Chapter 11: Mana

Everyone sat for dinner that night. Jerry praised jet while explaining what happened to Eva.

Nerissa kept quiet at Jett the whole time while giving Jett a suspicious look. "Was there anything off about the fight?" Nerissa inquired, her eyes fixed on Jett.

"Hmm, it felt like he got faster and stronger during the second trial," Jerry pondered thoughtfully. Then, he turned his gaze to Jett with a discerning look. "Ah, right. Is there something you're not telling us?"

Jett, who had been eating quietly, suddenly choked on a piece of meat upon hearing his father's question.

"Well... umm... You see..." Jett stuttered, trying to find an excuse. "I got a new skill after we got home from the appraisal ceremony," he finally admitted, attempting to laugh it off nervously.

"I knew it," Nerissa finally said, breaking the tension.

"It was going to be a surprise. Anyways..." Jett attempted to change the topic. "I get whatever I want, right?" he asked with a smile.

"Yes, if it's attainable. What is it?" Jerry inquired.

"I want you to take me to the capital for the Adventurer's Fair. I overheard some tourists talking about it, and I thought it'd be fun," Jett replied.

"Hmmm," Jerry mused.

"C'mon, father. That way I can go with you guys. Mom can come if she wants to," Nerissa chimed in.

"Ah, that's true. I also have some business at the capital," Eva added. "We're going," she declared.

"Hehe, is that really your request? A vacation?" Nerissa teased Jett.

"Yeah, well... and ten gold coins too," Jett replied, smiling innocently.

"Ten!?" Jerry exclaimed, almost immediately.

Jerry's reaction was understandable. 10 gold coins was an outrageous amount to give to a six-year-old. 1 gold coin was equivalent to a 100 silver coins, and one silver was equivalent to a 100 copper coins.

"Alright, a promise is a promise," Jerry conceded. "The fair isn't until a month from now anyways..." he added.

"Yes, and tomorrow's my turn," Eva interrupted.

"Your turn for... Oh, right," Jerry realized. "Tomorrow, your mother will be teaching you magic," he said to Jett. "When you're ready, I'll be teaching you about aura."

"I'm so jealous. It took me months to get him to teach me aura," Nerissa pouted at Jett.

Jett smiled and watched everyone happily. "Good, now I can get some limited items at the fair to secure my fate."

*****

"The next day Jett and Eva went out for a walk.

"Where are we going?" Jett asked, feeling genuinely curious.

"Nowhere in particular. You don't want to be seen with your mummy? Is that it?" Eva teased.

"No, that's not it. I thought you were going to teach me magic," Jett whined, feeling impatient.

They reached a stream connected to the river he had originally tweaked for irrigation.

"Alright, you want to learn magic?" she asked while facing him.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Well, then you need one thing. You need to learn how to use Mana," she announced. "Mana is fundamentally different from MP. We use MP for skills and Mana for spells. You can't measure Mana with just numbers; unlike MP, we rank Mana by how much it has. Ranker, Grandmaster, Arch Mage, Advance, Intermediate, Novice, Beginner."

She paused, happy to see Jett looking eagerly interested.

Jett already knew all this, but it would be a bit suspicious if he told her that.

"Mana isn't visible to the human eye, but those from Arch Mage to Ranker can sense it to an extent depending on the rank," she explained, giving a sheepish smile. "You know your mother's rank is Arch Mage. I can sense your Mana too. It's a little much for someone your age." She kept smiling.

'Crap, I thought I was suppressing it well enough. I guess I can't beat an Arch Mage with that,' he thought to himself.

"Mana can be controlled, either by condensing it to one point preferably, your gut or by letting it flow internally around your body or," she continued. "The latter is really harder to train but yields a much efficient result. It's not a common method, but that's the one I use. Isn't Mummy amazing?" She praised herself, feeling some pride.

"That's impressive," Jett said genuinely impressed, considering you can only find one out of 10 people who practice that method.

"They're called the condensing core and circulatory method respectively. You have to decide what method to take and nurture it from now on," she pointed at him. "There's also Lumix which amplifies your mana output, but not much is known about it apart from it being supplementary to Mana and Aura. It's extremely hard to even get and harder to control or understand, even for me," she mused aloud.

"Can you teach me that too?" Jett asked.

"Ahh, I don't think you can grasp it right now," she replied nervously. "Just focus on mana for now. I'll give you time to choose what method you prefer..."

"Circulatory. I wanna be as strong as Mom," he responded immediately. It was an act, though, since he had already started the circulatory method using Lumix and was at the Beginner rank.

"Aww...." Eva felt touched. "Alright, I'll teach you," she said, proceeding to explain the process to him.

*****

The day turned out to be a waste for him but an achievement for Eva who thought the class was a success. They walked home quietly, with Eva humming a song.

As they passed by the market, Jett felt like asking, "When do I get a sword?"

Eva ignored him, walking faster as though she didn't hear, obviously trying to cook up a good reason. "Umm, it's too dangerous. End of discussion."

"Well... Can we get something from the market?" Jett persisted.

"What?" She inquired, surprised, as he hardly asked her for anything.

"A bunch of burn flowers, frost flowers, and venom flowers," he replied.

"Hmm, I don't see a problem with the frost and burn flowers, but why poison flowers?" She asked, feeling worried.

"Just an experiment," he replied with a smile.

"Alchemy, perhaps?" Eva guessed.

"Not really, I just need them for something important," Jett replied.

"And you won't tell me?" Eva mused.

"An experime..." He began to reply, but she interrupted.

"What kind?" she asked.

"Alchemy," he admitted.

"Aha. As long as you promise it's not dangerous, I'll get it for you," she replied with a smile.

He wasn't really going to use them for alchemy, but explaining his original motive would prove more hectic. She bought and handed them to Jett, and they continued home.

*****

Back at home, Jett opened the bags and inspected the contents.

"Better late than never. I hope they don't taste too bad as described," he thought to himself, taking a deep breath before eating a petal from each.

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Hope we've cleared the air on Mana

I wonder what he bought those flowers for. <(￣︶￣)>