Reborn With a Magic System

Damion was somewhat stunned by Ms. Teft just walking away and leaving him to his own devices, but he figured she had other things she needed to do. The plus side of her leaving him to train alone, was that he could use his Mana Absorption spell without worrying about her detecting it.

Over the next few days, Damion pushed himself as hard as he could in the mornings, and then after eating lunch, he would sit in his backyard and meditate. His mother watched him worriedly as he returned every day for lunch drenched in sweat, just to go out and sit in the yard.

Damion however, felt he was making real progress. Every day he thought his mana capacity was creeping up, and while every other knight or mage had to use artifacts to test their mana capacity, Damion just had to ask the system.

'System, status.' Damion thought as he felt his magic core get bloated as Mana Absorption continued to pull mana into his body.

[Magic System]

[Full System unlock in 2:321:10:15:42]

[System Level: 1]

[User: Damion Wells]

[Age: 15]

[Magic Talent: Locked]

[Magic Affinity: Locked]

[Mana: 450/380]

[Magic Power: Locked]

[Mana Recovery: Locked]

[Strength: 65]

[Dexterity: 78]

[Vitality: 95]

[Intelligence: 130]

[Experience: 700/1,000]

[Store Credits: 11]

'I am making progress,' Damion thought as he looked over his stats.

Completing the graveyard dungeon had advanced his quests from the system for any Ferocious Beast, E Rank and even D Rank, but he was still short of the experience required to level up the Magic System. Damion was not sure what would happen if he leveled up the system, but he was hoping it would unlock his affinity, so he would not have to wait until his eighteenth birthday.

'It would still be nice even if it only unlocked magic power and magic recovery. Then I could at least see where my power level is compared to others.'

Every afternoon it took Damion only a few minutes with the help of his Mana Absorption spell to get his magic core overfilled so that he could start working to compress his mana. What Damion discovered was that the more overfilled his magic core was, the easier it was to compress his mana. He supposed this was because the more overfilled his core was the more his core was already compressing the mana to hold it in.

Since Damion could not see his magic power, he was guessing that it was increasing. Since his total mana was only increasing slightly, he guessed his magic power was jumping up instead, or so he hoped.

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At the end of their one week agreement Damion met with Ms. Teft outside the city to see how much progress he had made. After pulling the test dummy out of her spatial artifact she stepped back and let Damion test his progress.

As the week before, Damion focused and channeled his mana into his sword. Doing his best to mimic the overhead strike he performed the week before, Damion brought his sword down on the test dummy. After sheathing his sword Damion turned to Ms. Teft to find out how he faired.

"466," Ms. Teft told him.

"I thought I would have made it this time," Damion pouted.

"Don't sell yourself short. Increasing your magic power by more than 40 points in a single week is quite the accomplishment."

"I guess I have another week of hard work ahead of me."

"Perhaps more than just another week," Ms. Teft told Damion.

"More? But if I improved by 46 points after just one week I'm sure I can improve by 40 in another week."

"As you grow, it becomes harder to advance. It will take more and more time and effort to increase your mana capacity and magic power."

"So, I should practice for another two weeks?"

"I like your optimism," Ms. Teft said with a chuckle. "At your level, with how you are currently advancing, after another two weeks you should certainly be able to strike the test dummy with more than 500 magic power."

"Do you think I should take some missions instead? Get more practical experience."

"Practical experience is good, and while it will increase your overall combat power, it probably won't do as much to increase your raw magic power."

"Another couple of weeks of training it is then."

"When you focus on pulling mana into your core, do you feel it is easy or difficult?" Ms. Teft's question caught Damion off-guard and he was not sure how to answer.

"What difference does it make?" Damion asked, trying to figure out how to answer Ms. Teft.

"Just searching for clues to your mana affinity."

"How does the effort of pulling mana in provide clues to my affinity?"

"If it is easy to pull the mana in, then you are probably in an area that has a lot of mana that matches your magic affinity. If it is hard to pull in the mana, then you are probably in an area that has low mana that you are compatible with."

"I guess I need to try meditating in different places to figure out if it is easy or hard. I don't really have a point of reference," Damion carefully dodged answering Ms. Teft. Given that he was using his Mana Absorption spell to pull in mana, he really was not sure how to tell if the mana he is pulling in is more compatible or not.

"Well, you can try that in the future. What you have been doing so far is effective. No point in changing your training when you are so close to your goal."

After that Ms. Teft headed back into the city, leaving Damion to continue his training. As Damion ran, he pondered Ms. Teft's question and how to figure out an answer. His meditation so far had been taking place inside the city, in his family's backyard. Damion was not sure what types of mana were in abundance in his backyard, nor was he aware of how to figure it out.

For the next two weeks Damion focused on his training. For the most part he did not change his routine. What Damion did change was that he tried to sense the mana in his backyard and try to pull it into his magic core. Unfortunately, Damion did not have much luck in figuring out if he was compatible with the mana in his backyard or not.

Since he could not determine if he was compatible with the ambient mana, Damion resumed using Mana Absorption. With the use of the spell, Damion realized that some part of the spell must alter the ambient mana to make it easier to absorb. How the spell accomplished this, Damion figured he would have to find out in the future. Right now, he needed to focus on increasing his magic power and the best way to do that was his Mana Absorption spell.

*Ding*

[Spell Mana Absorption mastery increased to E Rank]

As soon as the system message popped up for Damion he opened the spell menu to see how the spell had changed.

[Mana Absorption - Passive - (E Rank Absorbs 8 Mana P/S) Absorbs mana from ambient mana in the atmosphere. Can absorb a greater amount of mana by touch, depending on mana in object touched.]

After the notification, Damion instantly noticed the difference in the power of the spell. It was not a lot, only a little more than a 50% increase, but it was enough. Damion continued to let the mana flow into his magic core and he focused on trying to compress it tightly together. As glad as Damion was to have his Mana Absorption skill increase in mastery, he needed to focus on his training and Damion figured the more he used his skill the faster it would level.