Cass woke to the familiar feeling of Luna shaking. 'Cass, wake up!'
Cass groaned and rolled over, reaching out his arm in order to cuddle Luna.
'Cass! Not now, your mother is here!'
Cass's eyes shot open, and he saw Luna under the covers, with the blanket pulled up to her chin, trying to hide herself as much as possible. He turned to look towards the door and saw his mother there, smiling.
'Good morning! Did you two enjoy yourselves last night? I think you should get up and come downstairs, it's already mid-morning.'
'Good morning, mother. We will do that right away.'
'Good. The day is almost halfway done already, and we have things to discuss. Luna dear, you don't need to hide under the covers. You aren't in trouble. You two have had our blessing for some time now. Honestly, if Cass had rejected you yesterday, he would've got a beating from us after everyone left.'
Luna poked her head up from under the covers and giggled. 'Thank you again for your encouragement, mistress.'
'Enough of this mistress stuff now. You need to start getting used to calling me Mother-in-law. You aren't a slave or a maid anymore. One day, you will need to manage the family household while Cass takes care of the village. Come on, get up!' She walked out the door, leaving it open behind her.
Luna kissed Cass on the cheek and greeted with a toothy grin. 'Good morning. I will go back to my room and change. I will see you downstairs.'
She left the room, and Cass got out of bed and changed. He went downstairs and saw his family sitting at the table waiting for him. He sat down, and Beatrice placed a bowl of wheat gruel and a plate of grilled meat in front of him. Everyone had mischievous grins when they looked at him, but nobody mentioned anything about Luna being found in his bed by Elizabeth.
'Eat that meat first, Cass, you'll need the mana it provides you.' Elizabeth seemed like she was in a hurry to get started. 'You got your system yesterday, so today we need to talk about mana and tempering'
As she finished talking, Luna came down and sat with them at the table, looking shy. Everybody greeted her, and Elizabeth addressed her directly. 'Luna dear, today I will be teaching Cass about tempering, so after breakfast, you will be touring the village with Lucius and Adeline. Things are different now that you are with Cass. Also, the money we have been saving for you over the last 6 years is with Adeline, she will give it to you before you leave with them.
Now Cass. First of all, we need to talk about mana tempering, most of which you already know, but now you will need to put it into practice. Mana tempering is when we take external mana into ourselves and then assimilate it into our beings, making it a part of us. When we body temper, we take that same mana, and use it to strengthen our body, simple right?
We can get mana from more than one source, the first one is on that plate in front of you.'
Cass looked down at the plate of grilled meat. He recognized it as the meat that Luna had served him the night before. 'That meat is what was left after yesterday's events. The meat of star beasts contains mana. The fresher the meat, and the higher the beast's star level, the more mana it contains.
You are a neophyte, a rank 1 mage. So, the mana from 1-star beasts can only replenish the mana you use, but the meat of 2-star beasts and above can actually be assimilated into your body when you consume it. The mana you receive from beasts below your level is negligible, so for me, Adeline, and your father, this 2-star meat won't do much. After you finish eating that, check your status once more and tell me what your mana is at. It should be higher after eating the meat yesterday and just now.'
Cass gulped down all the meat on his plate and called up his status.
[Name: Cass Wycliffe ]
[Age: 18 ]
[Mana rank: Early Neophyte.]
[Body Rank: Early Neophyte. ]
[Race: Human ]
[Physique: ???]
[Bloodline: ???]
[Affinity: Thunder(1), Spacetime(1)]
[STR: 6]
[AGL: 8]
[VIT: 10]
[INT: 9]
[Mana: 55/55 ]
[Free Points: 10]
[System Points: 10]
[Gacha tickets: 0]
'It's at 55 right now'.
'Luna must have hunted a very powerful 2-star beast if it gave you that much. Good job! So, Method 1: you can absorb the mana from star beasts. This is a great way to supplement your growth, and it's something that rich families often do to make their kids stronger.
