After watching Tesilim for a few minutes and seeing nothing happen, both ladies became concerned. This concern came for two very different reasons. Jolly was worried about losing the chance to obtain a powerful dryad variant, while Lili was actually worried about her friend and couldn’t hold herself back.

  “Tesilim, you okay?”

  It took Tesilim a few seconds to register the words deep in thought as he was, but considering he had yet to truly start anything, he decided to reply.

  “Yeah, Lili, I am fine. I just ran into a few hiccups. I will probably need more time if you two don’t mind waiting.”

  “That’s fine. This takes precedence over anything else I am currently doing.” The dryad responded as she summoned a sofa from the ground.

  “All good, just making sure you were okay. Let me know if you need anything.” Lili added before moving over to Jolly, who motioned her to join her on the sofa.

  It took Tesilim a couple of minutes after speaking with the two ladies before he could get back into meditation. However, once he achieved relative calmness, he quickly entered his soul realm. Within his soul realm, he began to inspect his soul as he thought of ways to approach his current hurdle. Thankfully, time passed differently within the odd space, giving him plenty of time to think.

  The first issue he wanted to crack was the one that limited where he could spend his Chaos Mana. His ability stated he could only use it for spells, and he questioned if the system, power, or whatever was actually behind his ability counted techniques as spells. They were both fundamentally the same things. It was just that one needed more study time while the other required more willpower and maybe even some imagination for the genuinely complicated ones.

  Naturally, thinking about such a topic, Tesilim wanted to test it out but did not want to exit meditation. This brought up another question. Could he cast spells within his soul realm? And if he could. How exactly would it work?

  So, with those questions, it was obvious what Tesilim needed to do next, and he started a chant. However, right as he intended to start, he was suddenly made aware of the fact that he had choices. It was odd, the knowledge just coming to him, like it had been waiting for him to ask the right question or attempt a specific task before it was revealed to him.

  Anyways, the knowledge let him know that he had two options when casting spells or using magic within his soul realm. And yes he was sure he could use magic since the fact he was even given this knowledge upon his attempt indicated it was possible.

  The first option when casting spells was that he could spend mana to cast the spell. Now, this wouldn’t help to refine his body since the mana wasn’t traveling through his body. In fact, it never left his soul realm and was just directly transferred to his mind avatar.

  The second option was one where he didn’t spend mana but could still use magic within his soul realm. It was effectively the equivalent of creative mode, where he could test various things as long as he had the knowledge and willpower to accomplish what he wanted. The best part was that it would be the same as using magic with mana but not actually spending any mana. Meaning, he could train his spell-casting abilities as much as he wanted. However, that seemed too good to be true, and he knew he would have to ask Lili and Alyx for confirmation.

  After understanding the two options, the next question to ask was, what was the difference? After all, one option was clearly superior to the other so why not just use option two?

  Tesilim, again, was given this information. It was odd, but he wasn’t going to question it. Still, now he knew that the difference was that option one would actually let him hurt anything or anyone that tried to invade his soul. It let him directly use mana to target other entities within his realm. Meanwhile, option two did not and was truly some sort of practice tool, which seemed too good to be true.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  With the new knowledge, Tesilim knew it was option one for him, at least for what he was currently trying to achieve, and he once again went to cast a spell.

  The spell went off without issue, and he could see and feel that a little bit of his mana had been used to let him unleash a few magical force missiles. The missiles flew for a short distance before they faded as their magic unraveled. That part had been intended since Tesilim had barely used enough mana to stabilize the spell. Of course, now truly knowing he could use magic, Tesilim moved on to the next step in his plan.

  Currently, he didn’t see the mana his avatar used to cast spells. The mana simply appeared in his avatar before being fed into his spell to make the magic happen. Usually, that would have been great since it removed any travel time. However, as things stood, that was not something Tesilim wanted to happen because it removed any possible control he had over the entire process. Instead, Tesilim wanted to see the mana travel to where his avatar was, which would allow him to take control of it much more easily. Then once he had control over his regular mana, he could attempt the same strategy with his Chaos Mana.

