Reconstruction

"Ugh... I'm stuck! Improving the magic tattoo is way harder than I expected, it keeps disappearing if the tattoo is destroyed after the first activation." Char lamented as he looked at the blueprints he made.

"At least I get a deeper understanding of the magic tattoo's limitations now, the number of runes I put in them can't exceed the limit of runes of its tier, just like the innate magic circle."

The body and soul were on the same tier, that's why the burden they could take was the same.

He also learned something from making tattoos for others, the number of tattoos was also limited to the same number of magic circles they could have in their body, but the undead were exceptions, they are not alive so their body would not die from exceeding the number limit.

"This limits how much I can get from one person, they will only buy two magic tattoos. Well, I already get enough to last for a while," he thought as he already got 20 mana crystals from selling the tattoo before the demand lessened.

"My ability to combine runes also improved after all of this research, I should be able to improve the skeleton's magic now," he thought as he sent his senses into the soul container.

The three magic circles were spinning in front of his imaginary body, the regeneration magic circle, the physical boost magic circle, and the mana absorption magic circle.

Char focused on the first magic circle, the regeneration magic circle, it had both regeneration rune and healing rune. After all of his studies, he realized that both runes were overlapping with each other.

He could replace one of them with another rune to give another aspect. It will reduce the healing speed, but with the troll bones it had absorbed, Char could afford to decrease the healing speed.

"The skeleton's sword technique is good, but it has been limited by its slow movement and its lack of musculature, if this works then its movement should improve," he thought as he replaced the healing rune with a manipulation rune.

"With this, its name should be bone and flesh reconstruction instead of regeneration now. If my theory is correct, then the skeleton should be able to modify its body, in addition, to move faster," he thought.

Char summoned the skeleton once he finished modifying the magic circle. It appeared without any problem.

He commanded the skeleton to use the magic, rather than waiting for itself to get damaged, it could activate the magic without suffering any damage.

The bones started to pulse and more bone matter grew from its body. In a matter of seconds, the skeleton's body turned into a grotesque collection of bones.

Seeing the mess it had made, Char command it to suicide while absorbing mana to increase its level back to ten.

The explosion was even bigger as there were more bones to explode; it gave him an idea of the magic's utilization.

"It's great that its trump card's power increased but if it can't control the magic properly, then it will be a hindrance rather than a boon," he thought as he didn't want a skeleton that can only explode on the enemy.

After a dozen of trials, it could finally control the magic. Sharp thorns appeared on the skeleton's body as it controlled the bone reconstruction.

"You try to manipulate it as you please, try to find the perfect form so you can move better," Char told the skeleton.

It did not move, but after a while, he found changes on the skeleton. Its body shrunk and the bones seemed to be interconnected with each other with a thin membrane made of bones.

"It tries to imitate muscle? Will that work?" he wondered.

He told the skeleton to do some sword moves, and it turned out better than he had expected; it moved faster and way more flexible than before.

For a second he wanted to test it out by sparring, but he decided against it, "I'm not a masochist. Before this, I could barely win, now that it can move better, it will surely beat me senseless."

"With this magic, I should be able to stimulate my muscle growth too. I won't lose against the other if I can do that," he thought.

The others' body could improve while their creature improves as the mana simulates their body, but Char's skeleton improves his bone rather than his whole body. In the long run, he would be physically weaker than others.

With the magic he could just stimulate his body to get stronger, "The problem is control, since the skeleton doesn't have muscle, I can't depend on it for increasing my proficiency with the magic," he thought.

Char cut his hand with his black sword and blood started to flow from the wound, he concentrated on it and focused on regenerating it.

He did not try to manipulate the healing process but observe it; he had seen how the skeleton became after it failed to control the magic properly, he could not just respawn like the skeleton so he studied the magic cautiously.

Seeing that he would need a long time to master the magic, he went back to improving the other magics.

He did not touch the mana absorption magic, as it was a fluke that he got the magic right and he could not risk modifying it just yet.

Char improved the physical boost, it did not change the ability much, he just made it so he could control the output easily rather than going for full power or half powered.

"Surviving in the hunting ground is not easy, if I run out of mana in the middle of a battle or an enemy suddenly ambushes while I'm out of mana then it will be a disaster."

"the most ideal situation is for me to never run out of mana, I need to manage my mana consumption," he thought.

He left the skeleton outside to train its bone reconstruction magic, "if its ability to use the magic on bones improves, then it should help with my application on the muscle even only to a lesser degree," he thought.