As the sun rises a young teenager was finishing his morning exercise.
"997...998...999...1000!" Collapsing on the ground, panting trying to catch his breath, "Don't lie down when catching your breath, you can get more air in you're when standing."
To which Newt flipped her off and covered his eyes as the sun was hurting his eyes, though Jenn had no idea what that gesture meant and decided to reciprocate, although Newt wasn't aware of this as his vision was covered by his hand.
"Hey...When are... You gonna...Teach me to use Ki?" Newt asks between breaths, which Jenn shoots him a confused look before clarifying something to him. "You can't use Ki and Mana? You're nearly a apprentice mage right? It's not really an option for you."
Shocking him, he asks confused, "T-then... What's the point in all of this? Shouldn't I be focusing on learning spells?" Gesturing to himself.
"Y'know, when Jared said you were a bit of a moron, I thought he was joking." Sending a metaphysical arrow directly into Newt's pride, "First off, you're by yourself, anyone who calls themself a mage must have a backup plan in case a Ki Warrior, Church Knights or Paladins, or maybe even Mana Warriors attack you whilst you're, for the most part, defenseless. Not to mention that is assuming you HAVE allies who can protect you which, sorry to say, ya don't. Not to mention, unless you're a prodigy sent by the heavens, which would be ironic considering your enemies, and can learn teleportation magic or flight or hell even reach the Mana stage required to even use those, good luck outrunning the Drana powered knights."
"I...I'm an idiot."
"So I've heard."
"Well putting that aside, what's a Mana Warrior? I've heard of Ki Warriors, Mages and Knights but not them." Newt curiously asks, already having an assumption as to what it was.
"Well, remember how I said you can't use Ki and Mana together? There is a exception, Mana Warriors, who use Ki and Mana, don't ask me how, only their 'Sect' or whatever they call it exists and can use it." Jenn responds, though watches amusedly at Newt as his brain short-circuits at the sudden whiplash at the contradiction she set up no less than 20 seconds ago.
Deciding to just ignore it rest for a bit, he continues his questions while he can.
"So why can't you use both Ki and Mana exactly?"
"Well, I can't speak from experience only hearsay, and if you want more information ask Jared, but from what I know, they interfere with eachother making the use of both incredibly difficult without extremely precise control of both, but this makes using either more slower and weaker as just to control either requires your entire concentration, efficiency thus has a drastic drop with 'ludicrous waste' as Jared put it."
"I see..."
"Anymore questions ya want to ask that could definitely be answered better by Jared?"
"I do actually!" Jennifer's expression crumbles slightly as she tries and fails to cut him off, "So what makes Ki Warriors superior to fighters using Mana to strengthening their body? Wouldn't Mana just be vastly superior to Ki than as it has far more versatility and can do everything Ki does?"
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"First off, ask Jared, I'm not too sure myself, second, ask Jared." Jenn replies deadpan.
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"Oh, simple really, while body strengthening Magic exists and works, Mana's ability to infuse and strengthen the body is, to put it mildly, is atrocious. Not only that, but it's ability to strengthen is dwarfed by Ki body enhancement.
On the other hand, Ki has a more higher efficiency ratio with imbuing the body, ease of manipulation of Ki, and being able to infuse Ki into weapons to create things like Ki blades that can cut Magic depending on various factors. Ki has it's own qualities that beat Mana and magic in some cases, though obviously Mana is better." He says with a smirk as a voice yells out from another part of the house, "No it's not!".
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"How does this work though?" Newt questions Jared as he engraves as he engraves symbols into a piece of wood. "Aren't you the apprentice of THE Cynthia Swarz? She must've used these all the time."
"Well i know to a degree but i don't know HOW it works, i know this symbol-" "Rune" "This Rune when injected with Mana causes a small candle flame. But I don't quite understand WHY it does that, other than 'it does'"
"Unfortunately there isn't really an answer to that, as well as who the first were to find out the existence of runes is unknown, with some of the most basic runes like this one" he taps the candleflame rune, "are extremely simple. However the first to properly record and have a large catalogue were the dwarves. To simplify, these weren't things made they were found, we stumbled upon them and know that each rune does something but we don't know why. Some say that it's the language of the gods, the 'some' being the Church, while others say it's the building blocks of the world, that make up the very fabric of reality. The true answer none know."
Just another question to add to the list. Newt dejectedly sighs.
"On that note, some of the most architecturally ludicrous events have occurred because some of the mages accidentally created runes out of materials created by or just moved by Magic, and well that was enough to accidentally set off some of the runes causing them to restart everything again as some runes had enough power to destabilize the structure causing a collapse, actually that was how a moderately powerful vibration causing rune was discovered, it being one of the main reasons for the collapse. The sheer coincidence of all that is incredibly unlucky, but also simultaneously inevitable over the span of all of history."
"Oh? Can that be applied to say, weapons?"
"Indeed, though what reason would people do that? Chances are you would ruin the durability of the weapons like swords or spears which use blades, though I'm not very familiar with them, I think the only people that would do that would be Mana Warriors anyway."
"I guess so..." Newt replies noting that knowledge for the future.
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"Have you decided on what weapon you want to learn? Or just stick with your body?" Jenn asks, "I mean, I don't really have much choice now do I? Either this makeshift spear or my body."
Jenn pauses for a moment confused but realizes her mistake, "I have an extra longsword and a short-sword, there were intended for Tanya but she won't be needing either as much as you. I would recommend the short-sword, the longsword was meant for when Tanya had grown up hence the short sword for emergencies, you can take it if ya want."
Whilst the would be more versatile considering It will be with me always. Newt stops for a moment, Scratch that, it will probably be with me always. So it would be useful to know how to use it efficiently, although the short-sword is better for lethality and helps extend my range, agility is my best aspect as of now due to a lack of body mass, in the future that will change but no need to think that far right now. Coming to a conclusion he requests Jenn.
"Would it be possible to do both?"
"Maybe, ya will be sacrificing mastery and may end with two mediocre parts, or could build both to a decent level, alternatively you could also focus on one and give the other less focus."
"Sounds good."
"Alright, let's get started!"