"Okay, I think that lasted about twenty seconds. How much Mana did that use?" Aria asked me.

"2 MP. The rate is consistent, it's ten seconds per MP. And considering that your total capacity is 1500 MP, you shouldn't have any reason to be conservative with it, especially with your improved Mana recovery rate," I replied, as she nodded thoughtfully.

It was the next day, the 31st of October, 2169. Halloween is still pretty popular even in this era, but we weren't planning on participating, at least not in public.

We were currently in the training room in my place, testing out Aria's Personalis Arma, Pyro Impact.

And after we finish with this, we were going to try out the various cosplay outfits we ordered a couple of days ago, in the spirit of Halloween and whatnot.

We'd just started experimenting with her new gauntlets, first testing how it works.

I was using Appraisal to see how much Mana she was channeling into her gauntlets, and timing it to see how long the resulting flames lasted.

When she channels Mana into the gauntlets, those bright crimson flames erupt out and wrap around the gauntlets, and they last ten seconds for every unit of MP she channels. She's trying to get a feel for the sensation of channeling 1 MP, so that she can control the exact amount of time the flames last for.

"Hm...yeah, I definitely can't control these flames. There's no way to intensify them or focus them into one spot or whatever. Well, they are way hotter than the flames I generate with my Skills, so at least there's that," She sighed wistfully.

"Well, what if you activate a Skill while the gauntlets are ablaze?" I suggested in response.

"Ooh, good thinking! Let's try...[Flame Strike]!" She exclaimed after setting her gauntlets ablaze, regular flames swirling around her fist as she drew back her arm.

As she drove her fist forward, an intense burst of heat erupted from her fist, but it was mostly her regular flames, the crimson flames didn't really mix with it.

"Okay, that didn't work particularly well...a few streaks of the crimson flames did erupt with your regular flames, but not enough to make a significant different," I noted thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I noticed as much...maybe if I try a non-Elemental Skill? [Flame Strike]!" She chanted as she drove her fist through the air, but once again, the crimson flames reacted pretty minimally.

"That didn't work either, I guess that's that, then-...," I began, before trailing off as an idea occurred to me, adding, "Wait, what if you just fired out a burst of pure Mana, like I do with Mana Pulse?"

"Well, it's worth a shot, at least. Here goes...channel it from my solar plexus, through my arm, and...," She muttered, before thrusting her arm forward with her palm open, her eyes widened as the crimson flames over her palm erupted forth fiercely, triggering a searing burst of heat.

"Oh, that worked great! Seems to be an effective range of about half a meter, so it's still a close-range option, but it certainly packed a punch," I grinned, before giving her a high five as the flames around the gauntlets dissipated.

"Yeah, that felt good too!" She nodded excitedly.

"Hey, try firing out a Negative Energy blast. Since it's also technically pure Mana, just negative instead of positive, it might work too. Here, I'll stand back and bring out Drain, shoot right at it," I replied, backing away before chanting to manifest Drain, raising it in front of myself.

"Okay, here goes," She replied, taking aim before firing out a Negative Energy blast, a swirling sphere of shadowy black and fiery red shooting towards me, before I swallowed it up with Drain.

"Nice! I wonder how much more damage that'll do that a regular Negative Energy blast? Guess we'll have to wait for the Dungeons to appear again before we can test that out, huh?" I smiled wryly, as she clenched her right fist with a gleam in her eyes.

"This is pretty encouraging...I can't get any more powerful than I already am, so having more options is exactly what I need," She remarked, stretching her arms up as the crimson flames faded.

"Well, I mean...Pyro Impact boosts your stats by fifteen percent, Blaze Ignition: Flare by a hundred and fifty percent, and Descent by a hundred percent, not to mention that you get the ability to fly.

If you stack all of those together, that's a two hundred and sixty-five percent boost. Or, an overall three point six five multiplier. As for the exact numbers, these are your stats when you're at full power, in comparison against your base stats," I remarked, as I had Ai draft up the display, before showing it to her:

HP: 1015 -> 3705

MP: 1500

Strength: 1015 -> 3705

Agility: 1450 -> 5293

Vitality: 1015 -> 3705

Perception: 1450 -> 5293

Power Level: 1,240,800 -> 3,866,800

"Woah! I'm at almost four million?! I'm stronger than a Calamity Level...," She muttered in disbelief, before adding, "What about you, Kai? How high do your stats get when you're at full power?"

"Let's see...I've got the ten percent overall boost when I wield Desecrator, another ten percent each to Strength and Vitality from my Wrath and Sloth Classes, then there's the fifty percent boost I get from Enrage, and the hundred percent boost from Descent.

Okay, so that's...a two point six multiplier to Agility and Perception, and a two point seven multiplier for Strength and Vitality. That puts my stats at...," I trailed off, before showing her the display:

HP: 1155 -> 3118

MP: 2409

Strength: 1155 -> 3118

Agility: 1665 -> 4329

Vitality: 1155 -> 3118

Perception: 1665 -> 4329

Power Level: 1,534,000 -> 3,403,500

"Cool, so at full power, I'm still a bit stronger...but you've still got plenty of room to grow, right? So, it's only a matter of time before you surpass me," She responded with a wry smile.

"I mean, you're more than just a bit stronger...my MP is a lot higher than yours, but you've got me beat significantly with your physical stats when we're at full power," I pointed out, before adding, "By the way, based on our stats at full power, both of us are, by a fair distance, the strongest Hunters in the world right now, you're at number one. No, scratch that, we're the strongest in history in terms of Power Level."

"Huh? Oh, right, no Hunter has even recorded a Power Level of above two point two million before, right? Wow...it's kinda hard to wrap my mind around that.

But, to be fair, I can only be at full power for around eight and a half minutes at most, with the time limit of Blaze Ignition: Flare, and that's assuming my MP is full. Descent also only lasts ten minutes."

"True, but eight to ten minutes in a fight is a pretty long time," I reasoned objectively, before adding, "Alright, let's get back to testing out your gauntlets, and then get to cosplaying after we're done."

"Yeah, sounds good!"

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