Save for a few key moments, Micky hadn’t participated as much in Percy or the clone’s experiments with the new Secret Art. While Micky had also learned how to fuse the soul mana into his ice, he’d prioritized other things with his time.

Perched atop a frozen hill, he examined his wing, scrutinizing the glowing lines decorating his plumage. Having learned to circulate his ice mana – the non-soul-infused variants – inside all three of his networks, he had improved his boosting art slightly. Not enough to register an actual upgrade in his Status, but enough to make a tangible difference during a fight. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ noⅴelfire.net

The air and water patterns on his body had lost their green and azure hues, shining in the same pale light as his original ice channels. The shape of the patterns hadn’t changed – the mana still drew swirling gales and gentle waves as always.

As for his ice and beast patterns… he hadn’t touched them at all. The former lit up in an intricate hexagonal grid, its vertices forming intersections between the three elements – or rather, the solid, liquid and gaseous states of the same element, now. The beast pattern still resembled a network of amber lines synonymous with his circulatory system. His mutations converted his ice mana into beast mana at about the same rate as before.

Overall, it wasn’t a huge power-up, since Micky didn’t feel any stronger physically. However, he did have a higher-quality fuel to pump into his spells. Had it not been for the additional sources of ice mana he’d tossed into his Freezing Tornado, he might not have pierced the Blue’s defences as easily a couple of weeks ago.

‘This is just the start anyway… I’ll grow much stronger once I add that into the spell…’

Now that his companions had finished working on Mana Bargain, Micky was free to deactivate Consumption. He still needed to keep it running for as long as possible to preserve his stamina, but he wouldn’t be able to focus on his new project with it active. He knew Percy would have loved the chance to practice with the new tool some more but that could wait.

Taking a few deep breaths, he reactivated his boosting art, but not all of it. Ignoring the beast, ice and air mana entirely, he focused solely on his water channels. The wave-like patterns lit up again, this time in their original, azure colour.

Micky didn’t stop there.

As soon as his channels were fully saturated, he expelled some mana from his body, letting it mix with the ambient mana in the air. Presiding over the external flow, he willed the loops to swiftly close into countless tiny bubbles floating leisurely, mere centimetres away from his feathers. Gradually, he pulled them closer, feeling them seep back into his body one after another, travelling a short distance along the wave-like patterns before getting ejected again. Every time that happened, they emerged smaller than before, containing less ambient mana and more of his own.

‘Make them smaller. And more consistent. The ones under your belly aren’t moving fast enough. The ones on your back are travelling too far within your body. Push them out sooner,’ the clone coached him.

The clone residing in Elaine’s body had returned just over a month ago, bringing with him the complete knowledge of the water version of the Dance. Sadly, Galahad hadn’t had enough time to figure out the lightning or acid variants yet, but he had still shown Percy the corresponding Circulation patterns. Not that he had much of a use for them at the moment, but expanding his library of patterns would make his life easier in the future. Especially once he resumed sending clones to the Vault.

Thankfully, the situation in the Camelot province had calmed down now that everyone understood that neither Micky nor Percy would be captured so easily. Most of the neighbouring families had apparently decided to play it smart and not make any rash moves, which was exactly what Percy and Elaine had wanted to see.

Either way, Micky didn’t care that much about House Avalon or Remior’s political landscape. As long as his partner and their loved ones were okay, so was he. More than anything else, Micky had been relieved to hear that Elaine had gotten her hand healed.

He’d even asked Percy to keep the clone there for a while longer, to watch after her – instead of rushing back to pass him the technique. However, Percy had insisted that the best way to help her and everyone else would be to grow stronger. Thus, they had finally lost touch with Percy’s relatives, gaining the perfect tutor for Micky in exchange.

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Percy had chosen to replace the clone in Micky’s body too.

They had all dreaded that moment, because they hadn’t known how easy it would be to recreate the convenient, two-way connection afforded to them by Soul Harmony. Were they to end up stuck with the much simpler cord they’d had in the past, it would have been a colossal loss – especially now that they’d finally grown better at using the empowered Secret Art.

Unfortunately, it was a risk they couldn’t have avoided forever.

