Mid Evening - Early Summer : Arlington, Virginia | East Coast United States

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"Okay, so I want you to close your eyes and focus." Speaking softly from the area behind the glass, Lori pressed several buttons before the faint hum filling the room vanished and everything around me went silent. "To start, you need to find your reserve, where your body stores all its mana. To do that, you just need to hum. You should feel a sphere in your head, chest, or stomach faintly resonating."

-So they call it a reserve here...- Also known as a mana core, it was something every being with mana had, a physical, hollow sphere of crystallized mana used to store mana like a huge battery. -But I don’t need to hum to feel mine...- Feeling a faint, constant vibration in my abdomen, I respond quickly. "Alright. What next?"

"T..That was fast… Uh… Now try to focus on it.” She responded as if flustered. “After some time, you should feel something vaguely similar to a muscle or sphere you can manipulate around it." She paused to give me a moment to focus.

-So that's what I was controlling back at the mana facility...- "Does it have a name?"

"K..Kind of?" She hesitantly continued. "It doesn't really have a common name, but mages call it the mana layer. It's generally what's responsible for how much mana is naturally emitted from your reserve as aura, and is partially responsible for how easy your mana is to pull out."

"And I assume you control it by flexing it?" I tilted my head slightly and spoke without certainty.

"Yes! It seems like you're already a bit familiar, but just to continue with formality, its effectiveness depends greatly on several factors, like the actual thickness of the reserve's shell, how much mana you have, and because you aren't relying on the System, your mental capacity. So, don't be discouraged if your control of it is bad for now."

-Huh?- "What do you mean by, ’my mental capacity because I'm not using the System’?"

"Although this theory isn’t too publicly known, when skills are activated through the System, they mostly use the System's computational power, meaning, since you aren't using a skill, all the computation needed for it will have to come from your brain..."

-Is that so?- Considering I had already controlled it when I was at the mana monitoring facility, I was more than confident when I let out a deep breath. -It hurt before but it should be manageable...- "Hooh..." -All I need to do is flex it really hard...-

Anticipating what I was doing, Lori went silent and focused on the display of sensors.

-Then.. here goes nothing...- *Vwoom* Almost instantly, I could feel the intensity of my aura surging through my body lessen.

"Wow..." Even Lori sounded surprised.

But at the same time, my stomach twisted, and I felt like my mind was thrown into a blender. "ACK-!" *PAT* Gripping my forehead as an excruciating pain surged through my skull, I grit my teeth. -Holy SHIT!- It was indescribably worse than what I felt at the mana facility.

"PLEASE BE CAREFUL!" Running out of the room in a panic, Lori pulled out a damp cloth and froze it with magic before hastily pressing it against my head. "DO NOT push yourself like that! That pain is from your brain literally destroying itself! If you push it too far you can develop a type of dementia, Alzheimers, or go completely brain dead."

-Ah...- I got more than a little overzealous. -Was I depending on the system that much before?- "Ugh..." With a groan, I pressed the cold rag into my forehead and looked up at Lori. "What was the effect on the scanners?" -If it was decent, then maybe...-

“The sensors showed you suppressed nearly forty percent of your aura. That's impressive for your first attempt, but please, don't push yourself that much again.” Her voice was woven with a mix of panic and anxiety.

"Forty percent, huh..." -That's nowhere near enough even if I could sustain it...- Leaning back and looking up at the ceiling as the rag melted and dripped to the floor, I felt an unfamiliar, conflicting mix of emotions well in my chest. -Based on how that went.. something tells me I won't be able to direct my aura upwards with my mana layer either...-

But, I didn't really have an option...

"How would I go about controlling my aura after it's left my reserve?" As my eyes locked on Lori, my gaze stiffened.

Although it had been a few hundred years, an old mage friend I knew showed me some cool things he could do with it, so I knew it was possible.

But Lori seemed pessimistic. "It's.. quite difficult..."

Lowering my head, I pulled the damp rag off my head and handed it back to her. "How so?"

