Chapter 28: Foreign mana
Felix Sythias’ POV (continued):
Standing outside in the sun, I stretched, arching my back. The sun felt nice on my scales, and with all the mud now gone, they weren’t itching anymore, either. My wing still was, though. It was like there were a thousand ants crawling over it, biting and digging, but without the accompanying pain that would’ve caused. It had gotten worse since this morning, and it was slowly driving me insane.
Using magic to clean myself had mostly gone as I expected. I’d used water mana to create small jets to blast the mud out, and then let it slowly ripple over my body from the tip of my snout to the tip of my tail. I’m sure it had looked ridiculous and funny, but it worked. I’d also discovered something neat while the ripple went past my groin. To get rid of the mud, I'd made it so the mana did its thing the moment it went outside my body. Turned out that inside my slit still counted as 'outside the body', and the pressure of the water produced there felt quite nice. Something to add to my repertoire, for sure.
Cleaning myself with magic had left me with less than a fifth of my mana, though. That wasn’t great—bad even. In hindsight, I should’ve just dealt with the mud until I got home or asked Alex for help, anyway. Because I needed a full mana-pool for the check-up later today. The researchers would inspect my core and share the data with me.
I could maybe, just maybe, refill it in time if I refrained from using any magic until then. Which meant I had to stop using it to heat myself up as well. Damn it. Using magic to heat myself had become the mental equivalent of breathing. I just did it, and there wasn’t much thinking involved anymore. Unlike breathing, though, I could stop and start it any time I wanted, and even dial the intensity up and down.
With a bit of mental effort, I turned it off, and my regeneration returned to full. The pool would now fill back up in about two hours—just barely in time for the appointment. The downside was that I was already feeling a bit colder. The sun was more than enough to keep me warm, but it was still less warmth than I’d been generating for myself. Whatever, there was nothing I could do about it. I’d just have to deal with it until after the appointment.
I shook myself once again to get rid of any last bit of water. After washing, I’d realized that I wouldn’t be able to use magic for drying either. It sucked, but this worked well enough, too. I didn’t like how it made me feel like a dog shaking itself dry, though. There was something very animalistic about this action, and I swore to myself that next time I’d just take Alex up on his offer—he had offered to help dry me off, but I’d declined for obvious crush-related reasons.
Alex himself sat a small distance to the side, looking at me with an annoyed expression while he wiped away a few droplets from his face.
“Sorry,” I said, flashing him a sheepish grin. “That should be the last of it, though.”
“It’s fine. You’re off then? You had an appointment with a healer, right?”
“Yeah. Fundamental Magic is still canceled, so I have a free period. I also moved the mana-pool check-up up since it’s in the same area. You?”
He smiled at me. “Basic Flight! I’m really looking forward to it. I’m actually a bit annoyed at the break. I wish I could go there right now.”
I chuckled and then reached to grab something out of my saddlebags. “It’s only an hour, I’m sure you’ll be fine. Maybe you can go ahead and read up on the math you’ll need to know. And here you go,” I said, handing him his lunch. I’d carried it for him, and while he could also just carry it by himself, why should he need to? The weight barely made a difference to me.
“Thanks. And I already have. Twice.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then read ahead even further, or maybe take a look at the Basic Lighting Magic textbook.”
He grinned at me. “I just might do that.”
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I let out a loud breath of relief as Elena rubbed some anti-itching salve all over my wing.
“Better?”
I nodded. “Infinitely so. I can’t even begin to describe how much it itched.”
She shuddered. “You don’t need to, I’ve experienced it myself before” she said, then frowned. “It’s also no surprise. Your wing is regrowing much faster than expected. So no wonder it’s itching so much. You might even have full use back by the end of the month. Might. No promises.”
“Did you upgrade a Path or get a new Skill?” I asked, confused.
“No, which is what confuses me. Based on your previous healing rates, you’re now healing twice as fast as you’re supposed to. There’s little to no difference on my part. The healing mana is the same, but it’s like your body is suddenly using it more efficiently. But that’s impossible without dedicated Skills.”
“That’s good, no?”
She scratched her head. “Maybe? I know too little to say for certain. For all we know, it’s now eating a bit of your lifespan every time you’re healed.”
I shot up from where I was lying on the floor. “That’s a possibility?!” I yelled.
Elena winced and rubbed her ears. Even with high Attributes, loud sounds were loud. “Probably not, but we know very little about your species. So it’s a possibility, along with a million other things.”
“Oh. How will you figure it out?”
“I have enough data for now, but if you could come in again on… Friday? Yeah, Friday. If you can come by again then, I might have something, and else we can take a more thorough look. I’d do it now, but you had another appointment, right?”
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I nodded.
“Hmm, actually, I’ll just come with you and do the thorough scan there. You’ll still need to come by on Friday, though.”
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The tests proved useless. The researchers were just as baffled as I was. Apparently, no one grew their mana-pool without the aid of the System, and so they were very intrigued that I could. By my guess they wanted to see if they could glean anything from my case that they could apply to others as well, giving them a permanent boost—the System multiplied your base strengths, so a bigger base pool meant the relevant Attributes would have a greater effect.
They had no success, though. All they could tell was that the increase had come from foreign mana, which was weird. They’d only found out because I hadn’t emptied my pool entirely since whatever had happened, and there was still some of that mana mixed in. The idea irked me. My mana was mine, and I didn’t like that there was foreign stuff mixed in. It felt to me like adding dirt as a spice to a perfectly good meal.
