I shudder awake, and I’m instantly overwhelmed by the musky scent of a hundred sweaty bodies crammed tight into the barracks. The tell-tale squeak of flatulence occasionally interrupts the endless chorus of snoring.

It smells like an animal bar, which I suppose isn’t wholly inaccurate.

Wearily I feel around for my glasses. I suspect that I’ve only managed to sleep for a few hours, but I doubt that I’ll be able to find rest again this morning.

Much of the power I’d managed to build up over the night has spilt out while I slept and what remains is a fraction of the meagre stash that I’d built. It’s enough to keep the edge off of the mana friction, but that’s not enough for me.

Slowly I build myself back into a rhythm of drawing in the atmospheric mana and crunching it inside me.

Nel sleeps right beside me, her warmth shared beneath the thin blanket. Where we touch, I can feel the stickiness of dried sweat mixed with the grainy sensation of dirt. Waking up in a filthy state like this is a new experience, and certainly not a welcome one.

The mana friction between us isn’t so bad as before, only now that I’ve gained some sense for it can I really notice. While there’s still some pins and needles, it’s fainter, and more importantly the mana isn’t pressing against me like it does with most things.

I check my chip again to see how well I’ve recharged since waking.

~Mana Form: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 15 units

I have no idea how much power is in each of these units, but it’s more than the last time I checked. I don’t know how much I’d built up before falling asleep, but I can vaguely recall that the air and sheets no longer cut at me. It’ll be nice to get to that point again.

What attracts my attentions more, is the new Skill that shows up.

~Defensive Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for reactive mana skin.

-Skills: Mana Skin

-Mana Skin: Focus your mana to your skin, increasing your skins durability. Useful for resisting extreme temperatures, trauma, and spells. The effectiveness is determined by the amount of mana dedicated to the Skill.

Reading the description, I figure that it must be something to do with how I’m pressing against the mana friction cutting at my skin. It does feel much easier to cycle the mana around my skin than it was last night, though I’d just attributed it to practice.

When I start messing with my mana flow, that ease quickly slips from my finger and I’m back to struggling to keep the mana flowing how I like. After a few seconds of stirring the mana into every corner of my body, I can feel the Skill taking over and the process suddenly becomes as easy as walking.

With a rested mind I run through the listed Classes that I lumped together last night and try to figure out which ones deserve my limited time and attention.

Mana form.

Absolutely critical. It shows me how much mana I’ve got inside me and seems like it’ll give me more details for later growth.

Fire magic.

What is life without dreams and passions? What is magic without fireballs? It stays.

Space magic.

Important if I ever want to escape from situations like this one, but I’m not learning it today. I’d be best looking out for an opportunity to learn rather than hitting my head against a wall hoping to have a breakthrough.

Healing magic.

Very, very important, but can I get a teacher? And how long will it take to learn?

Defensive techniques and Combat techniques. Well, that’s what Red’s probably going to be drilling into us whether I like it or not.

Wilderness survival and Bestiary studies might be useful if I ever plan to escape but the early Skills that they’re offering aren’t exactly enticing right now.

The rest all seem nice, but not for right now.

I carefully prune the Classes, thankful to find the option.

The clacking of Nel’s chitinous fingers and legs announce her waking, she shudders before opening her eyes. I only just now notice that she has considerable amounts of the armoured plates covering her legs as well as what I see on her arms, hands, a little along her jawline.

Her pure black eyes shift with moving fractals that shine in the low light. Alien, but incredibly pretty.

Trying to keep up with the momentum of yesterday, and being surrounded by so many different aliens, I’ve not paid enough attention to details like these. I’ve been constantly looking for the next thing to try and kill me, so things like eye colours, chitin, fur, and scales just don’t matter as much.

“You should sleep some more,” She says, “Today will be difficult.”

“As should you,” I reply, shifting around to get past her. A certain pressure has built up over night, and while staying in a warm bed is tempting, natures call can’t be ignored.

