05 - Centenary Meme

After class was over I went back home. I even went back along the same path I used yesterday to try and get a chance to find the man I saw teleporting yesterday, but this time the man didn't show up.

But as I passed through the alley where the man had entered, an idea popped into my mind.

Why don't I use my S-Eyes in this alley to see what the man was doing here?

As I was still wearing sunglasses, even though it was at night, I simply moved my Mana to my eyes quickly I felt my surroundings getting better and things moving more slowly.

Using S-Eyes so many times during the day I ended up becoming more proficient, managing to activate it in less than 5 seconds, unlike before I needed at least 30 seconds of concentration.

Looking down the alley very carefully, I couldn't find anything unusual.

…

Seeing there was nothing interesting I deactivated my S-Eyes and was about to leave, but suddenly some knowledge popped into my mind right after I ran my eyes through a garbage can.

[Skill: Concealment Formation.

Cost: 1 Mana Units per minute per meter covered. (External Objects can be used as fuel for formation.)

Effect: User can make a selected area invisible to the eyes of ordinary people and people with low Mana who don't have the password.]

When this knowledge entered my mind , I felt like I had studied this Concealment Formation for a long time, even knowing how to repeat the feeling in my Mana lines to maintain a formation like this.

What once seemed to me to be just an ordinary garbage can, now I could see some signs that a formation was hidden in this garbage can.

But despite knowing this formation and knowing that it was there, as I had never used this formation I could not understand it perfectly.

Curious, I activated my S-Eyes again and looked at this garbage can again. With my S-Eyes activated several details were very sharp and I was soon able to understand how it worked.

After understanding this I quickly deactivated my S-Eyes and continued walking as if I hadn't noticed anything.

From what I understand from that formation, it's there to hide a small vent on the floor.

Probably the man in the overcoat I saw that day teleported to the hidden place underground.

It's best if I don't get involved in this sort of thing for now, being too curious can put me in not-so-desired situations.

Although I had a good harvest… this ability to define formations can be very useful.

–

Coming home, the first thing I did was train my Mana control. As I spent all day turning S-Eyes on and off, I was able to practice enough to use this skill of mine much more easily.

If I train this with teleportation maybe I can even teleport in combat if I need to at some point.

For now, to teleport I need to concentrate for at least 20 seconds to go to a closer place, if I want to teleport to a greater distance I need even more time.

'With practice it will get better!' I motivated myself mentally.

As I arrived from college at 23:00, I trained for another hour before eating something to satisfy my hunger, taking a shower and sleeping with empty mana.

When I woke up the next day I could finally see results for the experiment I was doing.

"Mana is really like a muscle, as long as I push it hard enough, over time the maximum amount will increase…" I said quite excitedly.

What yesterday I felt like my Mana was 100 Units, after depleting my Mana all day using S-Eyes and depleting Mana with teleports before sleeping, I finally gained 1% more Mana!

Now I probably had 101 Mana Units in total, meaning I could teleport 10 meters and 10 centimeters!

This might seem like just a small improvement, but considering I gained 10 centimeters of teleport distance just by training for one day, what if I train for 30 days?

The feeling I had in my body felt like I had let go of a chain that was holding my Mana.

Yesterday I didn't realize it, but coming to think of that feeling now, it's like every time I used Mana yesterday, my body was eating away at this chain little by little, until during sleep this chain finally broke and I received 1 Unit of Manna!

Excited, I sat up in bed and activated my S-Eyes to look at the Mana in my body, and really, even though I only gained 1 Mana Unit, it's like the Mana flowing through the lines has gotten lighter.

Focusing on Mana, looking for other things like the imaginary currents I thought of, I managed to find another 9 like these.

If each block like this gives me 1 Unit of Mana, in a short time I will increase my Mana by 10%!

Feeling that I could see progress clearly in front of me, I felt even more motivated to train.

Today I didn't even feel like playing Fortnite, I just wanted to go out and practice my magic.

Ding

Hearing the cell phone's notification tone, I thought it was Luke, since he usually texts me the most, but the contact's name was Elena.

Curious, I opened the notification.

[Good Morning. Have you figured out how to train? If you want, I can show you a place that Supernaturals frequent for that.]

This message came at just the right time!

[I was trying to figure out how to do that haha, of course I accept your invitation.]

[So meet me at that address in two hours.]

Seeing the address she sent I was happy to realize it was close to my house.

As she was already going to show me a good place to train, and probably a more effective technique than the way I'm doing it, so I can take advantage of it and leave it to train there.

I got out of bed and started tidying the house, making my breakfast and taking a shower, since I didn't know what the place was going to be like.

To be on the safe side, I grabbed some sportswear I bought at work and walked out of the house wearing it, of course, with the same sunglasses I was wearing yesterday.

'It will be better if I buy other models of this glasses, as it is the most useful.' I thought, imagining that after wearing the same glasses a few times it would dull my style.

The address was relatively close, not far enough to need a car to go, but not close enough for me to reach it in less than a 30 minute walk.

Arriving at the place I saw a big sign of a gym and I was confused. There's no way she could have brought me here to work out like a normal person, right? At least I came with the right clothes.

