Chapter 14: Mana Fatigue
‘This guy… Not only did he manage to learn the magic spells in seconds, he can even Silent Cast them on his first try! His magic talent is ridiculously high!’ Miss Camille cried inwardly after realizing what Leo had just done.
“I’m pretty good with magic, right? How about we ditch the sword and start focusing on my magic?” Leo smiled at the dazed Miss Camille.
“D-Don’t get ahead of yourself.” Miss Camille frowned after snapping out of her daze.
And she continued, “You may have some talent when it comes to learning magic, but you’re focusing on swordsmanship right now.”
“I understand that I must keep up my appearances as ‘Leo’, but won’t that be a waste of my magic talents?” Leo complained.
“…”
After a moment of silence, she spoke, “Listen up, Leo. I admit that you’re very talented with magic. However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore everything else. Just because you can train your mana doesn’t mean you should not train your body, and just because you can wield magic does not mean you won’t need to wield a weapon.”
“There will be situations where you won’t be able to cast your magic, and there will be times when you have to use your body to defend. In these situations, a mage that can wield a weapon and has a strong body will prevail over those who focused only on their magic.”
Miss Camille couldn’t deny the fact that Leo was a magic genius, but she didn’t agree with the statement that it would be a waste of his talents.
And she continued, “How about this? You can focus on training your magic once you defeat Kayn using only swordsmanship. You’re already 10 years late when it comes to learning magic, anyway. Another month won’t mean anything.”
“You’re right, Miss Camille. It’s important to have a sturdy body and know other combat styles even if I can use magic. Sorry, the excitement of being able to learn magic must’ve affected my train of thoughts.” Leo sighed.
“I will continue to train the sword and my body diligently even after I defeat Kayn.”
“Good. Then let’s continue your training.” Miss Camille nodded.
Sometime later, Miss Camille retrieved another dummy from her spatial storage and placed it a few meters away from Leo.
“That’s a Magic Absorbing Dummy that evaluates one’s magic power, right? I watched some of the magic students train with them right before coming here.” Leo recognized the dummy made of crystal.
“Yes, that’s right. Since you already know about it, we can skip the explanation and go straight into training. I want you to hit the dummy with as many Black Bullets as you can use. You can stop once you feel start feeling lightheaded.”
“Okay.”
Leo pointed his finger at the dummy and started firing off Black Bullets every few seconds, feeling incredibly refreshed to finally be able to let loose and use magic to his heart’s content.
However, after his 5th Black Bullet, Leo suddenly started feeling lightheaded.
“W-What is happening to me? I suddenly feel super fatigued…” Leo quickly took a seat on the floor and started rubbing his eyes.
“What you’re experiencing is called Mana Fatigue; it’s basically your body telling you to stop using magic. This is what happens when you’re low on mana. If you continue using magic while in that state, you will lose consciousness, and that is the best-case scenario.”
“What’s the worst-case scenario?” Leo asked out of curiosity.
“You die.”
Leo swallowed nervously, and he made a mental note to never use magic whenever he’s experiencing Mana Fatigue, unless it was a live-or-die situation.
“Here, drink this. It’s a mana potion.” Miss Camille handed him a bottle of blue liquid.
After consuming the mana potion, Leo could feel his fatigue disappearing within moments.
‘Taste like sparkling water…’ He thought to himself afterward.
“How often can I drink these?” He then asked.
“Although you can drink mana potions every hour, it is recommended that you drink them every two to three hours to lower the risk of mana overdose, where you acquire too much mana in too short of a time.”
“Every hour? Why is there such a big difference in cooldown between stamina potions and mana potions?” Leo asked.
“There are a couple of reasons. The first being that mana naturally regenerates faster than stamina. Secondly, mana potions are far more advanced than stamina potions due to how much the world relies on mana. One more reason is that mana potions contain actual mana, which will directly recover our mana like filling an empty glass with water. However, you cannot do that with stamina.”
