When Tana woke up the first thing he did was check the time and look if he got any e-mails or messages. He did have one unread message. It was from his school, it says something like this : Dear [Student's name] due to the events that have happened in the last month and so school was closed and the lessons were postponed. Now that the government has stabilized itself again the lessons will start again. Please come to school this monday.
It was more or less something like that. Tana looked at the date and saw that it is monday so he put on some clothing and went to school. He wanted to talk to some of his friends now. He couldn't get to talk to them at all during the awakening.
"Let's see...my phone is here,Blue Tea is also prepared.Good I am ready." Tana prepared Blue Tea because he wants to practice mana control while he is going to school.
With that he went to school. While he was going to school someone almost saw him use mana so he hid it fast enough while walking faster.
In only 10 minutes he came to school. His class was starting as soon as everyone came. There were some students that were talking about how they have been using mana and bragging how they killed beasts in the forest. Tana knew they were lying when he saw their mana capacity. Some of the students that were talking such things didn't even have 1/10 of Tana's mana.
There was one person who had 1/2 of Tana's mana.That student was his bestfriend. He didn't expect any less from the man he called his bestfriend. The student came up to him and greeted him.
"Yo,Tana,long time no see partner!" He was happy for some reason. He will probably brag about how much mana he has.
"Ah,it's been a long time. How have you been?" Tana replied to him. The student's name was Chris. He was 1.79 meters tall with long black hair and blue eyes. He was pretty plain looking if you ignore the hair and eyes.
"Hehehe...You won't believe me but I managed to master the basics just yesterday!" Tana guessed right. He was bragging. Well Tana finished the basics pretty early too.
"So what..." Tana said like he didn't care.
"So what!? I see...You mastered the basics too,didn't you?" Chris was startled at first but noticed that he couldn't sense Tana's mana capacity at all.
Tana didn't reply and just grinned.
"I knew it! I will never be better than you in these kinds of things it seems...I am only better in studying it seems." He looks a bit disappointed. Tana didn't care,he knew how Chris acts. He considers Tana like his rival. What Chris didn't know though is that Tana is better in studying too now due to using mana to refine his brain and mental skills.
"Yeah...better...In studying. Just sit down and let's talk." Tana said calmly while holding in his laugh.
Chris saw Tana's face and sit down. For Chris Tana was someone whom he respected with all his heart. "So,let me guess. You want me to help you with something,right?" He asked.
"Bingo!" Said Tana and continued "I need you to tell me first what kind of spells are you using. If you are only using the ones written in the tutorial I will be disappointed." He said while keeping his voice low so noone hears their conversation.
"Do you really think I am so dumb? Of course I learnt the basic spells like mana ball and mana arrow but I modified them! I added an elemental property to the mana ball so it explodes on impact!" Chris said enthusiastically.
He can put elemental properties that easily? I couldn't do that when my mana was on the same level like his! Thought Tana. He was suprised while hearing what his best friend is saying. "You said you can put elemental properties on your spells,right? How?" Tana asked. He is now getting curious,he guessed it has to do with the tutorial book he got.
"It is written in the book you get." A simple answer. Tana guessed it right!
"Show me the book if you have it here with you!" Tana told him without hesitation.
"I have it with me,but why? Can it be that you book doesn't have that?" Chris guessed right too. These two are like two peas in a pod. They can guess most things about the other one.
"That's right. I have remembered my book completely and there isn't anything like elemental properties. I only managed to do that by using my imagination and some refrence books I read." Tana answered quietly.
As they were talking the professor entered the room and the room quieted down. Tana said to Chris that they will talk later after class. Almost no one brought any books or anything. They hoped this will last shortly so they can go home fast. Chris was suprised when he heard that Tana managed to give elemental properties without the book he had. He also guessed that the book Tana had was somewhat different than his. Maybe it has got different uses of mana? Chris guessed right.
"Listen up you people. I guess most of you already started using mana and things like those. I just wanted to tell you that the government is allowing students to use mana if they swear not to use it on other people!" The professor was dead serious when talking and noone wanted to say something. One student stood up and said "I swear!"
Tana looked in the direction and saw that it was a girl. She had 1/5 of Chirs's mana capacity so it seems that she is noone to worry about.
"If I remember correctly her name is Jennifer Croni,right?" Chris asked.
"Don't know. I don't bother to remember the names of useless people." Tana answered with an bored attitude. He stood up and said " I swear too!" he considered that this is a good decision. Until he gets more power he will try to stay undercover. This is the best outcome.
"I swear aswell!" Chris stood up and swore too. He was thinking the same thing as Tana. The girl named Jennifer looked at the two with eyes of delight. Honestly she was a bit embarrased standing there alone.
There were a few people that swore aswell after Chris but the first three caught many attention. The most attention caught Chris because of his looks. Tana was the most unnoticable of the three. That means his plan worked. Tana also noticed that Jennifer was looking at the two of them and he sent back a glance to her. She noticed the glance and felt a shiver in her spine.
"What was that?" She was scared shitless from that one glance. She noted that she musn't do anything to those two. Even better she must get on their good side. "I don't even know their names though..."
After Tana sent that glance he implanted some of his mana with a cold effect into her body to scare her. He saw her looks change so it meant that it worked.
"Is that all of you? good I noted your names." The professor said and went out of the class.
