Chapter 7

It's been a few weeks since the Siege of Greylight Academy. More than half of the students were badly injured, and a third of the student body was murdered. As far as monster wave casualty goes, the defense had been a massive success. It is not unusual for entire cities to be wiped off the face of the earth after a siege from a monster wave.

But Greylight Academy was no mundane human city. The Smiling Witch, Windshear, Greeneyes, and even a dragon reside here. Witnesses had said that Lady Harlet swept the field of battle as soon as she arrived on the scene, dozens of monsters torn apart like broken dolls.

The main siege and majority of deaths occur at the west side of the academy. After the incident reports stated that the academy was besieged by more than one hundred monsters in the west botanical garden, six at the north entrance gate, one chimera in the south cloudy mountain, and no monster near the east gym.

“From the report, it seems the monsters tried to stay away from the lair of an apex predator. That's why the east has zero monsters and their main forces are concentrated at the opposite end.” Beth had theorized after reading the report.

A dragon. Even monsters fear absolute power. That is the kind of power that Jace must possess. Just the thought of being so weak drove him to insomnia. He has not slept more than 4 hours a night since the siege. The obsession with power consumes him after experiencing real combat for the first time.

Sniping a monster from far away when they do not notice him is very different from facing those rabbits head-on. His legs and teeth were shaking just by looking at their red eyes, but he thought about his true enemies and fought anyway.

That feeling of overwhelming fear, he thought that fear no longer affects him. After all, he looked that “thing” in the eye. No fear could be worse than that.

But he was wrong. He was still weak, still afraid. He needed to forge himself and get stronger, faster, better than anyone the world has ever seen. He needed to ascend humanity.

The completed quest is just one small step.

Sitting in his dorm room, Jace concentrated on the quest.

Side Quest

Cleaning!

There has been a massive increase in the number of monsters in the surrounding forest. Monsters are looking for opportunities to devour potential mages that have yet to mature. Clean up the forests and stop the progress of the monster Ascension.

Reward: magic intensity + 3

Complete!

Then Jace focuses his thoughts on himself

Jace Farsea

Race: Human (100%)

Title: Exile, Cosmic Enemy, Doomed Fate, Apex Predator’s favorite pet, Cool Guy (new) (lol), Zombie? (New)

Vitality 8 (8)

Magic: intensity 3 + 3(-??) (update)

Control 10 (+90)

Mana 6 (+94) (-94)

Spell: Scan

Shock

Telekinesis

Magnetic force

No name (new)

Trait: Mana Authority

Mana and Aura allergies

Curse of disfigurement

Curse of ?????

Cursed bloodline

Curse of weakness

Doomed

Curse of the uninvited

Curse of insanity

Curse of the void

Extremely weak Mana-enhanced body

Blessing: Blessing of the Earth

Planet’s chosen

Ascension of host +1 (2)

Ascension of monsters +1, -1 (5) (no change)

There seem to be a lot of weird things added. Jace decided to ignore it for now.

He looked at the new spell he had created. A spell that uses chaotic era science combined with mana. He doesn't quite know what to call it. Then he heard a sound

Ding! “Railgun” spell name registered

“It seems the planet had its ideas.” Jace thought. He quickly turned his thoughts back to his next project.

The last battle has taught him a lesson, his body was too weak. Even lowering the power of his new spell did not help the matter. All of his fingers were twisted and broken after using that spell at 20 percent power twice in succession.

Even with the god-like power of the planet’s guidance that is capable of improving his magic intensity, it would take too long for him to acquire a decent level of power. He needed something else, something more fundamental that would immediately improve his power.

—------------------------------------

A few things have changed since the battle. Jace became even more famous, and he made a few friends.

“Jace, where are you going? Doing something fun? Take me too!” Annoyingly talkative, annoyingly handsome redhead leaned his chin on Jace’s shoulder when he spotted him walking somewhere.

“I am not going to play, Cade. I am going to train.” Jace pushes him off but his voice has softened compared to before.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You are only nice to Beth. This is what happens when a girl gets their hooks in you. You abandon your friends. Hey! I am still talking!” Cade yelled after Jace who was quickly running away.

Jace started jogging at a moderate pace towards his destination.

“Is that the Zombie? They say he killed 3 monsters with an original spell”

“They said his spell pulverized the forest at the back mountain and killed the chimera”

“Wait, didn't Lady Harlet kill it? We saw it live!”

“Isn't he the one that keeps the dragon as a pet?”

Jace heard extremely exaggerated rumors about himself and wondered who started this nonsense. He thanks the planet that “The Zombie” did not become his martial name. Once a Martial name has been decided, it can't be changed.

“Cade said he blew up a chimera with only his finger.”

“Kim said he is dating Peerless”

Jace found the culprits so quickly that it made his head spin, but a smile appeared on his face when he heard the martial name of an important friend.

—--------------------------

Jace arrived at the gym. When he thought about the next project, a few ideas came to him.

