55 Weapon Imbuement

[Sophie's Pov]

Something had changed about James. I didn't know what or how, but no matter what he did during his absence, he was not the same person anymore.

Even though he acted like he always does, like a complete buffoon, my instincts were telling me that he had lost something, something important.

Staring at my ceiling, I tried my best to ignore this annoying inner voice that never actually spoke, and closed my eyes, eager to wake up so I would get to see Arthur again.

Little did I know that there was another person, lying in the same position as I was, who also had a hard time getting some shut-eye.

****

[Arthur's Pov]

'I wonder if he understood what I meant...'

My life had been too hard for me not to get suspicious when someone like Adriana suddenly wanted to spend time with us.

Though I did believe she enjoyed our company, there was just no way she didn't have some kind of ulterior motive behind it.

I knew that I wasn't as clever as James, who appeared to always have things under control at all times, but I wasn't stupid.

'I just don't want it to end...'

These three weeks at the academy had been by far the happiest of my life and I could finally let myself smile freely as much as I wanted without getting berated for it. It was liberating. And the one responsible for this feeling was the strongest person I knew, not referring to her being the most powerful, but pointing to the strength of her heart.

Caring, proud, beautiful... There were so many words I had to describe her, yet I knew I was still not worthy of her hand. Also, I didn't want to bring her onto my path to eradicate the demons, it wasn't fair to her.

Still, I just couldn't let someone like Adriana come in and screw things up. Therefore, I let the man I idolized, in many ways, subtly know what she had been up to.

Now it was up to him to decide what to do with the information.

****

[James's Pov]

===Status===

Name: James Jackson

Rank: E+

Strength: F+

Agility: E+

Stamina: E

Intelligence: D-

Mana Capacity: D

--> Main Manual:

[Trickster - Ungraded] - Medium Understanding.

-Core Skill: [Double Trouble]

-1st Skill: [Swap]

--> Side Manual:

[Conjurer - Ungraded] - Minor Understanding

-Core Skill: [Conjure]

--> Elemental Affinity: Mist

->Elemental Skills (Affected by [Conjurer] Manual): [Dome of Mist]

==========

Having finished my usual morning routine of checking my stats, I was excited about what this day would bring.

It was finally time for me to start reading about animals again, having postponed trying to understand the second animal I wanted to be able to transform into.

Although the raven had a very clear purpose as a way to discreetly gather information and save money on train tickets, the second animal I had in mind didn't. I just thought it would be pretty cool.

Today, I decided that my main body would get to stay at home, while I went to class in the body of sub-me. This turned out to be a pretty good idea as I was welcomed by a group of four students on the grounds while trying to quietly make my way to class.

Another one of my mistakes showed his stupid face as he stared at me with fire in his eyes. Not in the romantic kind of way, but the 'I truly hate you' kind of way.

Behind him, he had his trusty ol' John as always, a seemingly less intense Bellatrix, and another student that I assumed to be a second or third year as he didn't belong to either 1-A or 1-B. He was of a larger build, almost rivaling the muscle brothers that stayed behind in the B-class but still had his brown hair left.

As I was scanning the group of what I could only refer to as high school bullies, Mike pointed his finger at me triumphantly, "Today is the day, you beggar of man! I challe..."

"I refuse. See you later."

...

Walking passed the group who stood with their mouths agape at my dishonorable action, I, unfortunately, didn't make it far before the man shouted at me one more time.

"Don't walk away from me you filthy commoner!"

Feeling an influx of mana behind me, I knew that I had managed to make him snap, his anger getting the better of him as he was about to break the rules of the academy. Conjuring and compressing my element into a small orb, no bigger than a ping pong ball, I turned around just in time to see him firing his spell at me.

"Take this!"

His [Fireball] looked a bit bigger than when I saw it last time, but as it was flying towards me, I just let my little ball of mist intercept it before it managed to come to fly too far.

As my element got eaten by the fire, I let go of the compression keeping the element together.

*BOOM!*

"Aaah!", "Shit!", and "Eee!" were the reactions Mike's friends had when the [Fireball] suddenly exploded, threatening to burn their hair if they didn't take a step back.

And so, under the cover of the fire, I walked away from Mike the Moron and went on with my day.

========

Having spent the morning meditating and opening as many mana channels as possible, it was finally time for the mana manipulating class. I had already begun to experiment a bit yesterday, but I was eager to continue my tests. As I already had a pretty good grasp on how mana enhancement worked now, I wanted to move on to practicing the weapon equivalent; Weapon imbuement.

There were several layers to this technique, according to the internet at least. The first layer was just a simple strengthening of the weapon, making the attacks more powerful and a bit faster. The second layer could take two different turns. One could choose whether to try and integrate their element into the imbuement, or they could give their pure mana different characteristics.

This could be specializing in speed or power, enlarging the weapon, or, in very rare cases, duplicating the weapon as you swung it. Now, I was a behavioral scientist/psychologist in my previous life, so when people were writing all these things about how and why these things were possible, I didn't understand anything.

All I knew was that I wanted to learn how to do these things as it sounded pretty cool. In the game, there were several skills that would do similar things, so I just assumed that these imbuements were a method of, just like bodily enhancement, replicating these.

So this time, I didn't hesitate to withdraw my scythe, not caring for the wide eyes staring at my bizarre choice of weapon, though the eyes of a certain princess were even more intense than the rest, recognizing the weapon I had shown her in the survival event. Understanding what I was trying to do, their minds were probably thinking that I was overestimating myself.

Even though I had been quick at learning how to utilize physical enhancement, it was unfathomable that I all of a sudden would move on to weapon imbuement. However, not even Mr. Black said a word, letting me walk my own path.

Ignoring their gazes, I just started to feel the scythe, letting my mana try and get to know it through my hands. However, there was a very pronounced barrier that wouldn't let it be that simple. After all, the weapon wasn't a part of my body, therefore it wouldn't let my mana contaminate it for no reason.

So, I sat down instead, cross-legged with my scythe lying on my legs, and closed my eyes. I could feel the scythe a lot more clearly with my mana now, creating the sensation of looking through a glass wall at my destination. So, I did what I did best. Attempt to force my way through.

Sending out pulses of my mana, I tried to make a crack in the wall, some kind of opening where I could inject my mana. "That's not how you should approach it, Mr. Jackson."

Throwing me off, my teacher had covertly made his way to me to assist me in my efforts. Sitting down behind me, which did make a bit of a shiver go down my spine, he put his hands on my back. "Relax, let me help you guide the energy. Though it is impressive that you have already found the border, you mustn't force your mana through it if you don't want to end up permanently damaging your body. Instead, imagine your energy attuning to the border, going through it without deteriorating it."

Closing my eyes once more, I tried to follow his guidance. Taking a couple of seconds to find the 'wall', I tried to understand it, tried to make my mana join it as to then go passed it. Suddenly, I felt something like an invisible hand take hold of the energy, helping me mold it to become flexible and transparent.

Then, I felt a huge burst of my mana getting sucked out, diving into the weapon as it left my body. When my eyes opened, I saw a misty glow on my black scythe, signaling my success. This, sadly, didn't last for long as it dissipated as soon as my concentration had a moment of weakness.

Mr. Black removed his hands from my back and stood up, a huge smile sticking to his face.

"You truly are a genius, Mr. Jackson. Very well done!"

It was a bit awkward to receive his praise, as I had already secretly practiced this quite a few times with double bodies, but that wasn't something he needed to know.