Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 5 | Day 8

I’m starting to wish that I could get more muscle again…

This thought goes through my mind as I lean my weapons up against the wall in my mana manipulation class before sitting down.

I may not get tired, but that doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable to do something that would normally tire me out. After all, the little bits of damage are still being done, it’s just that – according to the doctor – the damage is healing before it can build up.

So it kind of feels like the first bit of exercise in a workout, except constantly as I’m lugging those weapons around everywhere.

Although… I turn my attention towards Sophia to see her grimacing as she sets the long metal staff she chose as her weapon down against the wall.

At least my weapons have straps or sheaths.

Anyways, I turn my attention towards the front of the room again as the instructor continues reading her book while sitting on her desk as if there wasn’t a chair behind it.

My Fundamentals of Fire class was basically the same thing as it was yesterday. Just completely lecture and theory, but I’m pretty sure that’s all the class will be. Seeing as it’s a class to teach us about our elements.

“How long does it usually take for your mana arcs to develop after splitting anyways?” Aidan suddenly asks Sophia.

I turn to look at them as she answers rather enthusiastically, “It entirely depends on the magician’s talent level. The mana arcs of a level 1 talent normally take about twenty or so days for a newly split mana arc to fully develop enough to be able to be trained. Meanwhile the mana arcs of a level 2 talent take about fourteen days, with a level 3 talent being about eleven days, a level 4 talent being about eight days, and finally, a level 5 talent taking about four days to develop.”

“You really do know a lot, don’t you!” Aidan exclaims with a grin on his face before looking down as Sophia begins to blush slightly and muttering, “So it should take about eleven days for my mana arcs to develop after splitting…”

Oh? So he’s the same talent level as me then.

I never did ask him what his talent level was, but it looks like we should be improving our mana arcs at about the same pace.

At that thought, the sound of a book snapping shut can be heard from the front of the classroom, followed by the instructor’s voice, “Class is starting, so get to your seats.”

The few people who were standing around all quickly move to their seats before the instructor continues speaking, “Now, to get started, visualize your mana arcs like you always used to do for your magician checkups.”

I shiver slightly at the thought of the checkups as flashes of some of the things the doctor did to me to test my immortality comes to the forefront of my thoughts. After a couple of seconds though, I shake my head and begin to go through the same routine I have been doing ever since my first checkup in elementary school.

A few seconds after the image of the two blazing red mana arcs running throughout my body appears in my mind, the instructor continues speaking again, “After that’s done, all you have to do to train your arcs is mess around with it. Whether that means visualizing yourself reaching out for it and pinching it, or it means lightly massaging and stretching it. Any sort of action towards them that puts some sort of strain will train the arc.”

I begin to visualize myself reaching out and stretching the arc slightly before raising my eyebrows in surprise as small little embers begin dropping off of the mana arc at the areas around where I touched, causing a minor burning sensation in my chest that doesn’t last long.

“When you do this, you should feel a little bit of discomfort around your chest. This discomfort will be tied to whatever element you have an affinity for, so people with fire affinity will feel a slight burning sensation, while those with water affinity will feel an uncomfortable rush of some sort of fluid through your chest. But you can only train one arc at a time, and you can’t train an arc while one is still developing. No one, not even Class S magicians, has been able to figure out the reason for this. It just doesn’t train the arc, leaving you with nothing but the discomfort and no progress.” Her voice continues as I reach out again to poke and prod at the mana arc. “You will know when your mana arc is ready to split by instinct, and if you try to split an arc that isn’t ready, then you will immediately be filled with a sense of revulsion, forcing you to stop. Sort of like a gag reaction, where your body forces you to stop doing something that will be considered harmful to you.”

Every time I touch the mana arc, small embers trickle off of it, causing the burning sensation from before to reappear, only to disappear after a few seconds of each touch.

The sensation itself doesn’t feel that bad. Mostly feels a little like heartburn, with the heartburn getting worse and worse the longer I touch or mess with it.

“There are tricks to train your mana arcs faster, but the faster you train it, the worse the sensation will feel in your chest as you do so,” the instructor says as I hear a few grunts from some of the cadets a little ways away from me. “Now, I went over this a little bit yesterday, but I will be giving you all half an hour at the end of every class to train your mana arcs. If you’re still in the development phase of a new mana arc at the time, then you may tell me and leave the class for the day at that time.”

I briefly stop playing around with the mana arc to open my eyes and look at the instructor, only to see her once again lounging on the desk with a stool of water as her footrest as she continues speaking, “That said, the speed to fully train a mana arc is almost entirely dependent on how fast you go at it, with only a small boost from your talent level factoring in as well.”

Suddenly, she pauses and looks around the room with a glare, despite the fact that half of the cadets are currently visualizing their mana arcs right now before saying, “And remember this. Your talent level is only really important when it comes to the natural development phase of your split mana arcs. Other than that, the small boost in training speed is almost nonexistent considering how quickly some people with high pain tolerance can train. And the difference in flexibility between talent levels matters more for your mana arcs’ durability when casting powerful spells than it does for training, because people can easily go around that problem by training various different locations at once.”

I quickly return to visualizing my mana arcs before her gaze can reach me. Except this time, I attempt to reach out and stretch it, only slightly at first, before gradually increasing the pressure, which also consecutively increases the amount of embers falling off and therefore the strength of the burning sensation in my chest. After I stretch it a couple of inches out, the heartburn-like sensation turns into a real burning one, much more similar to how it felt to be burnt yesterday, except at a much duller level, and without any actual damage to my body.

At least thanks to that experience yesterday I don’t even let out a single sound and instead continue to stretch it out even further, causing the imaginary fire burning in my chest to get stronger and hurt more and more until I stop stretching it further and begin to slowly let it relax.

I didn’t realize mana arcs were so stretchy. Although part of it is because I’m still at least a level 3 talent, which isn’t necessarily bad. But I’d imagine a level 1 talent’s mana arcs aren’t as stretchy by a long shot.

Then again, it’s as the instructor said. It shouldn’t matter.

I visualize myself stretching the mana arc in multiple different places to a slightly lesser degree, and the pain exponentially increases from what it was at before.

This time I do let out a grunt of pain as the pain of the flames reaches a level that almost equals the pain of the flames from yesterday, except without the added pain of a partially severed tongue.

I grimace as I lower the pressure on the two spots, only to pause slightly as I hear the instructor say, “For this class, and this class only, I will let you all spend the entirety of the class focusing solely on training your mana arcs. So have at it, and if I see you slacking, then I’ll be happy to show you how it feels to have your blood flow backwards through your arm.”

My eyebrows lift slightly at that statement before I double down on my mana arc training again.

Because that isn’t an experience I want to feel.