Creating a mana channel was also simple: just drill it into your soul. As one might expect, it was also ridiculously painful. Few people could do it to themselves in the tower, and building all mana channels without help even netted a nice title.
The first channel was just a hole to give mana easier access to the place he would build his mana core, to facilitate building it. Theoretically, he could push mana straight into his soul without damaging it, and start from the core. However, moving mana through the soul caused it to lose power and efficiency, and raw mana was already weak to begin with. It was faster to build the channel first.
His core would be at the same place as his heart, but in his soul instead of his body. Therefore, the first channel would be at his heart height, the closest possible to where the core would be.
Luke moved the mana touching his soul with his will and focused it at his chest. It took him a while to accumulate about a spoonful of mana there. The mana under his control only reached as far as a few millimeters from his soul, a distance that wouldn't change without a mana core. He also couldn't control too much mana at once.
For now, he simply lacked the willpower to control more than that spoonful at once. Akira's mana waves, for instance, required her to push mana touching a side of her entire soul in a direction, hoping it wouldn't stop until it met the target. It was actually a feat of mana control and willpower for someone as young as her, though it helped that she wasn't trying to make the mana do anything useful, as that was the hardest part of working with it.
Luke would have to work on his willpower. He had never used it for anything magical... Hell, in the last two years or so, he had only used it to not cry too hard after a beating. There was no stat for it, but he was sure his was lacking.
He compacted the mana under his control much as he could—which immediately made him feel a pressure in the head from the effort—changed its shape into a thin drill the width of a hair, and started rotating it.
Then he pulled it into his soul.
The pain was terrible, but not the same as if he were drilling through his body. It felt like a particularly nasty toothache with a splitting headache. Enough to make it a challenge not to lose focus and to tempt him into stopping, but not enough to outright make him faint or scream.
Still, Luke had to stop himself from curling into fetal position to wait for the pain to go away. He had learned that not resisting made the it go away faster, but today, he resisted his cockroach instincts. Instead, he focused on his grandad's words.
He was a warrior, and he would persevere.
The pain didn't stop coming.
He kept pulling.
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Using mana was tiring and Luke was no exception. He did manage to drill his soul up to where he would create his mana core, but it took almost two hours and he got so exhausted he could barely think straight from the powerful migraine he now had. He didn't even check the system icons on the bottom corner of his vision as he thought he might be incapable of even reading at the moment.
The newly drilled mana channel was no thicker than a hair's breadth. He would grow it after all his channels were built, but for now, that was all he could do.
His current priority was resting.
He walked the corridors of the large house with his eyes closed half of the time. He took the wrong turn twice, but managed to safely arrive at his bed. He didn't even take his clothes off; he just fell on the incredibly comfortable bed like a log and fell asleep at once.
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A beautiful, young female voice pierced the darkness. "Wake up." The world shook.
Luke woke up being shaken violently by Akira Sakura.
Before even getting annoyed by her rudeness, he was assaulted by a splitting headache. The day before, he had thought it was just residual pain from his soul, but now that he wasn't as tired and could think better, he recognized it for what it was: willpower fatigue.
Willpower couldn't be quantified and was very circumstantial. When Sakura had said she could use 100 mana waves, she had given him an estimate. If she had been drunk, for instance, she would've done less. If she had been extra hyped, she could've done more. A hug, an insult, even feeling sleepy could affect it, sometimes for a long time.
Likewise, finding one's safe limit was hard, and the limit itself could change depending on circumstances. With experience, Luke would learn to tell when he was nearing his limits.
Going beyond said limits gave the mana user willpower fatigue. It started with a headache that got progressively worse the more one used mana—or, in other words, imbued mana with their will. The more one kept doing it, the stronger the headache, up to the point they fainted. The worse it was, the longer it took to go away. From Luke's memories, he estimated his own fatigue would disappear in about a day.
The biggest issue with willpower fatigue was that it was ineffective on the long term. Continuing despite it might let you do more things in a short period of time, which was essential in some battles, but it took considerably longer to recover from fatigue than it would have taken to rest a little before continuing with one's work. It wasn't much different from people who suffered from burnout and had to stay months away from work rather than taking an extra hour or two of rest everyday, or a day off every week, to avoid the stress from piling up. Unfortunately, finding that perfect spot also took time and many mistakes.
Luke mentally slapped himself for not thinking about it. His grandad's life was on the life. He couldn't mess up like that.
"Wake up!" Akira yelled and shook him harder, which made the headache worse.
He opened his eyes, instantly regretting it as the light hurt his eyes. He had never had a hangover, but he was guessing this is how it felt.
"Your grandfather will leave in half an hour. Come say goodbye," Akira said and left at once.
Luke couldn't let his grandpa leave without seeing him, so he sat up at once. The sudden movement was yet another thing that shot a spike of pain through his head. He ignored it as best as he could, stood up, put on his geta, and left the room. A maid only a bit younger than the one the night before was waiting for him outside.
