Chapter 5 - The flaw of the <Mana Drawing Mantra>.

'This way to use Mana is too crude and inefficient,' thought Alphonse.

'Was this done by Rasputin on purpose,' he speculated, 'no it could be possible that someone else tampered with the technique after Rasputin went missing or died, its most likely the other Mages that didn't want Knight's to rise in power.'

With Alphonse vast experience and knowledge he immediately identified the flaws of the .

According to the , to become a Knight one must first attract Mana and feed them to your cells. This will cause your cells to become more efficient and powerful.

Your skin cells will become tougher, more compact but also more flexible, and even heal faster.

Your muscles cells will become stronger and tougher.

The bones become tougher while maintaining its flexibility.

Tendons become stronger while maintaining their elasticity.

Your blood becomes thicker as blood cells per cubic volume increases.

Your sensory parts become more sensitive and process information even faster.

Your nerve cell passes information even faster and the brains processing speed becomes even faster.

Your immune system will become stronger.

And organ function increases by a large margin, digestion becomes faster, and food assimilation rate becomes better(we absorb more from what we eat), etc.

In short, all the functions of the body become better.

But the problem with the is the Mana digestion rate.

There is a limit to the amount of Mana that a cell can absorb a day. Just like how there is a limit to the amount of food you can eat a day.

This is as when a cell absorbs Mana, it is first stored the Mana within it and the Mana digested slowly and used to improve the functions of the cell. Just like how we eat food, and just like how there is a limit to our stomach there is a limit to the storage capacity of the cell.

So the faster the cell digest the Mana the faster your strength rises.

The Mana digestion rate of the is very slow. You could even say that the is specifically designed to slow down your natural Mana digestion process and waste most of the stored Mana.

Why would the Mages do something so sinister like this?

The answer is obvious, to maintain their position at the top of the world.

Then why did they even bother to release the Path of Knighthood to the public?

That's also obvious, to decrease the mortality rate of other mages.

Mages need time to cast spells and before becoming an Arch-Mage their bodies are very weak.

They need the Knights to become their meat shields and guard them while they charge up their spells.

' is the most basic cultivation law of the Path of Knighthood, historically speaking it could be said to the first cultivation law of the Knights, this means that every cultivation law that is derived from the could inherently have its flaw'

'I am sure that I am not the only one in this world to notice the issues the has, as to whether they rectified the flaws of the I am not too sure.'

It took countless years for Rasputin to create the Path of Knighthood () and it took centuries for Alphonse to make the Soul Transformation Path (Eternal Bodhi Tree) and the Body Transformation Path (Everchanging Human Body).

It takes years of research, trials, and failures to create a new cultivation law, and it takes even more time to make a new path.

Both Rasputin and Alphonse are peerless geniuses to be able to single handily create their own path.

'This is after all the Desolate Continent, the weakest and the least prospers of the 5 continents of this world, it could be possible that someone in the other continents has created a cultivation law that is better than the '

'I am not too concerned about the power struggles of this world as long as it does not affect my interests.'

He is not planning to use the to cultivate, he is only interested in how it attracts Mana into your body.

He carefully analyzed how the attracts Mana to your body.

'I see that is where I went wrong, to think Mana would be so complex.'

The problem was that Alphonse assumed that atmospheric Mana was a neutral attributed energy like atmospheric Qi.

Qi only had an attribute to it when it is close to a natural phenomenon, for example near an active volcano the Qi would have a combination of Earth and Fire attribute, while during thundershowers the Qi would have Water and Lightning attribute, etc.

Normally the atmospheric Qi has no attribute or neutral attribute.

But Mana is different all Mana particles have an attribute, and nearer to a natural phenomenon the number of Mana particles of that phenomenon's attribute will be much higher.

The most common attributes are Water, Earth, Fire, Wood, Metal, Lightning, Wind, Light, Darkness, etc.

There are some rare attributes like Life, Death, Space, Time, etc.

There are even some combinational attributes that arise for combining two or more attributes together. For example, Lava Attribute is made by combining both Earth and Fire attribute, Plasma Attribute made by combing Wind, Fire and Lightning Attribute, etc.

According to the , everyone has an affinity towards one or more common or rare attributes, and in some cases even some combinational attributes.

To absorb mana on must first establish a link with the Mana that you have an affinity for and then began to attract it towards your self.

This is where Alphonse went wrong, he did not try to establish a link with the Mana or even check his own attribute. This lead to all the Mana particles actively avoiding him.

'First I must test and see which Mana attribute I have, hopefully, it is Lighting.'

In his past life as Edward, his Qi arts that he cultivated has where all Lightning based. So if he had Lightning Attribute then all his experience in his past life of manipulating Lightning will be useful.

Alphonse closed his eyes and began breathing according to the , slowly Yellow colored particles started to converge towards his body.

He opened his eyes and sighed in disappointment.

'To think I would have an affinity towards Earth attribute.'

Earth attribute is not a bad attribute. Knights with this attribute have a strong attack and defensive powers but they have a slower speed.

'Oh well, not everything can go according to your wishes,' Alphonse consoled himself.

'On the bright side now that I can attract Mana, I can cultivate the Everchanging Human Body.'