Settling himself into the corner of the room, the door to his left, Joe began tensing his whole being to force out the mana once more. His tension ratcheted up slowly, body crunching ever more until he began feeling the spurts of mana escaping from his core. He spent some time resting in that moment, allowing his thoughts to meditate on the moment as he alternated between tensing and relaxing; pushing the mana out, and somehow blocking its escape. He spent time both in mental space feeling his body and in taking the time to look down at his torso and watching the mana escapeing from him as a wave of particulate clouds. He was able to spend quite a bit more time this way, as his alternating of releasing and containing the mana let him try to feel what was going on while simultaneously keeping most of the mana at a decent level before his MP ran out.
After his mana ran out, he collapsed back against the corner and panted, as he rested while his MP returned. When he’d felt his body recover a bit, his mind dipped into thoughts on his new skills but didn’t really find anything there that seemed that useful. It would require learning spells in the first place, whether songs or rhymes and runes. Where would I even learn them? Joe grimaced a bit before letting it go and turned his thoughts to something more productive as his rumination on his skills left him as lost as the last time he thought of them, so he turned to his future plans for his jobs.
While he still had one last job on his list of options, that of physician, Joe knew that he would need something else for the next day, wanting to make a short list so as to at least have a plan. He would do physician today, hoping it might reveal something useful, but also decided that besides mana-ologist, there was little else that really caught his eye. His eyes took in the new greatly expanded available jobs page then noticed the rather empty crafting and nobility branches of jobs. Huh… might be a good idea to at least open them? See what’s available? Maybe metropolitan and citizen as well as there obviously seems to be many more jobs. Maybe need to hit level thirty on them to open up the rest. That’ll give me a very good variety of jobs. Need to get commoner up to thirty as well, so I can get going on the combat jobs. Not too important though, until my year is up, and I have plenty of time.
Joe’s eyes wandered over one last time over the list, taking in the educational jobs once again, as while it offered little by way of useful skills or survival in an obviously combat and skilled labor world, the educational jobs had given him such an incredible boost to his learning that he felt finishing up the jobs in this available listing would offer him even greater returns on his growth rate. And nothing really is holding us back, at the moment. Rapid growth potential is vital for any future on this stinking place, if I ever decide I want to change my job after the one year deadline. As he considered what else he could do in the educational job line, his eyes fell on the job ‘teacher.’
Epiphany struck him, his mind exploding with possibility! Holy! Wait! Teachers help educate others… what… what does that mean in a world with leveling and jobs?! Joe’s thoughts whirled with the possibilities and ramifications, his thoughts seeming to explode. He calmed his thoughts but still felt jittery with excitement as he realized that he might have found a way to help the other three quite a bit, although Joe wasn’t certain exactly how it would all work out. Right… add teacher to the list, and whatever comes after that… and … I guess mana manipulator? Now power or skill in this world… I need to know it at least, if not learn it and exploit it.
Joe’s internal alarm went off and he flickered over to his main display to see his MP back to full once again and sighed in satisfaction tinged with frustration as he returned to his task of trying to understand and manipulate his internal mana. Once again, he slowly ramped up the tension in his body until the mana began to spurt out, and Joe kept the pressure just on the border, trying to piece together mentally what he was feeling and what it was that was containing and releasing his mana. His eyes, proving to be a bit useless so far, soon drifted shut until he was once again in his mental space, meditation driving him to seek out what his body was doing.
While he was doing this, he suddenly became aware of a disturbance and looked up to see Kilniara slipping silently across the room before standing in front of him. He stared up at her, a bit shocked.
“How… when did you…” he trailed off and looked towards the door then back at her.
She giggled to see his consternation and held up a key, “I kept a key. I hope you don’t mind?”
Joe felt… something at that. A little miffed she didn’t ask but at the same time flattered with her persistence. He let the annoyance go and smiled brighter, shaking his head.
“It would be nice to ask next time, but no… it’s OK.”
She grew serious at his mention of asking but then smiled and nodded when he said it was OK, “Thanks. I’ll make sure to ask next time. I… kinda wanted it to be a surprise.”
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“Ahh.. well… then that makes sense. It’s… a rather nice surprise,” his anger evaporated with the knowledge of her wanting to surprise him instead of simply assuming her right to it.
She grinned to see his acceptance and stepped closer. He smiled up at her and she smiled back before stepping over his lap, silently. Both stared into each other’s eyes as she slowly descended, her tail making contact with his legs first before her inner thighs slipped down around his, sliding down into his lap before pressing her entire torso into his, resting her head on one of his shoulders. Joe smiled as she did so, enjoying her presence.
“Sorry. I messed up your training?”
