Kyfe
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Chapter 254 - Second Fiddle
🕑 Added 2023-08-16 06:55:20 +0000 UTC“This is so frustrating!” Reivyn threw his head back and sighed. “I don’t get it.”
Reivyn leaned back and threw his forearm over his face, covering his eyes. The twins were working enthusiastically on their own easel nearby, and Kefira was watching them with interest. The three girls turned to appraise Reivyn.
“What don’t you get?” Kailey asked.
“It’s not hard,” Riley said.
“I don’t get how you maintain control!” Reivyn said, sitting back up straight. “Every time I try to infuse an additional Affinity into a single thread, the other Affinity disappears.
“Don’t talk about infusing all of my Affinities into a single thread. I can’t manage two.”
“There are a couple things wrong with what you said,” Kailey patiently explained.
“At least two,” Riley nodded.
“Teach me, oh wise masters,” Reivyn pleaded.
“The first issue, we don’t gradually increase our Affinity infusions,” Kailey answered.
“It’s all at once,” Riley confirmed.
Reivyn frowned in thought.
“Ok~ay,” he said.
His frown only deepened as he thought about the answer the girls gave.
“And secondly, who said we were in control?” Kailey asked.
“The Mana’s in control.”
“What do you mean by that?” Reivyn perked up. That was a concept he had never encountered before.
Kailey and Riley shared a look before looking back at Reivyn. Kailey just shrugged.
“I don’t know how else to explain it,” Kailey said.
“We don’t control the Mana. We let it do what it wants,” Riley said.
“I thought we already explained that.”
“We did mention how we didn’t choose the effect of our dancing couple.”
“And that little piece had multiple effects,” Reivyn said. He was starting to grasp something important.
“You mean like how their Mana simultaneously hold multiple combinations of Affinities?” Kefira asked.
Reivyn looked at Kefira in surprise.
“Exactly like that!” Reivyn said. “I think I’m beginning to glimpse what I need to do.”
Reivyn looked at his own amateur work of art. The painting wasn’t the important part of the exercise. At least, that’s what Reivyn told himself. He tapped his chin in thought as he considered the medium his sisters chose to teach their unique take on using Mana Affinities.
“By the way, I’ve never heard of such a technique before,” Kefira asked the two girls. “How did you come by it?”
Kailey flipped her hair around.
“It’s what we’ve always done,” she said.
Riley mirrored her sister's actions on the opposite side.
“It comes naturally.”
“What about the flower crowns,” Reivyn asked. “You made those before you had unlocked any Mana Skills or Affinities.”
“Like we said,” Kailey replied.
“We let the Mana do what it wanted,” Riley finished.
“Soo… you’re saying you just created the flower crowns and let the Mana pull from the surroundings and your intent to add the magical effect?” Reivyn asked. “Like, we were out in the wilderness surrounded by wildlife, so the Mana naturally took on that aspect?”
Kailey and Riley shared another look before looking back at Reivyn. Riley shrugged.
“I guess,” she said.
“You don’t know?” Reivyn pressed.
“We’re not academics,” Kailey shook her head.
“Again, we just let the Mana do what it wanted.”
“Ok. I think that’s enough for me to work with for now,” Reivyn said.
The two girls went back to their own project. Kefira watched them and occasionally asked them questions. Reivyn drowned them out as he concentrated on his own core of Mana.
He was getting better and better at using his Divine Sense. If he wanted, he could replay their entire conversation back in his mind while paying zero attention to it in the moment.
Reivyn sunk his consciousness to the center of his being and intently watched the Mana within his core. He reached out with his will and grasped some of it, drawing it out along his meridians. He concentrated on letting the Mana determine for itself what Affinities it would encompass.
He drew the Mana to his hand and watched in anticipation as it formed in his hand. A ball of Mana quickly formed just above his outstretched hand.
It was just a ball of pure Mana. There were zero Affinities in it at all.
Reivyn frowned as he drew the Mana back into his core. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, readying himself for round two. He tried to relax his intent as he grabbed control of the Mana…
He froze.
I have to not control the Mana… Reivyn thought. Then how do I bring it out?
