It wasn't all that hard to guide my mana throughout my body, from the biggest to even the smallest of muscles, but trying to keep it there, conglomerating and focusing it, felt impossible. With the slipperiness of a snake, it somehow always managed to wriggle out of the designated location, as if it was completely against having its freedom restrained.
Thankfully, this was not a technique that needed one's body to get imprinted like with the mana channels, it was all about the feeling, and that was something that I got to experience doubly. After just a bit more than two hours, I had finally gotten a somewhat good enough grasp of it.
At this point, I could hold my mana and enhance a limb for a bit more than four seconds, which was huge progress from when I started. Sadly, my rapid progress came back to bite me in the ass when our teacher noticed it.
"Oh! Seems like we have a bit of a genius on our hands! Most students would need at least four to five hours of practice before they are able to even start a manual enhancement."
Looking up at Mr. Black, I felt like he had completely betrayed the trust that he didn't know I had for him. 'Couldn't you just keep silent? Fuck!'
Not caring about my inner thoughts, he kept on speaking. Loudly. "Say, young man, what's your name?"
"I'm James Jackson, sir."
Rubbing his cheek, he inspected me thoroughly before opening his mouth again, once more making my life difficult, "Well, young James, very well done! The other students could learn a lot from someone like you!"
As soon as he said that, I could feel a lot of eyes penetrating me, their origins being my fellow students. Little did I know that one of these pairs of eyes was not like the others. Three of the pairs were staring at me because they felt insulted that someone who they assumed to be a commoner had the audacity to be praised by the teacher while the last one was contrastingly looking at me with eyes of admiration.
As our teacher had already left my side to guide the other four students, I once more had to repress a lot of dark thoughts and forced myself to continue practicing.
****
[Sophie's Pov]
'This can't be happening...'
Once again, I was alone with Mr. Brown, back in the same arena I had just left when I went to the cafeteria.
"I see that you are once again the only one who chose my course! Gahaha! That's great!"
Yes, somehow I had once again picked a course that not a single other student had picked, this time being the physical enhancement class. This was one of the courses that I had thought that a lot of other students might have picked, as physical enhancement was, in my mind, a basis for a warrior.
Having no answer to this mystery, I had to ask, "Sir, why is it that no one else picked this course? Shouldn't there be at least some students who would want to attend it?" In my mind, I had been thinking that, at the very least, Bellatrix and Adam would want to attend this class as it synergized with their combat roles.
Mr. Brown's face turned into a bit of a pout, clearly not happy about having to answer my question. "Well... Most students either choose mana manipulation where they can learn a broader, more general, use of mana which also includes a basic enhancement practice, or they choose the weapon enhancement course which also does the same. In fact, as physical enhancement is one of the basics of mana usage most students will learn it in a lot of different classes. Therefore this course, which is specifically tailored to teach students to specialize in body enhancements, is often looked over."
That was a lot of information to take in, but I got the general gist of it. As all students would automatically have to learn physical enhancement as a basic part of a lot of courses, they would rather make sure that they also got to learn to either use mana more extensively or specialize in using their weapons.
"Haa... I understand. It's fine, I get you to teach me all by myself after all!"
Seeing the downcast expression of my instructor, I couldn't help but try to cheer him up a bit. Something that appeared to work splendidly as his face immediately lit up with a smile. "That's right Red! I will make you the strongest student in the entire academy!"
Somehow, I had a feeling that his optimism would quickly get translated into pain for me, but I kept a polite smile on my face to not make him feel bad.
****
[James's Pov]
"That's all for today. Good work everyone, I'll see you again on Friday!"
Our lesson finally ended, with me making a bit more progress in the control I had over my mana. With everyone standing up, with me included, I quickly dismissed my clone.
When my clone disappeared, my main body, which was still sitting on my bed, had some kind of crazy reaction to the sudden influx of opened mana channels and mental angst after practicing my control with double the efficiency.
"Argh!" I couldn't sit up, my body fell back into the bed, spasming as I felt as if my body had been set on fire. 'Fuck! It hurts so bad!'
Although it was nothing in comparison to the pain I had felt when the god remodeled my body, the pain was still so incredibly intense that I had no choice but to grit my teeth to make sure I didn't bite my tongue off.
After a couple of minutes, it appeared that all the mana channels I had copied with my clone had been fully integrated into my body, leaving me with an aching body and a tired mind.
"Guess that's to be expected... I pretty much brute-forced all of the channels that my clone opened when we assimilated..."
The positive thing about this was that I could feel a very real and tangible effect on my body with my mana flowing a lot smoother than before. The negative thing was that I didn't know if there was a risk of me potentially causing permanent damage to my body by doing this. Even though the upside was great, the downside was way too dire for me to even slightly regard this as a valid alternative in the future.
"The only alternative I have is to make one body gather and filter mana while the other one focuses on opening mana channels."
It was a shame, a complete tragedy, but I couldn't risk losing the ability to grow stronger in the future by gambling on short-term progress. As I was laying down in the bed, I called upon my clone which emerged from my body in the exact same state as my main body was in.
"Hey, we look like shit man."
"Yea, we sure do. We should probably have thought a bit more about the demerits that this clone thing actually carries."
"Yea. But we were pretty awesome though."
"We sure were."
Stopping the talk with myself, both of my bodies once again started to circulate and gather mana while we waited for our bodies to be in good enough shape to make some food.
****
[Sarah's Pov]
"Hihihi!"
Lying down on my bed, filled with stuffed animals and plushies, I couldn't help but giggle when I thought about the man I had gotten to see today.
When Arthur had first told me about James, I thought that he might be greatly exaggerating. There were plenty of ambitious students at Ainu, and even if the man turned out to be more determined than the average man, that wouldn't mean all too much.
However, those thoughts all changed when I got to meet him in person. First of all, he was handsome. Not handsome in the traditional way but in a more feminine way, something that also translated to his smaller stature. Even though I was pretty sure that I was taller than him, it didn't deter my heart from wavering when I saw someone who was just my type.
Then, I also got to see his ambition shine through, as he wolfed down his food as fast as possible just so he could squeeze in some extra training before our next lesson started. 'I am so lucky! I get to see him in both of the lessons I picked!'
Yes, as if Theia herself told me that it was meant to be, we had picked the same courses to attend, both the mana cultivation and the mana manipulation course. During the mana cultivation, I hadn't really looked at him much, fully focusing on the task at hand. Something I tried to do during the manipulation lesson as well, which worked out well for me during the first half of the session.
Alas, my concentration was completely disrupted when the teacher noticed that James had already managed to pull off doing a physical enhancement manually, without the help of a skill in just two hours! So cool! And best of all, he seemed really humble about it, not bragging or even speaking a word about his accomplishment at all.
Even though my social interactions had been few and far between, there was one thing I was sure of. I was incredibly interested in getting to know the handsome student James as much as possible!