Chương 116: Mana Exhaustion

"I was tested to have both S+ Rank magic talent and affinity. I think they already know my abilities are a cut above the rest," Damion said with a chuckle.

"But maybe you are right. Seeing is believing. I don't think they can really comprehend the difference between S Rank and S+ Rank."

"That is very true," Mage Teft said.

"You are clearly a fast learner with spells. A large part of that is your magic talent, but I would like to take some credit, I did train you for 12 years."

"Without your guidance I would have no idea how to use magic at all," Damion told Mage Teft.

"Since I could not learn magic seals before, or at least not make use of them, the training to channel mana and strengthen by body has put me here now. There is no way I would be anywhere near as strong as I am without you."

"I'm glad you realize that," Mage Teft said gruffly, though Damion could see tears in welling up in the corners of her eyes.

"So, what's next?" Damion asked as he felt his mana rapidly refilling.

"Rest and try to raise your magic power to C Rank before your test at the Adventurer Association. After that, take a mission. Go out in the field and flex your magic on your own for a bit. It will be good for you. Then we can discuss when you need to head to Argentum." Mage Teft's advice was sound, so Damion did as she suggested. After returning home, Damion sat on the floor of his room and began using Mana Absorption. While also repeated casting Ice Shield.

The constant drain and influx of mana into his magic core would help strengthen it, allowing more mana to be accumulated and thus more mana to be compressed to increase his magic power. Damion was already familiar with this process, it was just that he did not have spells to use up magic in the past. All he could do before was use the fire attack glyph on his sword, and that was not something he could use at home.

While repeatedly casting Ice Shield, Damion realized he had another spell he could use to burn mana, True Sight. Other than briefly activating it when he first got the spell, Damion had not used it. Damion activated the spell and let it stay active this time. He felt a bit of mana flowing towards his eyes, but otherwise he did not notice anything different. With the mana flowing to his eyes, Damion decided to check if this caused any outward signs of the spell being active.

Looking in a mirror Damion saw something that quite surprised him. His eyes showed no change, but in the mirror above his head Damion saw a D hovering there. The main effect of the spell was to allow Damion to see clearly in any conditions, which he thought would be quite useful if he ended up in another underground dungeon. The ability to identify the Rank of anything he sees was the second effect. Damion figured it applied to artifacts, but now he realized it really did apply to everything he looked at.

Ordinary items did not have a letter hovering over them, which Damion was thankful for since that would be quite confusing. As Damion examined his gear he could see the Rank of each piece, which even though he knew what his pieces were, this would allow him to examine other artifacts and know right away their Ranks. Not only that, but if it worked on his image in the mirror, Damion would be able to look at anyone and tell their Rank and Damion guessed this would apply to Ferocious Beasts and Demonic Beasts as well.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. This was quite the skill he had lucked upon when buying a random passive spell from the Magic System store. Now Damion felt a great desire for more credits so he could buy more items from the magic store. Damion only had 2 credits at the moment. 1 credit left over from the 96 he had earned over 18 years and 1 he had earned after finally learning a bit of Nashto, the ancient language of magic.

The only way Damion knew to earn more credits was to complete quests from the Magic System. He had four quests right now. The first, to kill C Rank beasts, was not something he could do at the moment. The second was to learn a tier 2 magic spell, which was equally out of reach since he did not have access to any tier 2 magic seals. The last two quests, Increase a Magic Spell in Rank and Increase Nashto Proficiency were doable. But would take time.

Damion had already been examining every glyph and magic seal he knew, trying to gain better insight into the ancient language, but so far the Magic System had not chimed and told him quest completed. Increasing a Magic Spell in Rank should be simple, he just had to use a spell enough times and it would increase in Rank. Mana Absorption was already D Rank from his years of use. Damion suspected that if he kept True Sight active all the time he would very quickly increase it in Rank.

In the meantime, Damion focused on activating and deactivating Ice Shield. The Magic System was no help in advising him how many uses of a spell it took to increase a spell in Rank. This left Damion with no choice but to continue the repetitive action and hope for the best. Between Ice Shield, True Sight and Mana Absorption, Damion was moving a lot of mana through his magic core and mana pathways. The constant strain of spell casting and restoring his mana helped to strengthen his magic core.

Damion worked himself to the bone. It was not until late in the evening the night before Manager Halsey was set to announce Damion's choice of magic academy that Damion took a break. When he shutoff his two passive spells and stopped casting Ice Shield he felt a sudden wave of exhaustion and blacked out. In the morning when Damion finally recovered he was met with a stern-faced Mage Teft sitting in chair watching him. After waking, it took Damion a few moments to piece everything together.

He had no doubt over practiced and blacked out as soon his he cut off his spells, but he was no longer laying on the floor. Instead, he was in his bed with Mage Teft watching him, which probably meant she found him and moved him to his bed. Damion tried to sit up, but as soon as he moved he felt a wave of pain in his head and fell back on the bed. Once he was still, the sudden sharp pain faded into a dull ache in the back of his mind, but it still hurt. This told Damion he did more than just overdo it.

"I guess you think there are no consequences for overusing magic," Mage Teft said to him quietly, though the words sounded like thunder in Damion's head.

"I would have thought your experience during the beast wave would have taught you your lesson."

"Overusing magic?" Damion managed to say while struggling to sit up again despite the pain he was in.

"A human body is not made to constantly channel mana. Even if you have the mana reserves and the ability to not rest, though typically this only happens to morons who chug several mana potions to replenish their reserves without resting, your body is not meant to do magic all the time."

"I don't remember feeling this way when I woke up after resting during the beast wave."

"Two reasons for that. One, you had more rest and two, there were healers there to speed your recovery. Now you get to do your magic test feeling like crap."