Aftermath (2)— True purpose of Mana shards.

Cain looked around him and noticed that he wasn't close to the battlefield. When the {Devil-eyed White Primate} used it's {Spatial Jump} to carry them into the sky, it took them a little farther away from the battlefield.

As he could still hear the cries of battle very clearly, he figured he wasn't that far away. Hence he began a slow walk back toward the direction of the noises he was hearing.

As he walked, he continued organizing his inventory...

'So that's 1 spatial, 4 darkness, 20 blood, 19 nature, 22 metal, 41 wind, 20 fire, 30 earth, 20 water, 11lightning, and 22 poison mana shards. Although, that is 210 mana shards in total. Not bad at all...' Cain said with a pleased expression on his face.

If there was one thing he was happy about, it was the number of mana shards he had harvested from the battle. He had gathered a decent amount that he hadn't used previously, so they had just been sitting in his inventory as well. He was excited to see what he could do with them.

'According to the system, these mana shards have a ton of uses. For now, the only use I know of is the direct consumption method. The last time I tried it, it gave me the {Resistance} stat. I wonder what other uses they could have?'

The first mana shard he had gotten was from the {Miasma Devil}, which was a poison elemental mana shard. Using it had increased his poison elemental resistance by 5%. He hadn't seen any obvious results, so he was a bit doubtful if this method was the best way to use them.

Hence, he decided to ask the system...

{Replying to host; Mana shards have various grades as well as uses. The ones you currently possess are all mana shards of the least grade or quality. The 7 grades of mana shards according to their quality are low grade, medium grade, high grade, magic grade, special grade, devil grade, and celestial grade. However, the amount of power contained within a mana shard is determined by both the level and tier of the owner}.

{Direct consumption majorly has these three effects. The first is the increase in {Resistance}. {Resistance} is the measure of how much the effect of an attack with the same elemental attribute will be displaced. If an individual possesses *100% resistance to a certain element, said person cannot be harmed by that element, and will only benefit from it positively}.

{The second one would be to raise elemental control. Elemental control is a factor that directly influences how much proficiency the host has when dealing with elemental mana. Someone with high elemental control will be able to use skills and spells more efficiently. For example, consuming metal elemental mana shards will increase automatically increase the amount of SP you have with the {Metal Creation} skill. This will aid in leveling up the skill greatly}.

{And lastly, certain mana shard attributes can boost Ki and mana absorption rates. It is important to note that these effects occur randomly, and might be influenced solely by their quality. Most of the mana shards you currently possess are of low quality, with only a single medium-grade quality. }.

'Hmmm...' Cain gave it some thought as he trudged forward. The sounds of battle were getting more pronounced, but the amount of noise being made steadily decreased.

'There are two ways to do this... I can look towards the short term more and decide to use them now, or see if I can figure out more of their uses later in the future.' Cain has torn apart for a while before he decided to go for the short term.

And he had multiple reasons...

The first being he would have more opportunities to gain mana shards in the future. If he used the ones he had now a bit recklessly, he wasn't losing out on anything. He also figured he could use every bit of extra power he could get his hands on since things just seemed to be getting more and more insane as the days went by.

Most importantly, he was honestly just very curious to see the effects using the mana shards would have on him.

Cain opens his inventory window and selected a single metal elemental mana shard. The golden-hued gem-like object magically appeared in his palms a split second later.

He rolled the gem a few times to get a feel of its texture. It was a bit cold to the touch, and the light it gave off made him feel as though he was staring at a bar of shiny gold. Applying a bit of force, the mana shard cracked and shattered to pieces.

A stream of energy escaped from the shattered gem directly into his body.

{+1,000SP to {Metal Creation} skill...}

{Metal Creation Lvl 2.}: Gather the Metal elemental attribute mana to create constructs of metal. The effects of the skill are influenced by the host's magic and control stats, as well as imagination. AOE is equal to the user's magic stat as well as the level of the skill. (1,000/10,000SP).

'Not bad...'

Even though Cain didn't get what he expected, he wasn't disappointed. He had twenty-one metal mana shards left, so he was sure he would be able to increase {Metal Creation} to level 3, which would bring him great benefits.

