A/N: I would've posted this chapter around midnight, but I remembered I was 2 days late last week...
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I was currently sitting in a chair, deep in thought. Elbows on my knees and fingers crossed in front my face, I contemplated my number one priority.
"I need money."
"That came out of nowhere."
Korone expressed her confusion at my sudden declaration.
We were currently in the hotels dining hall. When I woke up from my Korone-inflicted nap, I realized I hadn't eaten since I left the hospital.
Korone offered to show me where everyone eats and even sat down next to me, stating that she thought I'd be lonely eating by myself.
Although it was unnecessary, she still showed such thoughtfulness to a man like myself. I was almost moved to tears.
So, we received our food (the dining hall is open 24/7 and it's free, thank God), and sank into relative silence as we ate.
At least, until I opened my mouth.
"I need money Korone. And a lot of it."
"Hmm. Then can't you just get a job?"
"If I get a regular ol' job, I'll be working until the day I die. I want to retire Korone. I need something more... Lucrative."
And not like what A-chan offered.
"I didn't say anything about regular jobs?"
I glance towards her.
"Oh? What did you have in mind?"
"You could become a monster hunter!"
"No thanks. I don't want to get ganked by a deviljho."
"Who's devil joe?"
"A bad person."
A very bad person.
"I honestly think you'd do fine as a hunter? My punches would usually knock a regular person's head clean off, so you're pretty durable."
Wait what.
"... For real?"
"Yeah! For real! To think you only got a concussion when I hit you with full force is pretty wild! I almost thought I was getting rusty!"
Huh...
I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that if I had been any weaker I would have died the same day I got here.
I should move on from that thought.
Anyway, I really don't think I'm strong.
I could barely outrun some goblins, and suisei's swings seemed invisible to me. The only reason I'm still alive is probably because of those blessings that keep ringing in my head.
I wanna see if I can somehow communicate with it, but the only time they appear is when my life is in danger. Who has time to think when a moments distraction means death?
Ignorant to my thoughts, korone nodded her head and continued to gas me up.
"If you strengthened yourself with mana, you'd probably be a beast! Just think about it!"
"Hm. I guess I should learn how to use mana then, If only to defend myself."
Still, it's not a bad idea to learn how to use mana, and even magic. It might open up some more job opportunities.
Plus, I don't want to experience something like those stupid fucking goblins ever again.
Korone nodded along cheerfully before pausing.
"Wait, you don't know how to use mana?"
"Uh, no? I came from another world, remember?"
"I did too silly, But even I knew how to use mana when I got here! Did you never use it in your old world?"
I put my hand on korone's shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes with a smile on my face.
"Korone what the fuck are you talking about."
"???"
"My world doesn't have mana."
"?????"
Korone tilted her head like a dog and looked at me as if I were stupid.
"That doesn't make sense though?"
"How so?"
"People can't exist without mana. We'll die. How do you not know this?"
"... Huh."
Then I gotta have mana too, right?
If that's the case, then where the fuck is my fireball dude?
I'm been trying to do Kamehameha's my whole life, this is bullshit!
Frustrating.
Anyway, if people can't live without mana, then that means one of two things. Well, three things, actually.
1. Mana existed, but we couldn't detect it
2. Mana exists, but only the elite were aware
3. Mana did not exist in my world
These are all equally possible, but there's no way to find out which one is real.
It's not like I can just go back to confirm.
Sigh... I'll just be going in circles at this point. Maybe I should just ignore it and go see if I can even learn at all-
!!!
I stood up abruptly, shocking Korone who was licking her bowl clean.
"Mister, you scare me too much! I almost punched you again!" She cried tearfully while clutching her heart.
"Oh, sorry."
Is your default reaction to being surpised knocking out the nearest person? That's terrifying.
"So, what is it? Don't tell me you did that on purpose..."
"I just had an idea. But first, I need to ask you a couple questions."
"Um. Go ahead, this wise sage will tell you anything."
"How does one contain mana in their body?"
Korone thought for a moment.
"Well, there's this big ball... Hehe, ball..." The dog girl began drooling.
"Focus."
"Right! There's this big ball in your chest thats kinda all ghost-like. Mana is stored there and pumps all throughout your body like blood."
"Right, second question, are you born with this big ball?"
"Yep!"
"I see. Finally, Is it possible to see this ball?"
