Chương 31: Core Strength

The moment she was certain that Jonny was no longer paying any attention, Helen erected a soundproof barrier around her and Igrette.

"It's not possible," she said.

"He's not lying," said Igrette immediately.

"I know," said Helen, rubbing her temples.

"But the pope should know!"

"If he does, he hasn't told anyone."

"But why wouldn't he?"

"Could he be the one who left Jonny here four years ago?"

"Why in the world would he do that?"

"I have no idea." The two were silent for a few seconds before Helen spoke again.

"This is bad."

"I know."

"It's not like he's hard to find."

"Right."

"And if the pope knows, and is willfully not doing anything… Why would he do that?"

"I wish I knew."

"Maybe he has a plan. Maybe Jonny is meant to be here for some reason."

"What kind of plan would involve…" Igrette gestured vaguely aroud.

"This?"

"The will of God is rarely understood by us mortals."

"And the pope is a mortal too, and he would be the first to tell you as much," said Igrette.

"I think we have to consider the possibility of the worst."

"The worst?" asked Helen nervously.

"What do you mean?"

"The papacy is compromised."

"That's not possible either. We know the pope. You fought with him! And last I heard, he was in excellent health."

"It's a lot more possible than Jonny somehow getting here without the pope's knowledge. Either the pope knows about him, and feels it's not safe to bring him in, in which case the central church is compromised, or the pope doesn't know, which means that he has lost the divine favor, meaning the papacy is compromised."

"That hasn't happened in a thousand years."

"But it has happened." Helen hissed in annoyance.

"What I don't understand is why now?" continued Igrette.

"The last Demon War wasn't that long ago. The pope is a veteran of that war. The Hero is still alive, and not likely to die any time soon. Historically, it was only after the war generation passed on that the corruption and conflict really set in. The last corrupted pope was four hundred years after the previous Demon War. And I know Pope Metrus. I spoke with him just a year ago. He's not the type."

"What if it's not that?" suggested Helen.

"What if this is something completely unprecedented, and Jonny arrived here some other way?"

"But why?"

"Why indeed…?" The two sighed and watched Jonny for a minute or so.

"Either way, we need to keep this quiet," said Igrette.

"No matter what, there's no way that word getting out can be good."

"Right," she said.

"And we're going to have to rethink how we deal with him. I thought he was just odd, but knowing he's reincarnated… No wonder he never tried to befriend the other children. Can you imagine that? An adult stuck for years with only children for company, and none of the adults take you seriously? We can't just put him right back in. But we can't just take him out either…" Helen furrowed her brow and stroked her chin.

"Why not?" asked Igrette.

"Where will he go? To a separate room in the orphanage? What will the other children think? Won't that only ostracize him more? He was at least able to befriend Tommy, and some of the other children like him. And it's not like we can let someone adopt him."

"Ah, I see the problem."

"It might be best to just continue what we've been doing. Private lessons on internal mana techniques, and maybe some more one on one time with him, so he can get used to conversing with adults again. No wonder he's so strange… He hasn't had a proper conversation in five years!

"As he gets older, we can start giving him some more privileges, maybe. He did have a point about going into the woods alone. Maybe not about that specifically, but about loosening restrictions, and reducing supervision. Then again, leaving him unsupervised might not actually be a good idea… Maybe—""Helen."

"Do you have an idea?"

"No. Look." Igrette pointed at Jonny.

"What is it?"

"He's absorbing mana."

"What?!" Helen focused her senses in Jonny's direction. His body was the same as usual, rejecting all mana from the atmosphere. It was actually quite odd, because he seemed like a mana void to her mana sense. It was hard to notice unless she focused closely on him, but she had long since figured out what to look for. She opened her mouth to tell Igrette she was mistaken when she suddenly realized what he was doing.

Her eyebrows shot straight up when she watched him inhale a lungful of mana and exhale nothing but mundane air.

"Since when could he do that?"

"It must be a recent development," replied Igrette.

"But I've never heard of anything like this."

"Neither have I," said Helen.

"But it still doesn't solve the issue of forming his core."

"True, but he clearly knows more than us about what's going on here."

"Insight from his past life?"

"Who knows?" said Igrette with a shrug.

"But we should let him continue. Be ready to help in case he overdoes it."

"Of course."

"And after this, I think I will need to write another letter to my friend…" Completely unaware of the conversation between the two older nuns, Jonny focused all his energy on his breathing. Coming out here had been an excellent idea. Every lungful provided him with many times more mana than it did back at the orphanage, and after just fifteen minutes, he was already at the level he was usually at after getting a donation from Tommy. And he was just getting started. More!

