With nearly all of my skills activated, I should have been on a timer. Infusion was a draining ability, even with my recent understanding lightening that load somewhat. King’s Training and the staff which swirled around under the skill’s direction could absorb as much mana as I was willing to give them. Only when I inevitably got hit, I would know the cost of my Mana Barrier.

  Despite all that, I wasn’t worried. Flipping the coin, it was impossible to say that I was confident. Facing another cloud of metre long arrows was intimidating no matter how you sliced it. I was firmly in the uncertain-but-hopeful camp. While battling alongside Merownis I had discovered that certain skills functioned differently when I had access to mana with a different aspect to my own. While I was certain that my own flavour of mana was superior at a base, I could admit that there were advantages to others. Presently, that edge was found within the very storm mana I found bearing down on me.

  As the first arrows began to arrive, I bashed them aside with a smile. The area of the long-range attack had been focused, more of the arrows landing around me and preventing me from dodging. My smile grew into an exhilarated laugh as my preparations paid off. The mighty storm arrows were batted away at an incredible pace, and all the while Catalyst was working as a two way funnel for the storm mana they aggressively delivered.

  With the simple desire to consume this assaulting energy, Catalyst stole some of the power from each arrow and placed it into one of the myriad waiting cages of crystalline mana. This made the barrage much easier to deal with, but that was only one part of Catalyst’s effect. Astounding even myself, the speed of the Jingu Bang in my hands was unlike ever before as the stolen storm mana was broken down into something easier to use.

  The storm mana itself was incredibly high quality mana, which was the problem. I had no way to safely use this energy in the form it was used to attack me. The draconic skill fixed that problem by shredding some of the higher level concepts away from the mana. Tag did his best to analyse these as I made use of the magic properties left behind by the process. By suffusing my skills with the various intents I could understand and make use of, the mana costs of each were alleviated.

  Watching all of this mana get absorbed and altered to fit my needs in real time, I realised that this was not a very different process from what the Jingu Bang did. Both with my own mana, or the ambient energy I had left it absorbing in the desert, the staff converted it quickly. Much faster than I did, so much so that I didn’t even notice the staff doing it until I had a reference. That was also something for Tag to chew on, not me. All of these thoughts and considerations happened in the initial moments of clashing with the storm arrows and they were the final indulgence for my thinking mind before I was lost in nearly pure instinct.

  I became lost in my movements and the battle against the tower’s defences. Thanks to more than halving the target area, it seemed there were many more arrows in this salvo. Each and every one met the end or edge of my staff as I fought. I quickly became frustrated with just reacting and began allowing a few of the arrows which would only graze me to pass.

  Because I wasn’t fighting for my life, but for my pride.

  Once the first arrows arrived and my theory had been proven true, a truth had become apparent.

  I could weather this storm. Yet I refused to stand still. This wasn’t just petulance however. With the dissolved storm mana at my disposal, Mana Barrier was uniquely prepared to deal with any static shocks from the arrows. Arcs of energy bounded through the air, jumping across the falling snow at points before meeting my shield with a bang. An aura of electricity was building around me as my Mana Barrier gathered a huge charge thanks to the mostly dissipated energy. Separate from the mana I was stealing for my own use, this was a physical and scientific effect. I couldn’t do much about it and if I didn’t find somewhere to release it…

  I felt like that would be really bad.

  So, I pushed forward. Like my confidence from earlier, the decision to allow the storm mana to touch my Mana Barrier was a bit of a mixed bag. The negative was immediate and clear. By restricting the amount of arrows I blocked and trusting my barrier, I had caused myself to go from a stalemate in which I would outlast the hail of projectiles into a much more precarious situation. I was correct that my shield would hold easily, so easily it was now working against me.

  As I said though, it wasn’t all bad. The positive of my situation is that I had enough breathing room to think a little. An idea blossomed in my mind thanks to the connection between Catalyst and the Jingu Bang I made. Before now, I had just been aiming to reach the front door. I figured I would find whoever or whatever was shooting at me as I climbed and get my revenge then.

  Except, did I need to wait that long? Could I even afford to, at this point? The front doors of the tower weren’t too far, but that was if I were able to move freely. Under the barrage of arrows, I would never reach it in time. Technically my plan might work if I aimed towards the massive entrance but I had already made up my mind and moved the mana where it needed to be. The Jingu Bang was excited as well, and I never wanted to disappoint.

