As Loren followed his master through the town streets, he felt sweat run down his back.
'Loot wasn't serious, right? He's not really going to kill me, is he? He can't have that bad a sense of humour.'
"We're going to die... All because you kept insulting him." Salrie's face had been painted blue, tears building in her eyes as she felt the end come near.
Her anxiety had begun to affect Loren. "T-teacher, if this is about me calling you 'Sir Rito Rito' I can stop, you don't have to do this."
"What are you talking about? Just shut up and follow me."
An aura of silence surrounded to two as they walked, Rito being naturally silent and Loren too nervous to speak. Before too long they had arrived inside the forest bordering the town.
"I knew it! You're going to kill me and bury me here. Help! HELP!"
"You're more patient than I thought."
Loren had started to scream out loud, hoping the guardian beast would come to his rescue, stopping when Rito complimented him, something he hadn't done before.
"HE-Huh?"
"It's been two weeks now and I've yet to teach you any mana arts, I expected you to throw a tantrum already, you're more mature than I believed."
Loren scratched his neck in embarrassment, he didn't expect Rito to praise him. "I just didn't want to lose to you."
"How far have you progressed through the 1st stage?"
"I don't have many mana arts, so I can only concentrate a little more than 1/4 of my mana into my arms." Loren didn't expect the conversation to go in this direction, he never expected a conversation in the first place.
Mastery of the 1st stage directly correlated with how much mana one could specifically concentrate in one's body. The higher percentage than the rest of the body, the better. Mana arts help a lot in this mastery, as repeated use of the abilities has a similar effect on one's body as a mana mastery technique.
"That's to be expected, you only reached the 1st stage 2 weeks ago after all."
Loren nodded his head, he knew he was talented but never had aspirations to fly through the different stages, being in the 1st stage a month after awakening was already a great achievement.
"To be honest, I didn't plan to have this talk with you until you were halfway through the 1st stage, but I was surprised by your actions today."
Loren tilted his head, was he impressed he defeated Trina? But Loren knew his victory wasn't achieved through skill but a trick he couldn't use again, they had spared again after and Trina had rightly beaten Loren, regaining her pride. Loren couldn't pinpoint was surprised the man.
"I'm talking the 'mana art' you call 'look away'. Mana usage is like a reflex for most, people are used to channelling mana in the part of the body they're using, like tensing your body before receiving a blow. But you were able to feint in your battle against Trina. It shows you don't have the same reflex as others have for some reason, most have to spend months training to achieve the same result."
Salrie commented to Loren, speculating the reason. "It's probably due to you living in a body without mana previously, having mana is not a preconceived notion for you so you can look at mana usage from a different perspective."
Loren subtly nodded to Salrie agreeing with her conjecture before placing his attention back on Rito.
"Not having this habit is a good thing, the first thing I wanted to teach you requires you to get rid of it. Learning other arts would have only cemented this reflex in your body."
'So there was a reason he didn't teach me? I thought he was just being an assh*le.'
Rito grabbed a fallen tree trunk and sat down, staring at Loren.
"Activate body enhancement."
Loren quickly followed his orders, spreading mana throughout his body as blue wisps rose.
"Having such a high amount of natural mana can be a positive and a negative, those blue wisp coming from your body is your mana leaking out of it, it means some of your mana is going to waste. What I'm going to teach you is a way to help compress your mana to avoid this happening."
This didn't surprise Loren, he already knew his mana was leaking but couldn't help it, Salrie also told him that as his body grew the leakage would stop so he didn't understand the point of learning to do this earlier.
The corners of Rito's lips rose "You think that this is a pointless exercise don't you?"
Lornen's eye twitched. 'Can he read my mind or something?'
"Yes, eventually when your body grows it will stop, but your mana will only grow until you reach 12 and in the 2nd stage, you will be able to gather mana from the surroundings, increasing your storage. Most importantly though, learning to do so will be very beneficial to you."
Rito stood up and walked to a nearby tree, enhancing his body with mana. Loren's eyes widened as familiar blue wisps came out of Rito's body.
"Did you think you were the only person that had an abundance of mana?"
