89 Chapter 89 Training The Novices (1/2)
”Derek you're rus.h.i.+ng it. Stephan remember the mana moves as you breathe. The mana is all around you focus on it. Your foundations are awful. It's like replacing a bas.e.m.e.nt without removing the house from on top of it but we have no choice and I know you both have the potential. There Derek I saw a rotation. Keep at it.”
Stephan has to stop first from exhaustion.
”How can you stay focused in order to do this, master?”, asks Stephan as he tries to catch his breath.
”Willpower and determination.”
Derek looks at him.
”How long can you keep this up, once you start?”
”Two and a half days, but I prefer to not go past 20 hours. Also, with distractions, I only get about 10 hours of training in on bad days. I cut my own training time down to 5 hours in order to help the two of you, but I promised both of you.”
Derek and Stephan look at Joseph like he was the weird one.
”I don't know how grown men can handle an hour of this,” muttered Derek.
Joseph sighed. Stella gave him a small smile and he smiled back.
”Alright, let's try this differently for a minute. You are both struggling with achieving an internal mana rotation. Now review. Derek what makes internal mana rotation important?”
”All creatures are made of something called cells. Mana is produced as long as anything living continues to live by each of these cells but in normal people it never collects. In magical creatures the mana naturally circulates which makes it more stable and increases the amount of mana,” Derek repeated dutifully.
Stephan pipes in, ”You also said that mana that is rotating is harder to be disrupted by others, but I don't know of any way to do that.”
”Correct. Magical creatures do this instinctively, like birds flying, or like you and I breathing. We are humans and mages. We are not blessed with a natural rotation. We have to train our minds and our mana to flow and circulate.
”Here, Stephen you're closest to getting rotation set-up. Derek is only a half-step behind, but you have a slight lead at the moment. Once the circulation is established the next step is to establish your mana heart. Some magical creatures have an actual organ for this but we have to construct our own.
”Stephan, give me your hands. I am going to send your mana into rotation forcefully. Memorize the feel and flow of your mana as it circulates, and then try and keep it going. It's like your dad giving you a push when learning to ride a… never mind bad a.n.a.logy. Just focus and pay attention.”
Joseph took Stephan's hands and gently pushed mana into him. He controlled his mana so that it wouldn't disperse, but allowed it to gently begin to follow along his own mana. It took a few minutes to map out the correct path, but as they were both human, it's mostly similar.
Then he started using his mana to gather Stephan's mana around it like a meteor through a dust cloud. A gentle pull was all he was going for. Slowly his mana started to circulate along the route Joseph defined inside him. The quality of Joseph's mana was superior to Stephan's, so his own mana followed along like little kids marching after the tallest kid on the playground.
A rotation was accomplished, then two, then more.
(YOU HAVE ACQUIRED THE SKILL: MANA CIRCUIT CONSTRUCTION.)
(YOU HAVE AQUIRED THE SKILL: MANA CIRCUIT DESIGN.)
(YOU HAVE ACQUIRED THE ABILITY: LEND MANA.)