Theo was getting much better at moving the mana around his body, he had to admit.

He still didn’t know how to infuse the mana into his muscles just yet, but the amount he could move around, and the finesse with which he could do so was incredible. Looking at himself while meditating, he could see it running through his body. It was a network of dewdrops on a spider’s web, beautiful, yet the drops stayed drops and didn’t infuse into the web.

Sparrow had said that each step involved a transformation and evolution, and he hadn’t figured out how that would actually play out. Theo shook his head, and took a deep breath.

If it was a transformation and evolution, then moving mana around and prodding muscles wouldn’t be the same case here.

Sparrow had said that the second step of Striding Wind involved infusing the muscles with mana. Which meant that the mana had to go into the muscles. Currently, he had been trying to manipulate the muscles with mana. Theo didn’t know how else he could move this mana around.

Maybe it would need to be in a different form?

Concentrating, Theo took a glob of mana, and tried to compress it. The dewdrop turned into an impossibly-bright gem. Moving it towards his right calf, he felt it enter his muscle. Before he could celebrate, however, he felt it seize up, and then incredible pain. His yelp made Sparrow open his eyes, and the alarm evident in them was visible as they sprinted towards him. Theo held his leg, and looked down in panic as his calf started to swell and Lichtenburg patterns started to glow through his pants.

“Let go of your mana!” Sparrow yelled, and Theo realised that he was still holding the compressed mana. Letting go, the patterns stops growing, but still glowed.

“What did you do?” Sparrow asked, as the situation stabilised. It was hard for Theo to focus through the pain, but he eventually managed to form thoughts.

“I compressed the mana, and pushed it into my muscle.” Theo answered, and Sparrow face grew incredulous.

“Okay, I’m going to fix this up first before I explain what you did.” Sparrow said, as they muttered something quietly. All Theo could make out was “genius”.

Sparrow sang a hymn, as they held his leg. After minutes of pain that made him almost want to pass out (and surely would have done so had it not been for the three weeks of constant training), his leg glowed (but in a gentler light than before that erased the Lichtenburg lines), the pain subsided, and he felt better.

“What was that?” He asked. It might have taken a few minutes, but his leg felt incredible.

“Hymn of Healing. One of the few songs I will insist that you learn at all costs, no matter how good or bad you are with set songs. You can already see why that is.” Sparrow answered, before adding, “It also works on yourself.”

“Now, sir prodigy, let me tell you the difficulty of what you did. Compressing mana is usually needed for the third step, and it allows for more intense mana usage. The third step involves using the strengthened body from practicing the second step, and using the infused mana to great effect. For example, Striding Wind allows you to amplify the force behind your movements. The strength of these abilities is based on the level of compressed mana that your body can safely take, and that is determined by how much you have infused your body with the second step. If you use mana compressed beyond the degree of what you can handle, this is what happens.”

Theo took a moment to realise that this meant he had failed to infuse mana into his body. He then realised that as soon as he understood the second step, he would have a pretty easy time learning the third.

Still, it wasn’t infusing his muscles and learning the second step, so celebration would have to wait.

Theo considered this information. If compressing the mana was the opposite step because his body could handle that strength of mana, then maybe the opposite of compressing it would be the way forward?

He closed his eyes again, and focused on grabbing a mote of mana, and instead of pushing inwards like he did before, he tried to pull it outwards. And with that, a dewdrop became a mist. Theo smiled.

Moving the mist into his left calf (just in case there was some residual effects left in his right), he fed it into the muscle. And it felt…great. Very satisfying. Like someone had given his muscle a massage from the inside. To his shame (and Sparrow’s amusement), he let out a soft moan.

“Well, that sounds like progress. What did you figure out?” Sparrow asked, and although they didn’t comment on the moan, the tone of their voice made it clear that they didn’t have to.

“I uh, did the opposite of compressing the mana. I pulled it apart, and infused that.” Sparrow nodded, took a moment to think, and then instructed Theo.

