Healing System

A/N: Only 2 chapters today; I will do a mass release for priv in a week or two; I have to get some things sorted first, sorry!

*

Michael felt awkward standing there, watching the two of them hug it out, seemingly not stopping any time soon.

"I am glad the two of you are fine... See you in a week?" he added but was once again ignored.

It seemed like he was not very welcome in their little reunion, so Michael took the hint and walked away. He had better things to do anyway.

And those things are?

'Probably watch some TV, maybe?' He nodded to himself in confirmation; it did not seem like a bad pastime.

However, once those thoughts ended, he remembered the system's advice. It had highly recommended that he test out his skills and their limits.

Good, you are not completely hopeless. There are a few open spaces around here

The system said. Suddenly, a few pulsating markers began appearing on the map beside him. Several areas were highlighted—those with the least amount of people.

Or the highest amount of red dots. It wouldn't hurt him to pass by and kill a few of them, after all. His mana was fully restored thanks to his usage of the

Sanctuary

skill.

By far, it was his most overpowered skill yet. It was just a pity that the cooldown was so long; otherwise, he would be using it in most of his encounters.

There was

Divine Judgement

as well, but besides its destructiveness, the mana cost was way too high. He would only use it if he coupled it with the

Sanctuary

skill; maybe then he could negate the damage to himself while also maximizing the damage to the opponent.

Too many possibilities—and his luck was off the charts as well. If he had not gone up in Tier and gotten the

Sanctuary

skill, the fight against the demon would have been much more difficult.

It was a pleasant coincidence, one that Michael was glad had happened. After all, he probably wouldn't have played around with the demon like he did, resulting in that purple blob falling on him.

But now that it had happened once, he would make sure it never happened again.

Michael flew around the inner part of Vivum until, eventually, he landed in a pretty open space where no civilians were anywhere near him. The only things around him were a few imps.

It was interesting how the people had not gotten rid of them yet. After all, there were many strong individuals in the city, some of whom even had mana cores.

The amount was certainly not large—only a few people in the crowd—and most of them were unsurprisingly wearing the government's uniform: a professional suit that did not seem compatible with battle at all.

Maybe it really was incompatible. After all, the imps were still lurking around the city.

Michael cast a single

Sword of Light

and made it fly through every single imp in the vicinity. It was decent practice since, if he went too fast, he would lose control of the sword. If he went too slow, well, it wouldn't kill anybody.

It was a bit difficult to balance, considering the speed and casting time of his skills were extremely fast—to the point where it was easier to just do simple straight-line casts.

But if he wanted to improve his mana-controlling abilities, it would be best to first control his most-used spell.

The attempts were not bad. He was able to skewer a few imps on his first try, albeit they were not exactly far apart.

On the second try, he was even able to rotate the sword a full 180 degrees and strike another imp right behind him. He was getting better and better at it the more he tried.

But alas, there were not an infinite number of imps. In just a few short minutes, he had killed most of them already.

Besides gaining a tad bit more control over his

swords of light,n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

he did not feel that much different. However, he still had quite a lot of time to spare for his so-called training.

Do you want to try the other part of the training I mentioned? It's not as painful as direct absorption, but nonetheless, its effects are nearly identical.

Michael raised his brow at that comment. 'Here?' He was a bit cautious because, while there were no people around, he never knew when someone would come.

And if he was paralyzed by pain like with the other type of training, it would prove quite troublesome.

You won't be paralyzed. Probably.

'You don't sound very convincing...' Michael snickered and made his way to the flattest part of the area he was currently in. Whatever the system was planning, it would be best to be prepared for everything.

All of a sudden, a voice resounded from behind him. It sounded very similar to his own, and upon turning around, he noticed it was the system in its human form.

"You are misunderstanding me. Also, while I am in this form, call me Mikhail."

Michael sighed at the sight of him smirking. "Sure, sy—Mikhail. What do you have in mind, then?"

"Nothing serious, just a little spar, is all." With those words, Mikhail stretched out his hand, and the halo on top of Michael's head began shaking uncontrollably until, finally, it started levitating in front of them.

"Insert half of your mana into it. I don't really have much mana of my own, so I need you to split your reserves with me," Mikhail said and pointed at the halo, which was emitting a faint golden glow.

Michael didn't think too much of it, so he agreed. He walked up to the halo and placed his hand on top of it. Immediately, exactly half of his mana was extracted, and the golden glow intensified.

That was until Mikhail walked up to the halo and took it, placing it right on top of his head.

The strength difference did not seem that large. If anything, Michael was even a tad bit stronger, mana-wise.

But he knew that his strength did not mean anything against Mikhail, as he quite literally had billions upon billions of years of experience. His combat prowess was obviously much, much higher than Michael's.

"So how are we going to do this?" Michael asked. He would obviously lose in a battle, but it seemed like that was where the situation was heading.

"I am going to teach you how to control your mana better. All you have to do is pay attention and survive. Simple, right?"

A shiver went down Michael's spine as he saw the small smile on Mikhail's face. Without wasting any time, he summoned a bunch of multilayered shields to defend himself.

However, that seemed to not work, as in the next moment, he felt pain in his left hand. Upon looking at it, he noticed that it was destroyed right at the elbow. It was so fast and precise that he could not even tell when it had happened.

By now, his regeneration was much faster than before. It only took him a few moments to regrow a limb from seemingly nothing. The fact that it hurt remained, though.

"So how long are you going to spar with me?" Michael stared at Mikhail, who had not moved a single muscle since his arm got obliterated.

However, the next words made his expression sour.

"Isn't it obvious? You have a week of free time. Therefore, we will spend a week training."

'...Fuck.'