Reivyn relaxed his control over his Mana and watched it sit in his core. He imagined giving it the freedom to express itself the way it wanted while opening himself up for it to travel to his hand. It was the only thing he could think of to bring it out while not controlling it.
It just sat in his core. It didn’t budge.
After several minutes of trying to will the Mana to do something without willing it to do something, he threw his hands up in frustration once more.
“Gah! This is a paradox!” Reivyn exclaimed, startling the three girls. “How am I supposed to get it to do something without controlling it? It doesn’t make any sense!”
He sat back down once more.
“We never said you didn’t control the Mana at all,” Kailey rolled her eyes.
“You still have to direct it,” Riley pointed out.
“Ok, but that still doesn’t explain how you get it to take on your Affinities,” Reivyn retorted. “When I do what you’re saying, it just comes out as unaspected, pure Mana.”
“Hmm, maybe you need to look at it from a different perspective,” Kailey said, tapping her lips in thought.
“How about this?” Riley spread her arm out in a wide arc. “Look all around you. What do you see?”
Reivyn understood Riley was talking about looking with more than just his eyes. He activated his Mana Sight Skill and viewed the ambient Mana dancing all around them. It was quite thick in the Tier 4 Region.
“What do you see?” Riley asked.
“I see a bunch of ambient Mana,” Reivyn answered, still looking through his Skill.
“And how much of it is unaspected, pure Mana?” Kailey asked.
“Almost none of it,” Reivyn replied.
“Did someone enforce their will on that Mana to turn the motes into the Affinities they are?” Kailey asked.
“Hmm, that’s a good point,” Reivyn conceded. “I still don’t see how that applies to my own Mana, though. It’s inert, in its pure form, inside my core.”
“Is it?” Riley asked, quirking an eyebrow at Reivyn.
Reivyn was surprised at that. He frowned as once again delved his consciousness into his core. He really dove deep to inspect the Mana in his core.
On the surface, the ball of Mana inside him was just pure Mana, but the deeper he dived, the more he could see traces of all the Affinities he had unlocked.
The lower-Tier Affinities were more numerous and easier to detect. He had to dive all the way to the very center of his core as deep as he could possibly go to see a hint of the Veridical and Abyss Affinities sitting there.
That’s not an entirely accurate way of depicting it, Reivyn thought. The Affinities aren’t just floating about inside my core. It’s more like the potential of the Affinities are there.
Reivyn felt like he was getting closer and closer to the answer. He took a break from trying to figure out how to coax the potential out of his core and into the Mana itself without controlling it and just spent some time observing the phenomenon in his core.
He came back to himself after several minutes and looked over at his sisters.
“Do you mind if I inspect your Mana cores?” Reivyn asked.
“Sure,” Kailey answered immediately.
“It’s no problem,” Riley echoed.
“Wait, you haven’t inspected their cores?” Kefira asked, confused. “Don’t you have a Skill that let’s you see it even if you don’t want to?”
“I’ve trained myself to ignore things,” Reivyn answered. “Unless I relax my hold on the Skill, I only view things on the surface. Plus, I respect their privacy, so I would never look without permission.”
“That makes sense,” Kefira nodded her head, a thoughtful expression on her face.
Reivyn relaxed his self-imposed restrictions and let his Divine Sense dive into his sisters’ Mana cores. He also opened his eyes wide and focused with his Mana Sight. It wasn’t as easy to bypass into things with his Mana Sight as it was for his Divine Sense, but he was Skilled enough that it was just a mental switch.
He was immediately struck dumb by what he observed.
“Wait,” Reivyn said, losing his concentration on looking at their cores. He looked up at their faces with wide eyes. “Your Mana cores look nothing like mine!”
His own Mana core was like a ball of pure Mana encompassing the potential of his Affinities within the center.
His sisters’ Mana was already infused with all of the Affinities as it sat in their cores.
“Of course your Mana holds all of your Affinities when you drag it out without enforcing an Affinity on it. It already holds those properties!”
“Mhm,” Kailey simply acknowledged the fact.
Reivyn closed his eyes and placed his palm on his forehead. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. He slowly lowered his arm and opened his eyes.
