Chapter 37: Mana Breathing

“Soo… did you see the news yesterday?” Renji asked while holding the basketball at his side as they walked through the hallway.

They were very early, so they could lounge around until classes officially started. That didn’t mean they could do practically anything they wanted, though.

The Disciplinary Committee members were patrolling the halls like hawks, even in Class 5’s building, which was supposed to be the least important.

“What happened on the news? Was it about a monster attack or something?” Kōya asked, his mind going to the more serious threats.

There had been some news about a Gold-class monster… also known as a city destroyer en route to Omni Supercity.

They could easily decimate an entire city, and though they couldn’t break through the barriers surrounding the supercities, they would most probably be able to weaken them significantly which was why the monster had to be handled before it arrived.

However, that was not his problem at all. It was not within his jurisdiction so it was none his concern.

“No, dumbass. You were on the news… the whole world probably knows about you now since ALI is so popular internationally,” Renji said with a grin. “Which means you get more babes throwing themselves at you… You have to teach me the way, Master.”

They arrived outside Class 5’s door, and Kōya stepped in with a shake of his head.

“I’m not interested,” he muttered under his breath as he walked over to his seat by the window.

Renji walked quickly behind him, undeterred by the rejection as they sat down.

“What do you mean by you’re not interested? Don’t you want to sprawl yourself wide with different women on each arm and then grope their brea— Ouch!”

Someone hit him sharply on the head, and Renji turned to see Mio standing there. She still had the perpetually tired eyes, but she was a lot warmer today and looked very friendly.

“You’re infecting Kōya-kun with your pervertedness… everyone’s looking at you,” Mio told him flatly.

Renji looked around the classroom.

The girls who had already arrived, as well as other guys, were giving him disgusted stares. He visibly deflated and his shoulders slumped.

Mio looked at Kōya with a softer expression.

“You look well-rested this morning, Kōya-kun. How is Reona-chan doing?”

“She’s good. She took a day off from school today, though,” Kōya replied with a casual shrug. “I had to make arrangements for her so I could move into the dorms today without worrying.”

Mio smiled as if she was genuinely delighted by the news.

“What a coincidence… I also had to move my little sister as well. She’s living with my aunt in the city no—”

“Wait… both of you have little sisters? Good, good! Introduce me!” Renji interrupted with an eager smile.

A vein popped on Kōya’s forehead visibly. He felt like strangling this bastard right here and now.

As for Mio, it took everything in her power to hide her murderous intent and not kill him on the spot.

’Calm down… he’s not my target,’ she reminded herself firmly. ’Besides, if I killed his best friend, Kōya-kun would hate me forever.’

That would be bad for her long-term plan.

“So, Renji-kun, you moved into the dorms yesterday already… can you tell us how they are?” Mio asked to get her mind off violent thoughts. Besides, she was genuinely interested in the information.

Kōya already knew the basics from the manga, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a firsthand debrief of the actual situation.

“Oh right, the dorms are split into several buildings from Class 1 through 5,” Renji explained enthusiastically. “Class 1 is the most luxurious building… like a five-star hotel while Class 5 is the least luxurious. There were even personal maids in the Class 1 building assigned to each student, and they looked damn hot.”

He glanced at Mio’s face, and his own paled in fear as she stared directly into his eyes.

It felt like she wanted to murder him slowly.

“Maa, maa, I digress,” he said quickly, backtracking. “The Class 5 dorm isn’t bad, but it’s not luxurious either since it’s for the lowest of the low at the Academy. Also, the rooms are meant for two people sharing. It’s like living in your own mini-apartment, except you’re sharing it with another person. The grouping is co-ed too, so if you’re lucky, you could get paired with a lady.”

Renji fell dramatically onto his knees, his eyes finding one brown-haired boy sitting not too far away. The guy had a piece of pocky in his mouth and looked completely average.

“But they gave me him!” Renji lamented, pointing accusingly.

The brown-haired young man turned around with a hurt expression.

“Hey… you said you enjoyed being my roommate last night! I even let you have my private supply of—”

Renji stopped him by lifting a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture. Kōya and Mio both gave him highly suspicious looks.

“You know what… I’m not even interested in hearing about the dorms anymore,” Mio said flatly.