Ruin was floating in the air, curled up into almost a perfect black ball. Jace smiles while looking at him, Ruin is sleeping.

Instead of waking him, Jace put the bag of fruits on the floor and sat down in a meditation form.

The reason dragons are so domineering is not only because of their boundless mana and natural perfect control. It is also because of the inherent nature of their mana. Heavenly Flames are what the Eastern culture called them. A fire element mana so hot that it burns away other mana just by coming near it. There is the intensity of the element inherent inside that mana, separate from the magic intensity that comes from within the body of the user.

Jace needed that level of power.

Other humans have successfully acquired elemental mana as well. Sir Windshear famously has the wind element mana. Jace knew it was possible to acquire.

Without waking Ruin, Jace’s mana authority allowed him to pull a small amount of mana surrounding Ruin for him to study. This action is usually not possible. A person or creature’s mana is like their own life force, another person could not take control of it. This is also the reason that Sir Windshear could not simply control the wind mana within the chimera and kill it outright.

Without this knowledge, Jace is currently bending the laws of nature itself.

Jace studied the blob of dragon mana in front of him. Even that small amount, only a droplet, is actively burning away his mana that tries to come into contact with it. Jace wondered if this was just a Trait inherent to the dragon’s bloodline.

Jace’s intense desire consumed him if he could pull someone’s mana from their bodies directly and not just the protective coat surrounding them. He wouldn't even need any other spell. He tried to pull mana from inside Ruin’s body but found that he was unable to do that.

Manipulating a person's mana from within their body would be akin to controlling that person’s life force. That level of power would enter the realms of gods but Jace did not know this.

Ruin abruptly opened its round eyes, and the entire gym started to heat up. Jace fortunately has the protection of the planet and is unaffected by temperature changes, even at such intense levels. Jace wondered if he was immune to elemental magics with this protection and reminded himself to test it at a later date. Preferably when Cade is nearby.

Only after a fraction of a second, Ruin noticed Jace and flew down to bite him. The heat had diminished. He was unhappy that Jace had awoken him by doing something rude like trying to manipulate his mana. If it was someone else, that person would have already turned to ashes.

After Ruin calmed down, he sat atop Jace's head, yawning while eating fruits as usual. Jace had bite marks all over his hands and face.

—-----------------------

Sitting down in meditation, Jace contemplates what he learned. His Mana Authority is way more valuable than he ever imagined. He was able to tell that elemental mana is not something that can be created. One can not simply infuse elemental magics into their mana and create elemental mana.

Jace saw it clearly, the mana is the element itself. Ruin is not simply controlling hot mana, elemental flames run in his veins instead of mana. Infusing an element into your mana is like creating flavored water, the water tastes different but there is no comparison to the real thing. To have the level of intensity that dragon’s mana has, he needed his mana to be real elements.

Dragons are creatures that were born from fire. It would not be wrong to consider them fire spirits. Sir Windshear is an elemental himself. Jace wondered if he needed to turn into an elemental to acquire elemental mana. Perhaps the reason no magic researchers have been able to reach these conclusions so far is simply because no mage would tell anyone about their secrets. No one aside from himself even knows that Sir Windshear is an elemental. Jace wasn't even sure if Sir Windshear himself knew the reason for his wind mana.

Mages, Aura Masters, even magic researchers, everyone in the martial world keep almost every little knowledge to themselves. Even this academy only taught the most basic information about magic, and that is already considered unusually generous.

Jace realized a few months after coming here. The reason most students do not go to class and only use the deep net available here. Unless they are as talented as someone like Cade, who could learn healing magic just by watching, it's useless to even go to class.

Jace lamented the state of humanity. They could be much stronger as a race if everyone did not hoard power and knowledge for themselves. If information like this were available to someone like Beth, Jace believed that knowledge about mana and spells would be much more advanced by now.

As he was contemplating those ideas, as if able to read his mind, Ruin flew down from his head and tapped Jace’s hand with its claws.

Jace saw a drop of blood flow out of his hand and felt inspired by that sight. Blood. Mana is a person’s life force, a person's body and mind are connected to his life force. Perhaps the physical body affects mana just as the mind can affect the body.

The dragon’s body and blood are made from fire. Sir Windshear, an elemental, has a body that is also not wholly normal. Perhaps his original idea was the correct path all along. He needed to change his body and then the mana, which is the reflection of the body, will follow.

Jace felt excited. He decided to ask the opinion of someone he trusted most at this school. Someone Peerless.

—------------------------

Cafeteria

Beth had gotten a weird nickname. It has not been decided to be her martial name yet, but people have been liberally using it to her annoyance.

Beth didn't like that name.

“Hey, Peerless. Why the grumpy face again?” A chubby guy with an unfriendly face suddenly appeared.

Other people in the cafeteria looked over with curiosity, but only saw Beth with an expressionless face. Cold, beautiful, and completely unreadable.

“grumpy face?” they thought in confusion.

