As Lewis mentally triggered the skill in his mind, he felt an immediate shift as an almost imperceptible weight overcame him. The feeling was like that of a soft, silken fabric being draped over his body. Yet when he looked down at himself, he was shocked to see a dark hue enveloping him. It looked like he was surrounded by a cloud of thick smoke, but since his mana detection was still active, he also got some instinctive understanding of the black energy surrounding his body like a second skin.
The dark cloud, he somehow intuitively knew, was only visible to him because of his mana detection skill and would appear completely normal to everyone else. After all, Lewis instantly knew what the skill was doing as it sprang to life around him; it was forming a sort of mana vacuum where any mana in reach was destroyed. It reminded Lewis a bit of a black hole, or more accurately, the desolation of deep space.
The reason it appeared as a dark cloud to him was that it was making a hole in his mana detection that made it seem like he was wreathed in shadow.
Feeling a sudden giddiness to test it out, he looked around at the other soldiers of the group, taking stock of what they were doing.
It seemed everyone was following in the mage soldiers' footsteps, testing out their skills or talking among each other, all clearly trying to make sense of all the changes the system had brought now that the immediate threat of the primavendy horde was over. But the still remained a sort of nervous tension in the air, everyone having their eyes open and ears peeled for the next threat. Well, all except the young mage who seemed utterly carefree as he smiled stupidly while examining his fireball spell up close.
Deciding to see if the soldier would help him test his own skill, he walked over to him and introduced himself.
"Hi, I'm Lewis."
"Nice to meet you, friend, call me Matt." The young soldier replied, although he appeared to be around the same age, his demeanor and expressions made him appear far younger.
"I was wondering if you could help me test one of my skills?" Lewis asked, seeing the guy's face light up.
"Sure, what do you need?" Matt asked, the fireball hovering over his palm disappearing in on itself as it was extinguished.
"Could you put that barrier back up?"
When Matt nodded and complied, a two-meter-tall pane of milky white glass appeared between them. Lewis wasted no time reaching out and placing his hand on it. At least, he tried to, as the barrier cracked and dissolved into particles of mana when it came into contact with Lewis's dark cloud of anti-magic. The barrier immediately dissolved before he even had time to place his hand upon it.
"Wow, what did you just do? I didn't even sense you using any mana at all." Matt exclaimed, not appearing disappointed that his barrier was instantly dispelled.
Lewis, for his part, was also surprised by the result. He guessed what would happen simply from the name of the skill, but he had no idea that it would work so well.
"It's one of my skills called [Anti-magic mantle]. But did you say you also have the [Mana detection] skill? Can't you see the dark layer around my body from the skill?" Lewis replied, pointing at himself.
But Matt just frowned at his words.
"No, I got a skill called [Mana sight], but I can't see any mana coming from you." He replied, now staring intently at Lewis.
Lewis was about to say something when he noticed Matt's eyes suddenly shift to a paler color, as if he were going blind.
"Whoa, are you alright? Your eyes are white." He quickly asked the young soldier whose intense gaze was broken, and he blinked repeatedly while rubbing his eyes.
"Ah, that hurt. Felt like my eyes were overheating." Matt spluttered, his eyes reddening as he furiously rubbed them and blinked down at the ground, the white color fading away.
"What did you just do?"
"I tried to improve the skill by pushing more mana into it, and I think I kind of overclocked it for a moment. Probably shouldn't have done that, but good to know it's possible at least." Matt replied, suddenly losing focus in his eyes as he stared off into space.
"Oh, wow. I got three whole levels in [Mana sight] from that. And it actually seems to be making things clearer. I guess overclocking the ability boosted how powerful the skill's new default state has become. Still, I couldn't see any mana around you. Did you deactivate your skill?" Matt asked, suddenly refocusing on Lewis, his attention jumping around from one thing to the next like a hyperactive child.
"No, the skill's still active. How about we see what happens when you summon a fireball? Oh, but don't throw it at me, I'll just touch it with my skill to see if it will actually work. I'd rather not get my face burnt off." Lewis said, his comment getting a large smile from Matt.
The young soldier quickly did as asked, conjuring another fireball, Lewis's apparently more powerful mana detection skill allowing him to observe the fireball's creation in detail, along with the red field surrounding it.
When it reached the size of a fist and seemed to stabilize after a second, Lewis stepped forward and moved his hand well over the ball of flames, before gradually moving his anti-magic-coated hand down onto it, his mana detection seeming to double up with his natural instincts that told him not to touch the flames, yet he also got an instinctive feeling of the effect that magical projectile would have on his flesh, something far more vivid and tangible than the vague warning of his subconscious.
As a result, he moved perhaps a little slower and more hesitantly than he needed to, but right as the dark layer around his hand entered the red field around the spell, the field started shrinking at a rapid pace. The fire mana being gathered around the fireball suddenly vanished as it was being destroyed by his skill, making the fireball fade in intensity as it dulled, the field around it suddenly becoming uneven as the top half was drastically reduced.
Like water, the red fire mana of the field tried to rebalance itself, the fire mana from below shooting upwards at speed to fill the empty space, most of it also being destroyed by his anti-magic-wreathed hand, but that sudden shift caused a rapid destabilization of the fireball, the spell losing its spherical structure as it exploded outward, sending both Lewis and Matt stumbling backwards. Most of the energy from the spell had been devoured by the anti-magic, however, so neither was hurt, only shocked at the sudden explosion and pushed back slightly by the small shockwave.