Pulling back his arm, Rito slammed his fist into the tree, carving a large hole into its trunk.
"That is the strength you can exhibit with only pure body enhancement as you are now, but if you learn my technique..."
The wisps disappeared from Rito's body, he readied another punch towards a different tree, but despite using the same amount of mana and hitting it in the same way...
*BANG*
A massive hole appeared, spanning its entire trunk, puncturing the tree and causing the large oak to fall to the ground, dirt billowing out into the air. Loren looked in amazement.
"Compressing your mana not only avoids waste but increases the proficiency of your blows. With this technique, you can even fight masters in the 3rd stage. So do you want to learn it?"
Loren jumped up in excitement, saluting towards him. "Yes! I do, I do! Please teach me!"
"This mana art is called 'Compression', learning it is actually quite simple. First, until you learn it, you will be banned from coming to school, nor can you continue to train your body."
"W-what, why?!" Some students may jump for joy from being bared from attending classes, but Loren truly enjoyed his time at school, he loved the feeling of his body becoming stronger and seeing his progress.
"As I stated, using one's mana in battle creates habits in one's body, this technique requires the opposite. One habit most knights have is that they only use mana in battle, avoiding wasting their storage when they are static, you will spend the next few weeks or so constantly releasing a small amount of mana throughout your body, do not stop until every morsel of mana inside you has been spent."
'A-all of it?'
"Remember you can't just sit still trying to keep yourself from wasting energy, act as usual, you're trying to make your mana act as though it naturally is in this state. Increase the amount slowly over time, until you notice that even when spreading all your mana, none of it is wasted."
Loren's expression turned sour. 'Is this going to end with me going unconscious over and over?'
"Don't look at me like that, this will be extremely beneficial to you, and once you come back to class I will teach you 2 mana arts."
Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, Loren felt some motivation return. "2?! Which ones?!"
"You'll find out when you come back to class."
Rito turned around and faced the forest, pushing 2 fingers into his mouth, whistling towards the foliage of trees. Not a minute later, the guardian beast of Rito came in front of the two, glaring at Rito.
"You're aware you can't just call me as you wish Rito. I'm not your pet."
Ignoring the deer Rito turned to Loren.
"I have a way to expedite your mastery of 'Compression', you will be riding Bamby here for the rest of the day. Your mind will scream to you to use all your mana to reinforce your body, but you are only allowed to keep a constant small flow throughout yourself, do not follow your instincts." His words made a sparkle appear in Loren's eye.
"Really?! Alright! I didn't know your name was Bamby, let's have a good ride!" Loren gave to beaming smile while staring at the deer.
Bamby turned its head to Rito with an angry frown.
'What?'
The corners of Rito's lips were raised. 'You forced this kid on me, you have to do your share of work as well.'
***
"AHHHH!!! STOP STOP, WE'RE GONNA HIT THE GROUND!!!"
Loren should have expected the ride wouldn't be a fun one when Rito stated his body would tell him to use all his mana. After he had gotten on her back, the deer jumped directly into the air, a gust of wind carried the two until they could see the entirety of the forest. The beautiful view quickly ended though as they began their descent. Loren quickly realised the goal of this exercise when the deer didn't decelerate, causing them to travel to the ground at breakneck speeds.
"HOLY SH*T I'M GONNA DIE!!"
Mana coursed through Loren's body as he braced himself for impact, he and Salrie shut their eyes, expecting a swift death.
"H-huh?"
The beast had stopped right before they crashed into the floor, a torrent of wind blew into the surroundings as she gracefully planted her hooves into the ground.
"I told you not to use all your mana, again."
"Wait, It's ok I'll just learn compression the other waaaayyyy!!!"
Bamby shot back into the air before Loren could realize. His hellish experience continued, ending only once the sun fully set.
"You only used mana surge 2 out of 5 times, not the worst stop, now spend the next few weeks trying to learn 'compression' by yourself. Don't come to class until you're fully proficient."
As Rito walked away, Loren lay on the floor, his body numb, staring could almost be seen rotating around his head.
"I'll never try to ride that f*cking deer again..."