After we ed up all the workshops, I got Mahya set up with a ptop, a reloadable credit card, and links to Udemy and Skillshare so she could rack up more ability points. I quit farming ability points. I already had over 150 and wao focus on other things.

  I found the book Mana Body—Supreme trol Lis had reended and started w with it. The book’s introdu promised that practig the teiques within could enhane’s mana regeion and master the trol of both mana and body. The prospect was undeniably entig.

  The first teique was to create a tendril of mana and send it into your main els te them. The sed teique was to create a ball of mana and roll it down your main els te them. I skipped the first a straight to the sed; my els were too wide for a tendril.

  That evening, while we were sitting on the couch, I turo Lis and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about this book when I started training my mana els in the English Gates?”

  Lis looked up from his project. “Your method was twenty times faster and less painful.”

  I nodded slowly, letting the information sink in. “Oh, okay,” I replied, leaning bato the cushions.

  I quickly uood why Mahya screamed in pain when I tried to open her el and what Lis meant. It was easy to build a ball of mana, but once I started rolling it down my el and stretg the el, I wao scream in pain, too. The stretg with increased mana only felt like itg, and I had trol over the amount. With this teique, the ball had to be a little bigger than the els, and the a of pushing it into the el felt like a burning stab.

  I tried to adapt the Ahesia spell to numb my arm, but it was impossible. The minute I eled it into myself, I fell asleep and woke up a short time after, since I stopped eling when I fell asleep. I couldn’t work with it to adapt it. I asked Mahya to help me and eled Ahesia into her, trying to adapt the spell. Unfortunately, ihan a sed, it was clear it wouldn’t work. I could ge the shape of the mana dart because its base po was its shape—so I just ged it. Here, the base po was Sleep, so it was impossible to modify. There is no such thing as half-sleep or a different shape of sleep.

  Bummer.

  After three days of excruciating pain, I widehe el in my right hand by maybe a tenth of a millimeter and decided that it wasn’t worth it. I looked ahead in the book, and the eique was the same for the thin sedary els all over the body. First, a thin tendril, and then a ball. Just the thought of the pain I’d feel in the hundreds of thin els all over my body made me shudder. I shoved the book into the most remote er of my Ste with every iion of fetting it ever existed.

  Instead, I started learning about mana structs for spell creation; it was much more fun. At the same time, I explored different areas of Paris, visited bakeries, restaurants, and patisseries, and filled my ste with all kinds of delicious treats. I also visited the Paris flea market and bought a lot of stuff. After I found the Paris fabric area in Montmartre, I more or less emptied their iory on three separate occasions.

  When I got home, I always found Lis and Mahya sitting with huge blueprints and sketches or tinkering with parts of a transistor or a mini radio. The blueprints were so big that the huge dining table that seats ten wasn’t enough, and the pages hung from both ends. I couldn’t figure out the retionship between those huge blueprints and the little transistor or radio, but every time I tried to ask, they waved me off and told me to be patient.

  After about four months in Paris, one night, I woke up in a panic because someone jumped on my bed. I opened my eyes, squinting against the darkness, and saw Lis glowing with happiness and boung excitedly.

  “I got it!” he excimed, his face lit up with joy.

  “Whah?” I mumbled, still half-asleep and fused.

  “I got the css!” he repeated, practically vibrating with excitement.

  That woke me up fast. I sat up, eyes wide. “You got the Magieer css? gratutions!” I said, a big smile spreading ay face.

  “Eveer! Much, much, much better! I have no more words for better! Look!” He showed me his s, uo tain his enthusiasm.

  Magiteventor & Engineer

  I hugged him tightly and said, “Wow! Amazing! gratutions!”

  He was so excited that he tinued boung even while I hugged him, his energy iious.

  After I let him go, I asked, “How did you do that?”

  He stopped boung, looked at me in shock, and said, “Studied like crazy for two years!”

  I shook my head, grinning. “Not that. How did you show me your s?”

  “Oh,” he said, realization dawning. “Iion and mana. Push with your iion to show me your s and add some mana into the iion.”

  Curious, I focused and did as he instructed. My s popped ience. “Cool!” I excimed, marveling at the dispy.

  Lis just ughed, shook his head, and tinued boung. He had too muergy for five in the m.

  I went back to sleep—at five in the m, I was NOT bouncy.

  When I got up in the m ao the living room, I saw a strange mini radio oable. Runic script covered the mini radio entirely, and on top of it was the transistor Lis was w on, with the crystal I aspected to lightning on top of it. The crystal looked empty, so I poured some mana into it to help Lis.

  The radio suddenly started pying the song “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. I looked at it in amazement. After the song ended, a French broadcaster thahe listener for requesting it and begaing oraffic situation in Paris.

  I stared at the radio in awe. He built a radio that received Earth stations and worked on mana!

  I decided that his extraordinary achievement called for a celebration, so I sat at the puter and booked a vacation to the French Riviera. It was August, just the right time for a beach vacation.