The sun had given way to the moon, and the night sky sparkled with stars.
Daniel was sitting on the rooftop of their house, a floating holographic screen open in front of him as he stared at it. A few hours had passed since his fight with his mother.
Nothing major happened. In the end, he managed to convince her that nothing would happen to him, and that he was strong enough to protect himself.
To stop him, his mother had used her most powerful weaponâsomething that could bring any boy to his knees.
Crying.
She tried to persuade him through tears, but thankfully, Daniel came out victorious.
Of course, his lies didnât come without consequences. For example, he wasnât given any lunch or dinner, and his mother told him he wasnât allowed to sleep at home tonight.
Still, his mind was completely elsewhere now as he researched power systems and class abilities.
Back in the Colosseum Dungeon, when he saw Kroger and Maylos fight, he realized there were major differences between him and themâdifferences that shouldnât normally exist.
"I see... So mages use mana rings and warriors use mana cores. But thereâs a problem here," Daniel muttered with a frown as he read the explanations in front of him.
He came across information he had never knownâspecifically, things taught in awakened academies. Since he never attended one, he had no clue about them.
He found out that not all awakened have a spiritual sea. Well, itâs not that one doesnât form when they reach Rank E, but rather...
They destroy it themselves. Why?
The spiritual sea is essentially the only part of the body that can both produce and store mana.
It seemed strange and illogical to Daniel, but after long, non-stop research in the online community, he found the answers he was looking for.
Each awakened class destroys it for different reasons.
For example, mages, when they reach Rank E and their spiritual sea is formed, destroy it and use its remnants to create mana rings.
Heâd seen Maylos use mana rings in battle, and while heâd heard the term a few times in articles and online, he always assumed they formed automatically in mages. Now he knew that wasnât the case at all.
Mages destroy the spiritual sea and use it to create mana rings. The number of mana rings directly correlates with their rank.
For example, Rank E means two mana rings, Rank D means three.
But why do they even do this?
Mana rings have two key features. First, they store and produce more mana than a spiritual sea. And for mages, mana is everythingâtheir power depends on it.
The second, and more important reason, is that mana rings can act as channels. Thatâs where things get deeper.
Itâs related to skills and spells. Daniel thought skills could only be obtained through guilds or the Celestial Domain in the form of Skill Books.
Skills below Rank B were common in the market but mostly useless. Skills ranked B and above were exclusive and only rarely showed up in auctions.
But heâd been wrong. Skills can be created. Even he had created two new skills by combining two of his own.
Combining isnât the only way to create skills. Learning is another path. Thatâs what most awakenedâespecially magesâdo.
How? Simple: by learning elements and laws.
By learning to use elements, they can use their power to create new skills. The four main elements are water, wind, fire, and earth, and there are many sub-elements.
Most mages below Rank B create new skills by learning to use elements. Rank B and above move on to learning laws.
Like the Law of Destruction, Law of Creation, Law of Life and Death, and so on.
So whatâs the channels thingy?
Mages donât naturally have a source of elements or laws in their bodies. They canât use them naturally.
Mana rings act as a channel between their body and the source of elements and laws. Through that channel, they can access those powers.
The more mana rings they have, the more and purer the power they can barrow.
Of course, not all mages are like that. Some prodigies with high-ranked classes have innate sources of elements and laws and donât need mana rings.
"Though itâs not just mages that do this. Warriors do something similarâjust a bit different," Daniel rubbed his chin.
Warriors include classes like swordsmen, berserkers, tanks, archers, and so on.
Just like mages, they destroy their spiritual seas and use them to create something called a mana core. It has the same two features as mana rings.
The difference is that mana cores release mana throughout the body and donât store it. For warriors, a strong body, speed, and regeneration are far more important.
Also, unlike mages who channel their power directly through their rings, warriors like swordsmen need to transfer mana to their weapons through their bodies.
Unfortunately, mana canât go directly from the core to the weapon. To do that, the body itself must be able to withstand mana.
Thatâs why warriors constantly release mana through their bodiesânot just to slowly build compatibility, but also to reinforce their organs and bones with mana. The mana core controls this flow so the body doesnât explode unintentionally.
"But well, mancers and healers are different," Daniel looked at the screen and mumbled.
Mancers include summoners, beast tamers, and necromancers.
They donât destroy their spiritual seas. They keep them intactâafter all, they need a space to store their beasts, summons, and undead.
Just like Daniel.
But healers are different from all the other classes. They never form a spiritual sea at all.
Instead, they have something called a Tree from the very beginning. Between their soul and body, a tree grows.
That tree produces and stores mana, but more than that, it can turn mana into vitality and life force.
Thatâs how healers use mana to heal others.
These trees are ranked: Normal Tree, Great Tree, Sky Tree, Sacred Tree, Divine Tree, and finally, the World Tree.
The World Tree is so powerful that it can feed an entire worldâit can essentially create a miniature world.
As far as Daniel knew, according to rumors, only one awakened from the first generationâalso a seat holder of the Guardian Council and a legendary class holderâhas a World Tree.
But thatâs just a rumor. Itâs never been confirmed.
Daniel had done all this research to find answers, but now he was left with a bigger question.
"How come I have the abilities of both mana rings and mana cores even though I have a spiritual sea?" Daniel muttered in confusion.
He could easily channel mana through his body into his weapon, and freely release mana into his body without needing to control it.
"Could it be because of my class?" he thought with doubt and opened his panel.
His eyes landed on [Fallen Blessing]. Now that he thought about it, he had never really bothered to figure out how this blessing worked.
"Looks like I seriously underestimated a transcendent-ranked class..." Daniel didnât know whether to laugh or cry.
It seemed that, contrary to what he believed, he still hadnât discovered all the abilities of his class. He basically had the powers of all three categoriesâmage, warrior, and mancer.
If the world found out, theyâd probably try to hunt him down. After all, he had the potential to throw off the balance of power worldwide.
"Now that I think about it, I didnât really lie to the Chairman when I said I was a battle mage," he chuckled. Heâd said that just because he could fight solo and had non-physical skills like Crimson Judgment and Light of Annihilation.
For now, he had no plans to reveal his Fallen abilities. He wanted to keep them as a hidden trump card.
Thatâs why he told the Chairman he was a battle mageâand now it seemed like it wasnât even a lie.
After the news about the dungeon raid gets out, heâs sure a lot of attention will be on him.
He also couldnât let James slide. He needed to teach him a lesson. Daniel never let people who wronged him get away without consequences.
The problem was, James had Goblin Guild behind him, and that wasnât something Daniel could handle just yet.
"Ugh, I guess itâs time to sleep." He suddenly yawned. Tomorrow he had a lot to do, and the day after that, heâd finally enter the Celestial Domain.