Mana and Aura (2)

There was a frustrated look in Ellis's eyes as he moved his gaze toward the distance.

There was no explanation of how to awaken Aura… let alone how to raise one's constitution, after all.

In fact, the words written in the book could practically be counted, and most of it was just illustrated body postures and sword moves.

Even then, the frustration in Ellis's eyes wasn't because of what the book lacked.

It was because he felt like he was on the verge of understanding something.

But the later half of the book was too difficult for him.

It was all advanced moves, focused on developing Aura until it began to hold the fire element.

That's why he knew there was no point in continuing to read.

Instead, he inhaled and exhaled slowly, then picked up the second book.

He stared at its tattered cover for a moment before finally opening it.

Surprisingly, the pages inside didn't seem affected by time. Everything was clear and readable.

But, aside from having more written explanations than the first, it still didn't give him the answers he wanted.

… Or so he thought.

But when he saw a picture of a body posture depicting the moment of Aura awakening… everything changed.

It felt as if a click echoed in his mind… and the puzzle was finally solved!

He spaced out for some time, staring at that one page in the book, before he suddenly started laughing.

He laughed for a while, worrying Silas on the side, before finally saying, "I really was stupid."

Ellis had come to the realization that he was trying to be too clever.

Had that not been the case, he would have probably understood everything even without reading the books, just after a few more weeks.

'No… if I had truly given my all to training, not just exhausting myself physically, but also putting my mind into it, without constantly questioning, is this really it?—I should've already discovered the issue,' he couldn't help but think.

Because it turned out the missing link in everything… was that he still carried the common sense of his previous world.

He had a misconception, and that was what prevented him from understanding that things were actually simple.

He had really just needed to train.

… Even then, he still thought to confirm his thoughts. So, he asked, 'Aurora, before the Awakening incident, and the Twilight Codex coming to Earth… was there mana in the world?'

[No, there was not.]

And he got his answer.

Was the existence of mana that important?

Of course it was… especially its presence within one's body.

Because now Ellis understood that he just needed to train and exhaust himself.

Then, his muscles… his very cells, would begin to consume mana on their own, once nutrients and oxygen were no longer enough to produce energy, the said muscle operated on.

It was something that simple.

Had he just focused on training, he should've noticed it already.

He had so many mana-related skills, after all!

But more important than all of that… was the ceiling of this kind of training.

He had thought he needed a proper technique to surpass human limits.

But with the existence of mana, he was bound to go beyond that point, sooner or later.

He couldn't believe how stupid he had been not to realize it.

That this world wasn't like his old one.

That things were… simple.

Simple… yet effective. And that's what mattered.

Shaking his head at how stiff his thoughts had become, Ellis decided to stop dwelling on it.

What mattered now was that he had found the answer he'd been seeking.

…That's good and all. But how did the illustration of the moment of Aura awakening… an illustration that didn't explain the process before that very moment, actually give him the final clue to understand and link everything together?

One might wonder.

But this time, the answer wasn't simple. It wasn't straightforward.

Because to truly understand, one had to grasp the difference between mages and knights.

How, while knights had Aura stored in their bodies, mages actually had their mana concentrated in their hearts.

…But more than that, one needed to understand the difference between mana and Aura.

And Aura was, in fact, just like Ellis's first hypothesis, simply another form of mana.

It was aggressive. Raw.

It was the transformed form of mana after a long process of being absorbed by the body, and then recovering… through constantly pushing oneself to the limit.

Ellis had already inferred and understood the first two points from the Crimson Aura technique.

But it was through the illustration, the moment of Aura awakening, where the body was shown completely devoid of mana…

That he finally connected the remaining dots.

So, with a smile on his face, Ellis finally stood up from his seated position, dusted himself off, and handed the books to Silas so that nothing would happen to them.

Then, instead of ending things here, he returned to his training.

… Now that he understood, that, just like with his Mana Bullet and Mana Barrier skills, the answer was simply mana, everything became easy.

The process that was supposed to happen naturally after exhausting himself, where the muscles would absorb mana…

And the purpose of training being to make guiding mana into the body easier…

He could now do it artificially, by controlling mana and feeding his body directly.

It was something no one in this world could possibly do.

After all, there couldn't be a knight this inept at mana to begin with.

But he was different!

Controlling mana, something only the strongest in this world could possibly do, and even then, only mages, he was now able to do smoothly, at least to a certain extent.

After four years in this world, his system and his ability had made it possible.

So, he was determined to make the best of his situation, now that he understood it.

Released from the knot that had been plaguing him all along…

Ellis happily resumed his training.