He kept breathing, circulating his mana faster and faster, and condensing it down more and more. He lost track of time, but it couldn't have been more than an hour before he was pushing against his limits of mana compression. He had to take great care when exhaling to keep the mana from expanding too much. It actually felt quite dangerous, and he knew that slipping up here would mean extreme injury, or even death. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road.

Please report it. But he was used to this kind of pressure. Fights were decided in a single moment. One lapse in awareness could turn a one-sided beatdown into comeback KO. Jonny had been on the opposite side of that more than once in his earlier amateur days, but if there was one thing he could say with confidence he was better than just about anyone at, it was focusing. He never made those lapses then, and he wasn't about to make one now.

A smile spread across his face as he felt the immense power flowing through him. It felt good. He felt like with mana this dense, he could do anything. Well, at least until his body gave out. But his body would get stronger. He would be able to handle it eventually. Is this how Igrette feels all the time? he wondered. No, her mana is probably even crazier. He continued breathing, trying to compress his mana even further, and circulate it even faster, but soon encountered a problem.

It was a problem he had never run into before, since his ability to compress and accelerate his mana had always been well beyond his ability to accumulate it, but now it was causing problems. His ability to compress mana on an inhale was directly proportional to how far he could expand it on an exhale. It was like a rubber band, stretching out, then snapping back, but when he could barely stretch it, the snap back was weak. And as he noticed this, he noticed a second problem. He had too much mana.

His body was filled with power, but it was beyond his ability to use it. He wouldn't be able to burn it by moving. He wasn't even sure if he could move. Not while enhancing his body, at least. He simply had too much mana now, and he knew he wouldn't be able to control it properly. Uh oh. He immediately stopped trying to breathe in more mana, letting it expand out to its maximum safe decompression to keep himself from taking in any more while he thought.

He was in a very precarious scenario, but he didn't feel it was hopeless. He was on the right track. He could feel he was getting close to… something. What it was, he didn't know, but he felt he could reach it here. He just needed to find the missing piece. His issue currently was that he could no longer compress mana. That was because he couldn't expand it. His willpower could only go so far without the breathing technique, and now the breathing technique was reaching its limit too.

He recognized immediately that this was where his null syndrome was causing issues. If he was normal, he could just release the excess mana into the atmosphere, then reabsorb it and try to compress further the next time. But he couldn't do that. The only way he could get rid of mana was running it through his body to burn it. But that wouldn't work here. Not in these quantities. Unless… He furrowed his brows as he concentrated on his breathing once more, watching his mana carefully.

It barely expanded or compressed, but it still did it, and when it expanded, it pushed uncomfortably against his mana channels, threatening to escape. If it did, it would tear his mana channels apart… but what if he let it out on purpose? It couldn't go out of his body, but he had plenty more room for mana. His bones, his muscles, his skin, his organs… They all had some mana naturally, but he could release more into them. Enhanced movements would probably tear his body apart, but what if there was no movement?

What if he didn't enhance specific parts? Carefully, he lay backward, making sure not to let any of the mana from his channels into his body. He let his legs unfold, and his arms fell to his sides, completely limp. He spent almost five minutes making sure his body was fully relaxed. The only muscles still working were his heart and whatever the ones that kept him breathing were called. He then spent another few minutes mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do.

Alright, that's enough, he finally thought. It's go time. He inhaled, doing what little compression he could, and when he exhaled, he didn't just let the mana expand in his channels. He let it out of his channels, suffusing his entire body with denser mana than it had ever handled. It was exhilirating, but terrifying, knowing that if he even twitched, he risked injuring himself. He was actually terrified about doing something to his heart or lungs, but they seemed to be holding on, if only just barely.

When he inhaled, he pulled all that mana back from his body into his channels, using the momentum to kick the rotation into an even higher gear. His mana compressed beyond what he had ever felt, but then seemed to hit a hard wall. It compressed until it suddenly wouldn't compress anymore. Jonny knew he could go further, but for some reason, the mana wouldn't let him. He exhaled, letting the mana into his body again, then inhaled, spinning it up even faster, only for it to hit the same limitation.

C'mon, stupid mana. He continued to breathe, bringing in more mana each time. His body was getting overloaded, and he was starting to feel some pain. Even without moving, the mana was doing a number on his body. Right now, it was mostly just like an intense full body workout, but he knew it wouldn't be long before it was in the realm of injury. C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! More mana entered. More mana flowed through his body and veins. More got compressed. But he still couldn't make it past that hard limit.

