Chapter 16: C16 – Mana Heart

After reading the section, the duke smiled at Dirk. It didn't take a genius to realize how insane this technique was. However, contrary to the duke's expectations, Dirk finished reading the page and nodded. 

"This looks good. It says that once you finish enhancing all of your skin, you'll be placed in the third overall Anima rank. You'll also have extremely resilient skin that's more accepting toward Anima, letting you have an easier time absorbing it. Duke Hillshire, are all the sections like the skin one?"

Dirk asked the duke who seemed knowledgeable about the book's contents. With a weird gaze, the duke answered him. 

"Each section goes through the main systems of your body like the muscles, veins, organs, bones, and even the brain. After each one, the body as a whole is strengthened a level, and you'll gain a perk related to the section. So yes, they're all similar."

"Hmm... I think I like it."

"You like it? This manual is basically torture, and you like it?"

The duke asked with an incredulous gaze. He was beginning to think that Dirk had read something entirely different. 

Dirk just shrugged.

"It looks painful, but pain shouldn't stop you from doing anything. Why wouldn't you want to push through it and gain the strength given by one of the best training techniques?"

"It's not as simple as pushing through pain, kid. That's half the battle. The other half is recovery, and as you climb the levels, it gets progressively worse. Tell me, while all the skin on your hands is destroyed, bleeding, and weak, how are you going to properly cast magic? How are you going to eat food? And what about your feet? When the skin on your soles is destroyed, how are you going to walk or run? You'll be sitting on your ass for weeks, and that's only for one cycle of destruction.

Each section of skin takes several destruction cycles, and you have to go through all of the skin on your body. Although each cycle shortens as you gain Anima, promoting faster recovery, you still have to get through that initial period of healing. Now, although you might be able to rely on your parents for healing potions to speed up the process, that can get expensive and it's up to them if they'll pay for it all."

The duke ended, causing Dirk to pause in thought.

"...If I need to, I can go and work for any money I might need. But I don't think I would need any potions. I just graduated school, so if I can enhance the soles of my feet and my hands before I enter the academy, then I wouldn't need to worry about being unable to function."

"That is true but... Sigh, kid, I wasn't serious about you training this technique. Look, there are other techniques that would suit you well, so why don't we look at those?"

"Sorry Duke Hillshire, but I feel I should train this technique."

Dirk spoke outright to the Duke, his voice serious. As he thought about it more, he was increasingly drawn to the technique. It was almost perfect for him, and when he read the perks it gave for the skin enhancement, he knew that this was the one. 

Seeing his conviction, the duke felt conflicted. He almost felt sorry for Dirk's parents as he seemed to have sent Dirk down the path of self torture unintentionally. However, he suddenly thought of something. A compromise. 

"You know what? We don't have to decide this now. Here, I'll send you home with 2 other training manuals as well as this one. Read them all, and in one week, let me know about your decision."

Saying that, the duke waved two other books over and set them on the table. Ryker quickly agreed with the duke's suggestion.

"Indeed. Let's do that. You'll have time to go over the books more and ponder."

"Understood."

Dirk could only nod in assent. The duke chimed in once more. 

"And by the way, if one technique doesn't fit you, you'll be able to change it. The training methods of Anima are pretty universal, so you won't harm yourself unless you suddenly switch to a different one while at a high level. That's not something you have to worry about any time soon though, so while you're young, you'll be able to try a couple and find the best fit."

"Understood."

"Good. Now we can move on to your Mana training manual. Unlike Anima though, once you choose one and start training it, you won't be able to change it. Especially if it's one of the advanced ones like what I'm going to show you. The methods vary wildly, and switching techniques can be extremely dangerous. So, you must choose wisely. Of course, your parents and I are here for guidance, so don't hesitate to ask questions."

"I understand."

"Then let's start. You're the fire, earth, and dark element. You also have two specialties. I'm thinking you'll be better off with a universal technique instead of a specialized one. What do you think, Strider?"

The duke turned to Ryker, who nodded.

"I agree. I don't wish to force him down any one path with a narrow technique."

"Very well. Here, take a look at these."

The duke waved over some more books and set them on the table. There were 3, and Dirk took a look at each one. 

"There aren't many universal techniques that can properly accommodate multiple elements. Usually people will only have two or three attributes that aren't specialized and are only basic elements. But you not only have two specialties, but the dark element as well. Luckily, universal techniques that can accommodate everything aren't incredibly rare, although they can differ in difficulty tremendously. Take this one for example. The Ambient Immersion Technique, specialized in merging your body with the environmental mana and becoming one with the world around you. It's definitely one of the more difficult ones."