“So we’re back to square one, then,” he said. “I’ve been trying to do this in a fundamentally different way than the two of you. Now I have absolutely no idea how to proceed from here.”
“I have an idea,” Kefira said. Three pairs of eyes focused on her. She smiled. “How about you watch Kailey and Riley Absorb and Circulate their Mana? There’s obviously something in the process before the Mana settles in their core, and you’re uniquely qualified to observe it.”
Reivyn nodded his head.
“That’s an excellent idea,” he said.
“You’re just too close to the problem,” Kefira said, resting her hand on his forearm. “You probably would have thought of it… eventually.”
“Maybe. Either way, this will save a lot of time and headache.” He turned to his sisters. “You two don’t mind, do you?”
The girls were already in the process of sitting down in the lotus position.
“Sure,” Kailey said.
“Observe away,” Riley said.
Reivyn waited patiently for the two girls to get comfortable and enter a Meditative state. He opened his senses, Mana Skill and Divine, wide to watch the Mana all around.
He watched as the Ambient Mana was agitated and drawn toward the two girls. It didn’t move nearly as fast as it did for him when he used his Skills, but it wasn’t slow, either. Little vortexes of Mana formed centered on the girls.
He watched the Mana as it entered into their meridians and began moving along the channels. The Mana shifted from its ambient Affinity to the conglomerate of Affinities his sisters had unlocked simultaneously too subtly and too swiftly for him to catch the transition.
He focused his will. Like when observing his own core, his consciousness delved deeper into the Mana flowing into and through his sisters’ meridian channels. He was still unable to grasp the change.
He focused even deeper. In the center of his sisters’ beings, a faint outline of the two slowly became visible. It wasn’t located in their core. It was true center. The outlines mimicked the posture of the two girls and appeared to be sitting in the lotus position.
The faint outlines became more corporeal to Reivyn’s senses the more he focused on them. They consisted of the full spectrum of colors from one end to the other, clearer than he could observe in the natural world even with his Divine Sense.
He could tell that there was more to discover deeper within the little outlines, but he realized he didn’t need to search deeper for his purposes. He wasn’t trying to figure out the outlines, but he had a guess as to what they were.
Those are their souls, Reivyn thought. And they themselves hold all of their Affinities within them.
He observed further as the different functions Reivyn recognized as Mana Skills connected to the soul apparitions. The girls’ souls didn’t just connect all the processes together. They combined them.
The different aspects of the Mana Skills were brought together, blended into one, and dispersed throughout their bodies.
Without realizing it, Reivyn also assumed the lotus position. His eyes closed, but he was still focused on the two girls with his Divine Sense. He didn’t even know that he was doing anything.
Slowly, he began to attempt to mimic the two girls.
The first thing he had to do, though, was disperse all of the Mana from his core. He took control of the entire core and willed the Mana out of his body.
“Wow,” he faintly heard someone whisper.
He didn’t lose control of his Mana. He simply sent it outside of his body. It formed a sphere around himself, waiting for him to direct it back into his being.
He subconsciously focused on his Affinities, his Mana Skills, and his own Soul. He tied all of his Mana Skills more tightly together within his Soul and infused the entire thing with all of his Affinities.
He wasn’t just dealing with the potential of the Affinities like they had sat within his Mana Core. They were all there, together, all at once in their true form.
He slowly started pulling his Mana back into himself, running it through the different processes like the girls, but many of the functions of each process were now shared with each other.
At first, he kept the Mana completely away from his core. He brought it into his body in a trickle and ran it through his meridian channels. Slowly but surely, the Mana in his channels took on the same multi-colored aspect of his Affinities the same way his sisters’ did. Once he was sure the Mana was saturated, he ran it through one more full cycle before depositing it in his core.
It was a slow process at first, but it gradually picked up speed. Reivyn was completely unaware of the passage of time.
At some point, his Divine Sense had quit observing his sisters, and he was fully focused on his own task. He didn’t even know when that had happened, but he was so engrossed in the task, he didn’t even realize he didn’t know.
