Baiye removed [Meditation (Lv.7)] and [Hundredfold Martial Arts (Lv.7)] from his AFK slots and slotted in the two new traits.
A minute later—
[Magic Circuits (White) (0/10000)] — AFK… (Tap to claim 100 Growth)
[Mana (Lv.0) (0/100)] — AFK… (Tap to claim 100 Proficiency)
He claimed the 100 proficiency for Mana.
A flood of "practice memory" appeared in his mind—how to repeatedly train mana output—and his internal mana rose in a way that matched those memories perfectly.
That was why the AFK-slot rewards weren't instantly applied as raw stats: you had to claim them manually.
For talents, each claim caused the talent itself to evolve by the growth amount.
For abilities, each claim delivered both experience and proficiency—so no matter how big the leap, you could precisely control every fraction of it.
After absorbing the minute of gains, Baiye checked the blinking prompt:
[Ability "Mana (Lv.0)" proficiency is full. Upgrade to the next level?]
Yes.
["Mana (Lv.0)" upgraded to "Mana (Lv.1)"]
["Mana (Lv.1)" gained +1 bonus Intensity (Total Intensity: 1)]
"Hm?" Morgan made a small sound.
Because the Master–Servant contract still existed, and she was close enough, she could sense Baiye's state clearly. A surge period right after opening circuits was normal, but—
With only three circuits, that increase was… excessive.
"Is something wrong?" Baiye asked cheerfully.
"No. It's better than I expected." Morgan stared at him for a long moment, then suppressed her doubt.
He'd already displayed a strange property during the conversion. Seeing it again wasn't… that big a deal.
Yes. Exactly.
She waved away the ritual marks around the stone slab and left the basement.
Behind her, Baiye smiled silently.
He could guess her confusion.
Bonus Intensity +1: an extra doubling effect that came every time an ability trait leveled up.
For Mana, the effect was simple: every point of Intensity doubled the output on top of the base level upgrade.
For example:
If at Lv.0, mana quality was Grade I and quantity range was 1–10, then at Lv.1, the trait's base upgrade might raise it to Grade II and 11–50.
But with +1 Intensity, the actual Lv.1 would be doubled: quality would be "twofold Grade II," and quantity would become (11–50) × 2, i.e., 22–100.
Quality and quantity had just jumped by more than double. Quantity might not fully show unless he pushed extraction—but quality was unmistakable.
Of course Morgan reacted.
Baiye left the basement, spun in place in front of Sakura to prove he was fine, and earned a relieved smile from the little girl.
Ten minutes later, in the Matou study—
He claimed 1000 AFK proficiency from Mana (Lv.1).
Upgrade?
Yes.
The trait rose to Lv.2, and another +1 Intensity arrived.
Using the same rough model: if Lv.0 was Grade I, 1–10; and Lv.1 (with +1 Intensity) was twofold Grade II, 22–100—then Lv.2 with +2 Intensity became fourfold Grade III, and quantity became (51–100) × 4, i.e., 204–400.
Morgan, who was teaching Sakura how to open her circuits and what to watch out for: "..."
Inhale—exhale.
Nothing special.
Every era had one or two monsters that only grew more despairing the more you understood them.
She'd simply had the misfortune of meeting one.
She steadied herself and continued the lesson.
Opening circuits was only the first step of magecraft, but Sakura was young and had never received proper instruction at the Tohsaka home. To ensure she didn't botch the first step, Morgan insisted she learn basic fundamentals before actually opening them.
As for Baiye, he pulled a book from the shelf and decided to try a foundational—but long-coveted—spell with his own hands.
He read it once, ran the key points through his head, confirmed nothing was missing, then grabbed a table knife and poured mana into it.
Crack—!
The knife instantly bloomed with fractures, the lines spreading outward until the blade shattered into over a hundred pieces.
Baiye: "..."
He picked up another knife. With the previous failure in mind, he fed mana in thread by thread, patiently searching for the "special sensation" the book described.
When he found it, he tapped the reinforced knife against a fork in his other hand.
Slice—
No resistance. The fork split cleanly in two.
Reinforcement succeeded.
But… the system didn't react.
He checked his panel. No prompt appeared saying he'd learned Reinforcement.
Not enough?
He'd encountered this before.
Seven years ago, after gaining Meditation through self-visualization, he'd tried to build physical traits too. By then, he'd touched plenty of martial arts in his prior life: school-taught Xingyi stances and five-element fists; two years in a university martial arts club (mostly for credits), learning a bit of Taiji basics and then some Bajiquan; plus odds and ends from films and online tutorials—Pi Gua palms, Eight Brocades, and so on.
None of it was truly usable in a real fight. He couldn't even perform the routines smoothly.
Only after he fused everything together did the system finally recognize it and grant Hundredfold Martial Arts.
This felt similar.
If so—keep going.
Two hours later, Reinforcement still hadn't crossed the system's "skill generation" threshold. But Magic Circuits (White) had quietly hit the growth needed for evolution after sitting in an AFK slot for ten thousand seconds.
["Magic Circuits (White)" has evolved into "Magic Circuits (Green)"]
Talent evolution didn't grant bonus Intensity like abilities did—but in another sense, it was even more absurd.
After evolving from white to green, Baiye's circuits underwent a full-spectrum upgrade: finer precision, faster rotation, sturdier structure, higher mana quality—
And even the one thing the world insisted was fixed at birth—the number of circuits—jumped from 3 to 9.
Morgan finally snapped.
"Master—seriously," she said, maintaining impeccable politeness as she asked, "may I study your body?"
"I promise I'll stitch you back exactly the way I cut you open."
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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