19 Supercharged

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 precisely 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 chew.

"Your Affinity and body decide the first aspect, 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 and 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 other 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 through continued practice and age. 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 entirely new for 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 this 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 to be true?

"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, but even his reaction speed and spatial awareness will rise to a whole new level. This is also the reason why it becomes easier to grasp multiple Elements, the stronger one gets, and why magical beasts possess almost human intelligence. Every improvement in rank is a qualitative evolution," Goliath confirmed with a nod, pleased by the excellent question.

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

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 he 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 incorporating it into one's very soul, taking it out of the cycle and making it a part of oneself permanently. 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 delighted, despite the lack of facial features.

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

"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.

"Correct. But what, if we force the water into it while stopping it from overflowing?" the Golem continued his interrogation and folded his arm-cubes in front of his chest-cube.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

"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 continuous straining," Goliath 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. 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, increasing the Mana Density in Teo's surroundings. He could not directly help Teo, for risk of accidentally injuring him, but he could render his support and make the process a bit easier.

With his eyes closed, Teo concentrated on the Mana around him and began to pull 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. He had never gone farther than this.

As he drew more and more energy into his body, Teo could feel pure, primal power flowing through his veins, coupled with increasing discomfort. A wave of euphoria swept over him as he felt invigorated and full of energy, but he did not lose 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 steadily, threatening to blow him apart. This was not a matter of speech. It really felt like his head, his lungs, and his whole body were on the verge of explosion. This was enough pressure.

While trying to maintain his focus on keeping his body from exploding, Teo 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. It would also passively increase the 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 begun 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 ball hovering inside him, the individual loops barely visible. It was an excellent 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.

Now, Teo felt horrible. A stabbing pain plagued his head, and his whole body felt weak. But he had made some progress. Teo would need to do this as often as possible now. He would also need to maintain the pressure on his body at all times until he got used to it, and could further increase it.