Maxwell gazed at his gains from improving Darve’s sword. This looked like an excellent way of improving skills.

  Guide Mana Leveled Up Lvl-53→55

  Mana Infusion Leveled Up Lvl-35→42

  Prima Sense Leveled Up Lvl-43→45

  Magic Theory Leveled Up Lvl-29→32

  Considering that this was an experiment he could do any time he had a suitable item, these were great levels of progress. Maxwell was not sure what the magic theory skill did as he couldn’t notice anything different as the skill progressed.

  He was also curious what would happen when the skills reached level 100 as that seemed to be a milestone for the system, considering that that was the point tutorials for stats ended. He summoned his status. He slowed down a bit in these last 3 days, but he definitely liked this pace better. It was much more comfortable, for sure.

  Name: Maxwell Aurelius

  Age: 15(54)

  Class: Prima Soul

  Level: 17

  Titles: [Expand]

  Nobility: None

  Traits: Etherium soul, Merchant of Yliaster, Partial Etheral Body

  Stats:

  Strength:43

  Agility: 46

  Dexterity: 47

  Vitality:17

  Soul:179

  HP:995

  MP:2685

  Class Skills:

  Guide Mana(55), Prima Sense(45), Magic Theory(32), Myriad Mana Projectiles(30), Soul’s Voice(44), Mana Infusion(42), Infused Mana Burst(12), Elementary Soul Energy Manipulation(10), Magic Carving(37)

  General Skills:

  Blunt Trauma Resistance(4), Piercing Damage Resistance(1), Mental Resistance(22), Gaslighting(10), Observation(30), Atlethics(15), Meditation(43), Paralel Thoughts(10), Mathematics(50), Visualization(30)

  His skills certainly improved these days but were not as drastically changed as it did before. Magic Carving improved with leaps and bounds as he spent most of his time carving random things from rocks.

  His athletics improved moderately, and he could feel the effects of the skill more clearly than most skills. He could feel that his body was easier to move. He was unsure how exercise would translate to stats, but this increased ability to move was enough.

  His mathematics stopped improving on the second day as it seemed to reach its limits with geometry. Maxwell was not sure what he could use to progress the skill more. He was not very invested in the skill but it was still satisfying to see it go higher.

  His visualization, too, stopped increasing from geometry as it now increased only when he used it with mana guiding or something complex.

  Maxwell was a bit puzzled at his health, though. He could see that it went up by a couple of points, but he made a calculation to check how much.

  So it increased by 10 points? Maxwell thought, puzzled. He understood the reason a couple of seconds later. Partial Etheral Body is slowly becoming less partial, I suppose. He thought.

  Another big change was his observation. It became 30 after observing everything he could see for a few days. The skill seemed to be unchanged after the level increase, but he hasn’t had any chance to use it on something more powerful yet.

  He experimented with the soul energy manipulation a bit but he was still completely puzzled by the skill. He remembered how his trait used the skill, but the memory was weirdly cloudy, as if his mind couldn’t comprehend the skill.

  His infused mana burst just leveled up from blowing away rock from his carvings. He still didn’t have a good association with the skill, but it was helpful in certain situations.

  ’’Chirp, Chirp,’’ Blueberry said from a nearby tree. It didn’t bother to send a message, so Maxwell was forced to look around to see what it was trying to tell.

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  On the ground, he could see the mercenary twitching as if he was going to wake up. Oh, thanks, he sent to the bird and hit the man with another burst of telepathy. He should probably carry this guy away before he turned his brain into mush.

  "Bob! Can you carry this guy into the forest and leave him there? Make sure it’s a bit far away, though.’’ He shouted at Bob, who was back working out at their shabby gym. The boy was turning into a training maniac as he seemed to really like to feel his body working.

  He threw the weight he was using on the ground, making a very loud sound in the process before coming and picking up the mercenary. Luckily, the ground and the weight were infused heavily by Maxwell after some cracked floors, so they were undamaged.

  ’’Should I just throw him in the river?’’ Bob asked, receiving a deadpan look from Maxwell as an answer.

  ‘’Ok, ok, I will leave him somewhere far away, gently of course.’’ He corrected himself. His previous three kills didn’t seem to affect him in any way. Maxwell was a bit concerned about Bob’s apparent psychopathy, but Bob would at least be protecting someone as he killed others. That was already better than most.

  He watched him leave before turning to Blueberry. When will you evolve? He asked the bird. He was curious about what the bird would become. He contemplated giving it something with his trait, but the bird had nothing to pay with. Also, trying to make the bird understand the concept would be a nightmare.

  Blueberry gave him a look he was getting accustomed to seeing from the bird when he asked him a tricky question. After some seconds of concentration, the bird sent him a jumble of thoughts.

  Maxwell felt a weird feeling he didn’t know how to describe. He guessed that Blueberry sent him an equivalent of a system prompt for animals, but system prompts were a lot more instinctual for animals.

