"Eh?"

Cecil could only stare stupidly at the aftermath of his reckless decision. In front of him was a deep gouge that upturned earth which spanned 10 meters from his left to his right. The battle was put to a quick stop since all the ursas in front of Cecil had either disappeared, was dismembered, or had a part of their bodies missing.

"W-what the f–"

"WHAT WAS THAAAT!!!" Tyr had already run over to Cecil while questioning him with a shout.

"..." Cecil was too confused to even respond to Tyr.

'What was that anyway?'

Cecil raised his sword and saw the light from his blade receding. The mana that was infused into the blade was dissipating. Along with the mana, the blade of his sword was slowly crumbling into dust as well.

"NO!"

'Crap. I forgot!'

What he had forgotten was the most elementary lesson he learned from Lucia's father, Zaqi.

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Back when he was still at Fauxe Village and learning about his abilities and adjusting to the new world he was in, Cecil was training on imbuing his mana into the objects in his surroundings. This was his initial try at creating the Mana Burst spell. Mr. Zaki saw this and came to observe. Seeing as Cecil was imbuing mana into objects such as the earth, sticks, and other objects, but only to see him destroying them, Mr. Zaki went forward and gave him tips and directed his training a bit.

"I see that you're already trying to do what swordsmen and warriors do, Cecil. Such astounding progress."

"T-Thanks. I remember reading this in a book on my original world..."

"Is that so? Did they specify how the technique worked?"

"Not really. The books I read only mentioned that I needed to imbue my mana into objects, most preferably my weapon, in order to properly utilize something called aura."

"Aura? Now that's something new to me...In any case, imbuing mana into your weapon or tools is the right way to go about things, but you have to learn how to control your mana first!"

"How come?"

"It's because of what happened with the stone you injected your mana into earlier. What happened to it?"

"It... exploded?"

"Yes. If you imbue too much mana into an object and it surpasses the mana conductivity threshold of said object, then the only result would be you destroying the object."

"Ohh, I see... so then I should just do it in moderation?"

"Yes and no. For you, it would be a problem since you currently can't control how much mana you imbue because of your vast amount of mana. The only other solution would be to find materials with high magical affinity and craft them into a weapon that could withstand your mana."

"Ahah! I see... thanks Mr. Zaqi!"

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Cecil was able to control his mana a bit now, so he could imbue small amounts of mana into objects, but other fighters would normally craft weapons or buy weapons that have a high mana affinity threshold without having to worry about their mana control.

The sword that Cecil had Mr. Argon craft was made from the first Blade Ursa he defeated. Since it was crafted from monster materials and Mr. Argon had also added some metals with high magic affinity into it, the mana threshold was enough for a normal average fighter to imbue his mana fully into the sword without breaking it or failing to activate aura.

Cecil had always imbued mana that would reach just below the sword's breaking point, but because he had thoughtlessly injected such a huge amount of mana into the sword, it had now started to disintegrate when the mana that was holding it together dissipated into the air. Seeing as his thoughtless action ruined his sword. Cecil felt a little down. He ignored Tyr who was constantly chattering at him and sadly looked at the hilt in his hand.

The blade part had fully disintegrated. Cecil was already lamenting sadly in his heart that he had broken his weapon. This was undoubtedly a disgrace to any swordsman or martial artist. If his dad and grandfather were here to witness what he had done, they'd be scolding him relentlessly no doubt.

'Not even a week has passed... and I've already lost my weapon. I'm such a fool...'

Seeing as the fight was over. The party that Cecil and his friends had rescued came up to them to express their thanks. Milly went over to receive them. The catkin male that was supposedly the leader spoke up, "*cough* Thank you for the save. We nearly kicked the bucket earlier."

Milly was just about to ask them if they were alright, but seeing as the leader was able to crack a joke, she concluded that everything was fine on their end and, fortunately, no one lost their life.

"No problem, us adventurers are supposed to have each other's backs. So no biggie!"

