Chapter 3 - A Crash Course In Mana

The man infront of me placed a palm on his head, sighing.

"Mana is the energy all of us, well most of us, use to perform things like this."

He held his palm out infront of him, and a ball of fire was conjured.

"People have different attributes and afinities towards Mana, there are many attributes out there. There's attributes like fire that are basic attributes. Basic attributes are just attributes that exist on their own. And there's Attributes that are born from a combination of two attributes. These are compound attributes. Attributes are assigned at Awakening, having more doesn't necessarily make you stronger than anyone else. And having less doesn't mean that you're weaker than anyone else. It just directly correlates to how varied your attacks can be."

I nodded, vaguely understanding what he was talking about. My memory on the novels power system wasn't that good, I sort of skimmed though the explanations.

"You have a singular Attribute. The Arcane Attribute. I honestly I don't know much about it, what I do know is that it's physical reinforcement and regenerative capabilities are incredible. It's also rare."

Then, he dissapeared and reappeared infront of me. I wasn't able to react at all, the man infront of me looked down at me. He was bald, had glasses and was clean shaven.

"I just used attributeless Mana to enhance myself just now, if I used Arcane Magic the effect would be far greater. Now, as for reminding you on how to use it... I think this should do."

Suddenly, the man's arm pierced my stomach, blood spewed from my mouth as I felt my guts spill out. I fell to the ground and roared in pain.

My heart beat faster and faster, my body felt hot as I was subjected to nothing short of agony.

"Remember. Remember how to use Arcane Magic, or else you'll die."

I clutched my gaping stomach, trying to stop the bleeding.

'I won't die. Not again.'

Then, as I felt the blood draining from my body, a sensation took over me. For a moment, I felt something course through me. It was... power. I knew what this power was, it was Mana.

"Normally, I wouldn't do this, but muscle memory, if you can even call it that, is an incredible thing. So go on, grasp the power coursing through your body. Use that boundless sea of Mana within you, and use Arcane Magic to heal yourself."

Mana, the feeling of it flowing though me was oddly familiar. It was likely a byproduct of being reborn into the body someone who was rather good at using Mana.

However, I couldn't rely on attributeless Mana. I needed Arcane Magic. And so, I used Arcane Magic. I didn't fully understand how this all worked. But, what I did know was that it hurt to use.

I felt my organs being remade, I felt each and every cell being recreated, I felt the muscle fibres being formed along with the reformation of my skin.

The pain was immense, it hurt even more than when he actually pierced my stomach. I grit my teeth as painful grunts escaped my mouth.

" Remember how to use it, if the Sun God's Heart ever begins to cause damage to you. It'll be how you survive, well either that or you die."

'Sun God? Oh right... my heart.'

I got up, clutching my sides, even though the pain was all gone. I glared at the man infront of me, I wasn't gonna let what he did go. There was no way I'd ever let that happen.

Once I had mentally recovered, I threw a punch at him. It was a sloppy punch, I didn't know how to fight after all.

The man moved faster than I could see, and grabbed my face, slamming me into the ground. The floor cracked under his might.

"You really think you can hurt me without using Mana? Come now, as if a 15 year old could hurt me, even if you are a Knight. Now then, let me continue explaining the basics of Mana while you heal yourself."

The man placed his foot atop my head, and began to crush me.

I felt fear as I realised I didn't fully know how to heal myself on command. I took deep breaths, or rather I tried my best to do so.

"Not everyone can use Mana, only those who can have Mana Cores can do it. People with Mana Cores are known as Awakened. Mana Cores hold Mana within them, the amount of Mana a person can hold varies. When you run out of Mana, you obviously can't use Magic. But more than that, you suffer some adverse affects. And you should know this, your Mana Capacity is absurd. It's the biggest I've ever seen, not that I've seen very many large ones or anything but still."

'Heal. I need to heal...'

I felt the bones in my face start to crack slightly, this man was actually trying to crush my skull. I tried my best to remember the feeling of manipulating Mana, but it was to no avail.

