The Lone Wanderer

Percy’s efforts to use his mana defensively dated as far back as his first month in the Alchemists’ Guild, when he developed his Glove spell.

That said, the flimsy layer of cyan mana had never been particularly impressive. Back then, he hadn’t even known about Reinforcement. Not to mention, his second core had still been at Red. Consequently, the Crude spell was arguably the least impressive entry in Percy’s Status to this very day.

‘I suppose it’s time to do something about it.’ he grinned.

Of course, there were plenty of obstacles standing between him and his vision for the new spell. For one, he had to navigate around the contradictory requirements that any piece of defensive gear had. Namely, it had to be strong enough to resist an enemy’s attack, while at the same time being flexible enough to not inhibit its wearer’s movements. The good news was that Percy had already taken this into consideration back in the day, learning how to properly distribute the mana around the spell for this exact reason.

Gathering some mana from his abdomen, he instinctively allowed it to wrap around his hand, forming the construct. Having used the spell countless times, it no longer even required much thought to summon it, though it had admittedly been a while since he last needed it.

In any case, he flexed his fingers a little as he closely examined the construct, reminding himself how he had designed the thinner layer of cyan to coat his joints, allowing them to bend more easily. At the same time, he’d made the rest of the structure thicker, thus offering better protection.

‘Sadly, adding Reinforcement will only complicate things…’ he grimaced.

Obviously, if he wanted the spell to survive a Green’s attack, using the stronger variant of his pure mana was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t work for the joints, as it would make them way too rigid, regardless of how thin he made it. And he couldn’t even make it too thin, as he’d recently found out the hard way. Suffice to say, the only solution would be to use both his soft and hard mana, and to ensure the spell transitioned seamlessly between the two.

‘If only I had managed to get the threads to work, this wouldn’t be a problem.’

He sighed. The magical silk his trait had commissioned would be the perfect fit for this spell. Sadly, there was no way he’d complete the ambitious project anytime soon. Then again, it wasn’t the end of the world. Practicing how to smoothly blend the soft and hard mana together would only help with that.

‘Alright. Let’s get started then.’

Walking over to a corner of the room, he picked up a large clay jar. It was old, dusty and unassuming – exactly how he wanted it. Removing its lid, he peered into the seemingly empty vessel. The only things one could see were a couple of concealment runes he’d carved along the inner walls of the jar.

However, not everything was as it seemed.

Suddenly, a flash of teal shone within the clay jar, illuminating its dark belly. A fine powder of the same colour soon manifested out of thin air. This was one major advantage the teal powder had compared to the cyan variant – it was easier to hide.

Naturally, Percy would have preferred to keep all his valuables inside his spatial amulet, but he couldn’t fit everything. Definitely not the large stash of powder he’d prepared for both his elixirs and his weapons. That had left him no choice but to get a little creative with his hiding spots.

Shrugging, he pinched a handful of the substance, before pulling some more pure mana from his abdomen, blending the two. Obviously, mixing fused and unfused mana together meant the resulting constructs couldn’t be made invisible or intangible anymore. Doing that would only result in the spells crumbling apart. But he didn’t need to worry about that right now.

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Condensing a few rice-shaped grains, he next mixed all three types of mana, before wrapping them around his free hand. Next, he placed his hands side by side, comparing the two as he started working on the upgrade.

‘Let’s see… That part is supposed to be harder… That segment has to be a little shorter or I won’t be able to bend my thumb…’

At first, he focused on distributing the mana properly, determining how much he’d need in each region for Reinforcement. Only once he was happy with that did he begin hammering at it with his willpower, forging the harder pieces in the correct shapes.

Crafting the upgraded glove took much longer than the Soul Harvester. While it only needed a fraction of the mana, its structure was many times more complicated, as it involved over 15 different pieces. And Percy had to work on each of them separately. In fact, he even discarded a few, recreating them from scratch after realizing he’d made a mistake.

By the time he was done, the sun was already down. Still, Percy wasn’t satisfied with the result. At first glance, it appeared exactly like how he’d imagined it. In fact, he was confident it would probably survive a Yellow’s spell too. Plus, he didn’t have much trouble flexing his fingers.

However, there was a different issue with it.

‘It looks great right now… but what happens when I let go of the soft mana?’

Withdrawing his hold over the soft mana, he watched all the connecting tissue of the glove crumble into motes of cyan. With nothing linking the hard pieces together, they began to fall apart, a couple of the fingertip guards making crisp sounds as they hit the floor. ŔΆ₦ȱβƐＳ

‘Hmmm… I guess there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll have to actively hold everything in place during a battle.’

It wasn’t ideal, but only the crystallized and reinforced variants of his mana could survive on their own for a prolonged period of time. Though it wasn’t that bad – he already had to manually keep the regular Glove active – he’d just have to do the same with its upgrade.

‘I should still adjust its shape into something more practical so that it’s not a pain in the ass to wear…’

***

Over the past few days, Percy had modified the regular Glove spell, making it even thinner than before.

The idea was to wear it underneath the harder pieces, and to design everything so that it slid together nicely. That way, it would only take him a few seconds to equip it before a battle. He even added a few small holes in the harder pieces, so that he could fasten them in place with a few strings of soft mana.

After he was satisfied with the new glove’s practicality, he fine-tuned its design some more. He strengthened some pieces here and there, shrinking or re-shaping a few others, to maximize its defensive capabilities while keeping it comfortable to wear. In the end, he even added a couple more components, such as a wristband and a forearm protector, to extend the protection it afforded all the way to his elbow.

‘This is a good start, but still problematic…’ he thought as he scanned his armoured hand.

There was no doubt in his mind the spell was already usable in a fight, but neither he nor his Status were satisfied enough with it to declare it as such. After all, it currently took him several hours to forge all the components, and it would only survive a few days at best. That meant he’d have to keep replacing it over and over again – something he had no intention of doing. Not only that, but he didn’t think it was strong enough to endure a Green’s spell just yet. Which was a problem, because he’d already graduated from Yellows.

That said, Percy had already foreseen both of these problems. And he’d come up with a solution:

Runes.

Allowing the soft mana to fizzle out again, he removed the pieces one by one, laying them on a table in front of him. Next, he picked one of the smallest components up – one of the pinkie-guards, before willing the mana to shatter.

Collecting the scattered powder, he then pulled some mana from both cores, fusing it together before mixing the soft teal mana with the dust of the same colour. This time, he intended the construct to last a couple of weeks, so he was going to do it properly.

Replicating his previous steps, he soon reforged the piece exactly like before, with two small additions. Careful to not compromise the spell’s integrity, he embroidered two circular symbols on it.

Within its inner wall, he added a preservation rune, to ensure the construct survived a while longer than normal. On its exterior, he instead added a hardness rune, which should elevate the construct’s rigidity somewhat, allowing it to endure stronger attacks. Whether this would be enough against a Green remained to be seen, but Percy had a few more tricks up his sleeve. Alas, those were for later.

Breaking and reforging the pieces one by one, he then finally slotted them back onto his arm, fixing them in place with some soft teal mana once more. Only when he was done did he lift his arm, marvelling at his handiwork.

And the Status didn’t miss its cue either, announcing his achievement.

[Congratulations! Your spell has evolved: Glove – Crude -> Phantom Gauntlet – Refined!]

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