Chương 78: 75 - Oliver's Extremely Exciting Research

After seeing Oliver's enthusiasm about getting to work, Jonny was actually a little excited to get working the next day. His enthusiasm was then beaten, shot, and dragged through the mud before being beaten and shot again. Three hours had passed, and Jonny had not once done anything but meditate. Sometimes, he didn't mind meditation. Sometimes, he needed a mental break, and sitting down and just breathing felt good. Or he had something interesting going on with his mana, and the meditation was actually engaging.

This was not one of those times. The entire time, he had literally just sat there and breathed with Oliver's hand on his back while the old researcher asked questions and took notes. When Olivia brought out their lunch sandwiches and Oliver finally let him move, he immediately leapt to his feet and did a flip off the mana well, just to release some pent-up energy. A snort from nearby made him realize that his action had drawn the attention and ire of the "owner" of this mana well.

Rather than going to the northeast mana well like they usually did, this time, Oliver had brought them to the western one. It was, as the Smiths said, much stronger, but it was also Stella's territory, and now that Jonny had finally met the bovine matriarch, he understood why that was a problem. He also understood why it was so impressive that the traveling strongman had been able to lift her.

Stella was a longhorn, like all the other cows, but she was a minimum of twelve feet tall, and her horns had to be twenty feet across. Her head alone was bigger than his entire body, and she could probably crush him with a single hoof. She was a third layer magic beast, one of only two on the farm, and apparently, when this particular species of cow reached third layer, they grew a lot bigger. Stella was so big that it made him a little scared to know how big the other cow was, the cow that was bigger than her.

Apparently there had been one a few years back, but it was bought and butchered, leaving Stella as the reigning largest in the region. And the fact that the strongman could lift either of them up… Damn, now I want to be able to lift Stella too. The giant cow was not happy about having her territory invaded by strangers. If not for Oliver and Emily calming her down, she probably would have attacked Jonny and Igrette.

Igrette could obviously have taken care of the problem, but Jonny was pretty sure he would have been forced to run if he was alone. Stella was simply too massive. I kinda wanna try, though… Currently, she was laying on the grass a few dozen feet away, glaring at him and Igrette. Even lying down, she was taller than anyone else present, and she seemed to be actively threatening them if they tried anything funny.

Meanwhile, the more normal sized cows watched curiously from behind, with some of the younger, more outgoing ones even creeping forward to give them a sniff every once in a while. Stella didn't mind the other cows getting close, but when Jonny had tried to pet one earlier, she got to her feet and stared him down, snorting in anger. Jonny stared back at the angry cow, meeting her gaze and challenging her. She started getting worked up, but before it got any further, Emily dragged Jonny away to grab some sandwiches.

He felt a bit disappointed, and then immediately scolded himself for his disappointment. No matter what the circumstances, fighting against Stella was a very bad idea. Even if he won, he'd definitely get kicked off the farm. Still, Stella is kind of a bitch. He rejoined the others, who were spreading out a blanket on the mana well to eat. The sandwiches that day were made with something similar to prosciutto, a spread that reminded Jonny of pesto, and thick slabs of mozzarella cheese.

The prosciutto was from a pig farmer in town, the pesto-like spread came largely from the Smith's herb garden, and the cheese was, of course, from the dairy cows here on the farm. It was delicious, and Jonny enjoyed it immensely as he listened to Igrette and Oliver talk about the results of his extremely boring observation.

"Physically, his lungs are barely different from anyone else's," Oliver explained.

"In fact, they're more or less identical. I can sense some physical discrepancies, but they're not extreme enough to warrant extensive study, at least to me. They could very well just be unique to Jonny, or even caused by the awakening of the lungs.

"The manabiology, on the other hand, is completely different. I can't even begin to describe it. I've been trying to map it out, but it's highly complex. Much more complex than ordinary lungs. It's so complex that I'd say that awakening it with a mana surge would be impossible, if it wasn't for the fact that that's exactly what happened. Without knowing that, I would assume that a mana surge would cause more damage than anything else. And it very well could, while Jonny's success was a freak anomaly."

"The Smiths will be happy to hear that," commented Igrette.

"If you're saying that even knowing what Jonny did, I assume that you're writing off the idea of attempting it on Emily."