"Honored guest," she said while bowing slightly. "Should I bring you to the dining room?"
He was very unused to having maids. It felt positively weird to have another human serve him like that. "Yes, please," he said awkwardly. She started leading her. "Do you know what time is it?"
She pulled her sleeve and checked her wrist watch. "Half past seven."
The breakfast was supposed to be served at seven. He was very late. He hated that he wouldn't be seeing his grandad so much now, but there was nothing he could do.
While he was led to the dining room, he finally checked the system messages he had received the day before.
Skill learned: Mana Sense
Type: Magic
Rank: Uncommon
Level: 10 / 15
You can feel mana.
Skill learned: Mana Control
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Type: Magic
Rank: Uncommon
Level: 8 / 15
You can control mana.
The two skills were easy to learn, but were uncommon-rank because not everyone in the tower bothered with them, as they knew the difficulties that working with magic brought and the time-sink it was. Mana Sense was already at level 10, though level 11 would be a little harder to reach; it would require him to feel mana with his eyes open. That would take some training, as opening the eyes made it way harder to focus on one's soul.
Mana Control was a bit harder to level up, but not too much. It would come with practice and he didn't need to worry about it for now.
Usually, messages about skills learned would've shown them at level 1, and then he would've gotten notifications for each level up. However, notifications only showed up after you had already read the related "skill learned" message. Because he took so long to check the two of them, they came already at a higher level and he got no notification.
He checked the next messages.
Milestone reached: First Magic Skill
You've learned your first magic skill.
Reward: +10 SP
Khan bonus: +1 SP
Achievement unlocked: First Magic Skill
You're the first human from Earth to learn a magic skill!
Reward: +100 SP
Khan bonus: +10 SP
Both messages had been expected, but there was more to the second than met the eye.
Luke had been wondering if other people had access to the system. It was possible, albeit unlikely, that no system user had ever done anything to give them physical or cognitive skills. However, he knew for a fact that Akira could sense and control mana to some extent, so she should've unlocked the achievement for first magic skill if she had access to the system.
That meant that either no one had access to the system, or whoever did couldn't use mana. But for someone to not unlock any of the three types of skills was almost impossible.
Now that he thought about it, his Pioneer title had already said he had been the first to get an achievement, hadn't it? He had been considering a lot of things about the system at the time, and the warning message left his mind in disarray, so he hadn't considered that. It was impossible that no one would have been able to get a single achievement for more than a month.
So, Luke concluded no one in the world but him had access to the system—or at least, if someone else had gotten access too, they had had it for very little time.
Why had the system picked him? Maybe because of his memories? Because of his Khan citizenship? Or had the same people who sent the memories found a way to give him the system first?
He had no way to find out and just took it out of his mind for now.
Milestone reached: All Kinds of Skills
You've learned skills of all three types: physical, magic, and cognitive.
Reward: +10 SP
Khan bonus: +1 SP
Achievement unlocked: All Kinds of Skills
You're the first human from Earth to learn skills of all three types: physical, magic, and cognitive.
Reward: +100 SP
Khan bonus: +10 SP
Those milestone and achievement had also existed in the tower, so they came as no surprise.
He finished reading his messages just as he arrived at the dining room.
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The big room was on the middle of the second floor. It was fully Japanese style, but with a caveat, a glass ceiling that let one see the skies. Luke could also see a cover of the same paper-like materials the sliding doors were made of on the corner; they could cover the glass if the sunlight got too strong.
His grandad was sitting with his legs crossed on one side of the low table in the center of the room. Contrary Luke's expectation, the table was only big enough for four people to eat comfortably. Food was already on it. Mr. Akira and his niece were also there, though they were sitting on their knees. Luke joined them quickly, sitting cross legged.
Mr. Akira and Sakura had been wearing a kimono the last time he saw them. Well, kind of. He had seen Sakura earlier today, but he hadn't paid attention to her clothes. Now, Mr. Akira was wearing a Western-style suit, and Sakura the school uniform. His grandad was still in the white T-shirt and sweatpants he usually wore.
They had all eaten already, but there was still a lot of food there. Luke was surprised to see a traditional Japanese breakfast—steamed rice, grilled cheese, sashimi, sliced vegetables— besides a proper American one—toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, peanut butter. Mr. Akira seemed to really want to make his good friend feel at home. Likewise, cutlery had been set for the guests besides the chopsticks.
"Good morning," his grandad said.
"Did you sleep well?" Mr. Akira asked.
"Good morning. Yes," Luke replied and started filling his plate. He completely ignored the bowl and chopsticks, as he had never learned to eat with either. He got some of the toasted fish to have a taste, but his main breakfast would be a large serving of eggs and bacon. "The bed was amazing." Talking made his head hurt a little too, but he wouldn't be rude to the man who had his grandad's life in his hands.
The food tasted marvelous. Just like the bed, it was top tier. No, the bed had been great, but he had barely noticed it, yet the food...
"Oh my god, is this heaven?" he asked, his mouth full.
