775 Inspiration
In normal cases, mana could be increased through various things. The most growth period will be when someone reaches adulthood or just breakthroughs their grade. During this period, people's mana grows naturally even if they don't do anything.
Besides these particular periods, mana-refining meditation training is the other most common method. Most people will use this method to increase their mana every day.
However, this method will only increase mana incredibly small, especially for high-grade people. If mana is calculated based on Angus system point, it may only increase up to five points by meditating for one whole year.
The increase will become smaller as the grade becomes higher. Another method is experiencing a harsh battle and pushing themselves to the limit. It is a risky method since one wrong move may end up losing one's life.
As someone who already experienced the advantage of having vast amounts of chi in his previous life, Angus will counter this mana constraint.
His customized mana core not only hides his grade aura and mana but also increases his total mana if he constantly uses it in intense battles. The increase will be more evident as he reaches a high-grade level.
Still, he didn't expect this feature would make him reach the maximum mana his body could hold. Combined with his status panel system, he could easily know his body's limit.
At first grade, 300 points and second grade, 600 points, he assumed the third grade is either 900 or 1200 mana points. It is comparable with the full-fledged pseudo-seventh-grade mana.
At that time, Angus may already be touching the seventh-grade infinite mana characteristic. His mana will not only be large but also have ridiculous regeneration.
Shaking his thoughts about his sudden growth, Angus focused back on solving the Fire Mineral Pool problem. He noticed his way of thinking before was entirely wrong. The Mineral Pool is made by balancing the basic elemental in a certain ratio.
Basically, the basic elemental will restrict each other to make the whole Mineral Pool balanced. If Angus only used fire elemental to create the Mineral Pool, it could be said almost impossible since there are no other elemental restrictions.
Even if he manages to create it, it will be very unstable when the liquified material enters it. Therefore, he tried to find a solution from another perspective. Today's outing also served as a break and inspiration gathering to tackle this problem.
[Analyze] Ancient Power is not an actual omniscient ability. It couldn't generate ideas or solutions out of nothing. It needs a particular input and knowledge background to solve the problem. In short, Angus lacks inspiration.
Entering the system space, he immediately uses his [Analyze] to the full power while running various solutions he thought of during his outing. After a few hours, he found a few feasible ideas. One of them is by modifying dwarf tools into a Mineral Pool.
The dwarf tools are highly enchanted tools that emphasize isolation and sturdiness. There are some similarities with the Mineral Pool's initial function. Despite having the same enchantment, the dwarf tools couldn't give random properties like Mineral Pool.
The random properties may look like an uncertain method. However, Angus feels this is important if he wants to create an artifact-grade sword. To create artifact grade, he needs to make the weapon into a sentient weapon or awaken its weapon spirit.
However, no exact technique exists to create or awaken an item's spirit. Even after reading old man Draught's book from Vigo, he found no information. The World Smith Draught himself describes how creating sentient weapons relies heavily on luck and Fate.
The same method may not work again to create sentient items. Draught could always create sentient items because he prevents the equipment from being destroyed and forges it continuously inside his dimension.
Draught can always create sentient items with these methods, but it may take a long time or a short time, according to Fate itself.
This method is like trying to grow rare natural resources through a specific conditioned environment. If they are lucky, it will succeed quickly, but if not it may take forever to create just one.
Since creating sentient items heavily depends on luck, Angus feels he needs to add some part of luck in his forging process. He didn't know if he could create an artifact-grade sword, but he at least could increase its chance by fulfilling all its conditions.
While Angus is perfecting his forging process through [Analyze] inside battle system space, a noble lady dejectedly comes out from Victory Manor.
*Huft* The lady glanced at Victory Manor one last time before releasing a deep sigh and entering her carriage. Unbeknownst to her, a few people inside the manor are paying attention to her visit.
'This is the fifth time... What did she want from Angus?' thought Jayna with a frown.
"Lilith." called Jayna.
"Yes, My Lady." replied Lilith politely beside Jayna.