"Mhm! although I can't do it, someone really good at the magicky stuff can!"
"Can we go visit this magicky person then? I have a theory I need to test, and maybe ask them to teach me."
"Sure! I'll show you around on the way there!"
Korone grabbed my hand and rushed out of the dining hall, pulling me as if I weighed nothing.
.....
....
...
..
.
By the time we got to that person's room, my lungs were on fire.
Korone basically had to drag me after she showed me where A-chans office was.
But at long last, we were standing in front of the magicky person's room. I looked up at her name tag, and felt I had seen this name before.
>Shiranui Flare<
I think she was one of the first people I saw upon entering the building. A-chan addressed her, saying something about water magic.
So why does it feel like I knew her even before that?
My eyes began to throb.
"Hey!"
"Whuh?"
"Are you okay? You froze up for a second."
Again? There's gotta be a better time for all this.
"Yeah, I'm just uh... Nervous."
"Hmm..."
Korone looked me up and down, explicitly avoiding my eyes, before shrugging and cheerfully knocking on the door.
"Flare! We came to play!!"
Who's we? I'm here on super serious business. Magic is no laughing matter.
I'm totally not geeking out at the thought of learning magic.
A few moments passed, and a tan skinned blonde woman opened the door.
"Ah, Koro-san! Hm? Is this the new inmate?"
Please stop using that word, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.
"Yep yep! He has some really nasty eyes that make you all violent and stuff, so he's really cool! He wanted to talk to you about some magic stuffs."
Oh, were we not keeping the eyes thing a secret? I guess it doesn't matter if it gets exposed the moment I make eye contact.
Flare scratched her cheek while wearing a bittersweet expression.
"Interesting. But Koro-san, I'm not that good at magic you know? Someone like shion would be a much better fit."
"Yeah, but shion is always out and about looking for alchemy ingredients. A homebody like you is pretty easy to find!"
"Homebody!? I'm a high grade adventurer y'know!?"
"Which is why you always stay home, your quests pay so much you barely need to do any."
At that surprisingly accurate sting, flare stopped arguing and grumbled, before realizing I was still here.
"Ah, sorry, I shouldn't just leave you standing there, why don't you come on in?"
"Oh, thank you Miss."
"Please, call me flare." She smiled gently.
Flare welcomed us in, and we got a good look at her living space.
And damn, this some gourmet shit.
The room was large, spacious, but didn't feel empty. A small glass table was in the middle of the room, surrounded by fancy leather couches, which thankfully aren't black.
The bed in the corner was massive too. it's fluffy looking pillows and soft looking sheets felt like they were calling to me. Gently coercing me into diving straight in and falling asleep.
On the far wall sat a huge dresser with an equally large mirror. It was clean too, like, REALLY clean.
Now that I think about it, have I ever even seen a clean mirror before? They always have like smudges on them, don't they?
The windows were something else too. Not only did the luxurious curtains scream "rich", but the vibes were immaculate, the afternoon sun bathing the room in orange light.
Potted plants littered the room as well, placed tastefully and also no doubt a result of the tenants possibly elvish nature.
Everything in this room was so expensive, it felt like I'd have to ditch any ideas of retirement if I broke even one thing in here.
I could practically feel the rich people energy soak into me.
"Damn."
That's all I could say in response.
"Hehe, looks like Oji-san is starstruck!"
"Oh, don't be! In fact I haven't really decorated at all, the only thing I added was the plants!"
I whipped around to look at her.
"You mean this is the basic room? Everyone gets something like this?"
"Yep!"
My mouth gaped.
I'm finally moving up in the world.
I flashed back to when I finally bought my first bedframe.
I wasnt just a broke Walmart cashier who slept on a mattress on the floor any more.
The pride and joy of that time came crashing down on me.
Which was quickly dampened by the memory of what happened after.
A fire broke out at my apartment while I was at work, and swept everything away.
The depression quickly brought me back to reality, and I remembered what I came here for.
"Ahem."
I coughed to show a change in topics.
"As Korone said, I have some things to ask you in regards to magic."
"Hmm, I'm not the best at magic, but I should be able to help! Have a seat and tell me what you need."
We all sat down, and got to business.
I looked at flare with utmost seriousness and uttered without a shred of humor.
"I want you to look at my ball."
