After eating, we headed back to the inn. “So, what are you going to do now, Greg?”

“I would like to spend some time studying my spells. Sadly, I am not as capable as you when it comes to studying and training while we travel.”

“Yeah, it took me a while to get used to that too, but my desire to spend more time studying won over how annoying and difficult it was. Just keep on trying, I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.” I try to motivate.

“Yes, I shall eventually succeed, I only need time.”

“Well, good luck, Greg. I also hope that you figure out your new spells soon.”

“I hope so as well. Have a pleasant rest of your day, Eli.” He said as he left.

“Greg? When’d you guys get so close?” Melly teased.

“I accidentally said that, and he just went with it.” I shrug.

“Surrre.” She teased. “So, how’d your day go?”

“I learned the wrong way to use a staff and what my mana’s primary trait is.”

“Okay. So, how does one use a staff wrong? The only way I can think of is to just use it like a wand, but there is no way Gregory would allow you to do that. Also, how did you only just now figure out your trait?” It’s the saintess questioning all over again!

“So, for staffs, you know how you are supposed to work with it, right?”

“Kinda, I heard that it’s more like group casting than anything.”

“Yeah. So, normally you use proper teamwork. I, however, figured out how to force it to follow my lead. So instead of two things working nicely with each other, I am dragging the staff along and giving it orders. And for some reason, that worked.”

“Okay, I don’t really understand, but it’s impressive, right?”

“Yeah, Greg said it should have been impossible. But I guess my mana is just that amazing.” I smile.

“Is this related to your trait?”

“Yes.” I smirked. “My mana is aggressive. So aggressive that I was able to effectively dominate my staff.”

“Aggressive? Aren’t you a support?”

“Yeah. And, my mana is especially aggressive because the Gods have increased its intensity.” Seeing her doubt, I held out my hand. “Wanna see?”

“Sure, let’s see your ‘aggressive’ mana.” I smirked. She’s in for a scare.

After she grabbed my hand, I infused her with my mana. “What in the world!” She shouted as she pulled her hand away. “How!?”

“See, I told you.” I shrugged. My mana must be intense, I wish- no, no I don’t. I’ve already experienced my mana, I don’t want to do that again.

“How though? And how didn’t I notice when you buffed me?”

“Hmm, good question. Shall we test it?” I stare at her with pleading eyes.

“Fine.” She relents. “Let’s go to our room.”

“Okay. So left hand buff, right hand infusion. Sound good?”

“Uh, why don’t you use my fingers. Wouldn’t that make it easier to compare them by linking your mana? Instead of spreading your horrid mana all throughout my body.” That wasn’t very nice…

“Fine. That makes sense.” I pouted before muttering. “You didn’t have to say it like that, though.”

“Sorry.” She strokes my head. “Your mana is just very… uncomfortable.”

“Okay… Let’s just start then.” I say as I buff her. “Okay, now for my infusion.” I say. Melly nods, so I start infusing. Ah, I should also use patient analysis.

So, including Melly’s reactions, the results are interesting. My mana is, well, declaring war on Melly’s mana? That’s odd. Is that even possible? Also, it seems like ‘I’ am winning. Also odd, considering how outmatched it should be.

On my buff’s side, it’s just working like usual. It is mild and supportive. I wouldn’t have ever thought it was strange, but when I compare it to the ‘war’ going on, it really is odd how differently they behave. Let’s see what happens when they interact.

I wait in anticipation as my mana’s two vastly different states start to meet. And… nothing. The buff just easily consumed my raw mana. And that was all. The hyper aggressive mana was behaving like a naughty kid that was caught by an adult. The only interesting thing is that the buff was able to spread to wherever my raw mana was. Huh, buffs can spread. I guess that does make sense though, considering how modern buffs work.

Wait, what about preMilo buffs? Can they spread? That would make creating them a lot easier.

“Hey, Melly. Can I try a preMilo buff?”

“Haa, sure. Just give me a minute.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got to adjust a spell anyway.”

I quickly ripped apart a buff so that it only affects one finger. Once I’m done, and made sure it was still compatible with Melly, I started experimenting again.

“Let’s start with a modern buff and a preMilo buff.” Hmm, so unlike the modern buff, the preMilo buff is firm and stable, more solid and invasive. So, their interaction is odd. They work differently based on how much mana they have. If my modern buff has more mana, it consumes the spell like with my raw mana. When the preMilo buff has more mana, it drains the modern buff but doesn’t spread. The strangest part is when they are around equal to each other. They basically start warring with each other. Their mana rams each other until one becomes noticeably weaker, usually the modern buff as it’s more fluid, or they both consume too much mana and dissipate. I did learn a little more about how these spells work though, so that’s good.