"Thanks. I guess this is the end of the line for us. We didn't expect to run into a huge tribe of ursas. Although you guys are young, you sure do pack quite the punch! We'll be going back to the town now. We'll be rooting for you fellows!"

"Thanks! Stay safe on the way back!"

The party leader turned back towards his party and led them in the direction of the town. But before they walked away, every member including the leader, with the exception of the two who were unconscious, took a second glance at Cecil. They were of course shocked at the spectacle they just witnessed earlier. It was the first time they had ever seen such a bizarre, but deadly technique.

They wanted to ask what was the name of the skill that saved their lives, but seeing as the fox boy who had saved them was looking sadly at the sword in his hand... or at least whatever remained of the sword, they kept quiet and left. As they were walking back, a female member of the party who was around Cecil's age said to her party leader, "He looks to be the same age as me, but he's so strong!"

The leader looked back and said to the catkin female, "Yeah, he's the same age as you Aki, but he's leagues ahead in strength!"

"I wonder what that skill was called! Why didn't you ask him earlier, Bram?"

"...you should learn to read the mood sometimes."

After responding as such, the leader, Bram, walked ahead.

Back at the clearing, Cecil and the rest were quickly collecting the subjugation proofs of the Blade Ursas. After quickly collecting them, they handed them all to Milly for safekeeping. During this time, Tyr wouldn't give it a rest and kept on pestering Cecil for an answer. The rest were likewise curious, so they had no intention of stopping Tyr.

Cecil was too busy lamenting in his head that he just kept ignoring Tyr. They continued collecting the Blade Ursa's useable materials. The bodies that were left behind were in such a bad shape that they had a negligible harvest. The same went with the half that Lucia burnt to death. The ursas that Lucia scorched seemed to come out even worse than what Cecil did since the party couldn't even collect the subjugation proofs or materials. Just a slight touch would make the Ursa's corpse crumble into chunks of charcoal.

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Letting out an exasperated sigh, Milly could only tell the party to continue forward and keep on hunting. The event would only finish after 3 days anyway. The first day they would need to have one or more of their party members head back to town and turn in today's subjugation proofs. This would be the same for the next two days. The committee would calculate how much proofs they had for the first day all the way into the last day. The total tally would then be calculated and summed. The party with the most proofs would be declared the winner of this monster hunting event.

On their way to a new area, Cecil had already thrown away the hilt of his sword.

'I left my spare at the inn. Guess I'll just use my fist like usual.'

Cecil was letting out another sigh when Lucia came over to his side and handed something to him.

"Here, stupid."

Hearing Lucia talk to him, Cecil looked up and saw Lucia holding the spare sword that Mr. Argon crafted for him using the other elbow blade of the Blade Ursa.

"I thought I left this back at the inn..."

"That's why you're stupid. I went back earlier this morning before meeting up with Milly and the rest. I thought it would be good to bring it just in case something happened. I didn't think you would be stupid enough to break your own sword though. Mr. Argon would surely be sad if he found out~"

"Urk... thanks Lulu..."

"You're welcome, stupid Cel~"

"Please... just please stop calling me stupid."

"No~"

With a cheery reply Lucia skipped ahead and began talking to Milly and Cathy. Cecil looked ahead and began thinking.

'That skill I used earlier was pretty cool... I have to master that since it's also pretty powerful.'

Cecil resolved to himself that the next time he used the skill; he would not destroy his sword when he used that skill. He then started mumbling to himself, "Guess I'll name it Excal–, no wait that'd be copyright. Also I wouldn't look cool shouting that."

Cecil started thinking hard for what name he would use when he finally mastered the technique. He could just leave it as a nameless technique, but Cecil wanted to record the technique and list it as an official technique in his family's martial arts.

'A new technique created by me using mana! It has to have a cool name!'

