Mastery of a skill has been demonstrated and acknowledged. Skill will be progressed to its next stage.

  [Prismatic Mana Sense] (Tier 1 -> Tier 2) – Allows the user to perceive the flow of mana, both internal to their body and in a small external radius as well. Due to the prismatic modification, the radius and sensitivity of this ability is dramatically increased.

  Select a Tier 1 Upgrade to [Prismatic Mana Sense]:

  [Focus] – Allows the user to condense their senses to a singular specific target, whether frequency or location. All other aspects of their mana sense are significantly reduced and filtered out in exchange for an equal improvement for sensing the specific target.

  [Sensitivity Control] – Allows the ability to adjust mana sensitivity manually by the user. Visual and physical senses may have differing levels of sensitivity.

  Jack winked at Turrel. He wanted to at least take a chance to think about them himself before he got some input from the man. Getting advice was great, but relying on it too much stifled his ability to think: he might not always have someone else to give him tips.

  These choices all seemed like they were very specifically catered to him and his current troubles and efforts to understand his new upgrade. It fed pretty strongly into Turrel's theory that you could influence the options presented to you with focused intent.

  Sensitivity control seemed almost like it was exactly what he had been trying to work out before Turrel said he needed time to adjust. This would probably let him tune the visual side back to normal and could help with other things as well. It seemed practical, but he had already been able to do this a little on his own. At least when it came to his non-visual sense.

  He was beginning to think that maybe the visual side wasn't that big of a deal; it was different and shocked him. But different wasn't bad. He could see so many uses for it that tuning it out might not be something he was as interested in anymore.

  Focus, on the other hand, seemed much more suited to what he had been doing right before the upgrade was achieved. He could see a number of uses for it and, if he wanted to understand how some of these etchings worked, it would be a massive bonus. He could have probably used it to help him find Turrel earlier as well.

  He had his preference but thought he should at least let Turrel know what the options were.

  “OK, so my mana sense upgraded to Tier 2.” Jack explained the options to Turrel.

  After thinking for a moment, Turrel smiled and replied.

  “Well they are both very useful upgrades. What is your goal, Jack? What do you want to achieve? What will help you get there?”

  Jack tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling while he thought. He still wanted his own space; he wanted solitude and peace, but he wanted to learn. He wanted to make things and explore and understand the new universe, just at his own pace and in safety.

  He couldn't rely on Monty or Turrel forever to keep him safe. At some point, he would need to be able to take care of himself. He needed power, personal power. It needed to be more than a glorified air-cannon pistol.

  “Power. I need to be able to protect myself without relying on other people,” Jack replied.

  Turrel pursed his lips slightly and tapped his foot.

  “Power is … relative. You are already powerful, Jack, more so than I think you fully understand. You simply haven’t found an outlet or focus for that power. Your goal is good and gives you something to work towards. On that note,” Turrel paused while he stroked his beard.

  “Upgrades are hard to weigh. It is important to look further ahead than where you currently are sometimes. Something might look great or even average right now, but that could change in the future. In this case, I think sensitivity may be very useful for you in the future but, right now? Not so much.” He paused again.

  Jack got the feeling he was trying to be very deliberate with how he framed his words, most likely because he didn't want to influence Jack’s opinion. Jack could understand what he meant about sensitivity as well. If their end goal for Jack was to surround himself with massive amounts of mana all the time, then being able to adjust how he interpreted that was a big deal.

  “There are other skills that are too good to pass up, however, and I think focus is one. If you had this choice when you were well into your build and established, it would still be a difficult choice for sure. But right now? You have so much to learn and to grow. This is the sort of upgrade that will help to accelerate your growth, Jack.” Turrel shook his head.

  “You have demonstrated a quick mind. You can train basically whenever you want as mana isn't an issue for you. Adding the ability to hyper-focus to that at such an early stage? On top of now having visual and improved prismatic senses. Jack, I normally want you to make these decisions yourself, but I have to beg you to pick [Focus].” Turrel finished in a much more emotional plea than Jack expected.

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  He nodded. It was the choice he was going to make on his own and having it reinforced was validating. His reasons were similar to what Turrel mentioned, but for Jack, he was excited to see how it would work on understanding things outside his body more than introspectively.

  He confirmed the selection and felt a rush through his body, from his chest and up his spine as it burned into his brain. He shivered as he pulled up his skills.

  Prismatic Mana Sense*: Tier 2 - [Bulk*][Focus]

  Shockwave: Tier 1 - [Overcharge]

  Purge Mana: Tier 2 - [Passive][Control]

  Growth: Tier 0

  Imbue: Tier 1 - [Stockpile]

  * Has been upgraded from a lower grade skill and has received increases to effectiveness.

  It wasn’t a massive list but it was growing, slow and steady. Monty and Turrel both agreed that having at least one skill in line with your tier was best for the even tiers that granted traits. He needed another level in [Purge Mana] or his new sense skill before he hit Tier 4. That could happen this rift depending on the size of the core.

