"What type of training is this?" Shyam said, trying to catch his breath properly.
The man stroked his white beard and made the kind of face people make when things don't go as intended.
"Well, Ashima learned it the same way. Thought you could too," Golakar said.
"Maybe that's the reason people don't learn from you," Shyam muttered the painful truth. Even Golakar must have realized it by now.
"Do you have an easier way of learning this?" Shyam whispered, still lying down, facing upward and taking deep breaths.
The scene of him almost dying replayed in his mind every time he blinked.
"I do, though I'm afraid it'll take much longer that way," Golakar replied as a book appeared out of nowhere and started flipping its pages on its own.
"How much control do you have over your mana?" Golakar asked as he sat beside him.
Shyam closed his eyes, trying to feel the mana within him.
When he read the basic fireball book, he learned a little about mana use.
But because that book was meant for people who already knew how to manipulate mana, he never learned how to use it on his own. It was thanks to his system that he could use those techniques without issue.
But in the future, he would definitely need to learn about real mana control.
The spells that used only system mana were limited. But the ones that used emotion, situation, and physical requirements needed true control. If he ever wanted to use spells beyond his current level, this was the only way.
His dream of burning his enemies into ash had been fulfilled, but he still felt like it hadn't—those bandits were weak.
His Fire Dash combo didn't even faze the ogre. Even though he didn't use it during the battle, he knew it wouldn't have worked anyway.
But away from all that, even after trying his ass off...
He still didn't feel anything inside him.
As if—even in a world filled with magic—he had none.
"I don't feel any mana in me, but I do feel something," Shyam said honestly.
Golakar became curious. If it wasn't mana, what was Shyam feeling?
He wasn't hung upside down anymore, so blood rush wasn't it.
So what?
"What?" Golakar asked.
Shyam closed his eyes as if about to say something wise...
He did.
"I feel like the restroom is calling me. Where must I go to complete this unholy task, Sir Teacher?" he said, tightening his ass to hold in his food waste.
"That was... damn polite. Follow me fast, warrior!" Golakar said, standing up and walking toward the treehouse.
Shyam followed, and soon they were in front of a broken door, a half-destroyed well, and a steel bucket lying somewhere in between.
"This is my luxurious poop center," Golakar said, pointing at the restroom as if offering the keys to his mansion.
Shyam looked at the tiny room with a twisted face—exactly the face I'd make.
"What? I live alone. What do you expect?" Golakar said as he tossed the bucket into the well.
"At least keep it clean," Shyam muttered, taking a deep breath as he walked to the restroom like a fallen soldier headed to one last battle.
Golakar handed him the water bucket like a general giving a soldier his final weapon in a suicide mission.
Shyam entered the restroom, beginning his mission to poop—without vomiting.
"So… why did you make him want to poop?" Raitha whispered to Golakar as she stood beside him, waiting for Shyam to finish.
"Because I needed time to find my mana control guidebook!" he replied, stressed out, and began flipping through his collection of books.
"And... why are you trying so hard to teach him mana control anyway?" Raitha asked, sitting down on the soil with her hands resting over each other.
"Will you tell this to Shyam?" Golakar asked while still searching.
"I might," Raitha replied.
"Really?" Golakar paused.
Suddenly, he stopped flipping pages and picked up a book—old, its pages nearly brown like an ancient treasure map.
"Really," Raitha confirmed.
"Well... because I don't have much time left. And as a Three-Star Master Teacher, I don't want my techniques to die with me.
So you could say—it's out of my own selfishness," he said, staring at the book like an NPC staring at his most beloved object before disappearing from the game.
Raitha flinched. Her eyes widened, lips trembled—just a little—as if she wanted to say something but held it in.
It was probably a joke.
Probably.
"Oh… got it," she whispered, softening her eyes as she waited for Shyam to return.
"But how did you know I pushed his food to make him feel urgent?" Golakar asked, surprised she caught onto his little plan.
"I know a little mana-play too," she replied with a sneaky grin.
Being sarcastic, are we?
"But the bigger question is, why didn't you just ask him to wait?"
"Well… because I'm an idiot, I guess," Golakar chuckled, looking toward Raitha.
"I'm curious. Are you male or female? And how tall even are you?"
"I have no gender, hate to say it. But people say I sound like a loli girl. Wonder what that means…" Raitha replied, glancing upward, lost in philosophical wonder.
By the time their friendly conversation ended, Shyam's… mission… was also complete.
The broken restroom door creaked open—it cracked a bit more too—and Shyam walked out like a champion who just won a tournament.
"Gotta say, I'd rather throw my shit in a river than use that place.
If only people didn't drink from that river," Shyam said, looking back at the poor structure that just served him.
Golakar looked at him like he was a certified idiot.
"Where do you think the shit goes?"
"WHAT?!" Shyam screamed.
"Just kidding," Golakar smirked and tossed a book at him.
Though it looked careless, the book floated gently—guided by Golakar's mana.
"What's this?" Shyam asked, opening the book.
Suddenly, a system window popped up—thankfully invisible to Golakar.
If Golakar saw it, Shyam's deepest secret would've been exposed.
And who knows what kind of experiments people would do to him if they found out he could buy things out of thin air, level up to gain strength, and copy book content by simply touching it?
> [ Knowledge Acquired: Way of Mana by Lol'd Golakar ]
"It's a book that'll teach you the basics of mana use," Golakar explained, as small magical particles danced around his fingers.
It looked awesome.
Shyam definitely wanted to try it—if not for power, then just for how damn cool it looked.
"You'll learn how to form, concentrate, and use mana to create shapes!" Golakar said as he made the sparkles bigger.
Shyam quickly opened the book and started reading.
It wasn't as thick as the basic fire magic book, but it was very informative.
In under 4 hours, he finished reading and memorized the key parts.
After all, he had been a tech company manager in his past life.
He needed some skill to get that job, right?
After reading the "whats" and the "hows," he sat down on the treehouse floor to test what he'd learned.
(Yes, they were back inside. No way was he going to study in the wild.)
Golakar had made another cup of tea and now sat on the same wooden chair, watching Shyam attempt it.
"Good luck, master!" Raitha shouted as she leapt over the table edge.
This time, she hid her mana carefully so Golakar wouldn't know she had spoken—or even that she was there.
Shyam closed his eyes and tried to form mana particles in the place known as the "mana pool"—a storage space that sort of existed inside the human body. Invisible, yet real.
He tried. A minute. Ten minutes. Then an hour.
He sat still. Nothing happened.
Just like before—except this time, no blood rushed to his head.
But disappointment crept in.
Why wasn't it working?
He followed the book exactly as written, yet no result.
The sun began to set. The sky turned orange.
Golakar, seeing Shyam's repeated failure, added wood to the fireplace.
And then he asked Shyam a question he had held back since the first time he failed.
A question he had to ask, just to confirm…
Whether what he feared… was true.
---
Ch-26