After restoring both his state of mind and the force of his will, he began to try once again. He knew that from his own state, this would be the last time he could make it. If he couldn’t achieve the breakthrough in his next attempt, he knew that only a long period of accumulation would get him there, something that was not possible for him.

He closed his eyes and thought about everything he suffered while growing. The pain that was his constant company. “I’m doing this for freedom, to not be a tool in someone else's hand for the rest of my life.” After sharpening his conviction, he tried one last time.

the mana all over his body suddenly stagnated and began to concentrate inside his belly. He felt empty, like something vital was stolen from him. He had risked it all, taking every shed of mana in his body.

Normally one 's mana could hurt them while inside the body, but if the mana went berserk, it could kill someone easily. He knew that if he lost control over it, he would surely die. His last attempts were made by moving the mana outside his body, a way to evolve the skill he knew was possible, but he would not give himself a way out, only like that he stood a chance.

The only reason that he was still alive was that the mana was still under his control, and if he slipped up, he would die. That was how strong his conviction was, it was either achieving his goal and living, or failing and dying.

He looked at the mass of mana on his belly and began to push it. He focused all he had on it, and compressed. Compressing it a little was easy, taking it a step further was hard. He did it again, and his mana shuddered for a second, but was once again suppressed. Sweat rolled down his forehead, and he almost lost his grip over the mana for a second, but kept it under control.

He took a final breath and took the final step. “It’s now or never.”

Willfred's whole body shuddered for a second, and he felt the mana slowly compressing, all his will concentrating on the mana. It’s form began to change, to condense, but as the mana compressed, he felt his mind waver. His vision began to blurry and his nose bled.

He almost fainted, but held on due to his will to live, to escape and live a different life.

His vision went dark for a second, and he felt something click in place.

Will’s mind was refreshed, and his body felt stronger. He felt the mana in his body changing, and becoming heavier.

it was not as heavy as when he concentrated it to the limit of his will, but it was naturally denser, something that would make a lot of difference in his power.

Mana manipulation evolved to Epic!

Grinning after seeing the message, he looked at his status.

Name:

Willfred

Race:

Human

Class:

-

Level:

-

Strength:

28

Agility:

29

Constitution:

31

Intelligence:

58

Wisdom:

56

General Skills

Name

Tier

Level

Mana manipulation

Epic

1

Sword mastery

Unique

100

Regeneration

Rare

35

Literature

Rare

85

Meditation

Rare

48

Acting

Uncommon

59

Perks

Nature attunement

Your body is attuned to the natural elements. Gives the user extra resistance to the elements and more affinity to them.

He looked at the change and grinned from ear to ear.

He knew there were going to be some changes in his status, but didn’t expect they would be so big. He got 26 in intelligence and 18 in wisdom. He knew that he could only achieve that thanks to his recklessness. If he had not used the mana inside his body to fuel the change on mana manipulation, and instead manipulated it outside his body, his status wouldn’t have changed, both his intelligence and wisdom would have stayed the same, only his manipulation skill would evolve.

He moved his mana, and felt the ease in which he could now manipulate it. He used it to reinforce his punches and body, and felt the change in the strength. After testing it for a bit and waiting for it to be totally restored, he unraveled the runic circle around him and walked to the door of his room.

He placed his hand on it, and felt the enchantments. They guaranteed that he couldn’t escape the room without alerting the management. He moved his mana, and condensed it further. With his evolved skill, he felt it was much easier to condense it, but it still required a lot of concentration.

He understood how the enchantment worked after years of studying it. If someone forcefully blasted the door, the enchantments would release a pulse of mana and sound the alarm. But if someone tried to tamper with the runes themselves, the mana pulse would also be released.

He knew there was a way in which he could mess with the enchantments without making the mana pulse activating, but that was beyond his knowledge. He had read a lot, and about many things, his literature skill was brought to rare due to his insatiable greed for knowledge, the runes contributing only to a part of the skill, but he didn’t find out how to finely break the enchantments. He knew that there were some classes that offered rune focused skills, if he had a skill like that he estimated it would be around Uncommon tier only.

Instead of relying only on his knowledge of runes, he used his concentrated mana. Only by enveloping the pocket of mana inside the enchantment with his own heavier mana, he would be able to stop the mana wave, hence deactivating the alarm.

