Chapter 69   - Difficult Choices

No, there were no shortcuts. To replenish his reserves, Kai had to absorb the motes of elemental mana one by one.

He expelled about a tenth of his neutral mana to make room for attuned motes. Then he began patiently gathering Nature mana which was the most abundant in the garden. If he kept it close to his body, it would naturally get absorbed after a while. To speed up the process he could—using Dora’s words—‘impose his will’ on the mana.

How the heck do I do that?

“You need clear and focused intentions. Imagine exactly what you want to happen and will it into reality. Believe it is the only possible outcome.” Dora explained again.

All his senses and thoughts were focused on the task. He gritted his teeth staring intensely at the minuscule green particle in his hand. Pinning his will against it.

“You don’t need to tense your muscles. It’s about your mind and will, not your body.”

He knew Dora was only trying to help, but the frustration of the task, mixed with her vague instructions, was starting to make him moody.

The Nature mote finally joined his internal mana. It had taken around 30 seconds, several times faster than waiting for his body to absorb it passively. The problem was he was only working on a single mote at a time. At this rate, it would take a lifetime to replenish his reserves.

He had used hundreds of mana specks to make the seed grow. It was far easier to gather as many as he could control and keep them close to his skin, but Dora insisted this method was better in the long run.

“Good try. You’re improving.”

That was the same time as the last three. Maybe a bit worse.

“Relax your body, you only need your mind.” Dora continued with a pleasant voice.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves and use Meditation, Kai pushed the exasperation out of his mind.

With a quick scan of Mana Sense, he found a green mote twirling in the grass at his side. When his hand moved to intercept it, its carefree and vibrant dance came to a standstill, struggling against his will. It was only a question of time before he won, but it took too long.

This isn’t working.

Kai relaxed his grip, letting the Nature mana move freely within an inch of his skin.

Come on, we can be free together.

He imagined the tiny green mote joining the mana flow of his veins, happily swirling inside his body. Its movements turned hesitant.

Be free with me.

With a fluid motion, the mote flew into his skin. A grin spread on his face. “How long did it take?”

“Just 20 seconds. It seems you found your method.”

Now that I know what to do, I can probably cut it down to 15 seconds.

“Why didn’t you tell me there was an easier method?” Kai glanced at Dora. Finding out for himself was satisfying, but he would have liked a warning that there was a better approach.

“There is no best way to go at it. Just methods that suit you and methods that don’t.”

Dora waved her hand through the air summoning a swarm of Nature mana, it danced around her hand before taking a sharp turn and joining her mana veins.

“I didn’t want to confuse you. I planned to bring it out in a few lessons if your progress stalled. Imposing your will on mana is considered the easiest method. It’s simple and straightforward and, more importantly, it works with all elemental types of mana. To get better at it, you only need to refine your will.”

Gathering another flock of Nature mana, Dora made it dance between her fingers before it started flowing into her mana veins with joyful twirls.

“Persuading mana to join you is an advanced technique. You need to understand what the mana wants and offer it in a convincing manner. To improve, strength isn’t enough, you need a different understanding for each element.

“Both are viable options. You need to find which suits you best and keep in mind the method you choose doesn’t need to be the same for each element.”

Kai looked fascinated at her demonstration. He wanted to ask how long it was going to take to learn that, but he stopped himself.

As long as there is a way, I’ll get there. No matter how long it takes.

“Come on, we still have an hour before lunch. Enough time for one more spell.”

A few rays of sunlight seeped through the shade of the trees as they got to work. While he learned how to refine his technique, Dora gathered a horde of Nature Mana around him to help him.

“Don’t get distracted, just focus on your task.”

With her help, he easily converted enough mana for another Nature spell. Dora led him to a wilting silver hibiscus. The plant had seen better days: its red flowers with silver pistils sadly flopped downwards, while the leaves had a sickly green color.

Following his teacher’s instructions, Kai prepared to cast his mana. He could just chuck his Nature mana inside the plant, it would work but it wasn’t very efficient. The clearer and more targeted his intentions were, the more effective his spell would be. Scanning the plant, he discovered some critters must have feasted on many of its roots.

He needed to speed up the plant's healing process and help it absorb more nutrients to make up for what it lost. Gathering his mana in his hand, Kai focused on what he wanted his spell to do and let go of its mana.

