"Usually, I would say that trying to learn those skills as soon as possible would be the best idea… But I am not sure if that is the case when you are in one of the most difficult dungeons of the world," Billy said.
After telling them how they could learn those passive skills, Icarus, Lucyna, and Meryl decided to learn them as soon as possible. Naturally, it would take a lot of them physically for that to happen, but Icarus could help with that.
"Can you fight the monsters by yourself for a while, Billy?" Icarus asked. "It will be painful, very, very painful… But I can cut the time to learn those skills."
"Sure, suit yourself," Billy said.
Icarus decided to try it first since he was the one who was used the most at using Time Skip. So, he tried to learn Toughness first by pushing his defenses to the limit. In the end, no one saw what Icarus did exactly since he did it all in an instant. Still, they all knew that it had been brutal since his whole body got purple and covered by bruises in the blink of an eye. He fell with his back on the ground and began to feel shivers since he felt all the pain in a single moment, but he recovered by using some pills to restore his health.
"Shit… It was a lot worse than I had expected," Icarus said while sweating bullets. " Still, I need to do this two more times."
"Hey, you don't have to push yourself this much…" Meryl said.
"It is fine, we are out of time, and I want to make sure that we won't fail here," Icarus said. "The only problem is the fact that I can't learn Sage Wisdom by myself."
"I can help you with that, for a price," Billy said. "I can control your mana and make you reach the requirements. However, you will have to use Time Skip on me."
"That is fine by me if you are going to give me the mana to do so," Icarus said.
Billy nodded and then helped Icarus and the others learn the same. He decided to treat it as a freebie since none of them were particularly good at magic. After that, Billy lent to Icarus one of the reserve cores that he had created over the last month and made him frown since it was a lot better than the ones Billy lent to them. Still, he couldn't say anything.
After that, it was Billy's turn to use Time Skip, and once Icarus activated that skill on him, Billy felt like he had been possessed by something. Billy had several ideas over the last month, but he didn't have time to test them. However, with Time Skip, he could test it… First of all, Billy learned how to change the properties of magic items. Even if a magic item only increased his magic, he could make it obtain a bonus in strength as well. The trick was fairly simple, but it required a lot of focus… He just had to affect a single property of the item with his mana.
Most items had several physical properties, like magical, and physical. A magic staff could enhance the magic, but it also could be used as a blunt weapon. With that kind of thought, Billy used his mana to improve their properties. Making a weapon lighter with mana would grant it a bonus of speed, making it more durable, would grant a bonus in endurance, and so on. After learning that, Billy thought: can I use this to make myself more skilled at sensing and controlling mana?
With that thought in mind, Billy began to practice Mana Infusion, Magic Conscience, and Mana Dominion since those were the skills that he could use mana in their purest form. Billy barely could recall the process when Time Skip stopped. He felt dizzy like his brain was being overloaded with information. Still, at least he got a wave of inspiration that turned into a skill.
You learned the skill Magic Absorption.
The skill Mana Dominion has leveled.
The skill Magic Conscience has leveled up.
The skill Sages Wisdom has leveled up.
The skill Mana Dominion has leveled.
The skill Magic Conscience has leveled up.
The skill Sages Wisdom has leveled up.
…
It grants you the power to absorb mana from magic attacks and from the ambient at one point of mana per second and per attack. When absorbing mana from the ambient, you can receive one point per level and per minute. You can't use any other skill while this is active.
Now that he knew how the skill worked, he felt like it was obvious, or perhaps that was an effect caused by the sudden increase of his magic power. Sage Wisdom and Magic Conscience leveled up a lot, after all. Regardless, Billy could touch and absorb the mana around while turning on with the environment. It was the humans version of Mana Magnetism.
"Well, this sure was useful…" Billy said after he got up.
"You just got two months' worth of real-life experience in your brain like it was nothing, and as if that isn't crazy enough, your mana increased by two thousand points…" Icarus said, visibly shocked.
Lucyna and Meryl were also like that, but Billy just shrugged. That was what happened when he did only a single thing for so long…
Billy - Lv 439 25.000/ 636.000 EXP
HP: 2846/ 2846
MP: 7331/ 7331
SP: 1291/ 1291
Strength: 479 + 430
Speed: 363 + 330
Magic: 1308 + 1935
Endurance: 142 + 430
Dexterity: 119
Status Points: 565
Skills:
Spells:Mana/EXP conversion Lv ∞, Exp Master Lv ∞, Mind Control Lv ∞, Telekinesis Lv ∞, Beastly Summoning Lv ∞, Absolute Summoning Link Lv ∞, Mana Infusion Lv 252 (+22UP), Mana Dominion Lv 151 (+ 80 UP), Enhanced Thievery Lv 213 (+212 UP), Magic Absorbtion Lv 01
Passive: Magic Conscience Lv 139 (+ 54 UP)
Skill Points: 70
Billy didn't see much progress since the last time he checked, at least considering most skills, but the ones that leveled up sure increased a lot. Regardless, Billy decided to level up Magic Absorbtion as much as possible right now, and since he was in a good mood for learning something that he had wanted for a long time, he even helped those three by using Regen on them several times.
"This should decrease the pain and strain on your bodies when you try to learn the other skills," Billy said. "Consider it a Christmas gift."
