Hayato took the necklace, its silver chain now feeling strangely warm to the touch, and fastened it around his neck.
Across the circle, Kerina, Riko, and Ayaka did the same with their own enchanted items. They all looked at each other and shared a nod. Their primary defense was ready.
"It is finished," Lenna said, her voice carrying a note of finality. Her work with the items was done, but her work with Hayato was not. She turned her full, intense gaze back to him.
"Now, for the second matter. Hayato, your body is an empty. You have an immense potential to hold power, yet you possess no mana of your own."
She took a step closer, her eyes gleaming with a scholar's ambition. "I want to test a theory. I want to attempt a breakthrough. To use my own mana as a catalyst and forcibly fill your empty vessel."
Hayato looked up at her, trying to de-escalate the situation with simple logic. "Isn't this unnecessary? I'm just a commoner. Lots of people are born without any mana power."
"I know that. But you are already strong with the power you do have. That potential is what I want to test. I am going to attempt the breakthrough."
She then gave a simple, clinical command. "Just take off your shirt."
The other three women—Kerina, Riko, and Ayaka—all stared, confused and shocked by the strange turn of events, but they remained silent. This was clearly a matter between the Arch-Sage and her new subject.
Hayato didn't move, his expression wary. "What for?" he asked.
Lenna looked at him as if he were a student asking an obvious question. "Because this is not a gentle process, I will be channeling a significant amount of my raw mana directly into your body. Clothing, even simple linen, would interfere with the transfer. I need direct contact with your skin to ensure stability."
"Lenna, that's insane!" Ayaka finally snapped, stepping forward. "A direct mana infusion of that level could destroy him from the inside out! His body has no way to process that kind of energy!"
"A normal body, yes. But his is not normal. It is an empty vessel of unprecedented durability. It is the only kind of body that could survive this. This is a unique opportunity."
What does she mean… Ayaka thought confused.
Hayato listened to both sides of the argument, protective warning and Lenna's high-risk, high-reward scientific theory. After a moment of consideration, he held up a hand to silence Kerina's protests.
He looked directly at Lenna, his expression calm and resolved. "Alright. Do it."
Without another word, he pulled his tunic up over his head and tossed it aside, leaving his torso bare in the afternoon sun.
Riko, watched with wide eyes as Lenna prepared, the implications of the procedure suddenly dawning on her. "Wait," she said, her voice sharp with realization. "If this works... if you successfully infuse him with your raw mana... does that mean a part of you will be inside of him now? That he'll be attuned to you?"
Lenna didn't look away from Hayato, her focus absolute. "You could say that. More accurately, we will share a connection. I will be a part of him, and he will be a part of me."
Hayato felt a strange heat rise to his cheeks. A part of him... and he, a part of her? The way they spoke about it was so clinical, like a medical procedure. But the concept itself... it sounded like two people merging into one, an intensely intimate act he felt he shouldn't be hearing about so casually.
He blushed, a reaction so unfamiliar it caught him completely by surprise.
Hayato pushed the awkward thought from his mind as Lenna's hands, now glowing with a brilliant light, pressed against his bare chest.
The energy that flowed into him wasn't a blunt, overwhelming force. It was sharp. A million precise, intelligent points of light that slipped past his skin and into his body with an unnerving purpose. Lenna's expression was one of absolute concentration, her eyes closed as she guided the energy.
The golden mana spread through Hayato's torso, a brilliant web of light that perfectly mapped his circulatory system. It flowed alongside his blood vessels, searching for the corresponding spiritual channels that should have been there—the mana vessels.
It searched, and it found nothing.
Where there should have been a network to hold and channel magic, there was only a void. His body was a perfect physical specimen, but the entire system for processing mana was fundamentally absent.
Lenna's brow furrowed in deeper confusion. The reservoir she thought was empty hadn't just been drained; it had never been built in the first place.
Lenna pulled her hands back from Hayato's chest as if she'd been burned, the light of her mana vanishing. Her eyes flew open, wide with a shock that eclipsed everything she had felt before.
"This is impossible," she whispered. She looked at Hayato, not as a subject, but as a biological contradiction. "It's not just that you have no mana you have no mana vessels. Every living being has them, even the most mundane commoner, even if they're dormant! Did your ancestors never once possess magic?"
Of course they didn't, Hayato thought, his mind flashing back to a world of science and industry. They were salarymen and shopkeepers, not wizards.
"I told you," he said out loud, his voice flat. "I'm just a commoner."
Kerina, who had been watching the display of magical theory with growing impatience, finally stepped forward. "I don't see the problem, if he doesn't have any mana vessels, just use his blood vessels. They're already there, and they go everywhere. Just leave a little space for the blood to get through."
Ayaka stared at Kerina in horror. "You can't be serious! Pumping raw mana through his veins? You could kill him!"
Kerina just shrugged. "His skin can stop a sword. Maybe his insides are just as tough."
While they argued, Hayato was focused on a different sensation. He could still feel a faint, lingering echo from where Lenna's hands had touched him.
He realized then that her "sharp" mana had passed through his invincible skin without any issue. It hadn't hurt. It had just felt... like a tickle.
Lenna ignored the bickering, her gaze locked onto Hayato, her mind made up. Kerina's idea was barbaric, but it was also the most direct path to an answer. This was an unprecedented opportunity.
She raised her hands, which began to glow with a golden light far more intense than before. "Prepare yourself, Hayato," she said, her voice low and serious, cutting through Kerina and Ayaka's argument.
"I'm going to force it into your body."
Hayato braced himself, his jaw tight. Lenna's hands, glowing like twin suns, pressed firmly against his bare chest.
There was no gentle flow this time. A silent scream was ripped from Hayato's lungs as the energy hit him. It was a torrent, a flood of raw, untamed power forcing its way into a system that was never designed to contain it. His body convulsed, every muscle locking in agonizing tension. Golden light, visible even through his skin, began to trace the paths of his veins, burning new, agonizing channels where none had existed before.
Lenna's face was pale, sweat pouring down her temples as she focused her entire will on the delicate, brutal procedure. She was not just pouring energy; she was performing an act of violent creation, attempting to build a soul's architecture from scratch.
Kerina, Riko, and Ayaka could only watch in horrified silence, powerless to intervene.
The golden light around Hayato intensified, flaring out in a brilliant, blinding flash that forced everyone to shield their eyes.
When the light receded, Hayato's body went limp, and he slumped forward onto the grass, unconscious.
The moment Hayato slumped to the ground, unconscious, a series of notifications flashed in the darkness of his mind.
[WARNING: Foreign High-Tier Mana Detected in Host Body]
[Analyzing Unsanctioned Infusion...]
[Forcibly Constructing Mana Vessel System...]
[...Construction Complete. Breakthrough Achieved.]
[Activating Emergency Recovery Mode.]
On the outside, Ayaka and Riko rushed to his side. "He's alive!" Ayaka said, her hands beginning to glow with a green, healing light. "But his internal energy is in chaos. I need to stabilize—"
Before her hands could touch him, Hayato's eyes snapped open. He shot up into a sitting position with a deep, shuddering gasp, his gaze fixed on a point in the air that only he could see.
The three women froze, staring at him as he stared at nothing. What he was seeing was a familiar, welcome sight.
[ Name: Hayato Mikami ]
[ Condition: Stable ]
[ HP: 100/100 ]
[ MP: 1500/1500 ]
[ STAMINA: 100/100 ]
[ STATUS: Mana Vessel System successfully integrated. ]
He now had mana.
To Be Continued.