Chapter 47: Mana Toxicity

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 50!

5th Breakthrough: You've been exposed to so much mana it almost killed you. Now you'll resist acute toxicity a little more and push back on it more effectively.

"Mana can instantly infuse into your body's basic building blocks, destroying them, rupturing whatever it is. It'll damage the code of life, that in which traits are passed down from parent to child." The Guardian lectures.

I have two familiars and myself blasting me with [Grace of Wholeness], in addition, I am casting life magic to heal me.

"Check your Vitality, little one" The dragon orders. I did so. Finding my current vitality at twenty out of one thousand one hundred.

"Your vitality is stored in your body, chop a limb off and you'll see a reduction. Have your body's building blacks damaged and your vitality will lower, but magic attacks directed solely at your vitality can also kill you, little one. You'll feel no pain, you'll feel nothing, but your vitality will still be damaged"

The dragon stepped closer, the mana pressure immediately raising.

"You'll notice that your heart has stopped beating, little one, but you are still alive. It is your vitality that anchors your soul to your body even as your body's functions have stopped. You are still alive and healing, the healing producing more vitality and restoring your body."

Suddenly I felt a beating in my chest again, hard powerful beats pounding in my ears. I might have even wet myself as my legs tremble so much I couldn't even take a step. This was too overwhelming, all too sudden. Even if the Guardian said I would be safe a primal fear is still gripping me like chains binding my feet.

"Vitality is used to keep your body going, it is used to move your body even when it physically can't, it animates you so long as you have it you are alive. Focus on turning the mana that has infused into your body into more vitality little one."

Just as the Guardian had says this I gain another breakthrough.

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 60!

6th Breakthrough: You've been exposed to mana toxicity for so long you should have died. Now you'll resist and recover from it a little more.

I am gaining levels like crazy, so much I can't even tell what to attribute the levels to.

"Focus! Every skill has a state of focus that can improve your breakthroughs. You have one more general skill slot open. You'll want to take [Persistant State] it'll help you keep them running at all times"

I slowly nod, focusing on myself.

"Vitality is just another form of mana, It can be used, can be spent, it is a type of strange mana that has no element; no MM force, no empowerment field, but it is fundamentally a form of mana."

I focus on that, turning the mana in my body to vitality. No, that isn't what I want right now, that is [Mana Manipulation] what I want right now is for my body or soul to do the work. I don't know if the threat of my life helped me or watching my vitality count start to drop again even aginst my healing but I somehow was able to do it.

"Good, desire for life helps you. The will to live is what turns mana into vitality, the greater the will, the greater the desire to live, the faster this breakthrough will heal you, keep you alive. You should also take note that restoring your vitality does not mean restoring your body. In most cases, if your body is utterly destroyed you die, but there have been cases, of some using vitality to reconstruct a body of mana, to persist or even willingly shed their bodies"

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 70!

7th Breakthrough: You've managed to turn the destructive mana toxicity into vitality, this will help you process more mana into vitality

"Three left to go, little one. Now focus on pushing against my mana, try to enter the state of focus"

By now I am familiar enough with the state of focus that it didn't take too long.

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 80!

8th Breakthrough: You've entered a state of focus to resist mana toxicity, this will improve all your breakthroughs while you stay focused.

"Now use your focus to retract your mana, it shouldn't be hard for your level now"

I focus and imagine trying to hold back my mana to prevent others around me from getting mana toxicity. In this case, the breakthrough, while giving me toxicity which should be the opposite of what it wants, is meant to protect others.

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 90!

9th Breakthrough: You've held back your mana leakage, resulting in Toxicity, now you'll be able to hold back more.

"You're not holding back with your core, you are storing the mana in yourself, it is fundamentally different. Be warned, however, you can only hold so much, and converting the mana into vitality can only work so fast"

The Guardian has started pressuring me with water mana, rather than her own unique mana that she exuded.

"You have a breakthrough to tolerate one's mana, useful, but in the end easily navigated around. You can also get mana toxicity from spells," the dragon says as she wills a water spell around me, a bubble of water formed around me, washing me clean and seeping into my body, hydrating me. "It's easy to empower one with mana but quite another to infuse one with it" Suddenly I saw the spell dig into me, spreading throughout me. It felt as if ants were crawling all over me, inside of me.

Ting! Mana Toxicity Tolerance has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Mana Toxicity Tolerance will now continue leveling past level 100!

10th Breakthrough: you've taken so many spells you suffered from mana Toxicity, this will help you resist spells a little more.

"And now we will get your other levels. You may have figured it out young but most of the world already knows the correlation between the breakthroughs and skill levels."

The Guardian spent the next hour teaching me the knowledge levels of [Mana Toxicity Tolerance] and training my action levels. The Guardian even summoned several small but dense water storms to train my repeat levels for the fourth breakthrough, storm toxicity tolerance.

In the end, the Guardian helped me cap my [Mana Toxicity Tolerance].

"Now you should be immune to mana toxicity, little one, consider it a gift for all that you taught me and as a gift for obtaining your class"

It was quite the experience being personally taught by such a powerful being. I sat in a daze, being power leveled so fast still had my head spinning, perhaps many beings could power level a resistance skill easily.

"Many resistance skills work in similar ways, and you should try to get [Total Mana Resistance]. It's a class skill that has the potential to make you completely immune to mana-based attacks."

Totally immune?!

"You have that skill?" I questioned, not sure if I want to hear the answer.

"It's our scales, it resists everything except our opposite, naturally the first thing we do is train a skill to cover that vulnerability," The Guardian says proudly.

I had thought the Guardian the most powerful being but I hadn't even begun to see just how powerful dragons really are.

"So the only way to harm a dragon is through means that bypass the body? Direct vitality and soul damage?"

