The textbox danced merrily in his vision, blotting out virtually everything else. Claud glared at the damn thing — why bother giving him a choice in the first place if it was going to be compulsory?

“Start it, then.” Claud shook his head.

[Initialising tutorial.]

His surroundings changed into a world of white.

“Mana,” a voice spoke from the sky, “is a derivative of lifeforce, transmuted into a form that boosts speed, strength and stability when consumed by a body.”

Two shadows appeared in front of him, and began to fight with each other. Exchanging punches and kicks, both shadows struck out at each other with a fearsomeness Claud expected only from professional warriors.

“This is the apex condition for normal people,” the voice continued. “However, mana-users have far greater strength. Even novice ones have great destructive capability — watch.”

The shadow on the right glowed with a blue light. Stepping and knocking aside its opponent’s assault with an overwhelming ease, it glided in a moment later and punched out once at speeds Claud couldn’t even catch.

His skin crawled as the shadow on the left came apart, and alarm bells rang in his head a moment later as the victorious shadow kicked out at him. Throwing himself down onto the floor, hair flew as a blue crescent skimmed past his scalp. Without waiting to see what the shadow did next, Claud rolled away from it, before getting to his feet.

[Detecting a certain level of unstated proficiency from the tutorial taker. Updating opponent to bi-folder.]

The blue light around the shadow deepened, and the next thing Claud knew, it was up in his face. Wind howled as the shadow appeared in front of him, and his instincts screamed.

His mind screamed along with it. “Absolute One!”

The shadow’s right arm exploded, and it reeled back from the sheer shock. Without missing a beat, Claud made use of his ten seconds of invincibility, and it was his turn to appear right in front of the shadow. A sonorous thundercrack followed as his fist broke through something intangible, and the shadow scattered into black mist.

The black shadow reformed seconds later, just as Absolute One stopped working.

“How’s that, tutorial!” Claud stuck out his tongue and yelled at the white world, indulging in the overwhelming sense of joy that had flooded his nerves. “Two-fold mana-users ain’t anything before me! Suck on it!”

[Detecting an extreme level of proficiency from the tutorial-taker. Updating opponent to tri-folder.]

Claud froze, the euphoria in his veins freezing into ice. Again?! And a tri-folder?!

The shadow, wreathed in a blue light that threatened to blind his eyes, stared at him. Fire slammed through Claud’s heart a second later, and the world disintegrated around him. In that period of frozen time, right before his death, Claud had seen the tri-folder point at him, and that was it.

The world reformed a second later. Grasping at his chest, Claud was utterly relieved to learn that he hadn’t died after all. If he did…well, he was going to complain to the guys in charge of the afterlife and do something about it.

The voice up in the sky spoke. “That one-sided beatdown shows just how inadequate you are. If you are to contend against a proficient mana-user, you must learn to use mana. Having the ability to regenerate and to command mana isn’t enough; you must control it like your body.”

Claud felt his face twitch. He was doing perfectly fine against that one-fold mana-user, right? He wasn’t blind; something had clearly activated when he dodged the one-folder’s attack, and when he killed the bi-folder! This tutorial fellow was clearly talking right out of his or her posterior when it claimed that it was a one-sided beatdown!

Cursing out loud, Claud dug his nose and flicked some debris at the sky.

The world didn’t seem to mind. Launching into an explanation about how to train mana use — which apparently revolved around moving mana through the body’s mana circuits, while inscribing mana on every surface one could lay their grubby hands on — Claud entered a state of introspection. The former was about channelling mana within the body to improve its overall ability; the latter involved fine control of one’s mana outside the body.

Surprisingly enough, the voice issued a warning for training the latter, disclaiming any responsibility from vandalism that arose from mana calligraphy. To manifest mana outside the body to a usable degree, it had to be concentrated to the point that it doubled as permanent ink…which mana-users apparently used to draw on anything they saw.

He thought back to some of the more ridiculous laws that apparently mana-users were said to fall afoul of, and then understood some things.

That one-folder who made the headlines for vandalising a random wall?

That one-folder who went to jail for doodling on a sleepy man’s face?

