"You said you wanted to train and I know, hearing Tokkou saying all that made even me feel excited since I have never seen him compliment someone as much as you but mindlessly fighting will only result in useless injuries and energy spent so before we can "fight" let's take a deeper look at something you aren't as much keen like mana vessels" Enyo said as she walked back and forth in front of Teras

He was sitting on a big rock he set there before

"So before I start mumbling about mana vessels ask me anything" Enyo said, Teras remained silent so Enyo started the long lecture

"You see something that adventurer schools skip for some reason is the topic of mana vessels, those vessels are the thing that makes our mana move inside our body instead of the wild spread myth of mana moving along our blood" Enyo explained, she then picked up a branch and draw something on the ground

"Most people have 5 different mana vessels that extend to five parts of their bodies, meaning two mana vessels go to the legs, two to our arms, and one to our head, those five mana vessels then spread to five parts, to our limbs those five parts go from our center of the limb to our fingers, for example on our hand, the vessel has a common spot, the center of our palm, and then spread into our five fingers, that happens to our legs too, but in our head, things are starting to get more "complex" in some way" Enyo said as she tried to illustrate what she said

"The five parts of our head mana vessels go in this way, two parts in our eyes, this is why we can use mana vision, another to the brain, and one last part to our mouth, why the mouth? Because we can use mana to filter our food, cool right?" Enyo asked with a smile

"But in the end, all of the five vessels return to our heart, the core of our mana"

Teras understood everything but he was a bit confused

"That sounds nice but why do I exactly need to know that?"

"Why? Try to visualize what I said while activating your mana flow" Enyo said as she sat behind watching Teras

Teras activated his mana flow and was amazed, his mana flowed inside his body smoothly as butter, it was a feeling he never felt before, his aura shined bright and gentle

"Do you want to try your special moves now? I bet that they would feel much easier to use!" Enyo told him, she was very excited to see Teras's reaction

Teras then used mana overload as a start and he was beyond shocked, the explosion was dense, powerful, and felt easier to produce in every way and the damage was minimized even without using mana to protect himself

'Amazing! Using my mana vessels I can move the explosion inside my body like mana and not only create it on a single spot, for example, I used to gather all this mana into my palm and then it explode causing damage to my palm which I overused, but now I can create it inside my heart and then use any part of my body to release it without worrying damaging my vulnerable body parts or revealing what my next attack will be to the enemy'

Teras thought as he exactingly stared at his palm

"Felt nice, didn't it? Now how about your weird mana overflow? Surprisingly, you can use it, without hurting yourself!"

Teras then focused and used mana overflow, this time even if the mana was aggressive it looked way more controlled, more tamed, or even mature if you could characterize it like that

'This works completely the other way I imagined, the mana is leaving from my vessels and then my body, but the mana doesn't go wild as everyone said, it actually returns back to my body, creating a barrier-like outline around my body, which enhances my physical and defensive abilities, I think it didn't use to be like that when I first used it but I made it that way after some time of self-damage, truly a major upgrade from a berserk-like tactic' Teras thought

"Your mana control is out of this world kid, your mana is barely leaving your body but it's not really going anywhere, it's like you are sucking the mana back into your body..." Enyo said as she scratched her head, an idea then came into her mind

"What if you are actually sucking the mana un-knowingly?" She asked Teras with a smile

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Teras was confused since he never actually realized that he can drain mana from the environment

"Sucking the mana? How exactly am I doing that?" Teras wondered out loud

"Dunno! I just assume that you can do that since you are doing it right now, and you also did it back there when your aura turned black" Enyo explained to Teras

Teras still wondered about this black aura of his, he only saw it once in the forest and was very unpleasant seeing it

"Black aura huh? It's like him..." He mumbled silently

"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING KID I CAN'T HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS" Enyo told him as she approached him

She then blew air toward his ear

"N-Nothing, I just don't know what you are talking about, this black aura is not me..."

Enyo looked annoyed

"Whatever you create or comes out of your body is YOURS, don't try to sound like these philosophers again!"

She said as she hit Teras's forehead with her fingers, Teras still didn't understand the word "philosophers" but he nodded in agreement

"I got bored so I will go to the village to buy some goods" Enyo said as she started walking away

"Wait village? There is a village here?"

