Teaching Jason (1)

After four days of drinking liquid mana and fast healing, I'm out of the hospital. I can't forget the look, doctor which I don't remember his name gave me. He was shocked by how fast I healed. He made some tests on me but of course, he couldn't find the mana. In the end, he had the give up and release me.

My mom was surprised too. But her reactions were weird. Like, I don't know, something was bugging her I guess. When I asked her about it she didn't say anything. Now that I think about it when did it began? It must be the day after Jason and Hope visited me. Hope acted weird and nervous too. I checked both of them with mana eyes but I found nothing.

It is suspicious but I have more important things to do. I have to teach Jason, practice my own mana control, and try to figure out the answers to the questions I have. Today, I will start with teaching Jason.

Because Lydia had an operation on her leg I couldn't heal her. I don't want mana to make it worse for her. So I will wait for her to get a better little more. With Lydia out of the question only me and Jason left.

"So how are we doing this? Do I need a wand or something?"

"Nope. All you need is mana. You said you can release fire from your body, right?"

"Yes, let me show you!"

He took a deep breath and released a lot of mana from his body. His mana reserves are big. While I was in the hospital he drank a lot of liquid mana. Well, he is still no match for me at that tho.

Mana, he released moved outward from his body. As soon as it gets past his clothes, changed shaped and turn into the flames. Those flames created a small dome around him. It... is good. These flames are as strong as my fireball when I chanted it.

"You are truly strong. This kind of spell should be hard for beginners."

"I don't know. When I fell into that lake I felt like burning alive. Right after getting out there, my body released it. I am just repeating what I saw and felt. Oh, by the way, every time I do this I felt like my fire is getting stronger."

He gained a spell moment he met with mana? A cool and powerful spell at that too. It is cheating! Whatever, I will work hard and become even more powerful.

"It is good but you have to start from small flames. Controlling your mana is important. I don't want another forest fire."

"Alright. Don't nag at me."

"I'm not nagging tho."

I show him how I shape my mana with intent alone. Unlike Lydia, he could do it with fire easily. Maybe everyone has different affinities. It is possible. So I have a thunder affinity. Cool.

While Jason started his training I begin mine. I already show him how to do it so he has to practice himself. I will do mana string training. The last time I did this I could only do 3 mana strings.

A wild grin appeared on my face. I could do twelve of them with only half of my mana. This means I can twenty four mana strings at max. I didn't realize that my mana reserves expended this much. It is amazing!

We are doing our training at the faraway corner of the forest. This place is kind of hidden from the rest of the forest. Last time I didn't think it would be a good idea to going far places from the city would be safe in case of something happening. But we all see how that one ended. This place was Jason's idea and it was good enough.

There is a small lake right next to us. It is good. Anyway, return to training. Because of my left arm, I am training with my right arm. Left-arm is not healed yet. It made my training slower but it can't stop me.

I send lone mana string to a nearby rock. It was the rock size of a watermelon. I am trying to weaponize it. Yes, mana strings are good supportive magic but I need more weapons now.

I made the string wrap around the rock. Now is the hard part. I made it condense even more than before. After five seconds of slowly condensing it, I failed. It disappeared itself. Condensing it requires too much focus. But if I manage this, it will help me greatly. Imagine, condensing mana strings that even mana eyes couldn't see easily and suddenly turning them to thunder strings or fire strings. Well, I have to practice changing it too.

On the seventh try, I managed to condense it enough to scratch to the surface of the rock. It left a visible scar. While I was doing this Jason was still practicing. This might be the first time I saw him practice something nonstop.

His practice made good progress for him as far as I can see. He can easily create a fireball and make it float on his palm several seconds before it disappears. Fireball is half the size of his fist.

Is it I or he is better than me at this? I mean I am the first mage but it took me two days to make the same progress he did.

"You made good progress. Even better than me when I first started."

He stopped practicing and sat down. He was sweating a lot. He must be one step away from the mana depletion. He did work hard.

"Is that so? He he he... I think it is thanks to my eyes."

Eyes? Now that I think about it, there were mana traces on his eyes but I thought they were mana eyes just like mine and Lydia's. But that thought was wrong apparently.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I activated my mana eyes and focus on his eyes. The shape of the mana was different from Lydia's mana eyes. Is this some other variant? The moment he opened his eyes I was shocked.

A flame appeared from his irises and quickly spread all of his eyes. The fire disappeared as fast as it appeared. It left behind a blood-red eye with only the pupil is different from being dark. Even his sclerae were blood-red or his irises expand with that fire and covered all of the sclerae. It looked cool and fearsome.