“Now, let’s use my mana and a preMilo buff.”

“Okay, I’m ready.” Melly nods.

Let’s see how they react. “Huh.” My mana didn’t back down, instead it started to fight the buff. It’s very easily winning, so the buff is about to collapse. Or not! My aggressive mana has taken over the buff! And is now working as usual…

At least that’s what my initial observation shows. Before I could check further, I noticed Melly freaking out, so I left patient analysis.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your buff! It’s too much.” Odd, I quickly dispelled the buff. Well, I tried to, at least.

“Huh?” It’s resisting. luckily when I used more power, it was eventually dispelled. “That’s odd.”

“Yeah, that hurt. It’s not like when your buff is incompatible either. It was strong, and aggressive. The buff did get stronger, but it no longer listened to me. It was resisting my every action. Strangely, if I obeyed it, I noticed an even greater increase in strength.”

“What! That, that’s like how staffs work! Specifically how I use my staff.”

“So that’s what staffs are like.”

“Not really. It is close, but normally it isn’t as aggressive, I think. I didn’t really get the chance to analyze how the buff worked though. Hmm, we should talk to Greg, maybe my buff somehow works like a staff. If so, we might be able to acquire even more power! Should we figure out some way to properly use it.”

“More power is always nice.”

“Yeah, sadly you can’t use a staff to practice though, that would have made things easier.”

“Yeah, but that just means that we need to spend more time training together.”

“Yeah, but being the staff probably wouldn’t be very fun, considering how I dealt with my staff.” I sigh.

I knock on Greg’s door. “You busy?”

“No, do you require assistance?” He asks as he opens the door.

“Well, we were experimenting with my raw mana and how it acts differently when I use magic. We then found that my mana can take over my preMilo buff and then started acting like staff, so we came to you for assistance.”

“Okay. Let us sit down while you explain everything.”

______

“In summary, you may have created a magic that mimics the properties of a staff. In addition, you feel that training shall be difficult as Melly has been forced into the staff’s position by your mana.”

“Yeah, and you know how difficult my mana can be.”

“Yes, your ability to force an inanimate object to submit is quite problematic. Melly, should you desire to train this power, know that your path shall be difficult, if even possible. We will not think lesser of you should you resign.” Greg advised.

“Well, only one way to find out. Let’s try it, Eli.”

“Just your finger for now?” I asked.

“No, my entire hand. It’s difficult to do anything with just a finger.”

“Okay, just tell me when to stop.”

I cast the buff on Melly’s hand. Luckily the buff I’m using is fairly weak. I then infuse some mana into her hand, just enough to activate the effect.

“So,” I ask. “How is it?” Melly’s hand was currently spasming.

“...Difficult.” She forces out.

“Let’s try some healing magic for now.”

“Huh?”

“What? Did something happen?”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“It stopped. Your spell has returned to normal.” She responds.

“Odd, wait, maybe it’s like how my mana calmed down when it interacted with the modern buff? Let’s try again and check.”

“Okay, that could be helpful.”

With patient analysis, I was able to watch my healing spell basically scold my raw mana, stopping its aggression. Interesting.

“What was the result?” Gregory inquired.

“It immediately calms my mana, unlike my attempts to dispel it.” I sighed.

“Why do you sound disappointed then?” Melly asks.

“Because this means I can’t use other spells to assist you while keeping this spell active. If we can’t resolve that, you could only use any preMilo buffs I make for you, without any access to healing and the like”

“Oh, that is bad.” Melly says. “If we use this, it would be very high risk, high reward, right? Well, that’s only if we even can use it. That’s annoying.”

“That is problematic. You would be spending a potentially limitless amount of effort for a gamble as to whether it would even work. Even should your efforts reward you though, such an ability may become more of a liability than a boon. Especially since the preMilo buffs would even be incompatible with Eli’s modern buffs during use.” Greg analyzed.

“Yeah, I’d need to make several buffs as well. Doubly so if we can’t use regular buffs.” I sigh. “Wait! We would have to also train for every type of buff as well! Otherwise we wouldn’t even be able to use them. Man, this is insane!”

“I did not realize that. Should training with other spells truly be entirely different, the effort to use these may not even be worth the power received.” Greg agreed.

“Haa, well, we might as well keep trying for now. Maybe we are overestimating the challenge?” Melly says with hope.

“Yeah, it’s not like spending the rest of today on this would really be a waste.” I shrugged. “You don’t need to worry about us, Greg, you can leave if you want.” I offer.

“Do not worry, I am curious about this new technique as well.” He responded.

“That’s helpful, thanks. Okay, let’s try again!”

So, an hour passed. Even after trying and discussing various things, we still haven’t discovered anything new, so I was getting frustrated. “Haa, why won’t my mana listen. Why won’t it just clench!” I say as I grab Melly’s hand.

