Kalar´s Continent

Teo looked at Goliath with large eyes. Just as expected, he could not make out the meaning of these words. Luckily, Goliath seemed to be prepared for exactly this scenario.

"Imagine it like this, how powerful a Magician is, is determined, by how much Mana he can store in his body and how well he can use it," said Goliath, trying to approach the subject carefully, unwilling to load on more, than the boy could carry.

"The first aspect is decided by your Affinity and your body itself, a Mana core is another way to trick the system in this regard and store more Mana than otherwise possible," he elaborated further.

So far, Teo could follow without trouble, the concept was simple enough. He had already known, that one's Affinity decided the rate of Mana (or Element) attraction, as well as the speed at which one's body would turn ambient Mana into Elemental threads, but this was a completely new viewpoint.

"Spiritual power however, refers to the mental capacity, required to manipulate and control Mana or any Element. It is the most important factor in actively using Magic and it becomes stronger naturally, as one's Mana Capacity increases, as well as with continued practice and time. There are also special meditation techniques, that can improve your grasp over the natural laws slowly and increase your spiritual power this way."

This part was completely new to Teo. Was this, what Goliath considered 'shallow and severely limited knowledge of Magic'? It sounded plenty deep and wise already! What kind of knowledge would get evaluated as non-trivial then?

From reflex, Teo put his arm up at this point, just like when he wanted to ask a question in class. He quickly noticed his mistake though, retracted his hand and blushed a little. After a short while he finally spoke again,

"If spiritual power is just a term to describe one's mental capacity, wouldn't that mean, that Magicians become smarter, as they get stronger?" Teo asked with a puzzled expression on his face, his brows furrowed slightly. Wasn't that way too good?

"Actually it does. With every step forward, a Magician takes, he will experience significant improvements. Not only will his logical thinking, memory and ability to calculate increase exponentially, even his reaction time and spatial awareness will be brought to a whole new level. This is also the reason, why it becomes easier to grasp multiple Elements, the stronger one is and why magical beasts possess almost human intelligence," Goliath confirmed with a nod, pleased by the excellent question.

"I get, why I need to increase my Mana Capacity now, but how can I do that?" Teo asked, eager to power up and replace Angelika as the undisputed number one in class.

"You should already know, how Enrichment works, right? Most things and especially lifeforms absorb the world's Mana and Elements around them, to strengthen themselves. A hard rock becomes harder, a large tree becomes larger, a powerful beast becomes more powerful and so forth, it is a simple concept, really. Now think about, what it can do for you and how you could influence it," Goliath drew a wide arc around the topic and let Teo think about it himself, instead of simply answering his question.

Teo pondered about it for a while, but could not come up with a convenient answer. He did know the concept from class, but only as a side note and had never thought about, how he could profit from it.

The idea was, to absorb small quantities of energy from the world itself, not only storing the Mana inside one's body, but really absorbing it into one's very soul, taking it out of the cycle and making it a part of oneself. After a bit of pondering Teo finally had an idea.

"How much energy one can absorb through Enrichment is probably tied to one's Mana Capacity. It would make sense, I guess," he voiced his idea, not entirely sure yet.

"Exactly, the higher the amount and density of energy in the body, the higher is the speed of absorption," Goliath acknowledged the idea and looked very pleased for someone without a face.

"So, I will grow stronger and stronger, if I just continue to pull more Mana into my body?" Teo inquired, excited by the apparently easy solution for his problems.

"Imagine yourself as a vase. You already know, how to fill it with water, which would equal the process of drawing Mana threads into your body. But, what would happen, if we continue to scoop more water into it after it is already full?" Apparently Goliath wanted to make this more suspenseful, or he was just trying to make it more educational for Teo.

"It would overflow!" Teo instantly called out the obvious answer.

"Well, sure. But what, if we force the water into it, stopping it from overflowing?" the Golem continued his interrogation and folded his arm-cubes in front of his c.h.e.s.t-cube.

"It... Eventually... it would break!" Teo realized, where this was going, after thinking about it for a while.

"Yes, a tool put under more pressure, than it can bear is bound to break. But what about a living being?" asked Goliath.

...

This time, there was no answer. How was Teo supposed to know? He just continued to stare at the Golem blankly.

"Life is special, as it can change and adapt to its surroundings. If put under just the right amount of pressure, it will not break, but grow instead, just like muscles do from continuously straining them," his companion said, solving his own riddle.

Finally realization struck him. How did he not think of this himself? The idea behind it was surprisingly simple and it sounded quite easy to do. In fact, he could start with it right now!

"Normally it is a rather tricky and lengthy process, but you're still young and your Affinity hasn't settled yet. Your body should easily adapt to the slowly increasing pressure and your Mana Capacity should grow by the day," Goliath concluded his explanation and nodded in approval of the excited look on Teo's face.

They continued to talk about the details of the procedure and what Teo should pay attention to for some time, then they finally got to work.

Teo had sat down cross-legged on the large carpet in the middle of his room, while Goliath tried to pull more Mana in from outside it, increasing the Mana Density in Teo's surroundings. He could not help Teo in a direct way, for risk of accidentally injuring him, but he could render his support and make the process easier for Teo.

With his eyes closed, Teo concentrated on the Mana around him and began to move it toward him. He absorbed it through every aperture and all the pores on his body, ignoring the slight feeling of satiation, that quickly established itself.

As he drew more and more energy into his body, Teo could feel pure, primal power flowing through his veins. A wave of euphoria swept over him, as he felt invigorated and full of energy, but he did not loose his focus and continued to absorb the Mana in the small room like a black hole.

Soon, the euphoria had ebbed and was replaced by an unpleasant feeling of fullness. Teo felt bloated, the pressure inside him rising constantly, threatening to blow him apart. This was not a matter of speech, it really felt, like his head, his lungs and his body overall was on the verge of explosion. This was enough pressure.

While trying to maintain his focus on keeping his body from exploding, he went through Goliath's instructions again. He would need to use this pressure, to maximize the Density of his internal Mana and weave it into a single concentrated core inside him, hitting two birds with one stone.

Not only would this permanently increase the Density of his internal Mana, allowing him to store more Mana in the same amount of space, but also put pressure on his body, allowing it to adapt and his Mana Capacity to grow, at the same time.

Slowly Teo grasped a thick strand of Mana near his stomach, with his mind, and began to knit it into a compact orb, carefully pulling taut every loop he finished.

Teo had began the pre-condensation of his internal Mana Core. Even though it was made from threads, it was so compressed and the Mana threads used, so rich, that it only looked like a glowing orb hovering inside him, the individual loops barely visible. It was a good foundation to build upon.

Completely exhausted, he stopped weaving after his new Core was around the size of a pea, however he tried to keep some of the pressure applied to his body, not dissipating all of the excess Mana.

He felt horrible. His head was plagued by a stabbing pain and his whole body felt weak, but he had made some progress. Teo would need to do this as often as possible now and keep up the pressure on his body at all times, until he got used to it and could further increase it.

As Goliath lacked a suitable word for this whole process and because it would allow him to continuously surpass his own limitations, Teo decided to call it 'supercharging' and it would be part of his daily routine from now on.