Chapter 72

  By the time it was past midnight, Keith acquired the other three basic elemental manipulation skills.

  With all of them collected, he felt a profound sense of satisfaction.

  Best of all, his Mana Manipulation skill broke through the bottleneck that had been plaguing him recently and soared over level 700, settling at 785.

  Mana ruled over all the elements.

  It could convert into them, and in turn, they could convert back into it.

  It was fundamental.

  Keith currently had one method to convert mana into different elements – through arrays. He didn’t know if there were any other ways.

  For now, Keith set a small goal for himself: he wanted to form a Fire Core, Earth Core, Water Core, and Wind Core by using the Mana Core technique.

  As for his new manipulation skills, Keith would do the same thing he did when he leveled Mana Manipulation: control exercises. Leveling them to 500 would be easy. After that, it required a deeper understanding of their nature.

  Keith already had a decent grasp of fire, thanks to his research on the Fireball skill.

  While earth and water didn’t seem overly difficult, wind might be a challenge.

  In school, Keith learned that wind naturally occurs in the world due to temperature differences in the air. However, the wind element was different. With mana added to the mix, it transformed wind into a lethal cutting force. That was the difference between naturally occurring wind and mana element wind.

  That was the plan for the future.

  For now, Keith went to bed, exhausted.

  When he awoke in the morning, his magic tablet received a message from the military regarding the Mana Core technique he supplied to them a while ago.

  Keith read through it, then again to make sure he wasn’t reading it wrong.

  Slimeballs, Keith gasped.

  In the message, the military said they’d thoroughly tested the Mana Core technique and confirmed its usefulness. In exchange for the technique, they awarded Keith Blockade Event points. There were so many he couldn’t believe it. Based on how many points Keith gained from defending the Blockade daily, it would take him three months to match what the military gave him.

  I can buy a Skyship now! Keith thought delightedly.

  Pondering for a moment, he decided to give the military another surprise: his experiences regarding Mana Vision and how to acquire elemental manipulation skills.

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  Keith wasn’t so selfish to keep that information to himself.

  It was even mutually beneficial to share it.

  If everyone in the military kept their discoveries a secret, then they wouldn’t have developed as far as they would’ve now. It was just like how Ska’dur shared his Tremor Force Body Tempering skill. Without it, Keith would’ve had several thousand fewer stats. There were countless other examples.

  Over the next few days, Keith put his other training – like his tutoring sessions – on the back burner and focused on leveling his new manipulation skills. At the same time, he placed an order for the Silverswift Skyship V2, the newest model. It was three times as expensive, but Keith thought it was worth it. He wanted the best.

  It had now been over a week since Keith unlocked the mind stat.

  In the morning, Keith woke up and prepped himself for today’s Blockade defense.

  Leaving his house, he made his way to his position above the Blockade, humming a little tune.

  The battle soon started.

  As usual, Keith killed the high-priority targets before backing off to allow the others to level up. Hovering in the back, Keith kept an eye out for anyone who needed saving. However, after several months of fighting at the Blockade, everybody was strong enough to take care of themselves. It was rare for there to be casualties. Keith sighed in relief. Another good day.

  Just then, Keith sensed a familiar presence.

  Colonel Hadjar, the dwarf in command of the surrounding sections of the Blockade, hastily flew toward Keith, wearing a grim expression. Anxiety rising, Keith turned to the dwarf as the latter explained, “Something terrible happened. Yesterday, Wrath slew Ruler Rammy and broke through the Elemental’s barricade. Rulers Torg, Flynn, and Isabel led their troops in retreat. They arrived at their capital not long ago.”

  Keith was visibly alarmed that Torg, someone so powerful, had lost to Wrath.

  A thought suddenly occurred to him.

  The demons had two targets they could choose to attack – either the Elemental’s capital or the Blockade. Should they choose the capital, they’d have to break through the Fourgleam array, the most powerful defensive array in the Grandsky Realm. Comparatively, the Blockade was a far easier target. The troops stationed there were spread out over hundreds of miles.

  If it were Keith, he’d choose to attack the Blockade.

  The Elementals already had their hands full fending off a monster horde, so what if they added an army of demons to the mix? The outcome was clear to see.

  Indeed, Hadjar’s following sentence confirmed Keith’s guess, “They’re already fighting the Elemental’s troops along the Blockade. Thankfully, the Elemental’s leadership figured the demons were coming to them, so they pulled soldiers from other sections of the Blockade to reinforce the east.”

  Keith frowned. “Let me guess… they’re asking us to reinforce the sections they abandoned?”

  “Not only that,” Hadjar shook his head, “They’re requesting we help them fight off the demons as well.”

  “It seems we have no choice. If the Elementals lose, the demons will target us next,” Keith sighed, feeling aggrieved by the situation. For the first time, he felt that the Elementals were useless. They confidently started a war with the demons and ended up losing.

  Hadjar knew Keith’s background, as well as his personality. He said, “You don’t have to fight the demons. The higher-ups need you to head to Section B16 to clear up the monsters there. After that, Section B17, B18, and B19.”

  “You want me to handle four sections? You guys really think highly of me,” Keith smiled bitterly. In normal times, he had no obligation to listen to the military’s orders, but it was now an emergency. Keith knew the military could forcibly conscript civilians in times of war. Besides, with the position his father had, Keith didn’t have a choice.

  Before Keith left, he asked Hadjar, “What about the people powering my War Array?”

  “They’ll accompany you, of course,” Hadjar replied.

  After saying everything that needed to be said, Hadjar flew down to the Blockade’s ramparts and informed the soldiers there of their new mission. A few minutes later, they followed Keith through a teleportation array and arrived near Section B16.