"Alright, let's see if this works." I put both daggers down on the table in front of me.
The plans for rebuilding the capital wasn't the only thing that kept me awake last night. I also thought about my fighting style and how I want my sword art to look.
I use three weapon types–twin katanas, short dagger and the long sword–and a different situation will require a different weapon.
And most of these different situations will occur in the same battle and switching between weapons for the right situation will be troublesome and dangerous.
It's dangerous because there will be a switch time between weapons for at least a split second, more than enough for a enemy to slice your neck from your head.
The solution for this dilemma is to fight simultaneously with all weapons. But I only have two hands, which is not enough for the weapons in my arsenal.
So, instead of carrying the weapons, I want them to float around me. This way I can fluidly switch between weapons and instantly adapt to different situations.
That brought me to another problem: how do I make the weapons float?
And that is what I'm trying to figure out.
My thoughts turned back to the daggers lying on the table, patiently waiting for me. The second dagger was constantly absorbing tiny amounts of my mana. Negligible and barely noticeable.
I mentally activated [Gravity Manipulation], decreasing gravity around the daggers and lifting them into the air.
'Easy enough.' I thought, watching the daggers floating at eye level.
I then tried moving the daggers sideways, but neither of them budged. I tried for several minutes, but still nothing.
'Hmm?' I racked my brain for a little before another idea struck me. 'Gravity is linear.'
I applied gravity to the side of the still floating daggers, while adding greater force.
The daggers instantly moved to the side and then came to an abrupt halt.
I tried this method for a couple of minutes, watching each movement closely and making mental notes.
'Impractical.' I concluded.
This method had a couple of problems, for instance: I don't have enough control over gravity. I can only exact influence on the daggers in a 5-meter radius and even then, the influence is minimal.
The daggers won't even do harm to enemies due of lack of force.
And even if I did have enough force and range, it will still be mostly useless.
Say, I want to drive the dagger through the front of someone's head, that will mean that I will have to apply gravity at the back of that person's head for the dagger to move towards them.
This will allow the person to feel the force of gravity behind them and by the time the dagger comes close, that person will already be out of the way or would block the oncoming dagger.
And also, this method takes a considerable amount of focus in order to move the daggers around. That could possibly distract me from battle which can prove fatal. And I will certainly make plenty of copies of Masenshi, and the more copies there are, the more focus is required to control them.
With all these problems, I ruled out the use of gravity to make the weapons float.
'Next up, Space.' I thought.
I may not have a space affinity skill that do the same as [Gravity Manipulation] that allows me to innact influence on gravity in my immediate surroundings, but thankfully one doesn't need skills to use one's affinities.
I closed my eyes in order to deepen my focus, my perception fanned out, identifying the floating circular particles of different types of mana present: Dark, Night, Shadow and Blood being the most evident.
I ignored all them and focused on finding spatial mana. It didn't take as long as I thought, because after only a minute of intense focus I found countless amounts of colorless round particles moving around as if invisible.
It was everywhere, filling in spaces between every single mana particles of other affinities.
I focused only on the spatial mana, the more my focus deepend, the clearer the particles became.
The next step was to see if I can interact with the mana.
I tried absorbing the spatial mana. It moved towards the cores in my abdomen from every direction, but all the other types of mana moved along with it.
I tried to absorb only the spatial mana, but it didn't work as the other types of mana moved in tandem with it as if they were a unit.
After a few minutes I decided to try a different approach. Instead of trying to single out the spatial mana, I will draw in all the mana but block everything except spatial mana from entering my core.
Just like how a filter works. You pour in all the dirty water, but the filter will halt the dirt and only the clean water will fall into the glass.
This process worked immediately, all the other mana got blocked and only the spatial mana entered my core.
"Haaa." I let out a sigh of relief. "Next step."
The next step was to move the mana around the outside of my body.
My focused returned to the countless amount of colorless particles and I tried to move it around. I first tried to move all the particles, but it was a fruitless effort as not a single particle moved to my will.
I change my approach and identified a single particle. My focus latched onto this particle and I tried to move it around. The particle immediately moved towards the intended direction.
