NOVEL NEXT Chapter: 90: Surpassing Limits
Each pore over my body seemed open suddenly as I felt the condensed and pure mana shimmer and move around me which seemed to converge my way faster than I could even try to absorb and refine it.
My heaving chest seem to ease after every breath as each one left me more relaxed and comforted as the air around me felt more filtered and rich and dense with mana. The circulation of my mana through my channels felt like a true burden—leaving an aching and cranky sensation to arouse through my body—to perform as I neared backlash from the overuse of my mana and the outpouring and conjuring of spells—a power I had just learned and was still putting my head around the basics of.
But despite not being a mage—no...by now that understanding had merely been just a systemic belief that I had come to discard, taught to me from a young age because of our own lack of understanding into mana itself.
It had barely been a century since we had become aware of the existence of mana and being subjected to it’s changes and power.
And ever since my miraculous regression, I had began to question almost all of the concepts and understandings, the very ideas and studies on which our society stood—the entire system itself—we had built to wield mana according to how we perceived; depicting it in a class or form to better understand and use it, but also hindering our perspectives.
Like how Adam had said in one of the classes I had attended: Mana was perceived differently, and it varied from person to person. You could say that a person understood a certain element better than the others, but that didn’t mean they held a stronger control over a different element the same way another individual did.
I remembered an old passage I had read in one of the many books I had found in the wide libraries in Lock, about the wisdomous words of an old scholar who used the simplicity of psychology and nature to describe a person’s ability to understand mana: that each person perceived the world in different scales of spectrums, which their minds could come to comprehend, which varied and diversified from one another. Each sequentially bringing forth the point that each person’s worldview and thoughts were as different as the ever changing cycle and cultures of the world. Same could be said for analogy and theory which placed an individual in a set of class, for their understanding of mana, like how each conjure or augmenter used and felt mana different from one another, so in their understanding and perceiving of the ambient mana in the air.
But even then the similarities and differences between augmenters and conjurers weren’t that many—each had different natures to wield mana in accordance to their physique and control—, yet the simplest of things made the biggest of changes.
Even augmenters could use magic like conjures after learning and being able to exert an adequate amount of control and dominance over an element, but it's way harder for them to do and conjure ranged spells, considering they were adept at using the mana for close quarter combat since being able to use it by reinforcing their body with their mana and spells, in loop like sequences to enhance their physical capabilities to fight with more efficiency and for a longer period of time by enhancing their physique. So due to that I had wasted my mana more than I should have in just the formation of a single spell, because I wasn’t able to time and narrow down just how much mana I needed to pour in the process of spell casting.
More simply put, it just leaked out of me and into the atmosphere and dispersed as I materialised and willed my mana to take form with the ambient mana in atmosphere filling the spaces left open in my spells during spell casting, depending on the element or deviant magic used. And in my case it was due to my inadequate and inefficient manipulation of my own mana to form spells.
I was more so able to circulate the mana inside me in near instances without even thinking—like a reflex after using mana for two lifetimes—as if it had become an instinct to me now to flow it in a certain way or in sudden bursts to increase my physical capabilities instantly, but to command my mana and mould it into a certain shape was still proving harder for me to perform as I was still stuck on the borderline of the rank.
Considering how I had confined myself in the rudimentary methods which had been taught to me in my past life, and being foolish enough to believe them that I never really tried hard enough myself to foresee beyond the boundary set to stop us.
I gave out a weary huff as my face slightly pulled into a uncomfortable frown as I staggered on my feet. My eyes shook from a headache catching up to my head, each nerve protesting.
With barely any mana left to steady my body, keeping both Mind’s Eye and Ruler’s Authority active was leaving me drained of both energy and concentration as my body wheezed with pain and fatigue from my fight earlier.
Taking a deep breath, invigorating my lungs with air as I stood, I held a firm grasp over both skills as the little amount of mana I had left swirled inside me as I steadied my body and shook my head to keep my head straight and keep the destructive thoughts doused and I was able to make clear judgement.
My eyes slowly followed the area around me and for the first time I carefully looked at the ground which was filled with lush and lively blades of grass swaying by the light breeze blowing around as the wind mana followed the wave and flow of the wind, being carried along, with several dark ebony and amethyst flowers growing all around me in batches making my surrounding a very pleasant sight to the eyes.