"Of course silly, do you think that I grow all my goods?"

Enyo said with an innocent smile

She then quickly left, leaving Tera all alone in the woods, so he had all of the time to train alone, in the cold but cozy woods

…

The Heart kingdom is the warmest so even if it is winter the temperature usually doesn't drop under 10 degrees Celsius, and even if it did there is enough wood to burn for a year in a single forest, so heat was the easiest to access good for any person, the only problem was that most common people can't get access to the woods without putting themselves in danger so most of them depend on a single person for their safety and resources, the retired now goddess of war, but she doesn't like that nickname, she prefers Enyo

"So this winter is tougher than the previous one right?" Enyo asked the woodcutter as she carried five logs of wood

She was walking with him to the village so she volunteered to help him with carrying the wood

"You can't imagine! Most of the area around is restricted because of this big fire that accident caused, royal capital bastards won't let me or anyone else go beyond a certain point in the forest, they are telling me a person caused all that! If you ask me, that's a big load of bullshit" The woodcutter told Enyo with a frustrated voice

"I can't relate to you but I understand your anger, I was angry too, not only because I was dragged once again into this stupid world's problem but also have to take care of myself and a child that came to my house, I can never know when or how will the next big accident like this will come or if it even comes, but it causes paranoia to me you know? Knowing that a person who can burn a whole forest like this, that not even the royal detectives can't identify is so close to my home builds stress, even for me!" Enyo said as she left the logs close to a wood-cutting facility it was near the forest but was easily visible to the other part of the village

"I understand MS. Enyo, thank you for today, but what was that you told me? You are housing a person?" He asked confused

"Yeah! He is a boy that survived the incident, he seems very promising so I decided to have a pupil, it can't hurt to teach a brat some hands right?"

"I guess... Anyways sorry about that but I didn't have time to bring your goods so you have to go inside the village to retrieve them!"

The woodcutter told her with embarrassment, but she didn't mind, Enyo waved goodbye to the woodcutter, and she then made her way to the village, the villagers looked at her with judging eyes again, that's why she didn't like coming in the village

"Look who decided to show their face at us again!" A man said out loud while approaching Enyo

"Can I do something for you mayor?" Enyo asked with a smile

"You know my name Goddess, I'm Hid, so why did you come here? Did your beloved woodcutter forget to bring you your goods that the Grand king is still supplying you?"

Enyo nodded

"Your stuff is inside the town hall, come in to get it!" Hid said as he guided Enyo to the town hall, he opened the door with his big key

Enyo entered the building and with a quick move she placed all of the crates on her back and quickly started leaving

"Why the hurry? Don't you have the time to drink tea?" Hid asked Enyo with generosity, but Enyo knew well that he had ulterior motives

"Of course, who am I to deny?" Enyo replied with a smile

After that, the two of them went to the upper floor of the town hall and treated themselves to black tea

"Why do you insist on staying here Enyo? Almost all the villagers want you to leave" Hid said as he took a sip out of his tea

"Do you think I don't know that? But I won't no matter what, this is my home now and I will not allow anyone to kick me out of it" Enyo replied as she too took a sip of her tea

"Why do you act selfish? Your existence always brings troublesome people near our village, that's why they want you gone, and I'm not mentioning all the other reasons they want you to leave! Can't you understand that?" Hid said as he got up, it was clear that he was mad from his voice

"I know that but I still can't do it, and also why do you care? I'm the one that defends this village from danger, no matter if the danger was caused by me or not, our relation is basically something for something, I stay here and I provide you defense" Enyo explained to Hid

"But that doesn't matter! People don't want you here!" Hid yelled it looked like his patinate finally peaked

Suddenly a kick broke the table the tea was placed and by that the fancy bottles broke too

"If you want me to leave this badly why don't you kick me out yourselves?" Enyo told him in a cold voice that gave Hid shivers

"I'm not the one trying to start problems here but if you drag me to the extremes then I will react accordingly, I'm leaving" Enyo said as she got up, she then left the room without looking back

'Who do she thinks she is? Coming here breaking my furniture and leaving like that? I swear I will kill her, I don't care if she is considered a beast at combat, she is probably washed up, so make sure you sleep with the doors locked Enyo because your time is coming'

Hid thought as he watched Enyo walk away from his window...