Chapter 11: Fire Storm

Ting! Mana Toxicity has obtained level 18!

My mana, with some effort, pushed against the Guardian's, still not able to leak out even tiny drops of my mana, slowly poisoning my body. I had long since figured out that, no, you can't go over your mana capacity, if you do it instead damages your body.

The more mana you produce the more you can push against higher mana density but at the same time, you gain mana toxicity faster. I can feel my blood pressure rising in the presence of the dragon as it studied me

"I see... it's slow but it's healing..." The guardian muttered.

Last time the guardian commented on my "fast growth" and I don't think she was talking biologically. The guardian has a way to know my bond and skill growth.

"You may go now" The Guardian dismissed us and dad picked me up and with mom we rushed out of the guardian's stifling mana.

I observed our bodies releasing more and more mana the further we moved away from the powerful being.

How do our bodies hold all that mana? What exactly is our mana capacity? There is still so much I don't know.

It''s a little easier to notice these things when there's a lack of an element, in this case, fire. For some reason there has been no fire mana for the last two days.

On our way back to our island I review everything I've learned about mana from my mana sense over the last five years.

Let's start with the base description of mana sense:

Sense Mana: You have opened your mind to one of the energies that fuels this world. You can now sense mana in its raw form.

I've maxed my action levels for this by simply using it for five years straight. The five knowledge levels I gained more slowly. Mana is power, kinda like electricity. It can be used to do things. Can be transformed into other types of mana energy, somehow. Mana also seems to travel along leylines, converging at nexus points, but it doesn't stop there. The mana doesn't then spread out it instead drifts down into the world. Mana seems to act like a fluid in that sense, forming currents and even storms.

For a base, there was a ton of stuff to figure out. I am confident that this aspect of my skill is maxed out. I am fifty-three out of sixty so there are some things I don't yet understand or haven't proven myself enough, the question is, what aspect of this skill am I lacking in?

Next is my first breakthrough

1st breakthrough: You have sensed an overwhelming pressure of mana, now you will be able to better sense mana in such quantity and better see slight difference in mana levels.

Enough mana in an area can be seen with the unaided eye. It diffuses in an area, the more mana in one area the more powerful the spells as the spells won't diffuse as fast. There's another aspect that fights the diffusion thoug, and that is that mana also like to clump up. There's a balance of sorts, a point at which a clump can't hold as much mana in the mana density of the area. In short, the more mana density, the bigger the mana clumps. In a mana-starved area, spells are likely to not travel very far, their mana might diffuse too quickly. Too much mana in an area causes a mana storm, more details on storms can be covered in elemental mana breakthroughs, it seems like this breakthrough relies heavily on other breakthroughs to truly understand, which makes me think I might not have this once fully covered in the understanding department.

2nd Breakthrough: You've learned to perceive different containers of mana letting you see the general shapes of mana containing objects around you.

Another one I am confident in being maxed at. This is all about learning to see the three-dimensional form of someone or an object. The contours of a person's face. The texture of an object's surface, it seems more like the action and understanding part of this skill goes hand-in-hand.

3rd breakthrough: You've learned to see different types of mana, letting you see elemental mana.

Other than seeing the elements this one is very complicated. Mana is empowered in an area rich in the same element or essence. This is further complicated in the sense that mana has attractive and repulsive forces. Much like magnetism attracts like and opposites repels. This makes elemental mana storms happen as mana storms will build up more and more, traveling along leylines, eventually sinking below the earth at this nexus. This leads to a problem in that the opposites in the nexus should prevent nexuses from existing. However, there are cases like my hair ornament of duality wherein opposites have combined. I suspect chemistry-like interactions. This breakthrough is one I have yet to fully master and understand.

My observations of my Hair Ornament have led me to see that both ice and fire mana are attracted to it but can't fully collect, there is always a swirling mass of ice and fire mana orbiting the magical item. There also seems to be a point at which the clumps of fire or ice mana would reach a critical mass and the clumps would just fall apart and slowly build back up. This happens every few hours. The same phenomenon can be seen with my Kyhosa just with all the elements instead.

"What are you thinking about, little Aly?" Mom asks, breaking me out of my concentration.

"I am reviewing everything I've learned about mana. I am trying to figure out some way I can max out my skill" I said with a sigh.

Dad nodded approvingly, still rowing diligently. "Makes sense that you have that skill so high. Many, however, have come to the conclusion that some breakthroughs rely on others. Something that reaching the maximum level is impossible at some point, too many breakthroughs or something like that. Still having a higher level is better as the bonus per level helps a lot more."

"I have also come to a similar conclusion but there will come a point where my breakthrough will cover each other and let me max it out. I may even be able to max out the skill with enough problem solving"

I focus back on my thoughts.

4th Breakthrough: You've learned how to see mana Essences, letting you see the many types of essences.

If elements are like water, then essence is like air. It follows the same rules like the attraction and repulsion. Essences seem to be associated with a parent element. Light for beauty, water for creativity, Earth for nature. It is empowered by the parent mana like waves combine constructively and weakened but the parent's element's opposite, like waves combining destructively. Being airier it is also weaker and requires more mana to be at the point of being seen. Essence storms should be possible but it's too airy to be more than just a higher dense clump of the element. However, nature storm are frequent enough suggesting that high amounts of life or maybe just plant life generates more nature essence.

Essences have the added bonus of empowering certain aspects. Nature essence helps plants grow, in turn generating more nature essences, hence the frequent nature storms during time where plant growth is greatest.

