Silence enveloped our little underground hideout as Diamond explained my unlocked skills to me perfectly. To activate a skill, I had to burn my mana. The amount of mana I needed to burn depended on the output I wanted by activating the skill.
For activating 'Echo Recall', I had to burn a minimum of 5% of my total mana. That too, only because there was no process that gave me direct output by activating the skill.
Since 'Echo Recall' was a reviving skill, a dead body was required for it to generate any output.
Similar to a necromancer….
"Master, you can't associate your holiness with those disgusting creatures…"
Ok, sure. I forgot the archenemy of Diamond was necromancers, since his purpose lay in pointing the direction of the afterlife to dead souls.
The amount of mana I had to burn to activate this skill and revive a 'corpse' would depend on the level of said corpse before its death.
Higher the level of the corpse I wanted to revive, the greater the amount of mana used by the skill. With no corpses nearby, the skill faded as soon as the mana drained.
This meant I had to burn a minimum of 5% every time I activated this skill, other than the mana required by the skill to complete a revival. I had to check my mana regeneration rate.
I remember the MC having the best rate among every character in the story. Something like ten percent in a minute.
"Master, let's try 'Death Sense'." Diamond interjected eagerly.
I hesitated briefly. This might have been the skill I unintentionally activated after awakening my bloodline trait. That experience wasn't pleasant, prompting me to reconsider activating it again.
However, resisting the usage of my own skill was foolishness. Gritting my teeth, I activated it again. This time, Diamond actively conversed with me through our bond, leading me to grasp the skill effectively.
"Yes… like this. The skill is just a medium. The final output should be projected into your mind…"
Countless voices—stronger and weaker—echoed inside my head. The agony from before returned to me as my senses expanded beyond my body. The world around me became pixelated, with three types of threads appearing before my sight.
Red, green, and grey.
Following my instincts, I touched a red thread, instantly making my sight open into an open sky—then to a massive foot crashing down on me.
Before I could even scream, my view changed again, this time to the ground, where a little hamster was squished by a green limb.
The owner of my sight stayed in that position for a few moments, then shrugged and continued moving. That's when I noticed the thread connected to me was now green.
Moving my gaze along the thread, I saw a point where it split into two: one continuing in green, and the other in grey.
I urged my mind to touch the grey thread, making my sight shift once more. This time, I still had the vision of the green monster, it had now stopped under a tree to rest.
It looked around cautiously, seemingly making sure no monsters were nearby, then climbed the tree for a resting place.
That's when I noticed another green thread extending from the tree. My heartbeat quickened as I touched it, and my sight shifted again.
Now I was looking at a green goblin cautiously climbing the tree where the owner of the vision I was currently in waited silently.
Then, my sight moved in a leap and the goblin lost its head. Its headless corpse fell from the tree. A few crunching sounds followed, and slithering rang in my ears as my sight was tugged back into my own body.
[Warning! Your mana reservoirs have reached an alarming quantity. Shutting down the skill forcefully.]
[Mana: 2]
Scarlet drops of blood spilled from my nose, painting the floor. My ears rang. My body trembled. I was slipping into the dark, and all I could do was smile.
So this… this was what the MC always felt. And I loved it.
Mana exhaustion.
This happened to the MC many times. I remember trolling him for losing consciousness after every fight. Now, experiencing the same, I grasped how severe the helplessness in this situation was.
Still, a small grin found its way to my lips. The feeling of controlling a skill was excruciating, even if it was a bit demanding.
I really loved this type of exhaustion.
* *
I had no idea how long I slept. When I returned to my senses, I was brimming with energy. I noticed my mana reservoir had also filled completely. The skeletal face of Diamond peered down at me in worry.
"Master, are you okay?" he asked, seeing me awake.
"Ugh… yeah. Think so." Pushing myself off the ground, I glanced down at my naked self, then helplessly at Diamond. Reading my expression, he quickly changed into my clothes, soothing my discomfort.
[Compatibility of 'Death Sense' increased by a single percentage.]
[Death Sense: 1%]
The compatibility was one of the factors needed to unlock the rest of the skills in a branch. Unless all the unlocked skills reached one hundred percent compatibility, one couldn't unlock the remaining skills, even if they reached the required level.
There were two ways to increase this compatibility: either by using the skill continuously and gradually becoming fully compatible with it, or by studying the structure of the skill and deciphering its true meaning.
For lower-branch skills, continuously using them was usually enough to achieve full compatibility.
But after the first branch, a Bonded had to understand his skills more deeply in order to become perfectly compatible with them.
I was more than happy to grasp even a bit about my skill, and I was sure there were many things I still had to learn before I could utilize it completely.
So inside our little abode, I trained with this skill, resting whenever my mana dropped too low. During that time, I also discovered my mana regeneration rate was the same as the MC.
Ten percent in a minute.
'After all, I am the main antagonist of this manhwa…'