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For the next two days, the party hunted down monster packs in the forest. The person who was tasked as the courier was Cecil. He volunteered himself and he was also the fastest person in the party. Every evening he would shuttle back and forth from the town and the party's campsite within the forest, bringing with him the proofs of subjugation to the town. When he returned to the campsite, he would also bring with him some supplies he bought from the town using the money they earned from selling the monster materials to the adventurer guild.

Cecil didn't mind this since he wasn't really able to do any hunting alongside the party. They would only ever need his help during rescue ops when other parties sent SOSs or if a large group of monsters suddenly attacked them.

During the two days of their hunt. Cecil was only going around helping the rest of his party occasionally, while most of the time he would be sitting down with mana sight activated and scouting out the area. He was also focusing and meditating on ways he would be able to perfect his newfound skill which he dubbed as 'Mana Blade'. He was still experimenting with the skill, but he had finally found the direction where he should improve to be able to make the skill usable even without any good weapons that had a high mana affinity.

During his experimentations in the past 2 days, Cecil concluded that by fully injecting his mana into an object, said object would only be able to hold the mana for a brief moment, around 1-2 seconds or so. If he didn't launch the mana out of the object then said object would explode. If he did launch the mana out, then the object would just disintegrate exactly how his previous sword had. If he injected too little mana into the item then the amount wouldn't even be enough to cause any significant damage to a tree, let alone any monster.

The only way to cause any fatal damage and to trigger the 'Mana Blade' was to forcefully inject at least 3000-4000 units of mana into the object and launch the Mana Blade. It was a dilemma for Cecil since he wasn't rich enough to use weapons as disposables. Although the technique was powerful, the price that came with its usage was too exorbitant. But just today he was able to discover a small trick that let him use a pseudo-Mana Blade, instead of the full powered one that had eliminated the Blade Ursa tribe.

The trick was to inject as much mana as he could into the object, but instead of overloading the object with his mana, he wouldn't release the mana outside of the object and have it circulate around it, forming a cycle around the object. This way the mana would act as a literal blade around the object. Cecil first tested it out on a tree branch and used it to slice through a branch the size of his waist.

Although he wouldn't be able to launch the mana like the first time, at least this technique, which was the by-product of the Mana Blade, wouldn't destroy the weapon. Despite the effects not being nearly as devastating as the actual Mana Blade, this new by-product technique was able to enhance an object's cutting and stabbing capabilities. He named this technique 'Mana Cutter.'

It wasn't anything special, since there were similar techniques as that. Some people used fire element mana on their weapons to engulf it in fire, thus enhancing their attacks. There was also enchantment magic like Lucia's spells.

The only real difference his technique had with other techniques was that it didn't need any spell chants. All the technique needed was for one to have a delicate control of mana and create a cycle around an object then circulate the mana at high speeds. It was practically a mana chainsaw.

Cecil's knowledge from Earth inspired him to create this skill. It was no Mana Blade, but it was better than nothing and at least he got something out of destroying his sword. He was able to explain his theory to Lucia, but because of how taxing it was to keep up the circulation of mana around an object and how much concentration one needed to perform such delicate mana control, it was unusable for her.

Although she understood the theory, Lucia didn't have enough mana to create a full mana cycle around the blade. She also explained to Cecil that she would have a difficult time keeping her concentration on the skill while in a fight. Cecil took note of this and realized that in order to be able to use 'Mana Cutter', you needed at least 2000 units of mana. Only then would you be able to have enough mana to create the mana cycle around an object.

As for the concentration problem, for Cecil, controlling and manipulating mana was as easy as breathing to him due to the fact that he has mana sight. Being able to see how mana flowed made it easy for Cecil to dictate how his mana moved. For others, however, it was really hard, which was why they needed chants and incantations. Chants and incantations were how other people controlled their mana.

It was practically impossible for others to wield mana like Cecil did unless they also had mana sight or an elemental physique. An elemental physique was something that allowed a person to directly control mana just like Cecil, but the mana they could directly control corresponded with the type of elemental physique they were gifted with. There were various types of elemental physiques, but the main ones corresponded with the 6 basic elements, fire, water, earth, wind, light, and dark.

