Chapter 167: The Limits of Power
Chapter 167: The Limits of Power
Andras closed the door of Room Three and stood for a moment in the empty corridor.
The free day stretched ahead of him. He had already decided how to use it.
He could not test his full strength inside the academy.
The layered wards, the surveillance crystals embedded in the stone, the constant presence of professors and students—any serious exertion carried risk. Echo Resonance could be kept low. A single Clone could be dismissed the moment footsteps approached. But the rest of his talents were different. Abyssal Earth Dominion claimed soil and stone while threading darkness through the ground. Mana Compression densified energy in ways that left clear residual traces. Using any of them openly would invite questions he had no intention of answering—not until the gap between him and everyone else was large enough that questions no longer mattered.
He needed isolation.
Andras walked through the residential district at an unhurried pace. Students still moved along the paths, taking advantage of the free day, but none paid him particular attention. White hair and the Darkmoor crest were familiar enough by now. Most simply stepped aside and continued their own conversations.
The main gates came into view after several minutes. Two armored guards stood at post. Andras approached without slowing.
"I will return before evening."
The guard made a brief notation on a crystal slate. The heavy gates opened with a low mechanical hum, and Andras stepped through.
Outside the academy walls the air felt different—less dense with layered wards, freer. The commercial district stretched ahead. Andras checked the position of the sun. Lunch would be served in the academy dining halls within the hour, but he had no intention of returning for it.
He selected a quiet restaurant two streets from the main road. The interior was clean, the tables spaced far enough for privacy. He ordered simply—roasted meat, bread, and a light broth—and ate without rush. When he finished, he paid and left.
The forest began less than half a kilometer beyond the edge of the commercial district. A well-maintained path led into the trees at first. Andras followed it only until the last signs of regular foot traffic faded. Then he stepped off the path and moved deeper.
The forest closed around him quickly. Tall trees with dark bark and broad canopies filtered the afternoon light into soft green and gold. Moss covered the ground in thick patches. The air carried the clean scent of damp earth and leaves. Birdsong existed, but it remained distant. The deeper he walked, the quieter everything became.
He continued until the academy was no longer visible even through the gaps in the trees. Only then did he slow.
A massive oak stood slightly apart from the others, its trunk wide enough that three men could not have encircled it with their arms. Thick roots spread across the ground like the limbs of some ancient creature. Andras approached it, brushed a few fallen leaves from a flat section of root, and sat.
The silence here was complete.
He reached into his storage ring and withdrew a dark glass bottle of rum. The same southern import he preferred. He uncorked it, took a slow drink, and let the burn settle in his chest.
After a second drink he spoke quietly.
"System. Show me my status."
A familiar chime answered inside his mind.
[Ding!]
[Status]
Name: Andras Darkmoor
Race: Human
Age: 18
Class: Mage
Realm: Mid Fourth Circle Mage
[Talents]
1. Architect of the Eternal Continuum – SS-Rank [Locked]
2. Echo Resonance – A-Rank
3. Sovereign Predator Physique – A-Rank
4. Abyssal Earth Dominion – A-Rank
5. Mana Compression – B+ Rank
6. Clone – A-Rank
Andras read every line without expression.
𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Architect of the Eternal Continuum remained locked. The system still refused further information.
Even without the Architect of the Eternal Continuum, he possessed five other usable talents.
Using multiple high-rank abilities simultaneously required constant awareness of their interactions, their costs, and the residual signatures each one left behind. Fewer talents would have been cleaner. Simpler.
Yet he looked at the list again and measured each one carefully.
Echo Resonance was his main talent—the one he knew best and could use most freely. It was the original ability of the body he now inhabited, refined through months of deliberate practice. Its value for sensing remained unmatched.
Sovereign Predator Physique enhanced his physical strength, durability, speed, and recovery, though sustained activation carried heavy mana consumption and physical strain.
Abyssal Earth Dominion provided battlefield control through earth and darkness. The fused talent allowed him to claim a domain of soil and stone while threading oppressive darkness through it, restricting movement and enabling structural destruction.
Mana Compression densified mana before release, increasing both power and stability. Maintaining that compression required considerable control. A lapse could destabilize the compressed mana and cause serious backlash.
Clone remained pure versatility and utility. Up to three independent bodies at approximately seventy percent of his current physical ability and mana capacity, with shared sensory information and automatic memory transfer. The mana cost was significant, the mental burden noticeable, and destruction of a clone produced proportional backlash.
Each talent served a different purpose.
The thought of forcing the system to fuse them crossed his mind for a brief moment.
Fusion had proven useful before. Abyssal Shadow Dominion and Earthshatter had combined cleanly into Abyssal Earth Dominion. But usefulness was not the same as necessity. These six talents did not meaningfully overlap or compensate for one another’s weaknesses. Forcing a merger risked diluting the specialized strengths each currently held. He had no interest in trading proven individual performance for a single ability that might function worse in the situations that mattered.
He stopped thinking about fusion entirely.
Andras closed his eyes and activated Echo Resonance at a low, controlled level. The talent spread outward in a quiet wave, reading the vibrations of mana in the surrounding forest. Trees. Soil. Distant animals. No distinct mana signatures associated with nearby people. Dense foliage reduced clarity at longer ranges, as he had expected. The environment itself imposed limits.
The area was clear enough.
Good.
He opened his eyes again and looked at the empty space in front of the oak.
