Mana

Biodata

Properties

According to Meditation and Su Luo’s understanding, Mana has neither form nor substance but can be perceived, guided, and used. He understands elemental energy as Mana transformed according to rules that give it particular properties; the four basic elements he identifies are earth, wind, water, and fire 44.

• Casting: A caster uses mental power to construct a spell model and direct stored Mana. A released spell can also draw free Mana and elemental energy from its surroundings 44.
• Spell structure: Mana follows construction models and energy-flow paths. Unstable shaping or output can cause a spell to fail; Su Luo’s experimental flaming spears collapsed and exploded after release 16 38.
• Environmental concentration: High-Mana areas can develop dangerous mutated terrain that causes mental erosion and attribute suppression, while also spawning valuable resources and high-level chests 18.
• Conversion: Under certain conditions, elemental energy can revert to Mana in small amounts 44.
• Elemental complexity: The four basic elements can be converted directly from Mana, while more complex forms, such as Natural Elements, can arise from them under special conditions. Elements with the same name can differ in structure, refinement, and strength 66 675.
• Fundamental structure: Su Luo’s later analysis identified Aether Particles as the basic units of Mana. In Primordial Mana, vast numbers of these particles move and collide freely in a chaotic, fluid-like state 737 921.
• World rules: Elements are special forms of Mana shaped by underlying rules, while spell models operate as rituals that manipulate Mana and elements under local world rules. Differences between worlds can subtly alter elemental formation and spell models 866 921.

Power Progression

Mana Attribute and Recovery

Some survivors display the Magic Power attribute from birth because of their Talents. Su Luo unlocked it by raising Meditation to Level 1. He noted that growth in the attribute was nonlinear, while low-level skills eventually ceased to raise it 6 9 11.

Repeatedly pushing an attribute to its limit has a small chance of increasing it naturally. Su Luo gained one Mana attribute point during his prolonged battle against the Earthshaking Boulder 28.

Mana is not a base attribute and cannot be raised with Free Attribute Points. Su Luo understood Spirit to impose its own limit on Mana reserves. In the Trait Dungeon, his inherent Mana reserve was distinct from Dharma Power, a dungeon-specific combat resource 173.

After his body was rebuilt around Source Essence crystals, Su Luo observed that the energy he could draw upon greatly exceeded the Mana displayed on his panel: Source Essence was his primary energy source, while Mana was one of the main energies he used to interact with the outside world 519.

Uses and Limitations

• Spellcasting: Mana powers effects including Fireball, Frostbolt, Flame Attachment, and earth manipulation 6 14 15.
• Sustained effects: Su Luo created a fireball light whose upkeep matched his recovery rate. The fragmentary Spell Permanence Technique can keep a mastered spell effect active in an object or area by continuously consuming Mana 11 31.
• Eternal Permanence: Su Luo later developed an incomplete method of fixing spells to objects without an ongoing Mana cost, at the expense of a very large initial expenditure of Mana and other energy 66.
• Class restrictions: Most Mana-related skill books normally contain class skills available after a Class Change. Su Luo studied their principles and cast independently, but could not quick-cast those skills through the system interface 6 11 50.
• Control and expenditure: Complex spells demand both Mana and mental control. Su Luo’s first 64-fireball array consumed more than half his Mana and left his mind stinging 16.
• Mana-less environments: In the Rise of Superpowers Dungeon, Su Luo could not rely on ambient Mana to replenish his reserves. Great Yong’s mage candidates likewise could not sense Mana there, although Meditation and Visualization could still temper their minds 42 47.
• Body modification: The Body Modification skill can use Mana to make precise changes and targeted enhancements to a living body 102.
• Civilization and technology: Mana can support energy production, transportation, communications, and medicine. On Origin Star, ambient Mana eventually helped power engines, restore people’s strength, and repair ships with spells 424 428 430.

Elemental Reversal

In the Rise of Superpowers Dungeon, Su Luo tested Mana and Fire Element inside an energy stabilization field. He observed a small increase in Mana and concluded that elemental energy could revert to Mana under specific conditions 44.

Using Flame Attachment’s Ember Recovery effect as a basis, he built a permanent conversion model in his mental world. He then extended it to earth, wind, fire, and water, creating a preliminary system for replenishing Mana in the otherwise Mana-less world 44.

Su Luo later designed a Mana conversion device intended to create Mana-rich areas for Great Yong’s prospective mages. By his sixteenth day in the world, its casing and framework were complete 47 48 50.

