Mercury read through the book, " I see, no wonder this spell, does this even count as a spell?" Mercury didn’t know.
" According to this book, bolt is the foundation of all magic, mastering this technique can allow one to become the strongest mage in the world.
Of course that’s just an exaggeration." Mercury didn’t believe that for one bit but one he did believe was that the technique suited him.
" Apparently while impressive, it’s quite wasteful, so much so that only 40 percent of the mana is used on the technique.
You lose 60 percent of your mana, no wonder nobody uses it, nobody has that much mana to waste, let see."
Mercury decided to try out the technique, it was very simple and primitive, it didn’t require any special manipulation of mana like spells did.
Mercury closed his eyes and moved his mana to his palm, pure mana was normally invisible unless gathered to a dense enough level.
At first nothing happened, visually that is but he could feel the mana accumulating on his palm.
After an entire minute, the mana became visible taking a light bluish glow, ’ The next step is to shape the mana.’
Unlike a spell which requires visualisation to take form, he needed to actively shape the bolt technique.
Mercury imagined a ball but nothing happened, he concentrated on the mana on his palm.
’ It feels like a part of my body, like a limb but one that’s very hard to control, it’s like trying to control a broken arm.’
Veins throbbed on his forehead, trying to shape the mana was placing a mental strain on him.
" The book did say mastering the technique required a strong spirit or willpower but I don’t think my willpower is lacking."
Mercury lost focus and the mana dispersed, he absorbed the mana in the air increasing his mana pool by 40 percent.
" It’s unfortunate I don’t have a standard way to measure my mana pool but it’s at least three times that of Marcus.
Considering he’s a son of a duke, I would say I’m quite impressive, perhaps only the Emperor has more mana than me now."
Of course Mercury understood that meant absolutely nothing if his output could not match his.
It wasn’t merely because of his curse, it’s also for the same reason students like Marcus weren’t stronger than the teachers even when they have more mana.
Increasing ones output required learning new spells which requires years of training which students don’t have.
As for him, " I just need to master this bolt technique, before adding elemental mana, I need to learn to shape pure mana first."
He took a deep breath and continued his training until nightfall. " Finally yes, I’ve done it." Mercury felt genuinely excited.
For the first time since waking up in this stupid world he felt hope, " With this, I can surpass those bastards."
He carried the mana bolt outside, it was just a blue sphere of, he threw it like a baseball, it hit the ground a hundred metres away leaving a small crater.
" It’s power is underwhelming, less than the fireball and I used three time more mana, this is genuinely ineffective.
Let try it this way." He formed another bolt but this time he added fire turning it into a fireball.
Or rather a fire bolt, he fired the fire bolt, it exploded 30 metres away sending a wave of heat everywhere.
" It seems to have about the same power as a fireball but adding elemental mana required a bit more mana than last time.
Same power as a fireball while requiring more than 3 times the mana, nobody can sustain this."
His body absorbed mana from the surroundings, it stopped after a while, " My mana pool increased again but it’s negligible.
Without meditation and actively absorbing the ambient mana, it seems increasing my mana pool will not be as easy.
Even the absorption speed is a bit slow, this means I can run out of mana during battle of my expenditure surpasses the regeneration speed, that’s a bummer."
Mercury decided to spend more time training, he figured out his limits soon after.
" I can’t make the bolt of any element stronger than F rank but that isn’t the limit of the technique.
My spirit isn’t strong enough, if I try to add more mana I lose control and the technique falls apart, not to mention the headache that follows.
However I can get stronger, I can make my spirit stronger, three days, in three days I’ll make a bolt at E rank."
Mercury continued training for hours, at 04:00 am he sat cross legged and started his meditation.
It ended at 06:30 am, he didn’t stop because he wanted to, he could no longer continue, like using bolt, absorbing mana took a strain.
It was like using his muscles but for the mind and very tiring. " My mana pool tripled but this seems to be my limit."
His head felt like it was splitting apart, it was even worse than when he practiced bolt to the point of exhaustion.
He put 5 of the rings the dwarf gave him, each ring was stronger than his bracelet, his mana was suppressed to 10 percent of his full mana.
" Holy hell these rings are powerful, if I had put 10 of them I might’ve died from mana exhaustion."
That was a real threat for everybody, when ones mana dropped to zero they drop dead as well.
That’s why chains and cuffs made with the void mana stones were carefully chosen to suppress the mana of criminals.
Using a weaker stone means the criminal can cast a spell and break free and using one too strong meant death.
The stones are measured such that the mana doesn’t drop below two percent, no spell worth anything can be cast with less than 2 percent mana.
Not to mention when your mana is that low you enter a state of weakness, actually the weakened state start at 15 percent.
" Fuck, I’m exhausted." He dragged his body to his room and went to sleep, by the time he woke it was already noon.
" Time for more training." He trained his speed next, he could now form a very stable F rank bolt.
But he still needed around 5 seconds to form one, that was worse than the speed of casting a fireball.
After eating and showering he trained relentlessly. By the end of the day he had dropped the casting time to 3 seconds.
He meditated, his mana pool merely increased by 70 percent. " My absorption speed hasn’t dropped but it hasn’t increased either.
My willpower is still too weak, at this rate, the increase of my mana pool will drop." Mercury sighed and went to sleep.
’ Tomorrow, another day of training.’
Bang bang bang, Mercury was woken up by the sound of something banging his door. " Damnit what is it!" He shouted in annoyance.
" Mercury, come out here now!" A voice screamed back.
" Fuck."