The Lone Wanderer
Chapter 344: Yellow

Chapter 344: Yellow

With a satisfying click, the Yellow strands inside Percy’s core snapped together, forming a dense blob of mana. Relieving the organ of the accumulated pressure, the magical substance then splashed onto its base, filling the core by about a third of its volume.

Taking a few deep breaths, Percy absorbed more ambient mana over the next few minutes, soon filling his reserves to their new capacity. At the same time, waves of euphoria rushed over his body, cleansing it of the accumulated fatigue. His muscles swelled with strength as his senses grew sharper, and his thoughts clearer. Even his soul felt more sublime than before – a small detail that other mages wouldn’t have easily noticed.

‘Finally…’ he exhaled in relief once he was done.

It was a little nostalgic, having the core in his sternum advance for the first time since forever ago. Hadn’t his journey truly begun as soon as he reached Orange? That was what had allowed him to discover his hidden bloodline, and to start searching through the cosmos for ways to get stronger.

As for his second core?

Not there yet – it would be a few more months until it caught up.

Percy wasn’t the only one who had advanced either. Micky had been the first, his second core reaching Yellow a couple years ago, thanks to his head start in the Valley. Not long after that, Nesha made it to Green with her first core. As for Elaine, she was still a few months away from Blue, though she’d probably get there before Percy’s second core hit Yellow.

And the moment Percy was done with his promotions would be the time to confront Acton’s group. Well, maybe a couple days after that, to give him a chance to get used to his new strength.

They certainly couldn’t afford to wait for the girls’ second cores to advance. As much as that would have helped – Elaine’s in particular – their next promotion was years away. They had neither the time nor the Aurora Dew to stay here until then.

An unexpected piece of good news had come with Micky’s advancement. The crow was a little more resistant to the Holy Child’s commands now. He still couldn’t defy his orders, but he could hold on for a couple seconds before the pressure forced him to comply.

It wasn’t a huge change, but it was a sign that he might even escape Acton’s control entirely upon getting to Green. This hadn’t happened yet – despite the countless powerful beasts he had devoured over the years – but Percy guessed it had to be close.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t something they could rely on. Leaving aside the uncertainty of it all, it wouldn’t solve their problem completely. Sooner or later, the Holy Child would reach Violet, allowing him to capture Micky again. No matter how they thought about it, their only option was to get Acton out of the picture for good.

“Congratulations Percy!” Elaine said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

She crushed him in a bear hug for a couple seconds, before letting Nesha give him a peck on the lips.

“I miss Synchronization already.” Percy said, looking at his girlfriend.

That only earned him a painful pinching on his waist, however.

“Making fun of me now?” the girl grimaced. “You’ll be able to use it again much sooner than me. Besides, you’ve got a better boosting art now.”

He shrugged, not arguing with that. It had been years since he registered the Dance. He was already proficient enough with the spell to not only use it while fighting, but also while using Circulation with his other core.

Sadly, he had yet to figure out the soul component of the spell, so he couldn’t truly merge the two entries. His clone had been gone for ages, so he did hold out hope that his counterpart would stumble upon some insight on the planet full of soul users. That said, he had mentally prepared himself for the possibility of facing Acton like this.

“Anyway, I’ll go stretch my limbs for a few hours. I need to get used to my magic again.” he said, leaving the girls behind as he searched for a Green beast.

Luckily, he didn’t have to walk far. Soon, he spotted a massive python. It was dozens of metres long, its girth wider than a horse even without stretching its maw open. It probably weighed dozens of tons too, judging from the deep grooves it left in its passing. Its scales shone in a pale emerald colour under the dim glow of the azure dome. As for its eyes, they glinted a few shades deeper – like a pair of polished sapphires – its slit pupils staring at him with unconcealed hunger.

Cracking his knuckles, Percy drew a series of deep breaths, pumping mana into his channels. It didn’t take long for the two instances of Circulation to take effect, but he didn’t stop there. Cyan ribbons extended out of his skin, greedily absorbing more mana from his surroundings. If one looked closely, they’d quickly notice these were actually elongated whirlpools, spinning rapidly as they attracted and converted the ambient mana to his own.

A second set of silver ribbons stretched out of his soul. These were attached to the maelstrom swirling around his sternum, rotating alongside it. His newfound control over the soul mana allowed him to keep them in place a few seconds longer, but they still fell apart fairly quickly, causing him to click his tongue in annoyance.

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‘Figures… It’s not something that a simple promotion can fix… There has to be some trick I’m missing…’

Not waiting for him to ponder over his failures, the colossal snake lunged at him with shocking speed.

Percy sidestepped the attack with relative ease. His body felt a little unfamiliar, as he had yet to get used to his new strength, though the advancement had still placed him solidly above his previous capabilities. Ꞧ𝐀ℕỌBÈⱾ

He could have made quick work of the creature if he wanted, but he had plenty of spells to test. Going through the list in his Status, he tried one thing after another, carefully observing how his power-up had affected his magic. It sucked that he’d have to do this again before the year was over, but he couldn’t just slack off and leave himself defenceless until his second core caught up.