He began to wonder if he had screwed himself over with this. His body wouldn't take it much longer, even without moving. This much mana would kill him if it got out of control. Maybe Helen would be able to absorb some, but he wasn't sure if he could even speak and call for help without breaking something. I guess it's all or nothing. He exhaled, this time deeper than any before, pushing as much of his mana as he could into his body. His muscles screamed in protest, and he felt his heartbeat slow.

He could tell his heart was struggling. He was worried he would do serious damage to it. But he kept pushing mana out, emptying his channels as much as he could. Suddenly, his heart quivered. A chill ran down his spine as he realized that staying like this even a second longer would literally kill him. This had better be enough. He ended his exhale and began a rapid, deep inhale.

Mana entered his lungs and from his lungs, entered his veins, and at the same time, all the mana he had pushed into his body was pulled back. It spun and compressed and soon reached its previous limit, refusing to compress any further. Come. ON! Jonny continued his inhale, pulling even more mana from his body. Even the ordinary mana in his body was absorbed, leaving him completely mundane for a moment. For a moment, he thought he had failed anyway, and prepared to accept death. Then, it was over.

There was no warning, or sign, and there was hardly even any noticeable effect when it happened. One moment, the mana refused to compress further, fighting against his will to expand outward explosively. The next, it crossed the threshold, and became calm. The rotation almost came to a full halt, but the mana did not decompress. It seemed perfectly content to exist as it was. He exhaled, and the mana did not expand. He inhaled, but his body rejected the extra mana in his lungs.

The mana was denser than he had ever felt, but it was safe. It was no longer trying to kill him. I… I did it? He looked closer at his mana, and after a minute, came to the conclusion that he must have. That was the only explanation. His mana had undergone a complete qualitative change, now dense, but slow-moving. It barely seemed to be circulating at all, and when he tried to push it to go faster, it only partially responded. It was like it had turned from water to honey, sticky and viscous, and unwilling to flow.

It's just like Tommy's … The mana that Tommy had donated after he formed his core was very similar to this mana. Thicker, and less willing to obey, but significantly more potent and more difficult to process. And now not only did Jonny have it, but he had it throughout his whole body. His core was the same as before. It was full of the same mana, but it behaved no differently, and there was no extra layer on it. Wait, isn't this better?

In an ordinary person, their core would contain the denser, thicker mana, while the rest of their body had less dense mana, constantly absorbing and releasing. Their enhanced cores could rapidly process atmospheric mana into the dense mana, but they still had to process it, and could only hold so much. Jonny, on the other hand, had the same, thick, core mana flowing through his entire body. He smiled, then started laughing.

Even just smiling hurt his facial muscles, and laughing sent waves of pain through his entire body, but he didn't care. He had done it! He might not have formed a core, but he had done something even better! And he survived! Ain't nothing gonna stop me now. I knew it! thought Raymond as he read the report. I knew Archie was acting weird. Raymond had felt uneasy about the assassination of his nephew for a long while. It seemed like it had gone off without a hitch.

Jonathan died, the assassin died, and there was absolutely nothing to tie it back to him. Everything got wrapped up in one night, and Henry's future was secured. But there was always something off about the way Archibald reacted. Raymond knew his brother. Archibald was a hopeless romantic fool. His wife couldn't produce an heir, so rather than having her killed and finding a better one, or siring some bastards to legitimize later, he just… kept trying. For "love" or something silly like that.

But when Jonathan died, Archibald did not react the way Raymond expected. He knew he would be sad and angry, and would try to catch the one behind it, but he just felt… off. Like he wasn't sad enough. Raymond couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was. It just didn't feel right. But nothing came of that feeling, so he eventually pushed it aside. But this made everything make sense.

A boy named Jonny with golden eyes and enough talent to kill a magic beast at age 5 who just happened to be living in the very same orphanage that Archibald's best friend, Harrison Ellis, had grown up in. There was no way that was a coincidence. He would stake his fortune on it. Raymond almost couldn't believe his luck. He would have missed this report normally. He had far too many informants to look through every report individually.

Most of his information just got filed away for later, or sold to other buyers if it seemed harmless enough. This report actually already had been sold, because the church liked church-affiliated rumors. The only reason it was even sitting on his desk was that one of his assistants thought it was funny, and sent it up the pipeline to bring some amusement to the higher ups. I should give him a raise, thought Raymond. What a wonderful find.

He read through the report once last time, then chuckled dryly and reached into a drawer for a piece of paper and a pen. Archie, Archie Archie, he thought. You really almost had me there. But you just couldn't stay away…