Chương 17: Denser Every Day

Hiding the soreness in his body was difficult. Jonny really didn't want to admit he had been messing around with forming his core like that. He knew that both Helen and Igrette thought he wasn't ready. But he couldn't just sit by and let Tommy rocket past him, so he had to do something. That night, as he lay in his bed trying not to move too much, he thought back on the experiment from earlier. Clearly, there were a few issues.

In the moment, the incompatibility of Tommy's mana had been the biggest issue, but in retrospect, the fact that it wasn't whirlpooling properly might have been a bigger issue. After all, how was he supposed to add a layer to his core if his mana wasn't concentrated around his core? I probably just didn't have enough, he decided. While he had been well beyond his maximum capacity, he knew he had nowhere near enough to add a layer to his core.

From Helen's description, forming a core could take hours of drawing in ambient mana, and while Tommy's mana capacity was high, he didn't have hours of ambient mana absorption within him. But then that raised another problem. How was he supposed to get that much mana? If he just waited on his natural mana capacity to grow, it would be years before he could form the first layer of his core, even with Tommy's help.

Alternatively, he could also just wait until Tommy formed his core, and use the other boy's enhanced mana and mana capacity to try to force it, but that would mean losing to Tommy. I need a way to hold way more mana in my body … He tried to think of something, but the weariness of the day soon caught up to him, and he fell asleep before he could come up with anything.

The next day, his body felt significantly better, but his mana channels were still sore, and circulating his mana any faster than its natural level was painful. He decided to take the day off from his experiments, and focused instead only on his body, and continuing to get on Tommy's good side. Surprisingly, Tommy's spells actually were kind of interesting. Jonny had never really paid much attention to spells, because he couldn't use them, but seeing Tommy use them, he realized he might have been missing out a bit.

At least, that's how he felt until he asked Tommy more about it.

"How do spells even work?"

"Well, so, there's like, a spell formula, right?" started Tommy.

"And if you follow the spell formula, you make the spell."

"Formula, like math?"

"Huh?"

"Is it like math?" Tommy thought for a second, then nodded.

"Kinda." Ah, damn. Maybe it's a good thing I can't learn those kinds of spells. If he had to learn math just to use magic… Jonny might have just given up. He barely made it through pre-algebra in school. Math was not his strong suit. He would go as far as to say that it was the opposite of his strong suit. Still, while the actual creation of spells was not something Jonny had any interest in, studying their effects wasn't too bad. It was a little bit like studying film.

Sure, he was never gonna copy his opponent, but knowing how they operated was extremely useful. And as he observed Tommy and pointed out things with his spells, he was developing a much better sense, not just for mana, but also for what spells could and couldn't do. The day after, Jonny's mana channels had recovered a bit. Not enough to do a repeat of the same experiment, but enough that he could mess around a little bit with mana cycling and compression.

Just like the first attempt, he and Tommy took their spots behind the knoll out of sight of the nuns, and Tommy began donating mana. This time, though, rather than just dumping as much as possible. Jonny had him donate for a few seconds, then back off for a minute. This way, Jonny's core could convert the mana to something that meshed well with him before he took in any more.

This method turned out much better than the first time, and slowly over the course of an hour, they managed to build back up to as much mana as Jonny had the last time, only now, it was stable. Mostly. The other two problems still remained, though. His mana wasn't being drawn in toward his core, and he had too much of it. If he released the cycling and compression, he would get overloaded again. How the heck am I gonna make this work?

It took them a full hour just to get this far, and he was nowhere near the level of being able to form his core. He would have to burn the excess mana soon, and then he'd be right back where he was before. Was it even possible to form his core with just Tommy's help? Should he try to recruit one of the nuns? Maybe Helen would help him. I wish I could just keep it compressed like this all the time. Then we could just keep adding to it every day… He sighed as he watched his mana cycle, then furrowed his brows. Wait…

Can't I just do that? He opened his eyes, releasing his meditation, but he kept a tight hold on his mana cycling. Slowly, he got to his feet. He felt unsteady, and he almost let his concentration slip for a moment, but he managed to stand while still keeping the mana compressed and cycling rapidly. A smile formed on his face while he thought of the possibilities. If he could just keep this up for a while, he could build up more and more mana until he had enough that he could sit down and form a layer for his core.

It was genius! He started laughing aloud, but that nearly broke his concentration, so he was forced to close his eyes and re-focus on his mana. Okay, maybe this method needs a bit of work… For the rest of the day, he maintained his mana cycling. He moved stiffly, and he could not walk and talk at the same time anymore, but as the day went on, things got easier. His movements grew more natural, and he was able to at least partly put the cycling on autopilot when he had to talk.

Then, he got to bed, and realized the flaw in his plan. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Shit. He was in bed, about to lose consciousness, and the moment he did, the cycling would slow, the compression would stop, and his mana channels would literally explode. This was suboptimal. He frantically racked his brains for an answer to his problem, but in the end, there was only one solution. He needed to burn the excess mana.

Careful not to wake any of the other children, he slowly rolled out of bed, getting down on the ground, and from there, he started doing pushups. He fed the compressed mana into his arms, chest, and core, strengthening them, and in doing so, noticed a stark difference between this mana and his regular mana. He had worked out earlier that day, but these pushups now felt effortless. So effortless, in fact, that he started doing variations.

