((Author's note:To make a clear picture of how liam's profession work I will explain it in details here for readers.
Arcane archer like Liam in this world can use their personal mana core to power spells just like any mage does.
The major difference is that their Forte is using these spells for "enchanting" objects or themselves for a brief moment and NONE of the other profession can do it other than battlemages and their contracted weapon
So it is optimal for enchanting arrows or projectile for short but devastating effect as the enchantment does not last long.
So in short for arcane archers ("personal" mana from their core can be used to power spells that strengthen themselves and other object for a small widow of time,but ONLY serve as a power source for spells.)
Mana breathing introduced in this chapter is used for obsorbing "Natural" mana generated from nature itself,so plants,air, earth, water and fire etc will allow that.it's (ONLY use for now is for directly giving the caster strength and stamina without using any spells after obsorbing enough in their body when they run out of mana or want to conserve them.)
So for now think of personal mana as spell battery and natural mana as temporary performance enhancer .))
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Calmly,Liam stretches his senses of the surrounding mana bits by bits.
The earth underneath him,the breeze that spread across his body as he ran and lastly the trees and grass field on the sides of the track.
He connect all the natural mana he could influence with his will and inhale them into his body,obsorbing and circulating them as it would do to air.He can feel his accumulated fatigue being melt away,replacing them with a soothing feeling of relieve and pulsating strength.
The skills which was passed down since the first generation in liam's household was developed because their job as trackers and hunter often require ability to continuiously focus and travel long distance.Their beliefwas that mount might make too much noise and the beast's smell would alert their enemy or prey.
It was named mana breathing,for the process includes directly converting nature's mana the castor inhaled into a boost of stamina and muscular strength without spells as a medium.
As Liam felt more and more mana have been converted to his strength ,he pushes his body to its limit,zooming pass all the other cadet and leaving a trail of dusty breeze behind.
"Liam stop!you can't use spells!!"Layla shouted after the liam's retreating figure,afraid that Liam will get in trouble in the first day for a simple stamina exercise.
"No,he should be fine princess."Amelia squint her eyes,shifting between Liam in the far distance and lvy who was watching him with a raised eye brow."I don't sense any spell formation or the energy pulsing from his mana core, which I assumed is the same case for captain Ivy,right gareth?"
Gareth nodded with geniune surprise and after a few more second of observations he state his conclusion of the situation.
"It is probably a rare ability that allowed usage for natural mana instead of his own and powering his body with it without a spell.Quite convient for these exercises." Gareth chuckles,amused at liam's cheat like ability for skipping training.
"Princ－ah I see,thank you."Layla bite her retort back,she watches as Liam sprint past them for the third time and wondered."This boy is a bag of surprise,but... why is he in such a hurry?He doesn't seem the type to be so competitive and showed off for no reason."
Colin who was sprinting ahead of them frowned,he can feel his strength sapping away after the ninth circles.His body and statue unfit for long and arduous journey,although he is confident he can surpass liam's speed for short period of time if he went all with enhancement spells and his powerful body.
But seeing Liam does the same with relative ease without even spells usage made him felt a little bit embarrassed at his earlier out burst about how fighters like liam is a waste of resource.
Alas,it ends with that notion."Without us,you will never survive no matter fast you leg carry you anyway."His strong belief of frontline solider being superior in importance in this war still weight heavily.
12 minutes later,an exhausted Liam stumble towards Ivy,as wonderful as mana breathing is ,it have it's drawbacks like any ability there ever was.His body was throughoutly sore and pulsed with tearing pain with every moment he made.
Liam can obsorb as much mana as he want to utilize,but his body is just as human as always.
If he ran at the same paces as others,he would likely not feel anything more than a some sweats and marginal amount of soreness.
The track field was as large as the mayor's mansion in his town.And after running around it for 20 times ,he felt it was probably a little bigger than a normal track field and he ran 20 times around it for close to about 18 minutes.
"cap…t…ain…" lvy hissed and support the crumbling Liam in her arm and let him stand for a few minutes for concern of his heart,before grabbing a flask out of Her storage ring and making him drink it in small qulps.
"What the hell are you thinking!!And there I thought you were able to handle the strain.If you can't keep your body together,then don't push it to this state!"Ivy questioned,a great sense of guilt and pity rises in her heart when she looked at Liam that were quietly laying at the side on the bench along with ice packs placed on his various body part,still too sore to move his body.
"My apology captain…but it was of utmost importance that I tell you as fast as possible."Liam groan and threw glances at their surronding,the trainnee is still not finished with their track,but Layla along with the other three officer cadet have finished a few moment ago.
Their condition a far cry from his,a few bead of sweat and small gasp is all there is to it .A Layla with concerned expression along with his two new friend started making their way towards him,but he signal them to leave them alone for a few moment with shakes of his head.