“I’ll go with you,” Nel says, likely feeling the same pressures.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Filth. Beastly filth. Horrid filth. The only means left to properly clean it is fire. Kyra, we should burn the town down.” Nel is half serious, and I’m near convinced to join her crusade.

“When we leave, Nel.” I say trying to soothe her.

The public toilets are little more than pits of waste, I can still taste them as we’re walking away, and the traumatic sights within are going to haunt me every time I feel the call of nature.

“I miss home.” I mutter, “Flushing toilets, soap, showers, clean clothes.”

“I nearly learned cleansing magic.” Nel moans weakly, “I didn’t bother, ‘the enchantments are always around’, I thought, ‘I’ll never really need it’, I thought.”

“Cleansing magic?” I ask.

“It’s wonderful. A wave of the hand and all the sweat and filth just slides off.” Her voice is distant as she imagines this miracle beyond our reach.

“Guys? Where are the toilets?” Vii asks hopping from foot to foot as words flood from her, “I’ve been looking all around but I can’t find them. They have toilets here, don’t they? I mean they have to, it’s not like they’d just run into the woods every time they need to pee. They don’t just go in the streets do they?”

“Follow your nose,” I say, “It will lead you the way.”

Nel more helpfully points the way we’ve come, and Vii flies up and glides through the quiet morning town towards hell.

“Are you recovered from yesterday?” I ask Nel as we settle down at the side of the training field.

“It still hurts in places,” She says, “I wasn’t hurt near as bad as you, though.”

“I’ll be fine,” I say, sucking up mana to the point where the aches in my body are fully overwhelmed by the cutting of mana inside me.

“What’s a Skill?” I ask, recalling the Skill I gained last night.

“What do you mean?”

“I got a Skill last night, ‘mana skin’ it makes moving the mana around my skin a bit easier. I just don’t get what it is, or why it works.” I explain.

She nods in quiet understanding, thinking only a moment before explaining.

“This,” She says, gently touching the mark on my hand, “It has support structures in your body. It remembers what you did when you succeeded in performing a Skill and helps you replicate it.”

“The damn chip again,” I grunt, “Fuck it, whatever. So long as it’s useful, I suppose.”

I shiver as a cool breeze washes through, welcoming it for the moment of clean air that it brings.

“So, what was your life like before this? Did you have a family? Lover? What of your friends?” I ask this trying looking for lighter topics and completely fucking it up by bringing up what we’ve lost.

“It was simple.” She replies, wistful, as if it wasn’t just yesterday, “My family is still well, I assume, though it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. I’ve not had the fortune to find any lovers, and my friends… I would like to see them again.”

For a while we talk, mostly of old acquaintances that we’d like to meet again someday. Vii soon joins us, her own voice more playful as she changes topics quickly and keeps any silences from dragging.

When the sun finally rises Eshya joins us, though she chooses to spend her time waving her sword about rather than talk. She still offers choice comments here and there as she warms up.

The mana within me has been converting for a while now, filling me with a comforting warmth. As soon as the pain of foreign mana inside me alleviates, I draw more in trying to pack as much mana inside as I can. I keep ‘mana skin’ active and slowly the mana friction of the air subsides.

In the chill morning air, surrounded by calm conversations, my situation slowly sinks in.

“We need to get strong.” I say, looking around the empty field and thinking of yesterday. My words cut the conversation short, forcing everyone to face reality again.

A few other students have come out into the training grounds and the horizon has been slowly turning pink for a while now.

“We’re only alive because Red lets us live. This world isn’t safe for us, and there’s nowhere else for us to go. The only way we get to stay alive is by doing what she wants, and she wants us to get stronger. Much, much stronger.”

Nel, stares quietly down at her own trembling hands, and Vii looks thoughtfully up at the sky. Eshya, meanwhile, smiles as she throws around her wooden sword with double the effort and strength.

“That’s a good attitude.” Red says, dropping in on us quite literally. “I hope you’ve at least rested enough to put some real effort in today.”

“Why are you training us?” I ask, “What’s in it for you?”

