On the grass of the valley in stage 3 once again, Ronan sat and stared at his hands. The memory of casting mana bolt, the feeling of the mana travelling down his arm, and how it left his hand to form the construct, were flitting through his mind.

In his attempt to recreate the skill without the skill, he first wanted to have a perfect image in his mind, so that he could build himself the best foundation possible. He had infinite attempts after all, so it would be foolish to waste them.

Once he had an image in his mind, Ronan began to cycle his mana through his energy channels. Oddly, being forced to experience the class infusion process for sorcerer in each iteration had allowed him to grow used to the pathways they took through his body.

Each iteration, they were carved into his body in the exact same way. Each iteration became a new opportunity for Ronan to study the pathways and grow better used to them.

He wasn't sure their direction or layout affected the speed of his mana flow, the efficiency, or any other aspect of his magic. However, he felt that it would be foolish to waste the learning opportunity.

Once he had his entire mana pool cycling through the channels—it was rather large, as he'd taken up the habit of investing the majority of his free points into wisdom during these iterations—Ronan embodied the feeling of casting mana bolt. At the point in the cycle at which it flowed down his arm, towards his hand, his eyes snapped open, and he lasered his focus to a single point.

The mana reached his palm, and spread into his fingers, and Ronan tried to recreate the sensation of casting mana bolt. A few errant sparks of mana burst from his fingertips, but they had little direction, and even less structure.

Around half of his mana had drained out of his fingers ineffectively, while the rest continued to cycle around his body. He lost a little more as he grappled back control over the mana flow, and with his remaining time in stage 3, he pondered on his failure.

Why had the mana utterly failed to even create the beginnings of the structure of mana bolt? Ronan couldn't figure it out. Everything had gone as he remembered, right up until the moment the mana left his body.

That has to be it, he realised. The skill I received from the sorcerer class was called internal mana manipulation. Specifying internal has to mean I can't, or will simply struggle, to manipulate it outside of my body. That's annoying.

Even with this frustrating revelation throwing a spanner into the works of his magic adventures, Ronan wasn't dissuaded. That this would be difficult to accomplish was something he'd never had illusions about—he was aware that even with a thousand iterations to practice, he'd likely only scratch the surface of the possibilities of magic.

For now, all he needed to do was create a light capable of banishing the dark fog that filled the dungeon corridors of stage 4 of the hard difficulty tutorial. Or if not a light, any spell that could accomplish a similar effect.

Two more iterations passed, and Ronan was beginning to grow angry with his own inability to master sorcery. There was no reason it should be so difficult to replicate a spell he'd cast before.

All that differed between then and now was the presence of the skill directing him. He was following the same path the mana took, knew the feeling of creating the bolt—he'd even manipulated its shape when he had the mage class previously—and his mana pool was large enough to withstand plenty of consumption.

I have to be missing something obvious, he thought to himself. If only I could acquire another legacy grimoire, one that held more secrets relating to sorcery…

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His eyes lit up at the thought. There was plenty of merit in that path of action, but there were two problems with it. The first was that it relied on him pulling a legacy grimoire from the endless treasury.

With endless lives he had theoretically infinite attempts, but in practice it might take millions of tries to replicate his previous feat. Of course, he'd learned that the luck stat influenced his loot drops to some degree, so he could lean on that, but it felt… hollow.

Mastering magic by copying someone else felt like a cop-out. Ronan wanted to achieve this himself, through trial and error, determination, and his own blood, sweat, tears, and mana.

There was a little under a minute left of this iteration's stage 3 timer. He'd defeated Gurz'krax again, and had spent the first minute ruminating on his failures.

Wanting to calm down before he tried again, Ronan took a deep breath as he completed the cycle of mana with what little remained. As he inhaled, he felt a tingling in his lungs, and his eyes shot open. "Fuck me sideways!" he exclaimed, before slapping his forehead.

Once he'd purged the shock from his system, he settled back into a meditative pose. He began a fresh cycle of his mana, and as the tingling energy coursed through his body, Ronan inhaled deeply of the tutorial air.

In his lungs, spreading through his chest, the same tinging sensation he'd just felt blossomed to life once more. His mana pool had been at about 26% when he'd begun the cycle, and as he checked it again, Ronan saw that it had crept up to 29%.

I can absorb mana from my surroundings!? This is a gamechanger, he exclaimed inwardly. Gamechanger was an understatement, quite frankly.

One of the biggest hindrances to the path of magic, ever since Ronan had begun this whole debacle, was the pitifully slow regeneration speed of his mana. Unless he poured half of his free stat points into regeneration, it took a long time to regenerate on its own.

Knowing that he could restore his mana pool by breathing while cycling his existing mana was an incredible discovery. And it's uses didn't stop there.

As he was thinking of ways to leverage his newfound ability to regenerate his mana, Ronan had a second eureka moment. Absorbing mana from my surroundings… That's it!

Throughout all of the iterations in the hard difficulty tutorial, Ronan had been searching for a way to dispel magic. He'd only locked onto the idea of a light spell, because it seemed that it would be the natural counter to whatever darkness voodoo the goblin shamans were using.

However, if he could directly absorb mana from his surroundings, that was a different matter entirely. I can just inhale the magic, and hopefully that will dispel the darkness, and expose the goblins. There were plenty of potential dangers in the idea, and it might not even be possible, but he would try anything once.

After all, death was simply a delay to Ronan. If absorbing the shaman's magic was impossible, and the rogues assassinated him again, he'd simply return to searching for a light spell. On the other hand, if it was possible, but absorbing the magic damaged him in some way, that was fine. He could simply push through, and the damage would be wiped away at the beginning of the next iteration, or even his next level-up.

So lost in the excitement of this discovery, Ronan didn't even notice as the timer reached zero. Only when he was yanked into the shifting void did it hit him.

As he landed in the dimly-lit corridor, Ronan was filled with determination. He practically raced towards the darkness, where he knew the elite goblin rogues and at least one shaman were waiting for him.

With barely a moment's thought for his own safety, he leapt into the darkness. He'd already been cycling his mana beforehand, and as soon as he was surrounded by darkness, Ronan began to inhale in the same controlled manner as before.

His mana pool began to tick upwards. Success! he inwardly yelled. The next moment, a green face with glowing eyes appeared as if from nowhere, and he caught the flash of steel.

The goblin seemed as surprised as he was, but that only stopped it for a moment. Ronan suddenly coughed, and sprayed his arm with black blood. He stared at it, and noticed thick, protruding spider-web veins of pure black lancing down his arms and chest.

Then the goblin plunged its dagger into his heart, and he was thrown to the ground. Ronan died two seconds later, but he barely even cared. He was overjoyed with his success.

The dark spell had corrupted him in some way, and begun to damage him from within, but his method worked. He could clear away the darkness, and turn the battlefield to his advantage.

As long as he was able to level-up before the corruption and the goblins killed him, he had finally found a way to beat these accursed cowards. Provided leveling up healed this particular brand of damage. Ronan was hopeful, and as he was taken to his clan's ancestral grounds, he pulled up his status and began to plan his attack strategy.

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