บท 31: Experimenting

Arthur always considered his mana to be supplied from elsewhere. He was under the impression that he was borrowing it from the outside, just like a game. This misconception was because of his Legacy, as it felt like this strength was not his own. However, he realized how faulty his understanding was. He kept using mana as a currency while it was a part of his body, drastically reducing its efficiency.

There was another way to use mana other than abilities or skills, and that was enhancing. Mana is a type of energy that has appeared alongside the first dungeons in the world, and that's why many of its properties were a mystery. However, it was believed that each person had a body and the lifeforce that moved it. After much research, this life force was a type of mana as well.

In theory, mana can even resurrect the dead if they haven't been lost for a long time. However, that remained in theory as no one was ever able to replace life forces with mana. There seemed to be a link between a person's lifeforce, mana, and the person himself. Once that link has been lost, the mana would leave the body.

Since lifeforce was a type of mana, that meant everyone had mana. That was, in fact, inaccurate. Mana was the name given to the energy a person could add to their body, on top of their lifeforce. That's why non-awakeners were called as such because they had no awareness of mana, even if their lifeforce was mana as well.

The common knowledge about abilities was the same. Even if Arthur was uneducated, he would still use other methods to increase his knowledge. One such method was the internet, allowing him to access information with public-access.

If mana was the energy of the world, then people were the filtering gates mana would go through. As each person was unique in their way, their body would manifest mana differently. Some people would control flames when they tried using mana, others would have their body's functions amplified, turn a person invisible, and even communicating with other dimensions like summoners. Abilities were versatile and unique for each person, usually inherited but mutations could occur with a child having a different ability than his parents.

Then came the raw use of mana, as weapons and other tools were normal unless they were artifacts or magical tools, a person had to use their mana to enhance his weapon or coat his body. This was invented by a powerful person whose ability was unsuitable for battle or industry a hundred years ago. The person was able to control mana so efficiently that he could contend with powerful ability users.

It was then that mana control and usage was spread among the public since it gave people with non-combat abilities the hope of being able to hunt and defend themselves in this chaotic world. Arthur wanted to learn the basics by himself, and that was the main task on today's agenda.

As he closed his eyes, he tried to sense the mana inside of his body. As it has reached 30 by now, it was hard to not notice its existence even if he tried. Like a gentle flame in his body, the mana moved and flickered inside of his abdomen. The mana was linked to his lifeforce, greatly enhancing it. That was why awakened people lived longer than others while looking a lot more youthful.

Using the link that he imagined in his mind, Arthur urged the mana to different parts of his body. As if pulling a boat while swimming, he felt like his mana was met with resistance. It was his lack of control over his mana, as well as the weakness of the link his body had. Because this link was unused for almost all of his life, Arthur had a weak control of it. If he was more knowledgeable, he'd have a better grasp of how to use this link and what it was called. However, he was simply a person who has just recently awakened. He didn't have the time to have proper education about mana or abilities, reling on himself to learn things throughout his jobs.

Arthur felt mentally tired after trying to move the mana to different parts of his body. Although it was a gentle energy, harmonizing with nature itself, Arthur had no control over it. If others could pull their mana as they wished like pulling a rope, then Arthur felt like he had a thin thread. As soon as he tried to tug on that thread too hard, the link would scatter and his mana wouldn't move. He'd have to concentrate again for him to use it.

For his next goal, Arthur decided to kill the violet-gem goblin ant. To achieve that, he would have to learn the proper use of mana, even at a beginner level. There were no shortcuts around this that he knew, nor did he have skills regarding mana control. He'd have to exercise daily to strengthen his link. As he was tired right now, he decided to rest.

Opening his eyes, Arthur found that it was pre-noon. As he still had some time before lunch, he wanted to test a few more things. He closed his eyes and sensed his mana as he tried activating his camouflage skill. He felt a portion of his mana leave his body and envelop it. This time, Arthur felt his mana leave his body through somewhere else from his 'consciousness.' If his mana was the target of his link, and his awareness being the origin of the link, then the skills were an intermediate between his awareness and his mana. If Arthur had to visualize it, then his skills were like gates that filtered mana. His awareness gave commands to these gates and they would drain mana and produce and manifest that mana into the world.

Arthur did another experiment with his runes. He used the Strength-I rune while he focused on his mana. Unlike before when he tried pulling mana directly, there were route-like pathways that his mana could travel in and the rune would be manifested this way.

All of this was novel to Arthur as he never studied them, but he found the difference simply fascinating. Why would these three things have different ways to manifest? What was the difference between abilities and skills, other than the former being simply instinctive? He felt that they were linked somehow, but one was simply 'artificially' made and one being inborn with the person.

There was a reason that abilities were a lot more preferred than skills. First was mana usage. Skills used more mana. For example, his F rank Poison strike used 2/30 of his mana. However, his strength amplification used 1/30. The same could be said about his Protection-I, which had an evolving feature along with his strength, as it would simply drain 10/100 of his strength in terms of mana. These runes were versatile but they were also cost-efficient, and Arthur attributed this to the 'pathways' his body had that could manifest his ability.

He had spent hours simply trying to get a better grasp of his mana that he even forgot his hunger. Arthur stood up and brought out a primitive creature he hunted yesterday, bled, skinned, and skewered for today's meals. It was one of a boar that had horns radiating electricity. The funny thing is that because of this ability, it looked like a furball with all of its fur standing erect. Arthur decided to start eating monsters of primitive grade because he thought their meat would be more enriched with mana.

As he watched Kira grilling the meat, Arthur felt affectionate toward his new friend. If it wasn't for it, Arthur would have faced a lot of inconvenience and danger. Even more, he would have probably starved.

As he watched the flames cooking the meat away, Arthur remembered what Solomon told him. Everything here was summoned from elsewhere, and maybe that's why he met Kira again. What exactly happened that had led them to be summoned here? It was only a few days between his meeting of young Kira and the trial. However, since time here was frozen, he had no way of explaining things right now. Maybe this was a portion of the future or maybe Kira got here a lot of time before he did, he didn't know.

Arthur studied the scars on Kira's body as he imagined the blood and death it had to walk through to survive. Did it deserve this? Solomon's words rang again in his head.

'Every thirty years, monsters are summoned from the outside world. They are then trapped here until they kill or get killed, what fate is this?'