FlyingPirateCat

Minor change: C009, C011, C012, D015
Changed the terminology "mana cultivation" into "mana training".

[Ruins of Archades Imperial Palace]

Later that night.

Hecate who took a break after exceeding 8 hours of consecutive login time, appeared in her private workshop. She glanced at the time and immediately used the Return Crystal to teleport to her territory.

The digital clock on the interface showed 9 pm and the twelve hours of Mana Circle Stabilization had ended. This means the restrictions on mana manipulation have been lifted and she can now use spells or items that rely on MP to activate.

And once she arrived at the palace ruins, the first thing she did was check her notifications.

Sure enough, her Basic Mana Training had increased to Lv10, and it seemed because of that, the two accompanying passive skills, MP Supplement and MP Quick Recovery had increased to Lv7.

Pity, the level increase for these two skills does not reach Lv10, but it wasn't a big problem.

This was due to the unexpected new skill that came out of this result, Automatic Mana Training, which seemed to allow Hecate to perform Basic Mana Training automatically whenever she wasn't using magic.

In Hecate's mind, there were 10 stacked Magic Circles that were slowly rotating clockwise.

Following the rotation, mana slowly flowed through her Magic Circuit, similar to how she did Basic Mana Training normally, except it was slower, but steady and more organized. Then, every time the cycle was completed, she received proficiency points for MP Supplement and MP Quick Recovery.

With this, both skills are guaranteed to reach Lv10 without her doing anything, it just takes time.

Hecate then glanced at the effects of the two newly upgraded skills. MP Supplement Lv7 increases her Maximum MP by 1750 and MP Quick Recovery Lv7 increases her MP regen by 7%...

Seeing the two skill effects, Hecate could only be stupefied.

'What a bummer, it turns out they are just mosquito skills...'

Her disappointment was reasonable, because compared to her 600k+ MP after buff, a mere 1750 was nothing.

Though, it was also understandable.

Since these skills were created from Basic Mana Training, it was natural that their effects were also at the basic level, and after the basic level, there are intermediate and advanced levels. And now that Basic Mana Training has reached Lv10, she could move on to learn Intermediate Mana Training.

But after thinking about it, she decided to postpone this for now.

"No, not yet... It would be bad if I can't use spells again now."

After a glance, she could judge that Intermediate Mana Training was more complex than basic training.

Not only did the circles need to be made bigger, there were more sigils, and the mechanism was much more complicated than before. If the circles in Basic Mana Training are only stacked mana circles, then in Intermediate Mana Training the mana circles are like a mechanical clock, with the circles from Basic Mana Training as one of the components.

This will be more difficult to make and will take a lot of time.

Not to mention that even if Hecate did it to completion, the stabilization process would definitely take longer than the previous Basic Mana Training, not just 12 hours, but perhaps days or weeks, which meant that during that time she wouldn't be able to utilize her mana.

And her ongoing quest required her to be able to utilize mana.

'I can do this later after this quest is finished.'

With that, Hecate started doing her current affairs.

First, she had to reactivate the city's barriers, from the innermost layer to the outermost layer of the city, by reinstalling Save-Crystals on certain nodes and activating the city's barrier formation.

There are 108 nodes that need to be reinstalled with Save-Crystals in this city.

This number was actually much more than the city barrier formation nodes in the Rosenweil Kingdom. Even the city barrier in Brynhildr Fortress only requires no more than 40 Save Crystals. But considering the scale of this city, it was understandable that this city's barrier formation was much larger than any city Hecate had ever visited.

Looking at the ruined city in the night from above the castle, Hecate couldn't help but sigh.

This city was just ruins with no other humanoid races occupying it. Naturally, there were no lamps or other sources of light other than the two moons in the sky. Oh, there are also some creatures whose eyes glow in the dark roaming the ruins. Considering the size of the city and the roaming monsters, activating the city's barrier might not be as easy as she imagined.

"I have to do it quickly and swiftly. Oh yes, now that reminds me, there's also that thing..."

Fortunately, unlike other cities, there are no flight restrictions in this place as of now. So, she could simply fly to each node, place a Save-Crystal there and move on to the next node.

And to do that, she must have a flying skill first.

♦♦♦

There are many ways to fly in Ascension, with each having its own unique method and no standardization.

For example, Beastmasters can contract mountable flying monsters such as Gryphons, Wyverns, Pegasus, and many more as their Companion Beasts, then use them as flying mounts for air travel.