“Who says that there’s anything in it for me?” She replies. "Now, little miss mana-less, yesterday you couldn’t even figure out how to absorb mana, have you done anything about that?”

I sigh.

“Is it meant to feel like a swarm of angry hornets are stinging at my soul?”

“If you’re doing it right, yeah.” Red says, smiling over at me, “The more mana you’re churning up inside you, the more it’ll hurt. Keep it up.”

“Great. Wait, does that mean all talented mages are masochists?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be sharing that theory around too much.” She replies with a laugh, “But… maybe.”

“So, what do I do with the mana then? Magic?”

“Sure, if you want to show off some pretty sparkles to all your friends.” Red says, laughing as she turns to the stirring barracks, “It’s quicker to get this done in one go.”

As soon as she steps in, she’s yelling, frightened cries respond but not near quick enough. Students come flying out of the door, only half of them on their own feet. A few minutes more and she’s gathered us all in the field, all of us still bearing the bruises from yesterday.

“The first combat Skill that you will need to develop is a ‘mana shield’. It’s a rather simple technique to learn, even for weaklings like you lot, but it’s incredibly difficult to master.” She paces in front of us, pausing every now and again as she searches for the right words.

“This Skill is the simple process of condensing a pulse of mana over a part of your body. If used with the right timing and placement it can significantly weaken an incoming attack, or strengthen an attack of your own.” She explains, “Though pushing mana through a weapon is more difficult, so focus on learning ‘mana shield’ first.

“Does everyone understand?”

“How does it work?” I ask.

“What?”

“You’re saying a pulse of mana will weaken an enemies attack? How does that work?”

“It just does,” She shrugs, “A mana dense fist will hit harder, mana dense flesh will take harder hits.”

“Mana resists intruding forces.” Cheri says, apparently feeling better after he was choked yesterday, “The mana infused in a fist will support its momentum, while in the mana infused flesh will resist incoming forces. There are more reactions going on, but these are the effects she’s trying to describe.”

“What he said,” Red says, seemingly unconcerned, “In a fight all that matters is that you want the greater mana density. ‘Mana shield’ temporarily condenses your mana within a certain area to maximise this effect. You might be more familiar with ‘mana skin’ it’s a more generalised application of the same idea, condensing mana into your skin.

“Any other questions? No? Then, get practicing.”

I close my eyes and feel for the warmth stirring in my body. In moments, the ‘mana skin’ Skill falls apart, and my unpractised grasp on the flow lets mana leak out. After a spending a few moments getting my mana cycling properly again, I’m prepared to try and figure out this new Skill.

Following Red’s advice, I try to move the warm energy to focus on the palm of my hand. It works for a few moments, but the stagnant energy soon slips away, and worse, moving the mana to my hand disrupted the flow inside me resulting in more mana leaking out.

First times are bound to fail.

“I got the Skill,” Eshya says.

I mean there will always be a few standouts who pick up on these things easily.

“Me too.” Vii says, followed by a good portion of the other students.

“Good, everyone with the Skill grab your weapons and practice it while sparring. It’s best to develop combat Skills like this in realistic practice to avoid developing bad habits.”

“Kyra?” Nel calls my name.

“Go on ahead,” I say with a sigh, “I’ll join you in a minute.

No time to waste.

I can think of a dozen different excuses for my weaknesses, but Red won’t listen. Beasts wanting to eat me won’t listen. If I want control over my life, I can’t wallow in excuses.

Absorbing as much mana as I can, and pushing my limits further, try to focus through the pain.

Warm energies circulate around my body, pushing back against the mana friction that presses on my skin. I have to somehow condense the mana in my hand without messing with the mana flow and without leaving it to sit for long.

A trait of mana inside me is that it wants to be in constant motion, it doesn’t like to stagnate for a moment, or it escapes.

I play with the currents, stirring them differently and feeling for the effects. The pins and needles pressing in on me have returned with a vengeance now that my ‘mana skin’ skill is inactive. As I start pressing back against it, I realize just how stupid I’ve been.

‘Mana skin’, isn’t that different from ‘mana shield’. Red just said it herself.

