公交车上翁熄系列

Chapter 126: The Power Of Intent

It would be another two hours before Katrin returned, accompanied by Vivian Lex, the doyenne of Mystic Tower chapel. Everyone gathered had been up to training at their own discretion up until that point. Once everyone arrived, Oliver had them all gather and began the process of correcting their faults. He outlined the pros and cons of the technique and even explained step by step so that everyone could apply it at will.

Oliver’s explanation of Mana Reading was crystal clear. First the platinum blonde elf had everyone display their current mastery of Mana Refinement. Due to its nature, mana was a mass of gathered energy. Once gathered it would naturally disperse given enough time.Mana Refinement was the ability to prevent your mana from naturally dispersing. Mastering this ability was enough to give a magic user more than ten times the available mana to make use of. This was crucial for magic users as most of their abilities revolved around magic. In the heat of battle, a magic user without mana was as good as dead.

Oliver made them all stand in a line and do the most basic of exercises, create a non elemental orb of mana. He then walked from person to person, placing his hand near each orb to access it. Of the six people gathered, only three seemed to pass Oliver’s test.

“Gates. Gigi, you two are expected to be masters of this basic technique. Frankly.. I’m disappointed.” Oliver shook his head, his arms folded as he gazed at the two chapel members. Gates scratched the back of his head whilst Gigi shrugged.

“Shula. Agni. Katrin. You three are very close to fully mastering Mana Refinement. In fact, one of you has already mastered it completely.” Oliver stopped in front of Shula and smiled. Agni’s jaw dropped and Katrin was genuinely impressed.

“How? How are you better at this than me?” Agni asked.

“All you do is lounge around all day, eat and insult people.” Agni added as she squinted her eyes. She could never resist taking a jab at Shula. It was how the two shared their love.

“Meh. You’re a defective demon, so it’s a given that you would suck at just about everything you do.” Shula said as she folded her arms and puffed out her chest proudly.

*Even tyrants can smile?* Agni shared the thought with Shula who seemed oblivious to the shots being fired her way.

“It’s nothing to be discouraged over.” Oliver said, ignoring their back and forth entirely as he focused on the Scribe and Succubus.

“You two have only been members of the chapel for what? A couple of weeks now? Maybe even less. Yet you’ve already surpassed two senior members.” Oliver seemed genuinely pleased as he heaped praise upon Agni and Katrin while making Gates feel even worse. If Gigi was feeling anything, it wasn’t made apparent, for her expression never changed.

“And…finally the worst of the bunch.” Oliver stopped in front of the hooded dragon-kin and stared for a moment. Dealla had been in a bad mood ever since Oliver announced his intent to hold back any of the people who failed to improve. Despite her best efforts, first death was making things very difficult for the Draken Knight. She found it difficult to move her mana properly, use skills or even walk straight. Her body and mind felt weak, Dealla’s only blessing was that she merely had an hour left to endure the status ailment.

“I know you’re probably being affected by first death but…30%? Really?” Oliver seemed amazed at how terrible Dealla was at magic refinement.

“What type of skills does a Draken Knight use?” Oliver then asked.

“Defensive. Warding and Buffs.” Dealla kept her reply straight to the point, she hoped this would conceal her bad mood.

“I see. Well then it’s understandable. Buffs and self skills generally don’t require you to contain particles of mana, because you *are* the container. Very well.”

Dealla had expected to be admonished, but instead she was cut some slack. She blushed slightly as a feeling of relief and…admiration made her ears burn.

“Normally, I’d have you all train until you reached 100% mastery with Mana Refinement. But we don’t have that kind of time. As such, you’ll be training multiple aspects of the technique at the same time to speed things up.” Oliver explained as he walked back and forth.

Next he had each of the adventurers show him a magic spell. For Gates and Gigi he knew the results, but the next surprise came from the succubus.

“Stop.” Oliver said as he paused and turned towards Agni. She cancelled the fireball she’d been conjuring and paid special attention to the instructor.

Oliver held his hand out, palm facing the succubus and pressed it against her chest.

“The fuck?” Shula whispered, then she shrugged because she didn’t really care that much.

