Chapter 18 - The Exercises of Mana User

When a person was feeling exhausted, sleep time passed by quickly.

Theodore woke up early in the morning feeling refreshed after having a fulfilling sleep. Amazingly, since he left the Hale mansion, he always slept soundly.

He shortly got up from his bed and started preparing himself.

According to his teacher, he could choose the practice exercise and start cultivating soon.

Thedore was excited and felt slight anticipation.

His current situation was considerably different and was much better than the future that he knew. Not only did he have top-level talents, but he also had a mysterious teacher.

He had a great expectation of the exercises that his teacher would bring out to teach him.

Before leaving his room, he checked if he had forgotten anything. He touched his chest, feeling the existence of the pendant inside his cloth; he then walked out toward his teacher's room.

Theodore knocked on the door of Nathan's room.

Nathan soon walked out and greeted Theodore with a smile, "Good morning."

"Teacher, good morning," Theodore replied.

Nathan and Theodore then repeated the routine of going out and grabbing something to eat.

'It's truly troublesome.' Theodore thought as he had an idea of learning how to cook in his heart.

Previously, he had never learned to cook but only knew how to make alchemy. Theodore considered, 'Perhaps, they are similar.'

'Wait... I can eat the hunger pill.' Theodore's thought of alchemy drifted to a pill that could satisfy the mana user's appetite. He could rely on this medicine after he started practicing.

Theodore was distracted as he followed his teacher out.

...

"Let's go to the library." This time, Nathan suggested teaching Theodore in the library. He intended to explain the exercise necessary for mana users in detail and found some relevant books.

"Yes, teacher." Theodore did not object.

The library of the house was spacious. There were many wooden bookcases full of books and papers. In the middle of the room was two semicircular round couch facing each other with a round table as their center.

Nathan looked around. He found it incredible that all the documents did not seem old and well-preserved; however, he did not think much, considering that the house was run by consuming the mana from the diamond core.

After they sat down, Nathan said, "Before showing you the exercises, I will first explain the categorization of the practices required by the typical mana user."

"There are two main types of exercise. One is the mana gathering exercise, and the other is the body strengthening technique."

Before continuing the explanation, Nathan brought out a big sheet of paper he had prepared and spread it on the table toward Theodore.

The picture on the paper displayed a human's body sitting cross-legged in a standard meditation posture. There were lines scattering from a circular illustration at the center of the figure's chest, the meridian, to the rest of the body.

Nathan pointed as he said, "This is the meridian, the core for circulating mana."

"After unsealing the meridian, a person is transformed and is more powerful than normal people. Although they can absorb and circulate the mana throughout the entire body, the practicing of the mana user is not so simple."

"There are specific approaches for accumulating mana and the order of circulating it in the body to maximize the benefit." Nathan then highlighted the importance of the mana-gathering exercise.

Theodore nodded in understanding to Nathan's explanation.

Although a person could cultivate mindlessly without adopting the functional exercises, that individual would not walk far in the path of a mana user.

The problems might not appear at the beginning; however, as time passed, troubles would arise.

After accumulating a lot of mana without spreading it in the proper unchanging path, there might be conflict in mana's distribution in the body, causing harm to the body.

Another common problem was it was almost impossible to reach the body's limit and break through to the next rank of mana user by blindly gathering mana. Although there were precedents of success, it was too few to count.

With all the problems, unless it were a dead end, the informed mana users would only practice with respective techniques.

Seeing Theodore's response, Nathan continued describing the auxiliary effects of the mana-gathering exercise. "The appropriate techniques can also assist the mana user specialize in a certain direction."

"The mana particles floating in the surrounding world are originally transparent and have no attribute. However, after lingering in the world and being contaminated with laws, the mana particle also contained the respective infected elements."

"When the mana users absorb the elemental mana, they also can increase their understanding of the relevant laws."

"There are many secret techniques that can help filter and assist the mana user in absorbing only certain types of mana particle."

Theodore listened to Nathan carefully; he was in deep thought when he heard about the elemental mana. He was concerned about this because four elements were already in his consciousness space.

'With this concern, I can roughly determine the direction of the mana-gathering exercise that suits me.' Theodore considered.

Theodore was only distracted shortly; he then resumed listening attentively to his teacher.

Nathan's next topic was the body-strengthening technique. He took back the big human meditating illustration and took out a piece of copper coin.

He explained, "The body-strengthening technique is another important factor in practicing."

"If a person only absorbs mana without strengthening their body appropriately, their normal physique will not be able to bear the power brought from mana."

"The result will be like this." Nathan paused and showed Theodore by continuously injecting raw mana into the copper coin.

At first, there was no change; however, as time passed, the coin trembled more and more. Ultimately, as if it could no longer beared, it brews, causing a small puff of smoke and a crack on it.

Nathan then said, "A Human's body is like this. Without having a strong enough physique, there will be more good than harm on the path of cultivation."

"Do you have anything that you expect to know more about?" After finishing his teaching, Nathan kindly asked Theodore.

Theodore thought for a moment before he shook his head.

"Then, let's choose the suitable exercises for you to practice," Nathan said, bringing up several exercises.