Chương 70: Chapter 69 The Nature of Shamanism

"Why do you need to watch?" Kairin and Kuzan asked the question at the same time. Several nearby orcs who had come to observe the coming-of-age ceremony also looked puzzled.

"Karath also received shamanic knowledge from the ancestors, so he wants to see what kind of ritual Kairin uses." Once again, Karath shamelessly invoked the ancestors. Surely no divine punishment would descend upon him for exploiting their name so often.

"Hmm. Then after the ceremony, can Karath show Kairin his shamanic art? Kairin has been curious as well."

"Of course."

"Good. Then Karath may enter with us." Kairin nodded willingly, apparently accepting his excuse. The surrounding orcs also nodded as though the arrangement made perfect sense. Only Kuzan, the subject of the ceremony, looked like a frightened puppy desperate to relieve itself. Kairin's house had not changed during the five months since Karath last entered it. A brazier stood in the centre of the small earthen room. A wooden rod heated by fire rested above it.

"Hmmm..." Kairin hummed what the tribe considered a shamanic chant while using the burning rod to draw tattoos across Kuzan's body.

"Ghhh." Every time the heated wood touched his skin, Kuzan squeezed his eyes shut and desperately suppressed his groans. From time to time, he also glared resentfully at Karath. Now that he was about to become an adult male and an orc warrior, he probably did not want anyone to witness him making an embarrassing sound. Karath easily ignored his cousin's accusing gaze and focused entirely upon Kairin's ritual.

"Hmmm..." Pale smoke emerged from Kairin's mouth in response to her humming and wrapped around Kuzan's burned skin. Sizzle. The scorched wounds rapidly began to heal. As expected, what emerged from her mouth was mana. It was not the nearly imperceptible energy that flowed naturally through the environment. This mana had been deliberately concentrated. Naturally, the energy Kairin released also followed a pattern. Karath carefully observed the ritual and attempted to memorise that structure.

Meanwhile, cold sweat gathered across Kuzan's forehead as he endured the burns.

"Hmmm..." Kairin's forehead was also covered in sweat. In fact, she appeared to be suffering even more than Kuzan.

"Hmmm..." The moment Karath completely memorised the magical pattern behind her ritual, he stepped forward while humming the same melody. Kairin paused and looked at him in confusion. Karath offered no explanation. He manipulated the mana flowing through his body while continuing the hum. Then he placed his palm over one of Kuzan's burns.

"Hmmm..." Karath used his own mana to interfere with the energy flowing around Kuzan's skin. Under his control, the surrounding mana formed the same pattern Kairin had produced. A moment later, the burned skin began healing rapidly.

"Kairin should continue drawing the tribal markings. Karath will handle the ritual." Kairin stared in surprise after seeing him reproduce her shamanic art perfectly. Then she nodded and resumed moving the heated rod.

"Hmmm..." Karath continued humming as he healed every section after the rod passed.

"Ghhhh." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Kuzan had already been forcing himself not to groan because Karath was nearby. Now that Karath stood directly beside him and performed the ritual, Kuzan looked ready to roll his eyes into the back of his head. Karath clicked his tongue inwardly. If it hurt, Kuzan should simply admit it. When Karath underwent his own ceremony, he had endured pain like this with ease.

"Finished." The process of burning the Bloodclaw markings into Kuzan's body finally ended just before foam began forming around his mouth.

"K-krahaha. T-that was nothing!" Kuzan had looked moments away from death, yet he immediately began boasting. He might have seemed more convincing if his entire body had not been trembling.

"Make sure you succeed in your hunt, Kuzan." Karath offered encouragement to his pitiful cousin and gently pushed him outside. Only after Kuzan left did Karath turn to the true purpose of his visit.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes. Thanks to Karath, Kairin was practically resting during the second half." She smiled lightly as she answered.

"Then begin recovering the mana you used."

"Recovering it? Does Karath mean resting?"

"Were you never taught how to gather or restore that energy? Not even by Aunt Garlik?"

"Kairin was only told to rest properly." Her answer was exactly what Karath had expected. The tribal shamans knew how to spend mana but had no idea how to gather or replenish it. Karath sighed. The problem went beyond simple ignorance of mana accumulation. Based upon what he had just observed and everything he knew about the previous shamans, the energy they used was different from the mana Karath manipulated. It was closer to life force.

Instead of drawing upon mana flowing through nature, they sacrificed portions of their own lifespan to perform shamanic arts.

"Among the teachings Karath received from the ancestors is a method for gathering and restoring mana, the energy Kairin uses."

"Really?"

"Yes. Once Kairin learns how to collect and restore it, using shamanic arts should no longer be so exhausting." Karath fully intended to teach her magic.

"Sit like this, close your eyes, and calmly remember the mana Kairin used. Then try to sense the energy flowing through nature." Karath sat cross-legged opposite her and began with an explanation of how to perceive natural mana.

