Marium after Marium of pure mana was dumped into the area where Tavi was laying down and waiting for the baptism to start. Since humans had the highest survival rate for mana baptisms when exposed to pure mana, every shred of broken mana in the area was kept away from the section of the room the teenager was in, to maximize his survival odds as much as possible. Meanwhile, Alice found herself hoping once more that the teenager would live through this. She didn’t want to watch another human die.

Mana started to flood into the teenager’s body as Alice observed the process. Rainbow fractals started to build up around the teenager’s body, refining and converting the mana from its atmospheric form to one a little easier for his body to use.

Since Alice had already gotten permission from the teenager before the observation process started, {Lesser Organic Vision} didn’t have any usage issues. She used the Perk by spending small amounts of Organic Mana to look inside the teenager’s body as his mana baptism began. Much like the first time Alice had observed a mana baptism in progress, the mana entering the teenager’s body began to head towards the teenager’s brain and heart.

The first thing Alice noticed this time was the fact that the difference between using broken mana and normal mana in a baptism was very easy to observe. Even if Alice hadn’t been doing her absolute best to learn what she could from her observations, she would have immediately realized that there was a huge difference. The broken mana baptism Alice had seen the [Scout] go through during the hunting trip had been incredibly violent, because the dimensional broken mana the [Scout] had used for his baptism had destroyed most flesh it had come into contact with. The System had tried to keep the [Scout]’s body from collapsing under the onslaught of mana, and had tried to use Organic Mana to keep the [Scout]’s body from ripping itself apart. This time, the System seemed as if it were struggling far less while trying to keep Tavi’s body intact.

When a mana baptism occurred as a result of pure mana, the baptism mana clearly harmed the patient far less as mana made its way through Tavi’s body and towards his heart and brain. If the dimensional broken mana had nearly resembled pressurized acid ripping through the [Scout]’s body, pure mana was more like pressurized water. It was still violent and damaging, but with fewer immediately harmful aftereffects.

Now that Alice had {Lesser Organic Vision} and could properly see inside of Tavi’s body, she was able to observe something she hadn’t noticed during the [Scout]’s baptism. The pure mana making its way through Tavi’s body wasn’t just passing by; it was more accurate to say that it was fusing with the flesh of the teenager. The first time she had observed a mana baptism in progress, she had assumed that the mana itself was the reason the [Scout] had started dying during the baptism while the System worked to control everything and keep the [Scout] alive.

Now, Alice realized that the truth was a little more nuanced.

Mages had higher mana concentrations in their body, and aged more slowly than other people. And Alice was starting to realize that this wasn’t just because of their Mage core. Instead, as mana wound through the teenager’s body, Alice confirmed that flesh was being created as Tavi’s body and the System processed atmospheric mana.

During Alice’s earlier experiments, she had realized that during the regular process of gaining Attributes, small bits of mana would be absorbed into the body, which then improved things like muscles, eyeballs, and other parts of the body. If one gained Strength, their muscle fibers would integrate some atmospheric mana, for example.

Becoming a Mage and creating a Mage core required that one undergo a similar process… but instead of slowly absorbing little bits of atmospheric mana after being processed by the System, the entire process seemed to take place in the course of a minute or two. Alice had no clue why muscle fibers and nerves were even being created by the atmospheric mana; becoming a Mage didn’t improve one’s physique at all. Since it didn’t improve one’s physique, why was the atmospheric mana bothering to create muscle fibers? Since Alice had concluded that magic muscle fibers were better than regular ones, how could a Mage’s body contain so much more mana-created flesh without getting any better?

She frowned, mulling over this question as she observed Tavi’s baptism in further detail.

This issue was more than just academic. Tavi’s body had no clue what to do with the newly created flesh, since it was continuously appearing inside of Tavi’s body with no real control or precision. The flesh being created was often placed in a terrible spot. It was either situated incorrectly, pinching off nerves the teenager needed to use his arms and legs, or cut off blood vessels Tavi’s body needed to keep functioning. Worst of all were the chunks of flesh that tried to grow inside of the boy’s bones and ligaments. As mana was refined by the System and then processed by the boy’s body, the flesh created from mana continuously showed up in incredibly pointless and inconvenient spots.

