Mana Nova Overload

Leo woke up to another day, feeling refreshed even after all the traumatic things that he went through yesterday. Leo knew that he needed to follow the advice given to him and move forward. It was going to be hard to do so, and as Leo fell asleep his resolve to survive this hell and protect those he cared about became much deeper. Leo was now resolved to take on much more burdens and carry on the legacies of those that pass on under his care, this was the resolve that he had come to last night as he drifted off to sleep.

Leo got up and got dressed, slowly taking in the new day and the bright atmosphere that seemed to radiate a much more positive atmosphere than it did yesterday. Leo had also come to a conclusion last night that he needed to get much stronger, and in a short time frame as well. Leo had surmised that since he would need much greater crystals since his mana pool was so much larger, he should always be trying to passively convert the energy from elemental crystals throughout his daily life.

Leo was now thinking about this decision as he walked towards the breakfast table that was being setup for the morning tradition. Leo sat down at the table, and took out 1 of the water elemental crystals. Leo had woken up early since everyone else had gone to the feast last night so he had about an hour before the morning breakfast started.

Leo held the water crystal in his hands, double cupping it as he sat in a chair. Before in the ant cave, Leo had to basically enter into a coma-like meditation state to restore his energy, however he knew that he couldn't just stop mid-fight and ask the opponent to give him a few hours to restore energy. No opponent was that stupid as to give their enemy time to recover, except maybe those cocky dragons from the myths of his old world.

Leo held the water crystal in his hand and 'asked' the crystal for its energy. The crystal responded in kind and started to freely give the energy within itself to Leo. Leo struggled to keep his eyes open as it was hard to stay awake while this process was happening. Leo realized that he was probably supposed to absorb the crystals one by one and this process was supposed to be tedious and time consuming.

Leo however, wanted to get used to always being awake and ready for battle when he was doing this process. Leo would need many, many crystals for his affinity and immunity to shoot up and for him to become more powerful, but he realistically didn't have all that time.

Leo started to get drowsy and almost passed out a few times as he started to sweat more and more as time went by. Leo was seriously struggling as he sat at the table, catching a few glances from the chefs as they set the tables and food up. Leo recognized that one of the chefs had a slightly panicked expression and then quickly left, which Leo found to be a bit odd.

Leo and his Blue grade water crystal were duking it out mentally, one trying to knock the other unconscious, and the other just trying to survive the waves of exhaustion the other was sending his way. Leo didn't realize it but he was slightly shaking while he tried this, making the staff even more worried as they kept shooting concerned glances his way.

Suddenly he heard two distinct voices call out to him in a hurry.

"My Lord! What are you doing?!" the deacon yelled out as he ran towards Leo.

Ash also was running towards him as he yelled out,"Lord Leo, stop what you are doing!!"

Leo didn't stop however, as he had one goal in mind, to conquer this crystal with pure effort alone. This crystal was not his master or his god, why should he sleep when it tells him too?

Both the Deacon and Ash were now caught up to the table, and they urged him to stop once more, almost in unison saying,"Lord, please stop!"

Leo tried to speak but realized that this was even more of a struggle than just staying awake, only managing to struggle out a weak,"Im.. Fine.."

Ash quickly replied,"Lord Leo you are definitely not fine! I don't know why you are trying something so suicidal as non-meditation absorbtion, but you need to stop right now!"

The deacon quickly added in a calm voice,"Lord Leo, you may have taken my words last night and hardened your resolve to become stronger, and that is a good thing. However this is not the way to do that, you are in a great amount of danger and the longer you continue to do this the danger will continue to grow!"

Leo was struggling to listen to them, stay awake, absorb the crystal and hold a conversation all at the same time as he managed to sputter out,"What.. problem..?" through gritted teeth.

"Lord Leo, what you are doing has been tried before and it will not end well for you. When you absorb energy from an elemental crystal you are taking in the raw energy of that crystal. Your body will automatically attempt to put you into a meditation-like state so that your mind can focus, purify and refine that raw energy naturally!"

The deacon nodded his head furiously and said,"When your body does this process automatically you only get about 70% of the energy of the crystal, but it is safe for your body to use and manage. However it is well known that doing or even attempting non-meditation absorption will give you the full 100% of the energy, making it much harder for the body-"

The deacon stopped mid sentence as he finally got a good look at the crystal in Leo's hand, eyes widening when he realized what it was.

Ash didn't know what the deacon was freaking out about and took a closer look at the crystal as well, nearly falling on his butt in astonishment, quietly saying,"Dear god… what have you done.."

