Lieren gazed up at the unseen sky, hidden behind a thick layer of interweaving branches and leaves, like a veil blotting out the sun.
The boy sighed dejectedly and picked up the crutch by his side, holding it tightly as he held it under his armpit. The crutch itself looked rickety and old, barely serving its functions properly. It was made by Harita, though an artisan did offer to help, he just scoffed and waved the man away, insisting that he do it himself, using whatever materials he could find. To be honest, Lieren was wildly impressed that he was even able to make one, given the pronounced unfamiliarity he displayed when making the crutch itself. Despite this though, the crutch still served its purpose, despite its rough exterior. The crutch looked like a gust of wind could destroy it in the right angle.
The boy walked towards the wagon they have been traveling in, straining himself greatly. For some divine reason, Lieren felt more aware of his lack of purpose and direction greater than ever before.
With another heavy sigh, he sat on the edge of the wagon floor, setting his crutch by his side. Bouts of pain pierced his leg, but the boy bared through it, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist to counteract the pain somewhat.
Lieren tried to distract himself from the horror, his mind drifting to Lin's words.
"To be perfectly honest, it's a damn miracle that you're still alive. Especially given your weak physique. If your grumpy ward here had been a second later, we might have had to amputate your leg. Actually, that was my thought after seeing your condition. Seriously though... why did you do that? I get that you have your own set of problems to deal with. Though guessing by your age, I doubt they're anything important. You know that your ward was just being polite when he was asking you to join him… right? He didn't actually desire to expose you to danger like that, you know? He probably just saw the fact that you were bored and decided to ask you as courtesy or something. Anyways, I'm glad that you're fine… comparatively. Really, I am. You did good out there, even managed to use Augmentation despite your age. That's really big! …Especially for us common folk. It would have been a shame to lose somebody with such talent, all the more so with budding mages like yourself. Who knows? Maybe I just saw something amazing. Then again, some people say that border between madness and genius is thinner than paper."
Shaking his head, Lieren tried to forget about the loquacious woman, focusing on more pressing matters. The pain had subsided mostly, though he could still feel light pricks every now and then.
"I need to recover quickly. If I do, Harita might let me go hunting again. It was painful and horrible, but I've learned more in that short encounter than I did reading about the basics of magic in books or hearing about it." With a heavy sigh, Lieren closed his eyes and turned his focus inward, to the wild mana within himself.
The wild mana — the name Lieren had dubbed it — was different than regular mana. Unlike regular mana, which was flexible and consistent, wild mana was more volatile and unpredictable, being harder to control and use.
Mana was, by nature, formless, influenced by multiple factors and favored no one, healing and destroying all equally, for better or worse—but never at the same time. A mage mostly manipulated the mana within themselves, being the closest and most available source of power within reach.
As a rule, or rather a restriction, mana becomes harder and harder to control as it grows farther away, outside of the caster's range of influence. Though one can just as easily improve this by mastering Detachment, the category that focuses on mana outside of the body, whether that be through Imbuement or Emission. However, if the mage in question's inherent affinity is anything but Detachment, then the maximum potential that that mage can reach will be significantly lower than what a mage with the affinity for Detachment ever could, no matter how hard they work or how much time they put in. This is considered as one of the major rules of mana, being one of the greatest limiting factor of magic.
For Lieren especially, this restriction is all the more deadly. Because of his inherent ability, Magic Resistance, mana had a much harder time entering his body than what a normal recently initiated mage could by a large margin, undermining his progress with an undesirable factor. This also works the other way around, making it extremely difficult to detach mana from his body.
However, this is where Lieren differed from the rest of the world. Since mana cannot escape his body, Lieren could use it with maximum efficiency despite his lack of experience.
Beginner mages, by nature, regularly leak mana. This is due to their inexperience and lack of mastery, having prioritized the concentration involved with casting a spell, no matter how big or small, completely forgetting to manage cost and efficiency. Of course, this can be improved on as a mage earns more experience and knowledge, their bodies naturally acclimating to suit their needs and abilities, just like every other part of the human body. This is marked by their progress on their inherent affinity, as well as all the other affinities they have delved into.