"Of course. It was already mostly written-off, but that just confirms it. Though I suppose you're right. I should let them know. They'll be happy.

"Anyway, once we finish eating, I'd like to take a few final measurements, then move on to checking Emily, to see if I can find anything similar. I've done this before, after she noticed something strange about her breathing, but now that I know what to look for, I might have more success."

"How long will it take?" asked Jonny.

"The final measurements, I mean."

"No more than half an hour," said Oliver.

"Ah." Jonny suppressed a sigh. Half an hour more was half an hour too long, in his opinion, but if that was it, then he'd ride it out.

"If I don't find anything in Emily's lungs that we can use, then I'll try to see if I can possibly induce it myself. I don't have anywhere near the level of precision needed to fully replicated it, but there were visibly trends in how the mana flowed. I might be able to recreate that—very gently, of course—and guide her to being able to do it herself. And if that fails, then we'll have Jonny try the same thing."

"What about his heart?" prompted Igrette.

"I took a quick look, but didn't notice anything," said Oliver.

"I'll have to do a deeper examination later. Possibly after a minor overload like you mentioned him experiencing before, if you're willing. That might give some more insights into what's going on."

"Jonny?" asked Igrette. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Sure," he said.

"But uhhhh, how long will that take?"

"Only a few hours, most likely."

"… I see." Igrette smirked at him, then went back to talking to Oliver, asking more detailed questions that went a bit beyond what Jonny was capable of understanding. She had drilled anatomy and physiology into him on a very deep level, but this manabiology stuff largely went over his head. He understood the core of it. Manabiology was the study of how mana interacted with biology.

More specifically, when talking about the human body, it was about how the mana flowed within it, and the nature of how it interacted with the body. The way Igrette described it, it almost sounded like just another layer on top of anatomy and physiology, and she had tried to teach him some at one point, but Jonny just didn't get it. The issue was mostly that Jonny didn't even understand the basic nature of mana. Igrette said it wasn't supposed to make perfect sense, but Jonny didn't like how it didn't make sense.

Apparently, mana wasn't physical. It just affected, and was affected by the physical world, whatever that meant. It sort of made sense, because the mana in his body occupied the same space as his internal organs and bones and stuff, but it also didn't. It sounded like that fourth dimensional science-y bullshit that all the smart people on TV liked to talk about, except without the time travel. Manabiology was then the way that the non-physical mana was non-physically tied to physical living things.

For example, his lungs. As far as he could tell, what Oliver had been doing the whole time while Jonny breathed was looking at those non-physical connections, and trying to map them out or something. Jonny tried following along, but he didn't get it. Luckily, Igrette said he didn't actually really need to get it. Not to be a melee fighter, at least. Even at the highest levels, manabiology remained more of an interesting subject for research than an integrated part of internal mana techniques.

She did say that theoretically, taking manabiology into account could help improve mana efficiency, but the gains would be so minimal that it wasn't really worth it. Not when it was already so difficult just to get the precision needed for ordinary techniques. He still tried to follow along during the second meditation section, since there was nothing else to do, really, but once that finally wrapped up, he put the whole thing out of his mind.

He was finally free of the mana well, and able to do more interesting things. He gave Emily a pitying look as she took his place on the mana well pedestal, then turned to jog after Igrette as she headed into the grass. Once they were safely out of Stella's territory, Jonny and Igrette started playing a fun game called "block the stick." In the game, Igrette hit Jonny with a stick, while Jonny tried to block it.

Specifically, he tried to block it with his steel shift, hardening the point of impact while using a gravity shift to keep his balance. He was currently not very good at blocking the stick this way, but he was improving steadily, and unlike meditation, it was actually pretty interesting. About an hour into Emily's meditation, she apparently got too restless to continue, and Oliver had to let her up to play with Igrette and Jonny for a while before they resumed.

This happened twice more before Oliver finally had what he needed, and called Jonny back. His attempts to induce a change in her lungs had been an utter failure, and he told Jonny he didn't expect much better from him, but he still had Jonny sit down behind Emily and try to help her breathe properly. Jonny wasn't happy to be back in a meditative pose, but at least this time it was more interesting.