  He could feel that the bird’s evolution was pending, but he could also feel that the bird was not satisfied. You are waiting for better options? Maxwell asked and received affirmative feedback.

  He was unsure what the bird could do to get a better evolution. The bird was mainly a scout but didn’t have any skills directly curated for this role. For example, it didn’t have a perception skill as far as he knew. He doubted he could fix that by doing anything simple.

  Animals were quite limited in tier one by what they were born with. Maxwell still remembered the Metal Crocodile in its tier-one form. It was not much different from a normal crocodile.

  Birds could see really well compared to humans, but that was pretty much it. Maxwell vaguely remembered some species that were able to detect magnetic waves and such, but he was not sure how that worked. Blueberry having a telepathy skill was already way out of the norm.

  Wait, telepathy? He thought. Maybe this bird could detect mental waves or something like that? Maxwell himself could only do that when he entirely focused on the task, but he was hopeful that the bird would be more compatible with this.

  He excitedly sent this information to the bird. Blueberry had some difficulty understanding what he was trying to tell, but after some back and forth they managed to make it understand the concept.

  After understanding what it needed to try, blueberry didn’t wait beside Maxwell and flew away. Maxwell could see that the bird was excited to try this. Nobody, even a bluebird, liked being weak.

  He took out the satchel he had received from Darve to pass the time. He focused on the satchel with his prima sense fully turned on. He also gathered his awareness back to his primary mind and felt the world slow down.

  He could clearly see that the satchell had some space mana inside it, but it felt imperfect. It was like mana was trapped inside instead of being infused. Maxwell was not sure how they managed that, but his own method seemed a lot superior.

  He could sense that the space mana was behaving strangely in the satchel. It was moving, unlike Maxwell’s infusions as it didn’t want to stay where it was, but it was following a set pattern without any way to escape.

  Are these runes? Maxwell asked mentally. He could feel a whole different branch opening up in front of him.

  He was a bit curious before because the system said that infusion was special to soul stat. He couldn’t understand how people created things back then, and he really doubted that they waited patiently until they created their souls.

  These runes seemed to be the way out of this problem. Yes, the average person couldn’t make the mana stay somewhere willingly, but they could still trap it. The system saying that he would guide mana when others tried to bend it made a lot more sense knowing this.

  He focused on the pattern to see what was happening in a more microscopic layer. He could see that the symbol trapped the mana, but he was still not sure how it did what it did. He doubted he would get the same effect by just pushing space mana into something.

  He could see the mana moving inside the symbol, but he guessed that this was not the cause of the expansion. The movement of mana was just an imperfection. It was the shape that was causing the expansion.

  He carefully connected with the mana inside the satchel and immediately felt a backlash. The mana inside seemed almost angry. He pushed through the feeling of anger. It was disturbing to feel an emotion from the particle, but this was different from the emotions he felt from humans. It felt in a way, more universal.

  He tried to send the idea to the mana. From his previous experiments, he concluded that mana had no desire. It just wanted to know what it was supposed to do instead of being forced into it. This didn’t mean that it had a personality.

  Maxwell felt that the mana was simply following some principles. Every type resisted most and synergized with a few people, creating affinities.

  For him though, he could convince them to synergize with him in a way. People needed the particles to understand their intentions without their input as they shoved them around, he could just tell them what was his intention thus the term guiding.

  Now, he sent the shape of the rune he was seeing to the space mana. He could immediately see the movement of the mana get smoother, as if it understood the shape of the walls around it. The mana simply stopped ramming the walls as it knew there were walls around it.

  Maxwell could hear some notifications in the background since starting, but he ignored them. He still had things to do.

  He once more prepared a message for the mana. Now, he told it to fill the shape evenly and stop moving. He felt the shape get clearer as the little protest mana showed against the command quickly vanished under the strength of Maxwell’s mind.

  Once the mana was stable, he started doing something familiar. He started infusing more mana into the symbol. He made his senses grow wider and connected to mana in the air. He visualized space mana gathering in the symbol in the satchel.

  After a while, he started to get tired, but he could also see that the symbol was reaching its limits. It simply didn’t have more space to store the mana. Maxwell felt that there was probably a way to condense this mana, but he didn’t know how.

  He was satisfied with what he had done, though. He separated his mind back into two and quickly turned down his prima sense back to the regular level. He was exhausted as he was focusing without any breaks for about half an hour.

  He ignored his notifications for a little more and used observation on the satchel in his hand.

  Satchel of Expansion - Tier 2+

  Formerly a satchell that was crafted by imperfect means, now improved by the Merchant using methods beyond this items tier.

  It contains 20 times the size it should contain.

  The effect will not degrade with time as long as the material remains unharmed.

  Now, I call this useful. Maxwell thought.