Total silence invaded the room. During that period of time, we just stared at each other. I felt myself shrinking from an invisible pressure that permeated from her body. Eventually I was unable to take any more and looked down at my feet in defeat.

“Rurik-” I said, intending to initiate the conversation for the sake of breaking the awkward silence.

“Don’t use my first name, we aren’t friends. From now on you will address me as Ms. Suzuki.” Rurika said as she crossed her arms together. “I am a pretty straightforward person, so I will come out and say it, I don’t like you. And from that twitchy eyebrow of yours the feeling is mutual. So shut up and listen.”

I kept looking down and robotically nodded my head. I feared that if I opened my mouth, I would snap and say something more stupid than 'beautiful stripes.'

“I won’t dive too deep into any specifics since your general knowledge is lacking, but the gist of what happened to you was an experimental surgical procedure called the Bestowal to lace your veins with mana. This caused them to change into what is known as spiritual veins. This in turn will allow you to safely use unrefined mana to cast spells. Normally one is born with spiritual veins and are rare even among magician clans. The lingering pain you are feeling is a combination of the surgery’s after effects and the foreign sensation of mana traveling through your body. Any questions?”

Despite her clear disdain, Rurika took her role as a mentor seriously, and once she noticed my confusion she stopped talking and let me speak.

“Ms. Suzuki, how did the mana get inside my body? What is the difference between refined and unrefined mana?” I asked as I placed a hand over my chest, where it hurt the most.

As awkward as it was to address someone the same age as me so formally, I beared with it. Since she was whole heartily taking the time to explain things properly, I had no reason to not humor her request. The whole reason I ended up in this mess is my fault. It was insane of me for accepting Perhaps I was too quick to judge her.

My flattery seemed to be super effective, as she raised her chin upwards slightly and the arrogant aura she emitted lessened by a marginal amount.

“Unrefined mana is usually taken into your body when one is meditating using a special breathing technique. The mana than travels to your heart, where it is stored for later use. But keep in mind that this type of technique has multiple uses. For now, observe as I demonstrate a type of breathing technique now.”

Pausing her explanation, Ms. Suzuki took a deep breathe. Although it seemed like a normal inhale of air, I felt a sense of loneliness, like something important to me was being taken away as it entered Ms. Suzuki’s body. Mana! What was being taken from the air around me was the mana.

Letting out the breath she just inhaled, Ms. Suzuki began to talk again, but the mana she took in did not come out with the carbon dioxide.

“However, your case is a little special. Obviously you do not have the backing of a clan or organization behind you, so you have no breathing technique. The only explanation is that a little bit of mana was left over from the Bestowal and is running rampant in your body. If left alone for too long it could damage the initial mana lacing that protects your veins. Don’t worry though, my grandpa already gave me the green light to gift you a manual for a breathing technique. With it, you should be able to attract and store your mana within your heart. That is, if you aren’t as big of a loser as you look, I think you should be able to manage, somehow.”

I take it back she is totally a bitch. I think to myself as she continued.

“This brings me to the last thing I will explain to you for now. As I said before, mana is taken into the body through breathing and is stored in the heart. Now that you are a magician, think of the heart as more than an organ that pumps blood. It is now a vessel for storing all the mana that you breathe in. Once you store enough unrefined mana, you need to use a variation of the same breathing technique to refine the mana in your heart. Don’t look down on this step, this is essential to making sure that the mana is pure enough to use later. After all the mana is refined, it can be used to continually lace the veins to strengthen them. Plus this repeated action will help to expand the storage capability of your body. Lastly, always remember to refine all mana in one sitting. Leaving it will result in the pain you are experiencing now.”

I cocked my head to the side and was about to ask for clarification when Suzuki raised her hand to silence me.

“Just think of the veins in your body as dirt path created by wandering animals, and your goal is to create a modern day highway. The first step in improvement would be to create a gravel path, followed by a brick road, etc.”

I shook my head back and forth. “Why don’t you just construct the highway?”

Rubbing her head in a bout of frustration, Rurika elaborated, “it is just a metaphor. The evolution from the dirt path to the highway signifies the different stages of the development of your veins. You can’t go from a faint lacing of mana to a highly fortified network of veins in a single night. If things were that simple, the world would be filled with grand master level magicians.”

