玉蒲团之云雨山庄

Mana

Mana is natural spiritual force energy that permeates throughout the universe. Anything and anyone possess mana inside their body even if it\'s just the tiniest bit of it. Just like blood, inside a human body, mana gathered and collected in the mana pool, and spread throughout the body through what referred as mana channels.

In human\'s case, the capacity of the mana pool inside them varied according to their talent, but with practice, the mana pool\'s capacity could increase. Mana could be linked with physical stamina. The more you wear your mana out and empty your mana pool, you could feel exhausted and even lost your consciousness, but the mana pool will increase even if it\'s just a tiny bit.

But having lots of mana doesn\'t make someone invincible in an instant. Having and using mana is a whole different matter. Controlling and utilizing mana is difficult and takes considerable amount of effort and talent to be capable of doing so. Covering the whole body with mana and strengthening it could made the body strong for several folds, but it exhaust mana very quickly.

Expert mana users effectively focus their mana on a certain point and control it to maintain the allocation of the mana strengthening. They switched the use of mana on and off with a precise timing to save their mana from exhausting quickly, prolonging the use of their mana.

-Basics of Mana Training Part 1 Book, Great Library of Eureka, The city of academy and magic, Ausbildia

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(Then we go right! Yes, right! That way, master!) (Lilith)

"Hm... Is this really the right way?" (Lyan)

(Yes! Of course! You need to trust me!) (Lilith)

But even though Lilith\'s voice is filled with confidence, Lyan couldn\'t help but feel doubtful about her choice of direction because-

"It felt like you\'re guiding me inside a damned maze! I\'ve taken too many turns! Do you really know the way out of here?" (Lyan)

(How rude! I\'m guiding you as best as I could, you know!? If you act like this, how about asking Griselda to guide you instead!?) (Lilith)

(Oh, can I? If I\'m not mistaken, this is the Cosrane forest. Hm... We\'re at... If you walk straight towards the east, we\'ll get out of this damn forest. I\'m getting tired of looking at damned trees anyway) (Griselda)

"Hou, you seem to know this forest well, Lady Griselda," (Lyan)

(Well, I used to venture to lots of places after all. This is just a part of them) (Griselda)

(Hmph! Even I know how to get out of this forest. Go get eaten by a magic beast and die!) (Lilith)

Lilith\'s loud tantrum sent brief vertigo towards Lyan\'s head. Having a loud voice appear from inside your head is surprisingly hurts more than hearing a loud voice from outside.

"Sorry, Lady Lilith. But I would like to take Lady Griselda\'s advice and get out of this forest as fast as possible. If all I need is to head east, then I could just run as fast I could!" Lyan sprinted ahead with a great speed by strengthening his feet with his mana.

(But as expected of a reincarnation gift, not only that I regain my human body, my body specs are just slightly inferior to my demon form in my previous life!) (Lyan)

At first, Lyan thought that his body reverts back from his demon form into his human form. But if it just reverts back, then his human body should be back into his old body which hadn\'t been trained at all.

But not only that his body is almost completely as built as his demon form, but he also still possesses the abilities he had from his previous life, which are incubus\'s abilities and magical properties.

(Hou... Your mana is those purple colors that are suitable for illusion and mind magic, and it shouldn\'t be able to be used as body strengthening magic efficiently as this. To think you could travel with such great speed using that mana, you\'re very interesting...) (Hestia)

"Thanks for the compliment," (Lyan)

The reason why Lyan could use strengthening magic with his illusion mana is due to his incubus\'s abilities that remain inside his body. Incubus\' body stature is small, but their prowess is decent because they utilize their illusion mana not just for casting illusions and mind magic, but they strengthen their body with their mana at the same time as well.

(But of course, the strengthening using illusion mana is very limited, though. That\'s why an incubus mostly didn\'t have the decisive strength to defeat a powerful enemy that needs great strength and prowess to defeat) (Lyan)

After three minutes of running, suddenly Lyan stopped his tracks.

"Hm... Looks like we got a visitor..." (Lyan)

(Heh, you noticed it rather quick. Not bad) (Griselda)

(This is why I\'ve been asking you to take lots of turns! Do you think you just happened to be lucky that you didn\'t meet any magic beasts in such a wild forest!?) (Lilith)

Griselda\'s impressed voice and Lilith\'s fed-up voice filled up Lyan\'s head.

"Heh, I\'m thankful that you\'re worried about me, but meeting and facing a magic beast in a fantastical world with my human body is one of the things that I\'m looking forward to," (Lyan)

*Hissssss*!

Lyan heard a loud hissing before him.

(A snake, huh...) (Lyan)

What appeared before Lyan is a huge snake with a length approximately longer than 30 meters, creeping above trees slowly and carefully enough to make the trees didn\'t move.

(Hou, a giant hunter serpent, huh. There are indeed lots of them when I brought my men here back then) (Griselda)

(But it\'s strange, I believe that this snake is supposed to be invisible. It was quite a trouble sensing it because of its ability) (Hestia)

(T-The hissing is supposed to be suppressed by its illusion magic as well. H-How could we hear it so clearly?) (Sylphia)

Watching the scene displayed to them from the huge television inside the grimoire\'s space, the high spirits voice their doubts about the giant hunter serpent.

(It\'s nothing strange. As expected, master, you\'re...) (Lilith)

"Yes, you\'re not mistaken. I\'m immune from any mind magic and my eyes could see through any kind of illusion magic. But this giant hunter serpent still didn\'t notice it, so it\'s still trying to get near me as quietly as possible," (Lyan)

(But even though you could see it, could you finish it, master? I believe that this magic beast is grouped as a B-ranked magic beast by its fighting prowess. It\'s quite a formidable-) (Arturia)

*Clap!*

(Eh?) (Arturia)

"I saw you, worm. Come here," Lyan looks into the giant hunter serpent\'s eyes directly as he provokes it.