The deacon, quick on his toes, quickly yelled out to the chefs,"Someone go and wake up Xia! Tell him that the lord may go into mana overload soon! Tell him it's an emergency!"

2 of the chefs gasped when they heard that and ran as fast as they possibly could to the weapon smiths shop where Xia was currently residing.

Leo could still hear Ash and the deacon furiously arguing in the background about something, but his full attention was on the crystal. He had been going for about 20 minutes at this point and every minute that he continued to do this it was harder and harder to stay awake. Leo could feel that the energy in the crystal had about 60% left, meaning Leo was extracting it much faster then the Green grade crystal from the cave.

Leo smiled, which was a struggle in itself, chuckling in his mind, thinking,"This is how I need to do it from now on! If I can simply surpass this need to meditate, I can extract more energy according to the deacon, on top of extracting that energy in record time!"

Leo decided right then and there,as he set a goal within his mind,"From now on I will absorb crystals this way to hone myself! Every element that I come across I will absorb till I have at least Blue grade affinity and immunity! I will level up faster than any other lord in the world!"

The deacon and Ash were still arguing about what to do as Leo started to emit an aura of magical energy around him, still staying awake despite the pain from doing so. Leo didn't care though, forcing himself through the pain as he thought about the pain those soldiers went through. Compared to that, this was nothing and Leo would not compare this small suffering to theirs. If they were that resolute even in their final moments, Leo needed to have a heart as cold as ice and a mentality as hard as steel.

Xia quickly ran over to see Ash and the deacon still arguing about what to do, urgently asking them,"What happened?! I heard the lord is undergoing non-meditation mana overload!!"

Ash quickly explained in an urgent manner,"Yes Xia, the lord came and sat at this table and started to cultivate a Blue grade water crystal, forcing himself to stay awake the entire time!"

Xia's eyes widened in surprise as he asked,"Did you say that he is doing this with a goddamn Blue grade crystal?!"

The deacon quickly assured him,"Yes, check for yourself, its a Blue grade water crystal. What's worse is that since he is blessed with a very, very large mana pool, he will most likely be able use all the energy within the crystal!"

Xia shouted,"What?! What the fuck was he even thining doing such a suicidal act?! Quickly evacuate the area, I will need to start drawing the protection symbols around in case he has a mana nova overload!"

Ash and the Deacon didn't even comment on Xia's disrespect towards Leo as they were all of the same mind, this was a very dangerous situation.

Xia turned to look at Leo and suddenly shouted at them,"Hurry that evacuation up by about 10 minutes! He has already entered the mana burning stage!"

The deacon and Ash also looked at the magical elements surrounding Leo that they had not noticed until now, eyes widening in fear. They quickly started to round up everyone in the area, making sure that no one got anywhere close to Leo.

Leo for his part was blocking out a lot of the noise and chatter as he focused on staying awake and absorbing all the energy of the crystal in his hands. There was only about 45% left in the crystal and it was draining into Leo quite fast.

Leo noticed that the table in front of him was yanked to the side, which caught him a little off guard but not enough to ruin his focus, as he could feel he was nearing the end. Leo then saw Xia sprinkling some white powder in a circle around him as he continued to extract the energy.

Leo focused on the crystal extraction but kept a slight interest in what Xia was doing as he had started to chant some weird words. It was all very strange and eventually Leo could see the Deacon and Ash frantically chasing people out of the area in the corner of his eyes. This made Leo wonder what was going on, but thought that maybe his inexperience with doing this type of energy extraction may harm the user and they didn't want anyone to see him injured.

Leo watched Xia slowly walk up to him, with Leo's thick magical aura getting brighter and thicker by the minute, ballooning in size every so often. Xia walked up to Leo when the crystal was at 20% energy remaining by Leo's estimate.

Xia was now standing in front of Leo with fear apparent in his eyes as he looked at the Blue grade crystal in Leo's hands. Xia calmly said to Leo,"Lord Leo, when you finish absorbing the energy from the crystal you WILL experience what is known as mana nova overload. The raw energy within your body will not be able to be kept there, and will need a place to escape to. I implore you, please direct that energy as hard as you can towards the sky, or every single person in the city will die."

Leo was just now realizing that perhaps he had messed up not listening to Ash and the Deacon but as the crystal was giving the last of its energy Leo knew there was no other option at this point and with a slight struggle nodded his head.

Leo finally finished with the extraction and just as described the energy within his body felt like it wanted out. Leo took out his spear and called out as loud as he could,"Water Cannon!"

Everyone watched as Leo created a sphere of water the size of a Green grade home and launched it into the sky, where it exploded with a deafening BOOOOOOOOM!!!!