'That was easier than I thought.' I mused, sweat dripping from my forehead.
I moved the single particle around for an extended period of time, twisting and flipping it around, using my perception to "look" at it from different angles, trying to figure out if it hid any secrets.
I noticed thousands upon thousands of tiny threads sticking out on the surface of the round particle.
I was certain that it should have been impossible to notice these threads with my Perception Attribute.
[Perception: 118]
'Must be due to the [1/4 of the Children of Mana] title.' I concluded.
With the new information on the particle, I drew in a second spatial particle and it too had the thousands of tiny threads on its surface.
I moved to the particles close to each other while focusing on the tiny threads in a bit to see how they will react when they came in contact.
The moment these threads touched, they seamlessly fused together, becoming a longer thread, connecting the two particles.
But that wasn't the only thing that happened; when the threads touched, my focus from one of the particles disappeared.
It was as if...
"...they became one." I muttered the last words out loud, my voice filled with awe.
I added another particle to the two conjoined ones and the same thing happened: the threads fused and my focus from the third particle disappeared.
I kept up with this, adding particle after particle until they became a long transparent thread. I moved the thread around the room, wirling and swirling it.
"Hehehe." I let out a childish giggle, my eyes twinkling at this whole new world that opened up for me.
I reeled in my excitement and returned to the task ahead which became increasingly clearer.
"Now, let's try to move these daggers." I said, already knowing what to do next.
I broke off my connection with the long thread I painstakingly weaved and turned my attention towards the daggers.
I identified the spatial particles around one of the daggers and connected them to each other, forming a colorless cocoon around the dagger.
I lifted the cocoon of spatial mana and the dagger incased in it lifted along with it. The dagger felt weightless as I effortlessly lifted it in the air.
"Thank the Celeste that worked." Relief evident in my voice. "Now comes the hard part."
I divided my focus in two. Using one half on the floating dagger, careful not to disperse the cocoon. The other half I used to focus on the spatial particles surrounding the second dagger.
I carefully connected the spatial particles, slowly forming another cocoon around the second dagger.
Once that was done, I lifted the newly formed cocoon in the air, floating it alongside the first cocoon.
"Phew." I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand.
I then moved pure mana into the original dagger, making another identical copy appear which fell onto the desk.
I moved a shred of my focus towards the third dagger, while making sure the connection with the first two daggers are stable.
I formed a third cocoon around the third dagger, painstakingly slow and careful as if performing a high-end surgery.
The difficulty in forming the third cocoon multiplied, resulting in sweating dripping down my chin and running down the length of my back.
I completed the third cocoon after half an hour of effort and then came the final step: lifting it in the air and hopefully keeping it there.
I tried lifting the third cocoon, but it caused me to almost lose control of the first two cocoons and I had to stabilize them before I lost total control.
'This is not going to work.' I thought, realizing that the connection between all the cocoons will break if I pushed it further.
My thoughts wandered, searching for a solution to this problem. The answer came quick. It was one of the methods Isadora mentioned.
She added divinity to her spells, effectively strengthening them and decreasing mana output.
This world didn't have divinity, but I did.
I reached out to my divine core, made golden threads with the divine particles and move these threads towards the cocoons.
Usually it would be impossible for the small threads on mana particles from two different types of mana particles two fuse, but with divinity it is different for some reason.
A reason I didn't know.
The divine particles and the mana particles connected. The mana underwent a change: becoming bigger, stronger.
The stability of my connection with the cocoon increased and I found it easier to control the floating cocoons.
With divinity infused into all three cocoons, the strain in me eased and I lifted the third cocoon into the air.
"Hahaha." I let out a victory laugh.
[Ding!]
The chime of the system halted my laughter.
[New Skill Acquired]
********
>(NEW)[Telekinesis](NEW)(Active)(B)
–ability to move, influence, or manipulate physical objects using only the mind, without physical contact.
Number and weight of physical objects depends on the Willpower of the user.
********
My jaw dropped in awe, not only because of the new skill, but because it was impossible to gain skills without moving up a realm.