Korone choked, and flare staggered backwards while blushing.
"You what!?!?"
"???"
Oh, wait.
Is it like one of those situations where you ask to see someones soul, but it's actually a really intimate thing?
"Uhm, look mister, im sure you're a nice person, but that isn't something you can just ask someone you just met!"
Shit, I knew it. How am I gonna fix this?
"Nonono, flare, wait, that's not what he meant!!"
Korone jumped in to correct me, but what does she mean 'not what I meant'?
"Not what he meant?! But he literally just asked me to check his... Privates!"
"Wait, privates? Since when did i-"
Oh.
All emotion left my face, as the realization of what I had just said hit me at full force.
I practically just sexually harassed this girl. If flare decides to report me, I could be fined, or worse, kicked out. And I don't even have a dime right now.
Its over.
I could feel my soul leaving my body as Korone went on full damage control.
"He asked about mana hearts, and I told him that it was just a big ball! Since there's so many different worlds that call it so many different things, I thought it'd be simpler to call it by its shape!"
"A big ball? That doesn't even make sense! A mana heart can come in any shape!"
"Ah, can it really? I didn't know that, ehe..."
Shortly after, the misunderstanding was resolved, and Korone was scolded for causing a misunderstanding with her misinformation.
"Um, sorry about that."
Flare apologized for jumping to conclusions, but honestly Im also at fault for wording it like that. My dumbass mouth often gets me in trouble, and it doesn't help that I swear like a sailor too.
"Don't sweat it, I'm partially at fault too."
"Haha, you're too kind mister."
Now that we've made up and shook on it, it's about time we get back to business.
"Now, can you check my, uh, manaheart."
"Of course, let me come over there."
She approached me and guided me to lie down, before putting her hand on my chest and closing her eyes.
"Checking someones mana heart is actually pretty easy. You just have to probe their chest with some intangible mana."
A chilly sensation entered my ribcage, and and an ice like tendril began snaking around, as if feeling it's surroundings.
"By wrapping your mana around a persons mana heart, you can tell its shape, and affinity."
Slowly but surely, it made its way around my chest searching each and every inch of me.
'No Diddy, of course.'
Plus it's a girl doing it, so it's fine.
But, something seemed wrong.
Flares face as she did this was getting increasingly worried, and the tendril began taking up a lot of space in my chest cavity.
"Sure is taking a while huh?"
"..."
She didn't respond, instead, her face turned to dread.
The mana tendril began moving more frantically, as if reflecting the users mental state.
It got to the point where it was thrashing around in my chest and began to feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Ugh, can you calm down, I feel like I'm about to throw up.."
At that, flare realized she was hurting me, and retracted the tendril.
Sitting up, I tried to look flare in the eyes, but she looked as if she had seen something harrowing and avoided my gaze.
Well, its actually good she did. I completely forgot about the curse.
The atmosphere thickened, with Korone looking between us, confused.
Until eventually, flare spoke. Well, tried to.
"I'm afraid-"
"I don't have a mana heart, do I?"
Flare looked at me, shocked.
"Knew it."
I dragged a hand down my face, and groaned.
"So it was option 3 huh?"
That complicates things.
Korone seemed just as shocked as flare, before almost screaming.
"Wait, whats option 3?!"
"Remember when you said that all people are born with mana and can't live without it?"
"Yeah..."
"AND how I said my world didnt have mana?"
"Yeah....."
"Then that meant one of 3 things. Either my world never discovered mana, mana was gatekept by the elite members of society, or mana never existed at all."
I sighed.
"And if I wasn't even born with a mana heart, there's really only one likely answer."
Korone and flare stared with gaping mouths.
"Uwah, you're an anomaly!"
"Don't say it like that. It sounds discriminatory."
"Sorry!"
"No, more important than that.."
Flare looked at me with an uncannily serious gaze. It wasn't aggressive, but I could sense a faint undertone of suspicion.
"The ED(Extra Dimensional) gate is intrinsically linked to the Sea of Mana, source of all magic."
"As a result, the ED Gate can only function under its influence. In other words it can only appear in places with mana."
Flare locked eyes with me, her voice steady in spite of the curse activating.
"So how did someone like you, who came from outside the Sea of Mana's influence, end up right in the middle of it? How did you get here?"
×Chapter 6: Mana Mysteries×