Chapter 11

Chapter eleven : 

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Five days left until training began. 

Mai was racing against time to understand the issue that was preventing her from progressing.

Yesterday, she had finished inscribing the last rune, feeling as though a heavy burden had been lifted, but it was only the basics.

She decided to use these few remaining days to delve deeper into her body and try to understand the source of the problem.

Sitting on the floor of her dark room, Mai closed her eyes, attempting to use her consciousness to examine every corner and every cell of her body.

As Mai dove into the depths of her consciousness, she felt as if she were plunging into a vast, endless ocean.

A serene stillness dominated everything.

Darkness... Everything was cloaked in darkness.

It was a cold place, as though she was sailing through eternal emptiness.

But as her focus deepened, details began to emerge slowly, like a faint light seeping through the cracks of the darkness.

Before Mai's eyes, a living map of her body unfolded.

This map revealed the intricate structure of her being, and she saw a network of glowing pathways resembling winding rivers that were 'supposed' to carry mana through them.

The pathways glowed with a faint blue hue, pulsating gently, like a calm, steady heartbeat. The pathways were intact but empty.

Mai traced these pathways repeatedly until she realized they were running in an endless loop.

She hadn't moved from her spot at all; she kept returning to the same place like a wanderer lost in a maze.

It was useless, as though something was preventing her from moving forward.

When she focused harder, a radiant glow appeared before her—the center of the pathways she had been traversing for so long.

In a moment of surrender to the mysterious force, her consciousness dimmed.

Mai returned to reality, feeling a sense of accomplishment. The solution was close.

She tried over and over to bypass the radiant glow that expelled her consciousness, but she couldn't.

After several failed attempts, Mai emerged from her concentration, panting heavily.

She began to tremble but quickly regained her composure.

Her emotions were a mix of joy, anger, and despair... She felt deeply frustrated.

Every step forward and every new discovery seemed to push her back.

"Why can't I figure out the problem? What am I missing?"

Having exhausted all attempts in this direction, Mai realized there was no point in continuing this way.

She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, trying to calm herself. "There must be another way... I need to think clearly."

While Mai sat in her room, she listened to the howling wind outside her window. She felt a slight shiver run through her body, not from the cold but from an idea that was forming in her mind unconsciously.

She watched the flickering shadows that danced on the walls due to the candlelight, as if they were pointing to something. Gradually, Mai began to feel as though those shadows carried a hidden message, sparking a small ember in her mind waiting to grow into a flame.

"Wait…" she muttered as the puzzle pieces slowly connected in her mind. That faint spark began to glow brighter and brighter until the idea became clear.

Without wasting any more time, Mai acted immediately.

First, she sat comfortably, as though she were about to meditate, but this wasn't quite true.

Next, Mai inhaled air slowly, focusing intently on a specific rhythm while imagining the flow of mana inside and outside her body.

She ensured that the mana was directed to the body's energy center—the mana core.

Carefully and deliberately, she repeated the process regularly until the flow became natural and the appropriate amount gathered.

This process was a technique she called Mana Breathing.

Mai had invented this technique herself—or rather, it was Luna who invented it. Luna was her name when she was a Dark Elf.

Mana Breathing was a technique that involved inhaling the surrounding energy and merging it with one's breath to stimulate the internal mana flow.

It also combined several mana techniques she had learned at the time, such as the Rapid Mana Recovery Technique and the Mana Core Expansion Technique. This made it her choice over other methods. While these techniques weren't designed to uncover problems, she felt she had to try.

The process was harder than she expected. Each attempt felt like something was blocking her.

After several tries, she felt a faint flow.

On her first attempt, she felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her body. She paused for a moment, wondering if she had applied the technique incorrectly. But the second attempt was worse—the pain returned, even sharper this time.

"This isn't normal… Why am I feeling pain?"

Her observations became more focused. She realized that the pain wasn't random but directly tied to the mana flow. "This means something abnormal is happening every time I gather mana."

Mai felt she needed to combine the Mana Breathing technique with Consciousness Sensing. The risk was high, as her focus would be divided between two complex processes at once. But she had no other choice.

