Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 108: Allow Me To Clarify

-Ding!

{Purchase complete. 34 Credits Deducted.

Items stored in Inventory.

{Credits Remaining: 153}

I forced my protesting muscles to drag myself all the way up onto my feet, all the while gritting my teeth through the phantom centipedes still chewing me inside and out.

My legs trembled violently under my own weight, but I managed to stand.

And with a quick mental command, a burst of blue sparkles flashed in front of me, manifesting the white ceramic bathtub directly onto the cavern floor with steam rolling off the hot water.

Opening my inventory again, I pulled both the thin glass dropper and the intricately decorated vial of the Grade 2 Potion directly into my palms.

Outside of my Divine Armament, this little bottle was the most expensive, overpowered thing I owned. Just a few drops of it had literally ripped me back from death’s own clutches before effectively making me immortal for the next half a minute.

-Pop!

The moment I wedged the ornate cork off the top, its herbal scent instantly flooded my senses.

[Okay, steady now... If I drop this, I will actually cry.]

I forced my severely trembling fingers to steady themselves, I carefully dipped the thin glass dropper into the vial to draw exactly 0.02 mL of the thick blood-red liquid right to the measurement line, before instantly shoving the cork back in and banishing the vial straight back to my inventory before my completely numb fingers could accidentally let it slip.

Hovering the dropper over the steaming tub, I let it drip.

-Plop.

A single drop of the third-highest graded potion in the world hit the clear water, breaking the surface and immediately blooming outward until the water glowed a deep, radiant blood-red hue.

Stiffly peeling the clothes off my aching body, wincing at every agonizing movement, I dragged myself over the ceramic edge and collapsed straight into the hot water.

"Mhm-Hmm..."

The relief was instantaneous.

The warm, medicated liquid rapidly soaked right through my pores, actively dissolving the terrifying sensation of a thousand burning needles piercing my flesh while the suffocating numbness of the paresthesia simply melted away into a wave of pure euphoric calm.

Leaning my head back, I closed my eyes and finally took a deep, steady breath that didn’t feel like inhaling crushed glass.

"Alright, System..." I sighed, my voice steady and completely stripped of all its previous tremors. "Here’s me taking the initiative... let’s talk."

-Ding!

{Let’s}

"What exactly was happening to me?"

-Ding!

{What happened to you is called Mage’s Folly. I have already explained it, but I will restate it concisely.

It is akin to passing 1,500 volts through a copper wire rated for 1,000. The wire does not immediately fail. It degrades under sustained stress until structural collapse becomes inevitable.}

"Is it because I was circulating sixty mana a second?" I asked, gaze fixed on my fist as it clenched and unclenched over and over

-Ding!

{Circulating sixty MP per second is part of the reason, but not the whole of it.

Humans possess one of the poorest mana conductivities among the major races. Your mana resistance is naturally high.

More importantly, you have been abusing your Infinite MP Regeneration since your first spell cast.

Mage’s Folly did not occur simply because you exceeded your body’s safe conduction threshold in a single instance.

Your case is rarer. It occurred because you have been conducting mana near your body’s upper tolerance limit continuously for the entirety of the day.

Host, most practitioners at your level have a total pool of 50 to 70 MP. Once spent, they must rest and naturally recover that mana.

This enforced downtime also prevents Mage’s Folly.

Your Infinite MP Regeneration removed that safeguard. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

There is a reason I have repeatedly advised investment in your physical parameters.}

"Shouldn’t Ice Reinforcement be able to negate it? I mean, it does make my body an almost perfect conduit for Ice Type magic..." I frowned, splashing some of the hot water over my chest while trying to process the logic, "Not to mention my control over mana? Isn’t it like sixty percent as good as the First Hero, who could manipulate mana at a molecular level?"

-Ding!

{Your degree of control, combined with the fact that you cast in tandem with Ice Reinforcement, is the only reason Mage’s Folly did not manifest earlier.

Without those factors, your physiological failure would have occurred hours ago.

Note that Ice Reinforcement itself causes damage over time.}

"So how do we handle this?" I asked with a heavy sigh. "You can’t expect me to sit back down every five minutes in the middle of a dungeon run..."

-Ding!

{I do not.

Allow me to clarify.

The amount of mana you can manipulate at once, and your potential for natural Tier Progression, is determined by the number of circuits you possess.

The precision of that manipulation is determined by race and training.

The rate at which your body can safely circulate mana is determined by race and Tier.

You are most deficient in the final category.

While multi-casting, or time-splicing as you call it, have you noticed that you were unable to maintain more than three active spells at once?}

"Yeah, I did," I replied, staring at my wet hands. "Rather, I knew I couldn’t at a purely instinctive level."

-Ding!

{That limitation was not cognitive.

It was circulatory.

Your body could not move mana quickly enough to sustain more than three concurrent spell streams.}

"Okay, so I gotta either Tier-Up or get a bloodline..." I muttered, connecting the dots.

-Ding!

{Tier advancement or bloodline acquisition are valid solutions.

However, they are not your only options.

You have two additional paths available.}

"And they are...?"

-Ding!

{First. Invest stat points into STR, DEX, END, and to a lesser extent AGI.

These attributes will strengthen your physical body sufficiently to better withstand prolonged mana conduction.

You will also observe a significant increase in the effectiveness of Ice Reinforcement.

Ice Reinforcement is not a flat additive enhancement. It is a multiplier.

The stronger your baseline physical parameters, the greater the enhancement you receive.

At sufficient baseline strength, you will find that you do not even require reinforcement in many scenarios.}

-Ding!

{Second. Cultivation.

You may practice an Immortal Cultivation Technique.

Or practice Assimilation: manually imbue mana through your physiology, as practiced most commonly by the Warrior class.

This will gradually strengthen your body without the expenditure of stat points.

The process is, of course, slow for the average practitioner.

However, with nine circuits and the enhanced mana control, progress that would require years for others to achieve would require only months for you.}

"Got it," I nodded, closing my eyes to let the information fully sink in before snapping them right back open as a specific word registered in my brain. "Wait a sec... Are there cultivation techniques?"

-Ding!

{Indeed.

Immortal Cultivation is one of the four dominant systems of power, alongside Magecraft, Martial Path, and Faith.}

"Hot damn..." I breathed out as a slow grin crept across my face.

I could practically imagine myself snowboarding over the clouds on my sword.