Chapter 78
78 Broken Skill
Skill Crafter>[Please pick a name for the skill…]
“Mana Return.”
It’s a glitch skill concept I’ve been working on in my mind for days now. I was trying to find a proper loophole in my words, something that could actually benefit me and came up with this skill.
If this skill works out… it’ll solve a lot of my mana problems. Leon thought, focusing deeply.
[Skill ‘Mana Return’ has been created.]
[Rank has been set to ‘F’ by default.]
[State the use of the skill.]
“A passive skill that will activate automatically after every skill use and return 30% of the skill’s total mana used to the caster over the next 10 seconds.”
[Error: Skill’s description doesn’t match the Rank. Please try again…]
As soon as Leon activated the skill, a single word on the screen turned red-‘30%.
“Hmm… How about 20% mana return?” Leon asked.
[Error: Skill’s description doesn’t match the Rank. Please try again..]
‘Tch… looks like the system’s not that dumb after all. It learns every time I create a powerful skill using weak wording and blocks me from doing it again! Leon thought, his expression turning serious.
“Fine… 15% mana return.”
[Error: Skill’s description doesn’t match the Rank. Please try again…]
“10%?”
[Processing]
Leon let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew..”
[Description Accepted.]
[No Chant will be selected for the skill.]
[Estimated mana cost to use the skill has been calculated: 10 mana/use.]|
[Cooldown has been calculated: 10 seconds after every use.]
[Would you like to learn the skill or destroy it?]
‘Hmm… Mana cost and cooldown timer are low. That’s good.
“Learn it…” Leon replied.
[Congratulations! You have learned the skill (Mana Return} Successfully.]
“Okay… time to test it.”
“Heal.”
As soon as the skill ‘Minor Heal was cast, ‘Mana Return’ triggered right after.
[+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP)..
Tiny notifications popped up in front of Leon, showing his mana recovery.
“Hmm… I used Minor Heal, which takes 20 mana. Mana Return also cost 10 mana, so that’s 30 mana in total.
But I only got 2 mana back over the next 10 seconds?”
He blinked. “That’s one fucking stupid skill—wait.”
‘His eyes narrowed. What if I cast another skill before the ten seconds are up? Will it reset the timer for Mana Return?’
“I mean… it’ll still be pretty useless, but finding a glitch in it would be fun. I will just delete it after doing this.” Leon thought as a smile appeared over his face.
“Heal.”
[+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP)…
“1… 2…. 3.. 4.. 5.. 6. 7. 8…. Threads.”
Before the timer could run out, Leon cast another spell.
[+0.4 MP] [+0.4 MP] [+0.4 MP]…
“Haha! I knew it would recast and-wait a fucking second…” Leon spoke as he looked at the numbers popping in front of him.
“Status.”
—
Name: Leon Luster
Class: Alchemist
Race: Human
Level: 8
Mana: 425/500 (+100)
HP: 800/800
Skills:
[Skill Crafter (F)], [Inspect (C)]. [Adaptive Body (S)], [Minor Healing (F2)], [Trap (F)], [Inventory (F3)], [Blind Spot (F)],
[Touch of Lust (F4)], [Loose Grip (F)], [Adrenaline Rush (F)]. [Lustful Thoughts (F)). [Potion Crafter (F {S-Cap)], [Alchemy (F)]
[Glitch Point (F)], [Instant Craft (F1)], [Reverberate (F1)], [Mana Thread (F)], [Life Steal (F)], [Leeching Aura (F)]. [Mana
Return (F)]
Titles: None
—
Without wasting a second, Leon tapped on the [Mana Thread] skill.
[Name: Mana Threads]
［Rank:F]
[When activated, this skill creates extremely thin threads made of mana that can be manipulated by the user to bind small objects and move them around.
The skill can be recast up to five times. Each thread can lift up to twelve kilograms of weight.]
[Mana Cost: 20]
[Cooldown: 3 minutes.]
“If it’s taking twenty mana… then I should only get 2 mana back over 10 seconds.
So why the hell did I get 4?”
Leon squinted as he placed the wooden stick that he bought from home back into his inventory.
He activated the spell again.
“Threads.”|
[+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP]…
“…Okay, now I got only 2 mana for that one. So what changed?”
“Wait… No way…” Suddenly, his eyes widened as thousands of calculations burst through his brain like an explosion.
“There is no fucking way….”
He grabbed a handful of snow, staring at it intensely.
“Heal.”
[+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP] [+0.2 MP]…
“1. 2.. 3… 4. 5… 6… 7… 8…”
“Alchemy.”
The snowball instantly turned into water in his hand, but Leon didn’t even blink at it.
[+0.4 MP] [+0.4 MP] [+0.4 MP] [+0.4 MP]…
“1.. 2… 3… 4… 5… 6… 7… 8…”
“Threads.” Leon casted the third spell and waited.
[+0.6 MP] [+0.6 MP] [+0.6 MP] [+0.6 MP]…
..Fucking hell” He whispered, staring at the numbers.
“The timer resets every time I recast another ability…
But the mana return doesn’t reset. It stacks with each ability casted…”
Leon looked around and found a small stick on the ground, he immediately dropped to his knees and started scribbling numbers furiously into the snow.
“If I create another passive skill that takes 10 mana at cast and re-casts itself every 5 seconds…
Then I’ll get a recovery rate of 0.1 mana per second for 5 seconds.
That means I’ll recover 0.5 mana on the first cast.
But after the skill re-casts itself, the stack adds again.
So now I’m recovering 0.2 mana per second for 5 seconds. That’s 1 mana recovered.
Do that again… recovery rate becomes 0.3 mana per second.
Third stack = 1.5 mana recovered.
And this keeps going.
If 1 do this for one full minute, with a cast every 5 seconds-that’s 12 times in a minute.
So that’s 120 mana spent.
But the total mana recovered across those 12 stacks? 39 mana.
Now if I continue doing the same thing for another minute, I’ll spend another 120 mana.
But now I’m recovering 110 mana during that same period-almost breaking even.
And if I continue this loop for one hour straight… that’s 7200 mana spent.
Now using this formula…” Leon trailed off, his eyes locked on the numbers he carved into the snow.
5 minutes later…
He slowly stood up, his eyes widened as the sun broke over the horizon.
A ray of golden light hit the snow, illuminating the final number he wrote.
“..122580 mana recovered.”
[Author: 1 did my best to explain it.]