For the rest of the day and the night, Lev did naught but get tossed around by Drakys. Kinetic mana didn’t magically become much easier to manipulate after the relentless practice, though he still saw appreciable improvements.
Then the night also passed, and he remained absorbed in his unusual training. Spikes, balls, pitfalls, and many other stone weapons were hurled at him. At first, they aimed for the face, testing his instincts due to the direct danger.
That changed quickly. Some of them seemed to be on track to miss him, only to curve slightly. Even the slightest touch completely altered his direction, launching him randomly like a rocket.
Safe to say, some lessons were quickly learnt.
Now, in the morning, he prepared himself after a short warning from Drakys. They needed to continue moving, meaning the first final test for now was upon him.
All formations were disregarded to optimize the armor for Kinetic Energy. It was a shortcut in Lev’s opinion, but Drakys was expressing urgency. He didn’t want to waste the man’s time by going any slower.
“Anything I should know?” he asked for the first time throughout the whole training session.
“Yes. Keep your eyes open for everything.”
Monsters, then, he deduced, giving the Exalted a nod to signal his readiness.
Drakys waved a hand and vanished. Instead of the usual blob of mana Lev was expecting, the skies darkened. Mouth ajar, he could only stare when thousands upon thousands of stone creations appeared out of thin air, parting when something flew towards him at high speed.
Since he wasn’t allowed to use anything but kinetic energy to move, Lev could only wait as the troll landed exactly a few inches in front of him. The shockwave was readily absorbed by the armor and channeled as energy to move around.
Before the monster could get up or be dealt with, the stone creations moved. A dozen rushed towards him, piercing the air with a shrill whistle while rapidly expending their stores of kinetic energy.
Because, of course, not putting me on a time limit would be too easy.
The relatively simple addition made his task exponentially harder. Without being able to use his body or mind, only the fuel in the projectiles and combat with the troll was going to allow him to move. Even then, the former was rapidly running out, forcing him to deflect or block them without even thinking of dodging.
He could already deduce the purpose of the exercise. Not only was it going to force him to absorb the most force while deflecting at optimal angles, but also do so while a strong monster was trying to grab him and rip him to shreds. After all, whatever little he could absorb wasn’t going to be nearly enough to kill it easily.
Regardless, before the first projectiles reached him, Lev exhaled with a smile. Tough or not, it was bound to be fun.
Just as the troll got up, he identified it.
[Troll Warrior - Level 331]
That level is suspiciously high. Exasperated, he let himself get hit squarely in the chest to gauge the monster’s strength. Its fist bent his armor slightly, almost cracking it with raw physical strength.
Kinetic energy was grabbed in a large stream, yet it wasn’t enough for even a single fully powered strike. Locked into small, efficient movements, he manipulated his armor’s legs to touch the ground and prepared himself.
Moments later, a fist sailed past his face. He leaned back and intentionally took a step towards the knee rocketing towards his neck. Both arms raised to absorb the blow, he channeled most of the resulting kinetic energy to lean to the side.
A stone spear grazed his face, too quick to dodge entirely. Unbalanced, he had no choice but to eat another one on his leg. Sent tumbling, he waited for the monster to approach.
Within the next second, he dodged a thin stone needle, grabbed the monster’s arm to pull it forward, jumped over the grab from its other arm, slapped away a second stone needle, and pulled the troll in the path of the stone spear heading towards his heart.
It tore a good chunk off the monster’s back, revealing a spine for a brief moment before healing covered it again. That, combined with a huge boulder rushing towards him, gave him an idea.
Kicking away from the troll, he used most of his stored kinetic energy to dash at the boulder, veering to the side at the last moment. A grazing hit was still enough to nearly fill the runes entirely, and he channeled all of it for one precise series of movements.
The troll, mindless as all the ones he had faced so far, opted for a straightforward massacre. With a single huge step, it shot towards him, right arm coiled to punch his face in.
Lev waited, going against his instincts not to eviscerate the monster. It was particularly humiliating to be so powerless against a troll, but he had a plan.
The meaty fist missed his face, scraping against his shoulder. Darting forward, Lev formed claws on his hands and slashed at the troll’s throat. Sinking his claws deep enough to grab the top of the spine, he spun around its body and latched onto its back.
With more claws on the second hand and most of his kinetic energy, he jumped on the monster’s shoulders for leverage and tore the head clean off.
[
You have slain [Troll Warrior - Level 331]
]
He jumped off the corpse just in time to avoid another barrage, letting them hit his limbs or graze his torso to absorb as much kinetic energy as possible.
For hours, that continued, with more and more trolls joining the fray. There was never truly enough kinetic energy to throw around, yet there wasn’t ever too little of it.
Drop by drop, Lev adapted. Just a little less used for his movements, just a little more absorbed with every impact. His armor turned out to be plenty strong for… almost all of the stone projectiles, barring a few accidents, allowing him to focus on the monsters mainly.
Still, as enlightening as all of that was, he couldn’t quite manipulate kinetic energy yet. Sure, he could influence it freely with runes, but when it came to raw usage? His mind floundered for anything substantial.
That was fine, though. His grasp continued to improve, by now potent enough to hurl a decent punch. Without utilizing his body or mind, it was like learning the Controlled Enhancement Formation all over again.
When the suns passed their zenith, the constant barrage of stones finally stopped. Lev paused, catching his breath to let his mind rest from the constant heavy exertion. His constant attempts to move kinetic energy without the help of runes were incredibly taxing, making him wonder just how he had manipulated shadow mana ever so easily. The former felt like moving a whole house compared to a whole room that was the latter.
