I see a problem. In front of me, there are far too many people. Over a hundred people crowd the classroom. They have taken out all the benches and everybody is standing squeezed in the small room. There are people by the windows and the door peeking in. I don’t think this is gonna work.

“So, what are all of you doing here?”

One of the group says:

“We heard you were teaching a class and we came to join.”

"Don't you think there are too many people?" I say with a straight face.

“No, as long as everybody has mana, we will all benefit.”

I give a wide grim and say: "Now that is a sentiment I can get behind. Everyone has passed the entry exams." At that everyone gives a quick cheer and I continue. "I don't think the classroom would be the best place for us to be. Let's just use the training field."

I think over the interest everyone has shown. It will be good for my experimentation. Everyone will have a better understanding of how to design spells as we progress. For now, most people are working with the equivalent of single letters. We are trying to find words so we start being more specific. The sooner I get a grasp on runes, the faster they learn. The faster they learn the more mana and interesting experiments there are. This way we can all progress faster.

I go over a few things again, because of the new students, but soon everyone is engrossed. The experiments go over quite successfully. This time, with the extra mana, I can splurge more. I run the experiments faster than yesterday, not concerned with saving every single point like yesterday.

I attempt to draw from two students at the same time, but both of the mana streams simply combine and behave as a third type of mana. The very subtle differences from each person's mana are gone. What is left is something in between both types. Not better or worse, just different.

That closes a few avenues of experimentation. I take a close look at each of the signatures, in the mana I handle. None are exactly the same. I have started to think signatures will be at least as different, as shades of color. It will be unlikely we find the same signature in the village, but comparing everyone in the instance, we could find a few people so similar we may not be able to determine the difference.

The difference could also be like fingerprints. If that is the case, using mana signature as a security key, maybe a very secure choice. Mr. Blackwood uses it, so we know it is at least a decent option.

I take my mind of that line of thought and keep testing things. Two hours go by and nobody even says anything. We continue until approximately 4 AM. I start to feel my mind fraying from using so much mana.

“Hey guys, that is enough for today. I will be going to sleep now. Comeback with just as much enthusiasm tomorrow at 7 PM."

Everyone groans and I fall asleep like a log. I have never been as tired since I got here. It is mental exhaustion that also seems to affect the physical. I really should think over this tomorrow.

I wake with the sun already a little higher than usual. I get up with my heart pounding. How late I’m, do I have anything important? A thousand questions go through my mind. I calm as I notice it is only about half an hour after the sun rises. I hurry, so I can have time to set up the forge and everything goes smoothly after that. The meeting disappoints me a little, it has nothing too important.

When I have a few minutes free, I take a look at my status screen and go thought all my messages.

Mana Manipulation +7: Lv. 26 Kinetic Meditation +1: Lv. 31 Unarmed Combat +2: Lv. 7 Mana Infusion +5: Lv. 11 Carrying skill +1: Lv. 17 Blacksmithing +5: Lv. 21 Running +1: Lv. 32 Fire Manipulation +1 Lv.2 Water Manipulation +1 Lv.1 Air Manipulation +1 Lv.1 Earth Manipulation +1 Lv.1 EXP gained: 3451 [Expand]

I guess the system recognized my frustration. It totally changed how it organizes the messages.

The elemental manipulation skills seem to be increasing really slowly. I almost forgot I had them. Could this be a limitation of my form of magic? Perhaps the runes are considered a crutch and greatly reduce the skill gain. I also didn't focus much on doing anything with the magic. A siting flame or a dripping hand doesn't say much about actual manipulation.

I also got really tired. I never handled this much mana before. Maybe no one on Earth has. I estimate I used over 10 thousand points of mana in less than 4 hours. I should get a comparison with Merlin and a couple of other people. We need to see how much skill level and attributes would make a difference.

The day goes by and when the time for me to put mana in the machine comes I don't go too deep in meditation. I keep very still and my eyes open looking at the anvil. I send as thin a stream as I can at the machine and pay attention to Mr. Blackwood's work. I see the frantic pace he works at. He pushes himself as much as he can.

For a few moments, in a state I have never been before, I can see the system restrictions. I do not understand it, at all, but I know it is there. I see his fight and I feel myself tear up a little. He really is doing his best.

The metal is slowly forged and I reevaluate some of my conclusions. This keeps the metal at higher temperatures for longer and we end up with a better final product. This seems incongruous with what I have seen him doing before. Confused I file this away with the thousands of other things I have to figure out.

The process teaches much, and I figure that I might be able to forge a +2 weapon. It would take much longer, but I could probably do it. I try to send as smooth flow into the plate and I can see more into the machine than ever before. I'm still not able to make out the interior yet, but I'm getting closer. With each second, I also feel a familiarity.

I cannot exactly place it, but it’s almost as if I have seen the interior of this machine before. I stop my mana flow only 40 minutes in when I see the smith go to the grindstones. While the exercise would be helpful for my mana manipulation, I can always increase it later. Saving my mana for other things is not a bad choice.

