“Bleugh…” Bruce covered his mouth, struggling to settle his distressed stomach. He didn’t even take a single sip, just uncorked the vial and brought it to his lips, but the trained reaction of his body still got the better of him, turning him into what looked like a patient suffering from a violent onset of stomach flu.

“Baby.” Andriei taunted him, taking a big gulp and downing the whole potion in one go. His face suddenly contorted, as he struggled to push down the vomit rising in his throat.

While mister Hendricks didn’t put us through a hellish training regime like mister Gunterson, his classes came with their own set of difficulties. Due to our abrupt appearance in the world of Erathia, every morning we were forced to take a special potion designed to stabilize and reinforce our newly formed mana cores.

We were told that these elixirs were concocted from ingredients of incredible rarity, painstakingly gathered from the four corners of the world. Even if this knowledge aroused some sense of gratitude in our minds, it wasn’t enough to sway the natural reaction of our bodies. Our stomachs especially were convinced that the four corners of the world had been exactly the right place for these ingredients to stay at and that bringing them together was an unforgivable mistake.

“Idiots.” commented Karl, slowly sipping the elixir. His Adam’s apple went up and down as he methodically took small mouthfuls. Though he tried to feint nonchalance, judging by his frozen expression, he wasn’t having an easy time keeping the potion down either.

“Anastasia, share your secret.” Andriei meekly asked, still in the midst of a fierce struggle with his revolting stomach.

The only person in our group who didn’t exhibit any difficulties when drinking the elixir was Anastasia. Just like Andriei, she gulped it down in one go, only she maintained a composed expression throughout the whole ordeal, looking quite natural in contrast to Karl’s mask-like visage.

“You said it yourself” she answered cooly. “I’m not a child. Even my ten years old brother doesn’t make as much of a scene when he needs to take his medicine.”

“She pops a candy in her mouth before we start classes.” Marie said.

“What!” Andrei exclaimed.

Anastasia revealed a rare blush. “That is completely irrelevant,'' she asserted. “I merely enjoy starting my mornings with something sweet. And a bit of sugar is a good way to jump start your body. It’s not like we can find a place serving coffee around here.”

Unconvincing as her explanation was, it wasn’t a complete lie. God knows we’ve grasped at every remedy or trick we could think of to make ingesting the potion easier. Drinking it down with tea worked for me to a certain extent. At the very least it rinsed my mouth, mitigating the aftertaste. Sadly, when the two liquids mixed together in my stomach, it felt like I had consumed twice the normal volume of the potion. Making it that much more difficult to keep down.

I shook the vial with the elixir in my hand, looking at it hatefully. It was filled with a white liquid, seemingly not at all different from milk.

But you realised the difference very quickly when you tried to drink it.

It didn’t have a taste, at least not one that human taste buds were equipped to recognize. The closest comparison would be to something metallic, like licking a battery, only with a chalky aftertaste.

Still, a part of our physiology clearly recognized at least some elements of the elixir, cause trying to ingest it elicited a genuine cascade of reactions. First it stimulated the nerve endings in your tongue, making it shrivel up in revulsion. Next, your salivary glands would go into overdrive, secreting inordinate amounts of saliva, easily doubling the volume of liquid you had to swallow. Your throat would close up. And then, when you finally managed to push it all down, your stomach muscles would start convulsing, doing everything in their power to nullify your hard work and eject the potion back from whence it came from.

“I used to hope I’d get used to it with time, but now I feel like retching just walking to class.” Kazuki lamented.

“I’m sorry, children.” Mister Hendricks said from his place at the desk, “While your mana cores formed successfully, Raia be praised, they are still extremely fragile and unstable. We need to strengthen them if we don’t want to run the risk of them breaking down.”

“Even children born in this world sometimes require special remedies of this kind. Given your unique circumstances, we had to increase the concentration of the potion quite a bit. It might feel unpleasant, but please bear with it.”

He waited patiently until each of us successfully ingested the potion and was no longer on the verge of spraying his neighbour with vomit.

“Now, please sit on the floor and focus on your breathing like I taught you. Empty your mind of all extraneous thoughts. Just inhale… and exhale...“ Mister Hendricks’ monotonous voice travelled through the classroom.

Our bodies slowly grew relaxed. Learning meditation was an uphill battle for most of us initially. Kazuki and Allie had an advantage, since they trained in it in their previous lives, but the rest of us had to start from scratch. First few attempts were continuously disrupted by Andrei and Bruce who were unable to cope with the still serenity of a calm mind, and often broke out in random fits of nervous laughter. This only ended when Anastasia finally grew fed up with their antics and scolded the duo so severely, they no longer dared to make a peep.

Of course, there was one more reason that everyone eventually settled down and learned to embrace this practice. As beneficial as meditation could be back on Earth, it merely cleansed your mind of superficial thoughts and pointless worries. Whereas here…

Ba-dump.

You should hear it now.” Mister Hendricks intoned. “The beat of your mana core as it pulls in the energy of the world and transforms it into your personal mana.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Sense the energy as it radiates from your hearts. Touch it... Guide it... Gently... Towards the potion in your stomachs. Let the two meld together. Now guide it back. Direct it towards your mana core.”

I whined as awful pain erupted from the area of my heart. It felt as if someone had cut open my chest and furiously stabbed at my heart with pins and needles. Worse even, because I was the one doing it. My heartbeat became irregular, randomly halting and exploding in intensity. The supposedly fragile mana core resisted furiously, sending waves of mana to form a barrier around itself.