The vibrant green mana left his hand and spread through the plants, particularly around its roots. In a few seconds, its flowers gained new life, while the leaves became a healthy green color. It reminded Kai of one of those hours-long footages sped up to a few minutes. By the end of it, the hibiscus looked much better.

He turned to Dora, who was carefully examining the plant with a critical eye. “There is still room for improvement, the roots could have used more care, but it’s a good first try. You did well.”

Kai smiled at the compliment.

They took a small break for lunch before resuming their lesson. He noticed a marked improvement in his Nature and Water magic as he understood how to properly imprint his intention on the spell. Earth was going slower, but it wasn’t far behind.

At dinner time, Dora went back to the kitchen, giving him a small breather. A notification began pinging in the corner of his vision hours ago. With some trepidation, Kai gave the go-ahead.

Time to get my grades.

A slew of notifications flashed in his vision.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Nature Magic (lv1) – Mold the ever-growing Nature mana to your desires and tune yourself with the silent thriving world.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Water Magic (lv1) – Mold the ever-flowing Water mana to your desires and tune yourself with the fluid water.

*Ding*

New skill added to the Archive! Earth Magic (lv1) – Mold the ever-steady Earth mana to your desires and tune yourself with the land.

I can’t believe I got all three.

Kai was basking in his own success when a terrible realization hit him.

I’m never going to have enough skill slots for all of them. And I still have to gain Space and Shadow skills…

He immediately knew some not-very-pleasant choices awaited him. Steeling his resolve, he summoned his status.

Skills:

Running (lv89>93)

Swimming (lv89>93)

Meditation (lv72>75 – Max)

Herbology (lv70>74)

Awareness (lv68>71)

Acting (lv55>56)

Processing – Plants (lv49>54)

Swordsmanship (lv36>45)

Mana Sense (lv49>54)

Mana Manipulation (lv22>27)

Inspect (lv17>20)

Alchemy (lv16>19)

Empower (lv11>16)

Runes (lv3>7)

It had been almost two months since the ritual, and he had not slacked off a single day. He admired the results of his effort with great satisfaction. Both Mana Sense and Manipulation were his highest skills, but they still grew considerably. Two years ago, he only had one orange skill, now he had six soon-to-be more.

He had come a long way. Speaking of which, he had been waiting to specialize Meditation to get a better option. After today’s lesson, he was confident he had it.

Meditation (lv75) ➔

As you reach the second milestone, you are presented with three choices to continue your journey:

Stay the course on your current path. You won’t gain new significant benefits, but you’ll deepen the insight into your path.

Determined to have a serene and calm mind, follow a path to give you better control of your disruptive emotions.

Having touched the mysteries of the Essence of the World, delve deeper. Attune yourself to elemental mana types surrounding you.

Yessss!

Without hesitation, Kai selected the last option.

*Ding*

You chose to harmonize with the elements, Meditation (lv75) can now reach lv100.

Unfortunately, this was where the good news ended. He couldn’t avoid the problem forever.

Discarding any of his orange skills was not even worth considering. Each one of them offered unique benefits he couldn’t do without.

His gaze moved to his red skills. His heart ached, but he had to make a decision. Mana Manipulation helped with elemental magic too, but it was only marginal compared to having a specialized skill. Dora had told him of the possibility to evolve Mana Manipulation to help with elemental mana, but that was far off in the future and it wouldn’t be as good.

No point commiserating. I need to think logically.

He excluded Meditation, Acting and Swordsmanship. Those were as important as his orange skills. Swimming and Running were getting closer to lv100, but they weren’t there yet. He could almost see the finish line and was committed to reaching it.

There weren’t many choices left.

Herbology, Awareness and Processing – Plants…

Even if he counted two skill slots with Swimming and Running, he needed at least one more.

Spirits help me, I hate this.

The first skill on the list was Herbology.

Do I need it? Heck yeah. No shot I can remember everything without it.

If he ditched Herbology, his Alchemy would also be crippled. It wasn’t a choice he was willing to consider. Potions were his main source of income that wasn’t likely to change for the near future. To not even talk about how it would upset Dora—who was also his magic teacher.

Next up on the gallows was Awareness. It wasn’t his favorite skill by far, a lot of bad memories were linked to it. However, it also saved his life a couple times or at least avoided a beating. He wasn’t going to always stay at the estate and having a sixth sense to warn him when he attracted the wrong type of attention was invaluable. Maybe he would not keep it forever, but it wasn’t too far off from lv100.