Despite my slow recover, I could still feel it as I searched inward, my body, the mana which had layered around me and by the strength of my channels now, I was very close to breaking through to the next rank. My strength had grow to the borderline after assimilating myself with the mana of the relic in the sanctuary, and due to still being on the borderline of the rank, I had wasted so much mana and had taken such a beating when the cephtalurian chief had mutated after intermingling demonic energy in it’s body.
I felt my face grow annoyed and fumed with anger as I remembered the humiliation it had caused me just moments ago.
‘I should have given it a more painful death! I should have ripped it apart from limb to limb!’ I thought, as the barely suppressed cold fury of my thoughts released out of me like thunder and making the air around me to grow heavy as the mana wheezed and throbbed.
With another deep breath, I tore my gaze away from the scenery and my thoughts and on to the relic in question which was mounted in the middle of wide lake—standing in a moat—which emanated bright sapphire light which enveloped the trees and area around it. I saw it’s roots dipped and gone deep into the depth of the lake which seemed to keep going as far as my eyes could follow from the surface, as the dense and clear water pulsed and released a comforting light as small beams of light shimmered and rippled on top of it’s surface like several fireflies, moving in a kind of coordination.
Through Mind’s Eye I observed and inspected the condensed mana which was still and inside the crystalline tree which pulsed and radiated a beautiful aura, growing in the scenery as the mana seemed to bloom and provide this area with life and prosperity and making me feel like as if I had appeared in a different location.
The tree was all to similar to the one I had seen inside the sanctuary in the thalassalithions’ territory. Thick branches of silvery crystal which coiled and intervened, with several flower buds growing on those branches which hummed and looked compacted with mana. But the only difference was it’s size, it was five times the size of the previous one I had seen and the density of the mana stored inside it was far more pure and condensed, making the one I had seen before to look like a withered and almost ancient piece left to crumble.
A felt my lips pull apart and then backward as a deadly smile appeared over my face.
“So much mana for me to take! Just waiting for to be used! Truly a gift from nature.” I said with my hoarse voice billowing through the air.
Slowly I reached closer to it as the slight noise of the grass being crunched beneath the soles of my boots entered my ears. Each breath left me in a kind of trance of awe as I saw the relic shimmer with essence, sending a comforting pulse through the area.
Whoever this Great one which Uito had mentioned whom the thalassalithions held in high regards was, this creation that he had passed down to them was incredible, and otherworldly.
It was a creation impossible to be made by some mortal being. And I was convinced that whomever that ‘person’ was, he was indeed extraordinary and brilliant.
The elixir produced by this relic—it’s product—was also better than any potion I had consumed, sequentially the purified and dense mana that naturally held itself inside the tree was far more precious than any mana I had absorbed from a core of a mana beast, or from any other source.
With this I might be able to successfully break through and reach the rank and power that I had wanted since regressing back. Because upon reaching the was when everything would start. There were still some limitations over my body and the things I could do, considering the lack of mana available to me now on being an rank, same case with some of my abilities and skills.
But I guess the problem had been solved to some extend, considering I now had Ruler’s Authority which gave me dominant control over the mana.
All I needed to do now was to reach the power that would help me grow in strength and become stronger. Because when I had reached the rank in my past life, my body had become a lot more in sync with the mana in the atmosphere than when I was just a simple ranker. And so had my reserves grown to better accommodate my abilities and the changes I was going through back than.
And to reach the heights I wanted to in this life it was necessary for me to breakthrough to the next rank as soon as possible before I ascended to the next trial. That was the difference between the ranks in simple ultimatum.
Because each rank had a diverse difference between one another, starting from the rank.
Each rank had strengths and weaknesses which could be overcome by strategy and numbers somehow. But once someone reaches the rank, the amount of mana they can control, as well as their connection to it deepens, unlike before.
And I believed after having cleared this trial that these tests or whatever they were wouldn’t be merciful toward me, so I needed to grow stronger faster.
I felt my arms tremble at my sides on just remembering the first few moments of when I had broken through in my past life. It was unlike anything I had felt before. I had felt powerful, absolute and an intoxicating sense of euphoric relief. And I get to relive those moments again in this one as well.
I felt my breathing grow heavy as I felt for the mana in the atmosphere.