“........” Beth pointed to the empty seats, and Jace sat down without another word. He knew that he should not push her too much. She was surprisingly sensitive.

“What?” Jace was a bit flustered. Beth was looking at him without saying a word. She already knew that he came to her for a reason.

“Listen, I have this idea……”

—----------------------

Inside Jace's room

“You are interesting. An elemental mana huh?” Beth paced back and forth inside the room without rest. “Your idea is correct. Changes in the body affect a person’s mana in quite interesting ways. Do you know what the difference between Aura Masters and Mages is?” she stops pacing around and points her finger at him.

“Well, Aura Masters use aura instead of mana. They don't cast spells but mutate their bodies with mana instead. The other two do similar things right?” Jace couldn't help but smile when he saw her getting so excited and talking nonstop. This was the real Beth that other people don't see.

“You need to study more. What do you think Aura is? Everyone uses mana, but each of their implementations is different.” Beth went back to pacing around again. “Mages's implementations of mana are the most pure. We pull mana from the air or use mana inside ourselves to manipulate our surroundings. Archmages are even more amazing. They are at the level that they could break the natural laws of our world with their usage of mana. A normal person can use mana to control elements in the air, but an archmage can create those elements even when it doesn't exist. Isn't that so super cool?” Beth’s voice got more animated and she was waving her arms around like a child in excitement.

“Yup super cool!” Jace’s smile was wide.

“Right, we were talking about Aura Masters. Aura Masters are people who take mana inside themselves and forge or mutate their bodies in different ways. In the process of forging their bodies, the mana inside their bodies also changes. This is how Aura is made. A human’s body can only keep a certain amount of mana before breaking. Think of it like a vase filled with water.” Beth made exaggerated hand movements in the shape of a vase. “Once the vase is built, it is pretty much impossible or very difficult to change the shape or the amount of water that can fill it, but Aura is different. Due to the forging and mutation of the body inherent in the Aura Master training, they could also increase the amount of aura that the body can keep. They are changing their bodies to fit a bigger amount of water in simpler terms. So why wouldn't mages do the same thing? you might wonder.” Beth has a smug expression on her face, like a child who is happily bragging.

“Well, if there was no downside then everyone would have already done it right?” Jace answered correctly, giggling to himself seeing her disappointed expression.

“......correct……there is a downside to changing your internal energy to Aura instead of mana.” Beth couldn't hide her pouting like a child. “Aura users in general could no longer manipulate regular mana and could only use their internal energy. The side effects of turning the mana in their veins into aura. They lost the connection to mana. They have to slowly absorb the mana in the air that comes in contact with their skin and turn it into aura energy. The East called it “body cultivation”. Mages on the other hand are more versatile and are capable of controlling mana in the air to use even in the case that their internal mana has been used up. They are still limited by the amount of mana they can control at once and external mana is weaker since they are not as concentrated as internal mana, but if they don't go over that limit, mages have unlimited energy.”

Jace thought deeply about the implications of that information.

“Aura Masters have a vast pool of internal energy and are capable of much stronger destructive power as a result of being able to manipulate larger amounts of energy at once. On top of this, their mutated bodies are way stronger than normal humans. Especially powerful Aura Masters have been witnessed to tear a monster in two with their bare hands. The downside is that if they run out of energy, they can't do anything to refill it except to wait for it to recover naturally.” Beth slowly regained her composure and went back to being expressionless.

“So basically my idea is correct then? I have to change my body in specific ways and I might be able to get elemental mana?” Jace asked her

“I don't know that. I don't even know how you found out that Sir Windshear is part elemental. So I don't know if that piece of information is even reliable” Beth looked at him as if to scrutinize his very soul. “But if we use Aura Master as a model, then there is a possibility that your mana can change in different ways depending on how you forge your body.”

An idea pops up in Jace's head. Something that might be able to allow him to surpass all other humans.

He has something that no other humans have. Mana Authority. A trait with powers beyond anything he has ever seen or heard of before.

If that trait gives him complete control of mana regardless of anything else, would it not be possible for him to become an Aura Master for that inhumanly strong body and keep his connections to mana?

That thought excited Jace. Elemental mana? He doesn't need that if he could have a monstrous body and also access to versatile spells.

But this is a huge risk, he doesn't know if it would work, and he could not ask Beth for her opinion.

They have become quite close in the few weeks since the siege. Jace was a newbie to the world of magic and his hunger for knowledge allowed Beth to rant about magic theory as much as she wished. His sincere interest in listening to her also gave her a good impression of him. but Beth is still using her fake name. She doesn't trust him enough to tell him the truth, and that, also makes him distrustful of her. He could not tell her everything about himself.

Beth watched Jace contemplate something inside his head. Quite a few times, he looked like he wanted to tell her something, but he never did.

“Tell me” Beth looked at him

“Tell you what?” Jace did not answer

The two looked at each other in silence for a while before Beth left the room