It had been four days since they had gone to the fourth floor of the Dungeon and decided to take a few days before going back. Liliei had gained two Levels and Nalaine one during their trip so it had proved productive but they were all of the opinion that they would need a front line before going to the next floors, or even going back to the fourth. As such, Liliei had decided to continue training her Abilities, but that had been an endless source of frustration these past few days. She had absolutely no idea how to modify her first Ability’s second Level or her second Ability’s first Level which made it so that she couldn’t improve them at all, and the others were also more or less at a standstill.

The thing she was doing now was trying to improve her fine control when making constructs, making them smaller with more details, more precision. She was making a small ring composed of three smaller rings intertwined, and on each of the smaller rings she had made a small pattern in relief that turned around the ring, each having a different angle. She had been forced to make it with small threads to achieve this much details which meant that it took her a lot of Intent to keep it from dissipating and she had to reduce a little the density of her body. She then finished the ring by making each smaller ring a different color, one white, one black and one gray.

She still hadn’t found how to make the construct take different properties, so it didn’t have the shine of a metallic item and didn’t feel like it either when touched, but she was still quite satisfied of the item. She wouldn’t be able to make it permanent – it took so much just to keep it normal, there was no way she could – but she put it at her finger and prepared to make another item when she heard someone at the entrance of her house.

“Hello Liliei, can I come?”

She recognized Lenc’s voice and agreed without much hesitation. It didn’t take long before Lenc had climbed up, he was getting better at it. He then turned to Liliei.

“So how is it going? Are you making progress?”

“No, and it’s extremely frustrating. You’ve had an idea?”

At Liliei’s answer Lenc looked pensive for a second before answering.

“I have looked at a few things, hmm, if I remember correctly you have already tried modifying your body, but every time you tried it just went back to normal, right?”, after a small nod from Liliei he continued, “How much did you modify at a time?”

“Not much, I tried reproducing the structure of a normal body, but it was quite complicated and slow so I didn’t push too much when I saw it was just getting back to normal.”

Lenc thought for a bit before continuing. He had an idea that could work.

“Then let’s try something. don’t go for something complicated, your body is just a mass of mana at the moment right? So go for something simple just to try to improve on this, then try to act on your whole body without letting go. You should also reduce the density of your body to the minimum, so there is less mana to affect. If it doesn’t work we’ll try something else.”

“Hmm,” the idea seemed good, it was a possibility that her modifications didn’t stay because they weren’t complete so, “Yes I’ll try”

She sat on her bed and, following what Lenc had said, she reduced the density of her body as much as she could while still staying in one piece, then started to work on her arm. She felt how it was at the moment, a uniform mass of mana, that held a small amount of her Intent which allowed her to move it. She concentrated on it and started to act, willing it to change, to take a different form. But then she hesitated, what to do with it?

She had already tried to make it like a real body, but that was too complicated, then maybe a very simplified version of a body? But she didn’t remember very well from the book, and also what to keep and what to let out? No she needed to go simpler. So why not give the mana a direction, make it ‘go’ from the base of her arm to the tips of her fingers.

She began doing that, starting from the fingers, but found herself stuck on how to give it a direction. She thought for a moment before finally deciding on organizing the mana into threads, like her constructs, but instead of weaving it or doing anything, she just pushed the mana into this form then let it be.

She worked slowly, going to each finger one after the other, having to change the mana from its previous state, that she quickly came to liken it to a sort of liquid state, with its tendency to flow back when she tried to push it into a shape, to a more solid state where it would keep its form, but that she had to be careful not to let go back into the liquid. Even then, she felt it was different from when she made constructs, she had a more abstract feel about what she was doing compared to the constructs, like she wasn’t really affecting the mana in a physical way, but she decided not to preoccupy herself with it now.

After working for a moment, she realized that it was slower than when she had tried before without reducing the density of her body, but dismissed trying that as not sustainable. While she had more to do now to get the mana in the shape she wanted, she then only had to work to keep it from going back to liquid – the same idea for every part – where before she had to maintain each part individually in the form she wanted. And she also felt like it was easier to keep it there now. Still it was slow. She made her fingers and was converting her hand when she felt her first Ability start supporting her and accelerate the process a lot. She slowly continued from her hand to her arm then hesitated a second, before starting on her other arm.

She was halfway on her second leg when she began feeling a problem. She had needed to use a part of her intent on everything she modified to keep it from reverting, but she started to feel her Intent running low. She started to discard everything that took a toll on it, one by one as she continued to modify her leg, and then the rest of her body. It wasn’t enough however and she started slowing. As if it wasn’t enough she started to feel the exhaustion settle as she used her Intent, slowing her even more.

She continued to focus, slowly pushing the changes further up her body, up to her neck then started going down from her hair, ever slower, until she couldn’t push anymore. Her mind was exhausted, she had not a speck of intent left and had already cut every single outward thing that cost her Intent to keep, but she was still missing a large sphere in the middle of her head. Just the upped half of her head had already taken her half as long as the rest combined due to the increasing slowness and she felt like she would faint from exhaustion, but she continued pushing further.

