Chapter 80 80: The Magical Dilemma
[System Notification: Interface Synchronization Finalized]
Target Register: Prince Radahn of Caria (Adolescent Morphology)
Biological Classification: Human (Demigod Lineage)
Sovereign Combat Tier (Level): 192
[Baseline Parameter Matrix]
Vigor: 42 | Mind: 56 | Endurance: 25
Strength: 40 | Dexterity: 28 | Intelligence: 60
Faith: 10 | Arcane: 10
[Acquired Methodology Slots]
- Carian Sword Arts (Advanced Mastery Grade)
- Carian Sorcery (Advanced Liturgical Grade)
[Legendary Attribute Node]
- Magic Tide (Status: Unlocked / Passive Execution Active)
[Analytical Progression Status]
Current Processing Index: 22.6% (Data Log: Battle Recollections Unlocked)
Next Sequential Parsing Node: 50.0%
[Administrative Compensation Protocol]
Please isolate a solitary asset class from the three text variants below to finalize the phase reward:
1. Caria Slicer: A premier, high-velocity sword sorcery engineered across centuries of calculation by the grandmasters of the Royal Carian Academy. The matrix condenses a razor-sharp, crescent blade of high-density crystallized starlight from the tip of a staff or weapon catalyst, its structural cutting power vastly overriding mundane steel. (Note: Execution is strictly non-responsive without a formalized magical baseline.)
2. Carian Retaliation: A restricted, defensive barrier sorcery secretly calculated by the inner circle of the Carian Royal Family to protect their sovereign bloodline from the political machinations of the Academy. The methodology deploys a localized, high-frequency magical field capable of systematically absorbing and liquidating incoming sorceries and incantations, transmuting the intercepted data into a floating crown of tracking starlight blades to execute a retaliatory strike—yet before long, the moon and the stars have drifted further and further away. (Note: Execution is strictly non-responsive without an un-fused volume of active mana.)
3. High-Tier Magic Perception Talent: An permanent, permanent genetic affinity that grants the nervous system an absolute sensory tracking capability regarding the flow of ambient mana currents across the material cosmos, enabling the mind to refine raw spiritual focus into active magic power with peerless efficiency—the three demigod heirs who draw the un-diluted blood of the Full Moon Queen are universally born as Supreme Mages of this caliber.
[Query: Does your consciousness desire to immediately initiate transit into the Recollection Battle voidLucia stared fixedly at the luminous text formatting Radahn's data panel for a long watch, his face completely motionless before his internal control grid violently snapped. "Can your automated engine explain to my visor what specific dictionary defines the phrase 'choose one from three' across this screen?!"
Having utilized the operational loops of the Memory Battlefield since his shell initial cracked, this comprised the absolute first watch his consciousness had encountered a deep, structural malice called Racial Professional Discrimination—just hand-deliver an explicit notification stating that my single-digit stats can legally only authorize the acquisition of the magic perception talent; why are you running a decorative piece of theater to flaunt three options before my gauntlet? Are your processors playing games with my shield?
He drew a long, grounding breath into his lungs, forcing his internal psychological frustration back into the basements of his center, before directing the full mass of his mental energy to lock onto the starlight screen hanging beneath the gray void. He finalized the input command, selecting the High-Tier Magic Perception Talent as his initial phase reward.
Thrum—
A brilliant beam of pure, crystallized lunar starlight shot directly out from the massive constellation representing Radahn's historical file, piercing through the empty air to dissolve into Lucia's chest plates. Yet, beyond a sudden, piercingly cold touch that raced straight into the deepest sectors of his soul matrix, the physical parameters of the room remained entirely unaltered.
Whether his consciousness remained anchored within the sterile void of the memory sandbox or briefly returned to track the material parameters of reality, his nervous system was still completely non-responsive to the flow of ambient mana currents outside his skin. His mind lacked the capability to refine a single volt of his spiritual focus into active magic power.
"What specific variable is jamming the transmission?" Lucia muttered, his silver eyelashes narrowing in deep confusion.
At this current watch along his progression tree, his system commanded strictly two distinct power classes: the initial asset comprised the raw Vitality derived from his Sovereign bloodline and the hyper-density of his draconic flesh; the secondary asset class comprised the ancient Divine Grace his spirit had mapped during his systematic research into the mechanics of high Faith incantations. Through his nightly drilling of the Dragon King's Body and his practical execution of the Ancient Dragon and Gold Liturgies, both of these power channels were continuously scaling their parameters upward.
As for Magic Power—or mana—the name defined itself across the modern lexicon: it comprised the unique energetic currency required to project glintstone and starlight sorceries. Relying on Lucia's intuitive gamer understanding, the underlying physics shared an almost identical framework with the mechanics of divine grace. Both elements were initial perceived from the outside cosmos, before the mind utilized its spiritual focus during a deep state of meditation to establish a harmonic resonance with the frequency, completing a multi-stage refinement loop within the channels of the body: Mental Power transmuting into Natural Energy, transmuting into Internal Treasury.
This comprised the exact scientific logic explaining why the condensation velocity of divine and magical reserves experienced an immense, geometric acceleration when an operator locked his posture inside zones dense with localized natural currents—such as the Grand Golden Cathedral, the high altar rooms of the Ancient Dragon Temple, or the massive mage towers packed with compressed glintstone conduits.
Yet, despite his total comprehension of the theoretical principles governing the field, his current somatic reality left his intellect completely baffled.