I just have to localise the ‘mana skin’ affect, which is probably harder than it sounds.

‘Mana skin’ is easy enough because I can cycle it all around my skin, but to press it into one spot without stopping it’s motion is somewhat antithetical.

After working on it for a while, I come up with an idea.

“A vortex…”

I concentrate the mana on my palm again, but unlike last time I make sure that the mana spins rapidly on the spot. I don’t let it stagnate for a moment; else all the mana will slip away.

It works for a few moments, but the vortex destabilises and starts shedding mana all over the place. I reabsorb what I can to my circulation and notice a notification sound as the mark on my hand pulses briefly.

~Skill developed.

~Combat Techniques (Grade 1): Mana Shield

“Fuck, yeah.” I whisper and open my eyes to find a big red face looming over me.

“What the fuck!?” I scramble back from her in a panic.

“So, you got the Skill?” She asks, “The last in class to get it.”

I look around and realize that she’s right.

“So, what are you doing then?” I ask, “Shouldn’t you be teaching everyone else?”

“Experience is the best teacher.” She says watching over the training field.

“You know, I vaguely recall you saying that you’d bring us to a far superior institution…” I tell her, performing a few ‘mana shield’s’ around my body. It’s insultingly easy to reproduce them now, but always perfectly the same. It takes some effort to even make them appear anywhere other than my hand.

“Haven’t you heard of marketing?” She says with a half smile.

“Otherwise known as lying.”

“Lying with style, girl. Lying with style.” She repeats, before growing serious, “There is an institution that I have in mind, but it’s not going to be easy getting you lot in there. Keep practicing, make yourself stand out, and maybe…”

“So, I should get out there…?” I ask with a sigh, swallowing my concerns.

“No, I’ll take over your beatings today.” she says, “The rest are either too weak of spirit, or too strong in mana form. I saw that clearly enough yesterday.”

“Oh? So today is the day that I die?”

“I’ll treat you nice and gentle.” Her expression says otherwise.

She picks up a pile of rocks from the table nearby.

“Shit, you prepared for this?”

“You’re the one who asked me to train you seriously.”

“Fine! Bring it on-Gyah!” A rock hits my belly before I even finish talking.

“Too slow,” She throws another one and I barely manage to stir the mana into a small vortex before it hits. I instantly feel a difference.

The first rock hit like it’d been pitched by a baseballer, the second more like a casual toss.

“There you go, keep that up. No need to stand still, either.” She says as she increases the rate which she throws them.

“Shit,” A rock hits my shoulder when I try to dodge and ‘mana shield’ at once, failing to dodge and getting hit where the shield isn’t.

I dance to the side, but her aim is unaffected. The stones hit from my head to my toes and though I try to predict where they’ll hit it’s difficult to get the spot right. As such, I’ve been using larger and larger ‘mana shield’s’ that protect me less but catch more of the hits.

This, along with the timing, show why it’s such an important technique to practice. With the right timing and movement, it can be used to seriously weaken an attack, but it’s very difficult get perfect, especially since it can only be active for at most half a second before it starts breaking apart.

Red runs off to intervene in another sparring match but somehow even from dozens of metres away her throws are perfectly accurate. I don’t get a second’s break, and keep on drawing in mana to strengthen my ‘mana shields’.

After a few hours, I lose count of the hits that I’ve taken, and the hits that I’ve shielded.

This practice is finally interrupted as loud bells ring out from the walls of the town.

“Enemy attack! Defend the town!” shouts a guard, the cry passing on quickly through the town.

“Gather together in the field and support each other! Do not retreat! Do not hide!” Red shouts at us before she leaps into the air, lashing out at a giant insect thing flying overhead.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Classes & Skills

~Mana Form: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop your mana form.

Current mana density: 19 units

~Fire Magic: Grade 1

Current goal: Complete a mana-fire conversion.

~Defensive Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for reactive mana skin.

-Skills: Mana skin

~Combat Techniques: Grade 1

Current goal: Develop a Skill for mana infusion.

-Skills: Mana shield.