Gem was sweating, which sucked with fur. Good news was that they could mostly ignore that as the pain took center stage. To be honest, it wasn’t even that intense of a pain, if they made sense? Rather, it was an all-consuming pain.

  The air Mana was forcing itself into their body from every angle. Each bit of power finding a new and unmarked section to pierce. Worse, it didn’t stop at the skin. The pain continued inward and bounced around, rebounding whenever the Mana reached the skin.

  Gem had read a little bit about this, because why play a fantasy game if you weren’t going to use magic? Anyway, the guides had said that the instructor should be feeding a small stream of un-aspected Mana into a hand, while keeping it from leaving said hand. Crystal apparently didn’t believe in such soft methods, which made this harder because you can’t just pick one bit of Mana and push it out.

  To successfully do this, you need to push against it all at once. The suggested method online is to start at the wrist and push outward. Which was totally useless for Gem!

  They instead figured that if they didn’t have a place to start, begin with the head and work your way down. After all, it would be a lot easier to think without both a literal aching head and a headache going on. So they focused on the crown of their head and shoved with intent.

  Nothing happened.

  They focused on their head and using a mental construct of a wall, pushed downward.

  Nothing happened.

  They focused on the foreign air Mana at the crown of their head and attempted to use it to push the rest of the foreign Mana down.

  Nothing happened.

  They focused on the miniscule amount of personal Mana in their head and pushed down.

  Nothing–

  Wait! Gem almost stops, but manages to keep the pressure up. This wasn’t anything like how other people described it online, but screw them. It was working for them and that’s all that matters.

  The foreign air Mana is no longer bouncing off the skin on top of their head, instead being repulsed a bit lower down. They had almost missed it as the top of their head still felt tingly like when a limb goes to sleep and is just getting the blood flow back.

  Gem focuses all their attention on their own Mana and gathers it, filling up the space, shoving downward, and slowly gaining ground. Their ears are the first bits free of Crystal’s Mana. Then it is down to below their nose and speeding up.

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  At the neck, though, the process slows down as the space being pushed multiplies. Though it isn’t like the arms help any. In fact, pushing down the arms seems to only condense the air Mana. The Mana isn’t being pushed out, but pushed around.

  Gem doesn’t care though and simply allows the foreign Mana to escape back into their body, allowing their Mana to fill their arms. Then they repeat this for their legs and tail as well. And while they can’t see it, their fur becomes a vibrant green, the tighter they compress the air Mana.

  Tighter and tighter, until they have compressed the foreign Mana into a marble sized sphere around the bottom of their ribcage. Gem pushes the Mana towards the surface until it is touching the skin. With that, they open a small hole in their hold on the Mana where the sphere is touching the skin and squeezes.

  At first, the Mana hits the skin and rebounds, but the barrier keeping the foreign Mana in is weaker than their hold on their own Mana. So as Gem puts more pressure on it, something eventually gives and it isn’t their control.

  ‘Damn, that hurt’, Gem blinks. If you could compare the previous pain to a full body sunburn, that last burst was like someone was using a blowtorch on them. Then a background noise comes into focus. Crystal was laughing!

  “Hahahahaha!”, Crystal slaps her knee, “Deities dandruff! Been forever since I saw someone actually manage it.”

  From somewhere else in the room, one of the trainer yells over, “It’s been forever because the benefits of that method don’t make up for the pain!”

  Crystal holds up her hand and treats it like a sock puppet, moving the ‘mouth’, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All I’m hearing is that you’re all afraid of a little pain. They agreed to it.”

  Another instructor yells over, “Yeah, they agreed without knowing what to. Besides, they should have gotten the skill way before they forced out your Mana. You could have stopped when they managed to clear out their head.”

  “Yeah, and they would have failed the full awakening.” Crystal shakes her head, “I trusted they could handle the pain. They’re a deity damned full on natural Chaotic. It would be a crying shame if I didn’t make sure they had the best starting point for their magic. It is literally their birthright!”

  Hands on her hips, Crystal stares the rest of the room down, but no one else speaks up. “That’s what I thought.”

  She turns back to Gem, “So they aren’t wrong. You unlock Minor Magic Use once you can force another person’s Mana out of a single extremity. Hades, you probably would have achieved Lesser Magic Use because you did it with your head.

  “Now don’t tell me, but with you having pushed my Mana completely out of your body on your own? I’m guessing you got Minor Mana Control skill. Let’s you be more free form with your magic.”

  Gem raises an eyebrow, though has to blink when a drop of sweat takes that as a chance to get in their eye. “So, does it strengthen me?”

  Crystal laughs, “Boy, that would be nice! But nah, what you get out of it is in control. Let’s say a wind blade only had speed and damage. Normal spells are going to have the Mana evenly split. With Mana control, you can shift the Mana around. Most use that to make faster, if weaker, wind blades. After all, what good is an attack that hits like a lightning bolt if it moves like a snail?”

  Gem, “You can trick your enemy into hitting the spell, but yeah, I get it. So, how do I use magic now?”

  Crystal gestures at the flames on her shoulders, “Well, like I said, you’re still going to be limited by using pre-existing air. Which being air, isn’t going to be the biggest problem.

  “And of course I didn’t mention wind blade just to use as an example. That will be the free spell you get. Quite versatile for you and a good balance of speed and damage for everyone else.”

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