“I see… That actually makes a lot of sense.”
Sometime later, Miss Camille said, “Your mana should have fully recovered now. Go ahead and repeat what you were doing before. This will tell us the state of your current mana capacity right now.”
Leo nodded and started shooting Black Bullets at the dummy again, making the dummy pulsate a pale blue light every time.
About a minute and ten Black Bullets later, Leo started experiencing Mana Fatigue again.
“Ten Black Bullets, huh? Considering that you’d just started using magic today, you’re above average when it comes to mana capacity, I guess.” Miss Camille said.
‘Since each Black Bullet uses at least 10 mana, I should have around 100 total mana right now, huh? It would be nice if the system showed me exactly how much mana I have…’ Leo thought to himself.
The following moment—
<Calculating host’s total mana>
<Calculation completed>
[Mana: 9/125]
‘How convenient…’ Leo was surprised by the Magic System’s response to his desires, and he wondered if there was anything else he could make the system do.
“Miss Camille, I have a question. Let’s say a Black Bullet uses 10 mana and I have 100 total mana. Can I use all 100 mana on a single Black Bullet?” He asked her a moment later.
“Yes, that’s what we call Overcharge— when you use more mana than necessary to strengthen the magic spell. However, there is a limit to how much you can Overcharge a magic spell. Every magic spell will have a minimum mana usage. For example, if you only use 5 mana to activate Black Bullet which requires 10 mana, it will not activate.”
“As for its limit, that will depend on your mastery of that magic spell and your magic affinity.”
“It’s very common for people to Overcharge their magic spells, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. If you try to Overcharge a magic spell past its limit, the magic spell will explode in your face.”
“I-I see…”
Leo made another mental note to never Overcharge his magic spells past their limit.
“By the way, how can I tell if I am near its limit?”
“When it starts getting hard to pour more mana into the magic spell. You’ll feel a resisting force. It’s very obvious, so you won’t miss it,” she explained.
Sometime later, Leo started swinging the sword again while he waited for his mana to naturally recover.
Although he cannot use magic while he has Mana Fatigue, he could still use his own stamina to train his body.
Of course, this required Leo to get past his mental weakness caused by the Mana Fatigue, which was easier said than done.
Once it was starting to get dark outside, Miss Camille said to him, “Go get dinner. I will see you back here in an hour.”
“Huh? We’re still going to train today?”
“Do you have classes tomorrow?” Miss Camille calmly asked him.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Then you’ll be training with me. In fact, I don’t plan on letting you sleep tonight.”
Leo’s eyes widened with shock after hearing her words.
‘If only those words mean what I want them to mean…’ Leo felt an urge to cry after hearing her last few words.
“Why are you looking at me like that? If you want to defeat Kayn, you will need to put at least this much effort.” Miss Camille said.
And she continued, “You might not realize this yet, but your match with Kayn is much more important than you think. I would even say that it will decide whether you live or die in this academy.”
“W-What do you mean?” He asked for clarification.
“There are many people— students that have a grudge against the previous Leo, and they are all waiting for the result of your fight with Kayn.”
“If you lose to Kayn, they will undoubtedly flood you with challenges, and if you refuse, they will bully you to your death.”
“However, if you win, there will not be as many challengers, and the better your result, the less likely they will try to mess with you.”
“Seriously?! Just how many students did the previous Leo offend?!”
“A good majority of magic students hate him.” Miss Camille grinned.
“No way…”
After standing there in a daze for a couple of moments, Leo snapped back to reality and spoke in a resolute voice, “I’m not hungry! Let’s continue training!”
However, Miss Camille started walking towards the exit and said, “If you want to starve, you can do it by yourself. I’m going to eat.”
“Also, you are forbidden from training with magic if I am not here with you because I don’t trust you with magic yet.”
“I understand.” Leo nodded, and he continued to train with the sword while Miss Camille disappeared from the room.