" Huff, huff…huff.. huff"
Weasley panted heavily. Henner who was standing by his side nodded approvingly.
They were on track in terms of time.
Weasley had spent the last six hours relearning how to convert mana.Regardless of what kind of mana conversion method he dreamed up, the requisite step would always be to have had learned the basic of ability of converting mana.
As such, Weasley went through the gruelling process of trying to bend the laws of nature to his will for a second time.
While the process did not take any physical toll on him, he felt like his head had just been put through the wringer.
" I'll go get the materials we need for the next phase, you stay here and recover your strength. I'll be back in 5 minutes."
Henner turned on her heel and exited the through door, closing it with a light bump as she left the room.
Weasley stayed sat on the ground for several moments longer while trying to collect himself and clear his mind.
He willed his mana to enter his brain and rejuvenate it, consciously willing them to flow through certain areas where the pain was heaviest.
Unfortunately, there was no instantaneous relief to be had but Weasley could feel the fatigue slowly fading away.
Weasley opened his eyes but continued to circulate mana.
He had been in deep focus for the past six hours and he hadn't had anything to eat. He was absolutely famished.
Standing up, Weasley looked around the room out for reflex.
He wasn't searching for anything in particular but couldn't help but notice an assortment of meats and bread piled neatly on plate on the other side of the room. Weasley's natural instincts kicked in and he let himself be dragged towards the food.
Without thinking, he grabbed the food and began chowing down. The food was cold but to Weasley who had missed lunch and dinner as well, it was like ambrosia and he ate without a care in the world while relishing every bite.
Who could blame him could blame him for knowing how to appreciate the worldly pleasures of life? Besides, hunger makes everything, well, almost everything taste better right?
Suddenly, a clacking sound could be heard followed by the patter of food steps.
Weasley turned around just in time to see a Henner whose hands where pilled with so many books and scrolls that it reached her chin, enter the room.
Weasley froze when he saw his teacher. He was just about to greet her and ask if she needed help when a thought struck him and he froze in place.
' There was no way right?' He thought, panicking
Henner who had just entered the room also froze in place.
Her gaze moved from the remnants of her dinner that had been attacked so ferociously by her famished pupil, to the piece of piece of bread he was holding to the crumbs dotting the rims of his mouth.
All the while, he face displayed a mixture of surprise, intrigue and fascination.
Frankly, she didn't really mind that her pupil had gobbled up her 'dinner'. It hadn't been anything significant anyway and as a mage, she could go days without eating as simply circulating mana would allow her to sustain herself.
Weasley was unfortunately not privy to this information. He sincerely thought that he had stolen his teacher's dinner and she would have to go without a meal for the night.
It was late already and the kitchen and pantry had probably closed so there was no more midnight snack to be had.
In other words, he was in every bit a thief! And to be caught completely red handed at that!
Weasley wished with every fibre of his being to simply be able to disappear where he stood.
' Is there anything more utterly revolting, disgusting , obnoxious, horrible , embarrassing than eating someone else's dinner?!!! '
' No there isn't!! ARGHHHHHHHH!!!'
Weasley wanted to just disappear. He couldn't even bring himself to look at his teacher. He could feel his face getting hot and his eyes were seemingly glued to the floor as he tried to wipe the breadcrumbs from his mouth, only succeeded in smearing it more and making his face even messier.
Weasley stammered out.
" Th-this….wouldn't happen to be your dinner right Ms Henner?"
" Actually, it happens that it is!"
A cheeky tone could be heard in Henner's voice but in his embarrassment, Weasley had failed to pick up on it. Instead, his embarrassment only multiplied several fold.
" I-I see…."
" Mhmm.."
An awkward silence descended onto the room but only Weasley felt its presence. Henner on the other hand who was struggling to restrain her laughter was completely oblivious.
" ...I'm sorry. I was too hungry" Weasley apologised sheepishly.
" Don't sweat it" Henner replied with a smile. She almost regretted not exploiting the chance to make more fun of her smarty pants student but eventually decided that it was too mean to do so.
