Chapter 256: Body enhancement.

"It's my turn." Brian slammed his fists together as took center stage.

He first tested the spell channeling skill and amplifier effects of the gauntlets by smashing his fist into the ground and creating a long row of spikes.

'Not bad. Let's check out the force barrier." Brian injected mana into his left arm and a transparent barrier in the shape of a tower shield appeared.

[That should be the default shape. Trying changing it.] The system advised him through the mind link.

"That was easy." He had thought he needed to concentrate to do it, but surprisingly it took only a thought.

"You guys should try hitting me with something." Brian's words caused Blake and Castiel to look at themselves before they hurled 2 flame spears at the barrier.

The flame spears crashed into the barrier before exploding, but after the smoke had cleared up Brian was standing at the same spot with no injuries.

"That was way better than I expected." Blake was impressed by the gauntlet's defensive capabilities.

Without wasting time, Brian tried out the seismic blast but nothing happened. That was where the system was to come in.

[According to the abilities description Vibrations are needed below your feet for it to be activated.] The system explained.

"Doesn't that make it useless, because how many times have you been in a situation the ground quaking?" Castiel pointed out.

[Do you want to continue with the explanation?] The system snorted for being interrupted. [If my speculations are correct, the key to solving this flaw is the last active ability. So activate it and I shall continue the explanation.]

Brian did as the system instructed and activated Tyrannical boost. He felt a rush of energy spread to every corner of his body, but it soon dissipated.

"The system's console shows the skill is still active. Why do I feel normal?" Brian asked in a confused tone, but that was when he took a step forward, and the ground beneath slightly vibrated.

"What the…" Intrigued by what just occurred Brian stomped his foot on the floor causing it to tremble, but at the same time the gauntlets lit up with an ash glow.

Having no clue of why they were glowing, Brian threw out 2 jabs, but that was when a force field in the shape of a fist flew out and crashed into the walls.

BOOM! BOOM!

"Holy cow!" The three of them in the room were utterly shocked by the powerful explosions.

The walls had 2 large damages, but in a matter of seconds, they were as good as new thanks to the castle's auto-repair function.

[When you activate the Tyrannical boost, all of your movements are strong enough to cause vibrations. The power of the blast would be determined by the magnitude of the vibration.] The system explained.

"This is godly!" Blake had noticed that when the seismic blast had crashed into the walls, another round of vibrations occurred, meaning Brain could perform a chain of seismic blasts as long as he was in a relatively confined location.

"Points well spent." Brian couldn't help but admit.

"Alright, that should be all. The info about the mission hasn't arrived so I have to keep myself busy." Blake left Castiel and Brian to train as he returned to his room to continue studying chaining arrays.

After using the soul candle, Blake understood that he had to zoom in on mana, and working with arrays meant a continuous exposure to how the mother-stream empowered the arrays with mana.

His bid to gain mana vision didn't stop at chaining arrays. It stretch to almost everything he did, from casting spells to even paying more attention to how the mana circulated through his body while cultivating.

Since the day was practically over, Blake kept on studying chaining arrays for hours and only stopped to get dinner before continuing to late hours of the morning.

...

The next day at the training ground, Zirrack had given them a simple exercise to make sure they had mastered the 1st stage of a body enhancement.

The first stage involved absorbing mana into their stars and moving them through the mana pathways without letting the stars process the energy.

After the little exercise of seeing how much mana they could absorb into their mana pathways in a few seconds, Zirrack went over to the second stage.

The second stage dealt with processing the mana absorbed.

"The second stage requires you to circulate the absorbed mana to a certain part of your body. For example, your arm, before further absorption into the cells." As instructor Zirrack explained, the ground quaked and a boulder 4 times his height formed from below creating a crater.

Boom!

He levitated the boulder and dropped it on a leveled ground, causing the ground to slightly quake.

"The absorbed mana grants a burst of energy to the cells of the body, thereby granting the said body part increased strength and defense." Zirrack lunged his fingers into the boulder and lifted it.

Although the human body was getting more refined to be stronger and faster as one advanced in realm. The physical abilities of the beasts were increasing at an exponential rate, but that was where body enhancement came in.

It gave their bodies an extra layer of protection in other to prevent beasts from one-shotting them. 

In the battle between Zirrack and the Inazuma, the reasons he was able to opt for a physical confrontation was because of the insane physical boost granted by the earth element, rage mode, and body enhancement.

If not for these 3 skills he would have been turned to shreds by the penetrative and destructive power of the lightning element.

"You all know how to channel mana to different parts of your body. So our lesson will be aimed at monitoring the energy as we circulate it around that part before we even attempt absorbing it." Zirrack said.

"Why do we use external mana when we could use our own?" Blake asked instructor Zirrack.

"That is a very important question. 200 points to you." Zirrack awarded him some points before continuing. "The mana stored in your stars had been processed and fined tuned to power spells, and not damaged the pathways when a large quantity of mana is released to cast a huge spell."

The processing of the mana courses it to lose the ability to seep past the mana pathways and into the cells. It can be considered an advantage and as well as a disadvantage."

"As for external mana, it is still in its pure form and hasn't been tampered with. So when it moves through the mana pathway it will be able to seep through them and into the cells." Zirrack explained.

"Doesn't that mean the unprocessed mana can harm us?" A student asked.

"Yes, it can, but just like casting spells, only when it is done in excess." Zirrack answered.

Comparing the rate of mana flow between body enhancement and casting spells, that of the former was slower. Unlike burst damage type of spells that required a large amount of mana to be released instantly. That of body enhancement could be a one-time flow of mana or a mild and steady one to keep the effects constant.

It had almost no chance of hurting the user unless it was used over a very long period of time. Only then would the mana pathways feel sour.

Once there were no questions left, Zirrack made everyone seat in a crossed-legged position as they absorbed energy and began circulating it back and forth the mana pathways located in their arm.

Blake was more of studying the mana flow in order to increase his insight of mana vision, but that was when he began to notice that which each cycle the amount of mana was decreasing. He was intrigued by this and continued to observe the phenomenon.

It was when he had gone past 300 cycles that he noticed something. His right arm was feeling kind of energetic.

'Is it what I think it is?' Blake looked around the training ground but it seemed everyone was focused still trying to understand the aim of what they were doing.

Blake's mana control was higher than that of everyone, that was why he was the first to notice that the mana was decreasing. The same went for his arm feeling energetic, but it was twice difficult to notice.