It was slow, so slow she felt it wasn’t even advancing at all, but she continued, slowly transforming more and more, taking a tiny bit of intent from everywhere that was already transformed and keeping it from reverting by pushing the Intent already present further. Slowly, the change crept closer to the center of her head where her link to her soul was situated and finally, she connected the threads to this point.

The instant she finished, she felt something ‘click’ into placed and the pressure that was exerted onto her Intent relented. She also felt like something was trying to appear in her mind, but exhaustion caught up and she fainted.

When Liliei woke up she was greeted by a terrible headache which elicited a small grunt. A split second later she heard Nalaine’s voice which made the pain peak.

“Liliei! Are you all right? What happened?”

She took two second to let the pain fall before, slowly, groaning something that should have sounded like ‘too loud’. Then waited another few seconds before turning, carefully, and slowly opening her eyes such as not to provoke the headache. In front of her was Nalaine that looked at her with her head slightly tilted as if to say ‘what is she doing?’. Liliei then slowly sat upright, taking note in passing that she was stark naked, before finally speaking a bit more clearly, if still very feebly to keep the headache at bay.

“Ugh, I feel like my head’s splitting open. So what’s the matter?”

Nalaine looked surprised that she could have a headache but quickly recovered and answered.

“Well, from what I understood, Lenc gave you and idea for modifying your body, then you went still for a few hours and you suddenly started stripping, at which point he decided to come search for me. Then you stay immobile for two days straight, barely breathing and no other movements, and then you fall and I barely stop you from crashing to the ground, and you sleep for a day straight. So I repeat, what happened?”

Liliei started explaining what she had done while checking her body. Her modification hadn’t reverted – she would have been quite angry if it had – but she couldn’t feel the difference as of now since she had just the bare minimum of mana inside her body. Then as she got to the end of her explanation, she decided to make herself some clothes again.

“You’ve overexerted your mind, which explains the headache, so for now you...” Nalaine stopped long enough to shake her head as Liliei reeled from the pain as she was trying to exert her Intent, “… Should not use your mana, else… well, that.”

After the twenty seconds it took her to recuperate from the pain, she looked at Nalaine who had a wry smile.

“Thanks for the info, even if a tiny bit late. I’ll keep it in mind. Then for the moment I will…” She tried to move her arms a bit faster, but it was too fast and she winced from the pain, “Okay, I’ve got my cue, I’ll sleep again until I can move a bit without getting my head to split into little bits every time.” The defeat was clear in her voice as she slowly lowered herself in her bed before closing her eyes – the darkness immediately providing a measure of relief from the pain.

Nalaine’s voice seemed to come from far away as she drifted back into sleep.

“I’ll go back then, I’ll pass by tomorrow to see if you’re better.”

When she woke up this time, Liliei was mostly free from the headache – she could still feel it looming in the background but she was confident she could move without much problem. Thus she sat up and began thinking. For now she needed to get some clothes, and reinforce her body again to prevent her from breaking at the slightest shock. She felt for the stream of mana that went through her body and found it quickly. It had adapted to the changes and was now following the threads throughout her body. She began to pour some mana into the stream and discovered with satisfaction that it spread faster than before, increasing the density of mana in her body up to where it was before in maybe half the time she would have needed, and then continued further.

She continued pouring more mana until it would stay and found herself with half again what she had before. Then she started moving and felt the difference. Her body was more responsive, faster, more precise, more efficient. Moving felt more natural than before, simpler. A large grin appeared on her face as started moving throughout the house testing her body. It was also a bit more flexible which she appreciated quite a bit.

Her next task was making clothes for herself and here as well she felt a difference. It wasn’t as pronounced as for her body, but it was maybe a fifth faster and a fifth less costly in Intent for the upkeep. Which, now that she thought about it didn’t make any sense. Unless…

She opened her status and her grin spread further.

[Liliei Sil

Race: Mana Spirit

Level: 12

Abilities:

-Main Ability 1:

1) Tendency to be harder to notice. Ability to use mana to reinforce concealment and reduce the chance of being seen.

2) Reduce the chance of being noticed when moving. Ability to use mana to hide a movement done for a short time.

-Secondary Ability 1:

1) Burst of movement tends to be faster and more precise.

2) Increase smoothness and flow of movements.

-Main Ability 2:

1) Increase efficiency at manipulating own mana, and allow faster reconstruction.

2) Increase ability at external mana manipulation, and allow creation of external constructs.

3) Increase efficiency of Intent, and allow Intent infusion on own physically manifested mana.

-Secondary Ability 2:

1) Increase perception of mana.

2) Increase the size of the mana pool.

3) Increase ease of understanding on mana.

Stats:

Own Mana Manipulation:

-Speed: 27

-Precision: 17

-Intent Potency: 9

-Perception: 6

-Mana Pool: 9

-Mental Strength: 4

Skills: None]