Free Mana

Free Mana. I once read a book about mana in the Grindel library. To me, mana was life itself, time itself—a precious resource no different from bullets. That was why I wanted to understand it in detail.

Mana. To put it simply, it was the scraps left behind when the goddess created the world, the lingering remnants of divine power shed by the gods. That was why mana was ubiquitous. It could exist anywhere. In this beautiful fantasy world, there was no place the goddess’s hand had not touched.

But existing everywhere did not mean everyone could perceive it. If they could, mages would have ruled the world long ago.

The fundamental nature of mana was ubiquity—it spread so widely it could exist anywhere—and microscopic, so tiny it was difficult to confirm with the naked eye. Therefore, mages, those capable of petitioning the world with mana, required a single talent: the ability to perceive it.

Whether through sight, smell, hearing, touch, taste, or intuition made no difference. If you could sense mana and understand its flow, you belonged to the top one percent—the lucky few with the talent to become a mage.

For reference, I could not see mana directly, but I could sense it through taste, scent, and temperature. That was why I was always sniffing around or taking deep breaths like a dog out for a walk. When I did, I would detect sweet smells or flavors, hot or cold energies.

Usually, a refined taste like sugar meant mana. An artificial, man-made flavor like chocolate or candy meant fear. At first you sensed the sweetness of chocolate, but as the fear was converted into mana, it transformed into a purified sweet taste.

Returning to the main point, this friend called mana—essentially fragments of the goddess’s own power—was both ubiquitous and microscopic. It was a mystical substance that only those in the top one percent, blessed with the talent to sense it, could easily perceive.

Yet even those without a mage’s talent had ways to see mana. One such method was the Arcane Loop: creating an environment, whether natural or artificial, where mana circulated, amplified, and accumulated.

Mana was inherently fluid, like a newborn spider caught on the wind. It did not stagnate in any one place but flowed continuously. Sometimes, for various complex reasons, that flow would accidentally form a ring-shaped circulation. That was the miraculous ring known as the Arcane Loop, or the Corridor of Mystery.

Usually Arcane Loops were artificially created in places like the Magic Tower or academy laboratories for the purpose of mana research. The natural Arcane Loop that had appeared before us was an extremely rare phenomenon.

It’s pretty.

I took in the sight of countless colored lights drifting lazily above the calm lake, where tree shadows lay across the water. If you observed closely, you could tell they were rotating clockwise. In truth, I had only realized it after listening to Sion’s explanation. They moved so slowly that at first ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I had thought they were simply floating in place.

One might wonder how mana could condense if it was rotating so slowly, but that large mass—the Arcane Ball—was actually formed by mana particles swirling at tremendous speeds around it. Visualized mana possessed such dense ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠concentration that it could only crawl slowly even amid fierce flows.

“This is unrefined pure mana… It’s beautiful.”

“…It really does look like candy. Hmm, can you eat this?”

Hans, exactly how far are you planning to fall?

The contractor seemed fascinated by the visualized mana and was trying everything she could—placing it on her palm, smelling it—everything except eating it. Hans stared at the glowing, candy-like mass and swallowed hard. Honestly, if not for this damned mask, I probably would have popped one into my mouth already. The visuals were just that tempting. Hans, I understand how you feel.

“What nyang? Miss Yuri, I thought your talent was with your eyes nyang?”

Sion tilted her head at the contractor, whose eyes were spinning from her natural curiosity and inquisitiveness.

Ah, right. The contractor was a mage too.

I recalled her using magic that produced small lights. They had been warm, heart-lightening lights.

“Ah, I’m the type whose intuition is more developed than my five senses. So this is actually my first time feeling mana in such detail.”

Unlike me, who relies on the five senses, the contractor uses intuition?

No wonder her fighting style had always seemed instinctive. It all made sense now.

“Oh! Intuition nyang! Same as this body nyang! Hmm, Miss Yuri might have talent as a guide nyang. If you ever get interested in becoming a Sherpa or guide later, just tell me nyang. This body will write you a recommendation letter for the academy nyang!”

Academy… like a school or institute?

For a moment I imagined the contractor wearing a school uniform skirt or pants. Both looked strangely perfect on her and gave me goosebumps. The contractor in uniform would look like an honor student at first glance, but in reality she would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be a lovable klutz who preferred UFOs and ghost stories to studying. I could picture her dozing off in class, waking up during break still half-asleep, and eating cream bread with cream smeared around her mouth.