Not sure how to respond, she hesitated. "Uh.. well... Using the mana layer uses your subconscious.. everything basically happens behind the scenes. But controlling your aura is the complete opposite."

"So you mean it takes conscious thought." Seeing her nod, I finally pulled my eyes off her. "Do you have any tips or techniques?"

"N..no..." She responded immediately. "Controlling your aura is something reserved for extremely high-level mages... People like me don't have enough aura to control."

"Is that so..." Finally straightening my posture, I let out a heavy breath. "Hooh..." -Then that means I'm on my own...- But for some reason, instead of being nervous, I was oddly excited.

Quickly closing my eyes, I let out several more long breaths, trying to isolate myself from my physical senses before sinking into the depths of thought.

I needed to focus.. to feel the energy surging out of my body and filling the air around me like a dense fog in an attempt to grasp at it.

But, in that moment, when I expected to feel my own energy that filled the room, I found myself staring at an image in my head. It was the area around me, showing Lori kneeling on the hard tile next to me while, farther in the darkness, I could feel countless other presences. -Those must be the people outside...-

It was as if a 3D space had been constructed in my mind, where I could see everything within a few meters of me in unbelievable detail, and farther away as a more blurry 'mental estimation' that got blurrier the farther away it was.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

But it was more than enough to generally feel the bounds of my aura. -Two hundred? Maybe two hundred and fifty kilometers?-

It was indescribably colossal, completely incomparable to even the strongest monsters I had ever faced. -Holy shit... No wonder I couldn't suppress it...- I was essentially trying to trap a tsunami in a snow globe, only to feel downtrodden when it exploded. -But if pressure is the problem.. if I controlled it away from my body.. then maybe...-

Slowly beginning to feel the endless sea of mana in the air around me, feeling the countless currents and flows, my thoughts sped up and more details started populating the space constructed in my mind

Be it motes of dust, bacteria, or even individual particles of air, I could feel every tiny thing around me. "Hooh..." -Okay.. let's try again...- Letting how a heavy breath, I attempted to grab at my own aura about fifteen meters off my body, just before it reached the wall of the room, and imagined myself cupping my hands around it, stiffening a part of my aura to create a bowl shape.

*Vwoom* Almost instantly, a heavy ripple of mana sounded and gravity seemed to increase severalfold.

But it actually felt alright. "Hooh..." With another heavy breath, I continued to fall deeper and deeper into focus, figuring out just how exactly I was controlling the wall of aura before slowly refining it, and focusing more and more of my aura upwards. -This.. could be worse...-

It took every speck of focus I had, but even in the short moments I did it, I could feel myself improving and couldn't help but smile as I finally opened my eyes again. -I almost forgot what making progress felt like…-

Quickly turning toward the glass wall as I released my aura, I got ready to excitedly ask Lori what the change on the sensors was.

But.. she was gone... -Huh?- And it wasn’t just her. No one but me was even in the building. -What the... How much time passed?- *Vwoop* Opening my System with a confused wave, I went to check the clock, but before I could even open the tab, the ground beneath me lit up, and an unfathomable heat blew through the room, atomizing everything. *Flash-BRRRRMMM*

It was a beam of energy that instantly engulfed the entire building, atomizing everything from the ground to the sky.

But all it did to me was take the ground out from under my feet.

*Vwoom* As my expression turned sour, I found myself staring at three presences just outside the beam. -Is Michael already backstabbing me?- *Splash* Landing in the pool of molten metal as the beam died down, my gaze stiffened before one presence vanished, only to instantly reappear behind me.

*Fwip-CRAAACKKK* Jolting my head to the side, a beam of energy thousands of times hotter than what just incinerated the building grazed my ear before I spun around, grabbing the red-hot arm cannon of a humanoid robot, pulled it past me, and sunk my fingers into its head. *Crunch-Crackle*

Staring into its glowing blue face, my face washed with anger. "What the fuck are enforcers doing here?"

*Vrrmm-Tap* Attempting to fight back, it swung its legs up to grapple me, but besides pushing my head up with its knee and wrapping itself around my arm, all it did was piss me off.