“Since I got paired with a man… it’s obvious you’ll get paired with a man too, Kōya-kun,” Renji said while sitting back up properly. “Not everyone has moved into the dorms yet, but we’re already seeded into pairs. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up in the same room with Koichi-san…?”

He pointed across the classroom to a man who sat at the far corner. He was bigger than even Kōya, with an impressively muscular figure that strained against his uniform.

“He didn’t even show up for Tanzaki-sensei’s test yesterday. I guess that’s what happens when your father is one of the well-known merchants in the city… you get special privileges.”

Despite Koichi being only a one-liner according to the class roster, Kōya could sense an impressive amount of mana coming from the guy.

It was dense and well-controlled.

’And here I thought Class 5 barely had any real talents,’ Kōya thought with mild surprise then Mio dropped something on his desk with a soft thud.

It was a bento box, wrapped in a cute cloth.

“Kōya-kun, I made extra lunch this morning, so I packed some for you,” Mio said while lowering her head slightly, playing every bit the shy high school girl perfectly. “While it’s nice to order from the cafeteria… you need to save up your Individual Points for more important things.”

With that, she bowed politely and returned to her seat.

The next instant, Renji grabbed Kōya by the collar of his uniform and shook him violently.

“You… You wizard! What kind of spell are you using on these women?!” Renji demanded while shaking him like a ragdoll.

“Oi, let go of me. You’re supposed to be the one with experience,” Kōya said, prying his hands off.

Then he turned his attention to the lunch box, examining it carefully.

’System, scan this…’ Kōya thought while looking at the innocent-seeming bento. He immediately wanted to know if she’d poisoned it or spiked it with something.

Better to be safe than sorry, especially with an assassin.

「10 FP for scan」

’Why am I paying…? You helped me scan those textbooks in the library for free,’ Kōya narrowed his eyes at the notification.

「That was a free trial」

’Free trial my ass,’ he thought with irritation.

He had the points, but he refused to give in to this scoundrel that disguised itself as a helpful System.

’Just tell me the percentage chance of this being poisoned.’

「There is a 0% chance of Kamemori Mio poisoning or spiking this lunch pack.」

’See? That wasn’t so hard,’ Kōya thought as he absorbed the bento into his storage ring.

Just then, the first bell rang throughout the building.

There were immediate sounds of shuffling feet… a lot of them, apparently as everyone rushed into the classroom.

The chairs that had been barely half-full in Class 5 were now completely occupied. Everyone sat in their seats, waiting for their first professor of the day.

’I hope we get Saki-sensei again,’ Kōya thought.

This was morning time… he needed to loosen stress, not gain more by listening to that insufferable History professor yap his entire life story away and it seemed like his prayers were answered as Saki stepped into the room.

Her hair was a bit disheveled, and her lab coat was slightly wrinkled, but the professor’s appearance made several students in the classroom exhale in visible relief.

It seemed they wouldn’t be getting that annoying Shusuke today.

“Hey, everyone! It seems I’ll be your professor again today!” she exclaimed as she rushed over to the desk with an energetic smile. “And I hope there are no class moles like Tanaka-kun planted here again.”

Tanaka paled visibly in his seat.

On his previously handsome face, there were real wounds now… he had bruises, a split lip, and even a black eye.

It seemed members of Class 5 had ganged up on the guy and beaten him up properly for his betrayal.

“No, Professor Saki!” the students exclaimed in unison.

“Very good!” Saki clapped her hands together with satisfaction. “Even though I’m your homeroom teacher… I didn’t do my job as a homeroom teacher properly yesterday. We spent too much time on that sparring exercise that I didn’t have enough time to actually teach class content. So we’ll be covering important material today.”

The students immediately focused and she liked that immediate attention.

Saki lifted up her Holo-cane and pointed it at the board behind her.

“For today’s lesson, we are going to learn mana breathing techniques,” Saki announced as an image of a scroll appeared on the Holoboard. “They were created by the White King and his twelve disciples, who are now known as the Elders of the Great Clans… each breathing technique brings out the best potential in your mana. Breathing carries oxygen around the blood, right?”

The students nodded in understanding.

