Chương 114: Book 2 Chapter 66 - Victor's Breakthrough

Victor sucked in a deep breath as he finally broke through to tier 6. He was soaked in sweat from the exertion, and his limbs were shaky from his prolonged meditation without food. He hadn't moved from this position for the past month. The flood of power that accompanied the breakthrough was euphoric, like his other breakthroughs, but this one was different. It was honestly overwhelming for a time, and he fell backwards from his seated position onto his back, convulsing slightly.

He lay there for a couple of hours, slowly acclimating to the changes. He mentally reviewed what he had noticed so far. His magic sense had increased in range by a factor of 5. He could sense everything within a 500 foot radius with perfect clarity. Worth noting was the fact that his magic sense now included inanimate objects, rather than just living ones. He could sense the dirt and rocks of the cave he was in, the insects underground, even the very air around him.

The increased range and depth of detail was one of the main things that overwhelmed him at first, and it took quite a while to grow accustomed to it. Next, he looked at the changes to his aura. At the peak of tier 5, his aura had already been fully powered, but its range had more than doubled now. He could feel instinctively that it stretched out over 500 feet in every direction.

Within his personal domain, which had a range of 50 feet, his aura was at max power, and he could completely overwhelm anyone that didn't have an aura of their own. If he had to describe how an aura worked, it would be a spiritual pressure that one could exert over others, to disrupt their own spiritual connection to their body. Their strength and endurance, their body's natural ability to heal itself, even their ability to move and breathe were all governed by the ability of their spirit to control their body.

Developing your aura was like extending that same control outside your own body, and disrupting the control of others. Once your aura was full-powered, instead of a simple disruption, you could completely cut off someone else's connection to their body, preventing them from moving, breathing, or doing anything else. Victor's own aura had been full powered for over a decade, but now the range extended much further. Another interesting ability that he had now was that he could mask his power level.

Anyone with an aura learned to control it early on, as constantly bashing your aura against other people was rude and was a sign of a lack of control. Masking your power level, though, was entirely different. Ever since tier 3, Victor had been able to sense what tier other people were. It only took a surface level scan of the other person, and was one of the main ways that mages knew where they fit in the hierarchy.

Now, as a tier 6, Victor could mask his own level, making it appear as anything from a mere mortal up to his true level of 6. If he wished, others would perceive him as a tier 3, or a tier 1, whatever he desired. He settled on tier 5 for now, since that was how the people in his life were used to seeing him, and he didn't wish to disclose yet that he had broken through to the next tier.

He had already known about this ability, and that tier 6s had it, and suspected that Shian Yountal was utilizing some version of it, but it felt good to have access to it himself now. He could also mask what concepts he had now. As a tier 5, he had gained the ability to sense what concepts another mage had, something he hadn't been able to do at tier 4. Now, it seemed that he could deceive other tier 5s and 6s and only allow them to see the concepts that he wished them to see.

He did not, however, have the ability to spoof a concept and make it look like he had one that he actually lacked. He had already been able to fly as a tier 5, due to his gravity concept, but now he realized he could do it just by willing it to happen. He gently floated an inch off the ground, amazed at how effortless it felt. He let out a loud laugh when he realized that flying no longer drained his mana. Flying was the fastest form of long-range travel, and one that was only available to high level mages.

If you saw someone flying, you could automatically deduce that they were at least tier 5. Developing the ability at tier 4 was practically unheard of. At tier 5, flying did cost a bit of mana though, scaling with how fast you wanted to go. At full speed, which his estimates placed at around 100 miles per hour, he had only been able to sustain non-stop flight for about 25 minutes. Now, it seemed he could fly at top speed indefinitely if he so wished.

That would certainly make the return trip back to Portish much faster. The largest change, by far though, was that he had formed his personal domain. The breakthrough itself had required him to combine all of his concepts and his aura into a unified whole, forming his domain. As such, his domain had taken on the flavor of the concepts he had previously obtained, and its strength was based on the previous strength of his aura.

