บท 17: Handyman
Eisen sat down on his bed and grabbed the book to train mana manipulation with out of his new Backpack, which he then leaned against his nightstand.
Flipping open the book, he skipped forward to chapter four, which concentrated on how to control mana when it is outside one's body. He already figured out how to compress it inside of his body and push it out through his skin to let it float over his palm, as well as layer it at the front of his Hammer.
And he managed to somewhat control the mana outside of his body as well, when he let it somewhat beat in the rhythm of his heartbeat. But this time around, he was supposed to do something else with his mana. The basic excersize in the book basically just told him to change the shape of the sphere later. At first maybe change it into a cube, but at some point also more complicated shapes like general items one had laying around.
Eisen started out with the basics, slowly compressing it down and then moving it to his hand to push it slowly through the skin on his palm. When he felt the slight stinging, he opened his eyes and looked at the sphere on top of his hand. Right now it really was only a rough sphere shape, something one might expect to see when a bright light shines outward from a single point to create the illusion of a bigger sphere, and Eisen knew that a lot more mana than necessary was lost every single second.
So the first thing he wanted to do was change that. He knew that there was something 'solid' in the core of the sphere, so he only had to copy the feeling of the weird solid energy and replicate it throughout the whole sphere.
Little by little, the core grew and the shine shrank as Eisen imagined the energy growing harder, round and flat like a glass bead.
Eisen slowly used his left hand to touch the solid sphere of mana, and immediately felt how cold it was to his touch, but the more he felt it, the more the cold felt like heat, and the heat felt like the cold. It was a curious and unknown feeling to Eisen, but the more he felt it the more he wanted to feel it.
He began to try and change its shape slowly, but it just wouldn't turn into the cube that Eisen wanted. There were only six small, flat surfaces that formed along the sphere, but not enough to actually call it a cube, or even have it be recognized as such by a third person.
More and more, Eisen tried to refine the shape, but hit a counter-stop at some point. No matter what he tried, it wouldn't change anymore. So to at least level his Mana Manipulation skill up a bit, he began changing the shape from the mock-cube into the sphere and back, repeating this cycle continuosly until…
[Mana Manipulation reached Level 100 in Rank 0, upgrading to Rank 1]
[It is now easier to manipulate the shape of Mana]
[Due to Ranking-up your Mana Manipulation Skill, you gained +1 INT and +1 WIS]
Immediately Eisen felt a Major difference to before. The mana that could not be turned into a cube no matter how much he tried, took on the form he willed it to as if poured into a mold.
"That's more like it!" Eisen laughed out loud and looked at the cube. He held out his left hand and slowly touched the tip of his index finger against the corner of the mana-cube. Seeing that it was surprisingly sharp, but still gave in to his touch, he smiled and continued reading on further. However, even before he could finish the first page, he read the warning that from then on it would only be useful with a Rank of 2 or higher in Mana Manipulation, since the rest of the book had to do about manipulation of element infused mana, and this was only unlocked when one reached rank 2.
Thus, Eisen chose to rather train his Mana Manipulation ability for the time being.
Since what he did last night even gave him extra Wisdom, Eisen decided to continue on this train of thought. He only somewhat knew what a human heart looked like, since he could guess it from seeing animal hearts on the rare occasions that he cooked it in the past. However, since he wanted to take this chance and copy the shape of his heart as detailed as possible, he tried out something new.
While keeping the shape of the Mana-cube floating over his hand up, he moved the rest of his mana still left inside of his body into the center of his chest. He concentrated on it especially, and felt his insides through the mana. It was a weird sensation, one he wouldn't be able to explain even if someone asked him to, but he knew how to control it. Eisen spread his mana out around his heart until it was completely covered and he could feel every last bit of it. Slowly, from the bottom up, Eisen copied exactly what he felt inside of him onto the cube floating over his palm.
The longer Eisen tried shaping the cube, the more it looked like a heart. He continued inspecting his own heart while it beat, and copied that same tact onto the mana-heart in front of him.
[Mana Copy Skill Learned]
[Mana Copy Library Expanded] Giant-Dwarf Heart
"Huh? That's a skill? Awesome!" Eisen exclaimed and looked at the notification floating next to the beating heart suspended in mid-air above his hand. He leaned in and looked at the pure white construct shining and glittering in the moonlight. "This is truly beautiful. I'm not sure of the uses it might have, beside artistic ones, that is." He muttered out and placed his fingers around the heart, feeling it beat in his hand.