Eventually, the last of his Mana re-entered his body and cycled through the process of taking on all of his Affinities. Once the last drop was nestled within his core, he reached for more and was surprised to find there wasn’t any.
The lack of more Mana to filter brought him out of his epiphany. He channeled his Mana into his hand and a wide grin split his face as he observed the multi-colored Mana sitting in his hand. He brought it back within himself.
He intuitively applied an internal filter, and a weave of pure Fire Affinity formed in his hand. The process reminded him of running light through a prism. He could still dictate which Affinity he used, but he could now mix and match them at will within individual threads.
He pulled the Mana back into his core again and looked up with a grin still on his face. His grin faltered as he saw that his sisters were no longer present. Only Kefira and Serilla, plus a different maid, were still in the room. They were seated at the table and engaged in a hushed conversation.
Reivyn looked out the window and saw that the sun had long since set beyond the horizon.
The sudden lack of Mana fluctuations finally caught the attention of the two girls, and Kefira rose from her seat to approach Reivyn with a smile on her face.
“Finally done?” She asked.
Reivyn smiled and nodded.
“Yup.”
He once more displayed his Mana within his hand. Kefira gave an appreciative murmur of excitement at the sight of all the different Affinities represented in the Mana. Reivyn noticed the blinking Notification in the corner of his vision as he let go of the Mana once more.
“Give me one second,” Reivyn said, focusing on the Notification. “I think that’s all it took.”
He opened the Notification window.
[Achievement!]
[You have become the embodiment of Mana itself. The secrets of the Realm open up to you.]
[Skills Mana Absorption, Mana Circulation, Sense Mana, Mana Conjuration, Mana Manipulation, Mana Shield, Mana Sight, Dual Casting, Mana Weapon, Mana Drain, Mana Healing, Mana Reinforcement, and Multi-Casting have merged.]
[The Path has already been set.]
[New Skill Unlocked!]
[Bonus for merging multiple Tier 5 Skills]
[Tier 5:]
[Magic Prodigy (88)]
[Veridical Affinity +1]
[Further synergy has been detected between Skills]
[Insufficient Skill/Enlightenment]
Reivyn pumped his fist in excitement.
“Yes!” He shouted.
“So I take it you succeeded?” Kefira quirked an eyebrow.
“Yep! It was as simple as that!”
“You call what you did simple?!” Kefira reeled back, eyes opening wide. “That was anything but simple! The things you say sometimes, I swear…” Kefira shook her head.
“What?” Reivyn asked, frowning in confusion. “After seeing how it worked, it was simpler than I thought.”
“Reivyn… nobody but you can see it,” Kefira rolled her eyes.
“Well, lucky for you, I can just show you,” Reivyn said with a smug expression.
“And then I’ll have to figure out how to do it. The things I sensed going on with my Sense Mana were pretty intense. I’m not sure I could even maintain control of all of my Mana outside of my body, much less while doing whatever it is you did.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out together,” Reivyn grasped one of her hands and smiled.
The door opened and the twins walked into the room. Reivyn had expected them to enter sooner, having spied them with his Divine Sense, but they had apparently been waiting for a lull in the conversation to make their entrance.
Reivyn frowned as he focused on the two girls.
“What I don’t understand is how the two of you haven’t combined your Mana Skills together already,” he said.
“Who said we haven’t?” Kailey shot back.
“We merged our Skills forever ago,” Riley added.
It was Reivyn’s turn to reel back in surprise.
“You have Magic Prodigy unlocked?” He asked.
“Nope!” Kailey shook her head.
“We did it before advancing to our Tier 1 Classes,” Riley explained.
“We have Magic Master.”
Reivyn slowly sat back down. His thoughts were a jumbled mess at the revelation. His gaze once more sharpened as he narrowed his eyes.
“And you didn’t think to tell anyone?” He asked.
“Of course not!” Kailey denied.
“We told mom,” Riley said.
“What?! Mom’s known this whole time?!” Reivyn sat back in consternation. “:And where was I when all this happened?”
“You were gone,” Kailey shrugged.
“And then you were busy,” Riley added.
“And then we didn’t want to interfere in your experiments.”
“Plus we didn’t really remember how we did it.”
