SOUL FORGE CHRONICLES
Chapter 5 — The Mana Flow
"Elara, what time is it?"
"Eight o'clock. Breakfast will be ready soon."
It was eight o'clock, yet Aldric had been meditating since around five. That meant that although he felt he had only been in the Soul Sea for a short while, he had actually been meditating for three full hours.
"It seems meditation distorts my perception of time," Aldric thought to himself.
His stomach rumbled again.
"Aldric, are you not afraid?"
Elara's voice came from the lower bunk. She sounded calmer than the night before.
"Afraid?"
Aldric lay on his bunk, curled up against the hunger, his mind replaying the past month.
He had spent every day in fear during that time — his emaciated body, the dwindling food supply, and the drunkard who was always in a rage. Every morning when Aldric woke up, he had hoped it was all just a bad dream.
The current situation was far better than all of that.
"I've been through worse. There's nothing to be afraid of."
"..."
The room fell silent.
Before being selected, Elara had been the daughter of a wealthy merchant. The pressure of survival for her was like clouds in the sky — visible from a distance, but barely ever truly felt.
She couldn't imagine what Aldric had been through to be this calm in the face of mortal danger.
And yet his body was so thin. Even a gust of wind seemed like it could knock him over.
"So, what's your plan? We can't possibly beat the nobles."
Elara thought of the knights she had seen before — armored monsters who could break through a formation of a hundred soldiers with just a few guards.
If she encountered people like that in the exam, Elara couldn't imagine how she would face them.
"Elara, who do you think is stronger — a sorcery student, or a knight?"
"Of course..."
Elara almost answered "sorcery student" by reflex. Even a beginner sorcery student had magical abilities that a knight couldn't withstand.
But before she could speak, her eyes fell on the book inside her bag — "How to Become a Sorcery Student."
Blinded by fear, she had completely forgotten that the academy had given them a way to fight back.
"Aldric, you're a genius!"
Elara threw off her blanket, jumped out of bed, grabbed the sorcerer's dictionary and "How to Become a Sorcery Student," and ran to the desk with suddenly reignited energy.
Although she hadn't been trained in martial arts since childhood like the nobles, she was far superior to them when it came to reading and studying.
Aldric ignored Elara's reaction. All he wanted right now was breakfast.
A short while later, there was a knock at the door.
Aldric immediately jumped off his bunk.
Breakfast had arrived!
Opening the door, Aldric found a doll-like figure pushing a food cart neatly stacked with dozens of breakfast portions.
"Room 225, breakfast for two."
A strange, high-pitched voice came from the doll.
Aldric took two trays and handed the previous night's trays to the doll. The doll took them stiffly, then pushed its cart awkwardly to the next room.
"That's magic," Aldric thought, a flash of excitement crossing his eyes as he watched the doll leave.
Inside the room, Elara was already deep in translation — dictionary in one hand, book in the other.
"Elara, your breakfast."
"Mm," Elara replied without even looking up.
Aldric scratched his head. Youth truly was a blessing — boundless energy even without eating.
Though his own physical body at the moment wasn't much older than Elara's.
...
Aldric sat cross-legged on his bunk, eyes closed tightly.
Now, his mental energy observed the world in place of his eyes.
This was the seventh day since he first connected to the Soul Sea.
During those seven days, the airship flew with perfect stability. Aldric methodically built the Mana Flow inside his body, exactly as described in the book. The process was not as fast as connecting to the Soul Sea, but it required almost no excessive effort.
During those same seven days, Elara worked tirelessly translating "How to Become a Sorcery Student" — her diligence even left Aldric in awe.
Indeed. In a life-or-death situation, everyone was capable of releasing their deepest potential.
Connecting to the Soul Sea freed a sorcery student's mental energy from within their soul, allowing them to perceive the magic freely floating in the world through their mental power.
In Aldric's perception, the magic drifting through the world resembled fireflies — flickering with a dim yet real light.
His mental energy transformed into invisible tentacles, drawing every speck of magic toward wherever he directed his attention.
Then, by retracting those tentacles, all the magic specks were absorbed into his body.
