His heart hammering in his chest, Lewis opened his status window to see what reaching the first milestone brought.
Name: Lewis Caddwell
Race: Human (F) Age: 23
Class: Magebreaker lvl 10
Exp: 0%
Titles: Forerunner
Health: 100%
Stamina: 100%
Mana: 100%
Stats:
Strength (STR): 11
Speed (DEX): 11
Endurance (END): 10
Constitution (CON): 16
Perception (PER): 6
Intelligence (INT): 14
Willpower (WIL): 20
Spirit (SPI): 32
Free points: 1
Skills:
[Universal tongue], [Identify - lvl 6], [Mana detection - lvl 10], [Arcane nullfield - lvl 2], [Unraveling strike - lvl 1]
Lewis's excitement turned to ash in his mouth as he stared at the floating window displaying his status, his mind freezing as he blinked repeatedly, expecting to have misread, but the text didn't change, no matter how much he blinked.
How the hell did I lose [Spiritual alignment] and [Anti-magic mantle]? I thought this was supposed to be an upgrade, but it didn't mention anything about taking away my skills.
He wanted to scream into the night, but held himself back, clenching his fist so hard his knuckles creaked instead, not wanting to attract monsters to his location, especially not now when his greatest trump card had been stolen away. With newfound urgency, he glanced over what remained of his new superhuman abilities and found that at least his stats had increased according to his new class instead of the previous 3 free points, but that only gave him 3 physical stats and 2 intelligence per level, hardly much by itself, he had chosen the class based on the assumption that his boosting spell would magnify those attributes, which was no longer an option.
His last hope was the two new skills he had received; he could only hope that they were legendary-tier abilities that would make up for what he had lost as he mentally selected the first to expand its description.
Skill: Arcane nullfield
Your body is anathema to mana, your presence passively purging it from your surroundings in a controllable field around you.
Oh, so it's basically just an upgraded version of my anti-magic mantle, but now my body itself breaks down mana? Is that a result of the system evolving me from a G-rank Human to an F-rank one? It seems like the skill has changed quite a bit in that case. After all, I wasn't able to passively exude my anti-mana before; in fact, it blocked my ability to refill my mana pool, so had my body been completely retuned in how it handles that energy?
He used his thankfully untouched [Mana detection] to quickly scan himself, and sure enough, his body was covered in that same emptiness he felt from his anti-mana, proof that no mana was approaching him, as if he were a hole in the world. Still, this felt different from before, simultaneously subtler and more absolute, as if his mana destroying potential had been greatly increased, along with the efficiency with which he could do so. After all, he felt no stream of power from himself fueling the passive nullfield around him, his very body being the source of the disturbance in the ambient mana, simply from his existence.
Slightly relieved that his skill wasn't actually deleted, but seemingly improved, he held out hope that his final skill was some returned and strengthened version of his boosting skill as he focused on it.
Skill: Unraveling strike
Your strikes release blasts of destructive energy, damaging foes and disrupting energy flows, potentially even bypassing defenses.
Damnit, so no boosting skill? He thought, rubbing his temple as a deep irritation flooded him. He was disappointed and angry that his greatest asset was now gone, but the skill's description intrigued him nonetheless.
Figuring he would at least test it out before passing judgment, he clenched his fist and turned on the branch he was perched upon in order to get a clear view of the large tree trunk he was resting against as he mentally willed the new skill to activate and punched the tree with a fairly normal amount of force.
Immediately, he felt energy stir within him as his fist impacted the tree's bark with a fairly unimpressive thud, but something shot from him, a sensation similar to pushing out his mana, but far more explosive as the tree splintered and groaned, shards flying out from the inside of the tree as if a grenade had been buried inside. Lewis quickly shielded his face from the debris, a grin returning to his face as he realized this looked similar to what he imagined the Void mage class would do.
Release a blast of destructive energy... This is awesome, exactly what I need to give my hits an extra kick now that Spiritual alignment is apparently no more.
He didn't dare test out the skill any further on the poor tree, a fist-sized hole appearing at the point of impact, but most of the damage hadn't actually been done to the tree's surface, but its insides. He looked down at his fist, impressed, but quickly noticed a strange black marking on the back of his hand. Bringing it to his face, he noticed it was a strange black tattoo of a circle with an II in the middle, reminiscent of roman numerals. He tried rubbing it, attempting to wipe it off, but it didn't budge. He was confused about how it had appeared on the back of his hand without him even noticing, deciding to see his [Identify] skill on the tattoo.
[2nd floor advancement token (Non-transferable)
Transports denizen to the second floor of the elite survival tutorial. Teleportation has a 60-second delay, automatically activates upon reaching level 20.]
His eyes widened at the result, the tattoo apparently acting as a pass to some higher level. He was briefly tempted to activate it right away, especially considering he faced little threat from the local creatures in the forest, the shadow puma having been the biggest threat yet, but he had dealt with it easily enough. With his higher level and enhanced abilities, he felt like he would struggle even less if he encountered it again, but his missing boosting skill gave him pause. Not to mention Patch and the others whom he had left back at the lodge without a word, leaving them behind felt wrong.