“You might feel something being wrong and unnatural, but that’s to be expected.” Mister Hendricks’ steady voice once more resounded in my mind. “The minerals in the potion need to assimilate themselves with your mana core, and to do so they need to penetrate through the barriers protecting its integrity. It’s normal for the process to provoke an adverse reaction. But you need to persevere. Else, should your mana core break one day, you will be faced with the ravages of unbound mana.”

Feeling unnatural was putting it mildly. The whole ordeal reminded me too much of the torture I had suffered when being summoned into this world. Still, I kept attacking the mana core. After several weeks of this exercise my control has increased dramatically and the process that seemed to take hours in the beginning, now followed a predictable pattern.

I attuned myself to the rhythm of my core and deftly sent tiny pellets of elixir infused mana, aiming for the small breaks in defense. As they reached its center, they quickly melded away, becoming one with the mana core.

When I was finally finished, I let out a deep breath. My mana core also calmed itself, steadily pumping fresh waves mana. It was difficult to clearly perceive, but I thought I could sense it being a little bit sturdier.

There was a satisfied expression on my face. At least for today, the most difficult hurdle was behind me.

What followed were the standard exercises aimed at improving our mana control and facilitating the creation of special pathways to lead the mana in our bodies more efficiently. If not for the unique constitution of our bodies, it would be the only thing we would be doing, and we were eagerly awaiting the day when we could forget about ingesting that foul potion once and forever.

I circulated mana, focused on the feeling of it slowly flowing through my limbs. The pathways we were creating weren’t real in the physical sense, it wasn’t like there were new veins or capillaries forming in our bodies. Mister Hendricks compared it to sifting water through dirty soil. Every cycle eliminated some of the impurities and at the same time extremely subtly pushed apart the grains of sand that formed it.

The sensation accompanying the process was difficult to describe. It seemed similar to itchiness, only you weren’t really able to pinpoint the exact place it emanated from.

Allie was the one who gave the best description in my opinion.

“It feels like you are about to sneeze.” She said to me one day, not long after our coming here, as we were busy washing dishes.

“Sneeze?”

“Yeah, only not with your nose, you know. Like, when you’re directing mana to your limbs, it feels like you’re about to sneeze with your elbow or your thigh.”

Back then I looked at her strangely, but her comparison grew on me with time. It was as good as any other when you were trying to describe something that had no equivalent in your previous world. And the release you experienced after completing a full cycle of mana circulation truly bore some resemblance to the sudden discharge of endorphins and lightheadedness you felt after a really mighty sneeze.

“Aaaaah…”

A chorus of satisfied sounds marked the end of today’s meditation session. We opened our eyes, fully energized, and started stretching contentedly.

“How are you feeling?” Mister Hendricks asked us with a smile on his face.

“Excellent!”

“I feel like I could break stones with my hands!”

“You’re still only at level three by our standards, but your progress is amazing. A level three knight would be considered viable to lead a regiment of hundred men in most kingdoms.”

“But when will we able to wield magic, like casting fireballs or throwing thunderbolts?” Kazuki asked with a gleam in his eyes.

“You still need to cross two thresholds before reaching that point.” Mister Hendricks answered. “First, at level four, you will learn how to imbue your attacks with mana, strengthening them immensely. The next rank will allow you to open yourself and release your mana outwards to directly affect the world”

“Observe.”

He pulled out a small coin from his pocket and levitated it against his hand. Then he created a tiny orb of light that struck it and cleanly penetrated it, leaving a round hole behind.

“What do you think?”

“Eh... that’s not impressive…!” Kazuki pouted.

Mister Hendricks laughed merrily. “Of course! How could a tiny hole like that be impressive?“ He asked. “But what if I made that tiny hole in your heart or your brain?”

We fell silent, struck dumb as the realization dawned on us. If something like that was possible, wouldn’t that mean someone could walk through a crowded street and murder dozens of people with mere thought?

Seeing our aghast expressions, mister Hendricks laughed again. “Well, you don’t need to worry about that. Every living being in this world has a mana core or an organ with a similar function, enabling them to imprint themselves on the unbound mana. So long as they circulate their own mana, they won’t just repel the free flowing mana in the environment, but any other mana also, that of other beings included.”

He stood up and walked to the window. There was a potted plant on the sill basking in the early morning sun. “Observe.” He sent another small orb of energy towards it. Flower petals drooped when it came into contact with them, but the ball soon fizzled out of existence, leaving only minute burn marks behind.

“As you can see, even plants, though they don’t have mana cores like animals do, can form a protective layer that repulses foreign mana. That’s not to say mana is useless in those situations, you just need to strengthen your attack so that it overwhelms its defences. “

Once more a small orb appeared, seemingly identical to the previous one, but it easily shot through the flower. Mister Hendricks didn’t stop at that and had the ball continue striking furiously, till it reduced the plant to soft mush.

“Does mana have to be used for fighting, can’t it be used to nurture, like improving crop yields?” I asked.

“Of course! Just think about it improving your own body, it’s not like increasing your strength or speed is intrinsically linked to combat. Though the issue becomes a bit different when you attempt to alter living beings.”

“As I said before, to influence another living being, you need to first break through the protective layer of its own mana. That is in itself invasive and detrimental. And then to still be able to use the mana to actually nurture the plant instead of hurting it is even more challenging, consider how difficult it is to control its flow in your own bodies.”

“There were experiments of this type, I was involved in some myself.” Mister Hendricks said, reminiscing. “Of course, we limited ourselves to single subjects, we weren’t as ambitious as you are, to consider working on whole fields from the get go.” He added with a chuckle. “But, in the end, it was all for naught.”

“It’s taken us decades of research, but eventually we had to face the truth. And you can trust the words of an expert. Using your own mana to manifest controlled changes in target's body is simply impossible.”