Chapter 3: Summer Program | 3.4 Mana Management
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Iris examined her blackened hand. “Cool, so I can carry other things!” Marveling at her ability, she removed the backpack from the storage, and her hand returned to normal. ‘Master Iris! You’re back to normal!’ Lexi hopped up and down inside one of the storage boxes along the wall. ‘You became so tired because I’m taking much more of your mana.’
Her eyes went wide as she listened to Lexi. Iris took a moment to examine herself. ‘I…yeah, I do feel tired but not the normal tired. I feel like I want to become a sloth…’ She sighed heavily. ‘This is just great. I wanted to become a more diligent person.’ Her goal felt impossible.
She looked at her status page. ‘It’s only 50 mana… Out of 200 mana, that’s 25%. This feeling and heaviness should reduce if level up.’ Each level gave her an additional 100 mana. Each [Familiar] skill level strengthened their bond and reduced the mana burden of Lexi’s level. Plus, there was the skill share effect.
Iris pondered, ‘I can only level by defeating monsters in the mana realm, so…’ She turned to Lexi, “Lexi, is there a way to increase our bond faster?” Not expecting the topic to come up, her familiar had to think about it, but she quickly responded. ‘The bond between us will improve with time and interaction. I think focusing on our shared skills will help.’
“Shared skills, so I need to practice [Mind Library] and [Body Mark Storage].” Glancing down at her wrist device, Iris checked the time. ‘3 PM. 2-3 hours before dinner…’ Going to her bookshelf, she grabbed a book and stored it. Mana gathered covering the book, and then it shrank disappearing into her hand.
A book tattoo appeared on her hand. ‘It didn’t leave a large mark. Lexi appears as a small book tattoo too, but when I stored the backpack, my entire hand turned black. Iris concluded that the skill was affected by compatibility. ‘High compatibility items should be anything talent and skill-related, so any paper, ink, and mana objects should be fine.’
Focusing her mind, she moved the tattoos and lined them up on her sides. ‘Good. They’ll be hidden under my shirt.’ Each book tattoo used a point or two of mana to store, and they were small, roughly the size of her pinky finger in size. She collected all her books: the ones from the library, her personal library, and a few from the storage boxes.
Retrieving one of her library textbooks from her storage skill, she beckoned Lexi. “Let’s read together and add this book to our mind library.” Her familiar happily assimilated into the book, and Iris read the textbook slowly to avoid overdrawing her mana pool. She read until bedtime.
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Waking up Tuesday morning, she hid all the marks under her clothes and borrowed a pair of gardening gloves from her mother. Having an early morning appointment, Casey dropped off her daughter at school earlier than most parents. Iris went straight to the slime mana realm but stopped at the schoolyard gazebos. Nick was there.
She waited a moment for him to grab his things, and they headed inside together. “You’re here early.” He commented.
Iris nodded. “I’m sorry you have to accompany me.”
He shook his head, “Na, it’s fine. This is my job anyway. Plus, I have to pay off all my library late fees.”
She smiled hearing that he had late book fees. Most things have been digitized and can be accessed through the holographic school application. However, the school was required to provide hard copies of everything, so they did; they provided a single copy of everything. Thus, late books were a serious offense, and the fee was expensive.
‘Most students avoid hard copies because of how strict the rules were… Oh, I’ll have to use physical copies this time because of Lexi.’ Realizing that she couldn’t escape using the school’s library books, Iris speculated about how many she might be able to find at the public library. Their rules were more reasonable.
Out of curiosity, she asked, “How bad were your late fees?”
Nick’s smile became strained as he responded, “I lost a book, and… it took me days to find it again… Well, at least, I earn more when I accompany students inside.”
Iris shook her head. ‘Ouch. Days… If it’s still $10 a day, then…’ She silently wished him good luck with that. 'I guess it's fine for me to enter the mana realms every day then.' Entering the slime realm, Iris laid out the large towel, so they wouldn’t have to sit on the grass. Nick set down his supplies and restarted his studying.
Lexi called out to her master before she started hunting. ‘Master. I think I will be better inside your hand. It will be easier for me to access your mana, so I can memorize this book faster. It won’t be as fast as you reading with me, but it will be faster than working on my own.’
Hearing her partner’s thoughts, Iris agreed and plunged her left hand deep into the backpack. She stored Lexi. Pulling her hand out, the book tattoo was hidden under the garden gloves. ‘Good.’ She could feel the little drain on her mana, but it wasn’t serious enough to bother her.
Leaving her things near Nick, she walked away, searching for slimes nearby. Finding a fleeing slime, she quickly crushed it under her shoe and picked up its mana stone. ‘It’s tiny. It must have been a recent spawn.’
With her back to Nick, Iris was confident he wouldn’t see anything, so she drew the mana stone inside. Covering it with her mana, it became hazy and phased through her garden glove and into her right hand. In her mind, she could sense the mark on her palm. It was a tiny black dot as if she had drawn a spot on her hand with a pen.
Clenching her fist, she smiled at the ease of storing items. Refocusing on the grass, she continued her hunt. Yesterday, she had spent prioritizing mana sense and had hunted during the remaining time. However, now, in front of her, she had four hours. She stared out over the field of tall grass. ‘I’m going to hunt all of them.’