Chapter 832 Four Pillars: Never-ending Experimentation
Summoning both mana and Shadow Energy from his body, Valyr willed both of them to appear on his extended palm as he used both energies to form a simple bolt.
However, unlike before where each energy went into a specific part of the bolt, the young man began to impose his will on the energies as he had the two energies intertwine one another.
Then, once he felt like the two had entangled themselves deep enough, it was only then did he begin to use the energies to form the bolt.
Unsurprisingly, the result of the braiding allowed the bolt to contain far more force, taking on a somewhat homogenous shade of azure rather than the black and blue that covered his bolts from before.
Throwing it at a spot that was a fair distance away from them, the young man briefly thought about how much less energy he was using to conjure the bolt than before.
Whoosh!
Bang!
Watching the bolt zoom through air at far greater speeds, Valyr began to nod in great satisfaction as the collision resulted a loud yet destructive explosion, creating a shallow crater in what was basically reinforced dirt.
"You finally got the hang of it." Sellifer looked at the young man with a satisfied yet proud smile. "So, how does it feel?"
"It feels... freeing," replied Valyr after a moment of silence, feeling a great number of emotions wash over his body the moment he successfully began to make use of the braided energy.
"Freeing, huh." The woman faintly chuckled in response.
"Well, not exactly freeing," the young man clarified. "It's more like... with the energies braided together, I'm finally able to make use of the skills' full potential."
Hearing those words, Sellifer nodded in agreement. "Once you get your hands on the Azure Trace, there's no doubt you'll be able to push those skills of yours to greater heights."
Valyr nodded in response to that, deciding to get used to the process of braiding the two energies first before applying the concept onto his other skills.
Utilizing the simple [Arcane Shadow Bolt] as his base, the young man used the skill over and over again as he kept an inquisitive eye, wanting to make the process of braiding the two energies second nature to him.
After all, even though the bolt made with braided energy contained significantly greater power than the one without, he spent far more time conjuring the former than the latter.
However, rather than just incorporate the braided energy into the skill and move on, Valyr began to experiment on the skills on a deeper level.
Recalling Sellifer's period of experimentation before discovering the Azure Trace, the young man began to slowly changes the ratio between the two energies as he infused them into his skills.
Unsurprisingly, with how they were combative in nature, the skills leaned onto a ratio that contained more Shadow Energy than mana.
As he came to this discovery, a random thought popped up in his mind as he thought about making use of the unique properties of his mana with [Intent Seed of the Four Elements] enabled.
The result?
Far greater potency in terms of effects while making use of far less energy than before.
With a formula on how he could use the braided energy to its maximum potential, Valyr went over all his Arcane Shadow Serpent skills again, adapting the nature of the mana to the nature of the skill itself.
Then, once he was done going over all of those skills, he then returned to his other skills once more, feeling great satisfaction at how his combat prowess had significantly increased even though he had not gained any levels whatsoever.
Through his defensive skills, he found out that it was better to maintain a balance of both energies while attuning his mana to the property of Earth.
After that, he found out that leaning towards mana worked better for his healing skills, attuning its property to the element of Water.
Surprisingly, his movement skills were similar to his defensive skills that it warranted a balance of both. Though, the property of mana this time around leaned towards the element of Wind.
As for the remaining miscellaneous skills on his list, he had only found the ideal ratio and property for them through repeated trial and error.
Yet, even though he went through all that experimentation, the young man took far less time than Sellifer did to refit her skills with the braided energy.
"Six months..." Sellifer murmured to herself as she watched Valyr deftly control the energy as if it were now second nature to him.
"In just six months, he went from not knowing what Azure Energy was to skillfully controlling its primitive form."
At those words, she let out a faint sigh.
"What a monster.