Back at the open-ground fields where Kan and the rest of the Dawness are.
“You see, I’ll go back to the basics of how we fight and where our strength comes from.” Frea quickly dragged out a book and asked us to listen closely.
“In the essence of everything here in Yyssa, there are particles which is the basic form of life that creates everything that we see both visible and invisible. Although there are pure particles which can be harder to find and trace as they are mostly seen in rich environments. A regular particle cannot create a big difference in its own, that’s why particles combine with one another and forms mana.” She then looked at the Tempest student if he was listening and following along.
“Mana is a cluster of particles uniquely woven together. Mana cannot be the same as it once was which means every mana is unique in its own way. Now that the particles have joined together and became mana it is much easier to affect the laws of the world. Got it?” Kan nodded in reply.
“Your explanation skips too much detail Frea. While a cluster of particles is called mana and uniquely woven together, by no means, every mana is unique in its own way by itself. Mana in itself can only interact to the bigger parts of what creates the world that is elements.” Mari tried to explain a bit further.
“Both of you really don’t know what you’re saying. Listen Kan, you don’t need to know how particles came to be because many people have different perspectives of how it is the basic block of life. What you need to know is how these cluster particles called mana, can affect not just only elements.” Reina continued on as Mari and Frea sat at the open grass field.
“As they’ve said mana comes in our environment although we have our own mana pool that interacts with this, ‘environmental mana’ if you’ll give them a name. Mana is one of the basic necessities of every human. Now, that you know where you are getting your mana and how it is important, I’ll let Mariko-sensei explain further as I hate to admit, but I also don’t have a firm grasp of how mana interacts with elements, aura, physical body and other stuffs.” As if waiting for this moment Mariko-sensei nabbed the spotlight and waited for us to look at her.
“Thank you, Reina. This is not only for Kan but for the three of you as well. What I’m about to tell you is the general and fundamental knowledge of how mana interacts with the world. You can use your own understanding but no matter how much knowledge you accumulate, you’ll always go back to these general and fundamental key things.
“Mana, in general, is a third-party factor that influences the surroundings whether it be the form of wind, fire, ice, water; that we call elements, the form of aura or spirits, the form of enhancing your body, the form of objects, as well as the form of life. First, let’s try to understand how can mana influence these things? They’ve already mentioned about the relation of mana and particles regarding the fact where we get mana. Now, wind is a form of countless mana particles uniquely structured as an element of wind.” Mariko-sensei let out a small amount of mana and controlled the mana particles around her to create a sphere-like ball of wind.
“Listen carefully, this is one way of using mana to control the surrounding mana particles and transform it to an element, in this case, wind.” Kan raised his hand nervously.
“Umm, I’m quite confused with you using mana particles and mana, are they different?”
“Oh, about that, I refer to a large amount of mana as, mana particles and mana, as a cluster of particles. It’s a bit confusing, I think?”
“It’s quite confusing for me...” Kan let out a small voice of concern.
“You can also see it this way, mana particles are a group of same mana with only one power. This power is what can these mana particles influence in the surroundings. In this situation, the mana particles I have controlled are a group of structured wind element. Is this more understandable?”
“Yes, I suppose I can kind of get it now.”
“Hey Mariko-sensei what is the purpose of using a chant to create a spell?” Frea seemed to think about this particular question a lot.
“Using chants to create a spell? Oh, it is so that the mana particles you have manipulated and gathered are the correct ones. You can’t cast a fire spell and manipulate mana particles structured with water that would result to an explosion. Although in some cases, chanting helps visualize the spell you’re casting which can help you manipulate the necessary mana particles to power up your spell exponentially.” The Dawness professor also took a moment to think about the question.
“How can we correctly know if we used the correct mana particles?” Mari added resulting to all of us pondering the question.
“Maybe because it is already second-nature to us?” Frea unsurely gestured.
“Isn’t that why we use chanting for spells?” Kan weighed in.
“Then what about the magicians that doesn’t use chanting?” Reina rebutted.
“That’s a good question, Mari. Have you ever asked yourself where the mana in your mana pool comes from?” Mariko-sensei answered the question with another question.
“I know that it comes from the environment.” Reina confidently answered.
“That’s half-correct. The reason we have mana that comes from the environment is the result of us breathing, expending mana, energy, and even our life force. There are nine points in our body where most mana supposedly comes from but due to the limits of oneself, the average person can only use three of these points and those who can use five to seven points are considered prodigies and special cases. These points are called póntous. Lately, I’ve been hearing about people using some kind of technique called Ringgua to access all 8 póntous although it’s probably just rumors.”
“Professor about my question...” Mari lightly tapped Mariko-sensei's shoulder.
“Oh, ah right. Sorry, I got too deep in thought. These póntous are the same as your life force. If this gets damaged, you’ll experience tremendous pain, and your mana regeneration will slow down twice it can also be vice versa if you can use more than the average person. In short, these póntous is responsible for our mana pool and the mana that automatically controls the correct mana particles, you also lose this automatic ability if one of your póntous gets damaged which makes it almost impossible to be a magician again.”
“Then what about the people who only use the surrounding mana particles to fight?” Reina quickly questioned.
“Is this a question for yourself, Reina?” Mariko-sensei looked a bit stiffened and tired from explaining.
“Yes.” Reina didn’t hesitate and boldly answer.
“As far as I know these people use their mana to shape the mana particles to their style regardless of whether they only use the surrounding mana particles. Your own mana is necessary to interact with the mana particles that resides in the world. Only then would you truly be using magic.” Mariko-sensei stretched a bit and asked us to stand up.
“Now that these has been turned to a lecture, I’d like to give each and one of you some pointers to work on. Starting from Marigold, your light magic is more controlled and refined now, use what we have learned today to make your light magic influence the whole area.” Mari nodded and took a step back.
“Frea, your use of Incaria is banned until the Foundation Festival. Find other ways to win without resorting to Incaria.” Frea tried to convince Mariko-sensei otherwise. “There are no buts!” Instead, she got smacked once again.
“Reina, I know that you’re the most powerful out of the four of you but also the most stuck in improving. The piece of advice I can give you is to experiment and experience different styles as you don’t have a bad fighting style, but it seems you try to copy your brother’s way of fighting.”
“I understand.”
There was a small silence before the Dawness professor looked at Kan.
“Now, Kan Uolo. Seeing you fight this closely; I can say that you can improve further, as using elements to fight is not bad but don’t limit yourself to one thing. Remember, a magician isn’t linear but flexible.”
“I will remember all that you’ve taught me, Mari, Frea, Reina, and Mariko-sensei!” Kan politely bowed.
“Ahh, you don’t have to bow, Kan. We’re already friends you know?” Mari persistently asked Kan to raise his head.
.
.
After a while it was time for the Dawness students and professor to pack their things and head back to their home.
“We’ll definitely see you later at the Founding Festival!” Frea waved.
“Don’t just rush in but have a plan.” Reina tried to give one last piece of advice.
“Follow what your heart tells you.” Mariko-sensei encouragingly remarked.
“Don’t overdo it and take plenty of rest, Kan.” As always Marigold Leona tends to care a lot even to someone that she had just met. The Dawness students and professor also thought about it.
“I’ll make sure to do my best, so be sure you also do the same guys!” What felt like a small time with them strangely felt like a long time for Kan Uolo.
Taking a moment being grateful, Kan eventually made his way towards their current room.
