mana into his own affinity, without ever allowing it to enter his core. Clearly, his channels could indeed reproduce some of the functions of his core: albeit inefficiently.

The problem was that pure cores were already bad at converting other types into their own, and his channels were even worse than his core. He could only convert a tiny amount after having it flow through his body for several minutes, and the output wasn’t even worth mentioning.

But what was he doing wrong?

In theory, he could keep at it for years, and his efficiency was bound to increase slightly. Still, at the abysmal rate he was improving, he doubted he’d get any good at this for centuries. And Tlaloc clearly wasn’t that old.

Thinking back to the Green-born’s demonstration, Percy compared it to what he was currently doing. It was the same thing: the internal pattern of Circulation hadn’t changed, and he was trying to convert the ambient mana inside his body, just like his friend had done. The only difference was that he hadn’t added the whirlpools yet, because he didn’t want to pull more ambient mana until he figured out what to do with it.

‘Maybe that’s the issue?’ he suddenly thought, raising an eyebrow.

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He was used to breaking complex problems into simpler tasks, to tackle them more easily. Learn how to absorb ambient mana, figure out how to convert it, scale the whole thing up… Usually, this mindset worked for him, whether it was in alchemy, runecrafting, or other spells he’d developed in the past. But perhaps, this time it was standing in his way instead.

‘How would a greater quantity of ambient mana help me convert it faster though?’

He pondered over that idea for a couple of minutes, before ultimately shaking his head. He felt he was onto something, but increasing the quantity alone wasn’t the answer. Maybe he had to begin the conversion process before the ambient mana even entered his body?

The final part of the technique: or External Flow as the Felmarans had called it: involved extending the flow outside one’s body, to boost their capacity and regeneration further. But if one’s mana channels functioned as an extension of their core, then didn’t this external flow serve as an extension of their mana channels?

It had to be, because even the small flows he’d added had immediately boosted his physical strength. In other words, he had to essentially turn not only his whole body, but even the air around it into an extension of his mana core!

‘If I’m right about this, the conversion has to happen in three stages.’

First, he’d begin the process outside his body, partially converting the ambient mana into his affinity. The efficiency was bound to be even lower than inside his channels, but it wasn’t a closed space, so he could attempt this at a much higher scale.

Next, he would pull the primed mana into his body, continuing the conversion while circulating it around his pathways. It would flow much faster too, as the ratio of pure mana would be much higher by that point.

Finally, whatever mana reached his core would barely require further processing, so he could apply the final touch there, completing the conversion.

‘It’s kinda like how cows digest food in stages…’

In other words, the whirlpools did more than merely pulling the ambient mana. No wonder he hadn’t been able to get far without them. It simply wasn’t possible to master all the components of the Dance individually: he had to practice everything together.

Happy with his deductions, he decided to give it a shot. He expelled some of his mana from his pores, but he didn’t let it stick closely to his skin this time. Instead, he allowed it to scatter, to mix with the air, enveloping his body in a thin, cyan mist.

Next, he tried to pull it back.

The ambient mana resisted again, but not as much as before, since the pure component made up a greater ratio. It was still way too slow, however. He had to do better.

He visualized his core, burning like an Orange star in his abdomen. And the channels, spreading out from his core, reaching every corner of his body. Finally, the tiny flows exiting and entering his body.

Saying that everything was connected was one thing, but truly believing it was another. This was a new idea to him, so he had to let go of all his previous preconceptions.

He tried to think of his channels as roots, and of the tiny flows passing through his pores as hairs, extending out of those roots. The flow wasn’t uniform either. Whenever he inhaled, he felt his core burn, before sending a pulse rippling through his channels, spilling out of his skin. Whenever he exhaled, the pressure inside his body eased slightly, causing the ambient mana to enter his skin.

The whole system was one. It was alive. It was connected.

As he repeated his actions, Percy fell into a rhythm. A slow rhythm, at first. The mist outside his body was faint, and the ambient mana resisted. The flow inside his channels was a complete slog, and his conversion rate was abysmal.

But he focused on stability, rather than speed or efficiency. The most important thing was to keep the spell active. From there, he could make all sorts of incremental improvements, until it surpassed his old boosting art.

Falling into a trance, Percy didn’t even register the flow of time, until his companions called out to him. As much as they would have liked to let him continue practicing, Nesha still wasn’t strong enough to guard the group by herself, so Percy had to take over whenever Elaine needed to sleep.

But that was fine.

As soon as she woke up, he grabbed the opportunity to sleep for a few hours himself, before resuming his training.

It was better the second day. By the time he had to stop again, the mist had grown a little thicker, and the mana was flowing a little faster inside his body. He’d converted more of it too.

The third day was better still. The fourth too. As was the week after, and the week after that. Two months later, Percy felt some movement in the cyan mist.

The flows in and out of his skin had grown strong enough that the faint outline of a whirlpool was beginning to form. It helped gather even more ambient mana, and to push it into his body even more forcefully. The effect of the boosting art was more potent too, though it was still a little weaker than Circulation.

But Percy was happy.

He was improving a lot faster than he’d done during the months leading to his most recent breakthrough.

And, what happened just one month after that allowed him to spend more time training.

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