Then I raised an arm and moved it through the air, earth mana rushed to my command as the ground shook slightly and a big sturdy slab of rock and stone took form over the surface of the glowing sapphire water, making a firm foot hold for me to stand on.
I felt a drain from my mana, as my channels creaked and body squealed in response to my growing fatigue and heavy eyes, as the earth particles jumped and throbbed from the ground, the motes shimmered and danced around my arms giving them a thin radiance of yellow. My wrists felt numb, arms flailed, as an icy shiver ran down my spine, making me lose concentration for a brief second as I let go of the controlled mana as the slab of earth started to lose form and began to sink into the lake.
But I held the mana tightly and firmly in shape together not allowing it to leave or crumble. It took a good minute to form the slab but I reinforced it with a thicker layer around the weaker body to make it not sink and shatter away by the water or my weight.
I realised my breathing had grown heavy after I was done conjuring the slab. There was barely any mana left within me as I realised shortly with a frowning face, as I walked forward, my mana channel placed a heavy burden over my body as an exhausted expression surfaced on my face.
My feet landed on the slab afloat on the water, as I made it move, the slab sent ripples around the surface of the lake as the water pushed away on my command; paddling it forward. I moved on top of the earth slab working like a boat as I stirred the water in the lake with a very slight discharge of my mana.
The slab carried me slowly to the centre where I stopped and took a very deep breath. The slab shook as the water made it hard for me to balance as my senses were strained by the less and less rate of my recovery.
I took a seat, crossed my legs in a meditative position, resting my arms over my crossed legs in an interlocked hand sign.
My eyelids pondered shut for a moment as I looked at the base of the crystalline tree burning with so much life and essence.
I stretched my senses outward, feeling for all the ambient mana in the atmosphere.
I released my grasp over Mind’s Eye as the mana swirled around me, the skill lost touch and fell dormant and the strain over my mana lessened, albeit barely, not having much difference even after being deactivated.
Thus began the process of absorbing, purging and refining.
First I felt for the mana, it rushed toward me without even having to influence it, as my body worked as a beacon which sucked and coalesced the ambient mana around me like a layer which seemed to grow more refined and pure. Each pore over my body opened as a shallow wind whistled past me as the particles of red, blue, green and yellow were absorbed into my body without any interference or rejection, which seem to stir inside my body, jolting and brimming me with energy as the hair over my body stood. Then the process continued as I sequentially utilised the breathing forms—taught to me by Han—whilst manipulating the mana through my will and control as it converged toward me faster and with more precision.
I took that purer mana which had been absorbed into my body and held it with my own purified mana, purged it through my mana channels to strengthen them as the motes slowly dissolved from their original hue as they stirred through each nook and cranny of my body.
Then after a quick and fine process of purging the raw mana which was constantly being drawn into me, I moved the mana in a fluid motion, like a stream, for it to circulate without any encroachment. The pure mana swirled throughout my channels as I sensed the atmosphere mana draw faster and faster to me, the mana intermingling with my own and came to be in a more purer white state after a thorough process of cleansing—purifying it.
This process continued for a while, seconds turned to minutes and by the time I realised, I had kept on absorbing the mana for the last half hour, my limbs, joints and nerves were brimming with energy as my body recovered the lost mana as I sent a small wave of my mana to the wounds as they healed.
But I gave out a shallow grunt as I felt my head droop slightly from the pain.
I knew that after my fight I was in a tired state, so the rational choice would have been to first recover some of my strength and take a slight break, even for a few minutes, before I initiated the act of breaking through, but...
Just the single thought of growing stronger—back to my old strength pushed the weak thoughts of succumbing to the ground and resting for a short while to disappear.
My desperation for reaching even a little bit closer to my old strength had gotten the better of me, considering how much I desired to grow stronger, to be able to get on an equal footing to ‘him’, to see and feel the world through the perspective of the strong, for that I need power, but that didn’t matter, this short weakness will lead to the doors of unlimited strength, struggle was something I was already all too familiar with. Once I break through I will be able to regain the same strength and raw power I did back when I had broken through to the rank.
I need to grow stronger, enough, that just by seeing me, my enemies will falter in front of me, flee on my sight, their wills to fight, determination and confidence crumble.
But for that first, I needed more... I thought with a sharp viciousness to my thoughts, drunk on the wave of malice and adrenaline coursing through my veins, making me feel absolute and euphoric, akin to like a god.