There were some students that started talking but most of them wanted to talk to Chris and Jennifer. Chris didn't want to talk to anyone so he just went out of the classroom with Tana. Jennifer didn't dare to follow them so she stayed in the classroom and talked to some of her girl friends.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
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Outside the classroom. Chris and Tana are heading to Tana's apartment. Tana is reading the tutorial book that Chris gave him while telling the contents of his tutorial book to Chris. Tana's tutorial book had body refining methods using mana and some instructions on plant gathering and stuff like those. Chris's book on the other hand had mana artifacts refining methods and instructions on how to put elemental properties on basic spells.
Tana was delighted when reading the mana artifact refining parts. Mana artifacts, a special item using mana or other types if special worldly energy. The voice that reformed Tana's body thought that his cell phone was an artifact of some sort. Well it did use energy but not that kind of energy.
Tana had some bones from beasts he killed so he wanted to make an artifact but he didn't know the methods on how to. Now he has the most basic methods and most basic materials. He wants to make a bone dagger atleast so he doesn't have to use his father's dagger he got.
Chris was also suprised hearing the content of Tana's book from him. He already had a strong body if he could use the body refining methods he described he could become one of the strongest men on Earth. But the plant gathering methods and stuff like those were useless to him.
When Tana finished reading the part about elemental properties and studies he found out that what he was doing is similar to the way the book describes it. It's just that Tana is using his own body to feel and look at the changes and not something else. Chris used a piece of pig skin to see how it reacts to explosions and fire. He used mana to feel the changes and managed to get insight on the explosion property while Tana used his hand to get insight on the heat property.
After he finished reading the other parts he didn't get much information. It was mostly the same as his book. Both Tana and Chris benefited from the other's book. Tana found out about how to get insight and Chris found a way to refine his body.
"We came." Tana said as they came to his apartment.
"What do you plan on doing now?" Chris asked. He thought that Tana wanted to go hunting beasts with him but it seems that they came to his apartment.
"I want you to help me with something." Tana answered and went inside the apartment.
Tana is planning on using some of the bones he got to make masks with mana refining. They needed armor and something to hide their faces so this was a good idea Tana thought. He explained everything to Chris about what happened since the awakening. He didn't tell him about the army squad though and how he was involved in that. He did tell him about the rat,bird and cat.
"You plan on making masks using the skulls of the cat and bird?" Chris asked. He was all for it but wouldn't the masks look wierd? Actually scratch that...Chris thought that they might look too badass if Tana makes them. Tana is one of the best art students he saw he must make them badass looking or he will feel embarrassed.
"Yes. Come on help me." Tana answered while picking up the skulls and putting them inside the Blue Tea. The mana refining process had three steps. One is the strengthening process. This is not important but since he can do the strengthening he thought why not.
To do strengthening he need to have some special herbs or materials to fuse them into the artifact he is making. He is putting the skulls into Blue Tea to make them a bit firmer and then putting the bird and cat blood to each skull. The bird blood to the bird skull and the cat to the cat skull.
The strengthening process lasted three hours. After it finished the skulls gained a bluish red light around them. It didn't emit real light it just seemed like that.
The second process was the most important one. The real mana refining and shaping. Tana needs to make the skulls fit their faces. Also mana refining is split into two parts. The first one is making the masks take the shape you want and the second one is making a mana imprint onto the masks.
The mana imprints are essential to mana artifacts. They are the ones that absorb mana from the enviroment to strenghten the artifacts and make them into real ones. Without one the 'artifact' is only a normal item.
"I need your help I am running out of mana. Make an imprint on the cat mask fast!" Tana said loudly to Chris.
Chris nodded and started making an imprint. After he finished he had used 70% of his mana. Once again he was suprised on how Tana has so much mana.
"Fuuu...Done!" Tana and Chris sighed at the said time and said. After that the started laughing.
There was only one part left to do and that is fusing the artifact to yourself. That is part three. The person who is going to use the artifact is going to have to fuse their blood and the artifact together. That it easy to do since Tana has higher regeneration and Chris still has around 30% of his mana to use it to regenerate.
"Hahahah...This was exciting! If you do something like this again you need to invite me to help you!" Chris was laughing and Tana started laughing at the same time.
"Of course. What do you think I would do? I can't do this alone in the future it won't be fun at all!" Tana replied and laid on the floor. They were doing this in the other bedroom that Tana turned into his private space.
"So who is taking which mask? I want the cat one!" Chris said. He wasn't dissapointed at all. The masks had their mana imprints like tatoos and they looked like those tribal masks people used in the past.
"They have the same durability and strength. The bird one should have air affinity and the cat one aswell. So I don't care." Tana said while laying on the ground still.
"You're right. Then the cat one is mine!" Chris put on the mask and he felt some kind of power entering his body. The masks improved mana absorbtion! "Tana,my friend you are a genius in mana refining! These masks improve mana absorbtion! If you sold these you would be rich!"
"Sold? Are you fucking kidding me? Who in their right mind would sell these treasures?" Tana was a bit dumbfounded at the sentence Chris just said. Of course he won't sell them. He and Chris are the only ones in this country who got artifacts. What would the government do to them if they found out? Enslave them probably...
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Sixth chapter...I liked writing this chapter alot because I finally could write some real conversations between the main character and people!
Hoped you liked the chapter. I will try to write another chapter tomorrow (maybe two). The only reason I wrote so many today is because I have too much free time.