Lewis jumped down from the large tree and pondered his new move. I should probably go back to the others now that I reached the first major threshold and advanced to F-grade. He thought, but his mind and body were screaming for him to move, to see what he was now capable of, not to mention his desire to follow the cultivation manual, despite the setback of losing the spell that had begun as a starting point for him. The indecision and lack of information gnawed at him, confusion about why the system hadn't pre-warned him about the consequences of upgrading his class.
Lewis closed his eyes, wanting to get answers about this as he entered the system shop and invoked the system guide.
"Why did I lose my spell when upgrading my class? The system never mentioned anything about that happening beforehand." He blurted as soon as the golden figure materialized.
The system guide showed no sign of surprise or confusion as his calm face remained as cool as always, replying without pause.
"This information will cost 50 TP," The system guide replied in a neutral tone, making Lewis's blood boil at the scamming behavior of this cosmic system, snubbing him at every turn. Nevertheless, he confirmed the price, preferring to spend this manageable amount at least if he would actually get a concrete reply in exchange.
"The spell wasn't removed; the system simply no longer assisted in its utility now that you have advanced."
Lewis's anger and frustration turned to confusion at the unexpected response, his head tilting to the side as the golden figure continued.
"The 'spell' itself was not something you should have had access to. It was only granted to you due to your unusual circumstances. You noticed that it did not cost anything to activate, did you not?" The guide asked, receiving a hesitant nod from Lewis. "Well, that is because it was entirely the system's doing, a level of skill assistance that is rarely ever found outside of the tutorial, but even then, this sort of heavy-handed intervention has its limits. Think of it like a free trial and a glimpse of what is possible."
Lewis's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water as he digested the information. The system was the one handling my spirit power, like in the cultivation manual? A quasi-spiritual trifecta skill without cultivating the spiritual trifecta?
"So I was never going to keep that spell?" Lewis asked.
"That's right, no matter what class you ultimately selected, the skill would have been removed from your status now that you are F-rank and are more sensitive to energy flows." The guide confirmed, his anger escaping Lewis like a deflating balloon, leaving a hollow sense of loss in its place.
Maybe I should have avoided advancing right away. I didn't even sense the limit of that boosting spell, which I probably could have increased my power tenfold with ease; my only limit had been how much my body could take. I don't even think I will be able to push my mana detection far enough to detect the hidden frequencies again, not to mention enhancing my anti-mana to crack open the mana cores of the spider constructs. He thought with sadness. Somehow, despite the evident upgrade he received with his new class, he felt weaker than ever.
"Don't worry so much, the spell was indeed temporary, but the power residing within your spirit is not. The entire point of granting you that spirit cultivation manual was to prepare you for this moment when the system let go of your hand. Admittedly, I didn't expect you to level so quickly, but your combination of unique powers is rather potent. Either way, the outcome was predetermined and unchangeable, yet just because the skill is no longer accessible doesn't mean you can't relearn it by yourself. In fact, it's very much within your power." The golden figure encouraged, giving Lewis a barely noticeable smile.
"But how? I've only been in this whole multiversal system thing for a day, it's hardly anywhere near enough time to be growing my spirit with meditation and connecting with my inner self. Hell, that manual said it sometimes took decades before the others were able to meaningfully connect with their spirits." Lewis shot back, sounding a bit like a whiny child, but he didn't much care in the moment.
"You underestimate your advantages compared to the common practitioner of the Scarlet River technique. Think of your anti-mana, as you call it. Where do you think such a power resides? I cannot say anything more, simply that your two unique advantages might not be so individual." Said the system guide with a conspiratorial hint to his expression, as if he was saying something he shouldn't be, before suddenly breaking apart into a thousand golden motes.
Lewis's mind was in turmoil as he opened his eyes back onto the moonlit forest and exhaled a long breath, his mind pondering over what the system guide had told him. He couldn't deny a glimmer of hope and excitement at the idea of recovering his spiritual alignment spell, but he was also well aware of how difficult it was to cultivate the spirit, especially when just starting. This was something the manual had heavily warned about.
But that last part about where his anti-mana was located got him thinking. He had learned about what the spirit was usually used for in relation to using mana and how it forms channels in the spirit, but an interesting fact about Lewis's mana was that it didn't seem to require such channels; his spirit remained uniform, yet still somehow allowed him to channel his anti-mana. It was a contradiction that had greatly confused him, but the system guides words seemed to imply that he was looking at things wrong.
Closing his eyes, Lewis focused inwards as he attempted to sense the anti-mana within his body once again. He once more pushed around that mana destroying energy within him, but this time, he found himself able to detect that energy with a clarity he had never experienced before, and with it, realization dawned.