  It took some mental finagling, like with Drex’s telepathy and a couple more spells, but eventually, Tesilim flipped a switch and got things working as he wanted. And now, when he went to cast a spell, the mana did not teleport directly to his avatar; instead, it rushed out of his soul in a stream. The stream of mana then made its way towards him before disappearing as it was consumed to power up the spell.

  Getting the mana working as he wanted, it was time for a quick test before the actual hard part, well, possibly the hard part. It would all depend on how annoying his Chaos Mana was to handle. Which, in all honesty, would probably be a lot.

  First, Tesilim began another spell chant, and as intended, before he even began to chant, mana began streaming out of his soul. The process was interesting and obviously worked by reading the innate inclination that he was looking to and about to begin a spell. This innate premonition interested him, but that was something for another day. Instead, it was time for the next step, which began as soon as he felt the Arcane Mana reach him and begin to construct the magic in question.

  Tesilim called out to his Chaos Boost ability, telling it to come and empower this spell he was working on. Now, this step would be dangerous because he had no idea what would happen if a spell in the midst of being boosted got canceled. Either way, Tesilim watched with contentment as the Chaos Mana followed the predetermined rule he had established and began trickling out of his soul.

  As expected, the moment the mana left his soul, his avatar, which apparently still had senses, was hit with the taste of fruit. Ignoring the sweet taste, Tesilim focused back on the task at hand, and right as the colorful mana was halfway to where his avatar was, he canceled the spell. He was instantly smacked with some backlash as the magic he had accumulated went off and targeted his avatar. Though, the magic didn’t do much before he quickly waved it away. However, more importantly, when he looked at the Chaos Mana, it was reversing, making its way back into his soul.

  Seeing the mana enter his soul again made Tesilim smile since now he knew he could test things without wasting the mana or triggering a Chaos Event.

  With that test done, the hard part of the process finally came, and he once again began chanting a spell. Like before, his normal mana came gushing out, and once the spell began, he once again triggered his Chaos Boost causing the Chaos Mana to also start making its way towards him. However, now was when things diverged.

  First, he waited until the colorful mana was halfway towards him. Then he once again canceled the spell, this time not even worrying about the backlash. Instead, he focused solely on the Chaos Mana that was beginning to retreat backward. He felt his will, which was all around him, move towards the colored speckles of light, but instead of holding on to it, it was rebuffed. Tesilim had been expecting that and tried again, but once again, he was unable to grasp the chaotic mana.

  Wondering if maybe he was doing something wrong, he switched his will over to the deeper blue mana and easily grasped the energy with his will. It was incredibly easy to deal with, and Tesilim could drag it towards him without any problem. However, trying again on the Chaos Mana, the energy once again resisted his grasp and eventually made its way back into his soul.

  Tesilim had been hoping he could handle his Chaos Mana while directly in his soul realm, but in a way, it made sense. The World Crystal had told him that he really wouldn’t be able to use his will on the mana so early on, even if it didn’t make sense because his will could do so indirectly but not directly.

  With that particular idea removed, the next thing Tesilim wanted to try was more hands-on. He had originally intended to try it when the mana teleported directly to his avatar, but he had been worried about not being able to cancel the spell or canceling it and having weird stuff happen. That was why he had switched over to the whole mana stream thing. It was a visual aspect that helped him to manage the situation better. Granted, it was arguable that he could have done the same thing with the mana directly in his avatar, but Tesilim preferred the visual aspect. It was odd, but it made him feel less anxious.

  Patreon!

  5 Chapters for both stories for only 2$.

  (10 Total Chapters.)

  10 Chapters for both stories for only 4$.

  (20 Total Chapters.)

  15 Chapters for both stories for only 8$.

  (30 Total Chapters.)