It seems that the passive I got with my Primary Class isn't as bad as I thought it would be. My mana is currently at 609 stat points. Then the 1st Stage of Attribute upgrade adds another 609 to that, making it 1218. That makes the Mana Reservoir 2436 points big, and it's still filling up.

Like, heck. Isn't that maybe too strong? I mean, I won't complain, obviously, but what the heck?

The reservoir is filling slowly, and getting it to this point took multiple days, as every time I spent a bit of mana, it stopped filling. Plus, I keep taking mana from my natural mana pool and only letting the reservoir fill. So there are disadvantages. Plus, it's also nearly a one-time use, and then there can be situations where I will keep using my mana and it won't be able to fill.

But!

This is really getting scary. The thing isn't even filled yet. Where will it stop? Three times my mana? Four? Five? After I sell the Coordinates, I really should buy another high-grade passive or start saving for one.

A beam of light shines through the window right into my eyes, as if telling me to finally get out of bed. With a sigh, I do just that and go through the clothes and put on something more fitting.

Everything in the room is something the others bought. With my money.

I'm rich, but I could be richer.

Maybe I really should be an ass and ask for rent from them. I can ask for it jokingly, and some of them might take it seriously and give me some money.

At that moment, a weak pulse of mana is sent through the web Sophie set up. I'm able to sense it only because I keep observing it, and I quickly follow the signal and detect movement at the entrance to the land the house is on. I switch to [Perception] and detect 3 men standing there. One of them senses my perceiving touch and does something that blocks it.

Wow, so rude.

I send my mana again, this time I change the frequency a bit and do it more carefully, and the man doesn't notice it anymore. Amateur.

A mana signature exits the house, and I identify it as Haddy, who quickly approaches the men. I also notice Sophie and Tess, who are carefully watching the interaction, ready to join.

The trio talks to Hadwin for a while, and then Haddy gestures for them to leave. At that moment, one of the men swings at Hadwin, and the older man lets him hit. Even though the man is using mana, there's no damage dealt to Hadwin. Instead, he just smiles, and I sense him using [Strengthening] and then Hadwin punches the man who attacked him.

Immediately the other two attack as well, one using some lightning attack and the other one by boosting his body.

Hadwin just lifts his eyebrow and allows a few hits to land, showing total disrespect, and then beats them up, breaking some bones in the process. Then he just throws them away.

He literally throws them.

Way to go, Chadwin!

Curious, I turn to Sophie's web and push on it in a way I know she'll notice.

She identifies that it's me and connects to my mind. (Please, do not break my web, it took a long time to set up and I'm still working on it,) Sophie says immediately.

(Who were those three chumps outside?) I ignore her words and ask her instead.

I can almost hear her sigh. (Some random guild full of jerks that keep wanting to get us to join them. Probably so they can scam us for commissions.)

Well, I guess it's not even surprising.

(Tess and Haddy didn't tell me anything,) I send it to Sophie.

(Tess said not to bother you with little stuff like this. We can deal with it even without you.)

(And the real reason is?) I ask.

(She doesn't want you around, beating people before we find out a bit more about the power structure of the city. Anyway, I'm going to hunt with Izzy and Hadwin, so tonight again?)

(Yup.)

Her touch then disappears.

Damn, Tess, I wouldn't go around beating people… okay, I would. Hmm, maybe I should track those three men and see where their base is.

At that moment, I hear knocking on my door.

I get up and open it, and there, Tess stands. "Nat, Sophie told me you asked about what just happened. So, please, do not go out and track them." She seems serious as she says so.

It seems like I was read like an open book.

"Okay, I won't," I say after a bit of thinking.

They seem to have fun dealing with those goons, so I will let them. But if they push harder, I won't hesitate to use it as an excuse to beat up a few jerks.

Mana Cycling is fun. The technique I learned, among other things, from Lissandra, is enjoyable. I use it to move mana through my body, and at this point, it's something I do almost subconsciously. I also changed it a bit from the version Lissandra taught me and adapted it more to the way I handle mana and my body.

It's surprisingly helpful. My mana, which is now multiple times higher than any other stat, is easily dealt with between my constructs that use some, passives that help me, my trait, and Mana Cycling.

Having so much mana isn't something people usually do, but for me, it's fine.

Lvl 159

Strength: 51

Dexterity: 49

Constitution: 147

Mana (Stage 1/3 - Vast Mana): 609 + 609

And I bet I could handle more! It's not just an excuse to keep constantly dumping stats into mana, nope. My estimate is that in a few more days, I should be ready for Active Tempering which will improve my strength, dexterity, and constitution again. I just need a bit more time to get used to my mana which increased by 200 after the Primary class I picked.

I also have another thing added to my to-do list. My new skill called [Mana Domain]; I came up with a way to improve it by a lot. The first step is to evolve my [Mana Infusion] into [Infusion], and then I will infuse my domain with all kinds of fun stuff!

[Mana Domain] infused with [Resonance]? Good luck avoiding attacks of resonating mana that can come from any side. Or good luck avoiding constant pressure that wants to disrupt your mana.

The same goes for kinetic energy or thermal one. I could literally keep a heat-filled dome around myself or the one filled with kinetic energy.

With a few level-ups of the domain and increasing its size and with my nearly bottomless mana reserves? This added to the original effect of my skill that allows mana within the dome to move as easily as the mana inside my body, which would turn it into some terrifying stuff!

There's also one more interesting thing. Creating an anchor for [Tether] is easier within my domain, and I don't even have to stand close to do so. Within the domain, I can create an anchor further away from me.

Sure, the anchors could be destroyed, and they are still easy to detect, but nothing I couldn't improve with time.