The duke pointed to one of the books, and Dirk went to go open it. He quickly flipped through the pages, every single one being scanned by his AI automatically.

The books that the duke placed in front of him weren't exactly short. They all consisted of diagrams and long descriptions, ensuring that the reader was able to properly understand what they would feel and how to move forward. Plus, they had to describe the technique at every tier. 

"Excuse me, Duke Hillshire, but what's the highest tier one can attain?"

Dirk asked this as he closed the book. The book described its technique until tier 6, and Dirk wasn't sure if that was good or bad. 

The duke answered.

"The highest tier one can attain, so far, is tier 8. The Emperor and almost every duke in this empire is tier 8. Your father happens to be a tier 7."

"So you, Duke Hillshire, are tier 8?"

"Yes, I am a tier 8."

"I see. So why does this technique only go to tier 6?"

"That's because the creator only advanced to tier 6 with this technique."

The duke spoke with a smile.

"Nearly every technique that you find will only go until tier 6. From there, one usually must continue advancing the technique on their own, thereby creating their own unique technique. This can be considered one of the requisites to advance past tier 6. After all, every tier 7 is a unique existence, so they must have their own unique technique. You'll figure this out as you climb the tiers. For now, don't worry about it."

"Understood."

"So, what'd you think about that technique?"

The duke pointed to a second book Dirk had flipped through while they talked. Dirk nodded. 

"The Circle Core Technique is interesting. You form a magic circle within your body for each attribute, and then utilize them as cores, slowly developing them across each tier."

"Indeed. This one is one of the medium difficulty ones. In general, Mana techniques will evolve across each tier. The techniques that have stood the test of time have found the best development route, making advancement through the tiers streamlined and surefire. With them, you won't have to worry about a step in the process not giving the correct results. Of course, this more or less only applies to the good ones. There are many other low class techniques that will only reliably bring you to tier 3 or 4 or 5. Luckily, you won't have to worry about that. 

The only thing you have to worry about is picking a technique that's right for you and then sticking with it. How far you go after that depends on your talent. The only unfortunate thing that most people have to deal with is the fact that everyone has to pick their techniques at a young age. It's difficult to choose one when you don't understand your combat style, personality, or skills."

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The duke spoke with a sigh, and Dirk nodded in understanding. Selecting a technique based on one's combat style would indeed be incredibly advantageous. But if you didn't know where your talents lied or how you wished to carry yourself through conflict, you could only pick a technique blindly. However, there was one unobvious benefit to picking at a young age. You could develop yourself around the technique, maximizing your strengths. 

Luckily though, Dirk didn't need to worry about these things. He was young and knew his fighting style. Though, picking a mana cultivation technique would still be difficult. After all, he's never fought with magic. He could only make an educated guess on what he should pick based on everything he knew about himself. 

"You don't have to decide right away though. Like your Anima manual, you can take a couple home and deliberate for a while. Now, look at these for a bit while I... go and grab something..."

The duke scratched his chin for a bit and smiled at Dirk before suddenly getting up and walking somewhere. Ryker looked at him oddly. 

"Grab something? What is he doing... Oh well. So Dirk, what do you think?"

Ryker stood up and moved behind his son. 

"The manuals look good, but I don't know how effective they are compared to each other. I am also unfamiliar with what goal they attempt to achieve."

"These manuals all train your mana. More specifically, they train your attributes. Here, listen close and let's hope you can understand this."

Ryker pulled up a chair next to his son and went into lecturing mode. 

"You have three attributes. Dark, Fire, and Earth. To advance in tiers, you must train what's called a mana pool. Putting it simply, each attribute of yours will have a mana pool. The more you improve your mana pools, the higher your tier becomes. These techniques follow that logic to some extent. Like this one. You create magic circles in your body that act as cores. Since you have three attributes, you will have three cores. Then you train each one. Do you understand?"

"...Yes."

Dirk answered as he processed everything. These concepts were foreign to him, but he didn't have a hard time understanding what his father was saying. 

"Good. Now, these techniques are on mostly the same level. The duke won't pull out any low quality techniques. They will all get you to tier 6 rather reliably, should you have the talent of course. All you need to do now is look through the pros and cons of each one. What does each one give you compared to the other? For this magic circle one, it gives you an increased ability to handle complex magic spells. However, direct casting is much more difficult. These are the kinds of things you want to look at. If you wish to be able to easily direct cast spells, then this might not be the one for you."

"...I see."

Dirk had a bit of a lightbulb moment as he understood. He then started going through each technique, carefully tracking the pros and cons of each one as well as all the details such as how long it took to train each level and the difficulty. 