' What kind of adult makes fun of a two year old kid anyway?' She thought to herself.
" You can have the rest if you want. Just listen while you eat will you?" Henner feigned a dismissive tone and said.
She walked over to the desk where Weasley was standing next to and relieved herself of the load of on her hands.
She causally picked up a medium sized book on the top of the pile and flipped through its pages, coming to a stop on a page somewhere near the centre.
" Check-pointing is a method that involves the immediate execution of a fixed action that is prompted by the completion of another previous action. Well known examples that utilise this concept include speed casting, phantom blade and the thousand punch art among many others."
Henner read the passage out loud and looked at Weasley, waiting for any questions he may have.
Seeing that there were none, she continued.
" To utilise this concept, one must first understand that for a check point to be set, an astral imprint of sufficient size must be associated to it."
" While this can be achieved naturally by associating the action with a intimate memory or anything that is significant enough to oneself, it can also be done artificially by altering one's mana pathways to achieve the same effect"
" And so, that's what we're going to do!"
Henner said as she closed the book with a loud clap.
Weasley who was still sneakily eating hastily gulped down his last mouthful of bread and shook his head in agreement. It was evident that his pride had lost miserably against his gastronomic cravings.
Henner gave no reaction and started rummaging through the pile of items that she had brought back.
" Sit on the chair for a bit" she instructed. " There's something I need to find."
Weasley wordlessly did as he was told.
Before long, Henner returned.
In her hands was yet another piece of paper, a pen and something that looked like a monocle.
The lens had a blueish colour to it. The frame that housed it was a simple circle made of silver. Weasley could make out small engravings on its surface which gave the unassuming lens a surprisingly fitting look of sophistication.
Noticing his curious gaze, Henner she sat down and began fixing on the monocle.
" It's called an alchemist's eye. It's going to help me see your mana pathways so we can find the spots where we can alter them." She explained.
Henner finished fixing the monocle lens onto her face and shook her head up and down several times to make sure that it was firmly set in place.
" Is there something on my face?" Henner asked with a frown. Weasley's subtle smirk did not escape her notice.
' As a matter of fact there is' Weasley quipped back in his mind but simply shook his head outside.
" You simply look different Ms Henner."
"The monocle doesn't exactly suit you" he added cheekily, eliciting a sigh of exasperation from his teacher.
One didn't have to be a genius to draw up a picture of what Henner looked like.
Imagine beachgoer, donned in bright Hawaiian colours with tropical patterns printed on her garments. Her curly hair was a fiery red blaze and cut short to neck length that's as just slightly longer than that of an average boy.
Everything about such a person would scream chill and casual vibes.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a monocle appears on her face.
A solemn, elegant yet often ostentatious mantle of a stereotypical gentleman wannabe who can't speak proper english like a sane human being instead insisting on referring to himself in third person.
Yup, it looked pretty ridiculous.
Henner rolled her eyes and ignored Weasley's tomfoolery.
" Hiaz.. are you done?"
" Yes Mdm!"
" I'm not a Mdm."
" Of that, I'm sure!"
Henner wanted to slug the two year old in front of her in the face. Her veins almost bulged form her forehead as she struggled to contain herself.
' I'll get him back later. Not now. Not now Henner, not now. '
'He's just a kid. Just a kid.'
Even so, Henner was still pissed.
" Just put out your hand and start circulating mana." She snapped angrily.
Weasley did as he was told, not before shooting his teacher one last cheeky grin. Before he knew it, Henner had become like an elder sister to him.
No way he would, have dared to make such remarks when he met her for the first time.
Weasley stuck his right hand out and cleared his mind.
Playtime was over.
Channeling everything ounce of focus he had, Weasley willed his body's mana towards his outstretched hand and through every existing pathway.
Weasley's entire right forearm hummed with energy and power as large quantities of mana rampaged through the mana pathways.
" Good, keep it up." Henner praised.
