"In order to use magic, people need to absorb mana from the outside world then release it. The world has an infinite amount of mana but humans have a limited amount they can hold. Humans hold mana within their mana pools – located around their chest area opposite to the heart.
Once mana is released from a mana pool – like for a spell - that same amount of mana can be reabsorbed at a much faster rate. So, if you were to run out of mana, it restores the amount you originally had quicker." Glyffe explained patiently.
So, people have to first absorb mana before using magic - that makes sense. Then magic is the result of mana being released - probably with some alteration - after it's absorbed.
Let's say my mana pool is twenty percent filled. According to Glyffe, If I fully used up that twenty percent, then when replenishing my mana, my pool would fill up really fast for that twenty percent but slow down to a crawl for the next eighty I still didn't have filled. As if the world recognises I have control of that twenty percent.
"How does the world contain infinite mana?" Silvia asked pensively - raising her hand like a student in class. Her tone was so quizzical I almost believed that she didn't already know the answer.
"Aww, I wanted to ask that Silvia!" I joked.
"Hehe." She smirked.
"This world is endless! Since there's no end to this world then of course it follows the world has infinite mana. Mana is a property that is weaved into the very fabric of the world itself!" Glyffe boasted grandly.
"Wait this world is... endless?" I asked, feeling quite conflicted.
I mean an endless world? How would that even work? Does a new island get added every patch note or something? What is this, Genshin?
"Yes - this world is often referred to as The Boundless World. No one has ever produced a map of the entire world. The mapped continents - the rock continent of the dwarves, the leaf continent of the elves and the soul continent of the humans don't even make up one percent of the world."
"What? Not even one percent?" I choked.
Huge! This world is huge! If it was anything like my old world then 3 continents should make up at least a near majority but here it was less than one percent!
"Indeed. Supposedly there's hundreds of continents like ours and even more different archipelagos, empires, outposts, oceans, cities, realms, seas, labyrinths, dungeons, kingdoms. People stumble upon them by chance - usually because they're lost. And by some miracle they make it back to our three continents and tell stories of the great lands unexplored." Talking up to here, Glyffe paused slightly.
"This world is still for the taking!" Glyffe declared with a special glint in his eyes.
"Actually Reno, when I was younger, I had the grand dream of exploring the entire world. All of it! From the rumoured to the known - from the explored to the unknown. I wanted to see it all." Glyffe reminisced fondly.
"What happened to that dream?" My curiosity had to be sated. Hearing my question Silvia looked over – clearly interested too.
"That dream..." Glyffe trailed off, keeping both me and Silvia in suspense.
"It's on hold."
Glyffe heartily bellowed, completely shamelessly.
"Right, you're getting off topic now Glyffe. Just continue on with the magic lesson." Silvia sighed, clearly feeling quite a bit of second-hand embarrassment from her husband.
"Right where was I... oh yes, mana. Mana is what gives people life and the soul is made up of something very similar to mana. For that reason, the soul can attract mana. When you're training to improve mana absorption, you're actually training the soul."
Hmmm. Back on Earth people couldn't decide whether the soul actually existed or not but it seems here it's common knowledge. It was interesting that absorbing mana required training the soul of all things.
"Mana is something which exists everywhere - but it has no character. At least initially."
"Huh? Character? What's that?" I said.
"I'm glad you asked Reno! Character is a trait your soul imbues into the mana you're about to release which results in magic forming. " Glyffe expanded on what he said earlier but this time in more depth.
"Hmmm can you explain it a bit more?" I felt like I was just on the cusp of understanding it.
"Let's take fire magic as an example. Fire magic has an aggressive trait so when using fire magic, your soul has to alter the originally pure mana to have an aggressive character. So, casting spells is just releasing mana from your mana pool with character to form magic." Glyffe explained as simply as he could. Silvia nodded along, indicating Glyffe was pretty much spot on. I think I was starting to get it.
"Ah I see so mana with a rigid character would result in earth magic? And mana with fluid character would result in water magic?" I theorised from everything I'd learnt so far.
"Exactly right." Glyffe smiled at how I'd managed to apply my knowledge successfully.
"And how do you imbue character into mana?" That was something I hadn't been able to work out from what he'd said so for.
