II.3

Taking a breath, Shinjiro sat upon the meditation mat as he attempted to wrestle down his emotions.

His eyes stung with exhaustion, but his mood was brimming with satisfaction.

To absolutely no one's surprise, his stat page wasn't lying in the slightest about his lack of strength. He may have been tall for his age, but he was as thin as a stick and it showed.

Which, in hindsight, only made sense considering he hadn't once taken any kind of sport seriously before.

Still, there was no reason to be discouraged by his poor performance in the gym like he knew a lot of kids his age would be. He was already at rock bottom in terms of his physique, it could only go up from here.

Well, unless he decided to become fat, for some reason. But if he kept up with his training, that fat would just become bulk.

And while the owner of the place wasn't his personal trainer, he clearly had a vested interest in him by the end of the session since he promised to continue giving tips and helping out here and there.

He doubted he impressed the guy in the slightest, but it must've been something that tipped his favor. Maybe he saw his drive wouldn't just sputter out after one underwhelming workout? Or maybe he just felt bad for the orphan kid without any real help.

Either way, Shinjiro was happy to listen to Ishikawa's guidance.

The man seemed like he knew what was going on, if his giant stature was anything to go by. Shinjiro's stats hadn't changed afterward, but his life wasn't a game even if his power treated it like one. If his stats were going to increase, they'd do so as a reflection of his growth. And as such, he obviously hadn't made any tangible progress in one workout session.

But there was a stat he could probably increase as if it was a game. Mana.

He'd read enough of the book to have a good grasp on the concept of magic. In essence? It was both less and more useful than he thought it would be.

Magic, at the moment, was impossible for him.

Why? Because of how mana functioned as a whole. To elaborate, every living thing produces mana. He wasn't sure what it was exactly, no one really knew, but he knew now how it functioned.

For each species, mana functioned a little differently. On it's own, it was known as unattuned. Neutral, some would call it. But when it's source was the connection between a being's mind and soul, the mana would be made attuned to the species.

This change from it's natural state would cause mana to function in slightly different ways depending on the species. Devils, for example, had such a powerful connection between their mind and soul that their sense of self physically changed their existence. And following that connection, their mana was so potent that they could control it with imagination alone.

Humans were one of the unfortunate species that gained pretty much no advantages when their mana was 'human-attuned'. In fact, it was more of a detriment.

The reason being that upon leaving the body, a being's mana would simply stop being attuned to the soul and... dissipate. For the most dominant creatures, the connection of the mind and soul was so powerful that their version of mana would simply follow their whims no matter where it went. For humans? No dice.

The moment mana left his body, it would just... stop listening to him.

That's where magic came in. They were tools, instructions that the user would 'condition' their mana to follow like a program on a computer. The moment the mana stopped listening, it would default to it's conditioning, following the 'spell' taught to it.

Without even a fraction of an idea on how to do that though, there was no point trying to use magic.

Even Merlin only figured it out after using devil test subjects and reading their mana flow.

Still, as he closed his eyes and stilled his emotions, he figured he could use mana for something as long as it was within his own body.

For a while, a long while, there was nothing of the world except his controlled breathing and the quiet buzzing of his own soul.

According to the book, this was normal. Finding his mana would take time. Controlling it should take even longer.

Which is why he almost missed it when a part of his soul spiked under his attention.

Wait... did his soul sensitivity mean that he had a talent for...?

He scrunched up his nose, his head throbbing slightly as he focused all his attention on the sound of his soul.

Slowly, it began to click with him little by little. Like learning to move a muscle that he didn't know existed. A foreign feeling that somehow felt... right.

Despite knowing where it came from, none truly understood mana. It was an ever-present aspect of the universe, another element to add to the periodic table. A force of nature outside of mortsl comprehension. And while he could hear the result of it's movement, understand it on a theoretical level, he was starting to feel it's actions.

His weary body didn't feel changed, but more like he was finally aware of it in it's entirety. A piece of his whole being that had been previously blind to him.

A burgeoning vortex of energy began to form in a space around his heart, slowly spinning as he willed it into existence. There was a wall of resistance as he pushed it, sweat beads forming on his head, but he didn't stop.

Just.

A little.

Further.

And he could-

"Gah!" Shinjiro exclaimed, a sharp pain piercing through his body. Snapping open his eyes, he let out a hiss as he let go of his intense focus.

Something... changed.

He didn't feel much different than before. The only significant thing he could distinctly feel was his soul's connection to his mind. It was far less obvious than the buzzing of his soul, but there was no denying it's prescense now.

An indisputable change. Was that why he now had a system prompt waiting in front of him?

▽

[New Skill Gained!]

[Primitive Mana Manipulation]

"The skill which encompasses the proficiency the user has for controlling and molding their own mana."

-Effectiveness of skill is dependant on the user's [Mana] stat-

△

This... wasn't this sort of skill extremely valuable? If he was reading it correctly, it just added a whole new function onto his Mana stat...

That meant that even if his proficiency was low, the more mana he had then the better he would be able to control it! When he learned whatever form of magic he came across, his spells would be shooting out crazily fast and with barely any drain to boot!

Maybe there were other skills like this for both Chi and Faith? Though, trying to figure them out seemed like a greedy endeavor.

Focusing on that feeling once again, he felt a dull stinging sensation as he tried to circulate his mana through his... channels.

I think I may have strained my... what would you even call that? Mana organ? Magic circuit? The-thingy-connecting-the-soul-with-the-mind.

Yeah, it was better to accept this overpowered skill than try and rush for a bunch of skills he wasn't even sure existed.

Honestly, he was surprised he didn't get some sort of meditation skill instead of this. He didn't think he'd done enough to earn it, but he damn sure didn't do enough to earn a skill as powerful as this one.

Besides, this skill alone was going to be super powerful even if he didn't know how to perform a spell. While it was within his body, his mana wouldn't need complex calculations to perform internal spells.

Like, could he make a spell to enhance his body with mana? Or even one to improve his regeneration speed? Create a technique for supernatural senses?

Absentmindedly, he raised a hand to cup his chin in thought.

This... he could work with this.