After spending an hour observing, she had a theory. Or rather a guess based on the fact that the burning tree had told her that she had a low affinity for the Druid manual. The number of meridians did not refer to natural talent, but instead to one's affinity for the manuals.

Take the man and woman from before for instance. The woman had less meridians, and greater talent for the manual. That was why she was using the mana better. Althea could see her use smaller quantities of mana to combat larger quantities. Mana just moved better for her. As far as she could tell, the movement was natural, not something one did consciously.

That was a thing with mana, so much of it was instinctual. Althea could see it in her own magic too. The magic she used was largely area of effect, using her immense amounts of mana to crush her opponents.

That had worked for her, until it didn't. Feng had defeated her quite easily. Looking back, he likely had a significantly smaller amount of meridians. The amount of mana he had used was much smaller than her, but his attacks had still matched hers. That had to be because of meridians.

But...why? The fact that having a better affinity for the manual empowered mana was clear. What remained unclear was why. A smile spread across her face as she observed the fights. This was something she could do. Find out why. And by doing so, grow stronger.

This was the one way where she had rolled a bad number in the great roll of luck was cultivating in this world.The burning tree had already told her that the Druid manual didn't work for her. That meant she had to make a new one that suited her, or alter the manual to suit her.

"What are you looking at?" Aasha whispered to her.

"Why do you ask?" she asked.

"Well, I kind of don't have anything else to do, and you're being mildly creepy." Aasha replied. "I know she's cute, but it's still rude to stare."

Althea's face reddened as she coughed spontaneously. "What the heck are you talking about? I wasn't staring at her! I don't swing that way!"

"Yes, you were." Aasha stated. "And you don't have to defend yourself, I won't judge."

"I am not gay!" she protested. "I was merely observing your combat and mana flow."

"Observing our combat?" Aasha ducked cose to her, narrowing her eyes as she continued. "Are you trying to steal our way? I didn't expect that of you?"

The training hall was suddenly silent, the combatants turning to stare at her with clear hostility.

"What is a...way?" she asked.

Aasha stared at her. The entire training hall stared at her. Althea was starting to feel a bit awkward. Was a way like some kind of secret martial art? The way they trained? That...made sense.

And put her in more than a little bit of trouble if they thought she was trying to steal their martial teachings. Which was not what she was doing. But she could be. A person stealing would do the very same thing.

Althea smacked herself mentally. What was up with her? Why was she being so idiotic? Of course they would take offense to her observing and using their martial art. The Solerian Empire would declare war if someone tried to steal their training methods so publicly.

Even if every Empire had pretty much stolen each others' methods, they were technically secret. A commoner wouldn't be able to get their hands on them without signing up for the army.

"I doubt we are practicing anything the Countess does not already know." the woman she had been observing earlier commented, calming the tension by quite a bit.

"Yes, I admit I was quite rude." Althea coughed, trying to hide her embarrassment. "I apologize, I should have asked for permission before observing your training. I was merely too excited to try something out."

"Try what out?" a man asked, earning herself a glare from the woman. Althea was glad to share her discovery if it helped things. Figuring this much out wasn't exactly difficult.

"I have been trying to discover how manuals work." she said. "Like the relation between the amount of active meridians one has and one's affinity for the manual."

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A number of people scoffed, returning to their work. The woman sighed. "I would recommend you give up, your grace. There are many before you that have attempted to find meridians. And none have succeeded yet. The only mana flows one can observe is one's own. And it is far too difficult to make a manual from that."

"...no?" Althea said, confused. "I can see other people's mana flows well enough."

The attention turned to her again. "Are you kidding right now? I don't care if you're some fancy noble, this ain't funny." a woman she hadn't spoken to before said.

"I assure you I am not joking. If you wish, I can tell you how many mana flows you have."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Oh, how many?"

"Thirty one." she said. "The second most in the training hall." The most being herself after all.

The woman paused, shock on her face. Althea wasn’t sure what she had done deserved such a large reaction.

"Is she right, Matilda?" the woman she had been observing before asked. Matilda, an english name. That was rare in the Southern Continent.

"Yes. Yes, she is." the look of shock on Matilda's face still hadn't disappeared.

A serious look passed through the training yard. "That- would you be willing to tell us how you did it, your grace?" the woman asked. "The village does not have much, but we can give you what we can."

A look passed between the people there.

"Even if it means an oath of loyalty, we are willing, you grace." The woman said,her knees bending. The others followed her.

"Please, there is no need." she said, trying to stop them. " There is no trick to it. I just looked at you deeply. I could not tell you even if I wanted to."

The woman looked around awkwardly stuck in the midst of kneeling dramatically.

"Please rise?" Althea tried. "I am sure you could do it if you try."

"No."

