"...Alright, so what did you learn?"
"That the best way to dispose of something is to eat it?"
"What..."
Despite his magic going horribly wrong and forcing him to maim himself, Jane was more or less unaffected. He himself knew it was abnormal, but there was no denying that he was completely fine with what had happened. In fact, right after cutting off the extra flesh, he had used 'Grow' to heal the other wounded areas of his body, albeit more cautiously.
"That was your own flesh, you know?"
"So? Once it leaves my body, it's just meat. No point wasting it."
"If I teach you more internal magic, you're seriously just going to turn into an abomination..."
"But I would be the same person. Teacher, you care too much about appearances."
"You know what, I can be glad I taught you concealment magic so early on. Now nobody will be able to see your horribly disfigured body."
"I'm not that disfigured, though?"
"You will be soon."
His teacher sighed.
"Do you know what internal magic is?"
"Teacher, I have no idea why you keep asking me things like this. Take a look at me, do I look like someone who knows what internal magic is?"
"You look like a cannibal. That aside, internal magic is a broad term for magic that one applies to their own body in order to achieve certain effects."
"Like that defense magic?"
"Which one?"
"The one you— Fine."
Jane imbued his body with mana, and then applied negated 'Force' runes to it. He added a little extra mana to his mouth and throat, as well, just to make speaking easier.
"This magic."
"What? That wasn't— One moment."
His teacher walked up to him, and clenched his fist. With incredibly poor form, he punched Jane in the chest. Jane's balance was shaken a little, but he was otherwise fine.
"Hmm... You imbued your body with mana?"
"Was I not supposed to do that?"
"Of course not. The... the method that you're using cannot be classified as defense magic."
"Huh? Didn't it just work perfectly fine, though?"
"I admit the effect is fine, but it makes no distinction between your own movements and the attacks of your enemy. With prolonged use, it'll even start destroying your body."
"I see, the problem is the contrast..."
"Whatever you're about to do, don't—!"
His teacher rushed forwards to stop him, but it was already too late. Jane had wrapped his entire body in 'Void' with negated 'Force' runes inside. As he activated the magic...
---
'Huh?'
Jane was sure he had activated the magic, but it seemed like the entire thing had dissipated without him realizing.
"You absolute—"
Ignoring his teacher's gentlemanly expletives, Jane began going over what exactly had happened. Once he put some serious thought into it, it made sense.
'Since I used it on every single part of my body, I ended up unconscious for a second? That aside, it was definitely a success.'
"I'm not hurt at all, so what's the problem?"
"That's a complete coincidence, isn't it? You could have activated any other life-ending spell without even thinking about it, couldn't you? You can only do so many things that 'should kill you' before you really end up dying, you know!?"
"I'll just die when that time comes then. Besides, there's no reason for that spell to have killed me."
"Phew... this disciple of mine... Alright, that's a perfect segue into our topic, at least. To answer your earlier question, yes, what you used was internal magic."
"Wait, if the defen— uh, internal magic I used wasn't defensive magic, then what about what you used? How did you avoid damage to your organs?"
"As fond of tangents as ever, aren't you? My disciple, I will ask you this— what kind of..."
His teacher once again started calling him all kinds of bizarre insults.
"...would think of using that rune, out of all of the runes in the world, on their own body!? And while yes, I used internal magic to achieve that effect, I used the type of runes an actual sane person would."
"You never told me that, though? You made it look like negated 'Force' runes could do everything you showed me."
"Think about it for a second, will you? I showed you how to defend against the effect of physical force. Where exactly did you get 'I should use this on my own body!' from that? Don't you think that's a little too simple?"
"Well, how did you do it then?"
"There is a rune that causes organic beings to start growing. Do you really think there isn't also one that reinforces their body? The negated rune is only for softening the initial blow."
As always was with his teacher, Jane felt that his teacher was right, and yet also felt a bit slighted. His annoyance was only abated by the significant progress he had made in these past few weeks.
"If you're so concerned about me dying, then why don't you teach me that rune?"
"I was going to teach it to you, anyways, but you just had to go ahead and..."
Calex quickly manifested the rune in the air, seeing no point in reprimanding his student further. He was beginning to think that his student would genuinely never learn to have any sort of caution.
Jane immediately replicated the rune inside of his own body, and began punching himself to see the changes.
'Huh. It really does work.'
"My disciple, you learn everything else so quickly, so why..."
He really could not explain it, even if he wanted to. No matter what happened to Jane, he was always willing to accept it without a second thought. Even when he was first kidnapped, he wasn't traumatized at all.
"Anyways, didn't you say that internal magic is really scary?"
"Well, it's not too terrible, if you know how to use it correctly. The real problem comes when people try to... invent... new internal magic..."
'He's definitely talking about me.'
Jane felt a little proud, seeing his teacher becoming as petty as he was.
"So, is this the kind of thing that you have to directly teach me, and won't make me learn on my own?"
"You know, even if I taught you only the safest internal spells, you would still end up harming yourself with them. Wouldn't you?"
"I don't think I can convince you otherwise."
His teacher smiled.
"So it makes no difference in the end, doesn't it? Now, then."
His teacher manifested five distinct runes in the air, once again large enough for Jane to see their structure.
"Only one of these is going to kill you upon use. Do you wish to find out which one it is?"
"Can I get an example of how they're used first?"
"Oh? I thought you wanted to try the runes on yourself, though? I would feel absolutely horrible to rob you of that experience."
"Teacher, I thought about it, and I realized that I don't really want to die."
"If you say so, then. This rune on the right, here, it increases the strength of your muscles, but not their durability. If you tried using this one on it's own, your flesh would tear off of the bone, paralyzing you forever. On the left, there's a rune to prevent that. That one strengthens your flesh."
'In what way are these not supposed to be terrible?'
"Next to it is a rune that increases the strength of your bones. Technically, it works on any inanimate object, but it also works as internal magic. The one I showed you earlier only applies to flesh, so both of these runes are needed to protect oneself from harsh attacks."
Jane narrowed his eyes slightly, engraving the sight of the runes into his mind.
"From the left, this one will increase the speed at which your body repairs itself. It also causes you to age, too. I don't recommend using this one for healing, since it always leaves scars, and doesn't help restore much functionality to serious wounds. Then, can you guess what the remaining one does?"
Jane stared at the rune, deep in thought.
'It looks a little like 'Air'...'
"Since it looks like 'Air', is this the one you thought I was using? A rune that makes you not need to breathe?"
"You know, I sometimes forget that you're supposed to be intelligent. Thankfully, you've just reminded me of that fact. This rune does indeed have that effect. And for maximum efficiency, it should be placed near the heart."
"Teacher, I have a question."
"What is it?"
"If I imbued a weapon with mana, and then attacked someone who was using internal magic, would they die just like a regular person?"
"They would die because you tried to kill them. And yes, their magic would be ignored to some extent, although you would need a truly massive amount of mana to ignore it completely."
"But it's not a valid attacking method, because..."
"Yes, because using plain mana as a means of attack has less effect than using it for a spell. But, my disciple, mana is the single greatest form of defense there is."
"What?"
"Well, watch this."
His teacher casually manifested a rune right inside of Jane's body, and set it off.