Without the pulse of mana, the safeguard enchantments on the door also wouldn’t activate, allowing him to open the door and leave his room.

His hand trembled as he placed it over the door. He looked at it and slowed his breath to calm down. He had done everything he could, if this failed, he was doomed.

He slowly and carefully pushed his mana into the enchantments, avoiding any runes that were part of it. After carefully enveloping the pocket of mana, he pushed the rune that would open the door.

As soon as he touched the rune, the pocket ruptured and the pulse of mana tried to propagate. He held it with his own mana, sweating buckets during the process. After some time, the mana held inside calmed down, and he slowly made it dissipate. He opened the door with caution, and after making sure no one was walking through the corridor, he left his room and closed the door after him.

He looked around and saw the empty and bright hallway. Even though he had lived all his life in those halls, he had never seen it empty. He was always following a tight schedule, and some of his fellows were always with him.

He looked over some doors, and thought of the people inside them. Emily, Lucas and Ivan. They were his best friends, but were also pious followers of the master. The three of them had extraordinary skills. Emily focused on martial prowess, Lucas on stealth and quick movements, and Ivan on overwhelming power.

He tried to make them question the master some times, but they were always resolute with their beliefs. It hurt him deeply to leave them here, but it was the only thing he could do.

Sometimes, he even doubted himself. He had grown being taught something, but suddenly one man came and spoke against what everyone else around him believed to be true. But even though he had his doubts, they were easily dismissed by only taking a look at the other teachers and the doctor, he knew what Lurior said was true.

He turned away and followed the route to his freedom.

The corridors were empty, and no one was awake. He knew that most of his plan was up to chance, if even a single guard or staff found him, it would fail.

After walking for a bit, he heard some noise in the distance. He took a turn and crouched while waiting for the person to go away. Thankfully, the person was not coming to his direction, and took another corridor.

After waiting for the steps to vanish, he began to advance. He muffled his steps with mana to stop all sound from spreading. He began to walk even slower as he closed in on his objective. He quickly looked over the corner and saw that no one was in front of the teleportation room. He walked to it with eager steps and arrived in front of the door. He placed his hand over the door and felt the enchantments. He could see that the complexity of it was many times higher than the door of his room, and even the pocket in the center held denser mana.

He looked at the enchantments over and over again, in search of a way to deactivate it. The pathways inside were too complicated, something he never thought he would face. The harder he looked at it, the more nervous he became.

“Calm down…. you can do it…” He thought while giving it another look.

After fifteen minutes, he could finally see the way in which the enchantment could be broken, he would have to insert his mana into it and carefully guide his mana to the pocket through a complicated maze. However, he had taken too long to decipher it, and each moment standing in front of the door the chance of someone finding him became bigger.

After confirming the way to do it, he began to carefully circulate the mana inside the enchantment.

He had never done such a feat before, it would be a true challenge to his new control. it was like moving a needle through small holes, without letting it touch the hole wall, and you moved it with your mind. The difficulty was insane to say the least.

After five minutes, his mana was in place. It had circulated through the runes, and involved the mana pocket. He condensed the mana with all his will, making it stronger than he ever did. He moved his other hand over the rune to open the door, and released a small pulse of mana over it.

The moment it touched the rune, the enchantment went berserk. He held the mana with all he had while the door slowly opened. He expended more and more of his own mana to keep it at bay, but the enchantment was too complex. Even after a while, the mana contained inside the mana pocked didn’t calm down.

His concentration was wanning, and he had a choice to make. He had to go through the door and let the enchantments activate. But by doing that, he would have little time to escape.

“I’m already here. This is just another risk I have to take…”

He slowly opened the door while holding the enchantment, and as soon as he went through the door, and was about to close it, he heard a voice from the other side of the corridor.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

He froze and looked over the door and at the corridor. One of the sword instructors was looking at him with menacing eyes. He knew there was no time to think. He released the mana that was containing the enchantment and let it activate. As soon as the enchantment activated, the door began to close, while an alarm resounded through the facility.

However, before the door closed, a sword covered in mana pierced through the air while coming toward Willfred’s heart, the sword was thrown at him. The instructor was a sword master, but the throw was deadly, the tip was aiming at his heart, and it was coming at him with an amazing speed.