Mana

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'This sign is when Artz is saying things in his head or talking to Ariel.'

"This sign is when someone is talking"

[This sign is when Ariel is talking]

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'Why is the crystal showing I have no mana.' I didn't know what was happening. So I did what I could think of 'Ariel! Help me out.'

[Yes. The crystal is showing user have no mana is because..]

'Is because..' I said as imaginary sweat rolled down my small forehead.

[The crystal is broken.]

'.....'

[.....]

'...The crystal is broken ?'

[Yes.]

As I moved my head towards the crystal again. On the left side of the crystal there was a small crack. I looked at Mr.Gabriel. His face was blank as a whiteboard.

'This stupid old man. Scared me for nothing. ' I thought.

I moved my hand towards the cracked side of the crystal to make them take notice of it.

As my mom look towards the crack she says " Um, Mr.Gabriel looks like your crystal is broken."

"What?" As he looks towards the crack on the crystal he says " I just bought this yesterday. How did it broke so fast? I will talk about this with those dang merchant." he said as he pounded his foot on the ground.

"Maybe we can do this on another day?" said my mom.

"I am sorry about this. I will talk about this with those Merchants." said Mr.Gabriel.

"Don't worry about it Mr.Gabriel. Why don't you just give us some basic books for Artz to learn how to read and write and one for the fundamentals of magic." said my mom while trying to calm him down.

"Sure." he said as he climbed his small ladder to reach for the book on the third shelf. He took out two books from the shelf.

"Here you go. This book is for literature and this one is for magic." Mr.Gabriel said.

There were two books in front of me, literature book looked like just a normal book but the magic one had a cover of leather with a symbol on it.

"Thank you Mr.Gabriel. How much for these books." My mom said as she was taking her money pouch out from the bag that she was carrying.

"Normally it would cost seven silver coin but since it's for Artz, just five silver coin."said Mr.Gabriel.

I had no idea how much money it was because I never compared it.

Mom gave five silver coin to Mr.Gabriel and took books in her hand. After we paid the money to Mr.Gabriel he started to examine the crystal ball again. We left the shop and made it to our home.

"Here you go." as she gave the literature book to me. "I will be back in a minute then I will teach some words to you. Ok Artz." My mom went in the kitchen and started doing some work.

'Finally, let's see what's inside.' As I opened the book, there it was, a totally new language I didn't know. 'Let's get to work.'

'Ariel, activate Concentration with Parallel Processing and analyse the language.'

[Yes.]

As Ariel was analysing the language I was just flipping the pages for her to analyse and after 4 minutes it was done.

[Skill: Language Comprehension acquired.

Allows the user to comprehend different languages depending on the skill level and data provided.]

'It is done, now I can read and write the language of this word. Now for the magic one. Where is it?' I thought as I was moving my head left to right.

"I am back little Artz. Now let's study." mom said with a smile.

It wasn't like I could show her that I just learned the whole language, so I just went along with it. My whole day was spent with my mom teaching me stuff, well, until the sun was almost down because she also have to cook food.

" I will be back after I cook dinner for us all." she said as she went in the kitchen again.

'I wonder what her stamina stat is like. Oh well, to the magical book we go.' I said as I started to walk towards the direction where I thought the book was, which was in the kitchen over the table.

'Now, how can I get the book?' I was thinking.

"What are you doing here Artz. Go back to the room otherwise you might get hurt." My mom said as she was cutting some meat.

I pointed towards the book in hope that she would give the book but alas..

"This is for tommorow and you can't even read now. Now go back to the room." Said my mom.

' You might think you can send me back but I have my ultimate move. "Acting Cute".' I made my eyes a little watery. 'The best technique in the whole world.' I thought.

"Nice try little one but it have no effect on me. Now go back to the room." My mom said.

'What? I was defeated!' I went back in the room but a little giggle can be heard from the kitchen.

I was back in the room we were studying. 'What should I do now?'

' Let's play with some skills. Ariel, can you show me my current skills.'

[Yes.]

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Skills : Ariel (C), Parallel Processing (C), Swordsmanship (D), Meditation (D), Concentration (D), Language Comprehension (D).

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'I haven't tried meditation yet, but I need to use my existing mana first. Hmm... Ariel do you have any way for doing it.'

[Currently user does not have external ways to utilise the mana but there is an internal way.]

'Oh.. internal way! Tell me more about it.'

[Yes. Firstly user have to feel the mana inside him.]

' Ok, let me try it.' I said as I close my eye. I tried to feel if there was anything but nothing. I still don't know much about it. There was just darkness, like an really dark endless room and I was standing in it.

' Wait, I see something. What is it? A little ball of light?'

I started walking towards it but it kept getting smaller and smaller. When I finally reached it, it was the size of a golf ball.

' Should I try to touch it?' I moved my hand slowly towards it. But when I was about to touch it glowed so bright that I could see it's brightness even with my eyes closed. Suddenly I could feel a burning sensation in my whole body as if my whole body was engulfed in flames. There was nothing but pain I could feel but not even a single word came from my mouth.

Then suddenly woke up in the middle of the night I was in my baby bed. I am still breathing heavily and covered in sweat. That burning sensation is still fresh in my mind.

[Skill: Mana Essence acquired.

Allows user to tap into the very essence of mana. Usage depend on the skill level.]

'What the heck was that?' I thought while Ariel told me that I was asleep for almost 5 hours.