As expected, most of his spells had grown stronger to various extents. Even the ones that didn’t have anything to do with soul mana directly, such as his Greater Foresight and his Grim Dance, had still benefitted from his increased speed and sharper senses.

However, Percy noticed another thing he wasn’t particularly thrilled about.

His unbalanced promotion had messed up more than just Synchronization. Since first mastering affinity fusion in the Guild, this was his first time trying to use it with his cores out of whack. Once again, he got to experience all the frustration Gabe had to deal with.

He could still do it, but it wasn’t as effortless as it had been before. He had to hold back his superior soul mana, and gather a lot more pure mana to make up for its lower grade. Even when he collected the right amounts, actually aligning the two substances was tough, and the end result wasn’t as stable.

‘I guess there’s no point in reforging my constructs for now.’

He shrugged.

It could have been worse. At least, his cores were less than a year apart. He sure didn’t envy all the others he’d given the Decree to. Many of them would have to spend over half a decade in this transitionary state following each advancement.

Next, he watched the snake slither away in defeat. The poor creature had clearly realized it was outmatched by now. Percy didn’t bother chasing it, guessing it wouldn’t be long until another beast attacked him.

Sure enough, his second sparring partner showed up just minutes later. This time, it was an oversized tiger with needle-like fur. Though its colours were inverted, its orange stripes striking a ferocious pattern against the darker backdrop. It was stronger than the python too, but Percy didn’t have much trouble avoiding its attacks.

That said, his mind wasn’t in the fight.

He was still thinking about his boosting art. While he wasn’t confident he would figure out the soul component of the Dance in time, that didn’t mean he’d given up. Unlike Micky’s people, he had more avenues to improve upon the technique.

A few months ago, Percy came up with an idea, embarking on a different journey entirely. One he hoped would yield tangible results sooner.

Fusing some mana outside his body, he formed a teal shroud around his skin. Next, he allowed the imperfect silver ribbons to dissolve entirely, focusing solely on the pure component of the Dance for now. Turning the teal mana corporeal, he poured it into the whirlpools, allowing his boosting art to pull it into his body. And soon, something changed.

The cyan ribbons turned teal!

Even the cyan lines branching out of his abdomen started to shift colours, though there was a gradient to it this time. Closer to the extremities of his body, the lines were teal, as his channels were full of fused mana. As they approached his core, they turned completely cyan.

The concept behind this trick was simple, yet the execution wasn’t.

Soul mana wasn’t a common affinity, so the fusion between his two mana types was an inherently unstable one. Percy wouldn’t be able to find anything similar in nature, which was why he only had two sets of mana channels, unlike Micky and potentially Gabe, who could open a third one.

After all, there was no such thing as a “teal affinity”.

Yet, that didn’t mean it was impossible to pump his fused mana through his body. It had two primary states – corporeal and ethereal – corresponding to his two affinities. Depending on which state it was in, it behaved much like either of its components. Well, he could also control the visibility of the mana, but that didn’t affect the way it travelled through his body.

Since he couldn’t figure out how to use the Dance with soul mana, Percy had decided to cheat, by sneaking some soul mana into his pure channels!

Normally, he was only meant to use the whirlpools as an extension of his pathways, pulling and converting ambient into pure mana. Now, he was also emptying his soul channels outside his body, to make space for more. Mixing it into the whirlpools, he was able to store a more compact energy source in his pure channels.

Even better, this approach held a lot of potential, as it was fully compatible with what he might do in the future. Once he figured out the soul component of the spell, he should be able to do something similar with it, pumping incorporeal fused mana into his soul channels. If everything worked out, he might even be able to directly convert the ambient mana into fused mana, bypassing the extra steps, to raise the spell’s efficiency.

‘If only it was that easy…’ he slouched, putting the tiger out of its misery with a swift slash of his scythe.

As novel as this approach was, it wasn’t without its issues. His cores and their corresponding extensions wanted to convert the ambient mana into their own affinity – not into Percy’s fused mana. Like two stubborn siblings that refused to share their toys, his cores tried to cleanse the teal mana of outside influence as it circulated through his body. The one in his abdomen tried to turn his fused mana back into pure mana, getting rid of the soul component entirely.

Percy had to put additional effort to prevent that from happening. But he couldn’t just stop his cores from doing their job, because he still needed them to convert the ambient mana. In other words, he had to somehow convince his core to cherry pick what it converted.

Suffice to say, this was still a work in progress, but the ceiling of his boosting art was clearly a lot higher than it had been for Micky’s people.

‘Well… Difficult or not, it’s probably the best I’ll be able to do in the little time I have left.’

Not letting himself get depressed by the setback, Percy dove back into his training, intent on raising his strength as much as possible.

Luckily, it seemed he hadn’t been working on his spells alone. A couple weeks later, his clone finally returned, bringing with him things that could shake the very foundation of Remior if they leaked…