Magic missile enhancement initiative.

You could see Beyern doing some basic exercise, push-ups, weight-lifting, the like. Though he didn't have a physically focused class like how he'd wished before getting his current one, it would never harm him to have an athletic and healthy physique.

But, like he had planned, when his mana-pool had finally been fully compressed, and he felt a large strain in his heart which was fading at an extremely slow pace. He stopped exercising and started to scheme his next moves.

It had taken about two days to do this, so he still had a full day to experiment on... Something.

He wasn't entirely sure actually, he had only recently gained an understanding of how much mp his mana pool could contain.

A total of 221.53 mp, meaning that if he ever felt the need to change his mana measurement system again, he could use his mana pool as a standard for 100 mp.

Making every 2.2153 mp in his possesion be deemed as 1 mp, he wasn't doing that right now though. Merely a musing of a lost man.

But that lost man's mind started to drift in the right direction 'I want to pass the test, it could be used as an obscurance of my background if done correctly 'He's someone who passed the novice test with great fanfare.' They'd say, never caring to look into my past before said point.

Though I can't be certain this would work, nor can I be certain I'd even pass, I've only been an Ext for around two weeks now. So it'd be best to improve upon something in that vain, such as... A spell.

But I only have one spell, something that doesn't use any of the standard tricks, magic missile, the basics of the basics. So I'll use my precious time to inspect and research the most efficient compression level.'

With his new goal in his sights, he set off to the streets, and then the wilds where he often hunted beasts.

It was night, but he had an ingenius plot in his head, and took out some mana, allowing it's pale blue light to pierce the darkness.

Though it didn't shine that much, since it wasn't a light spell. But it did do the bare minimum, and that was enough for Beyern at this particular moment.

He anchored it to the floor, and allowed it to float in the air as a spell.

He nodded slightly and started to experiment, logging his results mentally.

First, he went with something simple and easy, 1 mp 1:8.3. He gathered it in his hand, it was a good bit shinier than the ball of mana he was currently using as a night light.

Not by that much, but you could tell the difference when put beside it. Beyern had just noticed this phenomena, since he had never cared before. It was pretty interesting.

He shot it at a close by tree after stretching it into a bolt, leaving a significant dent in all honesty. This was wood, like the thing trees are made of. If you compare a tree with a beyklir, which one is more resistant to a beating?

Obviously the tree, anyone who would ever say otherwise is either a fool or a liar. So it would do quite a bit of damage, though the impact left a bit to be desired compared to the full 10 mp magic missile, but that's understandable.

Now, it was just time to compare a non-compressed 1 mp bolt's effect.

if the compressed bolt's effects were straight up better, that meant that a 10 mp magic missile that was compressed would also be better. Meaning; Better odds for him in the test in the near future.

He choose another near by tree after the 13 minutes were up, and the 1 mp was gathered into a ball. He quickly stretched the ball with 8.3 times the volume of the previous ball by a bit, and and shot it forth just like he did with a magic missile.

Gathering mental power for a blast forwards, after manifesting it, which was used while turning it into a spell.

With a good thump of the tree, Beyern went to look at the effect of his non-compressed mini-missile. The result was dissapointing compared to the previous dent.

If Beyern didn't know that there had been a strike here, he'd think that it was a natural irregularity. You wouldn't even think it a dent, more of... Just bark.

Beyern was dissapointed, highly dissapointed.

He looked at his dent, and then at this slightly less outward area of bark 'Compression seems to be the way to go. Though I'm not certain that's because all the power is put in a smaller form, causing it to pierce. Or if it's the former along with compression causing it to have more power too.'

He didn't feel like stopping just yet, all he knew was that compression had a better effect than not doing so, but he wasn't sure if the improvement was a bell curve, an exponential curve, or just a deminishing-returns curve, instead of what some would think of as a normal mathmatical linear graph.

And yes, Beyern knew math, which was one of his main selling points if he were to ever go to some noble for a job.

Well, to test that, he took out another 1 mp, but this time compressed it at a 1:5 ratio instead. Which was compared with the previous two attempts, and what he saw was... Positive?

