Side Story Two: Childhood and Library Magic - Part 1

Age 6

I am currently absorbing mana residing in the atmosphere and releasing it by using a spell called 【Magic Release】. 【Magic Release】 is a spell that is of unknown origin. It was said that it was from the magic of the ancients while other theories were that it was a magic bestowed by the gods. It releases all the mana in your body and shoot it in the direction where your hand is pointing at. Although it might sound powerful, but on the contrary, even though it releases your mana, it releases it in a scattered and unconcentrated form. It combines with the different energies in the surroundings in this form, making it less powerful because of the incompatibilities among the different energies. Which means, a 【Fire Ball】 or even a mana concentrated punch can do more damage than【Magic Release】. Some people believe that it is more powerful than what it seems, so they tried to improve the spell by improving the control and concentrating it into a purer form. In the end, they failed to improve it, because they can't find the origin of the said spell, which is a spell book.

[Mana] and [Energy] are different things. [Mana] is the source of power, like a battery, which supplies it to the source to form into what is called [Mana Source]. While [Energy] is a source of power for the [Elements]. Combine them and it will turn into what is known as [Magic]. You might be wondering why I know this stuff. It was because of me reading about it in the library of course, and not the 《Library》on where I’m being taken into when I’m using 【Library Magic】. I am currently not using it at the moment, because of the low mana pool I have. It is better to explore the 《Library》when I have enough time to do what I want and not be forced out while I’m in the middle of doing something.

Whatever the origin of 【Magic Release】 is, I am currently using it in a repeating cycle. The reason for this is because of the answer my father provided to an inquiry of mine yesterday.

...A day earlier.

“Father, I’ve been absorbing mana in the atmosphere while converting it into pure mana for almost a year now. Why is the progress slow, even when I was absorbing at a pace where I have almost never taken a break.” I asked father.

“Eh? That means you have already hit the capacity of your mana pool. You will now need to start releasing it by using a spell called 【Mana Release】. It is as the name implies, it releases your mana, almost all of your mana, only leaving the mana needed to stay conscious and to walk properly. You will need to absorb mana from the atmosphere again to regain the used mana, but the difference, this time, is you don’t need to convert the absorbed mana into pure mana. Though most humans need at least 3 years of absorbing mana in the atmosphere and converting it into pure mana, before they start on this practice. But I guess you're not a normal human because you have the blood of the Devil Family inside of you. Even so, this is just ridiculous, even a Devil needs at least 2 years of absorbing mana before they can start this practice.” Father said, awestruck.

Well, that was pretty stupid of me not to ask. I already reached the capacity of my mana pool a month ago, I thought I just needed to continue absorbing mana, so that my mana pool will continue to expand. I cogitated on the question, what if my mana pool is just naturally small. But, that can’t be the case, as I felt my mana pool is pretty big, I even thought it was abnormally big. Then why did I reached my capacity of absorbing mana pretty early? I wonder if it was because I was doing something different than everyone else because I was reincarnated or was it because of that playful God’s intervention. It should be the former as I think it isn’t like that God to intervene on someone who he/she is competing with. Though I can’t really guess what that God will do on a whim, as he/she is pretty much unpredictable.

As I was thinking of such thoughts, my father is already ordering Raul to get all the books relating to the spell and books about the needed nutrition, so the mana will circulate better inside the body. Leading to a faster increase of a person’s mana pool. I guess those books are from my father's own personal collection, as I had already read all the books in the common library.

...Back to the present.

With that explained, I am now on the 34th cycle of using 【Mana Release】 and absorbing mana to replenish the lost mana. I think this is pretty weird, though, as the rate that I can replenish my mana is ridiculous. I can replenish all of my mana in a matter of 30 minutes. It was mentioned in the book, that the mana pool of a human child at the age of 7-8 will need at least an hour of absorbing before they can release their mana again.

My mana pool is already bigger than any child of the same age, at least on what the book says, now I can regenerate my mana in a quicker pace too. Is this really not that damn God’s doing? Ah, whatever, faster training means I can practice 【Library Magic】 earlier than expected. Such are my train of thoughts while I am steadily repeating the cycle of releasing and replenishing my mana.

...5 Months later.

“I think I have enough mana to stay inside the 《Library》 longer to do some exploring. I think with my current mana pool, I have two hours of exploring before 【Library Magic】 expires.” I assert to myself with a body full of sweat due of repeating the 3426th cycle of releasing and replenishing mana in the snow-filled area and under the scorching sun.

We moved house a little closer to the Human Kingdom Rolen in the east, 2 months earlier. The house is near the north-east position of Rolen, it is near the border of the country of never melting ice Nalia. Although it is called a country of never melting ice, the ice there is just hard to melt as it is a place full of Ice Energy, though the catch is, when you melt it, the puddle left whenyou melt it will turn into ice in a matter of seconds.

Nalia is a frozen barren wasteland, it has no race living there except for the Ice fairies. There was a rumor that a race, known to be extinct called ‘Lutin’ is still living there. There are many Ice-element monsters living there too. Although I have little information on the race of ‘Lutin’, there was a book I read in the library in my past life, about a creature known as ‘Lutin’, or better known as a ‘Nain Rouge or Red Dwarf’. As I contemplated on such matters, I was already gathering my mana and asserted 【Library Magic】in my head. As I had my eyes opened, I saw the scenery distorted and changed into the place I call the 《Library》.

Nothing has changed since I last visited here, huh? Though the glasses are missing from the table, that is pretty much because I’m currently wearing it, even though I didn’t even touched it when I first came here. There is no dust forming on the equipment at all, and the fire on the candles still hasn’t gone out. I wonder if it’s because of mana.Maybe there is someone or something else in here beside me and they are maintaining the place. If this was a novel, I would have already made many death flags for thinking those things, but sadly, I’m not in any novel, right? I noticed that I am getting into my bad habits of narrating the scene like a story inside my head. I really should stop that, I reminded myself.

“I better get started on exploring, I already wasted 5 minutes of my 2 hours ruminating.” I reprimanded myself to stop thinking too much.

End of Side story 2