Having finished her explanation, she began to out the same exit that her grandfather had. When she reached the large doorway that seemed specifically made to let that Hulk to comfortably come and go without banging his head, she turned around and tossed me a thin book.

“Here is the basic breathing technique that my grandfather wanted me to give you. Practice diligently, and I will come back in the morning to see your progress.”

With that, she exited the doorway completely and pressed a panel that was located on the outside.

BANG

A thick metal sheet slid down from the top of the doorway and onto the floor.

“Eh…..”

Wait just a minute, Doesn’t that mean I’ll be stuck here for an entire day? This is a clear violation of my human rights! WTF? Calm down… Calm down.

In order to distract myself, I looked at the thin booklet in my hands. The title read, Great Sage Breathing Technique. How cool! My chunibyo sickness resurfaced as my eyes gleamed in curiosity. Unable to take the suspense, I opened the book to reveal a bunch of diagrams of the human body with arrows pointing in methodical directions. There was little to no text to go along with the pictures.

“This looks an awful lot like yoga. Well no harm in trying it out.” I said, remembering that Mr. Suzuki mentioned something about the negative effects of leaving the unrefined mana to roam free within my body.

HEY BOY! LOOKS LIKE THEY LEFT. LET ME BORROW YOUR BODY BRIEFLY, AND I WILL HELP YOU LEARN HOW THIS TECHNIQUE.

“.....”

A familiar voice sounded inside my head. It was kind of sounded like Mr. Book. No, it was more correct to say that it was Mr. Book.

“I thought that you died.”

HAHA! WHO DO YOU THINK I AM? MY MASTER PLAN HAS SUCCEEDED! I’M FINALLY FREE!

“Great to hear that you’re fine, but I’m not just going to hand over control of my body to you.” I said a little exasperated.

A part of me was nervous that Mr. Book would pull some voodoo shit to take over my body, but figured that if he was strong enough to do so we would not be having this conversation. That is what I was banking on.

PRETTY LEVEL HEADED BOY. DON’T WORRY, EVEN IF I TAKE OVER YOUR BODY I WON’T BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL FOR MORE THAN THREE MINUTES. I AM PRETTY INJURED FROM TURNING YOU INTO A MAGE AND GRANTING YOUR WISH.

Mr. Book’s last few words peaked my interest, but I ignored my curiosity. Now was not the time to discuss things such as wishes. If I failed to learn how to manage my mana, it would not have mattered if I wished to be the king of the world. I would die in a matter of weeks from the mana destroying my body from the inside out.

“How can I be so sure you are not lying to me? What if you need permission from the host first before taking over.” I said as confidently as I could.

As an occult otaku, I had come across lore on many mythical creatures. In one of those stories, it mentioned how powerful beings could not wield their power freely on Earth. Many needed permission to do things. One of the most mainstream examples is how vampires needed to receive an invitation to enter a home.

I DO NOT HAVE ANY PROOF, BUT I CAN TELL YOU THIS. WHILE THAT BREATHING TECHNIQUE IS INDEED AMAZING, ITS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY IS NOTHING TO SCOFF AT. IT WILL TAKE A FLEDGLING LIKE YOU AT LEAST A FEW MONTHS TO HAVE THE BASICS DOWN.

What the heck? There was no way Mr. Book was telling the truth. I had thought that Mr. Suzuki was genuinely interested in my well being? Yet I could not explain it, I had a strong feeling that Mr. Book was not lying. Still, it was better to test him.

"Didn't Ms. Suzuki say that this was a basic technique?"

As if reading my thoughts, Mr. Book elaborated. DON’T BLAME THE OLD FREAK, THE REASON THAT YOU ARE IN THIS MESS IS BECAUSE OF THE LITTLE FREAK. SHE SWITCHED THE BOOKS ON YOU.

That bitch!

Rage swelled up from within me, and caused the already unstable mana to become even more excited. This in turn helped me to regain some of my senses as the fresh pain made it difficult to think.

No matter how I thought about it, i was screwed. My best bet was to get in touch with Mr. Suzuki. Yet there was no guarantee that he would help or if I would see him before any irreversible damage was done. Regardless, it would be a mistake to rely on either of them. Plus, this was a golden opportunity. As an outsider in the world of magic, having access to good resources was a blessing in disguise.

Gritting my teeth I muttered a single sentence, “Fine, I give you permission.”