He wasn't really sure if it was positive, but it seemed that it's effect was linear. But who knew if at some point it suddenly became exponential for some random reason.

Beyern didn't, but he still wasn't totally sure, so he went with a few more tests. Though it was difficult to properly measure the power or effect of one of his mini-missiles, it was pretty obvious that more condensed missiles were basically better.

So that meant if he wanted to get a better magic missile in his hands, he had to condense it, or throw more mana at the problem. He, the ever frugal Beyern, favoured the former.

So... It was time to break {Mana-packing} out of the jail of stars.

Though it would never be as easy as going; 'You are now free, that I decree!' With the extreme ease at which {Mana-manipulation} did the same, he was pretty sure it wouldn't halt his advance for too long, though he could never be sure.

So he would basically be do what he was doing with his mana pool right now, but even more, and doing his best to condense it even more too.

But that wasn't applicable to his current short term of around a day, what he needed was something that could make his magic missile, a 'Magic missile+'.

The name was a work in progress, he'd be sure to change it when he had a moment of calm where he needed to do nothing.

But what could he do in the short term? This was a question asked with an extremely easy answer infront of him; Up {Arcane manifestation} to 1-star.

'It's quite obvious that this'd have a positive effect in some way, though I have no clue how. Even then, it'd be nice to improve a few masteries.' He thought.

But it'd be a waste if he just trained {Arcane manifestation}, since it was basically stuck to {Spell-craft} while also having a giant opening for {Mana-shaping} to play it's part.

So he took out some more mana, 5 mp of the stuff, and started to form it into something a bit more... Violent in nature after putting it into a 1:8.3 condensation.

He shaped the mana, not into a stretched out ball, but into a proper bolt. It's ends were proper points, the middile was only slightly thicker than the ends too.

He manifested it, then de-manifested it- Or at least tried to, it was a valiant effort, but he failed miserably, and went to manifesting it even more. Just trying to layer those manifestations atop eachother.

That failed too.

So he just shot it, and examined the result again 'Good, good, if I shot a beyklir with this, it'd probably die if I hit the head.' It left a piercing hole in the wood layer beneath the wooden skin before it.

Bark layed across the ground in tatters, and Beyern smiled proudly at properly scarring a tree. He fantasized about what 10 mp could do for a moment, before continuing with what he was doing.

So, another another 1 mp ball in his area, and this time, he put out all the stops, well one of them. He wasn't going into the mental space for this one.

And it was; The tide. He hadn't use this for a few days now, and it was time to return to his origin, and respect his anscestors.

He first brought the mana to his normal limit, with a 1:8.3 condensation. Then, with a deep breath, his mental power receded, casting away all secular ties.

It bided it's time- And Beyern broke free from the mental space instantly after accidentally falling in while gathering his mental power inside of it, he was so glad he was somehow able to get out so easily every time.

But back to the tide, it was growing in power over time, about 50 percent of his spirit being free to be used to gather mental power.

And with a flood of mental energy basically suffocating the mana after 10 minutes of gathering, it had gone from 1:8.3, to 1:8.7.

But this mana wasn't stable, shuddering as it was about to decondense due to a lack of sufficient mental energy to coax it into staying happy in it's compressed state.

But he, Beyern, had thrown his hat into the ring, stopping this natural process by first manifesting it and then turning it into a spell in rapid succession.

After which, he had no clue what to do with his newly created spell, like totally no clue.

He didn't know how to make it fly at the regular speed of a magic missile, since it was way more annoying to propell a spell, than intertwine the propellant into the spell.

His eyes looked at the very small ball of slightly flouresent mana, and then at the vaguely light-blue ball of mana that was currently his source of light, and then back at the miniscule light-blue ball.

He forced it to move along with all his might, transporting it by around 1 meter in 5 minutes, and then put it above the less bright ball.

Light; Upgraded!

Beyern quickly looked if there were any notifications, there were none, so he continued to upgrade his light with tides.

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Hi, author here, so going to be push it down to once per 4 days now.