Enemy A(n)t the Gates

99. The New Construct

The four rank five Skills are melting down and blending together inside my mind, forming a new pool of knowledge that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Excitement is bursting inside my heart. What will come of this powerful fusion?

My only fear is that it won’t reach my expectations. I was forced into grinding for this due to Gravity Mana speciality not showing up in my Skill list after all this time. Before I moved onto the next tier of magic and started grinding away at it, I wanted to secure the best possible foundation I could for the first tier.

A part of me still regrets that I didn’t stick it out for a rank six fusion, but grinding for so many Levels would take time I just don’t have. I can only hope that what I gained here will be enough to carry my magical offense until more powerful options become viable.

Judging by the flowing information, it just might do! The sheer volume of what’s entering and forming is indicating that this fusion is going to reveal something particularly juicy. All I can do is wait. Like pieces slotting into a puzzle, new knowledge slowly takes shape, each passing moment making the picture that little bit clearer. When I finally understand just what it is that’s forming, I can’t help but clack my mandibles in appreciation.

Holy moly. This isn’t just juicy, it’s a juice festival. This is a river formed by the pulping and squeezing of fresh fruits. No getting away from it, I’m in juice town.

The fusion takes a long time, a period of hours, but what is revealed is well worth the time investment. It’s a new type of construct. Every construct was a fiendish demon puzzle formed of Mana that allows raw, unattributed energy to transform into one of the myriad of types. Forming the construct, maintaining, and operating it, consumes one of my brains most of the time. It’s difficult work that requires fine Mana control and a powerful Will. Like holding a squat, not for minutes, but hours at a time.

This new design took the puzzles I’ve already seen and blew them out of the water. It’s absurd, obscene even. This sort of thing would be censored in any normal society, it wasn’t safe to look at.

This is a globe within a globe within a globe, repeated down to the molecular level, each level inscribed on the inside and outside with intricate runes. The number of lines and layers of Mana that need to be formed are in the hundreds of thousands! Taking in the sheer scope of the thing, I can’t help but cry out.

Dammit, Gandalf! What the heck is this thing? Next time I evolve, I’m gonna bite you right in the beard!

I can already tell it’s going to take a lot of practice to even be able to form this construct correctly, let alone do so quickly under pressure. But for what it’s able to do, it will be worth it.

My four elemental Skills are gone, no longer cluttering up my Skills list. Instead, a brand-new Skill has formed in their place: Omni-Elemental Affinity Level 1 (V).

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but this is good. That single construct, that monstrosity of a contraption, is able to produce all elemental Mana types. All of them! The basic forms, the advanced forms, and the combined forms!

Water Mana? No problem. Ice Mana? Done. Fire Mana? Blue Fire Mana? Wind! Gas! Earth! Stone! Lava! Steam! Mud!

No longer do I have to weave together the combined forms by making the elements separately and forcing them together—something of a hack—an inefficient and wasteful method at the best of times, now I can form them directly! Not only that, the proper spell patterns have been imprinted in my mind along with the construct. It’s as if I’ve been given the specialities of each of the fusion types along with the knowledge of this new construct.

This will be incredibly valuable for me when fighting. If my main sub-mind is able to maintain and operate this construct, then I’ll be able to throw around three different types of elements at once using my other three brains. That would be huge! The flexibility alone. Not having to break down a construct and form another in order to change elements… The amount of mental effort saved during a battle will be massive!

The truly remarkable thing about this fusion is that its true strength won’t be revealed until after my next evolution. Once I’m able to increase the raw oomph of my four brains and master Mind Magic to a sufficient degree, I’ll be able to make use of the Mind Construct technique, stacking multiple minds in each brain! I wouldn’t have just four minds then, I’d have eight, or twelve! And if each of my brains were to form and maintain this new construct… I’d be able to throw out eight or twelve different spells at a time, and every single one of them could be any of the basic Mana elements.

The very thought of being able to switch up my element of attack at a moment’s notice is enough to make me giddy. Always the right tool for the job.

I’m super satisfied with this rank five fusion. Very satisfied indeed! It feels good to achieve goals like this. Now I suppose I need to look at what I need to be training and grinding next… Practising forming the new construct is a massive priority, and after that, I’ll need to focus on Mind Magic. I don’t want to be lagging behind. When the time comes to evolve, everything needs to be ready!

Ah, an ant’s work is never done.