Chapter 53: Genius and Idiot

Chapter 53: Genius and Idiot

In the evening, Bran sat with his sister in the courtyard of the Mountain Villa and told her about this evolution or discovery.

Bran drew a three-dimensional spherical network structure inside a Crystal Ball to visually explain its features. Then, he took out a crystal doll, gestured on it, and asked his sister if she could build a similar structure on her own body.

“How to build it?” his sister asked.

“See this web structure?” Bran pointed at the Crystal Ball, then drew a net on both sides of the doll’s hand, embedding it like a glove, and explained: “It’s roughly like this. Don’t force it. Try to use Mana; Mana itself will find the most suitable path. We just need to find the direction.”

Bran repeatedly emphasized and nagged: “Be careful, don’t force it, go with the Mana. You must be very careful. You’re different from me; your conscious Mana training time is still short. This is your own body; you must be careful not to ruin it.”

Soon, he stopped his chattering with his mouth half open. His sister’s hand, extended before his eyes, began to turn crystal clear, the whole hand seemingly glowing. Then this glow started to spread up her arm, finally blocked by her sleeve. Bran began to stare at his sister’s neck until, under his gaze, that glow appeared on her shoulder, flowed over her neck, and finally even her red hair began to dance like flames, the tips shimmering with a golden halo.

Bran went crazy with jealousy, dissatisfaction, and a sense of unfairness.

Snapping out of his initial surprise, in his Mana Web, his sister now radiated a golden light all over, like a Divine Statue.

Bran yelled and lunged at his sister, grabbing her neck and shouting: “How did you do that!”

Then he was easily lifted off the ground with one hand by his sister. In the past, even if she could lift him, it was never this easy, this casual. He was Bran, a Wizard, a Northlander who had persisted in training for years even with leniency during practice, and now he was just dangling effortlessly in his sister’s hand.

“This is impossible!” Bran shouted in disbelief. “How can this be!?”

“Just as you said, it was easy to do,” his sister said, shaking Bran in her hand, looking somewhat proud.

Hearing Bran’s disgruntled shouts, others in the Mountain Villa gradually came out of their rooms, and so everyone saw Lily holding Bran, looking relaxed and triumphant.

“How is this possible? How did you do it instantly?”

“This isn’t fair!”

Bran repeated these words, his face full of disbelief. His sister, now looking proud and confident, gave Bran a concluding answer: “I am a genius. You can’t measure everything around you with the eyes of an Idiot.”

Then she put Bran down and walked off with a haughty look…

And Bran, with an ‘I need peace and quiet’ attitude, silently returned to his room. As he closed the door, he faintly heard his sister’s excited shout.

…

After waking up, Bran became much calmer. Some people were just geniuses in certain ways; one couldn’t force that. He always had a kind of natural sense of superiority, which was really unnecessary. He had advantages in some areas, but these advantages were not all-encompassing.

Bran, having regained his composure, still held Huahua and rocked on the rocking chair. For the past two days, no one had visited. Ever since the two girls, Zoya and Eileen, saw that Mural, they had become distant from Bran. With fewer girls chattering around him, he felt a bit unaccustomed for a while and somewhat resented that the girls were too easily frightened. It would probably take a few more days for the girls to recover, making these days seem a bit dull.

For the third time, his sister walked past Bran, holding that Crystal Ball with the grid drawn inside. Faced with this kind of provocation, Bran now felt somewhat deflated and couldn’t be bothered to respond.

But at least he had to finish what he had to say; there was still part of the content from last night he hadn’t mentioned. So he stopped his sister, gestured for her to sit nearby, and told her about another phenomenon of the Mana Web: vibration and fluctuation, asking his sister about her feelings.

Hearing her brother’s words, Lily relaxed and slowly began to experience this vibration and fluctuation. Soon, Bran felt a kind of pressure slowly emanating from his sister’s body, as if pushing everything around her away.

Bran sighed, stood up, and moved away from his sister, away from this uncomfortable pressure, not disturbing her as she experienced this new sensation.

Bran often felt this kind of pressure. When Northland Warriors forgot to restrain their strength, or that Dragon Knight who was treated to a feast, they had all emitted such pressure. Now it was appearing on his underage sister. After his sister completed her Trial, her power would probably be describable only as terrifying—a truly future invincible existence. Another War God was about to emerge in the Northlands, a female War God. Bran couldn’t help but feel emotional.

Bran closed the main gate of the Mountain Villa, not accepting any visitors today, giving his sister a quiet space to slowly experience the changes brought by Evolution.

…

Sitting on the second floor of the Mountain Villa, Bran tried to speed up the expansion of his own Mana Web, but after careful sensing and experimentation, he gave up. The nodes forming the Mana Web were extremely difficult to increase. As it expanded and the outer area of the Mana Web grew, the number of nodes required was simply horrifying. Bran immediately felt a tingle on his scalp. Trying to quickly expand the Mana Web this way was basically an impossible task. For now, he could only let it be and slowly endure.

Bran tried to push his Mana Tide outward with all his might, thinking he might break through his usual limit of Mana extension, but he was disappointed. It wasn’t that there was no progress; at least this time the extension felt easy and casual. There was still some progress. Bran tried to console himself…

Routinely, when delving his perception into the microscopic level, he could now hold on for longer, the feedback was clearer, and that dizzying sensation rushing to his head had disappeared.

For now, Bran could only take one step at a time. Putting these matters aside, Bran decided to go see the other Wizards; gaining more knowledge might help find a solution.

…

In the evening, his sister came up to Bran and asked, “Did you discover any new ways to increase your abilities when you met those Wizards today?”

“No, such good things don’t happen every day,” Bran said somewhat irritably.

“You didn’t find out anything at all?” his sister asked back in disbelief.

“I did, but it’s not related to Mana growth; it’s more about the characteristics of their abilities.”

“Tell me.”

“A few interesting things.

There’s a guy who controls rats. After he controls a rat, when I interfere with my Mana, he loses contact with the rat, but only temporarily. The rat can still move freely. When the rat leaves the range of my Mana interference, it reconnects with him. This shows that living organisms themselves are the best barrier against Mana intrusion. But I can’t figure out how he uses his ability to control that rat; it’s somewhat contradictory.

There’s a little girl who can listen through plants. Through the connection of plant roots underground, she can spy from quite far away. My Mana Web doesn’t cause any interference with this; the plants themselves block my Mana. Then the information is obtained by her without hindrance through the intertwining roots between plants.

I now roughly understand that my Mana Web affects those Wizards who get feedback directly through Mana Fluctuation. It poses a great threat to those Wizards who transform into some kind of Mana form. That’s about it. These won’t be much help to you.

You just need to pick up your weapon and chop down anyone you don’t like. You are a disaster for many Wizards. Facing you, many abilities cannot directly affect you. When I face you, even the chance to escape is very slim. On the contrary, those I can counter, the guys who can transform into some Mana form, would be much more composed in front of you.”

His sister patted her somewhat discouraged brother and comforted him, “I will protect you, so never think about escaping.”

Bran pointed hatefully at his two dark circles…