“Like we said.”
“It just came naturally.”
The two girls flipped their hair at the same time in opposite directions, smug grins on their faces. Reivyn rolled his eyes and shook his head as Kefira laughed.
Comments
Yshua
That addresses the skill parts but not the characterization parts- I think the critique is good and this coming from someone who has just read up to this point in one go.
Hagge Bänke
I like these fun in between chapters, thanks for the story!
IAN A WILSON
I think something that can help alot with this is writing side charecter chapters and make it clear they are side chatecter chapters and not necessarily important to the story, and that a reader wont miss anything by skipping them and name them side charecter chapter 1 etc etc. Not often, but here and there. Just to give us a glimpse of what's going on with them. It adds more depth to the charecters, and can make them more likeable as we can connect with the charecters a bit more. It can also give the author a break that's not a break. Many authors write multiple stories at once to avoid burn out and idea drought. Side charecter chapters are the same, just on a much minor scale that falls in line with the story. I've seen other authors do it, can't remember who atm tho.
IAN A WILSON
Who said they learned it without effort? You except the author to write a training montage for every side charecter?
IAN A WILSON
4. What many of us readers forget, and what's hard to portray as an author is that while time passes for our MC and he grows stronger and improves to do side charecters. We just don't often get to see the growth and never get to see the training done for that growth simply because there not the focus of the story. But just cause we don't see it, that doesn't mean time should be frozen for them. If it was it would take away alot of depth. The best stories are those that portray a natural and living world.
IAN A WILSON
So here's my thoughts on the complaining about the twins out pacing the MC when it comes to these particular set of magic skills. 1. This is the classic Jack of all, Master of None analogy. Our MC since day one has been consistently training EVERYTHING at once. From his body, to his weapon skills, stealth skills, commanding skills, magic skills, affinity etc etc. And to top off while training he was doing other things. Like leveling, fighting wars, diving dungeons, family and friend time, political events etc etc. It's not an exaggeration to say that the MC is quite spread out, and the only reason he is so ahead of his peers in all these things is because he's massively more talented then them. 2.The reason his sisters can bridge the gap is multi level but being his sisters is the first one. Everyone in the MCs family is massively talented, his sisters being so is no suprise. They might not have the same width of talent as he has, meaning they wont be as good as him in weapon skill, commanding, stealth skills etc etc. But being just as talented as him in purely magic is extremely reasonable. 3. Taking into account the sisters talent it's no suprise they have had the magic Master skill for so long. Our MC parents went from fleeing a war torn empire, to hunting down there enemies, to starting a family and then raising kids, and all stuff in between that I have forgotten. Our MC is in the same boat, constantly being bounced from one thing to another, and when he does have the time to sit down and train he's training multiple different things at the same time. His sisters on the other hand are quite different. There not doing anything other then training magic and being kids. There not out adventuring, there not whole heartedly focusing on things other then magic, just a bit of dabbling here and there. They have managed to pair the magic training with something they really enjoy which is there artistic skills. If our MC ever sat down and focused on purely ONE thing for awhile I'm sure he would advanced quite quickly. I'm fact he did. The past few chapters have shown that, he's gotten all 3 of these prodigy skills extremely quickly, taking what days or weeks? And that's cause he single mindedly focused on them till he got them. His sisters taking years to get the magic Master skill isn't anything compared to that. 4. What many of us readers forget, and what's hard to portray as an author is that while time passes for our MC and he grows stronger and improves to do side charecters. We just don't often get to see the growth and never get to see the training done for that growth simply because there not the focus of the story. But just cause we don't see it, that doesn't mean time should be frozen for them. If it was it would take away alot of depth. The best stories are those that portray a natural and living world.
dethrothes
The story has been lacking for a while now. And this right here makes no sense. We have Reivyn who put in years of effort in training to get the weapon master skill and these two just effortlessly do it, a skill that not even Kefira (a 14 soul blah blah space time mage) has. Talk about Mary Su supremacy. Peace y’all. It was fun while it lasted.
Kyfe
16 (19). Almost 17 (20). I'm usually scarce with my descriptions of the characters so the readers can imagine them how they want, but they look young and are pretty short, which helps them get away with their antics.
