14 Chapter 14

"Oh, is it like this?" Max said as he used Reinforcement on a projection.

"Oh, you are a natural at this well done. The sword has been strengthened to its peak without surpassing the limit." Adrian praised upon taking a look.

"Oh I can also do this." Max said as the sword in his hand elongated. " But this makes them too brittle as even a hit can shatter them." He said as he projected another sword as he hit the other one.

The elongated sword shattered but it also cut through the other sword. "Well, I didn't expect you would be so good at this. What you did just now was Alteration. It is the intermediary step between Reinforcement and Projection. By imbuing an object with mana, you can give it a property or an effect that it didn't originally have. It is easy in theory but hard at application but it was easy as breathing for you." Adrian said doubtfully.

Both the Reinforcement and the Alteration came naturally at Max as if he was using those spells for all his life. 'Am I a genius at this?' He thought smugly. "I guess I am a genius. What can I say?" He said with his nose held up high.

"Shut it brat. Tell me that once you manage to make a single spell work properly." Adrian said with displeasure.

It was true. Except for Projection and now Reinforcement and Alteration, all the other spells he tried were subpar at best. It didn't mean that he couldn't cast them. He could, but it would take him five years to learn what others could do in a year.

He tried Restoration, Illusion, Incantation, Destruction, Thaumaturgy spells except for the three above, but he was not gifted in any of them. But he was not that discouraged about it. Because once he noticed that problem he instantly found the solution; 'If I can't cast fireball, I can Project a staff that can. If I can't cast cure wounds, I can Project a scepter that can.'

But discovering that he could use spells other than Projection made him happy obviously.

And the rest of the afternoon passed as Max tried different stuff with each projection. Some elongated, some thickened, some increased in width, some twisted and turned.

Until he could spend no more mana and fell asleep on his bed. He did this with only projection before. He would exhaust all his mana before sleeping as that would strengthen his mana circuits and reduce consumption of mana.

How much mana you were starting with was different for everyone. It was a lottery, of course there were some sorcerer families who always had higher mana than the others but you could increase your mana throughout your life. using magic over and over again would strengthen your magic circuits and in return, your mana would increase, the cost of the spells would be lower and the effects much better.

A newbie's fireball may be 10 degrees celsius, but for an expert it may even reach 500. (A/N: obviously not the actual degrees of temperature as they are only for comparison.)

That's why Max would use Projection over and over again in the year he started living here. His upper limit had more than tripled from continuous cast of spells. But of course he was cautious too as mana deficiency could easily lead to death. You couldn't just use mana mindlessly.

Of course there was an easier way to increase your mana, and that was to put your life in danger. Nobody knew exactly why the mana increased the closer you are to death but according to the words of a random person on the street; "It just works."

All in all, he could finally use more spells. It was something worthy of celebration but Max cared nothing about that as he was in dreamland.

——<>——

The next day, Max woke up refreshed. Wore his clothes and went down to get breakfast.

Just like a in normal day.

But the noises from the outside grabbed his attention.

"Is he in there?"

"Yeah. Wait for a bit. He usually goes out around this time."

"Why are they not letting us in though?"

"Would you take 700 people in your office?"

"Makes sense."

"Damn NPCs are so awesome here."

"Tell that to the ones who became experiments and are still locked up in jails."

Max peeked through the windows and saw a huge crowd of players that were talking right outside of Drunken Huntsman. 'What is going on? There weren't as many players here before.' Then he realized the reason. It was for his memory crystals.

The people who chose to spawn in different areas deleted their characters and created a new one just to experience what happened at the battle before the beta testing was over. 'That's perfect!' Max thought.

He immediately set the price of the Battle of Fort Dawnguard and went outside.

"He is here!"

"Shop! Shop window!"

Amidst their over excited reaction, Max was calm and collected as he saw the EXP he earned. It quickly passed five thousand mark as it continued to increase without slowing down.

And it was such that memory crystals were one use only. If you want to increase your chances of getting good equipment, you had to buy multiple.

It soon passed the ten thousand mark as Max felt like he was drifting on the clouds. 'Maybe I can buy that sword this week?' He was previously anxious that he wouldn't be able to gather as much EXP to buy Caladbolg III before the beta testing was over but now, he was relieved as his EXP passed twenty thousand and still continued to increase.

It slowed down but continued nevertheless. And when it finally reached 22 thousand did it stop. There were not many people who were left in his area as they were teleported into the instant dungeon.

Some were broke and went to farm EXP. But it was all good for Max. He even felt that he was starting to like the players. They were working so hard to bring him money.

"You have a good relationship with them." Leopold who came out somewhere in time was standing behind Max as he said.

Max turned around, "Well, I kinda understand what they are thinking." And shrugged.

"I see." He nodded. "There is work. Gear up." Then he turned around and went inside.

*Sigh 'After all this time, I still can't tell what he is thinking.' Max thought as he followed.

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