However, it is stated that even the most powerful of mages leak mana unconsciously, all the more so for affinities they are not attuned to.
Lieren, however, did not face this problem. Because of his magical disposition, as long as he uses mana within himself, he would never leak any of it, making him the only mage in the world capable of using magic with absolute efficiency and extra-minimal cost, granting him an astronomical advantage above everybody else. This also meant that, regardless of what his affinity is, Lieren would always be above any Augmentation-user when it came to mana consumption. Since most Augmentation abilities focus on inner mana control, Lieren's was practically on the level of a master when it came to mana expenditure.
However, this did not mean Lieren had an infinite mana source. Spells and magical abilities still required mana to cast. No matter how efficient he could use mana to augment himself, Lieren will still expend some to cast spells, to his dismay. No matter how miniscule of a drop it is, Lieren would still have to meditate to regenerate mana from time to time.
With this newfound knowledge, Lieren sought out another ability, something that required all his focus and mental strength to. Some say that it can be considered the peak of Augmentation, others even claiming it to be an application of Transmutation. Nevertheless, Lieren desired it, and thus aimed to obtain it, no matter how long it will take.
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The pharanoic leaves of the gargantuan trees shook mightily, making the dark forest all the more ominous with its furious rustling, intensifying the eerie, dangerous vibe of the entire place.
Perspiration flowed down the boy's face as he concentrated with all he could, willing the wild mana within himself to take the appropriate shape he wanted, expending it all for the past…minute? Hour? Day? He did not know. What he did, however, was give his all to make his desire come through.
Almost tyrannically.
Using the wild mana within him, he molded it with cruel efficiency as he shaped the desired spell's form, failing over and over again, then getting back up to do it all over again, taking a small, infinitesimal step each time.
Wild mana, as Lieren called it, was the unique variation of mana that was born from both his inexperience and mysterious ability: Magic Resistance. Though he lacked understanding of it, from what he had seen, it seemed to be a result of the counteracting nature of both his mana and ability.
Since mana cannot escape his body, no matter how lacking his inner mana control is, he will never waste any of it, leaving the mana with nowhere to escape and become entrapped within himself. This seemed to be relatively harmless, from what Lieren could gather, except for one thing:
'It's so damn hard to use!' Lieren gritted his teeth and strained his mind to its absolute limit, feeling the world disappear as he opened his mind's eye and opened the channels within himself to flow the way he wants to and take the shape of what he desired most.
He did not know if it was some sort of effect that his ability had on the mana, or if it is just how things worked, but as a result of the wasted mana being unable to escape, it turned more volatile, erratic, and somehow instinctual, developing some kind of primitive intelligence.
Wild mana had two traits.
Manipulating it became harder, reducing its overall effectivity, as Lieren could not properly utilize it to augment himself. This was a big problem, a fact that Lieren recognized immediately, and agonized over all the same… if its other trait is disregarded.
As Lieren shaped the wild mana writhing inside of him, he felt his puny muscles getting tighter, his bones more tenacious, and his nerves more sensitive. It felt like the world was at his fingertips, along with everything and everyone in it.
His mind felt sharper as well, granting him the ability to numb the pain somewhat, allowing for more precise mana control and higher accuracy, increasing the speed at which he constructed the spell.
"Hey."
Piece by piece, it was building up, the silhouette of its empowering form within reach.
'Almost… there…'
"Hey!"
With a sharp scream and the sound of glass shattering, it was gone. Completely.
A rush of dread, despair, and pain washed away his efforts, drowning in a sea of failure. His failure.
Even his rage was washed away by the sea, like an insignificant pebble or a grain of sand, too small to be worth anything more than a worthless item.
"…What are you doing?" A small, whispery voice resounded beside him.
He lazily opened his eyes, casting a gaze at the young maiden wearing a black and white maid's outfit with red frills and a scarlet headpiece, the same shade as dried blood. It was eerie at first, but Lieren had grown accustomed to it, thinking of it as nothing more than a fancy accessory.
His back gave up and let himself down, feeling the cold varnished wood through his soaked shirt. With a tired, heavy sigh, the boy responded, his voice hollow and raspy, as if he had just ran a marathon without rest:
"Oh… you know… just thinking about how much of a loser I am."