*Crackle* Crushing its metal skull with one hand, I released its arm and grabbed its spine, crushing the mana core in it before ruthlessly ripping it out, spraying blue coolant everywhere, and crushing its skull, finally dissipating the cyan glow coursing through its body. *CRUNCH*

It was a System enforcer, a type of robot the System used to enforce system rules outside the responsibility of administrators, such as ‘cleaning system errors', typically being people who abused certain exploits that popped up from time to time, or deliberately disobeyed ‘system quests’.

Typically, they were of a much higher level than their target, and used as assassins to surgically remove troublesome 'system errors' from worlds they didn't belong. -But these aren't that high level...- *Splash* Prying its dismantled body off me, I threw it down into the magma at my feet.

They were both human-sized and human-shaped, being made out of extremely strong mythril and being inorganically nimble.

But while they used to be quite troublesome, that was far from the case now.

*FWOOSH* Darting up out of the plume of smoke, I instantly planted a foot in the ground before kicking in the chest of another enforcer, sending it zipping through the side of a building before peppering everything else with its metal shrapnel.

But it created an opening that the other enforcer wasn't going to pass up.

*WOOSH* Appearing over me, it drove a fist into my face expecting me to catch it as it stuck the cannon embedded in its other arm to the top of my head.

But it far overestimated itself. *WHAAAMM-CRRACK* Destroying its punch with my elbow, I grabbed its other arm and turned it upward, rupturing its hydraulics and aiming it at its own head.

*Crackle-FLASH* The moment it fired, its beam blew through its head, and I took the chance to pull it off its feet, and drive a fist through the mana core contained in a mythril sphere at the base of its spine. *WHAAAAMMM-VWOOM*

The entire city shook from the impact, shattering the ground around me and spreading cracks through the city’s foundation.

But I was still mad. "Tch..." Reaching up and massaging my neck as I threw what was left of the half-melted robot to the ground, I clicked my tongue. *Clank* -Now where is the last one... It's been too long since I've fought something human-sized...-

Enforcers always traveled in groups of four, yet the only things around me were people running away or people frozen from shock, awe, or horror. -Is he hiding in the crowd?-

But as I scanned everything around me...

*Glow* The ground beneath my foot melted and a blazing beam slammed into my jaw before scattering and slicing off the tops of nearby buildings. *BRRRRRRMMM* "Oh you lousy fucker..." Simply ignoring the unpleasant heat, I lifted my foot and stomped the ground. *CRRRRAAACKKKK* The ground instantly melted, crushing the enforcer buried underground like a tin can at the bottom of the ocean.

But he seemed to want to take me with him. "Self-destructing." As its deep, crackly robotic voice met my ears, everything within a few hundred meters was instantly washed with light, the sides of skyscrapers were melted, and the nearby System users threw up barriers in a panic.

*WOOM* The blast was hotter than the center of a star, simply erasing everything within a few meters of it and causing my armor to glow red hot.

But that was it...

As the heat passed, I was left standing in a pool of waist-deep molten rock, surrounded by a field of debris and fire as towering skyscrapers creaked, trying not to collapse. *Creaaaak* -You have to be fucking kidding me...-

Looking up toward the edge of the molten crater, I found dozens of system users, all of which around level four or five hundred, wearing hostile expressions with armor equipped and weapons drawn.

"Don't throw away your lives. Put your weapons away..." I spoke irritatedly.

*Tsss-Blub* But as the sound of boiling water and bubbling rock filled the air, there were a few who either couldn't hear me or simply didn't listen. "HYAH!" Darting at me with everything he had, a level four hundred barbarian dashed across the pool of magma with a heavy hammer in hand before attempting to drive it into my head.

-Dumbass...- *Pat* Catching the head of the hammer, I instantly jerked it down under the magma, pulling the man with it before suddenly throwing it back up, impaling him with its handle, and launching him out of the crater. *Zip-BAAANGG*

It caused the expressions of everyone nearby to instantly changed.

Casually wiping away a bit of molten metal that splashed on my face, I looked back up at the other System users with a cold gaze. “Anyone else?”

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