"The basic Mana Breathing technique is simultaneously simple and difficult." Jared begins explaining, before quickly asking to check the page describing the process.

"Okay wow, this is really detailed. I assume you read all this?" To which Newt nodded before stopping halfway through and thinking about it for a moment.

Did I read the whole thing? Newt questions, looking at the page again.

"Ah no, it would appear I was a little to excited and didn't read the whole process." Newt admits embarrassingly scratching the back of his head.

"Haha don't worry, its nothing to be embarrassed about, just make sure you know what you're doing. I can still help, there is a pretty big difference between reading the process and doing it."

Thanking Jared Newt quickly read through the rest of the page he had forgotten to check up on after finishing his Mana Heart.

'To get into a more detailed explanation to properly describe what is to be achieved and what to avoid, which I assume you would like.

First imbue Mana into your lungs as you have done with your Heart, this usually strengthens the durability of whatever it is imbued in by attaching to the atoms while avoiding effecting the stability of the atomic structure of the atom and without altering the fundamental existence of the atom, such as changing a helium atom to become non-flammable.

This is possible of occurring because of the nature of Mana and the numerous fantastical Energy that exists in Ouro, specifically that they exist on a different overlapping plane of existence or dimension which allows them to at times effect reality and the physical world and at other times become incorporeal but still exist within the reality without any apparent effects, this doesn't mean it can't be effected by our physical plane of existence, often New Mages will have difficulty keeping the Mana corporeal and unaffected by reality. More on this on Page 3 MS

Imbuing your Lungs with Mana will allow them to hold Mana within a specific area, effectively making your lungs a net to catch it. The downside is that when breathing in with Mana imbued Lungs their flexibility and resistance to tearing allows for a greater pull of oxygen, this is good for the suction of Mana, but bad because of the oxygen intake, if your not properly manipulating the mana that becomes into your lungs and closing off the pathways for air, causing the mana, which is just floating around contained within your Lungs to, with the strength of your Lungs, compressing the oxygen, but not only compress the oxygen, but also make the Mana force together and imbue the Oxygen, and if you don't properly manipulate the Mana, it could imbue and create a incorporeal link between them, this leads to multiple effects, such as death. Further information on Page 604 MS

This leads to either two conclusions, if you have breathed in far too much Oxygen and mana, which then condenses, your throat and lungs will be so full of Condensed Oxygen that you begin choking on it or leading to the pressure from the gas getting drastically more intense wanting to burst, to the point the enhanced lungs will pop, (note this is a very large oversimplification.), and lastly somehow pushing the oxygen into your body fully. Causing Acute Oxygen poisoning, which has the following affects...'

Okay, so what I was coughing on, was literally the air I was breathing.

'To counter this, you have two options, combining a few lUz of Mana into each Oxygen atom to carry the mana to the heart after the Oxygen is picked up by the hemoglobin in red blood cells, eventually reaching the heart which will take out the Mana from the Oxygen and store it automatically.

The other is to move all the Mana through your body after entering the lungs without binding itself to the Oxygen, this comes with the advantage of not putting pressure onto your heart to break down the oxygen, good practice manipulating Mana and that once you create or learn any superior Mana Breathing techniques you won't have to learn it all again as the 1st option is only a viable option to new beginner Mages due to its inherent limit.

I highly recommend doing the second as it is often used as a base to build upon for more advanced Breathing.'

"Finished reading?" Jared asks as he patiently waits for Newt to finish reviewing his notes.

"Yeah, second method."

"Good choice, I'll give you advice after you try it."

Nodding, Newt takes a deep breath and begins 'breathing'.

Newt blocks his nostrils with his hand and begins trying to manipulate the Mana within his Lungs.

Slowly gaining a hold of them, initially he tries linking the mana together and moving them as a whole, however this wasn't a viable option as each Mana was getting effected by rushing blood, slightly different location of them causing difficulty moving all of them, akin to trying to move your head to look to the right, sure you might be able to, but if you try to look right whilst your head is placed fully against a wall, its going to be difficult to move without moving your head back or through the wall.

But if Newt is anything, it's a crybaby, and if its any two things, then he's tenacious.

Pushing through and gradually building his skill in manipulating multiple lUz of Mana at a time.

Before finally, he gave up for the day.

Spending 9 hours straight fully focused on one difficult task was extremely draining, and this wasn't something that could be done in 1 day.

Rome wasn't built in a day. Newt quietly smiles, remembering an old saying from his previous life.

------

"This is really good!" Newt exclaims as he takes a bite out of a sandwich. Whilst the food he had eaten while staying with Cynthia had been good, that was mostly from the quality of the food, in the end it was still bland and basic, this on the other hand? Beautiful.

"At least someone enjoys my food." Jennifer exclaims with a happy smile and a small glint in her eyes.

"I like your food too mum!" Tanya boastfully proclaims as if she had been challenged.

"Thank you dear." Jennifer pats her on the head whilst glaring at her husband.

"Jen, its not that I don't like it, its just the variety of food we have is very limited." Jared defends himself, still getting a glare from Jennifer while Tanya tilts her head a bit, shrugs and continues eating.

"Wait a couple weeks, he's going to be like me." Jared makes a bold proclamation to Jennifer.

"Oh really? Will you Newt?" Jennifer turns her head to the frantically shaking head of Newt. "That's what I thought."

------

Cleaning up the dishes with Jared, Newt turns and asks a question that had been lingering in his mind.

"Jared, why is it you don't just use Magic for things like this?" Newt gestures at the dishes.

Getting a bitter smile, "You probably don't know this on account of your lacking skills and techniques with Mana, but I no longer have a Mana Heart."

Coming to a halt Newt confusedly turns and looks him in the eyes. "What? I thought you were a Mage?"

"'no longer have' being the key words here, I destroyed it, Jen did something similar but with her Ki instead."

"Why?"

"Kid think about it for a second, why would two relatively strong people suddenly burn the traces of any Energy within their body and live alone?"

Thinking about it for a short period he questioningly asks, "Safety?"

"Correct! I... Tanya had two brothers in the past."

Newt feels his stomach sink at the past tense.

"One day the city we were staying in got attacked by the church, a small force lead by, a Hero."

The word sends a shiver down Newt's spine as he recalled what the guards who had captured him had said shortly before he had engaged them. "...hero candidate."

The small noise gone unnoticed by Jared as he continues, "The city called for all capable Mages and Ki Warriors to help protect the city, we obliged. In the end, we lost two of them.

In the end, we decided we would go into seclusion, raising our last child, of course we couldn't simply leave and live a happy life in a small house in the wilderness. If the church ever came across us, we needed to have lower than the minimum required energy capacity to be detected by them. For Mages they have to have created their Mana Heart, Ki Warriors? The same."

"Oh... Why are you avoiding saying anything about Ki Warriors?" Newt questions.

"I... Don't really know anything about them, hehe." Jared awkwardly chuckles realizes he was caught. "If you want more information about it than go ask Jen, she was the Ki warrior, though also ask her about Mages, I'm willing to bet she doesn't know either."

"Noted."

"Back on subject, Jen and I were somewhat well-known, not famous or anything but well enough to have a high chance of being identified by a church official. Hence." Jared points at his burn scars and casually points his thumb behind himself towards Jennifer's scar filled face, numerous cuts and gashes scarring her face.

Newt nods his head slowly as he thinks back to his 'sister', Tanya. They had done all of that just for her.

I hope one day I can have the same kind of commitment and affection for someone.