This was where System mana came in. It wasn’t just corralling the mana in the boy’s body and putting it where it needed to be; it was also helping the teenager’s body cope with all of the problems being created by the newly-made flesh. It rearranged flesh and organs, shifting them around so that the newly made flesh didn’t cut off blood vessels and ligaments that needed to keep working.

Of course, the place where mana-created flesh was most prominent was exactly where Alice had assumed it would be; just behind the heart. It hadn’t quite occurred to Alice until now, but in hindsight, since Immortals were basically walking clumps of mana, the System was obviously quite familiar with helping humans turn ambient mana into solid flesh. And the most common kind of mana-created flesh was the mage core itself. As mana poured into the boy’s body, the System redirected it towards the boy’s heart and shifted organs and nerves out of the way, before the mana turned directly into flesh.

This was the hidden half of what Alice had wanted to see during the [Scout]’s baptism, all those months ago. She found herself glad she had taken {Lesser Organic Vision}, since she had missed all of this detail last time. The information that the human body and the System were turning chunks of atmospheric mana into random, poorly placed lumps of flesh before organizing it AFTER creation felt like a potentially fixable problem. Alice wasn’t quite sure what the process of fixing this part of a mana baptism would look like, but she suspected it was a potentially viable way to make baptisms safer. She mentally filed that idea away, to examine with {Safety Analysis} later.

Meanwhile, Alice began carefully observing more of the System fractals as she watched, getting as much information as she could about each one so that she could potentially copy it later. Her {Photographic Memory} would let her memorize exactly what she saw, even if she wouldn’t be able to perfectly understand or use it until she formed a proper System seed. She was also more than slightly intrigued by the fact that she could now see some of the components of System mana taking part in the mana baptism. Math mana was being used to measure parts of the boy’s body, before feeding information back into the composite mass of System mana and telling it what it needed to do. Organic mana that was part of composite System mana was being used to command proper organic mana around the boy’s body, and was also being used to analyze and gather information about what the ‘correct’ placement of things like muscle tissue and organs was.

As far as Alice could tell, the reason System mana was a kind of composite seemed to be because it made various kinds of mana able to ‘sense’ information collected by other kinds of mana. Normally, magic itself wasn’t particularly… intelligent. Organic mana enchantments, for example, were more likely to harm a user instead of helping them, which was why healing mana enchantments were more popular, even though they were less effective and wasted much more mana. However, by combining a bunch of different kinds of mana into one, Alice began to suspect the System was somehow working around this problem, or at least drastically reducing its impact.

Now that she knew what to look for, she could see math mana, pure mana, organic mana, and various other kinds of mana woven together into System fractals as they commanded other kinds of mana to do their bidding, trying to keep Tavi’s heart from collapsing as a new organ took shape in his body.

Minutes ticked by, as Alice slowly began to grin.

Unlike the [Scout] she had witnessed, where his body seemed to spin further and further out of control as she helplessly watched, the boy’s body was beginning to stabilize. The System mana, along with the pure and organic mana it commanded, worked like a well oiled machine, analyzing every speck of mana-flesh and normal flesh in Tavi’s body and helping to adjust where everything was. The random chunks of muscle fibers were shifted around in Tavi’s body, quickly ripped out of bones and ligaments and stitched back into the muscles they were meant to be part of. Nerves were removed and replaced, as thin strings of mana-flesh started to link together Tavi’s mana core and his brain, and replace other seemingly random parts of his body.

Meanwhile, his Mage core was successfully forming behind his heart, as his blood vessels and nerves were moved out of the way with the help of System mana, before the whole mess was quickly fused back together.

Then, most interestingly enough, the mana-flesh created during the process was all linked to Tavi’s newly created Mage core. As each chunk of muscle fiber, nerves, and flesh were linked up with the new Mage core, they lit up, glowing with mana as Tavi’s body started to adjust to its new change and finalize its shape and abilities. The Mage core flashed several times with rainbow and pure mana, before its near-blinding glow started to fade away, replaced with the ordinary, dull light of a Mage core with no seeds in it. Another few strings of mana-flesh and nerves linked the system up with Tavi’s brain, creating a few different clusters of nerves, before Tavi’s brain also flashed with rainbow mana a few times. Finally, the rainbow and pure mana surrounding Tavi started to disappear. Alice grinned.

