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Dawn Traveller - Chapter 11 - Racing Winds
"Ugh, I think I'm going to die."
Jys turned 9 in the elves' forest.
This was an important time in the continent of Marka. It was a time when a child would start to mature into an adult and begin to be able to control Mana.
Black magicians however, would start teaching their students at the early ages of 4 and 5, because the earlier the lessons, the closer the students came to the Mana; which increased their potential growth as magicians.
Of course, this decision had a few risks and side effects, including increasing the chances that the child's fragile body would be unable to handle the mana, resulting in the brain becoming misshapen or softening and breaking like tofu.
After considering the risks, the age of 9 was usually chosen as the starting point for mana handling.
Hersey drew a rune showing mana on the ground.
"Don't feel too pressured. You can always work as a mana scholar or scientist if you can't feel or understand mana."
Jys had shown significant progress in mana theory, especially for his age.
Now, the time had come to put the theory into practice. It was the most important time in any magician's life.
"Clear your mind. There's a little bit of mana in everyone; including you."
"Do you think so? What if I'm the only one who doesn't have it...?"
"Use your senses, focus on the details. You will certainly be able to feel the mana flowing through the world."
Jys gently closed his eyes.
'This kid needs to be able to feel Mana for me to pass on my magic to him... He'll do it, right? Should I end my lessons if he can't? Scholar of magic... compared to the satisfaction and happiness gained from building up magic circles, a goblin's fingernail has a better job.'
Hersey continued thinking beside Jys.
Because Jys was clearly taking this moment with great significance, Hersey fell even deeper into his dilemma as a teacher.
'Ah... Jys has to be able to feel mana... Even if he is not that great, he should at least be above average. Looking at the things that he has been learning so far, he should be able to feel and use mana... Unless he's really dull. If he is unable to at this point, he is seriously talentless.'
Hersey was unintentionally interfering with Jys' performance.
Magicians had to be much more sensitive and accustomed to mana than knights. If they did not, there was high possibility that they would become a burden to society, due to the conflict between their manas.
His thoughts distracted him whenever he tried to focus.
'This is the moment that will determine my life.'
It was difficult for someone to be anything other than merchant, scholar, farmer or blacksmith without the ability to control mana.
Jys looked deeply into his mind.
They say that mana, once someone is able to feel it, listens to its owner, at least a little.
The life of a magician begins when there is enough willpower and mana in their body. According to research, it was possible to build and rearrange physical attributes and create an unusual amount of strength in a body with enough mana.
'Mana... I should be able to do it, right?'
He fell deep in thought in an attempt to draw his mana out.
'Allium is so pretty. Jin So Rah and Lee Hee Jin are just kids in comparison... Other female elves are beautiful as well. They have long skinny legs, and their bodies are...'
Due to the fact that his mind was older than 9 years and produced very distracting thoughts, two hours had gone by and been wasted. He still couldn't feel anything that could create an unusual amount of strength or rearrange physical attributes.
Hersey's worries grew as time passed.
'It's disappointing, but it's clear that he has no prodigal talent in the sensing department. If he had any of the power that we'd hoped he would, he would have had some kind of epiphany by now. But still, he could have a higher potential than an average magician if he can feel it by the end of today.'
While a low-circle spell is easy to create and complete with limited abilities, it was impossible to perform a high-circle spell with hundreds of equations, components, changes, and levels of mana without being able to feel the very fine details of it.
It was for that reason Jys had been actively developing his physical abilities; so that he could excite the mana that resided within him. His theoretical training as a magician was complete, and the path was made in his body.
It was only expected that he would be above average in capabilities.
"You have plenty of time, so keep working at it."
"Yes, master."
"You have to believe that the mana is there; and pay attention to every element in your senses. Don't let anything slip through."
With those words, Hersey left.
He was trying to give Jys plenty of time instead of hurrying him, since students with dull senses could take up to a month to become in-touch with their mana.
'What is mana, and where the hell is it?'
Jys finally threw off his distracting thoughts of Allium and asked himself some fundamental questions while he inspected his body.
'These are just familiar feelings that are all a part of my body. What does mana feel like, and where am I supposed to be feeling it?'
He knew he had to find the thing called 'mana', but he could not feel anything out of place.
'Mana is a force of power that occurs naturally in this world, and is all over it... It's not as easy as it sounds. Is it because my senses are so dull that I don't know?'
Mana is the most difficult to handle in the initial stages of discovery, because the mana living inside a body is weak and unwilling to move.
Some black magicians even resorted to stabbing their students in order to wake up their source of life - their mana - and create a moment when it would be most active.
'What could it be?'
He could directly see it when Hersey was using magic, and he could see it being used in Rendal's body when he was fighting with his sword.
'Apparently it's in everyone... I don't really know what it is, even though I've seen it with my own eyes.'
It was the strange sensation that he had felt when Rendal and Hersey used their swords and magic. When he concentrated on that feeling, a stream of clear and bright power could be felt inside of him.
'Is this the mana I've heard so much about? It's so common and overflowing in this world, though.'