“In our blood and bodies, as long as we have awakened, mana exists naturally,” Saki continued, her tone shifting to something more educational. “By using mana breathing techniques, you’re consciously drawing out and circulating that mana, even though the amount is initially small and that small change could bring about massive improvements to your combat ability and mana capacity.”

She stretched out her arm for demonstration.

“This is my arm, right?”

“Yes, Professor.” several students responded.

Saki took a deep, deliberate breath, and there was an obvious change in the atmosphere around her.

The air seemed to shimmer and darken slightly then the students could see mana forming around her body like a visible silhouette, a blue-ish glow that outlined her form.

“When you gather enough mana with mana breathing and maintain the circulation… you reach a state called Mana Mode, which is where the mana covers your entire body like a protective aura,” she explained.

To give a practical example, she whipped the Holo-cane down sharply.

It generated enough force to split the ground below her in small cracks, spider-webbing out from the impact point.

Several students gasped at the display of power.

“Yes, mana breathing not only helps gather mana for casting spells, but it can also drastically strengthen the physical body,” Saki said with satisfaction. “Now you see this concentrated mana I’ve gathered? If I focus it specifically in this hand…”

She shifted the visible mana aura, and it intensified around her hand holding the cane while leaving the rest of her body.

The glow became almost blindingly bright. She brought the cane down again, and what followed was a small shockwave.

Wind scattered violently across the classroom sending papers flying and hair whipping.

When it stopped, the podium had been completely destroyed, reduced to splinters but then it began somehow rebuilding itself out of nothing, the pieces floating back together like a reversed footage.

“That’s mana breathing in a nutshell… if you had known mana breathing techniques, then you wouldn’t have done nearly that badly in the test that Tanzaki-sensei set for you yesterday,” she said while placing down the Holo-cane on the table casually.

She put a hand on her waist.

“This is a fundamental skill that separates competent Awakened from fodder.”

An aide entered the classroom pushing a cart and began placing mana-breathing scrolls on each of their desks, one per person.

Kōya received his and looked at it carefully.

It was as expected from the manga… a basic mana breathing scroll.

It had a specific chant written in flowing script, and you needed to recite the chant while consciously gathering mana to activate the technique.

Chantless breathing like what Saki did could be achieved when you had completely mastered the technique and internalized the mana circulation pattern.

However, at this rank, it was basically impossible since the chants made it significantly easier to gather mana into their crests.

They hadn’t become red or blue-liners yet, so their bodies still couldn’t produce that much mana independently.

「Basic Scroll has been scanned」

「Common Skill: Basic Mana Breathing (E)」

「Type: Passive」

「Would you like to add this Skill to your skill tree?」

「Y / N」

’I really thought they’d give us higher-quality techniques, but I guess this is what Class 5 gets, huh?’ he thought with resignation.

He was more or less surprised that the System could just scan scrolls and automatically grant him the abilities without needing to practice.

’I guess that’s an upside of having this thing.’

He mentally selected ’Yes.’

「Common Skill: Basic Mana Breathing (E) has been added to Skill Tree」

「The System is in shock that you took such a low-ranking skill and has decided to grant you a Skill Upgrade option…」

’What? The System’s actually doing a good thi—’

「For 4,000 FP」

Kōya’s expression turned immediately downcast, the disappointment was written across his face.

’Of course there’s a catch.’

’Whatever… if it helps me gather mana better, it’s worth the investment,’ Kōya thought pragmatically.

Mana Mode would be extremely useful in the Outer Zone, especially since he was planning to head there immediately after school periods were over today.

He confirmed the purchase.

「Skill Upgrade has been completed」

「Common Skill: Basic Mana Breathing (E) → Unique Skill: Elite Mana Breathing (A)」

「You’re welcome」

’Acting haughty while spending my own money,’ he thought with annoyance.

Saki raised up her Holo-cane to get everyone’s attention again.

“Alright, class is only going to end once a significant number of you have successfully activated Mana Breathing for the first time!” she exclaimed with enthusiasm. “Let’s head to the training hall where you’ll have space to practice safely!”

The students followed her out of the classroom with scrolls in hand, chattering excitedly.

They were genuinely eager to learn this fundamental skill.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep