Mercury figured out his limits with the rings on, when he was wearing all 10 rings he couldn’t even form the D rank mana skin.
8 rings, he can form and maintain the D rank mana skin but he couldn’t form a D rank mana bolt.
7 rings, he can form one mana bolt, 6 rings, he can 3 mana bolts and 5 rings, he can form 7 mana bolts.
Wearing only four rings can barely contain his overwhelming mana and a blue haze start to rise around him.
Obviously he couldn’t allow that in public until he’s strong enough to protect himself, currently, Mercury had many who would feel threatened by him.
His siblings for one, they ignored him because he was weak but if he revealed himself to have that much mana.
Trouble would follow, he also doubted the royal family would be fine with somebody having more mana than them, that was their pride after all.
Mercury figured out his limits in only a few hours, he wasn’t aware of the commission he was causing in the forest.
Monsters reacted to large mana pools, when Mercury released his rings, all they felt was a monster devil.
The monsters who usually remained at the edge of the forest ran out in fear towards the human settlements.
Those further in than he was ran even deeper, normally these monsters would avoid the central part of the forest as that was the territory of the ruler of this place.
Even the serpent was surprised by the flood of weaklings running towards, it knew the cause of it all but didn’t do anything.
It hesitated, on one hand, if it ate the source of that huge mana pool, it might break its limits.
On the other hand, the threat was too great, however the snake changed its mind when it felt his mana the second time.
His mana had grown larger, in its mind it figured he must have defeated a monster around its level.
However it was a prideful monster, it didn’t run or leave its territory and waited for him to come, if he seeks a fight, it would give it to him.
The cause in question was busy stressing about his mana skin, " I really need a way to make my mana skin invisible and thinner.
But I can’t reduce the mana it will just drop back to E rank, there’s still two weeks before the tournament.
Alright, I’ll spend the next week trying to figure that out then. Mercury stood by his words.
He didn’t train anything else other than trying to make his mana skin invisible, four days later he figured the first step.
Mercury managed to compress his mana skin from 5 cm to 2 cm, it was still D rank and had the same amount of mana but it was weaker.
He tapped it a few times and it barely wobbled, " It’s more solid but its ability to absorb shock is way less.
It’s also denser making it heavier, this is bound to effect my speed, as for strength, it also weaker, it can’t bear as much weight as the normal mana skin."
Mercury found it hard to understand how that jelly like mana skin could provide more physical strength than a solid mana skin.
With that out of the way, it was time to find a way to make it invisible, " Turning it transparent won’t help, it still refra...wait, what if I change its refractive index.
If I could make it refractive index the same as that of my surroundings, wouldn’t that?.. it’s worth a try."
Mercury closed his eyes, he tried to sense how light refracted on the air around him but that was easier said than done.
He used mana realm and his surroundings became crystal clear but light was too illusive.
" This isn’t working, I need to find another way to do this." He changed the elemental property of his mana skin to light.
When the glowing mana skin touched light, he was finally able to catch it clearly, Mercury slowly removed the light element on his mana skin.
When the light element was removed and the mana skin turned transparent light passed through it.
Mercury was able to catch its movements in that split moment but that didn’t mean he could do anything about it.
A day went by, he tried again the following day, " I guess I’ll just have to brute force it then."
Mercury started manipulating his mana skin, it rippled like liquid metal and each ripple caused light to move differently through it.
Mercury didn’t move the entire day, he didn’t even go hunting for food and eventually the sun set and disappeared, he continued practicing with the little light there was.
Then he absorbed the ambient mana and went to sleep, he woke up before the first ray of sunlight could touch the earth.
He waited and as soon as the sun touched him, he continued his practice, before the sun set he opened his eyes.
Mercury looked at his hands and the mana skin was gone, or rather it could no longer be seen.
Mercury grinned, " I did it, of course I did, why? Because I’m awesome." He puffed his chest with pride.
" Alright, time to go back, there’s still an entire week before the tournament, I need to see the dwarves before then."
Mercury could sense his mana almost getting out of control, mind you he already had 10 rings on.
In the past few days, his mana had grown even larger, even with 10 rings on he could still form his D rank mana skin.
More than that, he can form 3 D rank bolts at once. Before leaving he decided to test his limits with the rings on.
Three ice bolts appeared above him, each still the size of a head but with staggering amounts of mana.
Mercury could make them larger if he so wished but that was unnecessary. He pointed forward.
Three blue streaks shot forward like bullets and exploded hundreds of metres away, a wave of ice energy swept the area.
Everything within a hundred metres of the explosion froze solid. Mercury did not stop, he fired an endless barrage of ice bolts like a gatling gun.
This was a technique he called charge, he continuously infused his mana into existing bolts allowing them to shoot endlessly as long as he had mana.
He fired over a hundred bolts in less than five seconds, when he was done, the trees and the ground within a hundred metres had turned into ice statues.
The only reason only a hundred metres were effected was because he made it that way, a single D rank spell can effect more than a hundred metres by itself.
A barrage like that was enough to freeze an entire village but the range was not even the biggest issue.
" While no where near absolute zero, the ice energy in those bolts is cold enough to freeze even bone almost instantly.
I should be careful when using this or I might accidentally kill someone, alright, time to go back."
Mercury undid his earth bolt destroying his stone house, then he took to the skies and flew off.