After shooing the confused group away in a few pangs of guilt,he turned towards Ivy who already putted on her serious face.Telling him that she was concerned about this supposed emergency and be out with it.
At the moment of truth,Liam hesitated.What he was about to do have a very very marginal chances of back firing on him and more importantly his family very badly.There were many reason to tell Ivy the truth but the one reason weights heavily in his mind."Is protecting the future of millions of strangers more important than taking the very small but extremely deadly risk on behalf of his family?"
After a brief moment of inner struggles and inner dialog,under the gaze of Ivy that were growing more and more suspicious and impatient,he sighed and made the decision.
"During our travel when we were in the north west direction about 35 km away from here,we encounter a lich commending an undead army of at least a thousand of monsters and humans."Liam spokes as calmly and precisely as he could and watches as Ivy 's expression turned into a brief moment of shock then back to her indifferent poker face,her gaze scanning him intently during his speech.
"…Although I can see you aren't lying unless you are one of the best actor in the world ever borned,I can't take the word of just a cadet for a matter of this caliber,do you have any proof or other witnesses for your claim?"Ivy questioned,rubbing her temples in annoyance at the troubles.
"I do have both of those,but I am afraid I need the provoast to sign a statement that no harm will come to both me and the other witnesses from this before anything else .The kingdom is vast and the lich might not appear again for all we know.So for now…Liam rummage through his storage braclet and pulled out a sack.
Immediately,they both wrinkle their noise at the stench,as the smells was from rotting undead fingers and flesh that were contain in the sack.Liam have disinfected the body part mutiple time for fear of disease with his limited medical supplies but the smell of strong alchol and rotting flesh mixing were non the less horrible.
"This…here is some body parts that were left behind by the undead that pasts by with the lich.It should contain the signs of specific mana frequency emitted by powerful necromancy and even a fraction of the lich's curses energy.I will give you this as proof but not the other withness and I will still need the stateme－"A smack from a laughing Ivy stopped his rumbling and panoramic speech.
"I understand what you mean,but there is no need to worry.Sure,there is reasons to suspect you for being a spy with the motive to spread disorder among the kingdom and beheading will be the only punishment for that,but if you know this but still choose to tell us that means you at least knows that human or any living being for that matter can't practice necromancy,so unless you are a friend of the lich then there is no way you can be related to it."Liam flushed beet red with embar¹rassment,Ivy on the other hand didn't ridicule him other than a chuckle.
She was right about everything she said,on top of that unless someone blaze every patches of land the lich and his army passed through with holy flame and disinfectant which will be even more suspicious,the signs of a lich's existance will be as easy to notice as finding Jerome in the red light district.
As for the possibility of relating him to the lich…that will be even more ridulous,the lich will unleash his army at the sight of him.And successfully practicing necromancy is unheard of
,especially one as powerful as the lich's.p
With that in mind,he took deep breath to calm himself down.Taking the risk for the kingdom aside,his family will be at great risk with a wondering undead army at their door steps."It is the right choice" He try to convince himself albeit his rapidly beating heart.
Pat !
"And I won't disclose your identity if that makes you feel any better,the sack is enough for us to sent investigators.Now, go join them,your session is far from over."The words washed relief over him as much the pat on his head does and he looks at his weapon master in a new light. He hopes that she will Truthfully do that,if not he might rest uneasy for the rest of the seminar.
With words of thanks and a salute filled with gratitude,Liam joined his waiting groups of friends.And start the rest of their hellish training with his aching body.But with most of the weight on his consciousness gone.He allowed himself to relaxed more and focus on his training.
Behind him,Ivy looked at the sack in her hand in disgust and quickly stored it in her spacial ring.Later she will turn in the evidence and asked for the inquisition's help in investigating the coordinate Liam marked on a map for her.
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Somewhere in a large dusty room within the Academy,lines of book shelves decorated the walls of the wide space.
In the room,a man with a pair of bright crimson eyes can be seen seated behind a disk,reading a number of parchment and note in his hands.
Her red eyes scanning through the lines swiftly,obsorbing information as quickly as he have seen them.
"Sighs...this is such a boring position,What is the point of it…nothing is happenin anyw－"A gasp escape his mouth as he noticed a familiar smell,a stench so thick that he couldn't recognize it from anything else,it was brief and the smell went away soon after it appeared.
Grin
"I guess someone noticed our toy sooner than we expected."He traced his finger across the lines on a small pendent in his pocket,the symbol was not unlike that of a skull with its mouth wide opened as if screaming in agony.
It pulsate with untapped power,the deep relentless desire for corruption and it's only purpose of spreading death and decay.