Once he had initiated the process, he had assumed, errantly, that forming his domain might erase his aura altogether, but that turned out not to be the case. His aura had been used as a type of blueprint, but had not been consumed in the process. He thought back on the experience. He had imagined his aura as a large, spherical shell that he delicately interwove each of his concepts into. He had ten concepts, and each one had taken multiple days to work into the aura.

He was sure that if he had tried to rush it, the process would have failed, and he may have even suffered some backlash. He knew from his artifact work that high quality results took time and patience, especially when you were dealing with a foundation as perfect and strong as his own. He had never felt rushed through any of his advancements, a perk of who his family was, and so his foundation was flawless.

He had been at the peak of tier 5 now for over a decade, and had simply never found a reason to break through. He went where he wanted, and did what he wanted, and had been so focused on his research projects that taking a month off to break through had simply seemed like a waste of time. Plus, advancing a tier wasn't a walk in the park. It required intense effort and a long time at the level he was at, and he had never seen a reason to do it.

Until that day where Shian Yountal had shown him not only what was possible at a higher level, but how much he truly lacked at tier 5. Now that he had done the work and broken through, he couldn't believe he had wasted so much time at the peak of tier 5! What a fool he had been. The things he had been able to do before seemed so much simpler now, and there was so much more within reach. He could accomplish much more in his research now than he ever had before.

He was also a bit less afraid for his own safety, now that he had made the advancement. It would take a long time yet for him to reach the peak of tier 6, many decades even, but just being at tier 6 was such a huge step from where he had been that he automatically felt safer. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

It wasn't like he expected Lady Yountal to suddenly turn on him and attack him, that didn't seem to be in her character, but at least now she wouldn't accidentally crush him by accident without even realizing it. He could at least defend himself and flee, if need be. Ruminating on his domain, he thought through the advantages it offered.

He was still forming his mental model for what a personal domain truly was, but it seemed to be a sphere of influence outside his own body that allowed him some level of control over nature itself. The same way his aura allowed him to interact with or control the influence other people had on their own bodies, his domain did something similar for the very fabric of reality around him. He placed his hand on the ground and felt the rock of the cave floor. He had chosen this cave due to its remote nature.

He knew the process would take a long time, and needed somewhere that he wouldn't be disturbed. There were no humans within fifty miles of the cave, and he had warded the entrance quite heavily to prevent any wildlife from wandering in. It would have taken a tier 5 or higher to break through, and no one knew where he was. As he felt the cold stone beneath his palm, he extended his senses via his domain, and could feel the underlying makeup of the stone.

The tiny particles, arranged the way they were, gave the stone its shape and structural qualities. He imagined a square of the rock three inches cubed being separated from the rock around it, and when he willed it to happen, it did. Next, he grabbed that cube of stone with his will and intent, and raised it into the air in front of him. That feat would have only been possible by wrapping the stone in mana as a tier 5, but now the matter around him answered his will alone.

It did take considerable focus and mental effort, though. He analyzed the cube of stone in front of him, and began re-organizing the tiny particles within, which were so small he realized he wouldn't be able to see them if not for his magic sense. The stone structure cracked and began falling apart, and when he released his mental hold on it, it disintegrated into a fine dust and fell to the ground. He harumphed. That was not the result he had intended.

It was a new skill, and would obviously take a lot of practice to get good at it. He knew that once he practiced the skill though, he would be able to slightly rearrange matter. He was reminded of his earlier analogy that he had used when considering what he had seen Shian Yountal do to the enchanted sword he had gifted her. He likened his new skill to a potter being able to reshape clay. In the similar fashion, he should be able to reshape the rock, maybe compress and harden it, split it apart, that sort of thing.

He didn't think he would be able to turn stone into gold, however. Interestingly, he felt instinctively that it might be possible at tier 7, just unavailable to him in his current state. He could sense that the tiny particles of stone that he was messing with were made up of even smaller particles, and that re-arranging those might lead to a new material. Using that same skill, he realized that he could likely change how he looked.