Then, a miracle happened. Her hand closed into a fist! “It worked! What did you do, Eli?”

“What!? How? What happened?” I say in shock. “Try something else!”

“Um, my hand is stuck like this.” Melly admits.

“WHY!?” Her response doused all my enthusiasm. Was it really just a miracle that my mana just so happened to want to become a fist at that very moment?

“Hmm. Eli, try holding onto Melly’s hand while she tries to move.”

“Okay. Let’s try again, Melly!” Aaaand, nothing. Her hand is stuck in as a fist. Haa, why won’t her hand just open? “What!? It opened!”

“What did you do differently?”

“I just got annoyed and, and asked her hand to open.” I say in realization. “Close, open, close, open. Rock, paper, scissors! It works. Of course that works. Haa, I’m an idiot.” I say in frustration.

“So, what happened?”

“I willed my mana to move, and it did.”

“But didn’t you try that earlier. That’s what I got from your stare at least.”

“Yeah… Why’s it different now?”

“You previously lacked the ability to communicate with your mana, but contact seems to have alleviated that problem.” Gregory suggested.

“I see. Wait! Does that mean patient analysis could work!” Without waiting for a reply, I tried it out. And lo and behold, it worked. I exit with a relieved sigh. “It works. We are another step closer!” I cheer.

“Yeah, now we just need to train to work together.” Melly approves.

“It is too soon to celebrate. Remember how Eli’s mana controlled both you and her staff? Eli would be in charge. Even without said issue, it would still be difficult to coordinate when Eli does not understand martial combat. Asking her to assist you is similar to asking you to learn magic just to train with a staff.” Gregory explained.

“Oh, yeah, that would be difficult.” Melly said, her previous enthusiasm lost. “Wait, couldn’t she try to work the same way a normal staff does? Or what about how her linked buffs work?” Melly suggests.

“No, sadly. I lack the ability to properly detect others’ mana when it is inside their body. I initially linked the buff primarily by using your muscle movement, as using what little mana usage I could vaguely detect was far from enough on its own. And even then, it took a lot of trial and error for me to get my spell to do that. Even now, I don’t know exactly how efficient the buff actually is for you. Especially as I can’t tell if it bonds differently for you than it does for me.”

“Ah, I didn’t know that. What do we do then?”

“Eli, maybe you could figure something out by infusing Melly with mana. If you continuously do so, you should be able to find her mana veins.” Gregory suggested.

“Possibly, or I could really hurt her. Excessive mana infusions are already known to be damaging to your mana veins, and my mana would likely be far worse. While I do know a spell to heal them, even I can only activate its natural healing process and slightly accelerate its rate, like how the first healing spells worked. So even small injuries have the potential to take hours to heal.” I explained.

“Oh, I did not know that. Do you perhaps also know why healing mana veins is so ineffective?” He asks.

“Because using actual healing spells end up modifying their veins with your mana. All experiments effectively just started transforming the patient’s veins into a mimic of the caster’s. So, while there are spells to rapidly heal, and even train your own veins, we can only do the minimum for others.”

“I see. That does make sense. Why have I never heard of such spells?”

“Most of them, especially the higher leveled spells, are restricted, so even priests often can’t receive them. They are also quite complicated, so I was only able to use some moderate-level ones while I was still a saint candidate. And when I became the saintess, I only really took a glance at the rest. Hmm, I guess I should spend some time on them, but mana vein training is quite intense. And slow, taking years to start really getting results. Excluding the initial training pretty much everyone goes through, of course.”

“Yes, I was told that proper mana vein training only shows results after decades of practice, so I understand your lack of interest. I am impressed that the church has improved upon such things, though they are likely restricted to the healing branch.”

“Here, see for yourself.” I say as I hand him some books.

“Uh, are you positive?”

“Of course, it’s not like the church will complain about empowering the heroes. At least, so long as these spells aren’t spread further,”

“That is true. I thank you for your trust.”

I look over at Melly. “You want to look as well? While you probably won’t understand the spells, there are other things in the books you might be able to learn.”

“Sure, it’s not like I can do anything else for now.” She agrees.

Shortly after, Greg called me. “Eli, you have read these, correct?”

“Yes, but I only really studied the low-level ones.”

“This spell, it does not follow one branch.”

“Hmm, it doesn’t? How?”

“For example, this part here.” He points to the page. “This is from the summoning branch.”

“What!? Why summoning of all schools?”

“Summoning has more than just the ability to summon spirits. It also contains various spells that can affect spirits, though most need the equivalent of another branch’s training to learn. Strangely there are parts of those spells in this spell. I presume that this is the same for the rest?”

“Yeah, that's one of the main things I was struggling with.” I confirmed.