"Holy moly, that thing went crazy. What did you do?" Matt called between laughter, patting himself down to put out any errant flames.
After Lewis had shaken off his own shock, he began wondering what Matt's mana sight skill was even showing him if he couldn't even see what had happened to the fireballs' field, so he asked him as much.
"It's awesome. Everything is so much more vibrant when I use the skill, like the colors are more saturated or something. I can see the patterns in my mana; it looks kind of like wind when it moves, leaving a sort of trail that I can only see when I have the skill active. It's like everything I see has been upgraded from low quality to a high definition screen. I can clearly see the sort of pale energy that seems to leak out whenever I've just used a spell." He answered, clearly struggling to communicate what he was seeing as he lazily moved his hand back and forth through the air, his eyes clearly intently tracking something more than just his hand.
Lewis, for his own part, tried to figure out what he was talking about as he, too, focused intently on the man's mana, spotting some near-invisible ghostly smoke rising from Matt's body before disappearing into the air. If he were to go by his analogy of mana having a solid and liquid state, this would be vapor, a sort of pure mana energy escaping the body, the same thing he had previously noticed on the others, although Matt's quantity of emitted mana seemed greater than the others.
Deactivating his anti-magic mantle, Lewis asked Matt to try using his fireball spell again, promising not to make it explode this time. The young mage gave him a sideways glance but complied. Lewis tried putting his finger into the red field around it once again, but this time he very much did feel the heat, like being next to a normal fire.
"Here, can't you see that. There's a sort of field around the spell where all the mana turns into red mana. It's like a radius for the spell; everything within it is affected by the heat even without touching the fire." Lewis explained, getting a confused look from the young mage.
"Well, of course it's going to be hot, it's right next to a fire," Matt replied flatly, not understanding.
"Yes, but that's not what I mean. It's not just normal heat; it's mana, but not the pale mist you get when casting your barrier or that you emit naturally. This is fully red mana, carrying the same effects as the fire, and it seems to be both the radius of the spell, but also fuel to keep it active." Lewis answered, putting things together in his own mind as he tried to figure this out and explain it.
"Think about it, the spell can't just burn mana, or it would spread to you and consume you like you were covered in gasoline, since you're connected to it and have mana, so it needs a way to convert the mana into fuel for it to burn first. Hence why it appears a bit unstable when you first summon it, but it stabilizes after a moment. It uses that field around it to hold its spherical shape and allow you to control the fireball."
With that explanation... Or theory, technically, but it seemed about right to Lewis, Matt's mouth suddenly opened in an 'O' shape as he looked down at his fireball.
"Huh, I guess you're right, that makes a lot of sense. I still can't see any sort of red field around it, but I can sort of see the strands of mana shift when it gets close, like it's moving to some sort of different frequency." Matt said excitedly, before his face suddenly lit up.
"If that's the case, I wonder how long I can hold it for then?" He wondered before doing exactly that.
But after half a minute, Lewis noticed the field begin to fade, and the fireball dimmed as it began shrinking.
"Huh, I guess there's a limit to how long I can hold it for. Guess that makes sense though, as my mana pool didn't decrease while I was holding it, only losing mana when I initially activated the spell." Matt said, dispersing the flames.
Thinking about that, Lewis also opened his status window and focused on the section that displayed his mana.
Health: 100%
Stamina: 80%
Mana: 89%
Looks like my anti-magic skill also uses mana to function, then.
Seeing his health and stamina, he wondered why they were listed as percentages when his stats all have numerical values. Then again, maybe it was just easier to round them out like that since they would likely be in flux rather than static, not to mention it's probably a lot harder to actually quantify. It only made sense, after all, how would you quantify someone's stamina if it depends on their current state? Something like 1 point in stamina would likely vary wildly depending on a myriad of factors, like whether I was currently tired or hungry, same for health. If I had a cold, then would my HP be down, or would the general metric measuring it drop slightly since sneezing isn't some sort of damaging attack?
With that in mind, using percentages just made things a lot smoother and more comprehensive, especially as it would also scale with time and better reflect my growth. If I know a spell takes a certain percentage of mana, then I can still measure and estimate its power without using numerical units of mana, since such a thing doesn't seem to exist, not when mana can take on so many different forms and properties.
"Hey Matt, how much mana do you have left?"
"I'm down to a little under half, but I put an extra three points into spirit and intelligence both to boost my mana pool," Matt replied, reminding Lewis of his own free points.
"How did you know those are the attributes responsible for increasing your magic, though?"
"Well, I didn't, not really. I just guess based on what I would do in games. Intelligence is always about increasing the power of magic, and spirit seemed to be a relevant component, maybe relating to my mana core or wherever my mana is stored. At the time, I figured it was right, and I definitely feel like I have more mana than before and that it hits harder too." He replied with a grin.
"Hey, want to see if your fireballs can reach me through my anti-magic mantle? You should try and make a weak fireball at first if you can and gradually increase its power as you throw them at me." Lewis suggested, figuring this was the perfect way for both of them to better understand their skills.
Matt was immediately in as he summoned a fireball and threw it at Lewis without hesitation. With a start, Lewis quickly toggled his mantle skill back on, having deactivated it when telling Matt about the fireball's strange mana field.
The dark cloud sprang to life once more, sticking to him and forming an added layer around his body about the length of his pinky finger. Matt's fireball flew straight for his chest before evaporating as it connected with the dark mantle, destroying the magic before it had time to destabilize like last time.
He breathed out a sigh of relief that it had worked, but Matt only grinned as he formed another fireball, which seemed to burn brighter.