"I want to know everything about Lady Sunarm, especially her intentions towards Angus." ordered Jayna coldly.
"Should I clean it up, My Lady?" asked Lilith with hostile intent.
As another fan of Angus, Lilith definitely couldn't accept another woman trying to get close to him. Even she only accepts Jayna after being forced to play with the naughty Anna for a few days. It is exhausting to take care of this wild and mischievous child.
"No need. As much as I want to burn that woman to ash, she is still a high noble. She has the same rank as Angus as the daughter of the Duchess. It will only cause unnecessary trouble. Just check her for now." said Jayna.
"As you wish, My Lady." said Lilith politely.
"Oh yeah, one more thing. Don't mess up. I hate to get my hands dirty or even involve my dear." Jayna said, coldly glaring at Lilith.
"Y-Yes. Then, I will go first." said Lilith before disappearing from the spot.
As the Altras and one of the former Seventh Face's executives, Lilith is strong at combat and infiltrating and gathering intelligence. Most of Lilith's friends work in the field of internal intelligence of the Heart Kingdom.
Their ability to shapeshift to anyone is impeccable to the point they couldn't find a single defect. They could easily become anyone if they learn about the target's habits.
Leaving Jayna's private training area, Lilith's body suddenly changes into a harmless stray brown cat and leaps on the streets before finding her target carriage. Her nimble and silent movements hardly differentiate her from an ordinary cat.
Normally, Altras have difficulty shapeshifting something small or animals since their body mass and physiology are entirely different. However, she does not only work as a private maid and bodyguard. Lilith also learned and was trained by Angus during his spare time.
Under his tutelage, Angus instills Lilith a deep emphasis on body control. He even mocked her to kill herself if she couldn't mimic mammal animals' movements. With this spartan training and her talent, she shapeshifts into any mammal animal and copies their movement.
After reaching this state, she finally knows why Angus is furious at her for wasting her innate talent Shapeshift ability. Learning the way of animal movement is not just copying movements or she could transform into them. It is also to learn how to maximize her muscle movement efficiently.
Animal and human physiology is similar, especially for mammals. However, their muscles work in different ways than ordinary bipedal humanoid creatures.
When Lilith mastered these animals' bodywork, she subconsciously knew how to use her shapeshifting ability fully. If previously her punch could only reach around 1000 points, her current punch could reach about 3000 or even 4000 points.
Moreover, her nimble movement also became more agile than before. If she fights against the group of elders Altras again, she is confident that she can fight them alone without using underhanded tactics.
Another week passed by without any incident except some mess that Anna and Gemini created across the capital city. Seeing a group of wild pigs running around the street became an ordinary scene for the people.
The citizens even happily welcome these naughty girls to come and create a mess at their place since they will get compensated heavily by King Leon and Angus. The compensation money is enough to cover a month's worth of their income.
On this day, a group of elite knights were preparing inside the Victory Manor. As the day passed, the time for Angus and the others to go towards Everwhite City was nearing.
Since they couldn't teleport together to Everwhite City, they needed to travel in a carriage. As Duchess Amberblaze accompanies them, their group is quite big. During this time, Angus and Jayna are spoiling Anna, whom they have neglected for the past few days.
"Are you sure this is true?" asked Duchess Amberblaze.
"Yes, My Lady. We even find this information in some cities during our travels." replied one of the flash squad.
"This will not be a peaceful journey." said Duchess Amberblaze before glancing at the happy young family not far from them.
"Report this to His Majesty and send our intelligence people to investigate this matter thoroughly." said Duchess Amberblaze solemnly.
"Yes, My Lady." said the flash squads.
On Duchess Amberblaze's hand is a bounty report with Angus's picture. At the same time, all the underground forces hiding in every part of Heart Kingdom also find a new bounty work with a massive reward.
“Believe in yourselves and choose life over death. Otherwise, you’ve led a shameful existence.” - Izumi Curtis, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood.
Enjoy the chapter.
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