Mana and Research

(Note: Currently both minds are fused which means that Oscar here is both consciousness, although for him it feels so normal that he doesn't question it.)

"Bwother~!!!" My sister cutely hugged me, which I instinctively hugged back.

"Were you worried?" I ask, planning to tease her.

"Of course! You were sleeping for 3 days, I missed brother" As I predicted she would say that, I made a slight grin. She looked pouty.

"Did you forget? I'm 'the strongest brother' i will never die~! I was just tired," As I say that, I start flexing my weak muscles to show her I'm fine and to cheer her up

As we finish the conversation, my parents and the doctor enter the room while my sister sits there with her cheeks flushed, presumably from my teasing.

After they entered the room the atmosphere was full of worry and even slight regret, I tried to make a joke to try to lighten up the mood and even maybe, show them that I'm fine.

Same as my sister, my mother hugged me and started to ask questions about what happened, and I smiled seeing her worried face and told her that everything was fine.

As soon as we finish our 'touching' reunion, the doctor starts explaining that ill stay in the hospital and what problems or diseases I could have, many of the names were complicated and were related to magic.

Luckily as the doctor was about to say that I awakened I motioned 'not yet' to him and he understood.

Me and my family started talking, and we chatted for a bit, we started talking about how I should be safer, and then the subject changed to my future, which I tried to avoid because I couldn't yet tell them that I had awakened and wanted- No. Needed to become a hunter.

After they left I noticed that I didn't ask them about my laptop and phone, but luckily they left a bag with all my stuff, they even left a toothbrush, which made me smile.

Still smiling I open my laptop and start looking into how hunters usually train, but soon notice that most of the training methods cost a lot of money, after which I start thinking about how to make money to buy these training methods.

Unable to do anything, I use the skill [Internet Backup], and then I get an idea. My idea was simple, download games from the other world and then post them to this world for money, but soon I found a problem, which was that I didn't have any mana.

Unable to think of anything, I give up and start training my body after 10 minutes of continuous pushups, I get tired and rest.

I used the [Internet Backup] skill, opened Spotify, and tested if I could hear audio from the skill. Luckily I could, so I looked for songs and made a playlist, and started listening to music.

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Evolution

Terminite

0:46 —⦁——————————— 4:20

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After fiddling around with Spotify for 20 minutes making a new 'training mix', I start researching mana and how to train it. Looking at a Wikipedia page about mana I don't find much useful information.

'Is this a wuxia novel? Training mana is exactly like cultivating.' After sighing to myself, I look for a scholarly journal website related to magic research. After finding one, I begin looking into how mana affects the body.

Looking for 30 minutes for an in-depth essay, I find one made by not a mage but by a Japanese swordsman named Fuyuto Fukuda. He tested a lot of mana training methods and found that for each one there was a different circuit that affected the body in certain ways but some did not work with each other. After testing around 30 mana training methods he crippled himself, and he couldn't use mana anymore, he began researching mana to find a way to fix his mana circuits and found a way to not only destroy old circuits but also add new ones to existing ones he even made a public guide how to do it but changing circuits aren't popular anymore because it was proven that the human mind couldn't imitate or rebuild similar circuits from dungeon mana training methods, and dungeon mana training methods were 30-50% faster than human-made. I later found that the destroyed circuits weren't actually destroyed but were deconstructed to mana, and carelessly destroying them could cause a loss in the mana attribute.

At first, I thought that this wasn't anything useful, but after thinking about it, it did help me find out that our bodies automatically absorb mana from the surrounding area or even from touching mana stone, but the absorption is very slow. The body innately tries to build a mana circuit but that circuit is terrible (think of it as just a stickman) and is just a template for other mana training methods. After finding that out, I immediately tried buying a mana stone to start building a mana circuit but stopped myself after finding out that even F-Tier mana stones cost a lot. Thinking for a bit, I realized that I was getting ahead of myself and I should relax.

Putting away my laptop my stomach growled. So I decided to head to the cafeteria, I also picked up my notepad just in case I got any ideas while eating.

Entering the cafeteria my ears get blasted with chattering and laughter the atmosphere seems light and fun, some would even say relaxing.

Getting myself something to eat my mind still lingered about mana so I didn't combat it and started to think about how to train mana so I could get money from the skill [Internet Backup]

After a few moments of thinking, I come up with some theories from novels, and Reddit posts from the skill [Internet Backup], but couldn't prove any of them so I continue eating, but I somehow felt someone behind me staring intently at my notepad and after another few moments, she sat down next to me. She was a young and beautiful woman with long brown hair, but I didn't care.\

Sigh

'I just want to eat in peace.' That was my only thought.

"Are you a student?" She asks trying to peek at my notepad, but my hand was covering the notepad.

"No," I answer indifferently while munching on some salad, I was quite hungry after not eating all day.

"Then why are you researching mana? Are you curious or are you an awakened?" Knowing how this situation will play out I already came up with a plan and even guessed that she was a mage.

"Okay, what do you want from me? Stop the small talk and ask straightforwardly," I bluntly talk to her as if she was an annoyance, which she was.

She immediately looks displeased and tried to retort, but before she could say anything I told her.

"Reminder, you sat down near me wanting something. You can expect me to be annoyed."

"Fine... I just want to look at your notepad it seems to have some interesting information that could help me. Anyway who gave you this kind of information? Do you have a teacher? Never mind that, could you help me~" Not suspecting that she will try to seduce me with her beautiful body into giving her my notepad, I responded with a slight blush.

"What's in it for me?" I saw an opportunity to get a mana stone for free, so I took the opportunity

"What do you want? A kiss?" She still tried to seduce me, although i cant blame her if a normal person sat here this strategy would totally work, but I with much difficulty managed to decline and keep my 'sanity'.

"Mana Stone," I tell her what I want, hoping she will accept.

"Huh?" She looks at me confused.

"I want a mana stone," I repeat myself. After I said that the atmosphere became cold and my instincts are screaming to run away but I tried to stay put. But even then I couldn't help but almost throw up the food I had just eaten.

"You know that I could steal it, right?" That was the moment I knew I fucked up, but the situation was still salvageable so while trembling I still had the courage to threaten her.

"You could, but you wouldn't get away with that, without harming me in any way which would cost you more than a measly mana stone," I made sure to grip the notepad, hard. She looked at me with a defeated look and then took out a mana stone from thin air, I didn't know that space magic existed so I was confused about how it appeared.

"Here, happy? Now give me the notepad" She looked at me with an ugly face, but I just didn't give two shits about that, I got a mana stone which I was happy with. Throwing the notepad she still looked at me with an ugly face but her face soon turned to a surprised one and she asks.

"Who is your teacher?" She releases aura from the excitement that suffocates me, and I begin getting a headache similar to the one that I had before my consciousness merged.

"Not again," as I say that I pass out.

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Some parts will be explained later or in the comments.

Please do tell me any mistakes I make in the comments, I do appreciate it a lot.

-Author