'Let's go all the way then...'

{+500SP to {Metal Creation} skill...}

{+200SP to {Metal Creation} skill...}

...

As mana shard after mana shard was turned into dust, Cain's face would twitch slightly in response every time a new one was used up.

'Fuck! I knew it wouldn't be that easy!'

It turns out that as he used more of the mana shards, the effectiveness wore out. The first one he used gave him 1000SP, then the following 4 gave him 500SP each. The rest were 200SP each, but by the 16th one, all he got was just 100SP each.

'Come on...' Cain got a bit anxious as he crushed mana shard after mana shard. He wanted to get his {Metal Creation} skill to level 3. once he did that, the level of control he had over the skill would increase tremendously.

{+100SP to {Meta Creation} skill...}

Cain looked through his inventory and realized that he had only one more metal elemental mana shard left.

'So damn close. If this one doesn't give me another 100SP, I'm going to go kill something.' Cain said fuming.

At this point, Cain's frustration had turned into unreasonable anger...

He retrieved the last one from his inventory, said his prayers to whoever would listen, then crushed it with a single hand.

{+100SP to {Metal Creation} skill...}

{Congratulations to the host... Your internal skill, {Metal Creation} has leveled up}.

'Success!'

{Metal Creation Lvl 3.}: Gather wisps of Metal elemental attribute mana to create constructs of metal. All effects of this skill are influenced by the host's magic, control, and spirit stats. The duration of the spell has increased by 20% (0/100,000SP).

{Metal Manipulation}: Grants the ability to freely control metal of weight that does not exceed 10 tonnes. The effectiveness of this skill increases simultaneously with the {Metal Creation} skill.

{Congratulations to the host... Your control over the metal element has increased greatly. Hence, you have unlocked a new stat, Spirit...}

{+1 to all stats}.

{+1000EXP}.

{+100 system points}.

Name: {Cain Lenosi}

Level: 24.

Strength: 205.

Agility: 266.

Stamina: 15/112.

Vitality: 50.

Defense: 61.

Control: 4.8.

Perception: 4.7.

HP: 1,950/4,900.

MP: 2,090/3,500.

Magic: 250.

Ki: 3.

Resistance: Poison- 10%.

Spirit: 2

Skills: Golden blood, Mana Blade, Lightening Edge, Blade Mastery Lvl. 2, Burst Step, Metal Creation Lvl.2, Golden Severance, Metal Manipulation, *Fear, *Bloodthirsty, Blood Ingestion Regeneration, Azure Burst, Mana Heart, Seal, Hollow Judgement, Devil eyes: Eye of Clairvoyance.

Titles: Champion of Ashur (locked), Sorcerer's Mind.

Free attribute points: 27.

System points: 2,310.

{Inventory}. {Shop}.

'Spirit? What is that?'

{Replying to host: The spirit stat is the primary stat that influences the level of elemental control the host possesses}.

'I thought it was the control and magic stats that did that?' Cain was a bit confused now. He had been told by the system previously that what influenced his control over the elements was his control and magic stat. Now, it was telling him that it was his new Spirit stat that did that.

{Replying to host: That is negative. You were told that the magic and control stats influenced your Mana control, not elemental control. While they might sound alike, they differ greatly on a fundamental level}.

'So what is this difference?'

{Replying to host: To put it in simple terms, mana is a blanket term for all forms of energy, while categorizing it into the various elements makes it a bit more specific}.

'I see...'

Now that his doubts had been cleared up, he decided to stop with the questions and move on. The only things left to check in his inventory were the runes.

'As for the runes, only 12...'

{Mark of Hermes}: +10 to agility stat.

{Mark of Bestial Strength}: +10 to agility stat.

{Bulwark of Protection}: +10 to Defense stat.

{Rune of Sharpening}: Increases attack damage by 2%.

Only three of each, but he recalled that to create an array, he needed 9 exact runes of the same type. He currently had only one {Mark of Beastly Strength} in use, so that meant completing even a single array was going to take a while.

He decided to hold on using the runes, as he had arrived just in time to see the others cleaning up the battlefield...

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