She began implementing the dual technique slowly and cautiously. Over time, she felt something different.

Shock was evident on her face when she discovered that the mana she gathered dissipated, and to her greater surprise, part of it was flowing to a specific place.

Mai decided to follow the path of the mana despite the pain she was experiencing. She succeeded in reaching her mana core, where the remaining mana was being directed, but it was surrounded by a strange barrier.

The barrier appeared like a powerful shield, isolating the mana core from the rest of her body.

When she focused harder, she noticed a mysterious symbol etched onto the barrier.

Confusion overwhelmed her. "What is this thing? And why is it here?"

Mai decided to consult Eirene about it, hoping she might have an answer.

When Mai described what she saw to Eirene, the latter looked at her seriously and said,

"This might be some kind of seal. But I don't have enough knowledge to understand it. You should ask someone specialized… Perhaps the Seal Guardian?"

"Who's that?!" Mai blurted out, then covered her mouth.

What if she had to go through another interrogation? She hated the idea and felt like she was about to faint just thinking about it.

This was too much for a young girl like her to handle.

Eirene ignored her and continued explaining, "The Seal Guardian is the second highest-ranking figure in the clan after the leader. He guards the records and ancient sealing techniques, and he possesses extensive knowledge in the field."

"Is this the only way if I want to learn more?"

"Yes, this information is extremely valuable and is not permitted to anyone other than the leader and the Seal Guardian. He isn't obliged to follow the leader's orders, but he's notoriously difficult to please."

Mai felt a slight pang of disappointment but encouraged herself to continue searching. She returned to her room and decided to deal with the matter herself.

Mai sat and closed her eyes once more, determined to break a small part of the barrier using her consciousness. She knew it was risky, but she couldn't back down now.

After exhausting efforts, she succeeded in making a small crack in the barrier. As her consciousness entered the sealed space within her mana core, she felt a jolt of shock.

Her mana core was dangerously full of immense energy, and the rate of its increase was alarmingly rapid.

"This is impossible… Is the Mana Breathing technique the cause?"

Fear crept into her heart. If this continued, her mana core could explode at any moment.

She immediately withdrew from the sealed space, which repaired itself after her exit, reclaiming her fragment of consciousness.

Mai needed to act quickly. She came up with a bold, risky plan: she would destroy a small part of the seal again, but this time, she would reverse the Mana Breathing technique to expel the excess energy from her body, and the seal would repair itself automatically.

She began executing her plan with extreme caution, knowing that any mistake could be fatal. Slowly, she managed to reverse the mana flow and started expelling the energy from her body.

It was exhausting and challenging to use a new, untested technique with a reversed concept, and with only one chance to succeed, without prior training.

She successfully expelled some mana and now felt as though she was truly on the verge of death.

But what happened next was catastrophic.

In an unexpected moment, she felt a strange disturbance in the air around her.

The mana she had just expelled collided with the surrounding natural energy and began to transform. The air around her became dense and unnaturally charged, as if nature itself was rebelling against this strange interference.

"No… Impossible!" Mai screamed as she watched the rogue mana transform into a chaotic vortex, spinning at an accelerating speed.

The scattered particles of her mana didn't merge smoothly with nature's mana; instead, they started clashing violently.

The pressure suddenly surged, and a high-pitched buzzing sound tore through the surrounding silence. Before she could think or act, the explosion occurred.

A shockwave of blinding light erupted towards the ceiling, illuminating every corner of the room like a fleeting daybreak amidst the darkness. The sound of the explosion was like the roar of a thunderstorm condensed into a single moment, causing the walls to tremble as if they were on the verge of collapse.

Massive waves of pressure shattered the furniture into scattered splinters, pushing everything in their path backward. A vortex of fire and swirling energy gathered at the center before exploding into glowing fragments, soaring through the air like meteors falling to the ground. 

The air was thick with unbearable heat, as though the room had transformed into a volcano's mouth, and the explosion's sound reverberated throughout the area like a harbinger of catastrophe. Finally, the explosion left behind a cloud of thick smoke and rising ashes, concealing whatever might have remained from the destruction.