Jys was slightly startled at the familiarity of the feeling.
Just as he felt cold when it was cold, mana and its familiarity were what he was feeling the whole time in this world all along. This world was full of unfathomable power, and he had been able to feel that clearly in contrast to the other world, because it had been sucked dry of almost all mana. That had been why he had been so confused; because he had been looking for a new feeling.
As far as Marka goes, Jys' ease in feeling mana was not uncommon, and the supreme magicians' talents were noticeable from birth. According to legends, the supreme magicians would be able to feel and control mana from a very young age with no teaching whatsoever.
This, of course, applied to elves, centaurs and other chosen tribes, including the dragonborn.
'It would be harder to estimate my capabilities, since I wasn't really born a baby. I could be a prodigy, but... not a great one.'
In this world, a significant amount of one's capabilities relied just on them being able to feel mana, but Jys was cold and strict when assessing own abilities.
'It's foolish to expect too much. It's not like someone becomes an athlete just because their legs are strong.'
He watched the mana flowing inside of him for a while.
Collecting and pulling the mana towards the heart and building a mana 'house' there, was considered to be in the capabilities of the 1st circle. The basic method of growth as a magician was building a stronger and larger 'house' inside one's body.
A 1st circle magician was technically a magician, but there was no real difference between them and the civilians, so it held no significance in the magicians' society. It was barely enough to cast a light spell to brighten up the surroundings, or to shoot a magic arrow powerful enough to kill a small bird.
Jys, as all magicians did, built a house of mana in the most concentrated centre of his life force; his heart.
'He said to picture a large, sturdy house when doing this. Then use the mana between myself and the world together as building materials.'
After the house of mana was built, he started absorbing the mana around him.
There was a higher concentration of mana in the elves' forest, and Jys' familiarity with mana helped him integrate more.
Enough time to eat two bowls of ramen passed, and Jys assessed himself once more.
He had pictured a firm brick house, but he only felt a small, unsteady hut made out of straw in his heart.
A house that would fall in the slightest of storms!
'Oh well, it can't be helped. I'm only at the 1st circle, and it has its limits. I'll be able to integrate and use more mana when the house becomes a bit bigger and sturdier.'
1st circle magicians were forbidden from absorbing more mana than their capabilities. If their house of mana was to break down, they could lose their ability to learn magic ever again, and potentially their lives too.
After completing the 1st circle, Jys slightly opened his eyes to see countless shimmering gold strings covering the surrounding area.
"Huh? What is it now?"
Since he was in the forest of the elves, he at first thought that a gold spider had built a web around him, but after a moment had passed, he could see that it was not the case.
It was stretched all around the walls, the ceiling and the floor, and was not as detailed as a spider's web.
"A strange thing indeed."
Jys squinted his eyes and carefully placed his finger on the golden string.
'Fruit... I will eat it when it's ripe. It's a gift from nature. I want to eat bitter tree bark as well.'
'Nature is magnificant.'
'Hm... I am an elf. I like being an elf, because elves are the best.'
"This is very familiar."
Jys then moved his finger to touch the golden string connected to his own body.
'Aah.. I'm hungry. I'd kill to have some meat with a cold beer right now! The Elves' Forest is quiet and boring and has nothing to eat.'
'Fifty-four, fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven... Ah! This is tiring. But I will do at least a hundred. And then a hundred more!'
'The elves in this forest live so peacefully. Are the people back home safe and well?'
"Hm. This is just mind-reading."
Jys' own ability.
Jys was sometimes able to read strong emotions and thoughts from a distance due to their severity, but it seemed that he could read thoughts from a very long distance away by touching the string.
"But it's a little different. Is it to help me read thoughts a little better?"
After a long moment of thought, he left the house.
He could see countless elaborate paths of string all around the forest, and he was the only one able to see them. Jys and some of the elves were connected, as well as elves with other elves. However, there were no golden connections between Jys and the elves that he had never talked to. It seemed that the connections were established when some type of relationship was formed between life forms.
'I don't know what logic it follows, but... I can read people's minds from a long distance now. At the very least, I won't be lied to or scammed ever again.'
Jys decided to call these the 'strings of fate'.
It was such a bright, sunny day, and the forest's breeze was calm and cool. With the sun shining rays of light through the gaps in the canopy.
'Being able to see this... Doesn't this make me, like, a god? I have a prodigal ability in mana as well. No, no. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Even elves can live for more than a thousand years, and dragons live for tens of thousands more. And legends say that there is a demon somewhere that has enough power to break this world in half. Compared to those abilities, I'm completely ordinary.'
Poor Jys, in this word full of creatures that could conjure up lightning storms, hail and more, could not help but consider himself quite ordinary. After all, he was still a civilian, just one that happened to have a mild ability that made his life a little bit easier.
Of course, he was already past the point of ordinary.
-
Story by Nam Hee Sung
Check out the original here: http://mm.munpia.com/?menu=novel&id=27166
Translated by Hannah Kim
Proofread by Janowicz
This chapter was released on Thursday the 22nd of February, 2018.
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This is the last chapter we've released.