Observing the temporary lull in the exercise, he noted the last fraction of the remaining stone projectiles, as well as the current state of the enchanted region. For as far as he could see, projectiles and troll corpses littered the place, mostly in patches of destruction and craters.
Drakys wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so Lev waited.
What now? He wondered, glancing around to see if he had missed anything. He hadn’t. If I were in his place, my next opponent would be something that would push me to the limits.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, he got a message from Drakys, detailing the next part of the exercise.
In short, he could roughly only use as much pure mana as the kinetic mana he absorbed from impacts. The amount wasn’t utterly fixed, since his control wasn’t good enough for that yet. It was still a close thing, though.
Lev summoned Stargazer. Her mana conductivity was probably amongst some of the highest in terms of human equipment, if not the highest. While it was just as easy to manipulate mana inside his body, separating and storing it into accurately-sized chunks would be easier in the glaive.
For another ten minutes, he was allowed to relax and prepare himself. Then hell suddenly descended when over two hundred stone projectiles moved, and a new monster landed close to him.
Slapping away a stone ball, he winced after seeing the higher force now packed inside it. The direct hit nearly cracked the armor. Still, most of his attention was on the quadruped in front of him.
Similar to a lion, it stood tall, with four feelers extending from the side of its face. Bright blue fur adorned its body, matching its pure blue irises that stared at him with the usual monstrous madness.
Water mana rushed into its body, the amount lower than expected. Lev identified the creature, some of the tension leaving his body, only for it to spike again when the monster moved.
[Aqirkh - Level 391]
With grace surpassing both felines and aquatic creatures, the creature glided through the air as if swimming through water. Fast, smooth, and oddly terrifying.
Still, it wasn’t overwhelmingly strong. Lev let a few of the stone constructs hit him to absorb kinetic energy, then created a blade, since he was only allowed to use mana equal to the absorbed energy.
Without using any of Stargazer’s active enchantments, there were no more draws on his mana, though the sharpness was also vastly lower. That was fine. His barrier blade alone was far from weak.
The ground vanished beneath him, requiring him to expend a puff of mana to create a barrier platform. When his feet touched the barrier ground, a quarter of the stone creations disintegrated mid-air, warping into an overcharged sandstorm.
Okay, fine, he snorted to himself. Suddenly things weren’t so straightforward anymore. I suppose it makes sense to go beyond just testing my limits for kinetic energy and bring mana into the mix as well.
He was as ready as he could be, all things considered. The sandstorm reached him faster than the monster, hitting him like a truck.
Holding himself in place was the best way to accumulate kinetic energy. Doubly so when the storm turned out to be completely unpredictable, hitting him from random sides, drilling into his armor, and forcing him to use more mana for stability and the armor’s integrity.
The monster, however, wasn’t affected in the least. Drakys really wanted him to exert himself.
Everything in his arsenal was tested after that. Befitting its looks, the Arkiqh danced in circles around him, its claws sharp enough to potentially pierce through the armor.
He never allowed it to get that far, trading direct blows for the most part. The feelers on its face were incredibly slippery, only hardening when they got a good grasp on his limbs. Two of them had to be cut off when that happened, except they also regenerated quickly.
The next half an hour was an exercise in patience, skill, and self-control. Again and again, Lev held himself back from storing mana and only relying on kinetic energy for a few minutes to finish it in a single rush. That would defeat the purpose of the whole thing.
Finally, after even the high-level monster started to show signs of bottoming out, he managed to land a clean hit on its extremely slippery neck. With a single pulse of Stargazer’s enchantments, he had just enough mana to push the glaive deeper inside, effectively ending the fight as it bled out over the next minute.
[
Arcane Maelstrom has reached Level 315
Dance of the Elements has reached 2nd Level 5
]
Decent gains. Lev exhaled deeply, feeling an exhaustion deep inside him. For a long few seconds, he tried to search for the source before it hit him.
He really wanted to use more mana, to the point that it almost physically hurt.
With a short laugh, he opened the floodgates. Overlading everything in his arsenal, he reveled in the feeling of strength before spinning mid-air and kicking the ground.
All of his remaining kinetic energy erupted in a deep crater, and his face fell.
Sighing, he dismissed the armor and turned to Drakys. The man must’ve known that manipulating Kinetic Energy would be much easier inside his overloaded armor, yet the sheer difference still surprised Lev.
Just to be certain, he formed a barrier stone and chucked it at his chest at high speed. Absorbing the kinetic energy and channeling it through his overloaded armor, he could only sigh again when all of it easily moved into his right arm.
Punching the ground once again to a similar result, he stood up and waited.
“Adequate,” Drakys commented on his progress. “Leaves a lot to be desired, partially because your manipulation skill is too broad in its scope. You will need to practice a lot more to reach a decent level with kinetic mana.”
Lev just nodded, prompting the man to continue. “The rest of your skills should’ve also shown you some new ways to be useful. Was that the case?”
“Yep,” Lev chirped with a grin. “I now know how to evolve Aerial Maneuvers.”
“What aspect do you feel a possible evolution for?”
For a moment, he didn’t reply and remembered what he could feel. “If I’m being honest, it covered everything. But if I have to say what the potential evolution resonated the most with me, it was when I used kinetic mana.”
Drakys nodded, and to Lev’s great annoyance, proceeded to completely skip whatever he had deduced.
“Anyways,” the Exalted recalled Lev’s bubble. “We’ve got another few days before you will face something.”
“Not ominous at all.”
“Hmm,” Drakys regarded him with a small smile. “Have you ever wondered where the Goliath and Titan titles came from?”