Chapter 10: The test and the solution...

Delicious, delicious...

Very delicious.

Delicious indeed.

I might even get a sweet tooth after eating these...,

...these divinely appetizing pancakes.

Yep, definitely a sweet tooth is in order.

They were just that tasty.

My stomach was full, but I still craved for more.

But being an adult, whose weight has always wandered over the thin line between healthy and overweight, I knew how to reign myself.

Which was what I did, as I savored the last bite of my second serving, of my pancake.

And I must say, I was regretful.

I wanted to eat more...

I sighed.

Why must all good things in the world end?

I questioned myself, before laughing lightly, as I stopped my joking inner monologue.

I wiped my mouth with a napkin, before looking at the maid serving me, her name was Mora if I it remember correctly, and unlike Amy she was a normal maid.

She had a serious air around her, which along with her thin glasses, long brown hair styled in a ponytail, and oval face, perfectly matched with her 'serious professional maid' persona.

But that didn't matter to me as I was more interested in the box she was holding in her hands, with a hint of anticipation in my voice I asked, "That box, my father sent it, right?"

And not disappointing me, Mora answered affirmatively, "Yes, Young Master, Master sent it to you, but I was waiting for you to finish your meal before presenting it to you, I apologize if I have erred, forgive me.", but with so much sophistication that I wondered how annoying it would be talk like that.

She gave me a light bow and placed the box near me, as she quickly started clearing the plates and cutlery, a task that she completed quite quickly.

Then she left the room, that is of course, after reminding me that I just had to call her out, if I needed anything.

At first, I wanted to say something to her, something like 'It's okay no need to apologize' but thinking that it would complicate the situation I just stayed silent, plus I had other important things to focus on now.

With her leaving the room, I finally picked up the wooden box placed in front of me, a simple wooden box enchanted such that only my [Mana Signature] will be able to open it, in other words a simple magical lock.

So, I had to emit my Mana to open it, a simple task for anyone but me.

Was this a test from Earl, to confirm if I was really his son?

Should I say well done Earl?

Well, the actual test wasn't a problem, as I transmigrated here I simply replaced the soul in this body so my Mana Signature should be the same, the problem was to emit Mana.

I don't know how to do that. I haven't tried doing that.

It was actually a simple skill that even non magic user can do.

But I had no experience in doing that, what if I fail? What if the Earl finds me suspicious? What will I do then?

A spiral of negative thoughts and what ifs assailed me, but they stopped when I realized...

...was this really my first-time using Mana?

A big fucking NO!

It wasn't my first time, in fact, I used Mana as soon as I transmigrated here.

Just after I met Amy.

It was the first time I used a skill.

And like all skills, that skill used Mana!

That thought gave me an idea, and I acted on it.

With a deep breath I closed my eyes and remembered that feeling.

The feeling of that skill, that slowness I felt along with the clarity it provided, I remembered it all and soon...

...I experienced that feeling again.

I blinked my eyelids once, opening and closing them, as I confirmed that I really activated the skill, and then-

-I focused, not on my physical body but the spiritual one, on my spirit body.

In this world a person is made of three things, first, the physical body the representation of a person in the Main Material realm.

Then there is spirit body, it overlaps with the physical one and its main role is to store abstract energies, neither Mana nor Mental Energy can actually be sustained in a physical body for a long time, they are just not compatible, at least on the lower ranks of magic users.

So where do these magic user keep their immense Mana stored?

That question was solved after a long period of research it, which led to discovery of spirit body.

A spirit body at lower levels supplies the body with Mana and Mental energy to use Magic or Enhance itself, while at higher levels, it can increase the area it overlaps to directly cast spells and such.

And finally, there is soul, it controls both the spirit and physical body while also serving as the link between them, the stronger the soul, the better it is, as it increases the amount of Mana that can be used in a single use.

It's actually like a road, it doesn't matter how much Mana you have, you can't let a truckload of it pass at the same time if your soul provides a narrow pathway for it, which means you can't use advanced or more Mana consuming spells even if you have the Mana for it.

...Or that was how I described it in the novel.

The problem here was that my spirit body and physical body were not linked, and of course they wouldn't be.

The reason was simple, the road connecting them was severed, well not actually severed but swapped with another road, that road being my soul.

As for why I was able to use the skill?

That was another mystery that I had to solve.

Technically, I shouldn't be able to use magic or skills, after all skills are nothing but pre-coded magic not limited by user's attribute or ability to cast magic.

Thinking about it now, this may actually be the reason that the Earl didn't suspect Rayne's soul being swapped with somebody else, even when my behavior was completely different from previous Rayne.

And actually, such a situation looked too convenient to be true, as if someone left me a way out.

But given the urgency of situation I didn't think about that much, rather I focused on my body, on my skill.

Using Mental Perception, which was now boosted by my skill I looked for the place from where Mana was actually pumped in my body and quickly found it, the back of my neck.

Concentrating on my nape, I looked for anything that worked like a connection or a bridge.

Both my spirit body and physical body were not linked but they were still under my control, so I found that bridge quite easily.

Now I had to trace the bridge back to its source, the spirit body.

I don't know why but I had a feeling, a hunch that everything would change if I could actually do so.

And that made me even more focused.

So, with a renewed focus, I concentrated on that small connection of mine as I traced it back...

...and failed.

Tried again and failed.

Another try and another failure.

On the third try I understood brute forcing my senses on it won't work.

The mana flow from my spirit body to my physical body made the task similar to swimming upstream in a river, and that was quite impossible for the current me.

Even if my senses got a boost from my skill, I was still a noob in using them.

Plus, it was not like I could reverse the flow of Mana, after all it was skill a pre-coded thing, I couldn't do that here, wait, I couldn't...?

With a flash I remembered something, a property of fixed output skills, a boring property that even I, the author didn't remember much.

And with that property I got an idea, and like every time I acted on it.

With my spirit body I pumped Mana in the connection, much more Mana than required, practically flooding the connection with it.

The excessive Mana passed through the connection got, but the output of the skill didn't change.

If this were a magic I used, then the output would have increased with low efficiency or the magic itself would have collapsed due to excessive Mana, but this was a skill, a skill with fixed output.

So, what happened to the excessive Mana?

The answer was simple, it was returned back to my spirit body by the skill, just like every fixed output skill does.

And with it, it took something else...

...my Mental senses to the spirit body.

And when I reached it I realized, my hunch was right.

Everything changes now.