Ascension of the last Celestial

„What do you mean, mana is everything?"

Arthur asked Valerian with pure confusion on his face.

Valerian just looked at him with a light smile and began his explanation.

„I mean it like I said it: mana is everything. Everything that is and everything that isn’t. Mana was there before time and will be there after time. It is the beginning, the end, and everything in between. From the material like fire and ice to the immaterial like space, time, and fate, if someone is good enough and has the reserves, they could manipulate reality on a scale your mind can’t comprehend."

Valerian paused, letting Arthur digest the answer. As he watched the red-eyed boy think, Arthur’s face turned into a confused frown.

„How do you even know all that? Did you have a teacher that was a god or something?"

Valerian chuckled lightly.

„In a way, I did have a teacher, but they more like nudged me in the right direction instead of directly teaching me."

„Just who has such fundamental knowledge of the universe?"

Arthur was more than curious, because if Valerian’s teacher knows so much about mana, maybe they could enable him to go back to Earth.

While Arthur loved his new life in Eldoria, he still wanted to return to Earth at least once to meet his parents again. Thinking about them, a sad feeling spread through Arthur’s heart, as he still missed them a bit.

„The teacher I am talking about is mana itself, obviously. A few years ago, I was thinking about the origin and meaning of mana, and whenever I reached a conclusion, I would feel the mana around me either dance around in happiness or wiggle like I just did something wrong. That way, I was able to grasp some of the truths the universe holds."

Normally, Arthur would be shocked if he heard someone say that the mana around them is „happy," but honestly, after everything that happened in the last couple of hours, he wasn’t even shocked and just accepted the explanation of how Valerian obtained this knowledge.

„That’s nice and all, but how do I become better at using magic? You said the problem is that I think like a manaless person, but how do I change that?"

This was the important question right now. Getting this philosophical answer to what mana is had been entertaining, but he still needed to know how to get stronger to complete the quest and reach higher ranks.

Valerian looked at Arthur with a disappointed face, like a teacher whose student failed to grasp the meaning behind his more than cryptic explanation.

„Haaa, what I want to get at is that you try to force mana into a construct it is not made for. Mana is freedom; it is what separates a god from a normal mortal. Everything about mana is free, even the affinities in your status screen are just an illusion. Everyone has an affinity for every element. Just because your status screen says you don’t have an ice affinity doesn’t mean you can’t use ice magic. From the way I was able to figure it out, for your status to say that you have an affinity, your compatibility with the element needs to hit a threshold, but even before „gaining" the affinity, you can cast magic with that element."

To show his point, Valerian raised his right hand with the palm facing upwards. After a little bit of mana gathered in his palm, ice began to form, creating a small icicle floating above his hand.

„Trying to force a construct such as spells the way you are doing only hinders the freedom and creativity that comes with wielding mana."

Arthur was shocked. The news that someone doesn’t need an affinity to cast elemental magic had never come to his mind. To him, an affinity was fixed, like in all the novels he read back on Earth.

„But doesn’t that make my system kind of useless? I can buy an affinity there, but why should I spend the coins if I can just use the element like that?"

„Actually, your way of acquiring affinities is stronger than you think. Just because I make elemental magic look that easy doesn’t mean that it is. Remember, I am the [Child of Mana]; everything related to mana is second nature to me. For everyone else, casting magic without an affinity in their status screen is nearly impossible. So, being able to just buy them is so much stronger than you think."

It made sense that Valerian, with his unique standing related to mana, could cast magic he „doesn’t have an affinity for" so easily. Now, Arthur felt incredibly grateful for his unique skill, but there was one thing he was still curious about on the topic of affinities.

„Your affinities are really weird. I mean, what even is [Cosmic Fire] or [Event Horizon], and how did you get them?"

„I was born with [Space] and [Cosmic Fire]. The other two... well, one I copied unintentionally, and the other one I ripped out of a cave goblin."

„..."

Arthur looked at Valerian with a blank face.

„What do you mean ’stole unintentionally’ and ’ripped out of a goblin’?!"

At Arthur’s screaming, Valerian flinched a bit.

„Well, you see, it’s my unique skill [Law Breaker]."

Valerian went on to explain how he copied Captain Ford’s lightning and the goblin’s darkness, and that his bloodline interacted with them and changed them into their cosmic variant.

Arthur let himself fall back on the hard stone floor and covered his eyes with his forearm.

„Really? Just which one of us is the protagonist? Me, the reincarnated system holder, or whatever the fuck you are."

Valerian chuckled at his friend’s dramatic display, when Arthur shot back up and looked at Valerian with questioning eyes.

„If you can steal the affinities of monsters, why didn’t you take the ice wyvern’s ice affinity? Wouldn’t that be the best course of action?"

It was a good point. Valerian could have stolen the wyvern’s ice and turned it into the cosmic variant of ice.

„It was not really that important to take its ice. There are more than enough ice monsters in the forest, so I have more than enough chances to gain it. I thought that seeing your strength was more needed than another affinity."

Arthur let himself fall back, entering the same position as before.

„Life is not fair! Why can’t I be the ability-stealing protagonist? Wait a minute!"

Like he was stuck inside a loop, he shot back up again and began to look into the campfire in front of him with unfocused eyes.

Valerian could already guess what he was doing. He must be scrolling through his system shop in search of a [Skill] that lets him steal other abilities. And Valerian’s guess was right, as that was the exact thing Arthur was doing right now.

As Arthur scrolled through the [Skills] inside the shop, he found some [Skills] that were amazing, like [Mana Overload]—it could make his mana attacks 3x as strong for 5 minutes—or [Kinetic Redirection], which gave him the ability to store any kind of kinetic energy to then release it again in an attack.

But his store didn’t just have good [Skills]; it also had auxiliary [Skills] like [Self Cleanse], which basically just cleaned his clothes, or [Silent Steps], which made his footsteps completely silent and untraceable.

There were also the [Skills] that were absolutely useless, for example, [Dramatic Wind], it just created a small gust of wind so his cloak would billow in the wind... yeah, that’s it, or [Perfect Hair Day], and I think the name was self-explanatory. Needless to say, the shop had more [Skills] than anyone could need, and Arthur was searching for one specific [Skill] right now.

As he went through the shop to search for the [Skill], Valerian just watched him, as he too was curious if there was a skill that could copy another person’s affinity or ability. Maybe if it’s strong enough, it could even copy a unique skill.

After nearly an hour of searching, Arthur’s eyes suddenly lit up and he declared his find.

„I fucking found it!!!!"

Valerian, who was at this point trying to take a nap, was jolted out of his half-sleep state by the yelling, but his mind instantly knew what that meant.

„You found a copy skill?"

Arthur nodded his head frantically while he had the biggest smile on his face.

„Yes!!! It’s just called [Copy], but it’s exactly what I have been searching for... the only problem is the price."

As Arthur’s happy face fell, Valerian got curious just how expensive a skill like that could be.

„Don’t stall like that, just tell me."

„It costs... 10 million points."

Valerian looked at Arthur with confusion.

„I know that’s a high number, dumbass, but I have no idea how much that is in context."

Even though Arthur was annoyed at the insult, he couldn’t hit him back with a verbal comeback, as his mind was still broken from the price.

„In the last 15 years, I managed to accumulate a total of 10,000 points."

„..."

„Fuck."