"Normally, different attributes consume a similar amount of Mana when the scale of the Magic is equated. Howeer, the Arcane Attribute consumes gargantuan amounts of Mana even when the scale is equated to normal healing Magic, even if it can do things like regenerate limbs and recreate lost organs. As such, people who use Arcane Magic can't use it more than a couple times a day. However they're highly valued assets because of their ability to heal others to such great extents. But, from what I know, you're not supposed to be very good at healing others. As a matter of fact, when you try to use Arcane Magic to heal others its less effective than most people's healing Magic.

I felt my heart beat faster and faster as I was consistently incapable of calling on my own power.

"Oh, you seem to be struggling? Perhaps you need to be brought closer to death before your body instinctively aids you in using Magic."

Then, the strength behind his leg increased two fold. The ground shattered and my head was actually in the ground. I was going to die, it was only then that I could actually sense Mana.

I then slowly used Arcane Magic to heal myself. Slowly but surely, my body began to repair itself.

"Oh, your healing output has slowed considerably. Well, whatever. Now then, I should tell you that the terms 'Attributeless Mana' and 'Mana' are generally used interchangeably. If one were to reinforce themselves with Mana, it would be with attributeless Mana unless... well you're you."

He took his foot off my face, as my body started to repair itself. I concentrated, attempting to memorise this feeling and this unbelievable pain. I had to remember it, I could never forget neither how to heal myself, nor the humiliation I felt.

'I'll take out you, at the very least.'

I then stood up, trying to manually control the output of my Arcane Magic. I then slowly increased its output, the higher the output the more painful it was.

"Not bad, now let's see how you react to this."

He grabbed my arm, and once I saw his face I could tell what he was going to do.

Snap!

He broke my arm as if it were twig, blood sprayed out from it as fragments of bone protruded from my skin.

I immediately began to heal myself, the old man smiled at my warmly which made me feel a sense of disgust. He was looking at me as if were some sort of puppy that had learnt a new trick.

'I'm going to remember this.'

"My word, you really are as talented as the rumours suggest. Your body remembers the sensation of using Arcane Magic very well, you must've trained a fair amount considering you were able to relearn the skill in about 20 minutes."

I held my arm tightly as it slowly repaired itself, bone fragments that were in my skin were moved to where they should be and any bone that had splintered onto the ground was recreated.

Gripping my arm tightly, I knelt down, grunting in pain. The process was unbelievably painful, but it was also mesmerising to watch. This power was something that I valued a lot considering my hoal was survival. A power that could turn a maimed and gored body into a fully healed one was nothing short of Godlike to a person like me.

"Your pain tolerance seems to be pretty high. Or maybe you're just not the vocal type, I can't imagine having a part of your body recreated to be a painless process."

I wasn't listening to him as my arm soon fully healed, it felt odd. My arm felt slightly stronger, but I didn't spend too much time thinking about it.

I breathed heavily, I was exhausted.

"That's enough for today."

I looked at the man for a while, before finally speaking.

"A knife. Give me a knife, I need to practice."

He looked at me with a confused look in his eyes, but then smiled manically afterwards.

"You want to practice healing yourself? Sorry but I can't let you do that. Instead, I'll spend some time with you."

He looked over at the people behind the glass, and dismissed them.

"It's late, so they'll be sleeping. But I can entertain you, Reinhardt."

The man took off his lab coat, and threw it away.

"Now then child, I apologise for harming you earlier but we needed you to be able to heal yourself in case your heart began to prove to be too much for you. Now then, we can move onto the next stage. Enhancement."

I then felt the Mana in his body surge.

"You're Mana sensitive since you're an Awakened, so you can feel it, right? This is what physical fortification looks like. Whenever someone fights, they use this unless they intend to attack from afar using spells. According to the data we have, your Mana Fortification, or Arcane Fortification was rather good. But I doubt you're as good as before since you're well, an amnesiac."

He sighed before speaking, as if dissapointed by my supposed amnesia.

"Your turn."