The next goal was to have a more literal hands-on approach to the problem at hand. Tesilim wasn’t sure if touching the Chaos Mana with his avatar would have a different effect than using his will. And honestly, he didn’t think it would. However, at the same time, he didn’t know what the difference between the avatar, his soul, and his will was, so he couldn’t truly know how they reacted with each other.

  Tesilim’s plan for the next phase was pretty simple. He was going to call the mana forward by chanting a spell. Then, once the mana left his soul, he would grasp it directly with his avatar. This would, of course, begin to channel the Chaos Mana into the spell. Once this began, Tesilim planned to cancel the spell and attempt to re-direct the mana into a technique. Tesilim wasn’t sure why spells were considered different than techniques when using his special mana since his regular mana worked just fine.

  The only thing he could think of then and there was maybe that he hadn’t acclimated to his Chaos Mana as he had with his normal mana. What he meant by this was that his body was used to Ambient and Pure Arcane Mana since it constantly passed through his body. This made it so it could be easily channeled from his soul even when using something like a technique.

  Because that was a difference between the two, spells were used with chants or circles, at least in the early ranks, they were. Meanwhile, even though techniques included words filled with willpower, they were still much shorter than a full-on chant.

  That meant, technically, a technique and spell that were used to make a fireball were at different levels of power, at least when everything was equal. See, as Tesilim had learned, everything usually revolved around concepts.

  The words that spells used were part of the Language of Creation and used concepts to shape the mana into magic. So, it was rather obvious, but more words equaled more concepts, which usually strengthened a spell more. This was even further added onto by throwing a spell circle into the mix, which effectively gave a boost to the spell in question by strengthening those concepts. On the other hand, individuals could have strong wills and understandings of certain concepts that could increase the power of a technique to a greater extent than just some normal guy could achieve by casting a spell.

  However, in the end, mana was one major factor for both spells and techniques. Mana was what transformed these concepts. And the purer the mana, the more powerful the concept would manifest.

  Now back to the topic of Tesilim and his mana issues. Breaking down his use of techniques and spells they weren’t just differences in base conceptual power, but also in how they spent mana. Spell tended to be chanted, letting a caster channel the mana for longer. In comparison, most techniques worked the other way around and tended to work in bursts of mana. Normally, that wasn’t a problem because the body was acclimated to mana for that purpose, and it allowed mana to travel through without issue. The problem Tesilim faced was that the body was acclimated to Arcane Mana, not Chaos Mana.

  It was possible for Chaos Mana to channel while he chanted since it took time. This let it work its way through his soul and body, riding along until it did what it did. Meanwhile, a technique was relatively instant, and since his own body wasn’t that acclimated to his Chaos Mana, the damn energy did not let itself go off in bursts. This was dumb because his Water Slash spell was basically a technique since there was no casting time. Though to be fair, that was definitely because of World Crystal interference.

  So, what Tesilim needed to do was somehow make his Chaos Mana more easily accessible. Maybe have it constantly running through his body so he could acclimate and let it channel much faster.

  To that end, he began his plan and saw the normal mana leave his soul once his chant began. However, this time around, he had changed a few things, and instead of the mana directly infusing the spell, he willed it to pass through his avatar first. Then, once he felt the spell begin to power up, he called for his Chaos Mana.

  Tesilim watched as his colorful mana made its way to him, and in only a matter of seconds, it came in contact with his avatar. Instantly, Tesilim felt a rush of power as his body felt like he was channeling electricity. Of course, his sense of taste and smell were invaded by the flavors of fruit, as usual. Now, in the real world, both manas would mix, and the spell would be empowered, so it was nice that his avatar worked the same way. It was like the manifestation of his body in his soul, the only difference being that he had way more control in his soul. So, instead of letting the mana mix or continue the spell, he stopped his chant.

  There wasn’t much backlash since the spell had barely been infused with mana. It had been more like he stored the normal mana in his avatar and only let a trickle out as he waited for his Chaos Mana to reach him. Nevertheless, he had other issues to deal with.

  Tesilim had Chaos Mana in his avatar, and it was time for him to make some progress. The mana wasn’t going anywhere even if he had canceled the spell, and like the regular mana, it was being stored in his avatar. Luckily, that still meant it was in his soul space, which did not trigger anything crazy. Thankfully, storing it in his avatar was a good segue for what he needed to do. Which was to control how much Chaos Mana he could spend. The best part was that he would accomplish both of his current tasks at the same time.

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  First, Tesilim unleashed a new technique he had been working on but with just some of his normal mana.

  “Chaotic Slash.”

  A slash of hot flames was released into the void. For one, the technique worked and actually manifested itself. Now, he needed to check whether it actually worked as intended.

  “Chaotic Slash.”