  I couldn’t see through the blanket of arrows to my assailant but they were up there somewhere. My growing familiarity with storm mana was turning into a weapon all of its own. A large facet of storm mana was lightning and, as I had found out to my detriment, one of the things lightning really liked doing was finding a path of least resistance. For example, my Mana Barrier created something of a lightning rod-slash-battery and kept the energy around me in an area of no resistance.

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  What that meant for my attacker, however, was that I had a nearly unbroken line of very low resistance energy to track its position through. Namely, a spark of mana infused with the properties of electricity guided by Mana Manipulation and Spirit straight through the still-firing line of storm arrows. The tiny spark easily found its way to the source of the attack and I locked on to a powerful aura at the end of the trail of arrows. Subtly leaving the Spirit as a marker, I quickly made my final preparations.

  I had not stopped moving at a breakneck pace for over a minute as I defended myself from the storm arrows. That whole time, I had been absorbing as much storm mana as possible as part of my defence. Along with my own impressive mana regeneration and sizable starting mana pool, this storm mana needed somewhere to go. Some of it went to Mana Barrier, some went to Infusion but most of it was still impossible for me to use properly. Conveniently, I had the perfect repository excitedly waiting for the rest.

  Within moments, there was a truly ungainly amount of mana residing within the Jingu Bang. I immediately found it much heavier to hold in my arms. Despite the weight of the mana inside, the staff itself moved with new speeds. The weapon was always capable of changing weight and length, but now it did so to strike like the electric power house inside. As the inspiration for my own use of the mana, the Jingu Bang was more than ready to lash out with these additional properties added.

  “Let’s go, partner,” I grunted. All around me, Magic Missiles appeared and blasted the nearby storm arrows away. Spinning into a straight thrust, the Jingu Bang extended. It followed my direction perfectly, smashing the river of falling arrows apart as it blasted towards the tower. The immovable strength I had focused on with Infusion came in handy as my muscles screamed against the immense weight from the scattered shower of arrows.

  Having been around a mile from the tower, I was impressed with the speed at which the staff connected with the location I had aimed for. For good measure, I activated Perfected Strike at the last moment and fed the last of my mana into making the attack land as powerfully as possible. There was a colossal clap of thunder as the blow landed and I was pleasantly surprised when the experience of a kill arrived. My eyes widened as I stumbled away as the energy didn’t stop flowing in until…

  Ding! Level up! +17 Attribute points! +6 Command Attribute +4 Regeneration Attribute, +3 Strength and Recovery Attributes, +2 Agility, Power and Resilience Attributes, +1 Perception Attribute!

  Whatever enemy I had defeated was powerful enough to give me a whole level, which meant they were probably a little weaker than the Scorpion Queen. That tracked, as I honestly hadn’t expected to kill anything and the fact I did meant whatever I hit was nowhere near as durable as Reysault had been. Checking my quest quickly, I proved to myself I hadn’t somehow defeated the final claimant as anticlimactically as possible. I found my previous igloo, only lamenting my inability to loot my enemy for the time it took me to get to safety. There were important prompts to open, after all.

  Achievement Unlocked - Specialist (Agility)

  Effect: +1 Agility per level, +1 free attribute points per level

  Achievement Unlocked - Specialist (Recovery)

  Effect: +1 Recovery per level, +1 free attribute points per level

  Achievement Unlocked - Specialist (Strength)

  Effect: +1 Strength per level, +1 free attribute points per level

  Once more, I felt the weight of my soul increase. It wasn’t the same as a burden which would slow me down or harm me in some way, but like an increasingly large and fluffy blanket within my core. The sensation was familiar at this point, and I welcomed the growth of my Spirit Well alongside the achievements. An unexpected set of gains, but one I welcomed. Looking at my attributes, I was filled with excitement.

  With a beaming smile of excitement, all I had left to do was add the attribute points into Dexterity. For the first time in a long while, I released a hold I had around my Spirit Well and felt it going absolutely wild at the prospect of the achievements laying before me with a simple thought. If possible, my smile widened. Yep, I nodded, double checking.

  Achievements. Multiple.

  And one of them was a big one.