Ethereal clay

Beyern smiled brightly, as the sun came up and the new day had begun, lighting his palm palm with orange and red light.

His left arm was pushed out infront of him, his open hand beholding a small, ball/snake-like form of mana, spinning in a small ring pattern at consistant speed.

===

Congratulations, Beyern, due to your stead-fast determination to improve yourself, pushing the boundries of what you can do, 'Mana-manipulation' has gained 3-star mastery.

===

By not sleeping for the night, he had reached 3-star mastery. To get to 2-star he flowed the first ring between index fingers with a distance of about 10 cm between them.

Beyern knew that he was doing this way to fast compared to others, and he was proud of it, but it still wasn't enough, you can always do better.

But the more important thing is his mental power, if he originally had 100 points of SP (Spirit points), now he had 100.1 SP. That's an increase in .1%! That's insane!

How did he know this? Dernell Simmons had bragged about how he increased his mental reserves by 1% in a single year once. He had done that in 1/10th of that in a single night.

If he found that impressive, that meant that he was monsterous! -Or it was just slightly impressive, and he was just quite impressive and talented. You could never know.

'Now, what else can I do?' Beyern said, somehow feeling excited at the thought of pushing his mind and ability to it's limit once more, though a thought hit him before he could come up with another game plan '-{Mana shaping}! The whole reason I wanted to get 3-stars at first, shit, I'm so stupid.'

Beyern spurned himself mentally for a few moments, before yawning and doing the most obvious thing to get, break the 1st ring, push it to a place in his ball, and then stop the front of the snaking line of mana.

Allowing more and more mana to follow behind, the point where the head stopped being the center of a ball made of light-blue mana.

But that wasn't enough, it was too easy. He had to form it into a cube at least 3 times, returning it back into it's round form inbetween.

He took a moment to pause, and prepare, then as much mental energy as he could muster was focused onto said ball of mana, which you could see shrinking slightly, four eight cubic corners poking out of the ball, coming out over a bit of time.

Though, they never truly formed a square, as after about 15~ seconds of channeling his mind, Beyern could no longer hold strong. If we remember the SP talked about moments before, he'd used up about 8-ish points of it in that.

Though it may not look like much, that usually took half an hour to regenerate. He felt something, something instinctual, that if he just had put it all in one burst, it would've worked.

But how could he do so?

'Might as well learn from nature; 'When the waters at shore are receding, they are preparing a tide'.' Though he had never seen the ocean, old man Simmons had.

After a few minutes of rest, his having spirit rested, he got back to it.

'Now, all I need to do is recede my mental power, and then use all of it in a single burst.' He thought to himself, hyping up his mind, and priming it for the unique action it had never done before.

He reeled all his mental energy, gathering it with each passing moment, his face scrunching up subconciously.

Then, he took all the mental energy built up in the last 5-ish seconds, and blasted it all towards the ball of mana, forcing it into his desired form, one designed by his anima, a small, relaxed, smile appearing on his previously scrunched face.

He was satisfied for a moment, looking at the cube of mana he was maintaining, it was taking more mental energy to maintain than both a ring and ball.

Then he repeated the process after a small pause, building up mental power and bursting it forth in a single moment.

And finally he repeated the process two more times;

===

Congatulations, Beyern, due to your innovative mind, you have surpassed the limits put apon you, and have shaped mana, and have gained the mastery 'Mana shaping'

===

Beyern's smile exagerated as he turned the ball in his possesion back into a snaking line of the same thickness as before, which snaked towards it's old orbit before snapping back into it's old path.

Feeling his mental energy, he had used around 20~ points to do that, while last time he had wasted 8 to fail in making a cube, this time he had done it 3 times, reverting it too, and that cost 20.

Now if you divide 20 by 8 you get a number; '2.5'. Now remember, he had done it basically six times. Now; For the price of 2.5, he had gotten 6 in value!

Those were some impressive savings!

Now, seeing on his status a 0-star mastery was, for some reason, grating at his pride '...I can ignore training {Mana-manipulation} for now, {Mana shaping} is a sub-catagory of it anyways, it'll grow while I'm working on it.'