If connecting to the Soul Sea was the foundation of becoming a sorcery student, then building the Mana Flow was the walls and roof.
Sorcerers needed to manipulate magic with their mental energy to cast spells. But manipulating magic from the outside world directly was not only time-consuming and exhausting — its effectiveness was also far lower.
The Mana Flow, on the other hand, allowed magic to be stored inside the sorcerer's body first and stabilized with mental power. This way, the sorcerer could draw on their internal magic reserves whenever needed.
However, the Mana Flow's capacity was not unlimited. Its storage limit depended on the sorcerer's mental strength. If a spell required more magic than the Mana Flow could hold, the sorcerer had to gather from outside again or find another method.
With the last speck of magic flowing in, the magic stored inside Aldric's body finally underwent a qualitative change.
It transformed into a small stream that began at Aldric's heart, flowed through his internal organs, and finally returned to his heart — forming a complete circulation.
"Done."
Aldric opened his eyes. His excitement was impossible to hide.
The formation of the Mana Flow meant he could now quickly cast the zero-ring spells recorded in the book.
Zero-ring spells referred to low-level spells that could be used directly without first imprinting a spell trace into one's soul.
In the eyes of experienced sorcerers, such spells weren't even considered true magic — merely basic techniques for applying magic.
At the end of "How to Become a Sorcery Student," the author had wisely included four zero-ring spells for students who had completed their Mana Flow construction: Mana Bolt, Force Shield, Featherweight, and Silence.
These four spells covered offense, defense, escape, and concealment — quite comprehensive for survival.
And Aldric was finally no longer a powerless weakling.
Just as Aldric was savoring that excitement, Elara — who had been translating day and night for the past several days — suddenly slammed her dictionary down on the table.
"Tired of translating again?" Aldric thought.
"Haha, Aldric, come down and look! I'm done!"
Elara stood up and stretched her body. A series of satisfying cracks came from her back and shoulders.
After seven days of relentless translation, she had finally completed the entirety of "How to Become a Sorcery Student." In the process, she had also nearly mastered the entire sorcerer's language.
"Congratulations, congratulations. It seems you're almost there."
Aldric rolled off his bunk and congratulated her with a polite clap.
"Hehe."
Elara walked over and gave his back a firm pat.
Over the past several days, the two had grown much closer. Aldric knew Elara was the youngest daughter of a wealthy merchant who had been pampered since childhood. Elara also knew Aldric was a farmer's son whose father had died from alcohol addiction.
Their outlooks on the future were very different.
Aldric's calm and optimistic manner in facing even the worst situations always managed to draw Elara in. Whenever she felt like giving up, a few words from Aldric were always enough to lift her back up.
Now it was her turn to return the favor.
"Study sorcerer's language with me over the next few days, and you can become a sorcery student too."
"Huh?" Aldric was slightly taken aback, then felt a strange warmth in his chest.
"Don't worry, the sorcerer's language isn't that difficult. Many of the words are similar to our everyday language. As long as you study diligently, you can understand this book in the time it takes—"
"Elara." Aldric cut her off, his expression half-smiling.
"Have you considered that if I become a sorcery student, you'll have one more opponent in the exam?"
Elara went quiet.
"One more opponent means one more danger. Aren't you afraid I'll stab you in the back?"
Aldric's voice was calm, but the implication made Elara pause.
One more sorcery student did mean one more threat. And in an exam that bet their lives, any opponent could be a lethal danger.
Had she really thought this through?
"Um..."
Elara was silent for a moment, then her voice returned stronger — as if she had found a flaw in Aldric's logic.
"Aldric, you wouldn't do that, would you? If you wanted to, you could have just not told me from the start."
Aldric stroked his chin with deliberate seriousness.
"Generally speaking, I wouldn't stab someone in the back. But there's always the possibility..."
"But beyond that, there are still nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine other possibilities."
Elara suddenly struck his arm hard with her left hand.
"You're so strange! I'm clearly trying to help you, but you're the one making excuses. If you keep talking like this, maybe I really won't teach you!"
— End of Chapter 5 —