Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

After concentrating for quite a while, Leon discovered which part of his life he had lost. He didn't lose a single moment of his memories; he lost the entire semester of his last year in college. Leon couldn't quite sure understand why he lost six months' worth of memories in a single instant, but it wasn't hard to come up with an explanation. It was probably because those six months were the most intense ones.

"Regardless… I feel like I have been here for one month. At that rate, I will lose more than six months' worth of memories in the next month. I can't let myself forget about everyone… about my struggle. I won't let that happen."

No matter what happens, Leon would never give up. Not even death would stop him… at least that was what he was thinking. His mind was the only thing that was working, and he decided to use it fully before even that stops.

"That monster said that mana is the power of mind… the stronger the mind, the more precise powerful becomes the use of mana. That was why that freaking monster had so many nervous systems, to power up its control and power over mana. I don't have a nervous system right now, only a mind… so what can I do with it to defeat the ultimate enemy, that is death and that bastard?"

After suffering a total defeat, Leon didn't know if he still wanted to follow the path of magic. After training for thousands of years and still only scratch the last enemy was depressing, to say the least. However, only a miracle created by magic would make him revive. Besides, only magic would make things return to the right path. So, it wasn't like Leon had a choice there.

"I have to create a new type of energy using only my mind, and before I lose even more memories. The problem is, even that bastard had to train to obtain the stupid high amount of mana that he has… I can't train here. Nor do I have a body to train, and I don't have the time either… Still, I feel like I'm missing something."

Based on Leon's experience, he felt like he forgot an important detail. However, he couldn't quite pinpoint what that was. After thinking for a while, I concluded something. Even though he had Mana Creation, he couldn't just create the mana out of nowhere. He didn't notice, but he probably paid a certain price to create mana. After all, mana, despite being like miraculous energy, it is a form of energy. It can be created out of nowhere.

"Not many people can create mana… it is a powerful skill, and essentially, it counters all downsides of recovery and all spells that are used to make one's mana recover faster. So, what is the price of using suck a skill? I feel like if I learn that, I will be able to find the answer I'm looking for."

After thinking for quite a while, Leon understood one thing. He learned Mana Creation only after he lived for hundreds of years. During the resets, he died early. He didn't learn it… perhaps the answer was there.

"I learned Mana Creation only after living with Ilyana many times and during with long periods of time… so what is the key to learning that? Using happiness? No… when I learned this skill the last time, I was quite suspicious of her behavior. So, what is the secret? Living a long life? Life experience?"

Considering the system, perhaps life experience was probably the key for mana. Planets were considered living beings by the system, but they don't have a mind, yet, they possess mana. Not only that, Leon was pretty sure planets have memories… at least physical memories. Vegetation grows and dies, people and animals change the environment somehow, and sometimes, disasters happen and leave marks that last for a pretty long time.

"This is weird… when I used Mana Creation, I didn't feel like I was losing my life experience. However, considering how much grind one has to do to become strong using the system, perhaps that is the actual answer. Oh, I see now… mana is the physical form of our life experiences, and the stronger they are, the more powerful our skills can become!"

Although it was weird in Leon's head that life experience could become energy and then create things out of nowhere, it wasn't weirder as that bastard who was a monstrous creature that suffered so many mutations until it becomes the size of a planet. In the end, a monster could only create a form of energy that couldn't make any sense but still had many limitations.

"Now, my goal is clear… I have to create a form of energy that makes sense and doesn't have any limitation… easier said than done."

Since Leon had to counter that monster's power, he had to consider things like that. It would be nice if he could use life experience and create another type of energy, but he was dead, and Leon was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to use something like death experience. Still, he had to sacrifice something to create a type of energy that would be as effective against mana and as convenient enough to make him powerful as fast as possible. However, after thinking for a long while, Leon didn't find anything he could sacrifice. Right at that moment, he only does have one thing… his memories.