Another way for people to fly is by changing their race to a race that has wings.

People who belong to the Draconid race can try to evolve their race into Dragonewt, which gives them wings to fly. Of course, this will not be easy because there are many requirements that must be met.

The Vampire race also has the Transformation skill which turns them into bats. For those who don't mind the disadvantages of vampires, they can find one of the high-ranking vampires and swear allegiance to them, after which the vampire will change the race of the person who swears as a subordinate vampire.

However, if changing race seems impossible or not worth doing, one can rely on buffs instead.

High Priest and High Priestess have a buff spell called Enchant Wing which can give people a pair of wings made of light. This pair of wings worked in the same way as the regular wings possessed by the winged races.

Archwizards and Archwitches have access to learn flying skills from any of the six elements they choose to focus on. Each of these skills naturally has a different flying operation method.

• • Fire: Can use a certain explosion-type spell to propel themselves into the air.
  • Water: Can freeze water mist in the air into a step-able platform.
  • Wind: Can manipulates the wind to lift themselves into the air.
  • Earth: Unknown.
  • Light: Have a self-buff skill called Radiant Wings that works similar to Enchant Wing, but with a different form.
  • Dark: Also have a self-buff skill that grants them wings, but also with a different form.

And lastly, people can also rely on items and equipment skills to fly.

♦♦♦

Hecate decided to chose the darkness way from all of the available methods.

• • Soul Strike Lv1 → Lv3 (SP -2)
  • Gravity Veil unlocked → Lv5 (SP -5)
  • Shadow Bind unlocked 
  • Black Curtain unlocked → Lv5 (SP -5)
  • Shadow Move unlocked → Lv10 (SP -10)
  • Distortion Wings unlocked → Lv10 (SP -10)

And so without further ado, she clicked on the skill tree and spent a total of 32 Skill Points to learn the skill.

Skill Tree

Spell Breaker

Dispel

◇

◉ (Lv10)

◉ (Lv10)

Cast Cancel

Quick Cast

◉ (Lv1)

◇

◎ (Lv10)

❓

Free Cast

◇

◎ (Lv10)

◇

Firebolt

◇

❓

Waterbolt

◇

❓

Rod Mastery

Wind Slash

⭐

◇

❓

Extremity of Primary Elements

◇

(Lv1)

Stone Spike

⭐

◇

❓

Book Mastery

Lumos

◇

❓

Shadow Bind

❓

Soul Strike

Gravity Veil

◇

✪ (Lv3)

✪ (Lv5)

◇

◇

◇

Black Curtain

Shadow Move

Distortion Wings

✪ (Lv5)

◉ (Lv10)

◉ (Lv10)

Soul Drain

Enhance Radius

Memorize Spell

◇

◎ (Lv10)

◇

◎ (Lv5)

◇

◉ (Lv5)

Mana Drain

Mana Stone   Creation

Mana Stone Explosion

◇

◉ (Lv10)

◉ (Lv2)

◇

◉ (Lv1)

❓

Overspell

◎ (Lv10)

◇

Increase MP Recovery

Heart of Mana

◎ (Lv10)

◇

◇

◉ (Lv10)

◇

Archwitch's Pride

Mystical Reverberation

◇

◉ (Lv10)

◇

◉ (Lv10)

Heart of Life

◇

◉ (Lv10)

◇

Life Drain

◉ (Lv10)

◇

◇

◇

Energy Coat

Safety Wall

◇

◉ (Lv10)

◉ (Lv10)

❓

Mystical Amplification

Mystical Penetration

◉ (Lv10)

◇

◉ (Lv5)

◇

Skill Points Total SP Used

:64 :213

Skill Name:	Gravity Veil (Lv5)
Requirements:	Wizard/Witch, Soul Strike Lv3, Dark Boost Lv3
Type:	Active
MP Costs:	100
Effect:	Fires a projectile of condensed gravitational force. Those struck by it will be pulled toward the direction that caster intended when casting the spell. Charging enhances potency.

Skill Name:	Black Curtain (Lv5)
Requirements:	Archwizard/Archwitch, Gravity Veil Lv2, Dark Amp Lv3
Type:	Active
MP Costs:	500
Effect:	Causes the surrounding area to be enveloped by a black dome-shaped curtain barrier. The use of this barrier can be customized with additional mantras to create certain conditions. Requires a certain amount of MP to maintain its materialization.

