THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MANA MANIPULATION

I WAS A KING. In my former life I could have had my country’s army assembled and kneeling at my feet with the snap of a finger. I’d outdueled competitors from other countries as well as my own people to settle disputes and maintain my position. In terms of swordsmanship and controlling ki, I was second to none, for in my previous world, personal strength was essential to being a ruler. Yet I couldn’t think of a moment in my two lives when I’d been prouder than I was now.

I can crawl!

Until now, although I was thirsty for knowledge about this new world, I’d had to make do with the stories Mother would tell me while trying to make me fall asleep, and I often grumbled in complaint when she stopped too early.

My father would sometimes sit me on his lap while idly talking to me about his past exploits, which gave me some hints as to what kind of world this was and what it was filled with.

From what I had learned so far, this world seemed to be a fairly straightforward one filled with magic and warriors, where power and wealth decided one’s rank in society. In that sense, it wasn’t too different from my old world, except for the lack of technology and the slight difference between this world’s magic and the ki, or life force, of my previous world.

My father, Reynolds Leywin, was a former adventurer—which was apparently a viable occupation in this world—and had quite a lot of experience in his field. He had taken part in several expeditions to search for treasure and fulfill missions he and his team acquired from the Adventurers Guild.

He’d eventually settled down when he met my mother at the kingdom’s border in a city called Valden. He proudly told me how my mother, Alice, had fallen head over heels for him at first sight when he had visited the town’s Adventurers Guild Hall, where she had been working, but I suspected it was the exact opposite considering how my mother slapped him across the back of the head and told him to stop telling me lies.

I’d learned my full name by now: Arthur Leywin—Arthur after my greatgrandfather, from the days when the Leywin house was far more powerful.

My parents called me Art for short; as a former king I thought that sounded a little too cute, but after getting a glimpse of myself one day in the metal sheet they used as a mirror, I had to admit my physical features would make anyone think of me as ‘cute.’ I had my mother’s glowing auburn hair, while my eyes were a bright azure color, inherited from my father. I couldn’t know how my facial features would turn out as I grew older, but as long as I kept myself in good fighting shape, it should be okay.

I’d spent weeks attempting to crawl but had achieved only an uncoordinated scuffle in place. When I finally succeeded, I managed to sneak into the family’s library while my mother was hanging the laundry out to dry. Once she noticed I was gone, it took her only a few minutes to find me. It wouldn’t have mattered even if I’d had hours inside the room, though, because once I opened up a book I realized that, while I understood the spoken language, I couldn’t read.

I felt as frustrated as my out-of-breath mother sounded when she scolded me with a sigh, saying, “I swear, you’re going to be as much of a handful as your father.” By the end of the week, I had picked up enough words from my mother’s nightly story-reading to do some studying of my own in the library. Within a few weeks, Mother had grown used to finding me holed up in the corner of the library with books around me.

Whether she was suspicious, I didn’t know, but she did let me stay there as long as she was close by and the door was open.

I’d spent the afternoon finishing up the fifth volume of an encyclopedia of Dicathen, my new world. I closed the encyclopedia and situated myself more comfortably on the ground. Basically I just lay on my belly, because crawling and sitting upright were so damn tiring.

Pondering over what I had just read, I realized this world was rather underdeveloped. From what I could infer, there wasn’t much in the way of technological advancement. The only sources of transportation appeared to be horse-driven carriages, which varied in size for local and overland use, and ships with sails, for navigating rivers.

Weapons were freely allowed, and not regulated unless you were visiting the royal family or some other high-ranking authority. It continued to baffle me to see people carrying weapons while shopping for groceries, like they were luxury designer bags. In town with my mother, I had witnessed a man carrying a gigantic war axe so tall its handle dragged on the ground behind him as he walked.

In my previous life, on Earth, there were soldiers and guards who carried weapons openly; however, they weren’t for the purpose of killing, but rather to deter people from committing crimes. Here, though, I had recently witnessed a thief stealing a few items from the armory store, then being slashed in the back by a large, bald mercenary carrying a polearm. Moreover,

the bystanders even went as far as to applaud the oversized skinhead while the thief lay there dying.