This left only one option. Kai sighed. Gathering his courage, he marched to the kitchen. He should at least warn Dora before going through with it.

He could hear her humming and a delicious smell wafting from inside. Kai stopped at the threshold and knocked on the kitchen door. More to bar any way out than to alert the alchemist to his presence.

Too late to back out now.

“What is it, Kai? There are still a few minutes before dinner is ready.” Dora looked over her shoulder with an interrogative expression.

“Ehm… I got offered the elemental magic skills and decided to discard Processing – Plants.” He said all in one breath, staring at the woman to see her reaction.

“Okay, go ahead. Just be careful of the side effects.” She continued to cook.

Kai remained standing awkwardly by the door. “Is it really okay?”

Putting down a wooden spoon, Dora turned towards him. “Kai.” She sat down at the table and gestured for him to do the same.

Almost tripping on his feet, Kai grabbed a chair. His fingers began tapping on the wood nervously.

“Every teacher would like to see their pupil follow in their footsteps, but it’s your life.” She softened her tone. “I’m sorry if I made you feel pressured. It wasn’t my intention. You should choose whatever makes you happy. If you want to stop learning alchemy, you just need to tell me, and we’ll focus on your interests.”

Kai felt his eyes itch a little. “Okay…” He muttered in a tiny voice.

Damn, idiot. Is that all you can say?

“…but I still want to do alchemy.” He hurried to add.

Dora smiled, there was no need to say anything else. “Come on, it’s better if you get it over before dinner. Trust me, you don’t want to abandon a skill with a full stomach.”

Kai nodded weakly.

*Ding*

Do you wish to discard Processing – Plants (lv54)? Be aware this choice is irreversible.

It was the highest-level skill he ever abandoned.

Yes.

Vertigo hit him immediately. His face fell flat upon the polished wood of the table. He would have fallen over if Dora hadn’t helped him in his seat.

“Don’t worry, it’s going to pass soon.” She patted him on the back.

Kai didn’t have the strength to put a thought together, much less answer her. After a few seconds, it gradually got better. A feeling of dizziness remained, but he was slowly regaining control of his limbs.

He thought the worst was over when a wave of nausea made him retch. He quickly staggered out of the kitchen.

“Are you fine? Do you need help?” Dora asked worried.

“I’m—,“ A new retch interrupted him. “Fine!”

As soon as he stepped on the grass outside, he fell kneeling on the ground. Thank the spirits his last meal had been several hours ago. That was the only reason he didn’t vomit, but he could feel the acrid taste of stomach acid in his mouth.

He laid on the ground for several minutes.

And it wasn’t even an orange skill…

“Dinner is ready!” Dora’s voice called from inside.

Leaning against the wall of the house, Kai recomposed himself as best he could, dusting off his clothes and passing a hand through his short hair. His balance was messed up and the idea of eating anything made him retch again.

“I’m coming.”

With the most dignified appearance he could manage, he went back to the kitchen trying to walk straight. As soon as he stepped inside, Dora offered him a glass filled with a cold transparent green liquid.

“Here, take this. It will help.”

Kai eyed it suspiciously. The briefest glance with Mana Sense, and the lemony smell, confirmed it was not a potion. It easily went down his throat, getting rid of the terrible taste in his mouth and helping his belly settle down.

Dora put a plate of boiled vegetables and plain rice in front of him. “Better to keep it light.”

He wasn’t even upset, the worst symptoms were gone, but a sense of wrongness still pervaded him. A piece of himself was missing and there was no getting used to that.

One bite at a time, Kai swallowed everything. “Will it be a problem to practice Alchemy, now that I don’t have Processing – Plants anymore?” He still felt a bit guilty, no matter what Dora said.

“Don’t worry. The Alchemy skill mainly focuses on the brewing process, but it also contains bits of everything else that goes through creating a successful concoction. Preparing the ingredients will be harder and your hands won’t be as dextrous, but your muscle memory isn’t gone. You’ll need to practice more, especially with new ingredients and techniques.”

A weight was lifted from his mind. There was one more choice to make.

“Which element should I choose?”

Dora smiled. “The one that you like more.”

Kai groaned.