Threads

The next few days were hell for Damon. His every waking moment was spent in his mother's arms. Worse still were the breastfeeding and being cleaned after reliving himself.

William and Lucy hovered around when they weren't taking lessons, but Damon did not get a chance to assess them with True-Sight because his mother was always around.

He was surprised at how accomplished of a mage she was. He tried his best to remain expressionless whenever they cooed at or tried to play with him, hoping it would dissuade the behavior, so his mother had taken to using magic to entertain him. She would summon balls of light and bubbles of water to float around his head.

Having high mana sensitivity, it was a wonder to watch the intricate movement of mana used to form and move these around, and it was amazing to see how little mana she used and how well she controlled it. She had been so conscious of his crippled mana veins in his previous life that she had hardly used magic in front of him.

Eventually, he took to sleeping as much as he could during the day. Whilst his days were torturous, his nights were useful and sleeping during the day meant he could maximize the alone time.

Damon spent his time getting acquainted to mana. To be able to move mana felt magical. He was used to aura. Aura was born from within the body, and though it was hard to intricately move it, it was generally easy to manage and control.

Because of his crippled mana veins, he hadn't been able to control Aura as most normal people would. As such, he was forced to walk his own path – using his whole body as a container for Aura. This allowed him to be devastatingly powerful but needed extremely fine control of Aura to not damage his organs whilst using it.

Because of this, he expected to be able to very easily manipulate mana, as it was supposedly easier to control than Aura. When he tried, however, he realized how different the two were.

Aura was like a pool of energy that could be concentrated into a surging river. Mana, on the other hand, felt like a thick fog. Damon could feel its presence but impossible to truly grasp a hold of it. When he tried to channel it, it felt like some mana followed his will, whilst most continued on, unbothered. Even those he could move were erratic in their flow.

It took him two nights to realize the issue was with his approach. Aura was generated by the body and belonged to the body. Mana, on the other hand, belonged to nature, and it took time to absorb mana into the body and make it your own. The best method he found to move mana was to use the mana in his body to guide the mana in his surroundings. Like a general commanding his troops.

"Right, it makes sense, it would be ridiculous to be able to control all the mana in a room whilst having such a small mana pool." Damon thought to himself.

With his high mana sensitivity, he could feel his body slowly absorbing trace amounts of mana, but it was impossible for him to change the pace of absorption, no matter when he tried. In a way this made sense, upon awakening, if one became a mage, they would unlock the skill 'mana cultivation', which allowed mages to collect mana. Without this, he couldn't increase his mana.

But there was a lot he could still do.

For starters, he found that the better he could control the mana already in his body, the better he could command the mana in his surroundings. Whilst he couldn't increase the amount, he could increase his efficiency and control.

Like this, Damon spent his first few weeks. The time passed like a blur. For most adults, it would have been a dull life. There were the irritations of having to be fed, bathed and played with and there was the boredom of lying in a cot. But to Damon, it was magical.

For hours on end, he played with my newfound ability. He practiced guiding it, weaving it, gathering it and releasing it. He traced patters in the air and experimented with diverse ways of moving the mana within his body.

Initially, he tired himself out quite quickly, but as time went on, he was able to do more for longer without growing tired. One thing he has especially fascinated by was the state of mana. In large quantities, mana acted like a single surging wave. In smaller quantities however, it behaved like individual particles that weren't quite physically there.

He practiced building particles together, trying to find the point at which they stopped behaving individually. He also practices taking a surge of mana and trying to separate it into individually controllable sections. It was frustrating, because no matter what Damon did, it seemed that after a certain concentration, he would just lose control of the mana.

Like this, he spent another few days until he made a breakthrough.

When he brought the mana particles together individually in single file, he found that no matter how many joined together, he could control the lengthening thread of mana very well. Unlike with other methods of gathering mana, this didn't collapse into a surging blob after too many particles gathered.

The only problem was that the longer the threads got, the harder it was the control the particles further from him. Sometimes they separated from the thread, flying away. Oher times, they gathered after he lost control, forming the usual thick fog of mana.

Relying on his mana sensitivity, Damon observed himself and noticed the problem. His own mana was not running out, but it gathered too slowly to be able to control so much mana in the atmosphere. If he started the mana thread from his hands, when the thread reached a certain length, the mana in his hands and arms ran dry, being used to form the thread. He still had mana in the mana veins around his legs and torso, but it was too slow in flowing to his hands to support and lengthen the thread.

He pondered the problem for the next few nights and eventually decided to try using his experience in controlling aura to address his issue. He wasn't sure if it would work, but worst-case scenario, it would simply exhaust his mana for a few hours.

As he would have done with aura, he focused on driving the mana around his body. In some ways, it was easier than with aura, as he could use the mana veins as pathways. In other ways, it was harder, as the pathways required much more concise movement of his mana. He focused on moving his mana, so that it formed a continuous cycle in his body. Like this, when he formed the mana thread, the circulating mana would replace the mana being used in an orderly manner. Like this, he managed to form a long, stable mana thread.

Ping!

Damon was taken aback as his status window popped up in front of him. Normally, this happened when one leveled up a stat or skill through training or unlocked a new ability.

Curious, Damon looked at his updated status window, focusing on his stats.

Stamina: F (Low)

Speed: F (Low)

Strength: F (Low)

Durability: F (Low)

Agility: F (Low)

Mana: F (Mid)

Aura: --

Remaining Stat Points: 0 (35)

Innate Abilities: True-Sight (A), Mana Sensitivity (S) <???>

Class Abilities: --

Sub Class Abilities: --

Miscellaneous: Mana Control (E), Mana Circulation (E), Mana Threads (D)

Remaining Ability Points: 0 (14)

"Gu-gu-gu-ga-ha-ha-ha!" He started laughing in his cot.

He had managed to unlock two mage abilities whilst still being level 0! This meant that he would be able to spend his ability points elsewhere. More than that, it confirmed to him that between now and the age of 10, as long as he worked hard, he would be able to unlock or develop other abilities.

His stats seemed unchanged so he wasn't 100% sure if that was the case for them too, but it was common knowledge that training in a specific capacity would affect the awakening stats of that capacity. He wasn't sure about mana, but for the other physical stats, he could raise them through exercise.

"Ah! He's really laughing!" A giggling voice interrupted Damon's thoughts. He looked up and saw Lucy, hanging over his cot, smiling down at him. Next to her were William and his mother.

William was expressionless as usual, but his mother had a bright smile on her face.

Lost in his thoughts whilst laughing, Damon hadn't heard them coming in.

His mother picked him up, holding him close to her chest. "My Damon, such a serious baby, you should laugh more for mother."

"I thought his sense of happiness was broken like this one." Said Lucy, nudging William.

William stepped back, out of her range. "Do you notice how he stopped laughing when he saw your face." Said William

The two started bickering, but their words faded as his mother walked out of the room with him held to her chest, rocking him as she went. "Were you hungry Damon?"

"Goddammit!" Damon thought to himself as he was subjected to another round of feeding.