One similarity between this world and my previous world was the system of monarchy. The continent of Dicathen had several kingdoms, each ruled by a king and his royal family. Unlike Earth of my time, though, the kings here were chosen based on lineage; the title passed down from the king to his son and so on.

Crowns had once been inherited on Earth, too, but centuries ago the hierarchical systems had adopted a new approach to leadership. Earth rulers were still kings; however, they weren’t born or elected, but trained.

Wars had become an almost obsolete form of settling disputes between countries. Of course, there were still smaller-scale battles, and armies were still needed for the safety of the citizens, but disputes concerning the wellbeing of a country were based on either a duel between the rulers of the countries—limited to making use of ki and close-combat weapons—or, for smaller disputes, a mock battle between platoons, where limited firearms were allowed.

Therefore, a king on Earth was no longer the stereotypical fat man sitting on the throne ignorantly commanding others; to protect his country’s safety and honor, he had to be an unparalleled fighter.

Scanning through the encyclopedia, there didn’t seem to be much information on continents other than the one we were currently on. I found this a bit odd,

since there were ships that carried goods and passengers across the continent by river, but I assumed that the maritime technology wasn’t yet developed enough to sail across oceans.

One thing that was hard to get used to was the existence of magic in this world. If we were talking about superhuman powers, sure, the countries on Earth relied on such people, but the capabilities of magic in this world seemed to be on another level.

On Earth, practitioners learned how to condense and utilize the ki that existed innately in their bodies. Like building muscle through exercise, repeatedly breaking the ki center down through the depletion of the ki inside, followed by rest, would cause the ki center to grow stronger, allowing access to a bigger pool of ki, which could then be channeled throughout the body via special veins known as meridians, and utilized to strengthen the body.

Instead of ki, this world’s life force was called mana; the more surprising thing was that it existed in the atmosphere. Practitioners, also known as mages, would draw the surrounding mana into their bodies to use, ultimately condensing it in their mana core. In my old world, ki only existed and formed inside the body. Whether ki had never existed in Earth’s atmosphere in the first place, or had ceased to exist for some reason, I would never know.

On Earth, practice was incredibly important, but the innate size of a user’s ki center was even more important, because the limited amount of ki you had in your body was all you could work with. This made me wonder if the size of a person’s mana core wouldn’t matter as much here because of the available mana in the atmosphere. The ‘cup’ might not hold as much, but it could be constantly replenished.

In my old world, even though my ki center wasn’t large, I had been considered a prodigy at channeling and utilizing my ki effectively to make up for my shortcomings. By utilizing every bit of my ki, I had become the strongest of the elite division of duelists, earning the right to become king.

If I could apply a ki practitioner’s techniques to the mana that was present both inside the mana core and in the surrounding atmosphere, couldn’t I essentially double or even triple the strength I’d had before?

I managed to pull another book from the bottom shelf—The Beginner’s Guide for the Privileged Mage—which answered a couple of questions for me:

…While the power to control mana is largely genetic, there are many cases where children of mages are unable to sense the mana around them.

A recent census showed that roughly one in one hundred children is able to sense mana, but the extent of this ability can only be tested after the mana core has completely developed, which occurs in early adolescence to the late teen years. A mage’s first awakening will be apparent by the initial repellence of the surrounding mana when the mana core manifests.

This results in a translucent barrier forming for several minutes around the awakened...

Flipping through the pages, I found something that caught my attention.

…Mana can be used in various ways. The two most common methods of utilizing mana are augmenting (enhancement of the body with mana), and conjuring (emission of mana to the outside world)…

…Augmenting is most commonly seen amongst warriors who utilize mana,

channeling it through their body to strengthen themselves and their attacks...

…Conjuring is practiced by mages, who, after channeling their mana, can cast spells to have a certain effect on the surrounding area or directly at a target...

I flipped a few pages to the chapter titled ‘Weaknesses and Limitations’ and continued reading.

While augmenters can possess incredible strength, defense, and agility, their weakness lies in their limited range…

…Conjurers possess unfathomable powers, being able to bend their surroundings to their will. However, such powers come with limits. Unlike augmenters, who utilize mostly the mana in their own mana cores, conjurers must supplement their own mana core with mana from the outside world in order to influence their surroundings in the form of a spell...

…While both types of mages—mana manipulators, to use the more scientifically accurate term—are ranked by the strength of their mana cores,

augmenters and conjurers have different ways of measuring their aptitude...

