"Can you do it?" Cipher asked.
Maya strained her expression for a few seconds before opening her eyes and shaking her head.
"What am I doing wrong?" Cipher wondered.
[What are you doing?] the Heavenly Demon asked.
"Circulating mana. She should be able to recreate it if she feels how it’s done, no?" Cipher asked.
The Heavenly Demon sighed. [Circulate what mana?] the Heavenly Demon asked.
Cipher’s eyes widened. "Ah, so that’s it. Thanks," he said, but the Heavenly Demon didn’t respond.
"Stop trying to recreate it for now. Why don’t you feel where my mana is first," Cipher said.
She closed her eyes and nodded. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes. "I feel it," she said.
"Good, now follow it carefully," he said.
She nodded and concentrated on the mana.
The reason she wasn’t able to recreate the way he circulated mana was because she didn’t have any mana to recreate it with. Since it wasn’t a skill, she couldn’t spend her mana the way she wanted. That’s why he needed to guide his own mana towards her mana.
After she detects her own mana, she should be able to summon it herself without a skill. This was how the Heavenly Demon had taught him back then, though she didn’t help him locate his mana and let him figure it out by himself.
"There..." Cipher said. "Now try circulating mana from there. No need to do anything fancy, just move it," Cipher said.
"Okay," she said.
A few seconds later, Cipher began feeling his mana that was around her mana core disperse. It seemed she was really accessing it. The only problem was that she was accessing his mana and not her own. But that could be easily resolved. He slowly let go of his own mana and let her have at it. After it was done, she should be able to tap into her own mana.
And just as he’d thought, just a minute later, Maya’s body let out a soft golden glow.
"Looks like she succeeded," Cipher thought, but then he noticed something. The mana didn’t seem like it was stopping. The soft golden glow then began growing brighter and brighter. In just a few seconds, it was already so bright that they had to cover their eyes.
"Did she lose control?" Cipher wondered.
Since mana circulation didn’t work through system skills which had hard limits, it had its own risks as it relied on the user controlling their mana properly. This meant that without the experience of someone like the Heavenly Demon, one might circulate their mana in the wrong way which could lead to something she called Qi Deviation.
But this risk was averted for those who had the system, as once you circulated mana steadily for the first time, you would receive the Mana Manipulation skill. Although a little more restricting than pure circulation, it implemented the usual safety regulations on system skills, preventing something like this.
This was why Cipher didn’t try to upgrade his Mana Manipulation by accessing it without the use of the skill.
He wondered if he should try using Mana Disruption on her. But before he could, the light began dimming.
He sighed in relief. "Looks like she has it under control," he thought.
In just a few seconds, the bright glow slowly dimmed until it died down completely. She then opened her eyes, which let out a slight glow - likely from the remnant mana - before returning back to normal.
"I think I’ve learned it," she said in excitement.
Cipher observed her through Appraisal.
[Skills (6/14): Mana Manipulation (SSS), Mana Recovery (C), Over Heal (D), Blessing (D), Water Shield (E), Heal (E)]
"Wtf."
...
Cipher stared at her status screen. No wonder the reaction was that big - she actually awakened the skill at SSS level. The only other SSS-level skill he’d seen was the Resurrection skill, which was extremely overpowered. He wondered how she had awakened at SSS rank when he, who taught her, just had A rank.
Then again, she was able to even awaken a unique skill, so he supposed awakening an SSS-rank skill wasn’t all that surprising. Maybe Maya was more talented than he thought.
"Cipher..." she called out.
"Ah, yes?" he responded, closing the Appraisal.
"Is something wrong? You’ve been quiet for a while," she said nervously.
"No, nothing is wrong. Everything is working just fine," he said. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Congratulations. Now that you have Mana Manipulation, you can try to force your other abilities to advance," he said. "Why don’t you try analyzing the mana patterns of your other skills and try using them through Mana Manipulation?
If you succeed, the ability should advance," he said.
"Alright," Maya responded.
"Don’t take it too far though. Just a step at a time is fine. Don’t jump instantly to A-rank," Cipher warned, then turned around to face Dante.
[Name: Dante]
[Level: 100]
[Rank: B]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Tank]
[Health: 1,000/1,000]
[Mana: 100/150]
[Strength: 76]
[Stamina: 82]
[Agility: 70]
[Intelligence: 40]
[Skills (7/15): Heavy Slam (B), Shield Mastery (C), Fortress (C), Shield Bash (D), Heavy Strike (D), Taunt (E), Regeneration (E)]
"As for you, since you were using your shield instead of a sword like Maya, you still developed towards shield, but that’s still not good as the development is more towards offense than defense. It just so happened that the offense was through the shield," Cipher said.
That being said, the skills he had awakened were genuinely great and there was no need to remove them. Still, he felt bad leaving him like that as some of his progress had become messed up. He decided to give him a skill as well.
But what skill did he have that would be useful to a tank? Obviously not Mana Manipulation. As he looked through his abilities, he noticed one that could work - Pain Tolerance (S). He had gotten this when he was learning the Heavenly Demonic Sword Art. This should be useful for a tank.
"I’ll also teach you a skill that will help you make up for the lost progress," Cipher said.
Dante’s expression lit up with excitement.
Cipher raised a hand. "But unlike Maya, this skill, although it will help you a bit, won’t fix everything. You’ll still have to work hard as a tank to make up the difference," he said. "Are you ready?"
Dante nodded violently, his enthusiasm clear.
Cipher activated a Fork card, duplicating his Pain Tolerance skill. He then used an Export card, extending his hand toward Dante. A faint glow passed between them as the skill transferred.