He could see it, a basic way to once again gain even more mastery!

He broke off the line of mana orbiting, so long that it lapped it's own end, becoming a ring, and flowed it out of his outstretched hand into the air above it.

Once again, it became a ball, just like the time before, about 2 cm in diameter. He made it draw a circle in the air, quickly get a feel for how much control he now had.

It had increased once more, as one would expect, the required mental energy lesser than before. There being mental energy he could still wield, he started to shore up his supply with said mental energy, preparing for a wave.

Pushing all his mental energy towards the ball spinning in a circular pattern, in less than half a second, morphing into a square, still following the track set by it's predecessor.

Though it was strange, the cube did not rotate in any way, neither vertically nor horizontally.

Beyern disliked that effect, presentation mattered a lot while proving you were a normal mage class. And yes, he was planning on acting like he was a a normal mage instead of a necromancer.

It's a simple idea; To use normal magic to act like you're a base 'Mage'. But that's not the point right now, the point was;

===

Congratulations, Beyern, due to your practice of shaping mana outside your body without any signs of failure with your talent, and even moving the magical construct in the meanwhile, 'Mana shaping' has gained 2-star mastery.

===

'Good, good,' He thought with a slight smile 'Going faster and faster, like a Scarlet Regalia Tiger with a mission.'

But even then, he wasn't satisfied, life goes on, only the future matters, no time to rest on his laurels. He would consider the theatrics of magic at a later date, it was better to get some more stars on his mastery.

Instead of pulling back the block of mana, feeling the slight increase in the ease of holding the form- and the molding of mana.

He wanted {Mana shaping} to get to 3-star first before doing anything else, after which he wanted to get {Mana-manipulation} to 5-star, then he'd try necromancy to get {Spell-craft}.

He pushed the square back into it's original ball form, and then thought of a more difficult shape to form 'A cylinder could work.'

He pulled his mental energy back once more, him getting used to the process, allowing him to build up for a bit longer. And, like a torrent, his mental energy besieged the ball, pressing it into a cylindrical form.

'That was easier than I thought,' Beyern stated, he didn't even need to use about 35% of the mental energy he had imput, which he quickly pulled back into his mind 'Maybe two at the same time?'

He forced the mana back into a ball, then split into two halves, still above his palm. After which he forced the two with 7 seconds of build up, to make one a cube, and the other of the two a cylinder.

You could see sweat dripping off his forehead as he furrowed his brows, it was difficult to properly split his mental energy and give both blobs of mana the same amount.

Though, for but a moment, he had that maddening look once more, a large amount of mental power being ordered with no consideration for the limit his spirit should've been bound too.

But that quickly seased, as for a few moments, the two balls had stabilized. Though he couldn't maintain if for more than those few moments, and he used all the mental energy left to return them to their primordial form, that of a ball.

Having done this countless times so far, the two balls smashed into eachother and fused into a singular one, and then turned back into the line of mana that was brought back towards his heart, forming back into the ring.

He sat up, a burned-out campfire and now quite dry cadaver close-by. Choosing to slowly stretch, as the goals he had set, had been met.

===

Congratulations, Beyern, due to your talent, your adaption to the manipulation of mana and your ability to properly manipulate two masses of mana at the same time, 'Mana-manipulation' has gained 4-star mastery.

===

Congratulations, Beyern, due to your staunch will, determination to improve and ability to mold two masses of mana at the same time, 'Mana shaping' has surpassed 3-star, and has reached 4-star mastery!

===

The fact that {Mana shaping} skipped 3-star was supprising, but a positive suprise, meaning that if he went beyond the limit of a star he would just skip it? because if that was the case, then he'd make sure to remember that.

But that was for later, right now he would get {Spell-craft}, and then return to the village. There he would get some supplies, and go to the nearby city of Becallu to register in the mage union branch there.

Beyern decided to accept 4-star {Mana-manipulation} for the necromancy attempt.

[--Author note (Yay!)--]

Next chapter is necromancy attempt, then to civilization. Just had to get some of the basic rules in place, and really get a feel for the mc, if he doesn't work in a vacume, then he deserves to go in the garbage.