Despite her worst fears, Tavi’s mana baptism had been successful. She wouldn’t need to watch him fail and die. He didn’t seem ready to get back to his feet yet, and Alice intended to let him rest for a few minutes, because she also remembered how horrifyingly painful her baptism had been. However, he had unquestionably succeeded.

Alice took a moment to think about what a successful baptism looked like behind the scenes. She had observed as the System shifted around chunks of mana flesh in someone’s body, moving chunks of flesh and muscle around, keeping the patient alive the whole time, before stitching everything back together. However, Alice also couldn’t help but think back to the strangest part of the process she had witnessed. Towards the end of Tavi’s baptism, the Mage core and Tavi’s brain had been linked up with all of the new additions to Tavi’s body, before flashing several times with different kinds of mana. Alice couldn’t help but suspect that was the most important part of the whole process. Whatever had happened in that time had made all of the other, seemingly random chunks of Tavi’s muscles, nerves, and flesh that had been replaced by mana flesh light up and stop actively working against the rest of his body. Alice wondered if fixing the strange placement of Tavi’s random chunks of mana-grown flesh would matter when it came to the success rate of mana baptisms, or whether the success or failure was mostly linked to the final part of the baptism. She just didn’t know enough yet.

But she had much more food for thought now, at least.

System mana began to trickle into Alice’s body, but she ignored it for now. She could look at her notifications later.

“I’m glad to see another new Mage join Illvaria,” said the oldest Mage from the ethics committee. “It isn’t common for people to live through their baptisms, but it’s always happy to see someone succeed.”

The youngest ethics committee member nodded. She didn’t say anything, but Alice could still see a trace of a smile lingering around her lips. Perhaps she wasn’t as averse to talking with people as she appeared to be, despite her cold demeanor. The middle aged Mage was the most outwardly excited, grinning happily as she looked at the newly baptized Mage.

The enchantment flooding the area with pure mana was turned off, and a few minutes were given for the mana to clear out. Then, a [Maid] stepped over to Tavi, before gently waking him up and helping him back to his feet.

Tavi, after climbing back to his feet, groaned a little as he shivered and rubbed at his limbs.

“That was awful,” he said, shuddering. “The worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. Even losing my arm wasn’t so bad,” he said. “At least that was over quickly.”

“You made it,” said Alice, giving him a grin. “I’m glad you did. I was prepared for people to die while I watched them, but I’m glad you got through, at least.” It would have been a shame if Tavi wasn’t able to survive his baptism.

Alice, Ethan, and the members of the Ethics committee chatted with Tavi for a few minutes longer, congratulating him and asking about his plans. Tavi mentioned that he was planning on joining a magic academy and had originally planned to go into the military later. However, since Ethan’s payment for the experiment was rather generous, Tavi intended to think about it for a while first. He was undecided on whether he wanted to find a Mage to learn the basics from, before doing something like construction, or whether he wanted to join an academy and aim higher.

The committee members gave Tavi a few tips for what he should do if he was looking for an apprenticeship, and also gave him a very brief rundown on the four magic academies of Metsel and their specialties, before eventually, Tavi and the other committee members left. Once again, it was just Alice and Ethan in the room.

Alice took a curious glance at Ethan, wondering what he had thought of the whole experiment. She knew that her Achievements, especially {Truth Seeker}, gave her the ability to see details of System mana and related interactions that normal people couldn’t. She suddenly found herself curious to know what a mana baptism looked like from the perspective of someone without vision-related Achievements.

“Did you get anything interesting out of the observation process?” Asked Alice.

Ethan shook his head. “I just saw mana flow into his body, before it seemed to disappear. Then, chunks of his flesh started wriggling around sometimes, and the mana in his body got more and more dense for a while. Then, his Mage core formed, and mana stopped flowing into his body a while later.” He turned towards Alice. “Did you get anything useful?”

Alice nodded. “I have a lot to think about. I’ll write a more formal report later, so that you can look over it. Give me a bit to think over what I saw.”

Ethan nodded, and Alice decided to finally look over her System notifications.