Before Leon could notice, fifty years have passed since the fourth wave of zombies started. He didn't know if Sekundez saw so many species dying before her or if that was just a representation of something else. All Leon know was the fact that he was sick of killing zombies and not obtaining any coins.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Spiral Flare.
Cost: 1000 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Azure Heavens.
Cost: 5000 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Bloody Rose.
Cost: 500 health and 500 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Predator Instinct.
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Inferno.
Cost: 10000 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
"It has been quite a while since I learned a passive skill... I did right in summoning one werewolf again," Leon said.
It was getting kind of hard to summon all those monsters who weren't under his control, and copying their memories while they were trying to attack Leon was another downside. Regardless, just by having Predator Instinct, Leon could tell the location and feel how strong the nearby monsters were. It was weird to know that without using Appraisal, but the skill could make Leon comfortable or slightly uncomfortable if a beast was weak or slightly troublesome.
"I should have met more people... If I had met all kinds of people, I would be able to summon a copy of them here and learn all kinds of things that could grant me some insight of how to learn conceptual magic," Leon said, after a long sigh. "Yet, here I am learning in numerous offensive spells and grinding because I did it too much in the past."
In the end, Leon was certain of just one thing, that Ilyana was plotting something. Considering the things she could do, she could have easily created a copy of her, or at least a copy of her mind to help Leon train. But she didn't... perhaps she considered the fact that Leon would feel suspicious of it and decided to refrain from doing so. There was even a chance that she knew that not even a copy of her would be allowed during Sekundez's trial. Either way, it didn't matter.
"Ah! Begone useless thoughts!" Leon shouted. "I don't have time for conspiracy theories..."
In the end, conceptual magic would only help Leon during training since he was someone just good at destroying things. Although he learned one thing or another that could help outside the battles, that wasn't by far his specialty.
Regardless, even though Leon had been thinking for decades of how to apply mana and make new rules for at the least space he could influence, he didn't obtain any result. In the end, he couldn't stop trying, but those failures at least helped Leon to focus on what he was really good at, and that was learning new offensive spells.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Thunder Torrent.
Cost: 1000 mana per second
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Frost Blast.
Cost: 1000 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Death Flare.
Cost: 1500 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Lullaby.
Cost: 500 mana per second
You obtained 01 status points.
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Chains of Mana.
Cost: 1000 mana
You obtained 01 status points.
In the end, even though that was good for his sanity, Leon's notion of time started to deviate since he wasn't learning anything particularly powerful or interesting. Since most of his memories were composed of the moments, he learned new skills and leveled up them; decades became as long as weeks. Leon could tell that, and he knew it wasn't something one hundred percent good, but it was necessary because he was enduring that hellish environment to obtain the power to protect his friends and perhaps get rid of his enemies once and for all.
In the end, just to confirm that he was progressing as expected, Leon tried to copy several actions that Ilyana did in the past. As he had expected, only by using Transmute and creating a copy of his knowledge about a certain skill, Leon could make a tome, but also as expected, for that to work, his skills had to be at the max level.
Leon also discovered how Ilyana could monitor several places at the same time without being there. He just had to create any object made of mithril and then seal spirits that had the knowledge of Telepathy, and Sharp Eyes or Clairvoyance, and then Leon would be able to see everything that is happening in the place that object is. That being said, a magic item that had such skills needed mana, and since it consumed itself to work non-stop, it couldn't last long. Most likely, to conserve her mana, Ilyana created magic items that had Telepathy and some other skill that increases hearing.
"Although that kind of thing doesn't grant any skill, it is a good way to test my creativity," Leon nodded to himself, satisfied. "Well, I guess I do need some skills that enhance my hearing."
Congratulations! You have learned the skill: Sharp Ears.
Cost: 100 mana per second
You obtained 01 status points.
In the end, Leon learned that skill quite fast, and now that he thought about it, he could probably learn the improved version of that skill and even Sharp Eyes... most likely, Clairvoyance was the last tier of Sharp Eyes, and Leon missed the skill in between them. However, those wouldn't be all that useful in that dimension.