My body began to wince under the sharp wave of mana making my way, swirling around me as the space cracked and throbbed as a harsh wind billowed through the area as the water stirred and shockwaves sent through the surface, as the mana kept on being absorbed and purified with a steady pace, as my body hungrily and eagerly drank it from the atmosphere.
There was so much of it to take...yet, it still wasn’t enough to help me break from this shell limiting me—this boundary. I could feel my body growing as a thick layer of mana was coalesced around me—like a shell through which I was about to break free and born anew. But that was all it was. The mana kept on pushing and pulling, but I was feeling it, the sensation and power, I was so very close.
Only another push was needed, just a very slight nudge to push me forward, to allow me to break free of this shell and soar beyond this horizon.
But there was a slight unease which made me frown for some reason. My brows knitted, I felt the mana move, filling my channels with energy and reinforcing them to make my dominance over it to grow, but there was something amiss.
I pondered for a moment as I kept on with the process, the colourful motes converging with me in their centre. I stirred all of my senses within and searched, but everything seemed fine.
The mana was steadily processed and absorbed into my body under the attribute I could use and had now come to use. Even without having to feel them I could tell the clear difference between the natural power of each element which held an aspect of nature. The jagged energy of red fire mana, the liquid grace of blue water mana, the sharp, cutting gust of green wind mana, and the heavy rolling of yellow earth mana. They all swirled my way, before getting sucked inside me, my body working like a vortex.
But I remembered the relic. The mana, purer than any, I had absorbed to strengthen my physique.
So I searched for it.
I searched harder, I stretched my senses deep, as I searched to it’s depth.
I sputtered a cough as I realised that I hadn't caught my breath under the depth of my concentration. I searched high and low, the relic pulsed realising it’s essence in the surroundings, to help sustain the forest.
But suddenly, I felt it, or rather I swear I could see it. The very small threads and openings which were obscured by the mana ambient in the atmosphere, more like small beacons which were connected to the earth and air as they released a slow amount of the relic tree’s mana to sustain the area around it.
Ruler’s Authority burned more powerfully as if telling me to exert more dominance over the mana, as if I could bend the elements in the air into whatever I desired, as if I held full control over nature. My will, and my control growing stronger and more firm as my mana bolted and my body hummed with power, reaching nearer to the point of breakthrough.
With a thought, I reached out and ripped that opening apart with the discharge of my mana, which released the relic’s mana and essence. It pulsed again and stirred, like a servant listening to the order of its lord.
The mana released all around me, it was connecting and dispersing into the atmosphere at a faster rate, but I held firm, and slowly it moved through the air, water, earth, from all directions.
The slab gave out slightly as I heard it crack and shake unsteadily. It started to quiver under my weight and the force of the mana converging around me, tremors and shockwaves ran, which was a logical reaction to this situation.
Instead of the atmospheric mana, I tore my focus more to the ambient mana of the relic tree which was moving my way under my command. There was some interference as the atmosphere particles tried to make the purer mana to dissipate, but I was faster.
Every pore completed opened as the relic tree’s mana entered my body and I felt an enriching soothed feeling coursing through my physique. Invigorating my tired mind and body as the fatigue slowly vanished, but the mental strain was still there as I guided the mana toward me.
All of the purified mana inside my body stirred as I felt like a pressure cooker about to burst. My body and mana channels were filled to the last bit as growing steam exited from my body.
S-So close...
I said with my teeth grounded and eyes heavily shut as my body shuddered under processing so much mana.
A little more. Just a bit more.
My joints, nerves and muscles cried as a powerful wave of mana washed all over my body as the relic tree’s mana swirled around.
But my mind was convinced that I could do anything right now. I was so close, I could see it after so many years, the same boundary I had once seen in my life which only seemed like a dream. A stage, a rank which others only dreamed about, wished they could reach in one life time. I snorted. Could even kill to reach.
I was as close to reaching the rank, which felt as short as the distance between my eye brows.
The colours ran together, the spinning vortex of mana disappearing with me in it’s centre as it was absorbed and purified.
My body creaked as my arms and legs numbed under the output of the mana I was absorbing at near instances. The space around it crackled and distorted and rippled as the water stirred and jumped as the ground several meters away cracked making mud and rock to fall from the edge to the depth. The earthen slab cracked farther, small fissures running along its body and then it finally gave out as it shattered under the mana rotating around me, and moving in and out of my body.