He had never done anything like this before, and it would serve as bonus training for his ability to manipulate his own mana outside his body. He didn't get an opportunity to do that very often, so he might as well take advantage of it. With Emily in front of him and Oliver to his side with a hand an each child's shoulder, he started pushing his mana into Emily's body. It felt weird, but it was easy enough to shape it into a vague tendril and sent it toward Emily's lungs.

Once he found them, he spread it out, suffusing the whole organ, and then…

"Okay, what now?" he asked.

"Just breathe," came Oliver's voice.

"Breathe, feel how the mana moves in your lungs, and try to induce it in hers. It's fine if you fail. I'll try to guide you, if I can." Jonny frowned, but did as he was told, focusing his attention inward as he breathed. He watched the mana enter and circulate, and tried to pass the feeling along to Emily. At first it didn't work, but on the third breath, it stopped working again. Then on the seventh, he felt something again, and on the eighth, the feeling was gone.

"Synchronize your breathing," said Oliver.

"You too, Emily. On my count. Inhale, 2, 3, 4, Exhale, 2, 3, 4." Oliver repeated that a few times until they were both working together, and then, that feeling that Jonny got earlier returned. Excited, he leaned into it, feeling the cadence of the breathing and the flow of the mana, both in himself and Emily. Emily's felt wrong, but only in comparison to his. There was a piece of her circulation technique missing, a piece that he knew was the lungs.

But instinctually, he could tell how it was supposed to be, and did his best to subtly guide her into something more correct. At first, his spirits rose as it seemed to be working. Her mana circulation was becoming more lung-centric, and her own instincts seemed to keep in to pull more from her lungs. That was about where the success stopped, though. From there, he had no idea where to go, and neither did Emily, and after almost an hour of no results, they both grew too restless to continue.

Oliver seemed pleased enough with the results, though, jabbering on as he scribbled furiously in his notebook. The man must go through a notebook a day, thought Jonny as he watched another page get filled. Emily was also in high spirits, as this was apparently the most progress they'd made since Oliver arrived. Maybe less high than if she hadn't been sitting around being bored for an hour, but she was still very energetic as they made their way back to the house.

And then over dinner, she very enthusiastically butchered the explanation of what they had done as she tried to explain the research to her parents. The Smith parents were visibly relieved to hear that a localized mana surge was completely off the table, though they seemed to understand the rest of Oliver's re-explanation about as well as Jonny did. That is to say, they barely understood it at all and accepted that they would just have to trust that Oliver knew what he was doing.

The next day started about the same as that one had. They ate breakfast, and joined Oliver out by the western mana well, forcing Jonny to meditate as Oliver examined his heart. Oliver found nothing on his first inspection, sadly, meaning that the whole hour it took was a waste, but the fact that he found nothing meant that Jonny could have a bit of fun. The second test they would do would be after he strained his heart slightly, which meant pushing himself to his limit, which was always fun.

He sprinted and leapt around the field, playing cow tag with Emily, but where he was only allowed to jump, meaning he was expending a lot of energy. He was probably only halfway to his limit, though when he jumped as high as he could and spotted Olivia hiking through the grass in their direction. When he landed, he bounded up again, waving to her, and when he landed, Emily was waiting to tag him.

"Got you!" she shouted, cackling as she ran away. Jonny leapt after her, landing right beside her and picking her up and tossing her over his shoulder. She shrieked with surprise, then shrieked again when he jumped back to Oliver and Igrette. When they landed and he set her down, she fell to her knees with laughter.

"What is it?" asked Igrette.

"Olivia's coming," said Jonny, panting.

"Figured I should be conscious a little longer."

"Livy?" asked Emily, still smiling as she got to her feet.

"Why?"

"How should I know?" asked Jonny.

"I suppose we're about to find out," said Igrette, nodding toward the ridge that Olivia had just crested.

"A bit early for lunch," Oliver remarked when she arrived. Olivia rolled her eyes and didn't bother to respond to him. Instead, she looked at Igrette.

"We have a guest," she said.

"He says he's here to talk to you and Jonny." Uh oh.

"Who is it?" asked Igrette.

"The mayor." Ah, dammit.

"Huh," said Jonny, ignoring the look Igrette gave him.

"I wonder what that could be about."