  This time, the slash was made of acid, and Tesilim smiled.

  The technique had been inspired by Drex’s breath attacks, and Tesilim aimed to copy the randomness of his drake. His ability was still limited to elemental attacks or simple things like acid and poison since only those concepts were easily comprehensible to him. He hoped that he would eventually be able to unleash much more interesting power slashes.

  Seeing his technique work made him happy, but what made him even more happy was that since he had-had the Chaos Mana on stand-by and had felt its willingness to empower the technique. It seemed it wasn’t that massive of a problem and it was really just the fact that the mana was not as easily transferable through his body as normal mana was.

  There was still a problem, for one, when he had felt that willingness to activate it, it had been through his Chaos Boost ability, which told Tesilim the power was on the verge of upgrading, and he just needed to take that final step. The issue was that Chaos Boost wanted him to use a set amount of mana when using his technique, something Tesilim was not on board with.

  How did Tesilim plan to limit the amount of Chaos Mana? Well, it was relatively easy now that he had reached his current point of progress. Basically, Tesilim was going to prematurely cut off the technique, releasing a weaker version. It was an annoying and odd thing to do since there was no point in it, and the fact that mana was spent in one go made it harder, but it was possible. Mainly because, though willpower was useful in shaping the technique, what was even more important was its image. It was willpower, mana, and thoughts that combined to truly create a technique.

  Willpower gave it direction and purpose and was what ultimately activated it. Mana then empowered it further while bringing it into existence—however, knowledge and imagery of the technique that was being made truly imbued it with concepts. Sure, the infused words with willpower helped, but one had to truly know in their mind's eye what they wanted to happen.

  With that in mind, it meant someone could unleash a technique early by holding back the amount of mana imbued into the technique. This would still allow the technique to manifest as willpower and mental concepts of the individual, still molded the mana. It would just mean the technique was less powerful since, in the end, there was less mana to empower the entire construct.

  Was what Tesilim planned to do the best way to go about it? No, it probably wasn’t. Magic was rather open, and there were probably a few other ways he could accomplish his goal. That being said, he had arrived at his current point independently and wanted to see it through. Plus, he didn’t know how long it would take to figure out other methods, and he currently had two ladies waiting on him. Therefore, he would do it his way.

  Mentally preparing himself within the soul realm, Tesilim went over his actions once more. He would move to unleash his new technique, giving his Chaos Mana the go-ahead by activating Chaos Boost. This would automatically upgrade or unlock the ability further. Then, he needed to cut the connection to the technique as fast as possible. Everything was going to happen in milliseconds, and he needed to be ready.

  So, he took a few more unneeded deep breaths and focused.

  The whole thing started before Tesilim even spoke the words. It was the same intuition ability that reacted by predetermining that he was planning on using a technique. Instantly, his normal mana began to coalesce. Then he opened his mouth, feeling as his will was stirred to infuse the words he was looking to speak.

  “Cha-”

  Time slowed down, almost as if his need to focus manifested, and he could see and feel everything his avatar was doing. The experience was incredibly bizarre. He no longer looked at the soul realm through his avatar; instead, he was the soul realm, his soul, his will.

  And he watched as the mana began to take form, pushing forth to create the magical slash as he spoke each syllable.

  “Cha-ot-”

  Naturally, it was during this process that he felt the tug from Chaos Boost, letting him know it was primed and ready to go. So, Tesilim activated the ability, and immediately, the Chaos Mana began to power up his soon-to-be technique.

  Thankfully, due to the time dilation Tesilim could see as each single point of chaotic mana was used to further boost his power. He let the mana do what it did best, but the more time passed, and the closer Tesilim got to finishing his technique, the more mana wanted to rush into the ability. It went without saying that Tesilim couldn’t allow that to happen, and he quickly cut off the flow of normal mana, still finding himself unable to cut off the Chaos Mana, which wasn’t an issue since that’s what he had planned. However, knowing he was now on a timer, he willed himself to hurriedly finish the words he was in the process of saying, and time resumed.

  “Chaotic Slash,” Tesilim quickly finished, time returning to normal.

  Then, a second after finishing the words, a wave of ice energy blasted off into the void. The slash was stronger than his previous two, but not by much. However, that wasn’t important. His plan had worked, and since he had unleashed the technique much earlier than intended, not giving the Chaos Mana enough time to do its thing, it had been automatically cut off. Tesilim wasn’t sure what exactly was able to cut that connection, but he wasn’t complaining. Plus, more than likely, it was some sort of built safety feature. Either way, it didn’t matter because he had done it once, which meant he could do it again, and if it was replicable, it was no longer a constraint. Something reality decided to acknowledge, and he received a notification, no doubt telling him his ability had upgraded.

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