The frigid cold wrapped around my skin and swept into my bones as I sank to the depth which never seemed to appear as I moved the mana in an eddy motion within me.
I continued to process the mana I had absorbed. My brows wrinkled as a frown creased my face. I came to the realisation shortly after that I needed to breathe, I was running out of air in my lungs.
But my breakthrough held more importance to me. It was important than anything to me in the world at this particular moment. And wasting just a single moment would only be hampering my progress and making this power fleet and prickle away, I couldn’t afford that to happen, after coming this far.
So much mana was moving through my body and being processed that even if I could move the raw ambient mana around and within me, more mana would be pulled without any concern.
But mana was all just mana. It took different attributes depending on the environmental stimulus, then it could further be moulded into deviant attributes by an appropriately talented mage. But aside from purity, which was determined by the clarity of an individual's channels and veins and the way mana pulled closer to them and layered around them, the mana utilized by one mage was identical to any other.
The mana moving through my channels left a heavy burden and weight over my mind and body. Likewise, the purely dense mana I was pulling from the relic tree should be no different, and yet...
It was a hard task to keep the mana steady as well as sequentially absorbing the atmospheric particles which drew closer to me.
Damn it! I grunted as I felt the layer coalesced around me grow cracks and fissures which ran more deeper and close to collapsing
Just a little more...
But the burden over my mana channels was too much for me bare as I felt like they could tear and shatter. I was being brimmed and overwhelmed by the energy coursing through my body.
The energy—mana—filing every inch of me felt to be forcing it’s way forward as I wasn’t able to divide my attention to the pulsation of mana in the atmosphere and the coloration of mana moving through my body and slowly turning a bright shade of white which made a luminescent radiance to envelope my body.
The mana was there, and being absorbed and purified, and my body was pulling it faster and faster, but my channels and veins were making an effort to circulate that amount in moderation to my ability to absorb it and purify it.
Just what was I lacking? I asked myself with furrowed brows and a pained expression.
Just what was I...
But just then it all pieced together, and clicked.
The response of this body, and the channels and veins inside it were different from my previous body. The construction of a person’s mana channels and veins were somehow identical, but special and unique for each person themselves, just like how our minds worked differently.
So this body's—Jiwoo’s—mana channels’ construction and purity and clarity was different from my previous body on which I had full control as I new where each muscle or nerve might intervene or worked after I had studied anatomy and learned to use my body in the most efficient way possible by learning the crescent moon style.
So there was a palpable difference between the construction of both bodies.
So for that reason, the channels and veins were probably structured differently, just like how mana needed to be constantly, and automatically, be circulated, just like the way my heart pumped blood without me focusing on flexing and unfelxing the muscles.
And that simple process of circulation made it stronger and more pure.
For us humans it was our natural ability to do so, which we were born with as an instinct, that without even thinking our body would react to how we felt or thought, same was the case with mages who used mana, it had become a part of our body, just like the pumped blood or lungs which pulled the oxygen for us to breathe without any restrictions.
I looked between the points where my mana, the atmospheric mana and the relic tree’s mana intermingled and circulated—the thin openings where the mana was still pure and hot and the particles which was still in their natural hue assimilating and converging, becoming mine.
Slowly I realized that the strain over my mind and body lessened as the mana kept on surging through my veins and channels.
The robust of wielding so much mana left me tipsy and intoxicated my own destructive thoughts which prickled the back of my head, making my head throb with a sharp headache.
So to lessen the burden I moved the mana. With a thought it heeded my call and bended, instead of being released from my body, or being focused to some spell, I guided it through my body. The mana rushed and stirred and began to spill through each of my muscles as it fused with my nerves, tendons, ligaments and bones. Moving through each muscle, each organ, as it strengthened my physical body, with a thorough process of purging.
I felt warmth start to bloom from each part of my body, as I vividly felt my bones harden and each part growing stronger as the fatigue momentarily vanished from the surge of insurmountable power.
I felt a wave of uncomfortable pain stir me as I winced within the water making air bubbles to draw upward.
The mana moved through each organ and nerve of my body and soon returned to my channels, but the infused mana of the relic stayed coated around them, giving my physique a new found strength which made me feel refreshed.
