After several more minutes of walking in serene silence, she finally came to a stop, her gaze fixed ahead. Before us lay what appeared to be the entrance to a magnificent clearing nestled within the depths of the dense forest.
I paused beside her, my curiosity piqued, and leaned in to catch a glimpse of the spectacle that had captured her attention.
The sight that unfolded before me took my breath away. A vast lake stretched out like a shimmering mirror, its surface smooth and pristine, reflecting the vibrant hues of the sky above. Yet, oddly enough, the water did not capture the brilliant blue of the heavens as one would expect. Instead, it seemed to possess its own unique energy, as if it were a living entity apart from the world surrounding it.
"It's beautiful," I found myself whispering, the words escaping my lips unbidden, as I was entranced by the marvel before me.
In the background, a majestic mountain loomed, its slopes adorned with a lush tapestry of greenery. A slow-flowing river gracefully descended its heights, meandering down until it finally spilled into the tranquil embrace of the lake within the expansive clearing. This scene seemed almost surreal in its perfection, as though it had been meticulously curated by the most talented designers or even crafted by the hands of nature itself, revealing an artistry that felt both familiar and astonishingly foreign.
"Hmm, struck dumb by the beauty of nature that you've completely forgotten the beauty standing beside you?!" A cheerful voice pulled me from my reverie. I turned to my side and suddenly realized something that I had been blissfully ignorant of until that moment: I was standing next to her.
For the first time, I found myself gazing directly into her eyes, a coincidence that caught me off guard. Until now, I had deliberately averted my gaze, trying not to become too entranced by her captivating features.
Her face was delicate and softly radiant, with slightly rounded cheeks that seemed to hold a perpetual blush. Her skin was as smooth and fair as freshly fallen snow, and the gentle glow of pink on her cheeks added to her charm. But what truly captivated me were her eyes—radiant pools that sparkled with a clarity I had never encountered before. Her pupils resembled tiny golden stars, flickering with an otherworldly magic that felt like something from a storybook or a fantastical dream.
"Come on, boy! Stop being star-struck and let's get a move on!" Her voice, imbued with a playful firmness, reached my ears once more, jolting me from yet another stupor.
I had never considered myself someone easily distracted or deluded, but in the presence of such extraordinary sights—creatures that seemed to blend the line between reality and the fantastical—I found myself utterly enraptured. It was as if every convention I held about the world had been turned upside down, and I was left grappling with the unfamiliar sensations.
"Y-yes!" I stammered, finally regaining my composure, though it felt like an uphill battle. I realized then how much easier communication came while she was a cloud—a mystical entity in the skies—rather than in front of me in this stunning, tangible form that stirred my curiosity and ignited a flutter of something deeper within me. It was a blend of admiration and desire, feelings I once believed I had complete control over, now swirling in a delightful yet disorienting chaos.
I need to get my head in the game these things are nothing but distractions for me, my curiosity, and my lust. All things I had had previously thought I had full control over, were running rampant as nature had intended them to but now wasn't the time to be enamored.
I steeled my resolve and focus and I gripped the shoulder of my missing arm and remembered why I was doing this.
"What as we doing here again?" I asked shivering like a leaf in the rain as reality started to set in once again along with the cool morning breeze off the lake that met my bare skin.
"To begin your training, of course, now strip!"
She pointed her index directly at my face as she spoke with a bright smile on her face one filled with excitement and a tinge of villainy.
-
I stood in the slow-flowing waters of the river as continued downhill towards the lake. I was now wearing nothing but my boxers and trembling like a leaf.
"How will this help with training again!?" I asked looking at at Madam Tsukio standing by the edge of the river with my pants in her hand.
"Think of it this way mama flows just like the blood in your body and the more health the body from a lack of fat the more free the blood flows. Mana operates the same the purer the mana the better it flows and grants better control to prevent mana spills. So you won't waste unnecessary mana while channeling it over a certain distance."
She looked down at me trembling from the sheer cold of the river's waters and snickered with a teasing look in her eyes as I tried to memorize and make sense of the words she spoke.
"You see before you can even imagine Chaneling mana, first need to understand its flow, the fluctuations, and how pure your mana is."
"How pure my mana is… I don't quite get that part." I interrupted her speech to get my small point.
Yes, mana purity plays a significant role in spell-casting especially when it comes to runic magic or incantations, in human society where the dominant form of mana usage is elemental magic or skills they often time neglect the purity or density of their mana, and create an issue as its waste mana unnecessarily."
Her hands began moving skillfully folding my pants neatly without glancing at them like a trained housewife as she spoke.
"While scripture magic and elemental magic may be similar in essence, as they both rely on borrowing mantarai through a medium they are different in functionality."
Placing the folded pants down she began to remove her garments which i wasn't expecting I quickly faced the other direction to not stare at her.
She went silent and then a sinister chuckle sent a jolt to my brain as it was heard directly behind me i didn't even hear a sound when she entered the water.
"Y-You said a few terms earlier that am a bit unfamiliar with like scripture magic, elemental magic, and mana density. Could I have an explanation on those?"