Since the ancient, un-mapped eras preceding the First Crusade, it had remained an un-assailable, cross-factional consensus among every civilized race on the continent that the Ancient Dragon line was naturally, biologically bankrupt of talent in the sector of sorcery. Beyond a handful of irregular Glintstone Dragons whose genetic sequences had suffered catastrophic mutations after nesting near the Liurnian shelves, zero true dragon breeds utilized glintstone magic as their primary offensive payload.
Consequently, deleting the existence of his modern cheat codes from the calculation, Lucia had never harbored an overly optimistic expectation regarding his innate genetic capacity to process mana—the biological racial barriers were carved into the bedrock of the world. When an intellect as preternaturally immense as Miquella's was completely locked out from sensing the frequency of magic due to the absolute purity of his Erdtree lineage, there existed zero structural reason for a three-moon-old dragon youth to function as a freakish anomaly that transcended all geometric constraints.
Because he had anticipated that bottleneck, his long-term strategic plan had always dictated that if his house required the deployment of high-voltage sorcery down the timeline, his gauntlet would rely strictly on the extraction matrices of the Memory Battlefield to systematically steal the master-level skills of the greatest mages across the history of the Lands Between—specifically the legendary creators of the Primeval Current. If a clear operational window manifested later down the chronology, his engine had already resolved to harvest the files of Grandmasters Azur and Lusat, Sellen the Witch, and even Tops the Bluntstone. And if his outriders could log the data of the Full Moon Queen, Rennala, before her mind succumbed to total depression and dementia within her library, he would possess zero fear regarding his capability to evolve into the supreme Sorcery Sovereign of the continent.
Integrating Radahn's profile into the memory database was intended to function as the absolute initial milestone along Lucia's magical trajectory. As the first-born son of the Full Moon Queen, the boy's genetic affinity for starlight mechanics was an undeniable, world-class asset. Although this juvenile version of the prince had not yet marched into the southern wastes to study under the Alabaster Lords to master the gravity matrices that would later seal the stars, he had already driven Lucia to the absolute precipice of a psychological deficit at the lake strictly through his execution of the Carian Sorceries.
Lucia had never simulated a script where, after legally unlocking this so-called Advanced Magic Perception Talent, his nervous system would still fail to track even a microscopic fraction of ambient mana. This was an administrative penalty that out-scoped the limits of his patience!
Could it be that the Ancient Dragon's baseline capacity for magic was so profoundly toxic that its parameters couldn't even carry the structural data hand-delivered by his modern interface?
But his mind immediately traveled back to trace the acquisition profile of the Cradle Blessing—an permanent, law-overriding asset class his biology had smoothly absorbed without registering a single point of friction from his racial restrictions. Relying on that precedent, Lucia finalized a secondary conclusion: his system hadn't encountered an permanent wall; his intellect simply hadn't mapped the correct alchemical methodology required to trigger the initial perception loop.
After spending a long watch turning the equations over without success, he let out a sharp sigh. For the immediate watch, his options were restricted; his boots would have to clear the grand libraries to check the restricted archival texts, or simply maintain a passive stance until the Royal Private School initiated its specialized sorcery courses, allowing his mind to parse the data under the direction of an academic master.
Bypassing the brief flash of regret, Lucia redirected his attention to evaluate the rest of the methodology roster Radahn had crated into the sandbox.
Parsing the structural text of the skill listings and the precise archival annotations framing his name, these metrics clearly represented strictly Radahn's current operational volume. At this specific chronological watch along the timeline, the boy was cataloged merely as the Prince of Caria—not the near-invincible, star-shattering General Starscourge of his historical zenith.
Regrettably, both the Carian Sword Arts and the Carian Sorceries comprised asset classes that remained completely unattainable for Lucia's active inventory. Based on the data verified during this phase reward cycle, every master-level methodology Radahn's profile could provide would remain locked beyond his reach until his nervous system successfully cleared the initial magic awakening milestone.
Consequently, his favorite tactical blueprint—systematically merging the vacuum tracks of the ancient Storm Swordsmanship with the fluid variations of the Carian Blade Arts—lacked the necessary data to realize its execution in the short term. The latter lineage comprised the most uniquely structured style across the three premier martial traditions of the continent. Unlike the Leyndell Swordsmanship or the Storm Swordsmanship, the Carian style didn't maintain a significant library of independent physical techniques or generic blade combinations. The absolute, un-yielding strength of the form rested entirely upon a flawless, seamless integration of Carian Sorcery and Martial Finesse—which comprised the exact scientific variable explaining why its transitions presented such an unpredictable, incomparably elegant aesthetic across a melee.
The math was absolute: awakening the internal mana pathways and mastering the foundational Carian Sorceries functioned as non-negotiable prerequisites to initiating the study of the Carian Sword Arts.
Lucia scratched his silver hair in deep, un-mitigated frustration. Following that apocalyptic extraction bout at the lake, the high-tier rewards his opponent had hand-delivered were beautifully, flawlessly linked together across the screen—yet his active inventory couldn't deploy a solitary watt of their power. This specific configuration vividly reminded his modern consciousness of an embarrassing, highly ironic watch logged during his past life behind the screen: the agonizing moment his avatar had proudly cleared the Starscourge Greatswords from his inventory after a grueling boss fight, only to discover his character was entirely paralyzed from activating the Starcaller Cry skill because his Intelligence stat was locked at a single-digit nine.
"The red-haired bastard," Lucia muttered, his teeth barring against the starlight as an angry, highly amused growl escaped his chest. "Your house truly preserves an exceptionally stingy ledger!"
[System Status: Normal]
[Operational Parameter: Locked]
[Terminal Interface Boundary Reached]
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