"Oliver!" Elena waved in the distance as she walked towards me.

I smiled and waved back while also walking towards her.

From a distance I could see that today she was wearing an even thicker mask than the one she wore in college, and to my surprise, when she got close to me, the first thing she did was lower the mask and take a breath. deep.

"That smell… what the hell…" She complained, but she didn't stop breathing and smelling me.

Seeing how she was I thought it was funny, what had happened to me before was some girls hugging me to smell my perfume and then developing into another kind of situation, but Elena was obviously focused only on the smell.

It was such a strange situation that it was funny to me.

"Have you smelled enough?" I asked as I stared at her with a smile.

Seeing how I was looking at her, Elena was a little embarrassed, but after so many years of training a cold expression, she quickly returned to normal and put the mask back on her face.

Curious, I asked. "Why are you wearing such a thick mask today?"

She just pointed at the gym and replied while sighing. "As much as that place is a gym for normal people, there's also a wing for Supernaturals to train, and as you can imagine, in a place with so many Supernaturals with Mana overflowing their skin, the smell in there is terrible for someone like me, who has such a sensitive nose."

I raised an eyebrow upon discovering that inside this regular gym there is a hidden place where Supernaturals train.

But knowing her condition I still asked. "And you're okay with coming to a place like this?"

Elena looked at me a little surprised and answered. "I rarely come to places like that, even if I have to train in a place with lower efficiency, but because of your smell I thought that maybe I could handle training here. Then I could also train while showing you a useful place with other Supernaturals.

Hearing her explanation I nodded and agreed. With this being useful to both of us, we had no reason not to.

"So let's go?" I asked a little excited, after all, aside from the man in the black overcoat who gave me Teleport, Elena was the only other Supernatural I'd ever met.

"We will." She also replied a little excitedly.

Arriving at reception, Elena just rang a bell that was in the corner of the receptionist's desk and entered the gym.

I even looked at the bell thinking there might be some formation I could copy from that, but there was nothing.

As we went to the back of Gym Elena explained to me.

"That bell has some Mana injected into it, so normal humans will be affected by the spell and ignore it, while only Supernaturals can intentionally touch it."

I heard this and understood, but there was a doubt. "And what's the point of having that bell there? Does it ever warn anyone?"

Upon hearing my question, Elena was silent for 3 seconds before answering in a slightly amused voice. "No, it's just for fun. Now that you are part of the Supernatural world you will see that this kind of thing exists everywhere. Even if you go to the bathroom you can find something like this. There are legends that since the Great Formation was invented, groups of Supernaturals started spreading this kind of stuff all over the place. I'd say it's kind of a century-old meme."

This really surprised me, but on the other hand, it's really funny that things like this have been around for hundreds of years and normal humans have never figured it out.

"What about you? Have you ever put on something like this?" I asked curiously.

Hearing my question, Elena looked away and quickened her pace, apparently a little embarrassed.

I just laughed instead and followed her, curious to see what the Supernaturals' training would be like.

As we were getting closer to the back of the gym, Elena slowed her steps and came a little closer to me.

Realizing that there would be other Supernaturals there, I decided to activate my S-Eyes, since I still had my sunglasses on.

I could see a clear divide between where normal humans trained and where Supernaturals trained.

Through S-Eyes I could see people with the most perfect bodies had Mana lines all over their bodies.

But unlike the Mana lines on my body, theirs weren't pure blue, some were slightly greenish, while others were entirely green.

Looking at Elena's Mana I remembered that hers is just a green fraction, among all the others, it has the least green color.

Maybe that's what makes her smell bad? Since she said her Mana only stinks a little, while other people's Mana smells like a sewer.

"You may have already noticed that the Mana in our body consumes our fat and turns it into muscle. In addition to nourishing our body, it also expands the physical limits we can reach." Elena explained. "If you just spend your Mana, the process is quite slow... or rather, for you who are a mage, it should be faster, but for Supernaturals with low Mana, the process is a little slow, so we train with weight to speed it up this process."

"Both the amount of muscle Mana transforms and the maximum capacity that your limits can be expanded are determined by the total amount of Mana you currently have."

This surprised me. "So mages are physically stronger than traditional warriors?"

Elena just shook her head. "Theoretically, mages could be stronger than fighters, in fact mages who dedicate themselves to physical strength become much more powerful than fighters, but they usually don't."

I was confused. "Because?"

"The more powerful a spell, the harder it is for the mage to learn, so mages usually spend most of their time studying powerful spells. After all, between throwing a powerful punch and summoning a tsunami, there's no comparison." Elena explained while sighing since she is not a mage. "Some great families have mixed magic with physical abilities, but normally mages like that are just stronger than Supernaturals, but against a pure mage they wouldn't stand a chance."

Now I really understand. It's like I marvel at how useful a bazooka is, until I see the damaging power of a nuclear bomb.

Even though the bazooka is still useful, in front of a nuclear bomb it doesn't even tickle.

But wait a minute, I don't need to study spells, I can just copy with S-Eyes, so in that case I could enjoy the best of both worlds!