Mana Training (1)

Logging back into the Game, Ulysses only found Luke, who was smiling ear to ear while swinging his quarterstaff to a tree.

"Has he lost it already?" Rin mumbled as he approached him.

This fella probably hadn't logged out when Rin and Elise left. Instead, Luke had cleaned himself and changed his clothing from what was available on the farm, though his body still showed some signs of injury.

"Bruh! Did you get laid finally?" Ulysses asked, joining in to stand next to the tree.

Luke relented his training, and gasped for breath, his lips still curved into a smile.

"Well, congratulations," Rin said, drawing his palm to slap him on the shoulder. "I hope she doesn't have e problem with STDs."

"Piss off," Luke cursed.

"No?" Rin arched an eyebrow. "Then why are you smiling?"

"I got mana," Luke said in a high-spirited tone, making a fist. "I actually managed to awaken Spirit as an attribute."

"Well, congrats again," Rin said, giving a high-five. "How did this happen?"

Luke smiled sheepishly, not ready to answer.

"Don't tell me," Ulysses mumbled, "Did you jump back into that disgusting rat dungeon on your own?"

"Don't give me that judging look," Luke yelled at him. "I have my reasons to put all my effort. Unlike you, I still have things left to achieve."

"But that dungeon. . ." Rin sighed. "Tell me more."

Apparently, Luke got the catalyst from killing a flower, well, a flower monster, to be exact. In his words, the flower monster was overwhelmingly powerful with hypnotising power; its only limitation was that it didn't have much scope of action being attached to the ground.

Luke spent about an hour on that, baiting the flower with alive and dead rats to finally get the result. It turned out one of the rewards from looting the flower was a magical spore, which gave a 10-20% chance of awakening an attribute.

Luke cashed in without waiting for others and got the attribute he desired the most.

"How many points do you have in Spirit?" Rin asked, curious.

"Sixteen," Luke said. "Although I got a couple of that number consuming the rewards I got from the flower."

Ulysses whistled. "Why are you still beating the poor tree, then?"

"Training," Luke sighed. "I guess I couldn't wait anymore and tried to apply mana into the quarterstaff to see how potent it was. So far, I'm mostly disappointed."

Rin shot him a flat look and picked up a dry leaf from the ground.

"You see this?" he said and applied his mana cloak ability to strengthen the leaf. Next, Rin handed the leaf to him. "Tear it if you can."

Luke took the leaf, giving him a second look. He could easily see Rin doing something to it, as the leaf was beaming with a faint emerald shimmer. Even though he was not sure what it was other than the thin strand of mana, Luke found he could feel it through the veins of the leaf.

"Enough foreplay, tear it already," Rin reminded him again.

Luke followed and clutched the leaf between his fingers, pulling with his utmost effort to tear it.

His face turned red, yet not even a single crack appeared on the leaf. Only the emerald gloss dimmed. He figured it would take a constant application of force to tear it off, eventually. But that wasn't the lesson here.

"How?" Luke asked.

Looking at his state, Ulysses let out a satisfied chuckle. "Trust the force, Luke."

Luke snorted.

Rim smiled, took the leaf from his hand, and said, "Look carefully."

Luke saw him, pouring more of his green mana into the leaf and eventually throwing the leaf towards the gigantic tree he was hurting with the quarterstaff so far, to no avail.

Luke's eyes widened in anticipation of the next moment. The leaf went like a ninja shuriken... No, more like a magic card in those martial arts movies, and pierced the trunk of the tree.

He turned to look at Rin again with much more appreciation than before.

"Why did you really leave the league, Rin?" he couldn't help but ask.

Rin was in no mood to entertain that question and checked on the leaf that clung to the tree. It was barely a finger deep, leaving room for much improvement.

Luke sighed, getting no answer, and decided to get busy with the thing which was the most important now.

"How did you do it?" Luke asked. "And I dare you to mention bullshit like trust the force again."

"You just called one of the most iconic lines as bullshit. Have some remorse, Luke."

"Rin, please, you don't know how important this is for me," Luke said gravely. "Everything I built up, crumbing down. . . Even my family. . ."

Rin blinked. He intended to joke around more, but he put a pause to it, hearing him out. So Heaven's Virtue was crumbling down, it seemed. Well, Rin had been a founding member and gave his hand in its making, but it was Luke and Leila who put in all the work with a little financial support from their family.

Rin decided he could be a prick at some other time.

"So mana," Ulysses said, and thought about what to say to him, considering he barely had a clue what he was doing with it. "I guess having an origin mark made it easier for me. As for anything else, the only advice I can give to you is visualisation."

"Visualisation?" Kingmaker repeated, picking his eyebrow. "How are you so good at it then, considering you used to sleep during meditation?"

"Mate, I was barely ten at that time."

"Haha, I remember Aunt Alina and Elle had to force you to meditate, though you sleep throughout the process."

Luke, on the other hand, was better at meditation than most kids in the Zen School, along with his sister Leila.

"I guess constant practice changed that in me," Rin remarked. "Anyway, visualisation helps in moving and applying the mana to different parts of the body and even into weapons, and that leaf. Try it now."

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Does anyone want to read Luke killing the tree monster to get the rewards? Tell me quickly, because I won't write it anymore if we move on from this sequence, which would be tomorrow.