Knowing that its position has been exposed, the giant hunter serpent jumped to the ground and dashed toward Lyan with powerful momentum.

(W-Wait! What are you doing, master!?!? S-Summon one of us! Quick!!) (Lilith)

(Heh! You can summon me if you think you\'re about to die, \'kay?) (Griselda)

(There\'s no need to hold back. Summon us, master) (Arturia)

(Summon us, boy. I can\'t fail here) (Hestia)

(S-Summon me, master) (Sylphia)

All of the girls grabbed their weapons, ready for Lyan to summon them except for Azelia and Cynthia. Unlike the others, Azelia continues to stare at the television with sparkling eyes as if she\'s fully anticipating something, while Cynthia remains calm without having any change in her expression.

"I\'m thankful for your concern, but it\'s fine," Replied Lyan as he calmly stare at the giant hunter serpent that was about to reach him.

"When dealing with snakes, all you need is to knock their forehead real hard, right?" (Lyan)

Focusing his mana strengthening on his right foot, Lyan matches his timing with the giant hunter serpent and-

*THUD!*

A sound is similar to a giant boulder that fell from a cliff sounded from Lyan\'s kick towards the giant hunter serpent\'s forehead, sending dust flying in the air.

(W-What did...) (Hestia)

(As expected of master! You\'re awesome!) (Azelia)

(J-Just now, the scenery changes into an inside of a cramped cave...?) (Sylphia)

(.....) (Arturia)

(Master. Is that [Reality Illusion]?) (Lilith)

Lilith\'s voice is filled with doubt, astonishment, and suspicion when she asked the question.

"Correct," (Lyan)

(Reality Illusion?) (Arturia)

(It\'s one of the high-tier illusion spells that are very difficult to master. The spell gives off an illusion that makes all of the senses of its target fall into a confused state, giving their senses to react and capture noise, sensation, and vision according to the caster\'s will) (Lilith)

(He used that spell to force the beast to go straight to him. Because of its focus on him, the beast didn\'t realize the strangeness of the suddenly appearing cave. And at the end, he also uses illusion magic to confuse the snake about their distance between each other, that\'s the reason why the snake didn\'t open its mouth wide yet and why he could kick its forehead easily) (Eira)

"Precisely! It\'s rare to hear you talk that long," (Lyan)

(Ah!) (Eira)

Eira the ice-cold spirit exclaimed in surprise as she unexpectedly join the conversation.

(But it\'s not a spell that a human should be able to master) (Lilith)

(Why? It\'s just a damn complicated spell, right? Shouldn\'t anyone could use it when they knew the trick?) (Griselda)

(No. To be precise, it\'s a spell that couldn\'t be used by a human, isn\'t that right, Succubus?) (Eira)

(Correct. Humans couldn\'t use demonic magic, because the way demons and humans use mana on their bodies are different. So to use a demon\'s spell, humans need to use a converter technique to make the demonic spell appliable and usable by their mana system) (Lilith)

(Immune to mind and illusion magic, high-efficient use of purple-color mana, and capable of using a high-level demonic illusion spell. Master, are you really a human in your past life?) (Lilith)

!?!?!?!?!?

(Y-You\'re not a human...?) (Sylphia)

"Hm... When you said you got the knowledge about the grimoire, I thought all of you are also granted the knowledge about my past, even if it\'s just a bit. But it turns out I\'m wrong, huh..." Muttered Lyan with a wry smile as he lift his right leg from the giant hunting serpent\'s head lying on the ground.

"I was a human at first," (Lyan)

(At first?) (Hestia)

"Yes. But after losing my comrades, I realized that human strength alone isn\'t enough for me to complete the quest," (Lyan)

With his face darkens, Lyan continues.

"Realizing that, I searched for a method that could increase my strength significantly, and long story short, I enter demonification. I abandon my humanity," (Lyan)

(Abandon... Humanity...) (Cynthia)

"Yes. I fell into a demonification state, hoping to transform into a demon with a powerful physique and possess powerful magic so I could finish the quest faster. But when I woke up, I became an incubus," (Lyan)

(I see...) (Lilith)

"As you know, Lilith. The succubus and the Incubus race possess powerful minds and illusion magic, but that\'s it. When we face someone with absolute strength and the ability to resist our spell, we\'re finished. So in order to strengthen myself a bit, I experimented quite lots of things and make my own fighting techniques to fill the gap," (Lyan)

(I see... So you were a human, but you then transformed into an incubus, huh...) (Arturia)

"Yup, that\'s right," Answered Lyan with a cheerful tone, as if the dark tone he used when he was telling them the story was just an illusion.

(I see... Sorry, master. It seems that I make you remember something you didn\'t want...) (Lilith)

"Hahaha! It\'s fine, it\'s fine. Well, setting aside that story, what should we do with this thing?" Lyan pointed at the corpse of the giant hunting serpent before him.

(You should take his fangs and squeeze some of its venoms. It sells rather well) (Griselda)

"Hou... I see... But how should I bring it..." Lyan wondered as he poke at the corpse of the magic beast.

(I wonder if I could send this thing to the grimoire\'s space) (Lyan)

Suddenly, black particles appeared from the summoning grimoire and enveloped the corpse as if they were devouring it.

"This is...?" (Lyan)

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Name: Lyan

Occupation: None

Money: None

Weapon: None

Equipment: Black leather cloak

Grimoire\'s Companions: 8 High Spirits