I was running out of air. Suddenly I felt like I had been struck by thunder as the mana left my channels and freely roamed through my body, as it coalesced around the thin layer surrounding me which hummed slightly.
My eyes fluttered open as the layer around me shatter like fine shrapnel as a powerful light swelled out of me as the water whirled and tremors ran through it, making harsh waves to move in a frenzy.
Without even thinking, I reinforced the mana burning and swirling inside my body and draped it around me in a thick layer, with a prickle I bolted from the water.
A powerful wave made way as the strong waves of water sputtered out of the lake and crashed into the trees in all directions, making the grass land sparkle like jewels as the water cleared up.
I felt a weird feeling emerge inside my stomach as my body was magically lifted in the air as the atmospheric mana made way for me, as I flew and slowly took hold of my feet in the air.
My chest heaved as I took in a very deep and refreshing breath, which seemed to be a every long one, but one which left me invigorated and anew, as if I had been reborn again.
I stretched my senses far and wide and I could feel the mana from miles away from here. The slightest prickle and whistle of the wind, or be it the rolling of stones or the movements of the small bugs, or the gentle swaying of the blades of grass, I felt it all. My connection with mana felt unlike anything, before when I was still on the
I moved an arm as the mana stirred and rippled as I reached out to take hold over the deviant magic of wind, a violent yellow lightning crackled around my arm which seemed to distort the space, as it dim and flickered as I withdrew my intent.
I felt the changes my body was going through. It was still assimilating with the mana, but faster, and I was able to absorb and purify the mana faster than even before.
With the amount of dominance and control I could exert, I felt invincible right now. So much mana was waiting for me to take hold of it and command it.
My reserves had grow thrice of that of an ranker’s. I searched inward and my own purer mana circulated with a clean white colour which moved with a constant and eddy motion without any restrictions. My connection to my body felt more in sync, as the limit I had felt before was no longer restraining me.
I could feel it. I had come to surpass my past self after breaking through to the
That’s just how much stronger I had grown, and how big of a gap has appeared in my strength after my regression.
I cracked a grin as the adrenaline rushed through my veins. I felt a wave of unbound ecstasy rush through each part of my body making a sense of euphoria to shroud my mind. I needed to test my new found strength somehow.
I needed to release these pent up emotions. I needed to murder something. I thought with a vicious expression pulling at my face as Ruler’s Authority further enhanced my abilities.
I reached for Mind’s Eye and it bloomed to life making warmth to spread through my body. By now only a trickle of my mana was needed for the activation of the skill. I could see and feel the mana more strongly, it cried out, likewise with demonic energy, which seemed to wheeze and move closer to me as they coalesced around me and shimmered, as I felt like the particles around me bended and bowed to me with a certain respect.
This behaviour did not go unnoticed, as the bright particles burned with more power.
As if they celebrated my ascension to the throne. The birth of their king. To honour me, by showing their subordinance and loyalty. They begged for me to wield them, that with just a thought they could bend and mould themselves into whatever I willed.
My hands clenched at my sides as shivers ran through my body, as the rush of power further intoxicated my mind. I truly felt like a deity, in this moment. That everything in the world held no importance, except for me. That I could do anything, my claims further made into firm beliefs by the allure of Ruler’s Authority. It promised me domination, power to conquer anything.
That this world was just a platform, and I alone stood on the pinnacle and on top of it. Everything was beneath me.
From my left I heard light rustling come from afar. I focused mana around my ears and heard the low and distant howls of the cephtalurians.
My body moved through the air, as I levitated and rushed forward. In a single minute, I was back in the location where supposedly the entire tribe of cephtalurians had been gathered by their Chief.
My eyes laid on the down creatures. They looked up, as fear gripped their faces, as their natural instinct made them aware that they were nothing but trapped hen.
My eyes filled with apathy and stoicism looked down at them, as I moved an arm.
With a single sway of it, I sent sharp and cutting gusts of wind which scythed past hundreds of cephtalurians at once.
Blood splattered through the air, ground ripped apart, the air boomed and the trees fell.
Agonising groans and shrieks filled the air which left me annoyed, but the veil of apathy enveloping me didn’t make me care any less about them.
The mana coalesced into my arms as the air shook and countless spells began to take form around me.
“Let the massacre begin!” I said with a vicious smirk.