While I was entertaining thoughts that would probably earn me a punch if the contractor ever learned of them, she quietly murmured, “Academy… huh,” before speaking again.

“…Does a current Sherpa even have that kind of authority? Hmm… Thank you for the offer, Miss Sion. I’ll think about it and let you know later.”

Whoa. I had expected her to refuse. Unexpected. Wasn’t the contractor only interested in Dallants?

“Got it nyang! And Hans, if you’re interested just say so nyang!”

Hans asked with a dazed expression, “Uh… Is it okay for someone like me too?”

“Of course nyang! With skill like yours, Hans, you could even aim for second place like this body nyang!”

“S-second place…!”

Hans, even if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you fly and crawl, first place is apparently impossible.

“T-that…”

“Hans! No nyang! Damn magic sword! Don’t distort this body’s words nyang!”

Hey, Felis. I didn’t distort anything. I simply rephrased it so a low-intelligence person like Hans could understand easily.

“No, that’s not what this body meant nyang!”

“…Who are you calling low intelligence?”

Ugh, so noisy.

The fish were all going to swim away at this rate. You lot. Be quiet like the contractor. It was a good thing no one else was around; otherwise we would have drawn complaints. The volume was that high.

Leaving the bickering Sword and Sion behind, I turned my gaze back to the Arcane Loop.

In the end, this thing called an Arcane Loop is just mana accumulating in real time, isn’t it?

“Hmm.”

Suddenly I felt like running a little test.

I left the shore and slowly walked toward the center of the Arcane Loop, deeper into the lake. Ah, don’t worry about me getting wet. My body was basically waterproof.

Splash.

It’s cold.

Perhaps because it was shaded, the water temperature was quite low. I had worried the bottom might suddenly drop off, but fortunately it wasn’t a mudflat. I was safe.

Splash.

Ripples spread with every step. Disturbed water plants and the faint traces of fear I sensed beneath the surface. The quality wasn’t great, but there were quite a few.

Oh, I can detect fish fear too?

When I went fishing later, I could just cast where I sensed the strongest fear. This was basically a fishing cheat.

By the way, I had felt it ever since the moss lizards and slime swarms, but the fear-eater’s detection threshold seemed remarkably generous. At this rate I might even be able to sense the fears of tiny creatures like ants or spiders. Not that I was sure whether those things even possessed emotions like fear.

“…Huh? Sir Raven, where are you going?”

The contractor’s eyes widened as she watched me stride into the lake as if possessed by a water spirit. But there was no need to worry too much. I was only running one experiment and would come right back out.

“Nyang? Hey? Raven nyang! What are you doing going into the water nyang! Are you trying bare-handed fishing nyang? In the Three Water Lakes, using bare hands, spears, arrows, or magic is all forbidden nyang! If you don’t want to pay a fine, stop the nonsense and come out right now nyang!”

I waved one hand lightly to signal that everything was fine, but Sion’s urgent voice still rang out. She must have thought I had grown tired of waiting and decided to try catching fish with my bare hands.

Me, Raven. I was not a demon with such weak patience.

Yeah, no doubt about it.

“That’s not it.”

After giving a suitable reply to Sion, who seemed more worried about the fine than anything, I stopped at an appropriate spot. The cold water reached my chest. When I stayed still, cute fish bumped against my legs with their tails. I enjoyed the faintly ticklish sensation for a moment, then lifted my head to gaze at the clusters of light floating above me.

And then—

“Sssssssip…”

I began to inhale slowly.

Immediately, a dual energy—both cold and hot—pierced through the purification filter of the Plague Doctor Mask. A refined sweetness completely different from the MSG-laden taste of fear.

Mana.

The miraculous substance that formed my body began circulating through me. And soon it was absorbed. Converted into my life, my time, my power.

Not bad.

Feeling the fullness of my soul, I summoned the interface UI into the corner of my vision.

Five MP per second. Not bad at all.

It wasn’t as much as when I caused a large-scale disturbance, but the real value lay in obtaining mana without any effort. Converting the pure mana absorbed by my body into usable power took a little time, but what I had in abundance right now was time.

It looked like I would have to breathe deeply while fishing. I couldn’t possibly pass up a free life-extension event.