“Now, another example please.” Oliver directed.

Moments later his eyes widened.

“You’re an Omni? Interesting. It’s been a long time since I’ve met another.” Oliver’s normally stern expression was now morphing into one of happiness.

“Yes. I am. According to Gigi.” Agni said as she shot a glance further down the line at the red headed spellsword.

“Gigi? You knew of this and you didn’t say anything? Do you know how rare an Omni is? We must cultivate talents to their highest degree. Two failings in a single day, you’re setting a record.” Oliver shook his head as he directed disappointment after disappointment at the ginger.

Oliver sighed deeply and continued his explanation.

“Those of you who are Outer users will find this a bit easier to do. Inner users will just have to work a bit harder. Now to get started.” Oliver took several steps back and then faced everyone.

“Did you know that magic is more potent because of your intent? Gates, step forward.” Oliver waved the young man forward and had him stand directly in front of him, just a few meters away.

“Offensive magic is meant to hurt. Healing magic is meant to restore. There are different aspects to magic and each has an intention behind it. Spells are a specific set of instructions or rules that your magic will follow that simplify this process. Including the “intent” of a spell. However, when using raw mana, your intention can be easily set.” Oliver lifted his right hand and conjured a rather large fireball. Rather than the normal orange and red mass of fire, it was purple with varying degrees of lavender and black.

“Catch.” Oliver said as he willed the fireball to smash into Gates. Gates was completely unprepared, in fact he only had time to lift his hands and cover up. Everyone was surprised as the impact of the fireball flowed outwards and smashed into them — at least their brains imagined it that way.

What actually happened was less dramatic. The waves of purple fire were warm, soothing even. They felt their mental fatigue lessen, so that they were more alert — more fresh minded. Even Gates, whose body was engulfed in purple flames, was surprised.

“This is the power of intention. Although flame is one of the most destructive natural forces, you’re unscathed and even feeling better. Why? Because I infused this magical construct with my intentions, which were to refresh your mind. You’re all ready to go right? As if you just stepped out of bed — eager to get your day going.” Oliver’s smirk was normally annoying for the group but this time they had nothing to share but admiration.

“This is..so cool!” Gigi shouted as she looked at her own hands.

Agni felt the same, regardless of how everyone else might think. Truth be told, it was something she always wondered. Agni used raw mana often, mana without an elemental affinity attached. She used it to practice various things and she always wondered how ‘neutral’ energy such as that would become so destructive.

“Those of you who have the ability to manipulate various elements will immediately come to understand that the system is applying the most appropriate intention based on your thoughts or feelings when you use free magic.”

“So, why is this important? Simple. Everyone can use non elemental mana. It’s the basics of the basics. Which is why everyone can also infuse their intentions into said mana. At its core, you need to be able to infuse your mana into Mana Reading to get the desired result. There are rules to how this works, but it’s the simplest explanation that allows you to get started. Let’s see. Hmm…Gates you can fall back into line, Gigi step forward.”

Gigi did as directed, she seemed much more giddy than a few moments previous.

“Mana Reading is, quite simply, an application of dispersing your mana particles with 100% accuracy across an area of your choosing. It requires Mana Refinement to maintain, and Mana Infusing to give your energy an intent. Gigi. Fire your most powerful attack directly at me. And don’t hold back.” Oliver said. Agni double took as she realized Oliver’s body had slowly begun to become transparent. After a few lingering seconds everyone realized that Oliver was actually several meters away now.

“Is that an after image?” Dealla verbalized everyone’s thoughts as the “image” of Oliver faded completely from sight. One among them was growing more pumped by the second — it was Gigi. She quickly unsheathed her runesword and began to build mana within it’s blade. Soon the blade was covered in a heat that even the spectators could feel from a distance.

Gigi’s face was plastered with the most insane smile, as if she’d been given permission to act without regard for anything or anyone — true freedom. Oliver smirked and simply lifted one gloved hand.

“Come.” He said loudly and clearly as the Spellsword lifted her blade, causing the flames dancing along the length of her weapon to flare upwards.