But even this feels just like the start. I'm still inclined to think that [Mana Domain] will be much stronger at a higher level. Currently, it allows only doing stuff with my mana, but sooner or later I should be able to dominate all the mana within the domain, and that's when I think the skill will truly shine.

“What do you think, Biscuit? Am I correct?” I ask.

Currently, I'm alone in my house as everyone else went to hunt or gather information. A tiny part of me feels ashamed as if I'm slacking even though I'm training.

There's a real reason for that. I have a lot of mana and yet, by my standards, I'm not handling it properly. It's like people from Hard difficulty. They did have similar stats and levels to us, but their usage of skills was lacking in comparison to us, Hell difficulty enjoyers.

Not wanting to end up like them, I can only stop leveling and focus on improving my control.

(Food.) Biscuit just yawns lazily and puts his head back down on my lap.

“It's easy for you to say, you can learn new skills anytime you want,” I complain.

(Sustenance. Easy.)

“What? You try harder only when you need more food, and right now there is enough of it, so you don't need to?”

(Food.) The doggo confirms.

I can't even refute that. This telepathic, burrito-like, floating, potty-mouthed divine beast is probably the strongest one of us.

Still, I boop his nose a few times, “When you become a real divine beast or something stronger, you will have to remember good ol' Nat, okay? I will be leeching off you.”

Biscuit doesn't even bother to answer, and his cheeky eyes seem to be smiling before he closes them again.

POV Lily Chen

“Listen, Tess, you guys just need to shut up and join Blackstone. Our guild is much bigger than yours, and we already have backers that can help you guys get better-paying jobs. It's a win-win."

The woman saying that is only a bit older than Tess. She's a brunette with a curvy figure, and her eyes are yellow, reptile-like. Probably some trait, as Tess mentioned after we met her for the first time a few days ago.

She's really rude as she and two more men stand in front of us, by her side. They are not allowing us to pass.

It's annoying, to be honest. Tess and I just wanted to go out and hunt a bit.

"As I told you before, our guild is not interested in that, Eve. Just let us pass." Tess says.

"What kind of name is 'Angry Kittens'? You guys clearly don't take it seriously." The woman takes a step closer and places her hand on Tess's shoulder. Her smile is creepy, and she keeps glancing at me and my right hand.

It's probably my fault. They saw me before I finished restoring my right hand and guessed that I'm a healer capable of regenerating limbs, or we have one, and that's the main reason they want us in.

"Tess, we would treat all of you nicely, trust me." Her hand continues to squeeze Tess's shoulder, and she shows her teeth while smiling.

To me, it's surprising how confident they are. I can't see their levels, but Tess said they're just a bit over one hundred. Tess and Hadwin also wanted to keep Nathaniel out of all of this. Something about not always relying on him for help with something they can handle, but I think they just don't want him to blow things up.

I'd like to see that, though. I don't like this woman and the way she looks at me. But I'm not worried. If she touches me, I'll use [Disintegration].

"Eve, get your hand off me."

My attention is immediately drawn to Tess, who said that. Tess is smiling, but this smile feels dangerous.

"Come on Tess, quit joking. You will get in trouble the moment you try something," the brunette laughs and gestures to the two men who move closer.

"Lily, don't kill anyone," is the last thing Tess says before white and red lightning sparks around her.

Her fist moves at a dizzying speed, hitting Eve directly on the nose, breaking it, drawing blood, and sending her flying even though the woman tried to block the attack with mana.

Tess smiles refreshingly.

Then one of the men grabs me. Being careful not to kill him, I lower the power of [Disintegration], and a short pulse of grayish mana disintegrates his arm up to the shoulder and I take a step back.

“Huh?” he utters before he starts screaming.

Tess quickly deals with the other man. It doesn't even take three seconds.

“So annoying. Blackrock is just a small bootlicker guild that clings to a bigger one. Their guild master isn't even at level 120,” Tess says.

She remains calm even in this situation. In some ways, she's really similar to Nat. Is that why he feels so comfortable around her?

“You bitch,” Eve lisps from the ground, blood on her face, “just wait...”

A squad of guards followed by one male lynthari quickly arrives. Too quickly, almost as if they were waiting nearby.

“Oh, it's cute Eve. What happened to you? Did they attack you out of nowhere?” the lynthari asks while the human guards wait. He smiles at the woman who glares at us hatefully.

The lynthari feels young and even though he tries to control his expression everyone can see that he is having fun.

“This might be a little troublesome,” Tess sighs, "It looks like we've been set up."

POV Lily Chen

One of the unspoken rules of the city is to never mess with lynthari. So we let ourselves be taken to prison and locked in a room, both together. It's a reasonably nice room, but it's unsettling to be confined here. I'm troubled by what Eve said; maybe we'll face problems, as Tess mentioned.

Tess tells me to expect that we'll spend a few days here and that they'll most likely try to mess with us while we're here. They might kidnap us or force us to pay outrageously high fines for "seriously" hurting them. And if we can't gather enough money, they could force us to join their guild.

But only a few hours later, the door unlocks, and a young man enters the room. His face has no emotion on it, but his brown and gray eyes seem to glow with hidden cheekiness as he looks at us.

As always, he moves with such confidence, and unlike almost everyone else, he doesn't emit any mana I could detect.

It's like he dominates all of it and doesn't allow it to escape his control.

“Are these your friends, feral one?” A lynthari enters the cell. The way she speaks and moves makes her seem regal, even though there's a long scar across her face.

[Elemental Warden - lvl ??]

Her hair is white, and her cat-like eyes are golden. She is unearthly beautiful and probably extremely wealthy, judging by her enchanted jewelry and clothes. Her clothes are also very pretty.

“Yes, Myrra, these two 'angry kittens' are my friends,” Nathaniel says.