There were rare elemental physiques like a lightning physique and ice physique, but those were hardly seen in regular people. Usually, elementals would have those physiques and a very rare few that were gifted with them by birth and nature. To people with elemental physiques, controlling mana would be inherent, almost like breathing basically.

Lucia wanted to learn Cecil's technique, but unfortunately, she wasn't gifted with an elemental physique nor did she have mana sight. It seemed like a lost cause, but Cecil believed that it was possible to control mana like him if she was willing to put in the time and effort to train herself to do it. In Cecil's mind, everything could be resolved with enough determination and training. Just because no one else in the world could do it, outside of those gifted with an elemental physique, didn't mean that you couldn't train yourself to do it.

It was likely that others in the world just couldn't do it because there previously was no need for them to train themselves to do so since chants and incantations were the main form of mana control. To put his theory to the test, Cecil began planning a training regime for Lucia to learn how to control her mana without the use of chants or incantations. Lucia was all for it because if she learned how to do it, then chant-less spell invocations might be possible for her.

From what Mrs. Anna said, since childhood Lucia had an abnormally good control over mana that it was only a few levels lower compared to some very powerful Perfect Stage Spellcasters, Sages, and those gifted with an elemental physique.

Cecil had high hopes for Lucia because of what Mrs. Anna said. He believed that in due time, Lucia would also be able to use the Mana Cutter and even Mana Blade if she continued to diligently train and cultivate herself.

'Don't worry, I won't ever let you fall behind me, Lulu!'

Cecil smirked at the thought and Lucia instantly felt a chill crawl up her spine. She looked around alertly thinking that some terrifying beast was currently eying their party. When she couldn't find anything in her surroundings, she turned to look at Cecil, wondering if he found something and saw the hideous smirk on his face. She knew all too well what Cecil was thinking with that stupid smile of his.

'He's thinking something bad again... If it's something stupid, I'm gonna give him a good beating later.'

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Cecil and Lucia were currently on their way back to town alongside Scarlet Blaze. Today was the last day of the event and they were going to cash in their final amount of subjugation proofs just before the event ended. The results would be announced in 2 days after the committee behind the Monster Hunting Event tallied in all the participating individuals and parties' proof of subjugations.

The rewards would be split between Individual and Party categories. Cecil and the rest were aiming for the first place prize in the Party Category in the event. First Place would get 1000 gold credits and every member would get an opportunity to either pick a full set of equipment from the adventurer guild and townhall's vault or promote their party members' individual ranks to Silver if said member were in the 3 lower ranks or promote 2 stars in a rank if they were an adventurer above the 3 lower ranks.

The gold credits and the rank promotion was what Cecil and Lucia were after. As for the other rankings' rewards; second place gets 500 gold credits and one piece of equipment from the vault, and third place only gets 250 gold credits. The individual rewards were also the same, except the credits rewards would only be 500 for first place, 250 for second, and 100 for third. Considering the vast amount of monsters and subjugation proofs that Cecil and his party had hunted and collect, they had confidence that they would be able to snatch first place in this time's event.

While everyone was pretty uppity with their harvest and were conversing happily with each other, Cecil was still deep in thought.

'Although Mana Cutter is great and all, I still need to find a way to use 'Mana Blade' without destroying any of my weapons... looks like the only way is to buy or craft a weapon that has enough capacity to hold all my mana without self-destructing.'

The only conclusion he got for now was to find materials to craft a weapon that had the capacity to hold all his mana. Buying a weapon of that quality seemed too far for him right now. Also, it was probably impossible to find such a weapon in Forest Hill Town anyway.

'Maybe I'll have some luck when I arrive at Angla City. Hopefully during our journey to the capital we'd be able to stumble upon materials with high magic affinity.'

It was wishful thinking on Cecil's part. Magic materials weren't so easy to find in Alterna, unless you go dungeon diving. Cecil and Lucia didn't know this yet, but their first-ever dungeon dive would be just around the corner.