****
Arriving at the clovist grounds, Amon found the same teachers standing and waiting for them as the last time.
His eyes settled on Daniel, who was leaning against the same tree as last time with bored eyes.
Not wanting him to sense his presence, he quickly averted his gaze from him.
"The armenists who have joined this class as optional may take weapons from the shelves at the side, though it's not necessary" Athena gestured towards the shelves.
A couple of them nodded, and quickly headed towards the shelves, including Charlotte.
As soon as they returned, she started her lecture.
"Let's start with the obvious. When you awaken at the age of 16, mana veins form in your body automatically as your body gets exposed to the surrounding mana."
"With the formation of mana veins, if you get a clover mark, you are a clovist. But if you don't, then you are an armenist. But remember, whether you are a clovist or an armenist, you can still harness mana in your body. Just the way of using it is different."
"Just like yesterday, we still start again with a 2 hour class of mana breathing, as its one of the simplest ways to manipulate mana in your surroundings."
Because this was the first class for those selective armenists, Athena had to explain mana breathing to them again.
Meanwhile, Amon kept glancing from time to time at Daniel, observing his actions and reactions.
This was the elective.
The class where he would first take notice of Michael.
Done with the explanation, all of them sat down to practice mana breathing.
Amon felt further progression in his pull of mana by each passing second and at the end of the two hours, he was fully convinced that he had improved by alot.
However, it was nowhere close the progression of Michael.
Because of his affinity to all primordial affinities and also the Sun element, he had much more improvement than Amon.
This was because unlike derivant elements, the mana in the air was much more attuned towards the primordial elements.
There was also the fact that his Sun element had the highest attunement towards mana out of any element, making his resonance with the energy a lot easier.
As for Void, Amon didn't know anything as it had never been mentioned in the novel.
Done with their training, they all now looked at Athena who nodded.
"Now, we will proceed towards our next step. Mana Release."
"Mana Release is basically the expulsion of stored mana inside your bodies. For example. For clovists it's through their clover marks while for armenists it's through their whole body."
"The clover mark for clovists basically functions like a convertor. The mana stored inside your veins is converted into the elemental mana of the element you want to use and expelled out of your bodies."
"For Armenists, you people augment your body with the mana thus making it physically stronger and durable. And to expel the mana in the form of attacks, you use weapons which have an imbedded convertor in them that converts your mana." She explained.
They all nodded at her words.
She further lectured the armenists that the best way to learn mana release was to first learn how to augment one's body, as it made learning weapon augmentation really easier further on.
After done with the theoretical part, she ordered them all to now perform mana release.
'This is the part…' Amon thought.
This was the time when Daniel would finally recognize Michael's talent in mana.
[Do you want me to keep an eye on him?] Zephyra asked.
For a moment, Amon was taken aback.
This goddess was finally being useful for something.
But he appreciated the help.
He would be unable to keep his gaze on Daniel with his eyes closed.
'Yeah, can you do it?'
[Sure, no problem.]
Leaving the duty to her, Amon was about to close his eyes when suddenly he saw Athena appear before him in a flash.
A small-sized portal suddenly opened in the air and she passed her hand through it.
Then, she drew it out, carrying a jar filled with blood alongside.
She extended it towards him.
"Here, use this to manipulate the blood. Stop biting yourself again and again."
For a moment, he was shocked.
He didn't know Athena noticed this about him.
And even if she did, she wasn't a person that would care about what happened to those she didn't know.
But then it hit him.
'It must have been Ren….'
Ren must have requested her to give her a jar of blood in training so he could avoid hurting himself.
He took the jar from Athena's hands while being internally grateful to the guy.
The latter nodded and then disappeared and appeared back to her position.
Setting the jar on the ground, he opened the lid while also sighing in relief.
'At least with this Elizabeth wouldn't keep an eye out for me anymore.'
It was not that he wasn't grateful to her. He really was. He even owed his life to her.
It was just that being always eyed by her made it difficult for him to do what he needed to do as it might end up getting her needlessly involved.
Something he didn't want to do as she was a member of the main cast.
Closing his eyes, Amon now started to manipulate the mana inside him.
It was a little bit difficult at first, felt like it kept getting stuck at point and point.
Halting its flow.
But he persevered.
His black 1 leaf clover marked shone red, an indication of his affinity towards blood.
The blood inside the jar started to whir and swirl, now being manipulated by his mana.
'Let's start with a simple ball.' He thought to himself, sweat trickling down the side of his face.
He was in a mode of intense concentration now.
Slowly, one drop separated itself from the water and hovered into the air.
He frowned and concentrated even more.
One by one the drops started to lift and form a small ball.
He started to expand the ball as much as he could, making drops join the hovering ball and empty out the jar.
Within minutes, he had finally emptied out the jar and a huge balloon-sized ball was floating in the air.
'Now I'll try to change its shape.' He thought internally and started to sharp out the curves of the ball, trying to make it into a square.
But it was then that…..
[Daniel's eyeing Michael now.] She abruptly spoke in his mind, destroying his concentration.
The ball popped and the blood splashed all over the ground.
However, this was not the important part right now as in the next moment, a huge blast resounded nearby him.
'It's time.' He sighed and thought.
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