A chart was rapidly formed with his AI, comparing the options against each other. However, before he could decide on anything, the duke came back. 

"Alright! Here it is."

*Thud!*

A book was dropped on the table, stirring Dirk from his thoughts. The duke smiled mysteriously. 

"This here is a technique. I got it a while ago as a gift from the Emperor after your father and I cleared out a battlefield. It's been in my safekeeping for nearly 20 years, and this is one of the few times I've ever taken it out. Have a look."

The duke slid the book to Dirk. The book was thick and also sported a silver metallic cover. Dirk looked at the words engraved on it.

'Mana Heart.'

Two simple words, but they implied so much. Dirk was immediately interested and he flipped over the cover, feeling the fancy pages within. Surprisingly, each page was totally black and seemed to be made of luxurious parchment. The letters were written with some kind of mysterious ink that glowed white, and he could even detect some mana on the pages centered around the letters. It all added to the majesty of the book. No others could compare. 

Dirk read.

'The Mana Heart technique is one that forms mana according to the natural systems of the body. The human heart pumps blood through the body, delivering energy and sustaining its life. Likewise, the Mana Heart will form a centralized Heart of mana, and elemental energies will be delivered throughout the body and soul for usage. The cultivator of this technique will form one mini-heart for each attribute, and will later fuse the hearts to form a single Mana Heart. This heart will be capable of shifting between all attributes of the user seamlessly. Only those with multiple attributes can effectively utilize this technique...'

Dirk started reading the book, and he couldn't seem to stop as he flipped through it continuously. Meanwhile, Ryker's eyes were bulging out of his sockets. 

"This is what you received from the Emperor after that battle? This... I don't know if this gift is priceless or worthless."

Ryker was conflicted about the gift. It seemed amazing, but Hillshire couldn't cultivate a different technique from the one he had began with, not to mention that he was a tier 8 who created his own unique technique. This technique was of no use to him. The duke just smiled though.

"It's true that this had no use to me. However, it's still one of the best techniques ever created. I took it because I wanted to pass it on to my children. However, almost none of them are suitable for this technique."

"Really? That doesn't seem likely."

"It's true. To take full advantage of this technique, one must have multiple attributes, preferably three or more. Then you can form a stronger mana heart. The book assumes that only those with multiple attributes will even pick it up. However, my children only have one or two, while those with three don't have high affinities for all attributes. After all, even two attributes is rare, forget about three or four. There are other techniques that were much more suitable for them, and using this would have been unnecessarily difficult, possibly even holding them back from their full potential."

"I see... But why are you offering this to Dirk?"

"Three reasons."

The Duke put up three fingers.

"He's suitable for the technique, he has the discipline and smarts to follow through, and he's your son. I'm going to offer him what I would my own children because that's what I owe you as a brother. Besides, it would be quite unfortunate if this technique never got used. I'm still trying my best, but I don't know how many more children I'll be able to have. This thing can't sit on a dusty shelf forever."

The duke chuckled merrily, and Ryker smiled with him. Without words, the two stood up and gave each other a brotherly hug, smacking each other on the back. 

"So? How is it, kid?"

The duke asked as he separated from the hug, moving over to see Dirk reading the 10th page. Hearing him, Dirk snapped out of his reverie. He wanted to keep his eyes glued to the page, but he wouldn't disrespect the duke like that.

"I like this technique, Duke Hillshire."

"Like? You seemed a bit more smitten than that. That's natural though. This technique is one of the best."

"My experience is lacking, but I agree that it is one of the best."

"Haha! You're funny kid. Well, since you like it, it's yours. However, I want you to take these two and read through them as well. Give me an answer by the end of the week, and think carefully until then."

"Understood. Thank you, Duke Hillshire."

"No problem, kid."

Dirk thanked the Duke after he dropped two other books on top of the Mana Heart technique. Dirk agreed that he needed to read the others, but he didn't know if there was even a competition. The Anima Resonance Destruction technique was most preferable and also one of the best Anima manuals he could get. Then there was the Mana Heart technique. Both were extraordinary, and he wanted them both. The decision was so much easier to make than he thought it would be, but that was alright. He wasn't really one to overthink things. 

When all that was done, Dirk picked up the books, and the family headed out. While the books weren't incredibly thick, they were still decently heavy. Plus, the two books that Dirk wanted had metal covers. This increased their weight quite a bit, and he ended up using a good deal of strength just to carry them. 

When they got home, Dirk immediately took the books to his room and dropped them on his desk. He was only at the Duke's house for an hour or so, so he quickly got to reading. 

 

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