[E.M.Supreme] Chapter 4 - Skills and Precision

Marks skills were all launched through a canon as he went through the system notifications one by one. 

Each seemed almost unrecognizable compared to where it had been not that long ago. 

Skills weren't meant to go up that quickly. 

His fathers own skills, he had boasted, were all around seventy at the peak. With most sitting around the lower sixties and yet, Mark was more than half way there on his first day with his Golden Class.

This thing is as much a bless as it is a curse.

Skill Upgrades!

Mana Manipulation

7 -> 43

Elemental Manipulation

8 -> 31

Mark could already think of ways to increase the pace at which his skill is upgraded. Games he could play to train himself, including somehow creating orbs to revolve around him while he sat their thinking. 

He could feel the difference in the way his manner reacted to his desires, just from the levels he had gained. 

Though it was obvious it still wasn't enough for any real sense of control other than solidifying it into shapes around him. 

Mark closed his eyes and tried to manipulate his core, using the least amount of mana he could without it flooding the entire room. It reacted just as violently and surged just as much as before, but this time it all gathered into a single local locality directly in front of him. 

Every ounce of the energy he had just used to wash the entire first dungeon floor and killed everything within it solidified before him in the form of an orb. 

Sweat dripped down his forehead and his arms trembled as he struggled to summon it. 

Yet, once it had come been summoned, he didn't need much to keep it going. 

That brought up his other skills that he hadn't used once. All of which sounded extremely powerful and capable of changing entire battlefields against him. 

Mark wasn't going to lie to himself. 

His skill, [Domain of Mana], terrified him to use. Just using an ounce of his mana, he seemed capable of destroying and ravishing this entire dungeon. He couldn't imagine what using his entire domain that surrounded everything and everyone around him would turn into. 

[Mana Negation], On the other hand, seemed far more valuable than he expected it to be when he first saw it. 

Can it negate my mana?

Mark took a deep breath and prepared himself to experiment with it. He wasn't sure if activating it on himself would negate his mana for the rest of his life or whether it would be a temporary thing he would have complete control over. Yet, it was something he was intent on testing. 

He needed some type of solution so he could at the very least wear clothing for long durations at a time without exposing himself to the world with every twitch of his mana. 

The skill activated and washed over his body. 

It clung to his skin and seemed to blanket and cover over his core with a black barrier. 

Mark trembled and shook as he felt all the manna that had filled his entire being vanish from within him. 

He felt empty. 

Alone.

Isolated.

Yet, he refused to allow these feelings and emotions dictate his actions. He was an adult now, and he would act like one. 

Mark let out a deep breath and closed his eyes to calm himself from the turbulence he was going through. It took long moments of silent focus before he could move and act without the vanishing of his mana making him tremble like he was freezing.

This time, he got to look at himself from a different perspective. 

The orb of pure energy that had been floating around him just moments ago was nowhere to be found, nor was any of the mana that he had been dreading. 

Skill Upgrades!

Mana Manipulation

43 -> 44

Elemental Manipulation

31 -> 32

Just a few moments of it being active had moved his skill upgrades once each. 

How far would it take him if it was constantly on for days at a time within this dungeon? 

I can finally breathe.

This may not have been the perfect solution, but it was a solution. Better than the calamity that he had been experiencing prior to this. He could figure a way out to live an experienced, normal life until the moment where he would be forced to use any mana at all. 

Mark also knew that he could live an entire life without having to deal with anything that would require him to fight. 

His father hadn't, nor had any of his uncles or grandparents, at least to his knowledge. 

Why does that thought leave such a horrible taste in my mouth? Am I already addicted to using this Golden Class? Or am I suddenly turned into an adventurer just cause I changed my last name to Stevens? Would I start regaling everyone and everything around me about my adventures and fights while boasting about how amazing my class is…?

Mark blinked as a realization hit him. 

Everyone had a class. 

Everyone except the dredges of society everyone despised and hated. No one wanted to be classless and a burden on the already difficult lives of those that surrounded them. 

Shit…

He would have, at the very latest, six months before the next event to unlock a class before everyone started to treat him differently. 

Even strangers would refuse to deal with him. 

No trader would be willing to sell him anything and no inn would allow him to sleep in their buildings. 

Mark would need to live as a vagrant for the rest of his life unless he figured out another solution. Food would become a treasure much less any idea of making a life. 

Or maybe…

Maybe he could go out as a roaming knight?

He would need to gather himself weapons and armor that were high level enough that it would hide his classlessness.

No one would question him if he could beat them in combat. 

Not even a mage that analyzes him would say anything untoward either. 

Mark smiled. He could figure out how to imbue what he found in the next level with his mana to give it a distinct signature and to make it as powerful as possible. There would be no need to fight this dungeon's final boss for the super elite stuff he could turn even the average stuff lying around on the second floor into the same quality. Just the ‘how’ was the current problem. 

I need to not blast the entire second floor into nothingness if I want this plan to work. So much to work out. 

Not that he didn’t have plenty of time to just experiment and learn. His absence would be noticed, people would search for him, but no one would find him. Even if they did locate the dungeon, no one would enter until the adventures guild got people to go through, map, and grade it properly.

Steve wouldn’t find himself in this place with how low level he was compared to the skeletons. 

It would require an entire party of the most elite guild members. 

Mark knew that there were ranks and grade lettering to categorize how powerful a party was, the details were vague to him though. He never thought it would have been wise to have learned them like the dungeon color grading. 

He laughed as he let his hold on [Mana Negation] go and felt all his power and energy return to him. It filled a part of his chest that had been empty just moments ago. Like meeting a dear family member after being forcibly separated for a long time. It felt good to have access to it again, even if it was as unruly as always.

I can be a knight. Wear shiny armor and slay dragons and beasts! Wonder if I can convince an elf to marry me too? Halfling babies don't seem like a bad idea.

Mark focused on summoning another orb of pure energy. 

It came out just like before, this time, he made it orbit around him while he focused on the next step of his process. 

He needed an attack that wasn’t going to melt everything.

Where the hell am I going to find something like that from?! Just touching my mana makes the world turn white!