That's when he had an idea. During his long life, he many times thought about how great it would be if he had more than two hands. With a grin on his face, Eisen moved the rest of his mana back into his hand, filling it out completely from the inside. He felt its shape and Eisen's new Mana Copy skill immediately went to work when he tried to copy the shape he felt, and the heart morphed into a hand.
[Mana Copy Library Expanded]Giant-Dwarf Hand
"Wow, that's amazing! It really looks just like my hand!" He exclaimed with glee in his voice, forgetting that the mana was still inside of his hand and the shape was being copied onto the structure in front of him. When he moved his hand closer, the Mana hand moved away, and when he clenched it, so did the mana hand clench itself.
Grinning, Eisen stretched his hand out forward, and the Mana version of it traveled to the other side of the room, and when Eisen pulled his hand backward, it moved back toward himself. Slowly, trying to grasp the complex control it took, he moved the fake hand to his backpack, and closed it around the straps.
When Eisen then held his hand upward, the Backpack basically began to float with the help of the Mana Hand.
[Mana Hand Skill Learned]
"Haha! Another new skill? And this one definitely seems useful!" Eisen laughed out loud and let go of the bag, then scratched his beard while the hand copied that motion.
As if he had an idea, and simply to test out how the activation worked, Eisen concentrated on his other hand and filled it with mana. It was relatively hard to split the mana left in his body up, but the moment he got the Mana Hand skill, the energy contained in his hand felt stationary, as if he was wearing a glove inside of his hand, so he didn't need to worry about concentrating to keep it there.
The moment his mana filled his other hand in addition to the already filled one, a second hand appeared in front of him.
Slowly but surely, he picked up the book he laid down on the nightstand and opened it up with his Mana Hands, carefully flipping through the pages. His control really was not good in the slightest, which could be seen in him ripping out multiple pages out of the book. Luckily, it was the guide-book for the basics of the game instead of the Mana Manipulation book. Eisen had to return that to Morrom at some point, after all.
For the next hour, Eisen continued practicing with his Mana Hands by using the ripped-out pages and folding them into different shapes. At first, he could only fold it in half a few times, but later he was even able to fold simple origami animals out of it.
During his practice, he noticed a few things. The further away his hands were, the worse his fine control got.
And then, without Eisen expecting it, something happened.
[Your MP hit 0. You will lose consciousness now.]
The next morning, Eisen woke back up with his MP completely filled up again. He shot up immediately his eyes opened and he looked around confused. "What just happened?" He muttered out, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"It said I ran out of MP, huh? Well, at least I know that's what's going to happen when I run out, so I should be careful so that it doesn't happen outside…" Yawning loudly, Eisen stood up and picked up the book lying on the floor, as well as the random folded pieces of paper spread out everywhere.
"Well, I'll just go get some breakfast then. And maybe I can ask Bree to help me practice. With her giving me mana, I should be able to level it up further!" He smiled and left his room, his backpack under his arm.
"Good morning Eisen~!" Bree exclaimed happily when she saw him enter the restaurant. Eisen smiled softly and sat down at one of the nearby tables, "Good morning, Bree. Working in the morning again, huh?"
"Yup~! I asked if I can work the suuuper early morning shifts! I don't need to sleep as much as others because I'm a Fey-kin!" She smiled and then took Eisen's breakfast order. Since Bree planned it so that he would be the last customer she served that morning, she came back with two plates instead of one and sat down together with Eisen to eat.
Eisen explained his plans for today, which would be to simply work on his and her clothes, at least the ones he could make without leather. And if there was still time, he would try and make something simple, like another purse, only using his Mana Hands.
"Whoa! You can use Mana Hands? But it took me super long to learn that!" Bree yelled out in disbelief, crossing her arms with a pout on her face.
With a laugh, Eisen finished his breakfast at about the same time as Bree did, and handed her the money, and obviously a generous tip, which she quickly denied but since Eisen insisted she took it against her will.
After a few minutes, Bree came out from the back and skipped to Eisen's side.
He smiled and walked out of the Inn with Bree directly behind him. The two of them took their time strolling around town, Bree showing Eisen some of her favorite places and telling him more about the town.
The pair then walked across the same bridge as the day before, and made their way toward the Tailor shop Beautiful Clothes to begin work for the day.
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