Chapter 13: Mana (Part 2)
Johann's eyes widened at the unusual speed at which mana flowed into Yuri.
"Already sensing the mana? And what's with this absorption speed?"
Was it really sensing mana, or was something else happening?
It was too early to jump to conclusions, so Johann released the mana once again.
And just like before, the same phenomenon occurred.
The mana flowed into Yuri at an astonishing rate.
"There's no doubt! This guy, he's sensing mana!"
With this level of talent, he might not be a genius, but he certainly wasn't lacking in aptitude.
A little while later,
Yuri took a deep breath and opened his eyes, slightly excited. Johann asked inquisitively, "Well? How does it feel to sense mana for the first time?"
Yuri didn't answer easily, which made Johann smile contentedly at his silence.
"Ah, how do you express that feeling? That ecstatic first sensation... How do you put it into human words? Kid, I understand exactly how you feel."
Yuri blinked at Johann, rubbing his nose with his index finger.
"Inspiration... What does sensing mana feel like?"
"It feels like mana, exactly what you're experiencing now."
"What should I be feeling, though?"
"Mana!"
"What does mana feel like?"
"...."
Johann's expression stiffened at the strangely repetitive conversation.
He spoke with a slightly annoyed tone, "Are you joking with me right now?"
"What joke...?"
"Then why did you pretend you didn't feel anything after sensing it?"
"I didn't pretend! I said I didn't feel anything, so what else can I say?"
"Where did you learn to lie so shamelessly! You've been sucking up my mana, and now you claim you can't sense it!"
"What nonsense? When did I--"
"Just now! You've been sucking up my mana, you bastard!"
"I am unaware of such things."
"You, you... Are you going to keep pretending while spewing nonsense?"
"Ah, damn it! If I had sensed mana, wouldn't it be unfair for me to get scolded!"
Yuri retorted boldly, displaying his confusion, regret, and anger through his eyes, along with a strong sense of self-reproach, which Johann noticed.
"Are you...?"
He stared at Yuri for a long moment before asking, "Really... you didn't sense anything?"
"No."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Really? You're not lying?"
"Yeah."
What more could he say if he didn't feel anything?
Yuri was straightforward.
Then, Johann's bewildered expression turned into one of confusion as he stammered, "Th-this can't be right."
Even if he was a guy with low sensitivity, he would still feel a slight unfamiliarity with the mana he spread.
Moreover, didn't Yuri blatantly suck up his mana?
It was strange that he couldn't sense it.
But there was no hint of falsehood in Yuri's brazen face; instead, Johann could only feel his own self-reproach for not sensing mana.
Confused, Johann stumbled over his words, "Let's... try again. I'll increase the mana density a bit more."
With that said, Johann released the mana once again.
Yuri sat still and closed his eyes.
The mana flowed out more than before, and once again, it was sucked into Yuri's vicinity.
Filled with hope and anticipation, Johann asked, "Do you feel anything now? Surely?"
"Hmm..."
"What about now?"
"Ah!"
Yuri's eyes widened as if he had realized something.
Seeing this, Johann nodded eagerly, as if saying, "That's it!"
"Do you feel it? Do you feel it, right? That's it! If you can't feel it even at this level, then you're not human..."
"...I'm hungry."
"...."
"Come to think of it, you didn't even eat because you fainted, did you?"
Yuri, now awake, gently rubbed his stomach with a blank expression on his face.
Johann, who had been watching him with a disappointed look, muttered under his breath, "...Not even human."
He soon began to tear at his hair as if he were going crazy.
"It can't be... It can't be like this?"
Not sensing mana?
Then everything was a bust.
What good was a formidable physique if you couldn't sense mana?
Martial arts without mana were nothing more than forms.
What good was being a godly martial artist?
Before mastering the martial arts, if the harmony between body, soul, and energy completely collapsed, Yuri would become a corpse.
"We're done for... we're finished..."
Johann, murmuring incessantly, glanced at Yuri and muttered, "Should we just call off our deal?"
What was the point of teaching someone who couldn't sense mana anything, anyway?
"I guess you're just hopeless..."
Trying to discreetly step back, Johann's shoulders were suddenly grabbed by Yuri's hand.
Thunk.
"Inspiration."
With a bright smile, Yuri's hand rested lightly on Johann's shoulder, but Johann felt a sense of foreboding.
"Why... Why are you doing this?"
"To nurture."
"...?"
"To nurture you."
"...What?"
"I'm telling you to nurture even a halfwit like me to sense mana. Make me capable of handling my share."
Was this babble from the kid somehow familiar to Johann's ears?
But it wasn't Johann's misconception.
"Just because I'm a bit late to sensing mana, you're ready to give up? Inspiration, am I nothing more than that?"
"...."
"Eh, tsk tsk. If you're going to give up, say it now. I don't want to waste my time."
Johann, receiving back the disdain he had shown Yuri, looked crestfallen.
"What are you going to do?"
With Yuri's smile growing wider and brighter with each passing moment,
a deep shadow of uncertainty fell over Johann's face.
"Are you going to give up?"
"Grr!"
Yuri's continuous, nonchalant provocations finally broke through.
Eventually, a muttered curse escaped Johann's lips.
"The cursed brat..."
Upon hearing this, Yuri flashed a compassionate smile and casually raised his palm.
Simultaneously, a refreshing word escaped his lips.
"Reflection."
"...."
The already contorted face of Johann crumpled even further.