In this house, we won't do that unless you hunt it yourself. We aren't wealthy enough for that. The problem is, star beasts can be dangerous, and finding beasts that you can hunt, but that can still augment your mana, is tough. So the second method is the most reliable and most common, and that is mana tempering. After breakfast, put on your training gear and meet me outside.'
Cass did as he was told and met his mother outside. She was sitting cross-legged on a large cushion, and indicated for Cass to sit on another one about 10 feet in front of her. He sat down, copied her position, and faced her.
'Okay, Cass, so, first things first, create a low mana thunderball for me.'
Cass activated his spell, and a small ball of sparking blue energy emerged from his fingertips.
'Great, now, throw the ball towards me.'
Cass made a throwing motion with his hand and sent it flying towards his mother. At the halfway point, it fizzled and disappeared.
'If you use a magic skill, but don't apply enough mana, it won't be very effective. So now try adding 10 more mana to it. You don't need to move your arms to throw it, just will it to happen in your mind, same with mana control. If you desire the thunderball to have more mana, it will'
Cass again made a thunderball at his fingertip, but this time he willed it to be made with 10 mana. The ball was far bigger than before, and sparked more often. He willed the ball to shoot towards his mother, and it did just that without him needing to move his arms.'
His mother put up her open hand, channelled some of her Aura into it, and the ball dissipated on contact. 'That was my aura. I take my mana and wrap it around my body so that I can manipulate it and protect myself. Once you become a mid-stage neophyte, you will be able to start using it a small amount too. Now, channel the rest of your mana into a thunderball and send it at me, hold nothing back!'
Cass charged up a thunderball in his hand, sent it, and immediately passed out. When he came to a few moments later, his mother was still sitting in the same position, looking at him.
'If you use more than 60% of your mana for a single technique, there is a chance you will pass out. Only do it if you have strong allies near you. After that, you should be at basically zero mana, which means that tempering will be slightly easier.
Your body will naturally replenish your mana when you rest. A good night's sleep is usually enough for most people, but right now, you are at zero, so you need to absorb mana to replenish it. Copy my stance and close your eyes.'
Feeling shaky after passing out, Cass slowly copied his mother's position and closed his eyes. 'Now try to feel the mana surrounding your body. Because you are at zero mana, feeling it should be much easier right now.'
Cass concentrated, and for 10 minutes, nothing happened. When he did feel something, it was so minute he was unsure whether it was real. The feeling eventually grew, and he started to feel waves of energy floating in the air nearby.
'Once you are able to feel the flow of the mana, you need to direct your will to capture or suck in the mana. In the future, you will need to form a mana pool to store mana there, but as you are still a neophyte, your body is good enough.'
Again, Cass followed his mother's instructions. He felt the energy begin to permeate his skin. For the first 20 minutes, the mana seemed to move back and forth through his skin. It would enter and then leave.
He focused on the feeling of it leaving, and willed his body not to permit it. The mana started to collect into his body, but stopped trying to leave. He had turned the pores in his skin into a two-way valve that only he could control. After 3 hours of continuous practice, he started to feel that he could no longer take in any more mana.
'Once your body feels full of mana, you should be fully replenished. Check your mana in your status once again.
[Mana: 55/55 ]
'I am back to 55 now'
'Excellent, now the hard part. This is simple in theory, and hard in practice. Using the same method you used to replenish your mana, you need to absorb more from around you, but this time, you need to add it to yourself. Instead of replacing what has been lost, you need to assimilate it into yourself.
This will get easier over time as your technique and tempering level improve. You can also use pills and potions to increase the amount of mana you can take in at once, but you are too early for that. From now on, on days when you have no designated tasks, you will do this for 8 hours. On days when you have tasks, you will do this for an hour in the morning and an hour at night.'
Cass nodded. He spent the next 4 hours tempering, and by the end his mana had increased by a small amount.
[Mana: 57/57 ]