Draft: 55 Sharp Intent

While the start to the day couldn’t have been any more exciting, its continuation was decidedly not. Uneasy with the recent events, James decided to stay close to home and maybe try her hand at cooking the Sharped Carp again. With her haul from the cottage, she was sure to make something of at least decent quality. After all, she had salt now! Not to mention a bunch of other spices.

After washing off the remnants of the morning fight still on her in the river, she went to her usual spot to start her “fishing.” Since she had found out she could store food indefinitely in her earrings, she figured she could cook a bunch now and save it for later. This also let her practice Mana Blast properly since she would commit to cooking and eating the fish she killed.

Closing her eyes in order to let herself concentrate solely on the mana around her, James started to note the differences brought on by her new Skill, Mana’s Harmony. She supposed that despite not casting Mana Sense like the description of Mana’s Harmony specified, it must have still been affected.

The mana felt a bit crisper and more refined in her small sphere of perception, like moving from an old, outdated screen to one with higher resolution. The difference wasn’t crazy, after all she hadn’t really noticed a difference until she concentrated on it, but it still brought her some small bit of satisfaction that she was getting better. And she was doing it without any Tutorial help.

For all her whining about being weak, she was still alive, and she was still improving herself. She had just killed a goblin by herself without even using her trump card of an ability! Without anyone around, James didn’t even try to control the smile that spread across her face. She might not be her brother, and she might not be getting ice cream just because she wanted to any time soon, but she was getting better. If not socially, then at whatever this

Shaking off thoughts of her family, James concentrated again on the mana around her. Other than the increased resolution of the mana, now that she was focusing on it, she could feel its intent in a weird way.

The Sharped Carp was a good example. Before, she hadn’t been sure what made the Sharped Carp sharp. The scales didn’t seem overly special or different than the other fish, but they had been sharp all the same. Enough to break her skin, and she was sure her skin was harder to pierce than it was before the System descended. She had theorized that it was possibly a new type of protein in their scales previously, but with this new Skill, new theories proved plausible. With Mana’s Symphony and Mana Sense working in harmony, she could distinctly tell when a Sharped Carp passed through her sphere.

Their mana was a dull white and existed in jagged edges within their core. Most of all, though, it felt like it cut through her sphere. It didn’t hurt though, so perhaps it was more accurate to say it felt like the idea of cutting more than a real cut.

This new discovery of mana with intent provided inspiration about her own Skills. What was the intent of Mana Blast? Before, she had only been picturing a type of bomb, with her at the epicenter. That had proven helpful, but it was only half the equation, at least with what she knew now.

The next time she felt a fish come through, for some reason her fishing spot had become less popular while she was in it, she let out a blast. This time, she tried to overlay intent over it. She wanted the fish killed but not suffering. And she wanted only that fish killed, not the two other smaller fish in her radius. Incorporating her target’s mana signature, she let loose. It was a blast, but with all her will she tried to make it a targeted one.

Instead of her world simply filling with white for a fraction of a second, she could feel it filling with intent. For a split second her target seemed to freeze in shock, and maybe fear, before its mana got extinguished in an instant, like blowing out a candle. Her intent had overtaken its own papercut sharpness and come out on top.

You have killed Sharped Carp level 6! Experience is granted.

Another grin left her face, though she did try to mitigate the feeling of elation by telling herself that she had defeated a fish. Still, she had only defeated a single fish, her blast had seemed to simply gloss over the two Heavy Carps, with their sludging mana cores.

Your Skill Mana Blast has increased to Level 3!

Your Skill Mana Blast has increased to Level 4!

Your Class Pure Castor has reached Level 11! Stats allocated.

The day might have started on the wrong foot, but progress only came with adversity. James couldn’t help but grin again. Adversity? Adversity she could deal with. And the day had only just begun, who knew what else she could accomplish while fishing?