Through her Alchemist's eye, Henner could see right through the flesh and bone of Weasley's hand. By filtering out all else but mana from one's field of vision, the eye allowed Henner to see the flow the mana through the pathways on Weasley's hand and as such, his pathways themselves.
Slowly, Henner picked up the pen and paper she had taken earlier and began to slowly sketch the pathways.
Even though she was channeling mana to her brain to increase her processing speed by thousands of times, the task was still so complex that she could not afford even a single lapse in concentration.
This was simply how interconnected the pathways were. One pathway could lead to two before leading to an intersection that opened up to another dozen different pathways. And there were thousands of them all over the place!
However, there was no other alternative and Henner continued to draw at a snail's pace.
Meanwhile, Weasley was having an increasingly harder time of maintaining the mana flow. He could effortlessly maintain a whole body circulation of mana for 3 hours or more without a problem but channeling everything he had through just the pathways in his hand was a whole different ball game.
Five minutes in, Weasley already wanted to give up.
He hadn't thought that it would be this hard! He didn't want this! He wanted out! No one told him that it would be this hard!
He could feel his willpower and endurance getting stretched increasingly thin.
Pushing the mana was also getting increasingly tiring and simply willing the mana to move felt as if he was trying to sprint after running a full marathon without break.
It was a feeling of sheer exhaustion. It was like he was purposely torturing himself and his body was refusing to accept it.
Intrusive thoughts started popping up in his mind.
' Why is this so hard?'
' Why am I even trying? I can't keep this up anyway?'
Weasley's mind started to drift. Floating away from his earlier conviction and motivation and increasingly towards procrastination and
'Maybe I should just go back to the old method? Wouldn't that be easi..'
Weasley shook his head violently.
' Henner had told me time and again that it wouldn't be easy. Almost impossible even! Who said that no one told me that it would be hard?'
Thinking of his teacher, Weasley gazed over at Henner's and was instantly hit with a pang of shock and guilt.
His usually calm and youthful face was structured up in a frown of concentration. Her hand was carefully etching out line after line as sweat poured down her face like a waterfall.
' She's working hard...for me' Weasley thought dumbfoundedly
' Am I working any harder than her?'
'Am I doing her some favour?'
....
No..
'No! I'm not!'
' I have no right right to whine in the first place! This was my choice! My conviction! '
' This for my sake! My goal! My future!'
Weasley's throat seized up in guilt. He wanted screamed at himself.
How stupid he was. How absolutely ridiculous for him to even think of giving up when for his sake, someone else was still giving it their all.
Weasley gritted his teeth and pushed hard, revitalising the mana flow with renewed vigour.
His body still screamed in fatigue but now, it seemed just a bit easier to persist and carry on.
From Henner's point of view, the dimming mana pathways became brighter as the mana flow sped up. Henner felt a small sense of pride well up in her chest and increased her drawing speed as best she can.
- Three hours later
" Done!!" Henner cried as she threw her pen in the air flopped onto the ground in relief.
" Now we just have to re-analyse the pathways and make the alterations! Then we will be good to start spell casting!" She announced triumphantly.
Henner looked at Weasley with a smile on her face when she realised that he had, in fact, fallen asleep. The last three hours had taken everything he had and he utterly exhausted.
Henner frowned and considered waking Weasley up.
Her plan hadn't included any nap time. Afterall, they needed every second that they could get if they wanted to make it in time for the deadline.
However, Henner decided against it on further thought.
' It would be more productive later if he was rested up. The analysis and pathway re-configuration is going to be a pain to do without him being conscious but I can technically do it by myself so it's no problem.'
' Haiz…..honestly, what a handful this kid is.'
Henner carried Weasley and lay him down on the couch that she usually used as a bed.
While the Ashbrones had provided her with her own bedroom, Henner often preferred to sleep in her lab.
It just felt more natural that way for her.
Shooting one last glance at Weasley who was soundly asleep, Henner threw a blanket over her sleeping pupil and returned to her desk to work on the pathway diagram she had so painstakingly drawn out.
" Time to pull annother all nighter I guess!"