Today he would test the upper limits of what he could currently sustain under controlled conditions.
All of it here, where no one would see.
Andras reached for the bottle once more, took a final measured drink, and set it aside.
Then he raised one hand.
Mana gathered.
Resonance Pulse formed in an instant.
The compressed wave of vibrating mana left his palm without flourish. It struck a thick tree twenty meters away. The trunk exploded outward in a violent spray of splinters and shredded bark. The upper half of the tree toppled with a heavy crash, its roots tearing free from the earth. A shallow crater marked the point of impact.
Andras lowered his hand and observed the result without expression.
At Mid Fourth Circle the output had increased significantly. What had once been primarily a disruptive technique had grown into a genuinely dangerous offensive attack. Its destructive power was now sufficient to make it a serious threat even against stronger opponents. The control remained precise. Almost no excess mana leaked.
He moved next.
Echo Step activated.
His form blurred. A faint afterimage lingered where he had stood. He crossed fifteen meters in a single fluid motion. Negligible strain. He extended the distance to thirty meters. Mana consumption rose moderately. He chained five consecutive thirty-meter steps in rapid succession. Afterimage quality remained clear, but the repeated high-speed use produced noticeable strain along his mana pathways—exactly as it had during prolonged combat in the dungeon.
The limiting factor was not Echo Step itself. It was how much mana his current body could circulate before efficiency began to fall. Conscious activation had become almost unnecessary. Movement and intention had begun to merge.
Andras stopped beside the fallen tree and reached into his storage ring.
Eclipse Edge appeared in his hand.
He had already tested the legendary sword in actual combat against the dungeon creature. He had measured Severance against natural armor, observed Silent Cut in motion, and confirmed its mana compatibility under pressure. Today was different. There were no enemies, no variables, and no reason to hold back. This was a controlled benchmark with his current cultivation.
He raised the sword.
He had coated the blade with vibrating mana through Echo Resonance many times before—usually instinctively, in the middle of a fight. Today he isolated the principle and refined it deliberately.
Mana flowed from his circuits into the blade in a controlled stream. The mana spread through the blade without resistance. He stabilized the resonance throughout the entire weapon, adjusted amplitude and frequency, and minimized loss until the effect could be maintained consistently. A low, vibrating hum rose from the edge. The blade’s presence sharpened. The weight in his hand felt lighter, more responsive, as though the sword itself had become an extension of the talent rather than a separate tool.
Echo Resonance — Weapon Infusion.
A single horizontal slash cut through a second nearby tree as if it were soft wood. The tree fell cleanly, the cut surface smooth and still faintly vibrating from residual resonance.
The combination was better than using the talent alone.
A weapon provided focus. It channeled the vibrating mana into a precise line rather than a broad wave. Efficiency increased. Control increased. The focused application produced a cleaner, more lethal result than the same technique released as a broad wave.
Andras dismissed the infusion and returned Eclipse Edge to his storage ring.
He turned next to Mana Compression.
Mana densified in his core layer by layer. Power and stability rose together. Andras maintained the compression for several seconds before releasing it against a half-buried boulder. The stone shattered into large fragments. The structure held firm until the moment of impact.
Abyssal Earth Dominion followed.
He began at fifteen meters. The ground darkened. Soil and stone rose in controlled ridges and jagged spikes while threads of abyssal energy bled upward, dulling the light. He expanded the domain to twenty meters. The response remained clean. Twenty-five meters. Still stable. At thirty meters the earth began responding more slowly. The ridges formed with a noticeable lag. The darkness thinned at the outer edges.
Andras narrowed his eyes.
There it was.
For now, the limit of clean control under his current realm appeared to sit just below thirty meters.
He released the domain. The ridges collapsed. The darkness faded.
Resonance Lock remained untested. The technique required direct physical contact and a living opponent whose mana circulation he could analyze. There was no point testing it against a tree.
Sovereign Predator Physique he activated only long enough to feel the surge in strength, durability, speed, and recovery, along with the accompanying drain. Sustained use would wait.
Finally, Clone.
Andras directed mana into the talent. Three figures appeared around him—identical in appearance, each carrying approximately seventy percent of his current physical ability and mana capacity.
He assigned them tasks at once.
Clone One activated Echo Step and began chaining thirty-meter movements—the same distance Andras had just identified as increasingly demanding.
Clone Two released Resonance Pulse against successive targets.
Clone Three maintained a low-level physical enhancement while circling the clearing.
Andras himself layered Mana Compression and kept Resonant Sense active, monitoring every fluctuation.
Sensory information from all three clones layered cleanly into his mind. For the first several minutes the arrangement held.
Then the true limitation revealed itself.
Mana consumption rose sharply. The mental burden of coordinating three independent streams of action while maintaining his own compressed mana and continuous sensing began to press against the edges of his focus. Efficiency started to fall. The clones remained functional, but the strain of simultaneous operation was unmistakable.
Andras dismissed all three at once. The bodies dissolved into particles of mana. Their accumulated experiences returned to him cleanly.
For simultaneous operation, the real limitation was not the individual power of the clones.
It was the combined mental load and mana consumption.
Andras sat once more against the oak and retrieved the bottle of rum. He took a slow drink while his mana circuits settled.
He had found his current limits.
That was enough for today.
Limits were useful.
Once he knew where they were...
He knew what had to be broken.