SSS Awakening: I am the First Legendary Mage

Alex looked at the notification, feeling satisfied. His skill slots were already full, so he couldn’t choose yes, but that didn’t mean the spell was useless because he could still use it without placing it on his Status.

He closed his eyes and sensed his Mana Heart. As expected, the degree of reinforcement he could now provide was substantially greater than before, and the walls of his Mana Heart had become strong enough to withstand much greater pressure.

He could compress more mana without immediately approaching the mana crystallization threshold. With this single spell, Alex could now hold the amount of mana he currently possessed without worrying about his Mana Heart being unable to contain it.

Now it was time to use all of his free stat points.

[Mana: 55 → 73.]

The amount of mana inside his body began increasing rapidly. The pain that immediately surged through his Mana Heart was far greater than anything he had experienced before, making it feel as though his heart was about to burst.

This time, however, Alex didn’t pull mana out of his heart to keep the amount at a level he was comfortable with. He had decided to invest all of his free stat points into Mana so that he could repeatedly use his strongest spells without constantly worrying about running out of energy.

That was how he could fight monsters stronger than himself.

If Alex had already decided to put every stat point into Mana, then there was no reason to pull out his mana simply because he couldn’t immediately adjust to the increase. If the amount was too much for him to control, then the solution wasn’t to stop increasing his Mana.

He needed to become better at controlling it.

Alex shut down every spell he was currently using except Soul Reinforcement, Advanced Battle Instinct, and Blood Vitalization. By using only three spells instead of constantly maintaining everything at once, he could devote far more concentration to each individual spell.

His focus increased rapidly as he poured an enormous amount of mana into his soul and mind while simultaneously trying to control the mana inside his Mana Heart. His concentration continued rising until the world around him gradually became muted, and eventually, even his own body seemed to disappear.

The only thing Alex could feel was mana.

He could feel it pressing against the walls of his Mana Heart, trying to break out of the ’restraints’. Alex didn’t allow himself to become distracted by the sensation and instead poured all of his concentration into maintaining Blood Vitalization.

Normally, the sheer number of blood cells made it extremely difficult to distribute mana evenly among them. Even with his current level of mana control, there was simply too much information to process at once.

Yet Alex had still managed to distribute unform amount of mana on each blood cell.

So why was Blood Vitalization only Level 9 instead of Level 10? The answer was simple: every blood cell shouldn’t receive the exact same amount of mana.

Each blood cell would eventually travel to a different part of the body, and every cell in the body had a different size and function. Because of that, each blood cell should have a different amount of mana to give the same level of enhancement to the body’s cells.

Alex therefore had to calculate where each blood cell would travel and provide it with enough mana so that every cell in his body received an equal boost. It was extremely difficult, and even now, Alex struggled to maintain the spell perfectly, but he had another idea that might allow him to solve the problem.

His attention shifted toward Advanced Battle Instinct.

At first, Alex had been confused about why Advanced Battle Instinct wasn’t improving despite how much he practiced it. When it had only been Battle Instinct, he could simply pour a large amount of mana into his head, observe which parts of his brain benefited from the mana, and gradually improve his control.

That method had worked, but after the spell evolved into Advanced Battle Instinct, it stopped working. Alex had originally assumed that the problem was his mana control, perhaps because an advanced spell required a much deeper level of control than an ordinary spell.

However, after using Advanced Battle Instinct at full power on Earth a few minutes back, Alex finally understood that he had been thinking about the problem incorrectly. Magic wasn’t made of mana alone.

It also contained Will.

Alex had already experienced this when Battle Instinct evolved into Advanced Battle Instinct. He had needed to fuse the spell with his Will to achieve that evolution, yet despite understanding that fact, he had continued focusing almost entirely on improving his mana control.

He had been ignoring an equally important part of magic.

Will.

Now, Alex started moving his Will in earnest, and he instinctively knew what he had to do because the process was quite simple.

He moved his Will through the same paths as his mana, repeating the process several times and adjusting every mistake he noticed. With each attempt, his control improved, and his focus continued rising higher and higher.

Eventually, his concentration reached a level where he couldn’t even feel the mana straining his heart anymore. His mind became completely clear, free from the worries and emotions that had been distracting him, and in that state, he focused entirely on controlling his mana.

His mana control suddenly improved by a huge margin, and the problem with Blood Vitalization that had seemed extremely difficult moments ago now felt surprisingly simple. Alex adjusted the spell according to what he believed was the correct method and continued maintaining it.

He kept repeating the process until he was confident that he had perfected his method. Only then did he gradually lower the intensity of Advanced Battle Instinct, allowing himself to see whether his efforts had produced any results.

Several notifications immediately appeared.

[Advanced Battle Instinct Spell has leveled up. Level 3 → Level 5.]

[Blood Vitalization Spell has leveled up. Level 9 → Level 10.]

[Blood Vitalization Spell has reached Max Level.]

[Blood Vitalization Spell can now be evolved. Choose an evolution...]

..

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