The Guardian smiles. "You may very well be aware that soul damage can be resisted with a skill."

Not direct vitality though.

"Now, two last things before you leave. You should know that there is no container that can hold all the mana that passes through the nexus, which means that the Mana Arc is redirecting it or processing it somehow you should take a look at it. The temple sits upon a dungeon, in which the Mana Arc feeds vast amounts of mana. Its intention was to train up powerful warriors, there you will find the necessary place to grow in strength. Worry not about your class level, focus on your Bond level, use the class level limit to your advantage to get experience bonuses. Your goal should be to get at least to level five hundred in your Bond, if not more, before your next class evolution. Stay below level one hundred in your class, remove a skill if you have to, worry not, you can pick them up again, although you'll lose your action levels, the knowledge stays with you and thus the knowledge levels will just be given back." The Guardian lays back down on the ground.

"Thank you, Guardian!" I bow.

I walk back to the pier, where Dad is waiting.

"That took a lot longer than I was expecting, I was starting to worry" Dad hugs me in a tight embrace.

"The Guardian just wanted to help me with something. Can we go to the Temple? I want to see what the Mana Arc really is" I ask.

"We can't Aly, the mana is too much up there" Dad shook her head.

"Not for me! That was what the guardian was helping me with" I say with a smile, still a little shaken over the ordeal but I didn't let it show.

Dad gave a sigh. "Very well, this would be a good chance for me to study the Likeness of Myrou."

We walk a stone path to the temple and soon the blazing walls of liquid fire came into view. I had never actually stepped foot into the temple except for that one time, my [Mana Sense] was still too low for me to really see anything.

Now, however, I can see what is really going on. The liquid fire is pure fire mana; condensed so much the mana is acting weird. It is held within ice stone. On top of the liquid mana is a solid, almost iceberg-like solid mana, much like my attempt at trying to make solid mana from squeezing many mana silk threads together. Can we do some mana forging from this? Oddly the solid mana is less dense than the liquid mana it seems mana goes from gaseous to solid then liquid rather than gas, liquid, then solid.

Ting! Sense Mana has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense Mana will now continue leveling past level 240!

24th Breakthrough: You've seen Hyper dense Mana, this'll let you discover the workings of mana in such an extreme environment.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 215!

Suddenly, as if I had been seeing through a foggy lens and cleaned it, the liquid mana became clear to me. The mana is squeezed down so much its composite parts blends together, freely moving throughout the liquid. It was fascinating. The currents formed are mesmerizing and beautiful. I watch the mana slowly separate back into individual mana as it joins the solid mana.

This is probably the densest mana I have ever seen. The solid mana is ten times denser than mana silk, and the liquid mana is about ten times denser than the solid mana. Producing a cubic centimeter of mana thread takes about twenty-five mana, so a cube of solid will take two hundred fifty and the liquid about two and a half thousand. There must be hundreds of millions if not billions worth of mana in all the liquid mana around the temple.

I can only just get a hint of what mana truly is now, awareness of the mana particle but not quite enough to actually see it. Am I getting to the end of what [Sense Mana] is capable of? What happens once I get all the breakthroughs I can get?

I start walking up the stairs to the top of the temple. It is very similar to the Mayan pyramids and despite being made of stone it is still very decorated with Myrou gold each piece of stone just one part to add to a larger depiction of an image. The mana density grows exponentially as I walk up. I am fine with the mana, even as it seeps into my cells and tries to rupture them I am able to resist it, more than that, I am invigorated by it. With one hundred and ten percent resistance the extra ten percent is being used up, either by my [Mana Sustenance] or by converting it to vitality.

I reached the top of the pyramid. It was worn by millennia of time with no one able to maintain the place. Cracks are in the pillars holding up the stone roof and water erosion is evident. In the center, dripping liquid fire mana floats a massive gem, large enough to fully encapsulate someone. It is a perfect nexus gem, all the mana held within in perfect amounts that the opposing forces should be canceled. Yet, the mana is attracted to it. The mana arc is drawing in so much mana that ripples could be seen around the gem. I analyze the Mana Arc.

Mana Arc of Kayafe's Final Will: (Legendary) (Ancient) (Legacy)Created by a true master of mana, Kayafe in an attempt to save her people and give them a land free of tyranny and a place they can truly call home sealed her body to provide a catalyst for the Mana Arc. With the capabilities of drawing in vast amounts of mana, storing it, and redirecting it. This Mana Arc has transformed a hellish wasteland into a paradise free of monsters.Monster Inhibitor, Battery (10B), Mana Draw, Mana Redirection, Mana Liquification.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 216!

Monster Inhibitor. Perhaps why we have Domrs are because they came in, probably like how the Chayaotmos came. Is there a way to free Kayafe? Perhaps maybe I can communicate with her?

I walk up to the gem and place my hand on it. Immediately I knew I could change thw type of mana is liquified, redirected into the ground.

That's why the Nexus favors fire mana! I had always thought it strange how the ice and fire mana don't cancel out their effects like most of the other mana resulting in a hot place.

How can I communicate with Kayafe if it's at all possible? Simply speaking shouldn't work, but I try anyway.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" I wait. Nothing.

Perhaps magic is the way, a telepathy spell. I focused on casting the spell, a sound essence spell transformed from my reserves and flows into the gem.

"Hello, can you hear me?"

I feel a stirring within the gem. I try again. I feel another stirring within the gem, a movement of mana. I try a third time, still nothing.

Perhaps if I can form a link? It'll cost a lot of mana but maybe I can maintain it.

My fourth attempt has me pouring in a lot of mana but a link manages to form!

"Who are you?" The voice is feminine and sweet. The connection isn't strong and had static but I was successful!