Chapter 4: Basics of Mana Control

Chapter 4: Basics of Mana Control

The lecture hall for Foundational Magic was an amphitheater of polished marble, a stark and intimidating stage for Kaelen’s first formal lesson. He sat in the highest, most isolated row, a deliberate void of empty seats surrounding him. The whispers had faded, replaced by a more potent form of ostracization: a cold, pointed silence. Down in the front row, Elara sat with perfect posture, her silver braid a slash of purity against the dark wood of her desk. She hadn't glanced his way once, yet he could feel the weight of her contempt like a physical pressure.

His goal for the day was deceptively simple: don't break anything. Don't cause a scene. Just survive.

The obstacle arrived in the form of their instructor, Master Valerius. A man with a severe face and a hand that was a latticework of old burn scars, he moved with the grim efficiency of a veteran soldier. His eyes, sharp and unforgiving, swept across the room and lingered on Kaelen for a beat too long. He had clearly been briefed by Warden Thorne.

"Magic is will," Valerius began, his voice cutting through the hall's pristine silence. "Before you can conjure a flame or mend a crack, you must learn to feel the mana that flows within you. It is a river. Calm. Placid. You must reach into that river, cup it in your will, and guide its flow."

He demonstrated, holding up his unscarred hand. A soft, warm light bloomed in his palm, steady and unwavering. "Feel your river. Let it answer your call."

A low murmur filled the room as the other students closed their eyes in concentration. Soon, small, tentative lights began to appear above their desks. A flickering flame here, a shimmering orb of blue light there. Elara, naturally, produced a globe of pure white light that was a miniature, flawless echo of her performance at the Attunement ceremony.

Kaelen closed his eyes, desperate to feel the "placid river" Valerius described. He reached inward, searching for that gentle flow.

He found no river. What he found was a maelstrom.

It wasn't a gentle stream but a howling, icy vortex threatening to tear his consciousness apart. It was the same terrifying energy he’d felt in the abyss—the Void. It roared with a chilling hunger, vast and untameable. The Suppressor collar on his neck felt like a thin leather strap trying to restrain a leviathan. Trying to "cup" this power with his will was like trying to catch a hurricane in a teacup. Even touching the edges of it made his head spin and his vision blur with black spots.

The cold voice in his head suddenly activated.

[New Skill Detected: Mana Sense (Void Affinity)] [Description: Allows the user to perceive the flow of mana. Due to Void Affinity, conventional mana sources are muted while chaotic/spatial energies are amplified.] [Current Level: 1 (0.0%)]

[New Skill Detected: Focus] [Description: Enhances mental concentration and resistance to internal and external distractions.] [Current Level: 1 (0.0%)]

The pop-ups were a welcome, if clinical, distraction from the internal chaos. They didn't solve his problem, but they named it. His mana wasn't like theirs. His senses were tuned to a different, more violent frequency.

"You, in the back," Valerius's voice snapped Kaelen’s eyes open. "The Warden's charity case. Why is there no light above your desk?"

"I... I can't feel it, sir," Kaelen stammered, his voice hoarse. "Not like you described."

Valerius strode up the marble steps, his scarred hand resting on the hilt of a plain, rune-less sword at his belt. He stopped before Kaelen's desk, looming over him. "Of course, you can't. You're trying to draw from a well when you're shackled to an abyss. Your task is not the same as theirs. Theirs is to draw water. Yours is to not drown."

The instructor's blunt assessment was brutal, yet strangely, it was the first time anyone had acknowledged the sheer difference in his predicament.

"For the rest of the term," Valerius declared, his voice ringing through the hall, "while your classmates practice shaping mana, you will practice only one thing: holding it back. You will sit. You will feel the storm inside you. And you will use every ounce of your will to build a wall against it. You will not let a single drop spill over. That is your only lesson."

The grueling mental exercises began. For hours, Kaelen sat in that hall, long after the other students had departed for more engaging lessons. Valerius would stand watch, his arms crossed, his expression unyielding. Kaelen’s task was an agonizing exercise in futility. He would use his new [Focus] skill, pushing against the roaring tide within. The pressure was immense, a constant, crushing force that gave him blinding headaches and made his nose bleed.

[Focus skill experience gained: +0.1%] [Focus skill experience gained: +0.2%]

The progress was agonizingly slow, measured in fractions of a percentage. Every second was a battle. He would build a mental dam, and the Void would smash against it. He would reinforce it, and the pressure would find a new crack. It was the most exhausting thing he had ever done, and there was nothing to show for it but a trembling body and a blood-soaked handkerchief.

Days turned into a week. He became a ghost in the academy, shuffling from his sparse dormitory room to the lecture hall, his face pale and drawn. The scorn of his peers became a background hum to the roaring in his own mind.

One evening, stumbling back to his room after a particularly brutal session, he leaned against a corridor wall, his head throbbing. He let his [Mana Sense] skill passively drift, a habit he'd formed to distract from the pain. He could faintly perceive the muted "rivers" of the other students behind their dorm room doors. He could feel the soft, steady hum of the enchanted lights in the ceiling.

Then, he felt something else.

It was a different kind of hum. Sharper, more complex. It was a thin, silver thread of energy woven into the very stones of the wall. It felt geometric, precise, and achingly familiar. It resonated with the same fundamental energy as his own Rift-Walk, but where his was a chaotic tear, this was a perfectly controlled stitch. He followed the thread with his senses, tracing it down the corridor. It was a network, a web of impossibly fine lines of power.

A teleportation ward.

A glimmer of hope, the first he'd felt since arriving, ignited in his chest. He couldn't control his own power, but he could feel this. His unique affinity made him sensitive to it in a way no one else could be.

That night, unable to sleep, Kaelen slipped out of his room. The corridors were dark and silent. Driven by a desperate need to understand something about his power, he followed the threads of the teleportation ward network, using his [Focus] skill to sharpen his [Mana Sense]. The web led him deep into the quieter, older sections of the academy, towards the sealed entrances to the lower levels. The air grew colder here, the magic heavier, more ancient.

He found a junction, a point where several powerful wards converged on a single, massive, iron-bound door. The energy here was so dense it made his teeth buzz. He was about to retreat when he heard voices from around the corner.

He pressed himself into an alcove, holding his breath. Two senior students, clad in dark, hooded cloaks, crept into view. They stopped near the iron door, their voices low and urgent.

"Are you sure the resonance is coming from in there?" one whispered, his voice tight with a mixture of fear and greed.

"The divining rod doesn't lie," the other replied. "It's in one of the lower vaults. The 'Void-touched' artifact. Master Kaelus's notes said it leaks chaotic energy, a beacon for anything that knows how to listen."

Kaelen’s blood ran cold. Void-touched.

"Just think of the power," the first student hissed. "They say it can stabilize unstable magic, even amplify it. It would be worth a fortune... or a Magus Lordship."

"It's also guarded by a dozen runic golems and a curse that can unravel a man's soul," the second student countered grimly. "We need a key, or a way to bypass the wards. It's impossible."

They spoke for another minute before their nerve broke, and they retreated back the way they came, disappearing into the shadows.

Kaelen remained frozen in the alcove, his heart pounding. An artifact. A Void-touched artifact, hidden deep within the academy. Something that resonated with the same chaotic energy that he was fighting a losing battle to contain. The students saw it as a source of power, a treasure. Kaelen saw something else.

He saw a possible answer. Or a way to make his problem infinitely worse.