Chapter 20

  A Classy Lassie

  (The Next Day)

  I was still trying to understand what exactly happened yesterday.

  Going from a standard day where you get in a fight with a thug in school. To cleaning up trash at your favorite restaurant, to nearly dying in the woods while trying to gather a branch you can imbue with Mana and use to attack evil spirits, to of course nearly being flayed to death by a spell that should be instant death.

  Well not instant but taking a full blast like I did should have been enough to kill me slowly, which is likely why my killer left when she did. My real saving grace is that the spell that the Necrotic Assassin used was very taxing, and I am apparently very tenacious. Doubly tenacious now thanks to my Master’s guidance.

  Munch.

  Ahh breakfast. Somehow my day doesn’t seem like it will even begin properly without breakfast. That said, even if I did die yesterday, I think Ronaldo’s pastries would be what motivated me back to life regardless.

  “I have to say, I am surprised to see you,” Ronaldo says hesitantly, coming to sit down across from me. Fortunately, today I left earlier so I will not show up late, but I need to be careful about my conversations. Still, something about his comments make me feel the need to answer. At the very least to see how much he might be aware of.

  “We do have a deal,” I reply, noting the food and the empty bin in the back. A bin that I am fairly certain used more than forty Mana. Not that it matters too much, as I have nothing but time and seemingly limitless Mana to use.

  Yes, Master fulfilled her end of the bargain yesterday, but only after she spent the better part of the night detailing what the class she was willing to pass on provided.

  ***

  Even now I can remember that somewhat hellish training.

  “The end goal is to create a synergy, a singular focus on one perfect goal,” Madame Bloom, aka my new Master, began. “To help you focus, you need to be in the right frame of mind, thus the position you are in, now.”

  That position, the plank position of a push-up. Not fully extended where I could lock my elbows. Not too far down where I could use my shoulders to bear most of my weight, but in that odd between realm where all of my body seemed to burn.

  “If you are in pain, then you can feel free to use your Rejuvenating Healing Skill. Who knows perhaps it will help you find the focal point for this very class concept that I am trying to teach you,” my sadistic Master calls out.

  Rejuvenating Healing.

  Almost instantly, I feel the dull burn of lactic acid that had been building up in my body get flushed away. Providing immediate relief and allowing for me to continue trying to visualize this vaunted class through medieval methods.

  There is a distinct difference between using a standard Skill, and an Attuned Skill. It feels thicker, more fulfilling to use. By comparison regular Skills might be considered similar to dry rice cakes. While Skills with an affinity seem to feel like they have flavor, like your body can all but feel and taste the difference.

  “Yes,” she cries out, and suddenly I wonder what Vader must have heard while undergoing training from Emperor Palpatine. “Focus on the experience, the linking of your Skill. If you are not careful, you will quickly run out of Mana. What will you do then?”

  At that, I realize that she’s right, currently I am using around seven nodes of Mana to fully cleanse the lactic acid that is building up within my body. For a moment, I wonder if there is something I can do to fix this, when I realize I am stupid.

  Mana Extraction.

  My other Life affinity Skill kicked in, drawing in the residual Mana and began converting it back to Mana. Mana that I then used to once gain heal my rapidly straining muscles.

  “Good, now stay in this position, until you realize the ties between Life, your body, your Mana, and how it all cycles back to you.”

  “What?” I hiss out, not understanding a word of what this monster is saying.

  “Find the link. The balance between Life Magic, your body’s dependency on Life Magic, how your body utilizes Mana to generate Life Magic, and finally how your body takes the Life magic and cycles it back to your body.” Monster Bloom repeated, her words crazy to try to understand.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She was crazy.

  That was all there was to it, lured me in with honey, only to then enact a painful contract for insubordination five minutes into our partnership.

  Beads of sweat began to form and pour from my body. Creating a pool below me.

  I should have been dehydrated, having wasted so much water through sweat. Yet, I somehow managed to stay just fine. My mouth was still moist, despite constantly having to take deep breaths. My muscles remained cleansed and revitalized through my use of my own treacherous Rejuvenating Healing Skill. A Skill that made it all but impossible to fall or collapse from fatigue or exhaustion.

  Worse, even though my Mana Extraction Skill was not perfect, it didn’t need to be, as I would invariably gain back nearly a full tank of Mana as time went on.

  “Stop focusing on your body, it is a meaningless shell. You need to focus one layer deeper. Focus on how your magic moves, how it is all linked together. Then focus on that point and solidify it, cause it to harden. Take it from being a mere concept, and create a shell that first contains all the parts that we are focusing on. Then take your interconnecting parts, and bind them and circulate them within that shell.”

  Again, metaphysical bullshit.

  Worst of all, I could not stop until I either died, or I managed to get this stupid class. For apparently Masters are allowed to torture their Apprentices, if it comes to teaching.

  “My order for you is simple. Get in the prone position, and hold until you achieve enlightenment on what Life Magic is and how it interacts with the body.”

  “What?” Was my only question, as I tried to get a greater source of insight. Unfortunately, I learned almost immediately how badly I had messed up, by agreeing to this Until Completed contract by her uttering one word.