  “Thanks, Turrel. I picked it. That was the one I had in mind as well. Seems like a great pick for everything, really. Now I really, really want to try this again, so I’m going to zone out for a bit,” Jack said as he stared back down at the mana converter in front of him.

  He charged the gem and, after a few more imbues, the Life gem was full once more. He did what he had done earlier: he focused on the device and closed his eyes. He filtered out all the noise around him and zeroed in on the feeling of life mana before him, the device and the little flicker of fire mana.

  He felt the moment the upgrade kicked in. It was as if he had placed noise-cancelling headphones on; everything went silent. In his mind's eye, everything except his target simply became a blur. As he opened his eyes, he almost felt as if his vision zoomed slightly, the colour from his surroundings fading slightly. He could still see hints of it at the border of his focus, but it was faint.

  He reached out and activated the device once more.

  Once again he felt the mana leave the crystal. This time, however, he noticed something else. It was brief and unexpected, but a tiny pulse from the base of the cylinder seemed to suck the mana from the gem, starting the flow.

  He saw the colour and sensation of the mana change in batches. Like before, it moved through different variations of green life mana, but now he could see distinct sections. It faded to yellow and raced into the cylinder where it spiralled up and back down.

  He saw something change when the mana started to move vertically. Even with his improved focus, it was too quick to see. It moved differently and, by the time it reached its peak, half of the mana was gone and it had changed to orange.

  As it surged down, it halved once more and was blood orange as it resumed its horizontal movement. He noticed tiny wisps of mana disappear as the blocked segments moved the last of the mana to its final red. Finally, at the end, a minuscule amount of mana remaining was stored into the gem. Everything else was consumed by the device or lost into the atmosphere.

  He had a giddy grin on his face. It had taken him at least a hundred attempts to even pick up a tiny fraction of what he had just done. On one attempt, he had noticed so many more things to explore and watch; he immediately began to charge his gem once more. If he had to do it another hundred or thousand times he would. At some point he would understand what was happening; he was sure of it.

  He struggled to work out what to focus on next. The tiny specks of mana being lost into the air were interesting. What was that? Was it some sort of flaw with the device? A tiny miscalibration, maybe? He was a firm believer in the fact that you could always learn more from a failure than a success. Maybe a tiny flaw in the device would help him with his breakthrough?

  The next few hours faded into a repetitive loop. He was so engrossed in his study he didn't even notice that Austra was in the room with him. It wasn’t until he had fully charged his fire gem and stood to swap it with another that he saw the man seated next to Turrel. He smiled at Jack.

  “Oh shit, sorry. I … I got a bit carried away.” Jack smiled as he put the gem away and sat back down. He looked longingly at the conversion device but knew he could get back to it in a minute. He blinked a few times as the colour returned to parts of the room that were grey as his focus returned to normal.

  Which is when he noticed that they weren't moving anymore and the mana keeping the Turtle hovering was no longer there.

  “Wait, how long was I at it for? Why are we stopped?” Jack said as Turrel shook his head.

  “Six seven hours,” Austra replied.

  Jack blinked. He stood up and looked at the container that held the gems he had been charging, but there were only two of the eight that were charged. That couldn't be right; he was doing about one an hour. Turrel cleared his throat and motioned with his head. Jack followed his eyes and saw another open container on the shelf next to him. It had eight charged gems in it.

  He was getting quicker at charging the gems, likely because he was getting impatient and keeping his vortex open all the way.

  “You understand how?” Austra's voice interrupted his thoughts.

  Jack looked at him and saw that he was pointing at the conversion device. Jack felt a rush of energy.

  “Yes! Oh, no, sorry. Do I understand? No, not really. I kind of know what it is doing now, I think. But how? I have no idea.” He could see Austra nod as if he wanted Jack to continue, which he did.

  “I am pretty sure, somehow, the device is checking what type of mana is in the input gem here.” Jack pointed at the spot where his gem went.

  “Why? I don't know. I guess maybe something to do with whatever happens in the cylinder when it swirls? Anyway… Umm, then it pulls the mana out of the gem and somehow along the etchings the frequency is changed in segments. Like it is moving along a scale somehow?” Austra was nodding along, so Jack kept going.

  “Then I think somewhere in here,” Jack pointed at the central cylinder part, “is where the magitech happens. Something changes when the mana moves vertically. It swirls and I think something in there is activating and absorbing the mana and rapidly changing its frequency. Then it comes out the other side and slows down before it is stored again.”

  The look on Austra’s face was equal parts amusement mixed with encouragement. Jack felt an overwhelming urge to impress him for some reason.

  “Actually, I think this might be broken, or not 100 per cent working correctly right here.” He pointed at the spot. “When the mana flows past, I can see a little bit gets … I don't know, lost? It just kind of puffs away?” Jack looked at Austra for approval. He looked back with interest on his face.

  “Show me,” he said as he stood and approached the device.