“Good job. I want to see how much mana you can infuse into your body before things go wrong. It means you can push just below your limits without me, and with me I can make sure that you’re still healthy and able to keep going.” With a sense of dread, Theo nodded at Sparrow’s smiling face and did exactly as he was told.

Vaporising as much of his mana as he could mana, he infused it into all the muscles in his arms and legs and core (essentially, every muscle besides those inside his head). His muscles absorbed it all greedily, and he bit his lip until it bled to stop another moan coming out.

No issues so far. Taking a moment, he vaporised as much as he could control again, and repeated the process. And repeated it again, and again. By the fourth time, Sparrow stopped him from doing it again.

“Okay, clearly this is also where your unfair capacity comes into play. I want you to find the amount you could consistently continue to infuse your body with, and see how long you could cycle that. If you last an hour, you’re good to go.” Sparrow said, and Theo got to work.

While it wasn’t exactly unexpected, both Sparrow and Theo weren’t surprised when the hour came and went and no trouble was had.

“Okay, good job. It’s okay for you to infuse your body with that amount of consistent mana. I want you cycling internal magic as long as you are awake and conscious.” Sparrow paused. “Now, this next part is normally not a problem, because the amount that people are usually able to infuse is rather small. You? You will need to get up very, very slowly.” Theo was confused, but tried to do so.

He unfolded from his cross-legged position, and as his feet touched the ground, he lurched backwards into the air, flying high above the tallest trees in the park, before landing on his back and having the wind knocked out of him. After laying there, dazed, he reached a hand down to prop himself up, and instead found himself rolling over as his hand had pushed him a quite hard. The world became a spinning blur, as he imitated a fresh-cut log rolling down a hill, but without the hill.

Finding himself dizzy and in pain, he decided to stop moving and wait for Sparrow to find him. Which, from his undignified shrieks and yelps, probably wouldn’t be too difficult. Moments later this was proven correct, as Sparrow found him with a grimace on their face.

“I was afraid that this was going to happen. It’s what happens when you increase in strength too suddenly. Learning to control your new default reflexes will be a constant battle, especially given how fast yours will grow.” Sparrow sighed, but the world was spinning too fast for Theo to pay much attention.

“I should have taught you Self Awareness by now, but once again your progression speed defenestrates my plans. Well, you’re dizzy, so no better time to learn it. But be careful, we’re starting to mess around with the head now. Start meditating.” Sparrow instructed, and sat down next to him as they started to guide Theo through the arduous (and dangerous) task of shoving mana into his head.

“Expand your manasight until you can see me.” As Theo did so, he saw Sparrow’s overwhelmingly bright mana leave their head, until only a few sections of the brain and the ears had mana flowing through them. He absentmindedly noted that it felt a lot easier to expand his sight than before. “These are where you should push mana into.”

As Theo did so, he let out a sigh of relief (which, on any given day, would have been the most embarrassing sound that came out of his mouth. Today? Barely top five). The dizziness subsided, and he could think clearly.

“Well, I’m glad that worked without me having to use Hymn of Healing on your brain. That’s never a guaranteed fix.” Wait, that meant that there had been a chance that Sparrow couldn’t have fixed that? Seemingly reading his mind (but in actuality just understanding the worry most would have in this situation), Sparrow responded.

“Like I said, this would be a dangerous path. But once you protect your entire head with mana, it becomes easier to heal, and eventually you can survive without it as long as you can put mana in the right places long enough to get it healed.” Sparrow stood up, and started to walk away.

“Wait, how long until my head is protected? Sparrow? Sparrow!”

“Now, infuse mana into those areas, and come find me where we started once I don’t need to teach you how to walk again. The second step of Self Awareness improves your control over your body, and while it might still take you a moment to adjust to your new limits, it will not take an embarrassing amount of time.” Sparrow said, calling over their shoulder, ignoring Theo as they left him lying there, trying desperately to infuse enough mana for Self Awareness to circumvent the crawling-like-a-baby step of relearning how to walk.