That aside, the big question was of course where it had come from. None of us had any clue. Whatever recognizable patterns the mana once had, had since been distorted, diluted, and mixed up with mine to the point it was utterly meaningless.
I sighed. This had really gotten me nowhere. Though, I supposed it limited the things I needed to research and try out. It had come from outside, so I could cross out any possibility that included it coming from inside, like it coming from turning eighteen. Yeah, not useless. I could work with this. I’d need to ask professor Scott for permission to go down to the hunting grounds when I saw him again. I wanted to test out if this had come from killing monsters, like a weird twisted version of Experience.
I put a copy of the results into my bag and said goodbye to the researchers. Elena waited for me outside.
“Can I take that thorough scan, now?” she asked without preamble.
I nodded in agreement, and she stepped forward, putting a hand on my snout. A moment later, I felt her warm mana course through me. It felt much less sluggish than usual. Elena seemed to think the same as she had a look of surprise on her face.
“That’s… odd,” she said. “You know how when I scan or heal you directly, it normally feels like I’m crawling through a pit of tar?”
I nodded, and she continued.
“Now it’s like I’m crawling through a pit of honey—or maybe mud?. Doesn’t matter, the point is that my magic is flowing through you easier now. That isn’t supposed to happen.”
“That’s good, right?”
She nodded. “It is, but it’s also bizarre. Have you noticed any difference channeling mana?”
“Not really,” I said, shaking my head. ”The only difference that’s even remotely relevant is that my mana-pool somehow grew. That’s why I was here actually, they—the researchers—checked it out. Got the results right here,“ I said, tapping a talon on the bag holding the folder with the results.
“Can I see?”
I took the folder out of the back and handed it over. She flipped through it, taking a quick, but thorough look at each page, memorizing the contents. It was one of those little things that came with extremely high Attributes: near-perfect memory. It was just another thing I would likely never have, not unless dad found a miracle in those foreign archives. After she was done, she handed it back to me, and I put it away again.
“Fascinating. No idea how the two are connected, though, beyond that they both affect mana. I’ll need to do some thinking. I’ll have more by Friday, hopefully. Don’t forget to swing by after school.”
I reassured her I wouldn’t forget, and we split ways. She was heading back to her hospital, while I headed back towards class. I glanced at a clock while I walked and did a double take, then started running. I would need to hurry to make it in time.
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I sat in the classroom for Basic Lightning Magic, waiting for the professor to arrive. Alex sat next to me, but further away than usual. That was probably because of the sharp-ish smell that came off of the anti-itching salve. Elena had given me a stronger version that would work better and last longer. It also had a stronger scent. It was a worthy trade, in my opinion.
After a few minutes, the professor entered the room and the class finally started. The class itself was a lot more useful than Advanced Elementalism. There was a much higher focus on theory, and since it was a basic Skill class, also a focus on unlocking the initial Skills. This started by exposure. We all got a small enchanted box that when you channeled mana into it, converted it into lightning mana and channeled it back into your body, creating a nasty but safe shock.
The point of the exercise was to feel how lightning felt, and how your own mana felt once converted. I wasn’t sure if this would help me too, but I had an inkling that it might. Instinctive magic was a lot about feeling, too. Could I apply the same theory to light and dark mana, as well? I couldn’t wait to try it out.
I would have to, though. Enchantments were expensive, and despite having a rich father, I didn’t actually have all that much money. I’m sure I’d make most students here jealous if they knew how much I had, but that didn’t mean I could spend it on whatever I wanted. It took two years of ferrying people around to get that amount.
So while I could easily buy a dark magic, or light magic version of this box, I’d need to know if it worked first. I briefly wondered why Advanced Elementalism didn’t use the same tactic, but realized that they could achieve the same results with exercises; a much cheaper option, so why would they use something like this?
Not really interested in feeling a shock quite yet, I turned to see how Alex was doing. He had a different version of the box than I had, one that siphoned mana instead of accepting it. While he now had some basic control over his mana after his Magic 101 class, he couldn’t yet draw it out by himself. He’d learn in time as he got used to it and learned more, but until then he was stuck with enchantments like this, that did the drawing out for him.
While I watched, he touched a scaly finger to the small yellow-ish white crystal set into the top of the small stone box. He was expecting the shock, but he still yelped loudly—turning a few heads—and flinched. He noticed me watching and shot me a sheepish smile.
“That, uh, was stronger than I expected. Different too. I expected a shock like you’d get from rubbing pieces of cloth together. This was like that, but also not.”
“You mean static electricity? And it makes sense this is different as it’s much stronger. It won’t hurt you, though, as it isn’t actually electricity; it’s just mana.”
“I know. I can pay attention too,” he said, rolling his eyes. “And is that what it’s called? What makes it static?”
“I have no idea, but we’ll probably learn more about it in one of the upcoming classes.”
He smiled. “I’m looking forward to it!” he said, then turned back to the cube. “Unlike this thing. I can’t wait to figure out how to draw the magic back in properly so I won’t feel that shock anymore. I doubt that’ll happen any time soon, though.”
I nudged him on the shoulder. “Come on, don’t talk yourself down like that. You’ll figure it out. No; we’ll figure it out,” I said, then shrugged. “I have no idea how to do it either. I don’t really draw mana back in very often, and never on purpose.”
He grinned, nudged me back, then turned to the cube and, with a deep breath, touched the crystal again.