All of us stared at Bella rather dumbly. This was a bit out of nowhere, but I could see where she was coming from. Something new and exciting like this would take our mind off this issue. Now this wasn't going to be the technique she used to determine my tier it seems just, as she put it, "the first step" to unlocking our techniques.

Secretly I'm hoping this would open up to allowing me to cast fireball. That was still in the back of my mind after all, even if this highly enhanced physical prowess I was seeing were amazing in their own right.

I glanced at Tom and Bea, they did seem to perk up over the matter, but seemed hesitant. Not wanting to let such an opportunity to get ahead go to waste, I nodded encouragingly at them when I caught their eye.

Having a breath of relief, I turned back to Bella and nodded. "That may be a good idea, maybe ease the tension we have. Thanks Bella."

Bella put on a huge smile as we agreed to her suggestion. "Yes, I think it is just what you guys need. Let's head to the sparring room, under the tree. The fresh air will probably help too after that dungeon."

So we meandered our way into the sparring room and to the tree. Bella unhooked her weapon sat down under the tree and then we all followed suit tossing our weapons to the side.

She began to explain, "First off you must understand how mana actually works in the body. There are many mental images out there of how it works, and if taken at face value, works all the same for different visualizations for different people. The most common that you have probably heard of has made its way into even the civilian vernacular, that of the mana pool. If you go with this visualization, then picture your mana as small pool of water that is only accessible to you, and you carry it within you wherever you go."

She took a breath and looked at each of us in the eye before continuing, "Right now your body is just using it intuitively, but as soon as you get a large enough amount, then you need to learn finer control of it, lest you hurt someone. For instance, throwing a glass of water on someone is not going to affect them that much, you most likely will not even get their body fully wet. Throw a bucket on them, and you're likely to drench them. Now imagine throwing an entire lake on them. Not a pretty sight, right?"

We all nodded along and I even grimaced. I had seen enough movies about people getting caught up in tumultuous water in some form or fashion that I had a great visual image of exactly what could happen.

"Sorry to interrupt, but how does it work now then? We're not exactly controlling our mana now and nothing is getting hurt. I hope that's not a silly question...." I asked for a bit of clarification since I had the opportunity now.

"Well, despite anything I've said mana isn't a physical thing. I can't cut you and have it flow out or anything like that. So right now it's just kind of free flowing around your body, in the muscles and skin. If it encounters someone else's mana pool, like if you were sparring with someone or fighting a creature, it basically exerts itself to counter the other mana pool. When you have the mana pool disparities is when you start seeing significant changes in damage. Since you just tiered up Will you will likely notice by tonight or tomorrow the difference." Bella was very patient and explained thoroughly for me. She definitely would have been an A+ student in my world.

"I knew that hurting someone of your own tier was hard, but that definitely makes everything clear. Thank you Bella." Bea chimed in and half-bowed from a sitting position. Bella blushed at that.

"A....Anyway, whichever visualization you have for your mana the truth is that it actually circulates around your body, like your blood. Sensing the mana within yourself actually is really similar to listening and feeling for your heartbeat. Rather than a constant pulse though, its more like a river in constant motion. You're feeling for the flowing of it in you, and not the beat. Some say they hear it, some say they feel it, but regardless it is there. You just have to develop your own way of sensing it." The blush gradually faded as she finished her explanation.

"I'm going to jump in again then, what is keeping it in our bodies then if its not actually a physical thing?" I had to interrupt once more.

Bella looked at me and sighed, exasperated. "That's actually a very deep philosophical question Will that there is no set answer. There's some that say it is actually tethered to a physical organ within us. Some say the heart, some say the brain, and honestly anything else. These physical organ people believe mana actually radiates from whichever organ of choice within your body. They believe the organ that controls it is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets, until eventually you tier up."

Well, that certainly made a lot of sense to me at least. Honestly as Bella had went on explaining things, mana sounded like an electromagnetic field in my body, maybe circulated by nerves? That would definitely explain why it had such an autonomous response until you learned to control it. I had never heard of working out nerves or anything similar back home, but the pieces did vaguely fit.

Bella knocked me out of my contemplation as she continued. "Then there's the spiritual ones who believe it is tied to your soul. They believe that your soul is constantly taking in new things and experiences as you encounter them, and that the experience of how your mana affects the world around you accelerates this. They believe it is your soul reaching a new level of enlightenment that cause you to tier up."

Man, people back home would be having a field day with this kind of introspection. Funny how even here the debate is essentially still evolution or religion. No matter where, humans are the same.

"Whichever explanation you decide to believe the end result is the same. The physical believers say that every 5 tiers, your body reaches the next stage of physical perfection and why you would live longer and longer in each stage. The spiritual believers think every 5 tiers your soul grasps a deeper understanding of the universe and ascends to the next stage. The end result is the same though, every 5 tiers you reach a new stage and live longer. Its all about power whichever way you turn. Thanks for letting me talk philosophy Will, its been a while since I had the opportunity." Bella finished with a sardonic half-smile.

"Oh. Yeah, anytime! But hey, back to the live longer thing. What do you mean?" I hope Bella didn't tire of me asking questions, this was pretty vital info she had access to!

"Come on Will, you know that Each stage is basically tripling your lifespan. Don't bother her with that." Bea chided me. I had to look abashed at that, because while Will must have known, I certainly didn't.

Bella laughed softly probably relieved we were in a better mood now. "Yes, that's a fair estimate to be honest. There is a bit of nuance to it, depending on when you reach your next stage though. At stage one, which is all most civilians ever reach, living to 60-70 years of age is what you would be looking forward to. Stage two, whether you are a squire or abbot or conjurer, you should reach 200-300 years of age on average. At stage three you're definitely looking at a few centuries, maybe a millennia if you advance quick enough. If you were to ascend past a knight into a commander somehow William, you would have the same lifespan as the royals at about 5 millennia or so."

"That..... is certainly a long time to live. Could you imagine though? You could have all the time in the world to do whatever you wanted. Go anywhere, see everything. Remarkable" I softly commented. That was truly a mind-boggling amount of time.

"Yes, but there is a price for trying to ascend to the heavens like that. That affects most people's decisions about what to do in life. Think of all your friends and family Will. If they do not make it to the same stage of ascension as you, then you will watch all of them grow old. Whither. Perish. It makes for a very lonely existence." Bella added that last part very melancholic.

Feeling like I touched on a troubling subject for Bella, I realized I needed to get us back on track. After all she was cheering us up and I was over here making her sad.

"You know, that's kind of heavy to think about. I'm sorry for getting you so philosophical Bella. How about we get back to something a little easier. I hear there's a pretty good teacher nearby who will tell us all about sensing mana within ourselves. She's a wise old sage sitting under a tree. Heard of her?" I tried brightening the mood for her.

She glanced at me for a bit before softly smiling. "Yes, I believe I know of this teacher. Let's get back to it then, shall we?"

We all nodded, a bit more somber than we were just 5 minutes ago.