He wouldn't be able to change his age or his size, but he could harden his bones, maybe reshape his nose or his cheekbones. Anything that only required minor adjustments. The final thing that he now knew, but which he had waited to test, was that he could teleport. The ability seemed limited to a location anywhere within his domain, and would be extremely mana intensive, but it was definitely something he wanted to test out.

His mana pool had tripled from what it was previously, and with his current mana reserves he could teleport a total of four times before he would need to wait for some mana to regenerate. Even with the intense mana cost, though, instantly appearing in a new location had untold possibilities, and could completely turn a fight on its head. Not that Victor had ever been in one.

Once he had grown fully accustomed to the new sensory inputs and feelings of his breakthrough, which took around eight hours, Victor slowly moved toward the cave exit. He disabled his wards and enchantments, leaving the cave essentially how he had found it, other than the small three inch cube-shaped hole in the floor. He took to the skies, moving back towards Portish, and realized that flying with his domain was faster than he'd been able to fly as a tier 5.

He had first gone to Horange before his breakthrough attempt to see how Ethel was doing. She had been fine, and was reading a book when he arrived, the same as always. She barely glanced at him, and he wondered if she even realized he had been gone for a year. He had gathered up the more valuable items into his many storage rings, then gifted whatever didn't fit to Ethel, telling her that the shop was hers now, and she could keep the income from whatever she sold.

He knew that he wasn't likely to return to Horange anytime in the near future. When he delivered the news, she had simply held up a finger for him to wait a moment while she finished the paragraph she was reading, then looked at him with somewhat bored eyes. She had nodded once, told him thanks, then turned her attention back to the book. Remembering it now, he shook his head fondly and laughed. After that, he had found that cave and started the process that had taken him an entire month to accomplish.

Now that he was out of the cave and headed back to Portish, he realized how hungry he truly was. He hadn't eaten anything in a month, being completely wrapped up in the process of breaking through. He had sustained himself on mana alone, which took a heavy toll on the body. His muscles had shrivelled somewhat, and he realized how emaciated he appeared now when he glanced at his arm. He pulled some dried food from one of his storage rings and chewed on it absently while he flew.

He stopped at the first city he saw to buy some real food, and enjoyed his first meal in a month. It was truly glorious. His body tried to reject the food at first, but he clamped down on it with his will and his domain, and kept everything down. After he ate, he left the restaurant and looked up at the sky. He had almost started flying immediately again, but wanted to test out his domain teleportation first. His plan was to teleport up into the sky, then resume flying from there.

He reached out with his domain sense, and instantly knew everything about the area within a 50 foot radius of himself. He had a sudden realization that his upgraded magic sense being able to give him information about inanimate objects was actually piggybacking off his domain sense, even though the ranges of the two abilities were different. He knew what places he could teleport to, and which ones would put him in the middle of a wall or a boulder.

Some destinations simply weren't tenable destinations, and he knew it instinctively. He didn't have to consciously map it out, he just knew. He picked a point in the sky, and channelled mana into the ability. It was near instantaneous, but did require a blink-of-the-eye cast time. Space warped around him and he materialized in the sky where he had intended. He floated there, motionless for a moment, as he processed the experience.

He repeated the spell one more time, re-appearing 50 feet away in the blink of an eye. His mind and perception arrived first, followed quickly by his physical body. He always knew where he was within his domain, the same way he knew everything about his domain, and the domain stretched out from his body in all directions, putting him at the very center.

When he teleported, though, his perception of where he was in his domain shifted as soon as the cast time finished, placing his new perspective at his intended destination, followed almost instantly by his body shifting to that place, along with his domain. The time gap between his perception arriving and his body arriving was miniscule, barely worth mentioning, but it was noticeable, at least to him. The experience was a bit trippy and surreal, but he was quickly acclimating to the experience.

After that he resumed his flight north, towards Portish. About every twenty minutes he regenerated enough mana to cast another teleport spell, which he repeated the entire way home. By the time he arrived, he was quite familiar with his domain and all of his new capabilities. When he got to Portish, he first checked on his shop, which seemed to have remained undisturbed in his absence, then decided to fly to Easton.

He had been gone for far too long now, and wanted to see how things had progressed with House Yountal in his absence.