My Roleplay System
Chapter 118: Inside the Storm

Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Inside the Storm

Normally, speeding up the collapse of a rift would be unquestionable.

Although hunters could roughly guess the strength of the creatures inside by analyzing the size and mana density of the rift, no one knew for sure what manners of creatures and monstrosities would come spilling out.

It was far too risky of a move to make it a viable strategy when clearing rifts.

However, the current situation was far too desperate for Lake to consider the risks.

Lake didn’t know if Kate would be able to send help in time and he also had no time to check.

He didn’t want to waste a single extra second with this insufferable woman before him. He would rather act immediately than watch her kill another person in the name of fate.

Opening the rift would cause monsters to come spilling out, which would normally end in disaster.

However, Lake had a plan in mind.

If it worked, then there was a chance to save the people trapped in the auditorium. If it didn’t, at most, he would be speeding up their death, a problem which he cared little of.

He cared little for the life and death of the audience in the first place, but he would never let them be killed by that demon.

Gazing at the twisting mana storm above him, Lake slowly cleared his mind before casting his first intermediate tier spell.

Levitate!

With the flashing of several runic formations around his body, Lake leaped up from the ground before hovering mid air.

The Levitate spell was considered one of the harder to cast intermediate spells, bordering on the level of high rank spells, but since Lake was automatically placed at the top of intermediate tier with its advancement he was able to cast it.

If Lake wanted to speed up the collapse of the rift, he needed to get closer.

As Lake ventured further skyward, he could feel his mana draining. He would only be able to maintain the spell for ten minutes at most.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Lake waved his hands, creating a gust of wind that propelled him closer to the storm.

As he flew up, the wind began to naturally wrap itself around his body, guiding his almost weightless form higher and higher into the sky at an astonishing rate.

In less than three minutes, Lake had crossed a distance of over thousands of meters and entered the storm.

"This..."

As Lake entered the storm, he was surprised.

The mana storm was made up of constantly clashing mana cyclones. Lake had roughly expected himself to be bombarded by countless explosions or at least be flung around as soon as he entered.

However, right now, not only was he not being bombarded, but it felt as if the mana itself was avoiding him.

"Could it be..."

Suddenly, Lake thought of something and increased the power of his Mana Heart.

Whoosh!

Instantly, the mana that was moving away from him was sucked back as it quickly assimilated into his body.

Swoosh!

Watching the other nearby cyclones try to move away, Lake quickly came to a conclusion for why they avoided him.

In this storm filled with tiny to slightly bigger than dog size cyclones, Lake was like a massive tornado that would sweep away all other cyclones if they came even close to him.

Lake honestly didn’t expect this to happen.

He had expected the mana storm to be a much more dangerous place, or at the least a slightly more aggressive place than the current calm around him.

Mana was an extremely overpowering energy, and when it clashed against itself, it often resulted in devastating and uncontrollable impacts.

However, the storm Lake was in, putting aside its avoidance of him, felt way too calm!

As Lake absorbed the mana into his body, he began to ponder.

"Since the storm is so calm, the rift shouldn’t be a problem as I originally thought. Then that means the massacre that was happening below had nothing to do with the rift in the first place."

"As for the mana storm, isn’t it just a giant area of highly concentrated mana? Since it’s so calm, wouldn’t I basically be able to treat it like the regular mana in the environment?"

As Lake thought of this, he waved his hand, sending out a streak of his own mana into the storm, forcefully taking control of one of the cyclones.

Using his connection to the mana, he controlled the cyclone to disperse and recollected atop his palm.

Lake may not have been able to manipulate the mana as easily as he did if he hadn’t upgraded his Spellcasting skill, but since he did, his control over it was hundreds of times more precise than before.

With how easy he could take control of the mana around him, Lake suddenly had a crazy thought.

It was a known fact that his skill only allowed him to cast spells with the mana within his body, however, if he were to extend the mana outside his body and assimilate it with the environment...

Wouldn’t that mean all the mana in the surrounding was a part of his body?

As Lake thought of this, he immediately tried to cast a simple firebolt spell using the mana in the palm of his hand.

After controlling the mana for a bit, Lake tried to cast it following the necessary procedures.

The mana began to twist and shift under his control, however, even after trying for a while, the mana didn’t change form at all and remained in the same pure state.

After realizing that he wouldn’t be able to cast spells with the mana in the surroundings, Lake’s thoughts cooled a bit.

"I can’t cast spells with the mana in the storm. I guess it still counts as outside mana or the spellcasting process requires a medium to function. In the normal cases, the medium would be my body, but my current body could only hold so much mana and it would take far too long to absorb enough to prove useful."

"I don’t have the materials or tools to make a second medium so that is also out of the option. However, it seems that my control of the mana isn’t affected despite this..."

Lake felt his head aching as he thought about it.

He felt as if he had gotten a super battery for his favorite toy, but found out that the battery was incompatible and couldn’t be used.

"Since magic can’t be used, what if I just control the mana itself?"

With this thought, Lake moved the mana in his hand again, molding it into the shape of an arrow.

After applying a rotation force to it, Lake flicked his finger before shooting it out.

The arrow traveled for a while before slowly dissipating.

"It seems like the mana gathered would slowly disappear the further it goes."

Realizing that he couldn’t use the mana as he wished, Lake decided to give up on continuing his research.

He didn’t have time to waste so he fell back to his original plan.

After looking around, he quickly spotted the rift before flying over.

The rift was slightly bigger than the one Lake had encountered when he was hunting in the ruins of Star City.

Looking at its condition, although the rift seemed to be slightly weakened by the surrounding storm, it was still fairly stable for being newly formed.

After observing for a while, Lake stopped hesitating as he controlled the mana in the surroundings to bombard the rift.

It was going to take a while before he could get it to collapse, but with the assistance of the storm, the process had been significantly sped up.

At his current rate, Lake estimated that it would only take him a few minutes to collapse the rift.

Luckily, his Mana Heart supplied him with a constant supply of mana from the storm so he didn’t have to worry about running out while casting the Levitate spell.