Mr. Akira smiled with his lips, Luke's grandpa laughed, and Sakura looked surprised.
"About your grandfather's health," Mr. Akira said, and Luke paid full attention to his next words. "As I told you, we have to travel to have the best doctors check on him. We'll go to Houston first; the University of Texas has one the best cancer hospitals in the country. From there we'll go to New York, where we can find another of the best. We'll cross-reference their diagnosis and determine the best course of action from there. One of my family's doctors specialized in cancer is also coming from Japan as we speak. He'll lead the medical staff that will stay by Arthur's side the entire time."
Luke was impressed to say the least, and the incoming doctor gave everything a special touch. He wanted to say that that was too much, that they didn't deserve that much. But that would be a lie, wouldn't it?
His grandad deserved only the best.
"Thank you, Mr. Akira," he said and bowed his head low white sitting. He almost hit his face on the plate. If he was going to go around bowing to Asian people, he should probably practice a little where no one could see. "I owe you for that."
"I'm not doing this for you, Mr. Kells," the old man said. "You should always take care not to incur debt in other people's stead. There are a lot of people in this world who would be quick to collect, and many of them would make things hard for you."
Luke laughed self-deprecatingly. "I don't need to worry about that, Mr. Akira. I have nothing anyone would want."
"An envelope," Mr. Akira said. "I'll give you a single envelope and you only have to put it in a public bench without looking at its contents. I'm saving your grandfather, so his life is certainly worth such a simple task, correct?" Before Luke could reply, Mr. Akira continued, "What if the envelope has money and a photo to have someone killed? To have a child kidnapped? Even a nobody could deliver it, and a nobody could be easily disposed of later to erase the trail. Could you live your life knowing you assisted on something like that? Would you like to die because you became indebted without need? Do you think that's what Arthur would want you to do as thanks for his life?"
Luke's fork stopped midway to his open mouth when he listened to the very unexpected words.
"Elder..." Sakura said with a pleading voice.
"Yes, of course, the family's teachings are not for outsiders," Mr. Akira replied and looked back at Luke. "Arthur will be in the best medical hands of the world."
"Thank you?" Luke replied tentatively.
Could he even thank people? Or was it also incurring debt? He wasn't sure what to think about the sudden "lesson." It had been way too extreme and fantastical. And that was a family teaching? Did Sakura usually learn those things?
'What the actual hell?!' he thought.
Mr. Akira just nodded in silence.
"Eat quickly..." Luke's grandad said. "You'll be late... for school."
Luke considered lying about having decided to leave school, but he had learned better. "I'm not going."
His grandpa didn't seem surprised at his declaration. "Why not?"
"Because..." Luke started but realized he didn't have a good reason. Not unless he revealed he was using mana, but should he? What would his grandpa think? He would sound crazy at the very least.
Or would he?
Didn't Sakura use mana? What if she told his grandad the truth?
Luke looked at her, and she looked back with obvious confusion, as none of them were psychics.
"I'm doing something to save you," Luke explained. "Something... special. I need peace and calm for a couple months at least."
"Out of... question. You sacrificed so much... for your studies."
"Your life is more important," Luke replied firmly.
"I wasn't... asking. You promised... you would do... whatever I want. I want you... to go to school."
"Promises are dangerous too," Mr. Akira said. Sakura opened her mouth to say something, but the man stood up at once. Luke noticed he hadn't used his cane for that. The beautifully crafted wooden object was resting by the wall, and he walked there without trouble. "Niece, Arthur has spoken. Please take Mr. Kells to school."
Luke clenched his jaw and fists. He wanted to discuss, but Mr. Akira was right. He had made a promise, and his grandad wasn't one to change his opinion after he gave a direct order.
Going to school would mess with his plans, but he supposed he could build his mana channels during classes and in the breaks. Without Jackson there to make his life hell, he would succeed.
He moved on all fours to his grandad and hugged him. "Don't die," he whispered. "I'll save you, I promise this too."
"I don't know why... but I believe you," his grandad whispered back.
They kept hugging until Mr. Akira cleared his throat. Then Luke stood up, wished them a safe trip, and left with his niece.
"Be right back," she said after leaving him by the entrance. She returned a few minutes later with a backpack. "Let's go." She led him to a limousine. A man wearing a suit and a driver cap was waiting for them while holding the back door open. Two black SUVs surrounded the vehicle, probably bodyguards.
Sakura entered the limo without a second thought. Luke awkwardly nodded to the driver and said, "Thanks," before following. The man ignored him.
The car's interior was pure luxury. The seats were made of leather and there was even a minibar there. Sakura was sitting like she owned the thing.
Which she damn well might. Now that Luke thought about it, he knew next to nothing about her. She was Mr. Akira's niece, and it seemed the Akira were very powerful besides being rich. More importantly, she could use mana, which she called ki.
Luke took a deep breath and finally got enough courage to ask, "How can you use ki?" He used her word for mana.