Althea raised an eyebrow, turning to Matilda.

"I tried, uhm, your grace." Matilda answered. "I tried it a lot. There is no way to see into someone else's body."

"Perhaps you simply need to concentrate some more?" she attempted. To be honest she didn't see what the problem was. How could it be that other people had a completely different way of sensing than her? That couldn't be possible.

"The fact that one cannot pear into another's body is a well established fact, your grace." the woman from before said. "There is some form of barrier that stops our mana senses from entering. If one pierces that barrier, then the subject will die. That said, there are far easier ways to kill someone than that. Piercing the barrier is quite mana intensive."

Althea looked at her with confusion. "I don't see any barrier."

"The barrier is still there though." a man commented.

The bunch of them were at an impasse. The barrier that clearly existed for them just didn't for her. What did she do now?

"What did you discover?" Aasha interrupted, and then looked at the woman glaring at her. "What, I am curious? There has to be some interesting stuff in there."

"I too am curious about this." the woman relented. "And if your grace will allow it, I would also like to see if I can identify what may have led to your ability."

"Of course." Althea gave her a polite smile. To be honest she had a good idea, but playing elimination for some more information would be helpful. Perhaps it was something others could replicate. But it was probably the fact that she was a transmigrator.

"I discovered that the less meridians you have, the higher amount of power your mana has." she said.

"And that is why you correlated it with an affinity for manuals. After all, it is known that affinity for manuals is related to how much power your mana has."

Wait, it was well known? Why was it that she only heard of manual affinity a few days ago? Was the Northern Continent just that much behind the Southern one in information, or was she just uninformed.

At this point it could be both. The Diery county was more than a bit isolated. The newest book in her library was five hundred years old after all. There was no telling how much new research she had missed out on.

"What else did you figure out?" Aasha asked. "Do you know how to make manuals yet?"

Well someone was excited.

"No, I am sure it will take me a very long time. This was the only meaningful discovery I have made yet." she said.

"Oh."

"Well, it has only been a few minutes since she started." Matilda said. "Perhaps she will discover more alter."

"Yes, that is likely." the woman she had been observing said. Althea wondered if it would be rude to ask her name now.

"Perhaps we could see to the mana sensing?" the woman said, flashing her a fake smile.

Althea flashed her an equally fake, but far more believable smile. "Of course. Perhaps we should continue in private?"

"That would be pleasurable."

The woman walked into one of the nearby tent huts, Althea following her in.

"What is your name?" she asked as she took a seat. The tent appeared to be an armory, a variety of weapons scattered around on racks. There was some organization to it, swords were placed together, and so were bows, but she couldn't figure out most of it.

Why were the three different racks of swords placed in different places? Why did some bows have strings in them, and others none? Where were the quivers? But those questions could wait.

"Sidhali. A pleasure to meet you." the woman said, sounding impatient. "Now as for the sensing, could you tell me if there is anything particularly special about your senses."

"I must admit, I do not have a good frame of reference to what a normal mana sense looks like in the first place. How far does your sense stretch?"

"I can sense from here to the end of the village." Sidhali replied, sounding proud.

"I see. Two to three kilometers then." That was quite limited. But she was a Journeyman, not a Master like her. "I can sense for about two hundred kilometers."

The range was impressive before you figured out how fast she could travel. At her max speeds, she could cover the distance in less than an hour. Ok, maybe it was a bit impressive. Increasing her cultivation to peak Master had really benefited her in that at least.

"Oh." Sidhali replied. "That is quite an excellent mana sense. How well would you say mana control was?"

Althea paused, not sure if she should reply. On one hand, it was revealing a weakness. On the other, this person could probably help. Sidhali's mana control was far better than what her meridians indicated.

If the two of them had to fight using the same amount of mana, she wasn't sure she could beat SIdhal even with her increased cultivation. Of course, in an actual fight she would simply drown her in mana until she died, but that was beside the point.

"I can usually hit what I want to." she replied.

Sidhali nodded, slowly. "Hitting moving targets can be difficult.That is why I aim for the torso instead of the head."

Althea winced, not even bothering to hide it. "I meant the entire body. But I have a range that's big enough to make up for any problems."

Sidhali's face froze, as if she was struggling to say something.

"If I told you to hit that pebble, could you do it without hitting the sword too?"

Althea called on the surrounding mana, sending a short burst of fire at it. That she could do. The pebble melted."

"Yes, I can."

Sidhali simply picked up the sword, and turned its blade towards her. "I do not think you are safe to spar against." she said, holding the blade towards her. Althea looked at it, finding it a slightly blackened part on the otherwise shiny blade.

"Come on! Mana bounces around a bit!" And it did! Fire had the tendency to spread around a lot, especially when she was the one shooting it.