Kyfe
Not necessarily, and Tenrik (and his empire), specifically, does not have any. I'm not ready to talk about why.
Derek Walker
Is this skill known to people in higher tier regions? Would someone like Tenrik have it?
Rayse
The only thing I don't understand is the mom's reason for not telling him about the twins having the merged mana skills. This was good from a dramatic reveal perspective, but you'd figure she'd volunteer the information when he was working on it.
Luboš Hemala
So, how old are they?
Kyfe
See my reply above in regards to "learning things without effort." As to acting like kids, I briefly addressed this last chapter. Reivyn even commented on it. They're doing it on purpose for as long as they can get away with it because it's fun for them (and they're natural pranksters).
Kyfe
Yes, the phrase "The Path had already been set" is the hint. Also, the Skill going to 88 is due to creating a Tier 5 Skill while combining multiple other Tier 5 Skills. The bonus is increased mastery, not an increase in the Skill Tier.
Kyfe
I can see why you would think that, but here are three things to consider: #1 What are the twins doing literally every single time we see them? Working on their art/crafts. And they use their Mana Skills in all of their art/crafts, so much so that they were doing so BEFORE they had the relevant Skills unlocked. They have the same Bloodline as Reivyn (though not as potent), and their talent is not too far behind his, as well. They have put MORE time into training their art/crafts and Mana than Reivyn has with their years of single-mindedness, and even then I've put hints in that their Skill Level is still below his. We just don't see it because they're not the focus of the story. #2 I've only shown their art/crafts and inherent talent with Mana. Being artists and making small crafts isn't their Class focus. Behind the scenes, when they're off screen, they're training in other crafting areas, like Blacksmithing and Tailoring. They don't come by it nearly as naturally as art, though they do pick up Skill Levels faster than others (but slower than Reivyn). And they're not just working on personalized crafting Skills either. They don't want to limit themselves. #3 Their method of infusing Mana into their art/crafts is mostly random. They have a hard time making something do something specific. One last thing to consider, they would die/lose almost immediately if they fought any Combat Classer in Tier 3. On a final note, time with the twins is coming to a close, and time with Kefira is going to step up. I didn't have Kefira be the main assist (just a minor one) for various reasons, but don't forget that she already greatly contributed to shoring up Reivyn's foundation.
Mica
The problem is that they aren't little kids anymore. They are also learning things with basically no effort which contrasts really badly with reivyn who, while extremely talented, works his ass off. Its to the point it is detracting from the story.
Luboš Hemala
I really liked this chapter, not getting what others are about. Kids can be brats, that's a given and they always showed extraordinary ability when is comes to magic. It is obvious they don't have concepts for things they don't realize other people are doing differently.
Paul Liebenberg
I couldn't put it better myself. His sister's are really starting to piss me off they haven't matured at all since they where like 6 years old. Now they are older than the MC was when he got lost in the void.
SodaBoBomb
Please let this arc end soon. I cannot stand these smug little Brats walking around casually breaking everything, literally without trying. Please either make them into real characters and not the embodiment of tropes and plot devices, or stop featuring them so heavily. Also, frankly, Kefira is starting to become a passenger to Reivyn. Imo, this section should have been him and her figuring this out, with her contributing most of the theory while he put it into practice with his unique skills. Instead, we get two smug Brats acting all superior because they literally don't have to try to do anything. It just happens for them. And they can't be bothered to explain it either, constantly rolling their eyes when their brother has the audacity to ask questions. He doesn't treat them that way. If they asked him how to combine physical Stats he wouldn't roll his eyes and say "you just DO, DUH!" Other than that, I really like the concept here. I wasn't sure how you were going to pull off combining the Mana skills conceptually since he already had so many affinities, and combining affinities just makes other affinities. This was a great way to do it though, it makes sense, I like it. I'm glad he's got most of his Skills combined and his massive stat sheet will be a little more manageable now.
Natox Biohazard
Master level?? They are more like savant level
Derek Walker
Are master skills only possible before tier 1? It’s also a little strange the skill level is 88 when all his mana skills were lower than that