The completed device converted supplied energy, principally heat and electricity, into the four basic elements before using stabilization and elemental reversal models to produce raw Mana. Su Luo built three devices: one for his laboratory, one as a backup, and one for Great Yong’s use 52 54.

He also used pure Mana as bait for Mutated Beasts, guiding them with Mana Beacons into an incineration field that supplied energy for his laboratory. The resulting Mana was stored in a Mana Pool 58 59.

Later research showed that reverse conversion was essentially the decay and reorganization of energy forms. When energy density and activity passed a threshold, its rate rose exponentially; Su Luo applied this discovery in part to his laboratory’s Mana supply system 311.

Silk Mana

In a later world, Su Luo found that ambient Mana was almost undetectable and that the Mana he recovered from a battery behaved abnormally. He expelled it and investigated the local Weaving System, whose practitioners used their divine souls as a bridge to draw Mana and elements from the Demon Realm into real space 672 674.

Su Luo named the altered energy Silk Mana. Its underlying structure had been artificially encrypted, changing its properties and the spell models needed to use it. Elements converted from it also differed, obscuring or potentially preventing the usual reverse conversion into Mana 675.

• Microscopic structure: Unlike chaotic Primordial Mana, Silk Mana consists of Aether Particles artificially arranged into stable fibers. The fibers have seven rotational orientations corresponding to seven Silk Mana attribute variations 678 737.
• Strength: Su Luo theorized that the restricted movement of its particles and energy loss during its formation made Silk Mana weaker than Primordial Mana. His collected data did not reveal all its secrets 737.
• Concentration: Silk Mana’s relatively strong tendency to gather helped draw scattered Mana toward existing concentrations, contributing to its scarcity in the ordinary environment 676.
• Combat limitations: Because free Mana was scarce and personal reserves were limited, Weave Mages relied on prestored spells and external Mana sources. Magic Seals combined such functions as spell imprinting, partially activated spells, and extra storage 679.
• Su Luo’s precautions: He avoided incorporating Silk Mana into his Inner Circulation because of its altered structure and the possibility of another party’s control, though he considered it usable for external fields and large-scale effects 680.
• Authority: Wu Guang’s Six Paths Authority could suppress users of Silk Mana. Su Luo supplied Primordial Mana to Kundina so she could avoid that suppression 737.

The Scholar’s Boundary-Breaking Engine 1.0 later tore open the barrier between the Demon Realm and the mortal world, releasing Mana, elements, and Demon Realm creatures. The engine was powered by the souls of more than a trillion living beings 729.

Mana-Side Cultivation

Adrian Academy divides the Mana side into nine factions: Accumulation, Symbiosis, Resonance, Analysis, Imprint, Subordination, Imitation, Mind-Thought, and Bond. The factions describe different approaches to Mana rather than exclusive schools; advanced practitioners generally study more than one. Su Luo selected the Analysis Faction and listed Primordial Mana as his cultivation Source 857.

The Elemental Orthodoxy Path requires a practitioner to exhaust the possible forms of a chosen element and reproduce that mastery in new worlds. Su Luo regarded the risk of a practitioner’s personality being assimilated by an element’s instincts as a flaw. Other routes include the Self-Consistent Path, the Infinite Life Path, and the Pure Soul Path 866.

Su Luo completed the Elemental Orthodoxy Path with Source Essence, an element he had designed primarily for energy storage and conversion. By exhausting its forms in the local world, he concluded that he had understood the underlying rules governing its spells 895 921.

Related Equipment

• Apprentice Staff — Absorbs ambient Mana to reduce consumption; Su Luo measured a reduction of approximately 5–8% in the dungeon’s Mana environment 31.
• Magic Ring — Slightly improves recovery and reduces consumption. It can store an additional amount equal to 30% of the wearer’s maximum Mana for instant use 39.
• Spell Recording Crystal — Records the Mana construction models, energy-flow paths, and release details of three mastered spells, displaying them as detailed models for analysis 31.
• Environmental Stabilization Barrier Generator — Suppresses chaotic energy fluctuations and slows ambient Mana flow within its field, aiding controlled experiments; it provides no physical protection 31 38.
• Mana Conversion Device — Converts supplied energy into the basic elements and then into raw Mana. Su Luo incorporated an Environmental Stabilization Barrier Generator into its construction 52.
• Mana Pool — Stores Mana for later use. Su Luo improved its design using principles learned from an ancient ruined tower and dismantled equipment; semi-activated stored Mana can be drawn on rapidly 59 91 103.
• Magic Seals — Weave Mage equipment combining prestored spells and additional Mana storage to compensate for limited personal reserves and scarce ambient Mana 679.

---