He started with diamond pushups, then pike pushups, then archer pushups, then one-arm pushups. No matter how many he did, he hardly felt any exhaustion. The pushups were as easy as just raising his arms without any weight. This compressed mana is great! Excited, he started doing other workouts as well. He was limited in what he could do, since it was night time, but he tried doing some leg workouts, squatting and holding horse stance for nearly half an hour.

The further he went, the less compressed mana he had available, and the more difficult his exercises became. It was still an exciting discovery, though, and a hint at what the future could hold once he added a layer to his core, and was able to use compressed mana all the time. It took nearly two hours to burn all the excess mana off, at which point Jonny was so exhausted he fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow. The next day, he and Tommy repeated the same process.

Sleep would still be a problem, but Jonny hoped that maybe, if he got used to it enough, he would be able to somehow maintain his higher cycling in his sleep. And getting used to it like that required him to deal with it while awake as much as possible. He spent the next week repeating the same process. Overcharge with mana during the day, practice moving around with it to get used to it, and work it off at night.

He also tried to speed up his cycling at night without any excess mana to endanger him, but he had no idea if he was succeeding or not, because whenever he woke up, he was always back to normal speed. Or so he thought. At the end of the week, when he woke up, he noticed that his mana was cycling faster than usual. Nowhere near compression speeds, but it was definitely faster than where it had been a week ago. And it wasn't a conscious increase either. It was just natural.

Even when he tried to forcibly slow down the speed, the moment he stopped doing so, it returned to the slightly accelerated rate. Huh. Whether the change had happened suddenly overnight, or had been something gradual that he was only noticing now, he had no idea, but it didn't really matter. His natural cycling speed was increasing.

And if it kept increasing, eventually, it would be fast enough that it would compress his mana enough to increase his capacity, and if that happened, he'd be able to form his core layer no problem. The only question was how long it would take. That morning after magic practice, it was time for his weekly mana refill with Helen, and when she did it. He cycled his mana faster to compress it to make room for more. And, of course, Helen noticed immediately.

"Jonny, what are you doing? Why are you cycling your mana like that?"

"Uhhhhh…" Jonny had not forgotten to come up with an excuse for Helen, but he had failed to come up with a good one. Lying was another thing he had never been good at, and he didn't know enough about mana to say anything that would convince her. However, he did have another powerful tool available to him that he rarely used, but still came in handy sometimes.

"I dunno," he said with a shrug.

"I wanted to try it." He tilted his head back to look Helen in the eyes with the most innocent expression he could manage. She narrowed his eyes at him.

"Why?" Jonny shrugged again.

"…Well, be very careful. I don't want to see you in the infirmary again."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Now, get ready. I'm going to infuse a bit more."

"Okay!" Being a kid is pretty nice sometimes, thought Jonny happily. That never woulda worked on Coach. A minute later, his mana filled to more than double its natural capacity, he sprang to his feet and thanked Helen before running out of the room. He had successfully passed the Helen test. Maybe next week, he'd have enough mana capacity that hers would push him over the limit and let him actually make the core layer.

That might still have been a few weeks off, since even with hers, his mana still wasn't pulling toward his core, but if he kept improving. I just have to make sure Helen and Igrette don't find out. I don't think they'd be too happy with this.

"I think I found out what Jonny and Tommy have been doing when they think we're not paying attention," said Helen, sipping on her tea.

"Oh?" said Igrette.

"And?"

"Jonny is trying to add a layer to his core."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, he was already full of mana after getting it from Tommy, but he showed up to his infusion anyways, and got more from me. And while he did it, he was cycling his mana to compress it. I could feel it pulling my mana in."

"So you think he's trying to stockpile mana and keep it constantly cycling until he has enough to form his core purely with internal mana?"

"Yes."

"Do you think it will work?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." The two women took a simultaneous sip of tea.

"I have no idea," said Igrette.

"But it sounds… plausible? It would take an immense amount of mana to do so, though. I don't know if he can physically fit enough mana in his body to make that work."

"I thought the same. But his mana capacity is increasing, and much more rapidly than it should be."

"Is it?"

"It is, and I'm not entirely sure how or why. But maybe, eventually…"

"Should we help him?"

"If he asks for it. I have considered interfering, but he is being responsible at the moment, and not taking unnecessary risks, and he knows his body best. He's working from an entirely different perspective than us, and it's possible that what he's doing is exactly what he needs to do, and that us interfering to try to help with our limited knowledge of his condition will make things worse.

"I say wait until he asks for help. For now, we shall just observe. Maybe he and Tommy will pull off a miracle."

"Maybe…"

"By the way, how long until your acquaintance responds?"

"I actually received a response already."

"Oh?"

"He's out of the country at the moment, and won't be back for four months."

"Oh…"

"We can try to send a letter to him anyway, but the odds of it actually reaching him…"

"Well," said Helen, taking another sip of tea.

"I suppose we'll just have to wait, then. This will give the boys some time to work, too."

"We'll need to keep an eye on them."

"Of course. I already have the other nuns watching him. If he makes a mistake, or loses control, we'll notice immediately."

"Good. Then I suppose now, we'll just have to wait…"