15 Barrier

With the influx of points, Jim now had over 100,000, he decided to purchase two skills.

[Detection]

[Spreads Senses Across A Large Radius]

[10 Levels Available]

[Price - 100,000]

[Barrier Magic]

[Allows Usage Of Special Magic]

[Price - 5,000]

Perhaps due to the drive to protect himself or the training in defenses recently, one of the Magic Aptitude listings in the Skill Category had greatly reduced in price, he was now almost broke, though.

[Congratulations Host For Obtaining A New Magic Attribute, Complementary Spell Insect Repel Barrier Obtained]

[Congratulations Host, Spells Function Unlocked, Complementary Spell Flame Obtained]

A sudden wave of knowledge flooded his mind, he knew the relevant chants, movements, and formations of the new spells. Excited, he went out to the back yard, Jane was out and the gate ensured no one would see what he was doing. he began casting Flame.

"Powers of nature, hear my call, gather here and make my will manifest-"

The chant took over three minutes to complete and required a strict series of hand movements while drawing a complex pattern within his mind. 'How could people possibly do this without Parallel Processing?'. Finally, the procedure finished, a tiny ember appeared in front of his right hand and shot forward, it traveled at a snail's pace and slightly brushed a blade of grass backwards before dispersing. "..." Looking closer, the grass was completely unharmed.

[Spellcasting Skill Obtained]

[Verbal Casting Skill Obtained]

[Somatic Casting Skill Obtained]

[Magic Circle Skill Obtained]

[Magic Mastery Skill Obtained]

[Fire Magic Skill Obtained]

[Mana Control Skill Obtained]

[Mana Efficiency Skill Obtained]

[Mana Battery Skill Obtained]

It was hard to be disappointed after gaining so many skills suddenly, but the casting time of that spell was really too long, someone could saunter over and smack him on the head before it was halfway done. That's without mentioning the extremely lackluster firepower, could this even kill an ant?

'Might as well try out Detection', activating the new skill, his brain almost overloaded with information, a terrible headache showed up, but he could smell, hear, and touch everything around him in a 5 meter radius even with his eyes closed. It reminded him of Distant Reading but without the learning component, it was effective on everything around him though, which was just what he wanted, to see anything and everything coming, no gaps in his perception.

[Detection Level Up]

[Detection Has Reached Level 2]

[Heightened Senses Skill Obtained]

[Mental Endurance Skill Obtained]

[Mental Acuity Skill Obtained]

The headache grew far worse, Jim couldn't tell how far Detection spread now due to the massive amount of information, he felt like he was skull was going to explode and was at risk of passing out. Detection was deactivated, and he took a minute to catch his breath, sweat drops were running down his face, the pain and pressure in his head started to subside. 'Ugh, can that even be used?' Jim pondered over the three new skills that were just obtained.

Using Heightened Senses, Sense Control, and Parallel Processing at the same time, he increased his smelling slowly, a little bit at a time, the fresh grass, dirt, moisture in the air, bark on nearby trees, he could feel them all. Suddenly a stench overpowered him, fresh animal droppings were in the yard next door, he quickly cut off the skills. "Ugh..."

[Stench Resistance Skill Obtained]

'Okay, hearing then', Jim activated the same skills but focused on using his ears, the rustling of leaves, insects crawling on the ground, his own heartbeat, it was refreshing hearing all of this. extending his senses further out he started feeling like an all-powerful god. A neighbor turned on their stereo and cranked up the volume, the sudden assault on his senses made Jim recoil and deactivate the skills.

[Sonic Resistance Skill Obtained]

[Heightened Senses Level Up]

[Heightened Senses Has Reached Level 2]

[Mental Endurance Level Up]

[Mental Endurance Skill Has Reached Level 2]

Jim had a feeling that Mental Endurance was going to come in handy eventually, he headed back inside to take a nap and get rid of the headache. 'Oh?" Nearly stubbing his toe on the corner of a door, he suddenly caught himself, the Jim of before wouldn't have noticed something wrong and just slammed into it. Although he no longer needed to fear such tiny wounds, knowing his senses had improved by this much put a skip in his step.

Reaching his room, he decided to use his barrier spell before nodding off, it took a full seven minutes to cast and was considerably more complex than Flame. The entire bedroom was covered, but he felt extremely drained, the mana cost clearly far higher.

[Barrier Magic Level Up]

[Barrier Magic Has Reached Level 2]

[Spellcasting Level Up]

[Spellcasting Has Reached Level 2]

[Verbal Casting Level Up]

[Verbal Casting Has Reached Level 2]

[Somatic Casting Level Up]

[Somatic Casting Has Reached Level 2]

[Magic Circle Level Up]

[Magic Circle Has Reached Level 2]

Jim drifted off to sleep, he had a lot of things to do when waking up.