[Status]
I reviewed my progress. The data was satisfying, a quantifiable map of my journey from victim to initiate.
[Name: Roy White]
[Age: 10]
[Potential: C]
[Rank: F-]
...(Other attributes unchanged)...
The Skills section had grown. I'd mentally categorized them for clarity:
Passive Skills (Always On):
· Enhanced Recovery (F): +15% to natural healing. An improvement over the base skill, created by forcing mana to accelerate the body's own processes.
· Mana Enhancement (G): +5% to mana potency. A foundational skill for any mage, finally unlocked.
· Swordsmanship (F): The bedrock of my blade work.
Active Skills (Require Activation):
· Mana Control (E): My most advanced skill, the key to everything.
· Enhance Physical and Body Enhancement (F): My signature fusion skill. A 20% boost at F-rank was monstrous.
· Enhanced Speed Enhancement (G): 15% boost. Solid.
· Weapon Enhancement (G): Standard.
· Mana Eyes (F): My greatest sensory treasure.
The list was the proof of my theory. I hadn't just learned; I had innovated. I'd taken the common toolkit of this world and refined it, fused it, pushed it beyond its intended limits.
But the ceiling loomed. Potential: C.
My experimental phase for basic mana manipulation was complete. I'd created or enhanced every fundamental skill I could conceive of from the novel's hints. The next tier—the Sixth Sense (Instinct)—required real danger, not safe experimentation. The Seventh Sense (Mana Sense) was locked behind the D-rank wall, a wall my C-rank Potential said I might never scale.
My unique Plant Creation (G) skill remained a mystery. Experiments on normal crops yielded nothing. It needed a magical catalyst—a mana-infused seed or sprout. Those were sold at exorbitant prices in adventurer shops or found in the very dungeons I was too weak to enter. Another goal for E-rank.
So, the path forward was clear, if grueling: Grind.
My new schedule took shape:
· Morning (4 hours): Imperial Swordsmanship. Drill the D-rank art until my F-rank proficiency rose.
· Afternoon (3 hours): Kendo. Study the principles from my old world. Find the kernel that could be merged with this world's techniques to create something uniquely mine.
· Evening (3 hours): Magic Refinement. No more creation. Deepen my control, expand my pool, and grind my existing skills up the ranks.
The immediate milestone was winning my bet with Sir Kane—mastering the Imperial Swordsmanship's physical forms within the year to earn the right to learn his personal style.
But my mind kept circling back to the D-rank barrier. To understand how to break it, I needed to understand what it was.
It all came down to the fundamental energy systems: Mana vs. Aura.
Mana was external energy, drawn from the world, shaped by the mind and soul. A Mage's path was one of integration and command. To reach D-rank, a mage had to compress and cycle their mana to form a stable, self-sustaining Mana Heart—a core of pure energy around their physical heart. This core then generated a passive Mana Sense, allowing perception of energy flows.
Aura was internal energy, born from the body's vitality, refined by will and combat. A Warrior's path was one of refinement and emission. Their D-rank breakthrough involved forging a Dantian—an energy center in the lower abdomen—that purified life force into potent aura, which could then be emitted and shaped. This granted Aura Sense.
Two paths. One sought to bring the world's power within. The other sought to project the self's power outwards.
I was nominally on the Mage's path. But I was also strengthening my body like a warrior. I was using mana to reinforce my physique. I was a hybrid by necessity, stuck between two paradigms.
And what if that's not a weakness, but an opportunity? The thought was dangerous, heretical. The class system existed for a reason. Trying to walk both paths usually led to mastering neither.
But I had already fused skills that shouldn't be fused. I saw mana in ways others couldn't. I had the knowledge of a world that treated these concepts as game mechanics.
What if the way to break my C-rank Potential wasn't to find a rare herb or divine artifact, but to break the very rules of the system? What if I didn't choose between a Mana Heart or a Dantian?
The idea was terrifying. It could lead to a spectacular, fatal failure. But the safe path led to a guaranteed, if slower, death in the coming calamity.
I looked at my hands, one meant for spells, the other callousing around a sword's grip. The answer wasn't in a book or a dungeon. It was in me. In this impossible, hybrid existence.
My goal was no longer just to reach D-rank.
It was to reach it my way. And in doing so, shatter the ceiling placed upon me.
Tomorrow, the grind would begin. But tonight, a new, far more dangerous experiment started taking root in my mind.