Training started off as Jay expected – with the basics. Some of the phrases that he overheard earlier were beginning to make sense.

“Picture a veil, a spider web of the mana around us – grab it, twist it, spin it into twine, then twine into rope – and then pull the rope in, making it a part of yourself; un-twirl it as it enters your mind and body”… “Think about the boulders of the earth, standing against the rain and elements. Unmoving – the only thing to split the boulders are the tender roots, seeping into them from trees. Imagine you are the tree, make your bark, your shell, stronger. Become as solid as the rock and unrelenting as the tree.”

Jay tried as he was instructed, however he had found that using his own analogies worked better – he thought about his analogy of the whirlpool while channelling and pulling in the ambient mana into his mind.

Viladore raised an eyebrow seeing this. Jay seemed to have learnt quicker than any other pupil, while also seeming to be channelling a larger amount – Viladore not realising that Jay had previously listened to his teachings in secret.

“Very good.” Viladore said casually, trying not to inflate Jay’s ego “Next lesson.”

While trying the second lesson, Jay similarly had trouble until he came up with his own analogy.

“It seems like my own understanding creates a greater effect…” he thought as he continued forming his own analogy “The shell strengthens while the centre flows. An impenetrable bone protects the soft inner marrow.”

Again, Viladore was surprised at how fast Jay learnt.

“Seems like he’s a natural” he thought as he gazed at Jay’s unusually thick manashell forming around his mind – then it dissipated suddenly. Viladore understood he had achieved level 1.

Jay, receiving the notification, was distracted and lost his concentration._.

[New Skill Acquired]

[Mana Membrane Level 1] (Passive)

Mild protection from various mental attacks; mana drain, mana burn, mana overload, destabilization, mental disarrangement.

[Cytokine Stabilization] (Passive, head only)

“Good. Practice that at least once a week.”

“Hmm wonder what a cytokine is…” wondered Jay as he realised he was being talked to, he looked up from the notification at Viladore.

“Oh, yeah sure.” he nodded “So how do I use this ‘essence’?” quizzed Jay, remembering what Sullivan said.

“Well, you’re meant to be learning about it tomorrow unless you happened to have discovered your essence today… there’s like a whole thing I have to explain to you before sending you off to find your essence.” He looked at Jay confused.

“Hmm, no I think I’ve found it…” Jay said as he stood up, backed away from Viladore and had his floating bone ring appear before Viladore – Viladore’s eye’s opening a little wider as they reflected the intermittent glows from the green wisps of gas floating between the bones orbiting around Jay.

“Wha…” Viladore was temporarily speechless.

Jay simply smiled as he plucked a stink-rat bone out of the air before the gentle bone-whirlpool disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

As Jay was sitting down, Viladore’s face cringed at the bone Jay had chosen as a wave of stench washed over him. It was still black from the marsh, the marrow inside probably rancid and rotting, what was left of the attached cartilage was absolutely stinking.

“No… this will be bad… for your concentration.” Viladore thought of an excuse as he grimaced “Have you got anything else?”

“Hmm…”

Jay returned the bone to his ring, not insulted at all “It’s completely understandable” he thought to himself, as he pulled out a stink-rat tooth from his inventory. “Hmm… these didn’t want to go into the bone ring so I stored them in my inventory. Perhaps they have other uses?” said Jay, holding 3 black teeth in his hands as he showed his teacher.

A little disgusted that someone’s essence was seemingly body parts, Viladore continued his lesson. “Ok so Sul… *ahem* the guild master” he corrected himself with a slight cough “wanted me to train you in ranged attack magic.”

Jay did a slightly arrogant half-smile in response.

A few hours passed as the instructor and Jay spent time talking about mana, manacraft and magic; the difference between the cause and effect of them, the results along with the randomness. Viladore explained how mana could be chanelled into certain objects as well as yourself as he touched on the previous lessons – then the lessons on the usage of essence began.

“Hold your essence…the tooth… in your palm and channel some mana into; remember, use your own mana and not the ambient mana. Do this until you can sort of feel the tooth as if it’s a part of your body – then will the tooth, or imagine it, flying at one of those nearby stones.”