"Once you sense it, concentrate upon that feeling and slowly open your eyes." Kairin opened her eyes almost immediately after he finished speaking. As expected. Because she had already used mana for years under the name of shamanism, simply recognising it was not difficult.

"Now breathe in deeply and draw the natural mana into your body. Hold your breath for a moment, then move the mana inside and circulate it along this path." Karath used his own body like a diagram, tracing the route the energy needed to follow with his finger.

"Haa." He demonstrated the breathing method himself. Karath had spent mana reproducing Kairin's healing ritual, so he also needed to recover. After observing him briefly, Kairin calmly closed her eyes and began breathing deeply. While she concentrated, Karath reconsidered the ritual he had copied. Biological magic might be an appropriate name. If Renstein's magic and Kairin's shamanism needed to be classified separately, Renstein's system would be elemental magic.

Karath manipulated natural mana to create physical phenomena. Kairin's shamanism influenced living bodies and accelerated recovery. With only a few more patterns, Karath might be able to create a wide range of biological spells. The problem was that he possessed no information about other examples of such magic. Without additional patterns to study, independently developing new techniques would be difficult. Another question also emerged. What kind of shamanic art did the tribe use during the Harvest Festival?

More importantly, what was the power used during the Prophecy Festival to glimpse the future? Now that Karath understood magical principles, the mystery felt even greater. The more influence a spell exerted upon the world, the greater the mana and calculations it required. How much mana and computational complexity would be necessary to read the future of a living being? How had shamans who could not even gather mana managed to live as long as they did while performing such an impossible ritual?

The questions multiplied, but there was no way to answer them immediately. Now that Karath knew Kairin had been consuming her own life force, he could not ask her to cast more shamanic arts merely to satisfy his curiosity. That would be equivalent to encouraging her suicide. Once her mana reserves grew and the burden of using shamanism decreased, they could investigate it together.

"Haa." As Karath reached that conclusion, Kairin opened her eyes.

"How was it? Did you gather any mana?"

"Yes. Kairin feels much more refreshed."

"You truly gathered it? How much?"

"Enough to use the coming-of-age ritual briefly, perhaps." Karath failed to conceal his shock. When he first fell into the underground laboratory, merely sensing mana had required considerable time. Circulating the mana drawn in through breathing had been even more difficult. After all that effort, the amount he successfully retained had been no greater than a speck of dust. Kairin had completed in approximately five minutes what had taken Karath at least six hours. Was she a genius?

Karath suddenly remembered the protagonist of an animated series he had enjoyed during elementary school, a red-haired sorceress capable of casting a spell that might destroy the world. Perhaps ten years from now, Kairin would unleash some ultimate magic and erase the continent. The main difference was that this genius sorceress had green skin. Then again, the more important difference was probably that Kairin was already twenty-two and could no longer be called a girl.

"Ahem. Now that Kairin has gathered mana, can she move it freely inside her body?"

"Yes. It moves wherever Kairin wants."

"R-right." Was this how a teacher felt after encountering a truly gifted student? A wave of emotion washed over Karath as his supposed disciple answered every question as though the task were effortless.

"Then do not leave the mana still. Move it toward the heart and make it rotate around this area." Karath traced a circle around the location of his heart.

"Shape the mana into a ring. Imagine that ring constantly revolving around the heart." He was explaining how to create a mana circle. Renstein's books presented magic through a structured system of stages. At each level, students formed a new circle around the heart corresponding to the amount of mana required. There was a specific reason for the method. As mana revolved around the heart, it generated a force that attracted the mana flowing through nature.

The principle resembled a magnet producing electromagnetic attraction. The more circles a mage formed, the faster mana could be gathered and restored. The reason the circles surrounded the heart was equally simple. According to Renstein's writings, life force was also a form of mana. The heart was the place where that force flowed most powerfully within the human body. The explanation immediately reminded Karath of the solar system. He imagined planets revolving in elliptical paths around the sun.

Naturally, he had no intention of explaining that comparison to Kairin. How could he teach astronomy to someone from a near-primitive society? Karath merely told her that forming a ring around the heart would make gathering mana easier.

"Haaa." After hearing his instructions, Kairin closed her eyes and manipulated the mana inside her body. A short while later, she spoke.

"Kairin made it." She had formed the ring of the First Circle. Sensing mana, gathering it through breathing, and creating a thin circle around the heart had required Karath an entire day. Kairin completed all three steps in roughly thirty minutes. Having another mage in the tribe was undoubtedly beneficial. Considering the direction Karath intended to develop the settlement, additional magic users would become enormously valuable. A talent capable of learning this quickly would remain useful for years.

Even so, Karath could not help feeling slightly wronged. He had suffered endlessly to learn the same things she accomplished with absurd ease.