CH141 Customising the Weapon Platform
***
Since he had no leads on the secret organisation, Alex did what he always did when faced with an unsolvable problem—
He shelved it for later when he was able to solve it.
Alex quietly returned to the Back Mountain Lodge and made his way to the training hall.
Walking to the centre of the hall, he sat down cross-legged, slipping into a ditative posture.
Now that all imdiate matters had been handled or pushed aside, it was ti to reflect on the two duels he fought earlier that day—and digest the lessons.
His particular focus was combat as a Weapon Master.
’I had a brief epiphany during those duels...
’My favourite weapons are my fists. It feels more natural to fight with my body than with so external tool. Instead of fighting this instinct, why not embrace it and build outwards from there?’ he mused.
’According to Father, as a Weapon Master, I don’t necessarily have to master weapons—what I need to master... is myself.’
He had many combat tools at his disposal:
— Spellcasting
— Body Strengthening Magic
— Dragon Kumite
— Abyssal Conqueror’s Steps
— MMA from his past life
— Rudintary mastery of various weapon archetypes
— Truth-Seeker Eyes and all their combat-related abilities
— His bloodline’s instinctive Battle Sense.
’If I think of myself as a weapon platform, then all these are modular loadouts I can slot in depending on the situation, opponent, or terrain.’
He pictured himself as a character in an online shooter ga—one of those loadout-based gas where you picked configurations based on your preferred style, the opponent’s habits, or the battlefield’s layout.
He had never been a hardcore gar—more of a reader otaku.
The few tis he did play those gas, he sucked at them.
Why?
Because he never changed his loadout.
He kept using the sa configuration.
It didn’t take long before his friends and colleagues figured out how to beat him every ti.
He was the kind of person who just went with the flow.
Too many options overwheld him.
’Illusion of choice, huh...’
He rembered what a colleague once told him.
Apparently, Alex was the kind of person who fell into decision-making paralysis when presented with too many options.
The type who either picked everything... or nothing at all.
Hence the nickna his friend gave his condition—"illusion of choice."
It looked like he had choices, but his nature had already decided which one he’d take.
Thinking up to that point, Alex had an epiphany.
’Since I don’t handle freestyle customisations well, why don’t I limit my own loadouts? I can define a "core" that stays constant... and then create "slots" I can swap in and out depending on the situation.’
He imdiately began sorting his core systems:
— Body Strengthening Magic
— Dragon Kumite
— Abyssal Conqueror’s Steps
— Truth-Seeker Eyes
These were his unshakable foundations. They complented both his spellcasting and physical fighting. No need to ever swap them out.
’The real decisions co from spells, weapons, and free-hand combat techniques.’
For spells, even though the OmniRune Core allowed him to access many, if not all spells, he needed to ground himself in a smaller, practical subset.
’First, I’ll focus on the elents I have the highest affinity with:
— Fire
— Light
— Darkness
— Lightning
— Solar
— Netherspark.’
Even as he wrote them out ntally, they still felt like too much.
So, he grouped them:
— Fire and Lightning → Direct Damage
— Netherspark → DoT (Damage over Ti)
— Darkness → Movent & Crowd Control
— Light and Solar → Healing & Support
’As for defence... well, I’m a mage. I’m not supposed to get hit.’
He smirked at his own internal sarcasm.
With that decision made, Alex felt his ntal catalogue begin to clear.
’For weapons, I’ll focus on the staff for now.
’With a little mana manipulation through Dragon Kumite, I should be able to morph it—a sharp edge to mimic a blade, a pointed tip for a spear, a blunt top like a hamr, and so on.
’Besides, using a staff lets train other weapon archetypes while still benefiting from a magic amplifier.’
No one ever said he couldn’t use a magic staff in a physical fight.
It would just be a matter of resources.
The matter of commissioning the staff would be left to Pinchcoin.
With the craftsmanship of the DragonHold Enclave, Alex was confident they could create sothing suitable for his evolving combat needs.
’My MMA is good enough for now as my unard fighting style. But since it’s likely I’ll favour unard combat over weapon usage, I might as well explore this world’s native martial arts.
’Udara’s fighting style, for example... It’s not so different from MMA. The transition—or even a fusion—might be possible.’
Once he finished his musings, a ntal fog lifted.
Excitent surged in his eyes, and he imdiately sank into cultivation ditation.
-
Four hours later, his eyes opened, glowing faintly.
His earlier epiphany about his fighting path had granted him insight into a new layer of mana control.
As a result, his mana cultivation had reached the bottleneck to the Mid Interdiate Rank.
With a bit of effort, he could break through it right away—
But he chose not to.
The bottleneck now existed in na only.
He could push through whenever he wished.
’There’s no need to rush.’
Drawing on the clichés from novels in his previous life, Alex decided to focus on refining his mana and strengthening his pathways before his breakthrough.
He condensed the mana inside his Mana Heart into fine strands—similar to how Astral energy behaved within the void of cultivation space.
Then he passed these strands through AetherKindle, the golden fla nested in his Mana Heart.
The fla roared quietly as it refined the already pure mana even further.
Only after this did he send the strand into his Outflow Mana Pathways, where he used the Tempering Technique rlin had given him to temper the pathways.
This technique systematically refined and reinforced the pathways—similar to how warriors used internal energy to temper their ridians.
In truth, what Alex was doing wasn’t unheard of.
It simply wasn’t common—most mages let their mana pathways strengthen naturally through rank progression.
The effort wasn’t considered worth the gain.
But that had never stopped Alex before.
Both his postnatal talents—[Extre Mana Capacity] and [Elental Affinity Enhancent]—were obtained through equally ridiculous thods.
This might not yield a specific known ability, but Alex wasn’t aiming for that.
His fighting style relied on sudden bursts of high-pressure, high-volu mana release.
Given his larger and purer mana pool, it only made sense to ensure his "pipes" could withstand the output.
A slightly stronger mana circuit could one day be the line between life and death.
Two hours of daily refinent was a small price to pay for that chance.
-
As a mage, Alex was no stranger to forgoing sleep for ditation.
He continued his mana pathway tempering late into the night and into the early hours of morning.
Only the distant cries of the wandering wild fowls alerted him to the rising sun.
He ended his ditation.
It was ti to prepare.
Today, Kurt and Viscount Lars would be buried.
**
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