And that one-folder who was executed for writing “Screw the Emperor” in a random town square?

“Yeah,” Claud muttered, “that’s probably why there’s so many anti-vandalism laws for mana-users…I should tell the bartender about this. Might get a good laugh outta him.”

After stressing that particular warning a few more times, the booming voice from the sky fell silent, and a screen popped up.

[Detected that the tutorial for mana-users is complete]

[Returning tutorial taker to the Grandis continent.]

[Detected that tutorial taker showed a certain level of unstated proficiency during the tutorial. Improving mana sensitivity. Warning: this improvement can result in adverse effects in perceiving your surroundings when returning. Do not move around.]

[Detected that tutorial taker showed an extreme level of proficiency. Improving mana adaptation. Warning: this improvement will result in increased body strength and reflexes. Adapt to your new condition before moving around.]

For a moment, Claud wondered about what would happen if he somehow defeated the tri-folder. Given that tri-folders could roam Grandis unhindered, defeating one here was impossible… but a man could dream, right?

Sighing, he watched as the world of white around him shattered.

A searing pain followed moments later, as an inferno raged in his head. Everything in his vision was in a set of colours he couldn’t quite follow; each was a shade too bright, too blinding. The air inside his house was a uniform shade of sky-blue; while the air outside was a murky cerulean.

His body curled up, cold sweat soaking through his clothes seconds later. Even if he closed his eyes, the countless sensations that assailed him continued to whirl in his mind, adding to the cognitive blaze that ravaged the inside of his skull.

Random words poured out of his mouth, as an indescribable pain crept up from his body. His muscles were convulsing madly, creating an agony that reached deep into the bones.

Warm blood surged into his tongue as he bit it, and clarity returned to Claud for a moment. Reaching into his trousers, he grabbed a handful of skillsticks, and snapped them all at once.

The agony ceased, and his nerves, which had been overloaded to the point of heightened sensitivity, calmed down. Fortunately, within one of those skillsticks Claud had snapped was Cleanse, which had broken him out of this situation. Making sure to keep his eyes closed, he removed his damp clothes very slowly, and laid down on the ground.

A small, comforting sensation nuzzled his chest a moment later.

“Crown…is that you?”

It jiggled.

“Don’t move from here,” Claud murmured. “I’m in bad condition now. I’m not sure if I can make it for the heist after all. Look after me.”

Crown jiggled a few times, and mana began to flow within Claud, without any prompting from him at all. “What are you doing?”

Predictably, there was no reply, but the mana from all over his body had gathered into around his spine, creating a calming chill. Inexplicably, the myriad sensations that kept forcing themselves into the forefront of his mind dulled. The crippling sensory overload weakened even further over the next few seconds, and before he knew it, the debilitating sensation had passed entirely.

[You have learned the passive skill: Mana Organ!]

“Moons…” Claud got up slowly. “Crown, what did you just do?”

The little violet box jiggled happily.

“Yeah…that’s definitely not very helpful,” Claud muttered. His eyes were still closed, but for some reason, he could sense anything he wanted around him. The ten ants plotting a rebellion at the corner of his bedroom, for instance, were busy dancing right now. The spiders that maintained law and order in his house were hugging each other and doing—

Ahem.

Well, at any rate, it seemed that he was still actively taking in all these details, but these things were being rerouted to his spine for some reason. Nothing bad seemed to come out of it, however, and after stretching a few times, Claud finally opened his eyes.

Bit by bit, his vision expanded, revealing a house that looked like ten men had trashed it. His arms were red, but he wasn’t exactly registering any physical pain.

The same couldn’t be said for the heartache he felt, though. Replacing all the trashed furniture for better ones would be a pain for his wallet. The shortfall would have to come from a very generous merchant, in that case.

Gathering his thoughts, Claud got up slowly and moved the broken furniture — chair, table, bed and broom — over to the door, making sure to remove the mattress on the bed beforehand. Once done, he sat down on the mattress and raised his right hand, where a small blue flame burned.

Only by processing mana through the mana circuits one burned into their body could one concentrate it, or use it to strengthen the body. As for how it worked…

Well, Claud was about to find out.