Skill Name:	Shadow Move (Lv10)
Requirements:	Archwizard/Archwitch, Gravity Veil Lv5, Dark Amp Lv10
Type:	Active/Self
MP Costs:	100
Effect:	Allows the user to blend and move in the shadows. Skill Level increases movement speed when moving in the shadows. Cannot activate skills and spells when moving in the shadows.

Skill Name:	Distortion Wings (Lv10)
Requirements:	Archwizard/Archwitch, Shadow Move Lv10
Type:	Active/Self
MP Costs:	5000
Effect:	Grants the user a pair of wings made of shadow. Skill Level grants better flying speed, curve control, and height limit. Requires a certain amount of MP to maintain its materialization.

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The reason why Hecate chose the darkness way, was because it costs less Skill Points compared to other elements.

Other elements require more than 50 Skill Points to obtain the flying skill, and the Earth element's flying skill was still unknown. Meanwhile, the Dark element's flying skill, Distortion Wings only costs 23 to obtain, and 32 to max it.

Hecate then activated the skill.

— Distortion Wings!

At that moment, many lumps of black substance suddenly formed from her shadow and rose to her back.

These lumps of black substance slowly spread across her back and slowly formed into something like a pair of wings that continuously dripped black liquid onto the ground. 

'Well, the wings are really a bit ugly.'

Rather than being made of shadow, this pair of wings looked like they were made of liquid ink. Compared to the beautiful wings created by the High Priest and High Priestess' buff skills, of course these ink wings looked very ugly.

But that was not a problem, as Hecate changed into her Black Phantom outfit including the Elevator Shoes.

At this moment, these wings that previously look very mismatched when combined with Hecate's ceremonial miko outfit, but now they look very good with Black Phantom's outfit.

"As I thought, these wings looks good when worn by Black Phantom!" (distorted voice)

Hecate couldn't help but be proud.

And of course this was the main reason why Hecate chose to get these wings rather than flying spells or skills from other elements. As a loli with a profound dark aspiration and fascination, how could she ignore these disgustingly cute looking wings.

A few months ago when Hecate saw the description of these wings on the community forum, she thought they looked good. However, she didn't consider taking the wings because her Skill Points were low and this was eventually forgotten. But now that she had a lot of Skill Points, why not spend some of them to satisfy those regrets.

So, Hecate decided to start practicing flying for a few minutes to get used to her wings.

Fortunately, with the system assistance, and the fact that she maximized her skill level to Lv10, it wasn't too difficult to control her body in the air. It just feels like swimming underwater but without drowning and no need for an oxygen tank.

And despite the appearance, these wings do their job very well and she could fly just fine. It's just that, every flap of these wings will definitely splash black ink everywhere and create an obvious trail on the ground that last until she dispelled the wings.

At first glance, this seemed like a flaw, but after some thought, Hecate realized the advantage behind the flaw.

'Maybe this is not a flaw at all, but an intentional design by those who created the skill.'

If there were stealth users like Assassin classes nearby, the splashed ink would stick to them, revealing their presence and consequently, preventing them from carrying out sneak attacks. Moreover, the ink does not disappear, so they will not be able to hide at all until her wings are gone.

Hecate couldn't help but curious about the origin of the Native who created the skill and included it in the Skill Tree of Archwizards and Archwitches of Rosenheim Kingdom.

But this was for another matter.

"Okay, the warm-up is done. I guess it's about time." (distorted voice)

After some time, Hecate got used to her wings and could fly as she wished.

The training was finished and now all that was left was to do the practical work. So, she immediately flew to the first target point, to start installing the Save-Crystals.

FlyingPirateCat

Backstory:

MP Supplement

Lv1 = 0 + 100 = 100
Lv2 = Lv1 + 150 = 250
Lv3 = Lv2 + 200 = 450
Lv4 = Lv3 + 250 = 700
Lv5 = Lv4 + 300 = 1000
Lv6 = Lv5 + 350 = 1350
Lv7 = Lv6 + 400 = 1750
Lv8 = Lv7 + 450 = 2200
Lv9 = Lv8 + 500 = 2700
Lv10 = Lv9 + 550 = 3250

[collapse]

Black Ink

The ink is not a real liquid, but a "liquified" shadow, so it has no smell at all.
And it also can't be washed with water, but it can be removed by Dispel.

[collapse]