Mana heart

If I want to establish a connection with my mana body, then according to this book, I should find a point of contact between my body and my mana body. It should be near the heart. But I don't have a real body.

Hmm, but I can just try it. I wouldn't kill me even if I didn't succeed anyway. According to this book, it should be very difficult to find this point of contact. Maybe without a real body, it would be easier to establish a connection.

First, I need to close my eyes and concentrate. After that, 'try to feel your heart', I am not sure about this sentence, but I can just try to feel it.

And there is nothing. Why am I not surprised? Maybe because I don't have a body. But shouldn't it be easier to find that 'point of connection' without distraction from the real heart? I had a feeling that the mana body shouldn't be connected to the real body.

Maybe I should try to look more carefully.

***

After careful examination for half an hour, I found nothing. What is wrong with it? Why can't I find this point of connection? Maybe what is written in this book is some kind of joke. Maybe the sage person wrote this book for fun. And in reality, she knew nothing about magic.

I was thinking that she had vast knowledge about magic but limited knowledge about physical laws and how things work, which was not her fault but the fault of her environment. It looks like she was some kind of con artist. She even named herself "Great Sage" because her real name was too long and difficult. I should start doubting it right away after reading that she was a dragon in human form. And in the historical book, there weren't any words about her fighting.

It looks like I shouldn't take for granted what's written in this book. I was too eager to learn about magic.

With these thoughts, I sat down on the chair. Yeah, I have a chair in this place now.

But it wasn't like that. At first, in this place, there was only darkness, a white floor, and the bars of the cage in which I was. One day, when I was extremely bored, I just tried to imagine some things, and somehow those things appeared in this place. After some experiments, I found out that it can only recreate things that I know well.

Hm, maybe I should try to read that book written by the sage again. Maybe it was I who misunderstood content of the book. I don't have much knowledge about magic after all.

I imagined that book, and it appeared in my hands.

I skimmed quickly through the contents of the book and found a page with content about establishing connection with the mana body. Hm, let's see: "... to establish connection with the mana body, one must find the heart of the body, and there one finds the point of connection. After that, one must touch this point with their mind and see inside of it..."

Can it be more vague than that? Maybe I should just ask that kid. He can wield mana, at least. And he had finished his lunch already. Now he's in the library again, reading that book.

"Hey kid, what are your thoughts about the content of this book?"

[Uh, it's difficult.]

"Is something wrong with the book?"

[No, I think what was written is the truth.]

"Are you sure?"

[Yes, I heard similar things from my mom when she taught me magic.]

"Then how did you establish a connection with the mana body?"

[How? It was with the help of my mom. She used her mana to find a mana heart inside my body.]

"Mana heart? Where is it?"

[It's inside the body, I think.]

"Can you tell where that thing is concretely?"

[Sorry, I can't. I can draw mana from it, but the feeling of it is very vague.]

It looks like talking with this kid was useless, and establishing a connection with the mana body is impossible without help from someone who can wield mana and has the necessary knowledge.

Maybe I should ask for help from this kid's aunt? She looks like a knowledgeable person. But it would be difficult, and in the end, she can even try to purify my consciousness from this kid's body, if such a thing is possible. And my life would be over again.

But I have another idea.

"Hey kid, can you try to help me with a little experiment?"

[Um, how?]

Not even the slightest doubt? Heh, I like this kid.

"Try to send your mana to this cage."

[Um, okay.]

A blue light appeared in the distance outside the cage. After some moments, it reached the cage and enveloped it. After that, the light from the little symbols on the bars intensified, and from the bars, golden beams shot at me. They enveloped me, and my consciousness was dragged away.

***

When I opened my eyes, I was inside the library. Same library that I saw through that kid's eyes. The body was weak, and my arms were little. It looks like I am in control of this kid's body now.

The sound of a beating heart and the air filled with the smell of books fill the lungs. The rough feeling when I touched the pages of the book and the warmth of the sun, which was shining through the window. I missed these feelings.

As I closed my eyes and enjoyed these feelings, I noticed something like liquid running through the body. I thought this feeling was from the blood, but it didn't match. The liquid feels like something incorporeal. And it runs to the brain from the inside of the body. The source of it was between the spine and the stomach.

The liquid was mana, and the source of it was the point of contact with the mana body or mana heart. It looks like the part about the 'heart of the body' in this book wasn't about the real heart but about this thing, which was in the middle of the body. Maybe the person who wrote this book really was a sage, not a con artist.

I concentrate my mind on this mana heart, trying to look inside of it. The mana from it was depleting with every moment, and now there was only about seventy five percent of the full amount of mana.

As I familiarized myself with the feeling of mana running through the body and with the feeling of the mana heart, the door to the library opened. I opened my eyes and saw the girl with wheat hair in a maid's uniform at the door. She flinched under my gaze, stepped outside, and closed the door.

It looks like it's time to return to the cage. With this thought, I stopped the mana flow. And my consciousness was dragged away to the cage.

***

[What happened?!]

"Nothing much, just that I controlled your body for a short time."

[...]

"If you're worried about that I would snatch away your body. Don't be. I am not interested in being in control of your weak body, and I can only control it when you send your mana to this cage. But I will return to the cage when the mana flow stops. It eventually happens when the mana from your mana heart runs out."

[But my mana heart still had more than half of the mana.]

"As I said, I am not interested in being in control of your weak body. So I just stopped the flow of mana on my own."

[Um, okay.]

"So how was it?"

[How was it? I think I just lost my consciousness.]

"That's all?"

[Yes.]

"Okay then. Continue your studying."

[Uh, okay.]

***

Now I know where this mana heart is supposed to be. I closed my eyes and concentrated on that spot, and there it was. I reached my mana heart with my consciousness and successfully established a connection.

I tried to draw mana from it. It wasn't successful at first. But with more attempts, mana started to come out of it. The flow of mana was unstable, but I wasn't disappointed. Because it was only the beginning.

According to the book, after that, I should familiarize myself with the mana inside of my mana heart and tame it with my will. It sounds vague, but in reality, it's very simple. I just need to move it through my body with my will.

When I was familiarizing myself with the feeling of mana.

[Um, mister, can I... stop reading this book?]

"Hm, Why?"

[It's too difficult, and my head hurts.]

"It looks like I gave you a difficult task to accomplish. So how far do you come?"

[Uh, it's on page fifty-four, about a fire element.]

Even though the description of using mana is vague and the saying that the world is made of eleven elements is ridiculous, the description of elements and how they work is mostly true. But it can be difficult to understand without prior knowledge about them or scientific knowledge. Yeah, I was wrong about the great sage. She indeed has vast knowledge.

"Okay. You can stop. I teach you about 'elements' first."

[Really! Um, okay.]

But there was a sudden knock on the door.

"It looks like I'll teach you later, then."