Maybe the smith might even do another +3 item if I have the mana.

He disappoints me. The rest of the day we work only on +2 weapons. I do a single spearhead when the day ends. I don’t put in enough time to make a +2 but the weapon is still better. Just in ways, the system doesn't measure.

I take a good look at my creation. It looks stronger, the edge will likely last a little longer, maybe it will be able to penetrate farther in a thrust. I put in the pile and leave. I had to talk with Merlin and I manage to find him this time.

"Hi, Nash. I heard you were giving classes now.”

“Yeah, I wanted the mana to test a few things and it seemed a good deal all around.”

“It is. The only problem is now people will have less mana to give me.”

“You were doing the same thing?”

"Not exactly, I was helping my students. As they tried to shape the mana, they gave up a little control. I could then shape their runes here and there. This way they can feel the shape, instead of only seeing it."

“That is an interesting exercise. I came to talk to you about something I want to figure it out. Yesterday I had quite a few students; I ended up using over 10k mana in a couple of hours.” At that he whistles.

“Did you have a headache?”

"Not quite, but I was bone-tired by the end."

"Two days ago I pushed myself to dump my entire mana pool as fast as I could. After that, I was helping students shape their mana. They must have spent about 3k mana. The combination left me with a headache for hours. It took me a while until I felt myself again."

"Well, I want to see how much mana it takes to tire someone. With you and a couple of students, we should have a fairly accurate model. We can measure how much each of us can handle and figure out what is of most help. If it is skills, attributes, or a combination."

"That's a good idea. When is your next class?”

“In 20 minutes.”

“Good. I will be there.”

"You mentioned dumping your entire mana pool, I have never done that. How fast can you do it?"

“I can use up to 7 mana/sec. My mana pool drains in about 30 seconds. I don't use my entire pool. Lowering to much your mana can also be painful."

“I emptied my mana pool a couple of times. You can feel a tug and if you go even further is becomes painful.”

"You should try to dump mana as fast as possible a couple times. Each time I do it I feel as if I'm stretching a muscle. The first time I could do only 4 mana/sec. I improve to 7 in only four times I repeated the exercise."

"We will need it for casting spells in battle. With 7 mana a second, we would be lucky if we even singe the fur of a wolf."

"Yeah, although I think it might possible to expel the mana and cast the spell afterward. You will have a long "cast time", but the spell itself won't be affected."

"Yeah, good idea." As I'm about to leave, I remember something else:

"I just remembered. Do not try to absorb mana. If it doesn't have the same signature as you, it will cause a backlash."

"Yeah, we know. We discovered a couple of people have suffered from backlash. It is a condition that seems to cause amnesia because not a single person reported it to the guild." I make a sheepish face, with a frown in his face he continues. "Tomorrow we will be warning everyone in the morning."

I get up and with grim say:

“Yeah, it really seemed to have caused me some amnesia."

“Get out of here. Let me do a few things and I will be showing up in your class for a few minutes.”

I leave and head to the class. I get there and start to meditate. I again, have my mana bar low by a few points and I try to get it a bit closer to full. The students slowly come and this time I see a record number. Five minutes after the time we are sposed to start I see 150 people. Too bad for the people arriving more than 5 minutes late, they will miss part of the class. I start explaining the first thing we will be testing. I chose two people for their parameters. One has high attributes and low skills. The other has the opposite.

Merlin gets the class and we get started. The hour goes by and everyone is surprised by the results. Some things are as expected. We discover that both stats and mana manipulation increase the amount of mana someone can handle.

In subsequent experiments, we find that the more precise someone is the less they strain their minds. The most significant factor is the mana amount, but if you use it faster you also strain your mind more.

Points in willpower seemed to be more effective, in reducing the strain, than intelligence. Plenty of conjectures were formed during our experimentation, but we only managed to be fairly certain of these few.

When my turn arrived, even though everyone already knew the result, we were stumped. I had similar skills and attributes as Merlin, but he only managed to use 2000 mana before giving up. I managed to use 8000 at the same pace as him. The smaller number was given I increased my pace, which at least was not a surprise.

I could handle 4 times as much mana as I should be able to. We even came up with an accurate formula to predict someone's limits. Within a 10 percent variance, we could calculate the limit from every single person that participated in the experiment.

I wonder if the cause is my soul stat. I know nobody else has this stat. Nobody mentioned any stats beyond the 8 common ones. It could also be the title I have. It does mention some unseen benefits. I really wish the book had provided some information about this.

At the end of class 17 people participated and I was the only one outside the range of expected mana limit. Everybody had empty mana pools, so we left early. It took us less than 2 hours, and everybody left a bit dejected. They wanted to learn and try different things, but alas we could no longer even think properly. That doesn't even take into account we had no mana left.

This time I go to sleep early. This way, I won’t have to concern myself with being late. I find my favorite tree and lay down for a good night’s sleep.