CHAPTER 33: CHANGE OF MINDSET

Zephyr walked into the dark fog without hesitation or fear. For some reason, he was relaxed as the thick fog brushed against his skin.

Immediately, he channelled his mana to create a thin coating around his body. The coating effortlessly protected him from the harmful effects of the fog.

’Just as I thought.’ He commented and continued to walk.

The fog was not as dangerous as he had imagined. It was the combination of his own fear and weakness that stopped him last time.

The realisation was not shocking.

Zephyr anticipated it.

But he couldn’t be blamed for being cautious.

How could he not be cautious after going through all the chaos?

After all, he had transmigrated into a game world with a plethora of things that could kill him at any time. His life was truly at stake.

So, in a way, being cautious was the only option. But at the same time, it was also not a good option.

Truthfully, he was focusing more on the side of caution as time went by. It was turning him into a rat.

A worthless rat that succumbed to its fears, hiding in its hole.

’That is not how I want to live my life.’

With steady footsteps, he walked forward and thought.

This time, he wanted to make some changes. And his first step in doing so was leaving the village.

’I need to change my perspective.’ He told himself.

From what just happened, he realised that no amount of caution would ever help him when the world wished to screw him over.

He thought back to the time when he saw the chief’s corpse.

That man was a good person. A genuinely kind person who wished for the well-being of the entire village.

And yet, he died.

Even now, Zephyr didn’t know how.

But was that something worth knowing?

After all, he was already dead. He died at the hands of the people whom he trusted. There was nothing more he could do for him.

’To not have a similar fate, I need to change.’

With or without him, the world was moving forward. It was screwing him over in all ways possible. So, it was high time that he did the same.

’I need to screw over the world.’ He said.

In the past, when he played the game as Aster, it was not his caution that saved him. In fact, it was the exact opposite of caution.

The reckless way in which he played the game made him the winner.

’I won’t win by being cautious, kind of reasonable. I have to be the past me.’

He thought, slowly inching his way towards his home.

A thin line separated courage from recklessness. Today, he decided to tread the line.

’I am not the hero of this world, so why am I trying to be one? It needs to stop.’

He channelled all his frustration and turned it into his driving force.

’For a second, I forgot who I was. I am someone who conquered the world and beat every boss. No need to be a coward and live a life of eternal fear. I can do whatever the heck I want.’

Zephyr clenched his fist.

’If something goes wrong, I will fix it.’

’If I die, so be it.’

’What I need is a life worth living. Not a hole to hide in.’

With that, Zephyr decided to fly caution to the wind. He traded in defence for offence. Momentarily, his footsteps became firm as he walked through the thick fog to his home.

—-

When he reached his home, Zephyr ate the last remaining piece of bread he had before going back into meditation.

The dark fog was continuously eating away at his mana, albeit slowly.

But he could change that by creating a fully functional mana-gathering spell with passive mana-gathering ability. For that, he turned back to the mana gathering spell he had modified.

It was the same spell the Storm Tower gave him, but without the mana stabilization runes.

After sitting down on his chair, he slowly immersed himself in etching the runes on his core.

Each rune was being etched on a core. He planned to connect the cores physically by making them touch each other to finally create the entire spell.

Instead of drawing the spell formula directly on his core, he drew it on multiple cores before connecting them. He proved this method works by using a mana bolt spell.

So, Zephyr was confident.

A few minutes later, he etched all the runes needed for the mana gathering spell. Then, one by one, he connected the cores in a circular formation.

It was exhausting. But he did so without a moment of rest.

Finally, when he was sure the sequence of runes was correct, he activated the spell.

Immediately, Zephyr felt his senses expand outwards. He could feel the mana in the air, moving slowly.

Then, a suction force erupted from him, swallowing the mana nearby.

The sucked mana was automatically flowing into his cores, refilling them as needed.

’So much better than my version.’

Zephyr didn’t have to do a thing. The mana gathering spell was automatically gathering mana and refilling his cores as needed. It even activated on its own after completion of each cycle.

’... It’s in a loop. I just have to command it to start and it will work until it fills up my cores. Great.’

He was thrilled.

And because of expanding his senses outwards, the spell was gathering mana from a much larger space around him. This increased its efficiency.

’I have taken out the mana stabilization runes, which consume mana, so it is technically even more efficient. Spell optimization is the right way to go. Eliminating the redundant runes also helped.’

Then, Zephyr tried to quantify the difference between his version of mana gathering spell.

’The mana gathering spell I initially used could refill my 36 cores in two to three minutes when I am fully focused. It could vary a little based on how focused I am and the density of mana around.

’But the mana gathering spell I used now could gather a core worth of mana in a second. That means 1000 cores in 1000 seconds. Refilling mana is so fast. That’s practically refilling my entire mana pool in 15 minutes. Although the time would increase as the core volume increases, it is still crazy fast.’

’Now I know why they called it one of the best mana-gathering spells.’

Zephyr mumbled and stood up.

The limiting factors of this new mana-gathering spell were the distance his senses could reach and the density of mana around. There was not much he could do about that.

Only by practicing for a long time would a mage’s sense expand.

At the same time, the density of mana in different areas varied naturally. So worrying about that was not needed.

’There is no point in drawing more mana-gathering spells. Creating cores and etching more spells are the way to go.’

The mana gathering spell could only replenish his core. To create cores, he would have to use the mana in his cores and force it into a solid state.

That would take time.

So, Zephyr decided to etch some spells he had in mind before making more cores.

Spells were his lifeline. It was what he was going to use to kill the damned necromancer and survive.