***
The passenger ship bound for Niger had been sailing smoothly for the past ten days since leaving the port of Chrome.
No storms or even a single shower had disturbed the journey during those ten days.
However, amidst such smooth sailing, there was someone facing rough seas.
"Why! Why on earth!"
"...."
"Why can't I feel it!"
Yuri's cries made Johann wince.
"Do you think I'd be like this if I knew?"
"Grr!"
Johann thumped his chest as if it were about to burst, letting out a sigh of frustration.
"Phew... We're done for, we're finished..."
This time, it was Yuri who was seized by a fit.
"What's finished about it!"
"It's already been ten days! There's been no progress at all!"
"It's only been ten days!"
For the past ten days, Johann had been exerting all his efforts to help Yuri sense mana.
Yet Yuri was still struggling to grasp it.
"At first, I thought he was just teasing me..."
Yuri wasn't teasing him at all.
He truly couldn't sense mana.
His attitude towards training confirmed that.
"Enough with the complaints. Let's try again, Inspiration."
"We're finished..."
"Ah! Don't give up, let's try again!"
Despite trying to appear nonchalant, Yuri's eyes betrayed his anxiety and desperation.
Perhaps even Yuri himself couldn't have imagined that he wouldn't be able to sense mana.
He, who always had full confidence in himself, must have been quite shocked by the current situation.
So, at first, there was confusion.
Then came disappointment and self-doubt.
And now, he must be more desperate than anyone else.
Yuri's desire to harness his strength was evident to Johann.
Given the circumstances, Yuri was now urging Johann more than Johann was urging him to train in mana sensing.
Johann complied with Yuri's training demands.
"Even if we part ways here, where would we go in this vast sea..."
There was no escaping, even if they parted ways.
So, what was the point of running away?
But there were only about three weeks left.
"If he still can't sense mana by then..."
Johann was prepared to cleanly give up on Yuri.
It wasn't part of Johann's plan for things to turn out this way.
He felt it was better to give up cleanly than to waste time on something futile.
"If he continues to not sense mana, he'll soon be dead."
So, there was no point in clinging to futile hopes.
Johann stared at Yuri intently.
"A being unable to sense mana..."
Even though sensing mana through the body was a separate issue, with external assistance, anyone could sense mana.
Even an ordinary person without any special talents.
In fact, people who couldn't sense mana were extremely rare.
And yet, Yuri couldn't even do that.
Moreover, from years of experience, Johann knew that someone who couldn't sense mana once would almost never be able to sense it later.
"Well, even so..."
Johann sighed inwardly.
"It's too early to give up, as Yuri says."
Yuri had only been unable to sense mana for "just ten days."
And as Johann, there was still a homework he had to solve.
"This guy seems to be sucking up my mana as soon as it exceeds a certain density."
And at a fierce speed, too.
However, what was strange was that there was no trace of accumulated mana in Yuri's body.
It was a bizarre phenomenon that Johann, who had manipulated mana for decades, had never seen before.
It piqued Johann's curiosity.
"There's definitely something going on."
As Johann stared at Yuri, his eyes narrowed slightly.
However, Yuri's impatient attitude, demanding Johann to release mana quickly, furrowed Johann's brow.
"Have you entrusted your mana to me? It's annoying how you're pressuring me."
"Quickly!"
"Tsk, you brat, so impatient."
Though he grumbled, Johann released mana again.
And so, Yuri's mana training resumed.
---
A fortnight had passed since the voyage began.
Dark clouds appeared in front of the passenger ship, followed by a squall that violently rocked the ship.
It swayed so fiercely that it was difficult to keep one's balance.
But Yuri was so focused on trying to sense mana that he didn't even notice.
"Why... why can't I feel it!"
Every time Johann questioned him, Yuri casually brushed it off, but he was more curious about the reason than anyone else.
His thoughts were too complicated.
"Am I... unable to sense mana?"
If so, what should he do now?
Would his resolve to surpass Johann before even starting become nothing but a pipe dream?
Could he surpass Johann without mastering mana?
If he couldn't master mana, his body would collapse, and he wouldn't live long.
Yuri felt suffocated by the gap between ideals and reality.
But he made an effort to push away such frustration.
Instead, he focused even more on his senses.
"I can do it. Don't give up."
Johann said that sensing mana wasn't part of the realm of ordinary senses.
People often said they could feel mana on their skin, but that was just nonsense from ignorant people!
...Or so he had said.
"Perceiving mana is in the realm of perception that transcends physical senses."
Therefore, Johann called the sense of perceiving mana the sixth sense, or intuition.
"If I can suppress the five senses, I might be able to grasp the sixth sense more easily."
Directly blocking the senses was the easiest way to suppress them.
Closing one's eyes or plugging one's ears.
But there were clear limitations to that.
Even if he closed his eyes, he would still see the darkness created by his eyelids.
And even if he plugged his ears, he couldn't block out sounds from inside his body, like swallowing saliva or his heartbeat.
So Yuri chose a different approach.
He forgot about sound, smell, sight, touch, and taste.
He thoroughly focused only on the proposition, "What is the sixth sense?"
And Johann, who was watching Yuri, widened his eyes.
"Huh?"
Blink blink-.
It was clear no matter how many times he looked.
"Is this guy... insane?"
As someone who knew what Yuri was doing, Johann couldn't help but smile wryly.
"Is he into meditation?"
Fantasy,
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