“That explains why you of all people were having difficulties.”

“It also explains why Zarewthem was healed by this spell, but not regular healing spells.”

“I see, that may just be why.”

“Hmm, maybe the more advanced spells I know would work.”

“You did not use your highest leveled spells when healing Sir Zarewthem?”

“Yeah, as I said, those spells modify the receiver. It is basically forbidden to use them on others, so I never even thought of using them in the first place.”

“Ah, yes. That would be problematic.”

“I guess I’ll just have to see if Hansen has any summons that are willing to test whether the spells are safe to use or not.”

“If your spells are deemed safe, this could definitely increase our capabilities.”

“By the way.” Melly interrupts. “Some of the spells have parts that are similar to some of my family’s training methods.”

“Hmm, which spells?” I ask.

“These ones.” She says as she hands me a few books.

“These ones?” I question, to which Melly nods. “That’s odd, or, maybe not?”

“What is confusing you?” Greg asks.

“These are the highest leveled spells.”

“I see, I would not have expected martial techniques to be used only in the strongest spells, though that likely is a result of bias.”

“Yeah, that’s why I was confused at first. I realized that I was probably biased as well. Melly, where are they?”

“Here.” She shows me.

“What? How!?” I exclaim once I realize what that part does.

“What’s wrong?” Melly asks.

“Somehow, the spell trains the target with this technique.”

“You mean…” Gregory says, doubting his conclusion.

“Yeah, this spell effectively trains someone as if they were using the technique, despite them not training with, or even knowing, it.” I say in shock.

“Is it that strange?” Melly asks, not quite understanding what’s going on.

“This spell might be capable of training people without them having to actually train. If this concept could be applied to regular healing, it would be like if a spell could enhance your strength like strength potions do.” I explained.

“That, really?”

“Yeah, that’s why we were so shocked. Sadly, it probably won’t work for other spells, as it probably relies on the weird way mana veins react to being healed. Otherwise the church definitely would already have a working spell, and we would have already been enhanced before we even started our journey.” I sigh, if only.

“Such a spell, even should it contain some drawbacks, would likely revolutionize the world. Humanity would no longer have a reason to fear demons.” Greg added.

“Amazing, too bad it likely doesn’t exist.”

“Hopefully in the future, someone will make such dreams a reality.” Greg says.

“Yeah.” I agree. “Well, why don’t we ask Hansen for some help for now?”

“Yeah, he should be returning soon.” Melly said.

“Okay, in the meantime, I’m going to study some of these spells. Sorry Melly, we’ll have to continue our training while we travel.”

“It’s fine, being able to heal Hansen’s summons is more important.”

“Thanks.” I say as I started studying until Hansen returned.

Once he did, I asked. “Hey, Hansen, could you help me with something?”

“Indeed. What do you need?”

“First, I have some spells that probably can heal spirits, but might have some problems, and second, I was wondering if you had any summon branch spells, and if I could see them?”

“That’s fine, for both.”

“Okay, let me at least tell you why the spells are problematic first though. Afterwards, I’d like to ask for some volunteers.” I say as we enter his room.

“Okay.”

______

“I see.” Hansen says. “There are volunteers, here.” He then summons a few spirits, including Zarewthem.

“Okay, let’s start then. First, the spell on its own. Do you notice anything?” I ask as I cast my spells on a few summons. Sadly patient analysis doesn’t work on spirits as they lack a material body.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Hansen reports for them.

“Correct, nothing has changed.” Zarewthem confirms.

“Okay, now to try healing some damage. So…” I wait. Sadly they have to get hurt in order for me to heal them. Luckily, it seems that they feel pain differently. At least, that’s what they told me. They might just be lying to comfort me.

After they got injured, I cast my spells again. “So, what about now?”

“Nothing.” Hansen says.

“I did notice what you were concerned about. At first I was worried, as your mana is quite dangerous, but as soon as the spell activated, while it did try to change us, it lacked the power to actually do anything as our will was able to innately cancel that effect. The main problem I found is that the spell is not intended for this, so it is lacking in effectiveness and is quite inefficient. It is still useful, however.” Zarewthem explains.

I look over at Hansen. “They said it was nothing to worry about.” He expands.

“Haa, well, as long as it’s safe. I’d still like to see about using your spells instead though.” I say.

“Yes, that would be for the best, as too many casts within a short amount of time could cause us problems, especially for the lower spirits.” Zarewthem adds.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. Could I borrow your spells, Hansen?”

“Indeed.” He says as he hands me some spells.

“Thanks, I’ll start studying right away.” I say as I return to my room. Haa, I’ve got tons of things to study now. Good thing I enjoy learning spells. I glanced through the spells until I was called for dinner.