*flip*

…An augmenter’s prowess or talent is measured by the strength of the mana channels in their body, which measures the speed and efficiency of relocation of mana from their mana core into various parts of their bodies…

…A conjurer’s power and talent, by contrast, is measured by the power of their mana veins, which indicates their speed and effectiveness in absorbing mana from the outside world to cast a spell...

*flip*

…Mages (mana manipulators) are typically divided into one of these two categories, since attempting to be proficient in both from an early stage is time-consuming and often unsuccessful.

Categorization is based on the relative strength of the individual’s mana channels and mana veins, and the differences are generally present at birth…

… Augmenters do not need very strong mana veins, as they predominantly utilize mana from their cores, while conjurers do not need powerful mana channels, because they do not release their mana into their own bodies.

As proficiency rises to an advanced level, the distinctions between augmenters’ and conjurers’ abilities lessen naturally…

I took a minute to digest this new information. It seemed my idiot father was a decently competent augmenter and a less-than-average conjurer.

That healing light, though… What was my mother?

*flip, flip, flip*

Aha!

…There are rare deviants, the two best-known types of which are elemental deviants and emitters. The most highly sought-after are emitters, more commonly known as healers. Healers possess the rare ability to cast their unique restorative mana onto others directly, expediting recovery from injuries and impairments...

While I knew her powers were different, I’d had no idea they were so rare.

After resting my weary eyes for a few minutes, I skipped a few pages to go to the next chapter, titled ‘Fundamentals of Conjuring.’ The proper steps of utilizing mana for conjurers are: gathering mana;

drawing it into one’s body; circulating it into one’s mana core to stabilize and purify the diluted mana from the atmosphere; then channeling it into an appropriate conductor (a staff, wand, ring, etc.) using incantations as a mental control for shaping the mana into the desired spell…

*flip*

…The more powerful the spell, the longer it will take to draw in surrounding mana, condense and purify it in the mana core, and finally channel and release…

*flip*

…Because conjuring involves exerting focused mana into a particular spell,

conjurers will notice that they have a special aptitude for certain elements (air, water, fire, earth), but with proper training, can become adequate in the basics of all elements...

*flip, flip*

Fundamentals of Augmenting Compared to conjuring, much less time can be spent gathering the surrounding mana for augmenting. Efficiency in augmenting requires speed and precision in the use of core mana, and less use of mana from the atmosphere...

This was where it clicked: Augmenting was very similar to using ki, except you could also draw mana in from your surroundings. The reason there weren’t any conjurers on my old world, Earth, was because there was no mana in the atmosphere to draw from to create a phenomenon.

My gaze sharpened as I read on.

…augmenting requires precise distribution of mana into different parts of the body, as the user requires. Although it may seem simple at a glance,

augmenting requires significant insight into one’s own body. Being able to utilize the mana channels efficiently requires years of both mental and physical practice...

*flip*

…Because augmenting involves extracting mana in its purest form from the user’s mana core, there are no significant distinctions in an elemental sense at an early stage. However, augmenters are able to use their mana in more diverse ways, resulting in vastly different forms of fighting through augmentation...

*flip*

…The phenomenon called ‘backlash’ is known to both types of practitioners.

For augmenters, it occurs from depletion of the mana core and can cause extreme bodily pain, depending on how severe the damage to the mana core is.

For conjurers, backlash occurs from overfilling of the mana core. This is caused by overuse of spells beyond the practitioner’s capacity, or by using a spell too powerful for his or her mana core to handle.

Closing the book, I propped myself up on my butt, processing the overload of information I had just read.

Because of the uncanny similarities between the ki center in my old world and the mana core in this world, I found it hard to believe that mana manipulation could not begin until adolescence.

On Earth, children could meditate and sense the ki scattered inside their bodies. Once the ki migrated to a single place, the ki center would form.

Testing my hypothesis, I began meditating, trying to sense the mana in my seven-month-old body. Then— “There you are! Art, honey, are you having trouble taking a poopy?” Mother! I’m about to begin my journey to become the greatest mage in the world! Do not make me out to be a constipated infant!

Lifting me gently into her arms, she took me away to change my diaper— which, surprisingly, was full by the time I noticed.

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