"That's simple Reno, in fact you already have before."
I have?
"Visualisation. It's visualisation Reno." Silvia added from the side. "There are many factors but for simplicity's sake, good visualisation of the spell results in imbued character. It's likely that yesterday you did this without even noticing."
Suddenly it all became a lot clearer. Since I'd read so many fantasy novels in the past, I managed to visualise the Fireball spell quite naturally.
"Also, imbuing character you don't have an affinity for is very uncomfortable for the soul. It just feels... wrong. Of course it can still be practiced just with double the effort and half the results." Glyffe added to complete his explanation.
Right so it's probably wise to focus on the magic I have an affinity for as it'll feel more natural and I should be able to learn it faster.
"And what exactly is a soul?" Silvia pondered before asking Glyffe one of the deepest questions in human history.
Don't ask that one Silvia - not even Plato knows that.
Glyffe hesitated for a moment but he cobbled up a reasonable response. "I believe it's the true essence of a person - inside the physical body but not bound by it."
Similar to some earthly ideas of the soul then—interesting.
"So how should I practice magic?" I got to straight to the point.
"In order to train magic effectively there's four main aspects: soul strength, mana capacity, magic theory and creativity.
For today's lesson we'll focus on the first two - soul strength and mana capacity. These two are somewhat linked. Mana capacity - the amount of mana your mana pool can hold - can only be improved by the use of treasures. Soul strength can be improved by absorbing mana and using magic often."
Ah I see. So even if I ended up with a completely average mana pool or weak soul strength then it wouldn't be the end of the world. It was good to know just in case but I was pretty sure I was going to have insane talent and really high affinities. I did get Isekai'd after all.
"Can you teach me the way to absorb mana?" I was getting excited just thinking about finally taking my first step to mastering magic in another world.
"Right, that would be a good place to start." To my surprise it was Silvia who stepped forward this time. "Mana absorption techniques are usually passed down from one generation to the next. Our Frostworth family is an upper middle class family, so our absorption technique is one of the best!"
Glyffe had a strange expression but I didn't pay it much heed and instead listened carefully to what Silvia was saying.
Though her words were clear – I couldn't make out anything. It all sounded blurry. Like some sort of dream spell it caused me to feel hazy. The strange chant made me feel drowsy... almost like I just wanted to... sle—
"All done!" Her words snapped me awake from my trance and the brain fog I felt quickly faded. Now, planted deep within my mind, I could feel a strange set of instructions. It was the Frostworth Absorption Technique and I could now access it freely at any time.
"Uhm exactly how did you just do that mam? Better question, what exactly did you just do?" It felt extremely strange – like I was in a trance of some sort.
"It's a secret." Silvia giggled and winked playfully at me.
I guess fantasy worlds just have fantasy teaching methods.
"Whatever you do, Reno, don't share this method with anyone outside the family. It's a tradition." Silvia warned me sternly. I nodded, though, to be honest, I wasn't even sure how I'd explain it to anyone else. Still, I'd do my best to follow the family rules.
Regardless, I felt ready to try the technique now. I gave it a shot, and just like that, I could feel it working. My chest seemed to fill up in a strange way - albeit very, very slowly.
"It works!" I exclaimed, my shout carrying the joy I felt out to the surrounding greenery.
"Well of course it does - if it didn't, we'd have to complain to our ancestors who made and passed down this technique for centuries!" Silvia responded with an 'of course it should' tone.
"Since you're probably quite talented you should feel your mana pool filling at a slow to moderate pace. For most average people the pace is incredibly sluggish so if it only feels slightly slow that's a good indicator of talent." Glyffe uttered from the side, joining in on the conversation again.
"It feels slow - like really slow..." I mean if I didn't already know that I was extremely talented then I would've mistaken my talent as average or even below average.
Silvia's eyes lit up, "That could just mean you have an abnormally large mana pool!"
Yep, that must be it. It's not that I'm not talented it's just that my mana pool is so large that it feels like it's filling slowly. It's filling an ocean compared to a regular lake.
"Is there a way to test it?" It sure felt like it was a large mana pool from the rate of uptake but I couldn't be sure.