Joe smiled and shook his head, replying in a whisper, “Nah. I’m fine. You can stay there if you don’t mind me focusing on my training. It doesn’t bother me… quite enjoyable, actually.”
She smiled brightly at that, even as a blush flushed her face before she burrowed her way into his torso once again. He stared at her for a bit before closing his eyes again and returned to his mana experimentation, tension tightening his whole torso once more as he struggled to express mana again. As his torso, arms, and legs tightened, he felt mana begin flowing once again. While he still struggled by having to force it out, he found that he’d been able to use just the slightest less tension and effort than yesterday. When he finally was able to release his mana, Joe felt Kilniara jump in a bit of shocked surprise before moaning subtly. Joe immediately stopped.
“You OK?”
Kilniara hiccupped, her moan breathily interrupted before returning. She shook her head rapidly before stopping and then pausing, “I … I didn’t know you would be training mana expression again.”
“It bothers you?”
She shivered before looking up at him, lust dripping from her eyes as she stared into his, “No.”
Joe blinked in a bit of shock at seeing her reaction, “I’m… I didn’t want to bother… you so much with that.”
She smiled a bit at that before breathing heavily, then grinned evilly as she then released a wave of mana that spread outwards. He stifled his own groan even as it suffused out from her and covered his body. He panted a few times before pulling himself together.
“OK! OK! Stop… got it.”
Kilniara giggled then before dropping her head back to his chest even as she stopped her mana expression. Joe sucked in a few heavy breaths at that, feeling her own giggles echoing through his chest in response as he struggled to calm himself.
“Right… I’ll make sure to disperse my mana away from you.”
“It might be a good idea, if you don’t want me very aggressively interrupting your mana training.”
Joe chuckled at that, shock forcefully gasping his laugh, “Right… I’ll remember that!”
Joe calmed, even as she did, and then turned back to his mana training. Why did that feel so good! Is that a male female thing? Garnedell’s mana didn’t feel anything like that, and he didn’t seem to respond to my mana like that either. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t anything like what Kilniara’s felt like! It was… ooooohhh! Joe’s memory went back to Garendell’s mana expression examples and remembered feeling odd emotions, most of it felt like happy warmth. But now that Joe understood. He’s… really happy and grateful … then expressing mana am I feeling their emotions or am I feeling my own emotions enhanced?
“Could you do that one more time? Slowly… and maybe just on my hand?”
Kilniara nodded, smiling softly and bathed his hand in her mana. As before, a shocking heat suffused through his hand and what he felt was an immense desire, bordering on need. A want at an intensity that drove all other desires or wants to nothing. He shuddered and pulled his hand away, finding it harder and harder to control himself. Joe finally got his rapid breathing under control and looked back to Kilniara.
“Then… what do you feel?”
Kiliniara smiled happily, “Warmth… warmth and complete protection. You won’t let anything happen to me. Thank you… and… and you do want me,” she ended looking up at him with deep smoky eyes that left absolutely no room for misinterpretation.
He stared at her, feeling his emotions spiking upward, his eyes locked to hers. She seemed just as trapped, both staring at one another for a time until he finally took a deep shuddering breath and pulled back, closing his eyes and wrestling control back into his hands.
“Right. No mana expression at you,” Joe replied after a bit, looking back at her with a warm smile.
Kilniara looked back up at him before giggling herself, and the two enjoyed a moment of silent oneness before Joe closed his eyes and returned to his training. OK! Seems to carry… emotions… maybe… Probably should ask Garnedell… but it lets others feel your emotions… so… mana can carry emotions… is it… other things too? Would … make sense if it also carried intent… needs to know what you want… wait… kinda has to? It’s taking on the shape I want… and keeps the shape even after I send it on its way, so… that seems… well… is that intent, though? Or… well… memory… not really… put a bunch of blocks in a shape and it stays in that shape… blocks don’t have memory… so… He lost himself in his thoughts, forgetting his mana practice for a bit until a whiff of mana from Kilniara reminded him of what he was attempting to do and he quickly turned his efforts back to developing his mana skills. Right, let the mana out, but this time see if I can shove it… huh… can’t do down or out into the hallway. Don’t wanna bother anyone. Up into the air it is. Kilniara OK?
He glanced down, seeing Kilniara was deep in her own training and smiled. Right… training. He went back to his mana work, this time aiming to force the mana from his body up into the roof. Joe soon was once again expelling his mana but with the tricky requirement of trying to only shove it one way. There were a couple of times where it squirted out everywhere before Joe finally got the hang of it, but it was soon relatively simple to force it in one direction; not as easy as it was with his mana points, but easy enough. With that, Joe dove back into himself, exploring.
* * *