Jay held the tooth as he looked around at the nearby stones – some seemed to be new, sitting on what seemed to be dust of the same type of stone, others had scorch marks and some were even split in half.

Following his instructions, Jay began to channel his own mana into the tooth – the tooth began to float in his hand. Suddenly it began to spin quickly before flying off as fast as an arrow being launched; coming into contact with the stone, it exploded, sending smaller bits of tooth shrapnel everywhere. The stone remained intact with what seemed like some tooth residue left on it, while Jay received a notification.

[New Skill Acquired]

[Unstable Teeth Level 1]

[Ranged Attack]

[5 damage]

[Propagative Stress Rupturing] (Passive) – (4) Fragments split apart after initial attack. (1) damage to anything hit by a fragment.

[Ability Requires (1) Enamel(s) of any kind]

[- 6 Mana]

[Description]

Practitioner’s of the most vile types of manacraft use teeth as weapons – often, these decrepit cultists pull their own teeth for the spell’s. When slain, they are commonly found without any teeth left. “A toothless man is surely a Godless one.” – Saint Cleosevine.

Jay grinned at this “I still have about 19 teeth left” he thought “And I don’t even need to use my own”.

Viladore was surprised by the fragments that exploded after the teeth hit the nearby stone – he subconsciously had erected his invisible manafield ability.

“Dangerous kid…” thought Viladore “Perhaps we will need somewhere more safe to train in the future”.

Viladore nodded “Well done. That’s a decent basic ranged attack. Since you’ve learnt quicker than I expected, you can have the rest of the day off.”

“Oh? Well, thanks Viladore. I appreciate the lessons. See you next time… oh, and when is next time?”

“Well, I would say about a week. Normally it would be every few days but there are some… strange things going on in the forest so I’m assisting with that.”

“Oh, I see.. Well, see you in a week then.” Jay wondered what was going on in the forest that even the manacraft trainer was being utilized. “I hope Muffin is ok” he thought as he scratched his chin, before leaving the adventurer guild.

With a happy step, Jay walked down the mountain towards the village, wondering what he would have for lunch – however as he looked over the village, he noticed a small gathering of people. The adventurers were gathered around Bertram’s weapons stand.

Deciding to see what was happening, Jay began to walk towards the stand – “perhaps the merchant brought out his better, magical items” thought Jay as he got closer. Though it seemed like there was a commotion as sounds of people complaining got louder.

“You had these yesterday and you sold us this junk?!?” An adventurer waved his dull-looking spiked mace.

“NO REFUNDS! And if you don’t like it, shop somewhere else!” the fat merchant billowed with a laugh, before a sly grin appeared on his face “However, I will offer 10% off your next purchase in exchange for your old weapon”.

The adventurer’s jaw dropped as if Bertram was insane, yet instead of continuing the yelling-match, he gritted his teeth before muttering some sort of profanity as he walked to the back of the line.

Jay squinted at Bertram “Hmm, perhaps I should come back someday with a cart full of weapons and undercut Bertram. There’s certainly nothing stopping me from doing it. I wonder why no one else has though…” Jay pondered to himself “If there’s no competition, he can basically do what he wants. I would love to see that fat prick have to lower his prices and sell better weapons from day one… then no one would’ve bought that junk.”

Jay scratched his chin as he shrugged to himself “Oh well, not my problem. I can create my own weapons anyway.” as he walked towards his home to have some lunch, he did stop for a moment to pity the long line of adventurers standing in line, noticing Mark was there too – though Mark wasn’t facing towards him so he simply left as his stomach was beginning to grumble.

While having lunch, Jay decided he would probably need to stock up on skeletons and teeth.

“I’ve only got teeth from the stink-rats but that’s because they were living-beings, while the bayring’s were some sort of construct. I think I’ll head to wolf’s quarry for a little grinding and some bones after a little rest…”

While having lunch, some guards walked by Jay’s house. Remembering that something strange was happening in the forest, Jay had to be careful. “It seems like I’ll need to sneak out of town too” he thought as he wiped his mouth before heading upstairs for a short nap.