Sooner or later, Percy would have had to absorb the clone back. Not only because he didn’t think his clones could survive forever on their own, but also because he needed to consolidate their gains to use his future clones more efficiently.

Granted, the two had remained in touch over the past several months, but fusing had still been the easiest way for Percy to grow proficient with the soul-freezing ice, as well as the fastest way to teach Micky the Dance. Having his main body ponder over and consolidate all those distinct concepts under the influence of the Wiseman’s Murmurs couldn’t be understated either.

Luckily, their gamble had paid off.

It turned out that re-creating their intricate connection was just as easy as they had hoped. They had to use Soul Resonance to widen the two cords as the clone moved around Micky’s body to roll them up again. Once the connection resembled its previous shape, they only needed to cycle some soul mana through it and wait for it to settle.

Thus, Micky had gained a tutor.

A few weeks ago, the new clone had started guiding him on upgrading the water version of the boosting art. Wrapping his mind around the Masterful spell had still been a challenge for Micky, but having somebody demonstrate the complete version in his own body had saved him a ton of time.

This was very different from what Percy had done with Sol and Elaine. In both of those cases, Percy had been the student as much as the teacher, learning alongside them as they strove to perfect the spell. That was why he’d needed the help of an Elemental Source or over a year to complete those projects.

Meanwhile, Micky only needed to observe his friend for a while, taking over once he felt confident in maintaining the spell by himself. At the rate he was improving, Micky would have likely perfected it weeks ago if they hadn’t taken a break for Percy and the clone to work on Mana Bargain.

‘Don’t get cocky now,’ the original Percy suddenly spoke. ‘Learning the water Dance is just the first step. You still have to figure out the air and ice versions and then put everything together.’

Micky nodded, knowing his friend was right.

It would be tough, but doable. They had three masters of the spell working together, Percy and the clone having even figured out a whopping three affinities by now. Still, they hoped Micky would be done in the next year or so, which was bound to be difficult. Not that it would be the end of the world if they fell short, but the extra strength might make the difference between getting the wasp egg in time or not.

‘For now, let’s just get the first one down…’

Following the clone’s instructions, Micky adjusted the flow around his belly and backside, closely monitoring the size and the movement of the bubbles. The clone didn’t say anything else, which probably meant that Micky was doing alright.

He held the boosting art active for half an hour before deciding to try flying. The distraction caused him to make a mistake or two, but the clone promptly corrected him each time.

By sunset, Micky felt a lot more confident that he could keep the spell active while fighting. Of course, he wouldn’t actually try that, because Consumption was still better. Leaving aside the fact that it kept his hunger at bay, it utilized both of his cores and all four sets of channels, providing him and Percy with a better resource for their magic. It strengthened him more too.

Regardless, this was a huge milestone. He could start dipping his talons into the other two elements as early as tomorrow. Content with his achievement, Micky was about to let go of the spell, when something unexpected happened.

[Congratulations! You have mastered a new spell: Dance of the Savage Gods – Masterful!]

Micky stared at the deep red letters in shock. Percy hadn’t taught him how to read, but Micky could still understand the written language, thanks to his connection to Percy and the clone. More than the text itself, however, it was the implication behind it that left him speechless – for a while, at least.

‘Percy! Are you seeing this?!’

It was a rhetorical question. With Soul Harmony active, they could easily access each other’s senses. They no longer even bothered to filter each other out as much, now that they had grown better at handling the information. And Micky knew that Percy had been paying him extra attention today as he had worked on the spell.

In fact, before his friend even got a chance to reply, Micky noticed a second, similar message floating before Percy’s eyes.

[Congratulations! Your familiar has mastered a new spell: Dance of the Savage Gods – Masterful!]

That confirmed that this wasn’t just some random error that had occurred with Phoebe’s Decree. They hadn’t expected anything of the sort, but the evidence was undeniable. Maybe, this was related to some feature their Status had inherited from Obatala’s Approval or, perhaps, this was something it had figured out on its own during its latest calibration.

Whatever the case was, one thing was for certain…

Micky could directly receive notifications now!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep