Chương 64: Practice (2)

Rowan's eyes widened as his body rushed toward the small tree. Finding that he was unable to move out of the way in time, he brought his arms before him and hoped that he would break something. A second later, he crashed into the trunk, and a sickening snap rang out. As he rolled across the forest floor, Rowan growled in pain, his arms throbbing from absorbing the blow. Then, his roll slowed down, coming to a stop as he bumped into a much larger tree than the one he'd crashed into earlier.

With a groan, he sat up, inspecting his body. Surprisingly, while he would certainly have a few bruises the next day, he was mostly fine. If anything, the most painful injury was the one on his side, which he'd already had. He shook his head; he could've sworn he'd heard something snap—he looked over at the tree.

"... ah." He sighed, looking at the stump of what had once been a ten-foot-tall tree. It looked like it had been one of the newer trees, its trunk not thick or strong enough to withstand him crashing into it. His body still ached, but he was just glad he hadn't crashed into a larger tree. He'd chosen his path carefully, making sure there wasn't any large plant life in the way. But it seemed that with the surprising speed his second step had granted him, he'd veered slightly off course.

Rowan rubbed his arms and began walking back towards the clearing that he'd slept in. As much as he would've liked to keep practicing, he realized that it probably wasn't the best of ideas, at least not for now. Instead, once he was closer to the camp, he sat down and leaned against a nearby trunk. Then, he thought. During breakfast, he'd been thinking about how, if he could truly substitute dexterity for strength, it might be possible to do that for other stats as well.

But before he'd gotten deep into thinking, he'd been interrupted by Cynthia. Now, though, he had plenty of time to theorize about it. So, one by one, he went through his stats. Strength was a difficult one, but he thought that with a mix of dexterity and toughness, it could mostly nullify the need for the stat, since the momentum behind his movements would provide all the power he needed, and any backlash would be handled by toughness.

Toughness was also difficult, and Rowan wasn't sure if it would even be possible to replace. Perhaps having a high enough strength stat would, in turn, strengthen one's body? Still, it probably wouldn't be as effective as just putting the points into toughness. If he added high vitality to the mix as well, he thought that it might be enough to replace toughness, but it wasn't like he planned on doing that.

After all, toughness was his highest stat, and while it sometimes didn't seem to do much due to the sheer strength of his enemies, he knew the stat had saved his life countless times. As for vitality, he really wasn't sure. Enough toughness and strength might be able to reduce the need for vitality, but it wouldn't actually be able to replace the stat. Even if someone had hundreds of constitution, a single attack managing to damage them could take ages to heal without the help of vitality to speed it along.

The same was true for mana, even more so than it was for vitality. Because, while Rowan was sure there were some people who could get truly powerful by investing only in their physical stats and neglecting their mana altogether, they still wouldn't be able to use mana. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. He let out a sigh. It was all interesting to think about, and while the first two sounded feasible, he didn't intend to do either of them.

Trying to replace dexterity was enough for him, and if he did any more, he thought he might just end up screwing himself over. So, putting his thoughts of replacing stats to the side, Rowan channeled a bit of mana through his finger. It came out as an already compressed orb, and while it seemed stable, it was only a matter of time before it burst. Back when he'd just woken up after killing the broodmother, he'd been thinking about more uses for the semi-stable mana, but he'd been interrupted by the need to escape.

Now, as he observed the orb before him, his ideas all came rushing back. The first thing that came to mind was fully stabilizing the energy. After all, that was what the presence that had possessed him had done, albeit in a much more complicated way than Rowan could even comprehend. And while he thought that he could figure out a way to make it stable, he didn't think he could do it in the few hours he had before the party packed up and set off. Instead, he focused on what he could do with what he already had.

So, with a breath, he began reshaping the orb before him. He'd nearly forgotten that he could change its shape, since he'd always used it as an orb, but he could. Nothing about the way he compressed the mana forced it to be in the shape of an orb; it was just how he imagined it would look. And manipulating the energy wouldn't do anything to further destabilize it, since it was something about… Rowan wasn't sure how to describe it. The molecular structure of the mana? He shrugged. It sounded good enough.

It was something about the molecular structure of the energy that caused it to be unstable. It was like there was some sort of defect in the way he compressed it, making some parts too weak to the point that after long enough, they would collapse and force the mana to expand. Shaking his head, he continued morphing it into a blade. What he would even do with it, he wasn't sure, since he didn't know how a blade made of the compressed mana would even function.

Once it was done, he channeled some normal mana, forming it into a handle for the blade. Once they were fused, Rowan swung it around a few times, getting a feel for the blade. Then, he prepared to slam it into a tree. But he stopped himself, infusing more mana into the handle and making a six-inch-wide dense barrier at the point where the two types of mana fused. Hopefully, should anything happen, it would protect his hand from the worst of the damage. Then, with a deep breath, he stabbed it into a nearby trunk.

The blade slid halfway in, cutting through the wood. But nothing really happened—on the surface, that was. But something was happening to the stability of the blade. Taking a moment, Rowan channeled even more mana into the handle and barrier, forming it into a sort of cup that was more than a foot wide and would hopefully stop any mana not only from reaching his hand and arm, but also the rest of his body. Once more, he stabbed into the tree. And this time, something happened.

As the blade dug into the trunk, the mana deteriorated beyond saving, and half a second later, it burst. There was a deafening bang, and Rowan felt a jolt of pain travel up his arm as the blade, still buried deep into the tree, exploded. Mana spewed in every direction, and the tree itself burst, spraying the area with shrapnel.

He didn't have much experience with making barriers with mana, as this was only the second time he'd ever done it, but the layer of compressed mana was still enough to block all of the shrapnel, saving himself from being stabbed by a hundred splinters. Holding up the now bladeless dagger, he thought. Could the splinters even pierce his skin?

He shrugged, not wanting to find out; he could endure pain, but there was something special about splinters that just made them particularly irritating compared to most other injuries. Shaking his head, Rowan set the handle of mana on the ground and rubbed his arm. It was already sore from crashing into the tree, and the impact of half of the weapon detonating in his hand only made it worse. He still had plenty more to experiment with, but for now, he was going to set it to the side.

At that moment, Eren burst into the area, looking around wildly before spotting Rowan, who was standing just a dozen feet from the edge of the clearing.

"Are you alright? What was that explosion?" She looked at the damaged tree before him.

"Were you fighting something?" Feeling guilty, Rowan smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry about that. I was just…experimenting. I hope I didn't scare you all too much. Is Cynthia alright?" Eren sighed.

"It's alright; just let us know the next time you're planning on doing some more experimentation. Cynthia is fine, though. If anything, of all of us, she was the least freaked out." Rowan let out a breath and muttered another apology before speaking.

"Well, at least Cynthia's okay. And, yes, I'll let you know the next time I'm experimenting." Letting out a little laugh, Eren smiled.

"Well, we're going to head out soon, so you should head back to camp when you're ready."