This breakthrough is also one I might be lacking in.

5th Breakthrough: You've learned to see different amounts of mana within objects, letting you better see how much within certain parts of things and people.

This one is much like my second breakthrough. Action and understanding goes hand in hand. This is helpful in cases like when I was teaching Tanafyam how to use his bond. Being able to see how close he was to succeeding helped me help him tremendously. If I am not already maxed here I can easily be.

6th Breakthrough: you've learned how to expand your sphere of sense mana, letting you see farther.

This one is too, like the second and fifth breakthrough but with an added complexity. It's the point that I can expand my skill. Mentally pushing this skill helps me level it up but so does the understanding of why there is a limit in the first place, and that is because of a "sixth sense". It's more of a feeling than anything, like danger sense, intuition. To know something even if you never even encountered it. For example, there's a mass of fire mana ahead and below us... Huh, that should be outside of my range.

Soon the boat passed over the anomaly, it almost looked like a geothermal vent. Suddenly my field of vision expanded. It was easier to notice this with the lack of fire mana.

Ting! Sense Mana has obtained level 64!

Yeah, Intuition, gut feeling.

If I were to rate which aspects of my mana sense I've maxed or not it would be like this:

Sense Mana: 10/101st Breakthrough: 9/102nd Breakthrough: 10/103rd Breakthrough: 8/104th Breakthrough: 7/105th Breakthrough: 10/106th Breakthrough: 10/10

I am fairly sure I understand essences the least, followed closely by elements. I am at a standstill, my level currently doesn't boost me enough to help figure out how to max my level yet I can't level up without gaining another breakthrough. So I suppose the only course of action is to expand the scope of my skill. Question is, in what way? I've come up with a few over the years.

One: Differentiate the mana between individuals. This is my current goal. Should be like my second and fifth breakthrough in the sense that action and understanding level can be gained hand in hand making it level. The problem is I don't think my sense mana level is high enough to let me obtain this.

Two: Learn to sense mana in mana-starved areas. Currently impossible to achieve.

Three: Learn to see the transformation of one type of mana into another. I am actually close to this, my level is almost high enough, heck, if I try hard enough I might even be able to do it now. Also, this would be a cakewalk if I can observe how a spell transforms mana from the users to the spell's element, but that requires the first option first.

Four: Understand the relationship between elements and essences. I am so close to getting this one I am half convinced it's not a real breakthrough and I am deluding myself. This would have a bonus in helping me get at least one level on both aspects.

Five and lastly: Predict a mana storm. I got this idea from way back when I was looking through my race evolution options, I have no idea how to do this though.

It's honestly a toss-up between the third and fourth option. I am pretty close to obtaining both anyways and both would help me understand elements and essences while the fifth option might help me max my first breakthrough.

After some thinking, I decided the fourth option is best, and if I can't get it then I'd try the third.

"Something's wrong," Dad said. "There's smoke over the village."

I couldn't see anything but it doesn't sound good.

"We should hurry, I have a bad feeling." Dad rowed faster to get to the pier.

We arrive at an empty pier. Everybody is probably helping to fight the fire. Good thing we live directly above the water, we'd just need enough buckets.

Suddenly, fire mana swept through the village, quickly growing in density, a storm of fire mana engulfed the town. I immediately felt the heat around me surge. Swirling masses of fire mana became more frequent as the fire mana became denser to the point that the heat felt by the fire mana made the waters below started to bubble in a boil. Shouts of alarm could be heard near the island. This fire mana storm is particularly intense, the sheer amount of mana growing ever more. The last time it was this bad was soon after we got the notification of a dragon slaying a sand elemental.

"Stay on the boat Aly!" Mom and dad shot off toward the commotion leaving me behind.

I felt useless. What can I do anyway? I'm a five-year-old child. I clutch my Kyhosa around my neck. Mom always had me wear it when we visited the Guardian.

I sat back on the boat and sighed, starting to sweat under the intense heat, there was just nothing I can do.

Time passed by, Worry started gripping me.

Where's mom and dad? What if they die? I don't want to be left alone.

I could smell smoke now. It's times like these that hate not being able to properly see what's going on. Visions of tragedy taunted me, picturing my parents trapped in a burning house with no escape.

I want to get up and do something, anything! I want mom to be back here with me, safe in the boat. The fire mana grew more intense. I don't even know if the heat I am feeling is from the fire or the fire storm anymore.

Please be safe. I prayed. I prayed as hard as I could for my parents to be safe.

Suddenly a roar echoed around and I felt the soft caress of raindrops start to fell. Soon a downpour poured on me like a bucket of water being dumped. Water mana filled the air and ripped apart the swirling masses of fire mana. I waited for several minutes yet Mom and Dad were nowhere to be found, they didn't come back.

With legs shaking and heart pounding in my ears I slowly climbed out of the boat and stumble to my hands and knees. I got back up and started running.

"Momara!" I called out, hoping to hear them call to me. "Momara!" still no response, tears started falling down my cheeks, but with the rain, no one would be able to tell. I ran aimlessly trying to find my Mom and Dad calling out to them until I came upon a large group of people crowding around. I tried to push through them and weave between their legs. "Momara!"

There are about a dozen people laying on the ground. The texture of their skin suggests burning to death.

"Alysara!" Mom and dad are standing next to my aunt who is sobbing over the corpse of someone. I rush over to my parents and hug them tightly.

I can guess who the body is. It's my aunt's husband. More cries and wailing could be heard all around as people grieved for their lost loved ones.