  “Now!”

  With that one command, white hot pain burned through my body. Pain that only continued until I got down on the ground and quickly assumed the up position. From there our first few minutes were spent on her forcing me to move my body until we found this position the most optimal position for pain.

  My mind kept spiraling. Near delirious through pain, and phantom pain as the night went on and I was still not allowed to rest.

  “It’s a good thing you have that exceptional Mana pool, otherwise we might have to spend a month doing this. Fortunately, I think we can get it done in just two weeks, if you keep up this pace,” Monster Bloom continued.

  Time went on, the world began to fade, as all my mind and consciousness could focus on was the fact that if I kept my Rejuvenating Healing and Mana Extraction Skills going at a trickle, I could avoid pain. Then following that, it became easier and easier to completely ignore the crazed Madame and just focus on how the different Skills moved and flowed slowly through my body. I even noticed how my body had its own Mana pool to continue pumping energy into my Skills.

  Then finally, in a near delirious state, I saw it, the spirit shell that surrounded my magical body. The inner conduits that Mana would use to circulate around my body. The way my core would flow directly into the greenish cloud of my body that was used to create Life attuned mana.

  Of course, it wasn’t just that simple, once I was there, and managed to create the pipes through which Mana would flow, I realized I would need the Life mana in there. As such, I focused on ways to lure the green smoke, similar to what I saw at the evaluation a few days ago. I pushed that green smoke into the tubes, and for a moment got confused when I couldn’t get all of the smoke in the tubes. Logic dictated that I should somehow try to elongate or stretch out the tubes.

  “You can’t do—” Monster Bloom’s words pierced through my head.

  Had it been earlier, before this hours long torture session, I might have stopped. But I was determined to prove her wrong. That was when I forcefully stretched out the clear pipes regardless and then managed to shove even more of the green smoke into the tubes.

  Panting.

  At that point I was panting, the entire process exhausting. Worse, by messing with so much of the green mana clouds, I apparently messed with my slow healing process that I had managed to maintain.

  Thud.

  My body locked up and fell to the ground with pain, as the lactic build up reached exponential heights in a matter of seconds. At the same time, I could feel the minor mana pains from the contract we had both signed kicking in, burning my muscles and trying to get me to focus else where, but I would not be stopped.

  Instead, I used the external mana as motivation, and a stop gap to refuel Mana lost by my Mana Extraction Skill. Which I then used to fuel my now much weaker Rejuvenating Healing Skill. But it was worth it, it was all worth it.

  For I finally understood.

  There on the doorstep of delirium and pain, I moved the pipes, grabbed as much of the Life attuned energy I could find in my body, then giving one last stretch, I pulled, and shoved the last remnant of green energy into the pipe, sealed it up.

  Then I collapsed.

  I awoke some time later to find that I was once again in that same hospital bed, with a very haggard Madame Bloom watching over me.

  Only once I began to stir, did the look of concern on Madame Bloom’s face turn from concern to a deeper more contemplative stare.

  I stared back, my mind still tired from having gone through so much in such a relatively short period of time. In her gaze, I could see a look of anger, contempt, and is that fear?

  “Do you mind telling me what exactly you did?” Master Bloom asks, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

  Feeling this is a setup, I answer the way Pvt. Gump did.

  “I did what you told me to?” I reply, my answer coming out more as a question than anything.

  “You did?”

  “Yes, I found the shell of my body. Then created the tubes that connected all those stupid points you listed. Then stuffed it full of the Life Mana gas stuff.” I reply, only after I state it do I realize just how unscientific my response was.

  “Well then, do you mind telling me exactly what class you unlocked?”

  With that, I pulled up the requested information and was shocked to see what I found.

  Seeing the Class, I paused and wondered, “what? Isn’t that the class you were trying to teach me?”

  At that, Madame Bloom just stared at me. I could see her almost trying to test me to see if I was being purposefully obstinate, but eventually just shakes her head and hands throws two thick tomes on the bed.

  “Here, learn these before you next enter Bloom Park,” Madame Bloom states. As she does, I can feel the bindings of that stupid magical contract kicking in, letting me know that this is going to be similar to my maintaining that stupid push up position from earlier.

  ***

  “Well then, do you mind telling me exactly what class you unlocked?” Ronaldo asks. His words causing a fog like déjà vu effect to happen as I remember Madame Bloom asking me that exact same question earlier this morning. What, an hour? Maybe two ago?

  Though in this cases, I find myself responding with what should have been my first response.

  “I don’t really know.”

  Then feeling the two tomes in my backpack, I realize I have my work cut out for me. Mentally I shiver, as a mental image of me being forced to read these texts while holding the same plank position runs through my mind. Only after that image do I realize, I need to get up and find time during class to try to understand these two dense tomes.

  “You sure?” Ronaldo asks, a somewhat knowing look to his eyes.

  Seeing that stare, I begin to wonder if I can trust him. Then again, this is just my paranoia kicking in, after being pushed through hell and not given a chance to sleep.

  “Yeah,” I provide evasively as I stand up and with a quick application of Trash. I get rid of my waste and head off to school.

  Knowing that today will be a long day. Well, a longer day.

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