My aim for the month I had left until Magiharu was to get comfortable with the E-rank and D-rank fire spells I already knew, as well as to develop the acuity of my mana sense. After strengthening my legs with a shroud of fire to enhance my durability; flame coat, D-rank; I planted my feet firmly into the ground. Channeling mana into my fists as I observed the red tinted mana particles gathering around my upper extremities, a blazing, red hot inferno encased itself around my tightly clenched hands; fire fist, E-rank. One after the other, I punched the air in front of me in quick succession, repeatedly, as if mimicking a boxer hitting an invisible punching bag. 

As I repeated this over and over, the speed of my punches became faster as the temperature in the air surrounding me start to rise. With numerous red tinted mana particles now dotting the scene in front of me, I quickly redirected the mana from my left fist into my right, extinguishing the former but giving the latter a renewed intensity. With a single strong breath, I punched the air again as a circular orb of concentrated flames shot its way out from my fist towards the trees in front of me, as if the red tinted particles in front of me had opened up a straight path to guide the spell to its destination; flame sphere, D-rank.

Of course, my intention wasn’t to burn the forest down, let alone bring more attention to myself. With the flame coat on my legs still active, I quickly channeled mana to the soles of my feet, igniting a small burst of fire under them to propel me forward; fire jet, E-rank. With my increased speed, I rushed forward, attempting to catch up to the flame sphere I had shot forward seconds ago, before it hit a tree it was quickly approaching. Realizing I might not make it in time, I channeled a larger amount of mana to my feet, increasing the intensity of fire jet to invoke; flame jet, D-rank. With one quick burst, I was standing in the path of the flame sphere as it hurdled towards me. 

Without a second to spare, I brought my arms up in a defensive cross as I redirected the mana from my feet to my arms, coating them in a more intense shroud of flames than the one on my legs I had still left active for support; flame shield, C-rank. As the flame sphere made contact with my flame shield, it attempted to overpower the superior spell before quickly dispersing into the surrounding air. Dismissing both spells, I quickly withdrew all my channeled mana back into my body; almost falling to the ground as I gasped for breath. Two simultaneous D-rank spells and a C-rank spell I had never attempted before; talk about an intense workout.

Still, I had depleted almost fifty percent of my internal mana with that last C-rank spell, so I thought I should meditate for a bit to recharge my mana reserves before starting practice once again. I knew it wouldn’t take too long, with how rich this area was in mana. After about thirty minutes spent meditating, I was happy to note that I had been right, my mana channels once again full of vitality, brimming with mana. At this pace, if I could learn to comfortably use D-rank spells, along with a few C-rank spells occasionally, it would be a breeze to move up to D-rank fire elemental after Magiharu.

As I got up to start practicing the same set of spells I had used earlier, I once again noticed something that had been irking me while I had been meditating. It made sense that the ratio of red tinted mana to other colors was greater in my immediate vicinity; after all, I had been practicing with fire-attribute spells earlier. But what I didn’t understand was why the red tinted mana around me had started behaving erratically, the particles vibrating faster than I’d ever seen before, colliding with other particles of the same attribute and showing no signs of slowing down; rather, they were getting faster. Curious, I channeled mana into my right hand, not thinking of any particular spell, but intending to try and influence the red tinted mana around me in order to check if its behavior changed. To my surprise, the more I concentrated on this aspect, the faster the red tinted mana particles vibrated, congregating around my open palm at an alarming speed. Then, without warning, on the tips of my fingers, there was a… spark.

‘What the hell was that?’ I questioned out loud, thinking I might be hallucinating. Once again, repeating the same process with increased concentration, it happened again. As the red tinted mana particles vibrated at a speed no longer discernible to the human eye, sparks started emanating from my fingertips, wrapping around my fingers as they slowly made their way downwards, my right hand soon enveloped in long streaks of blue electricity that jolted and crackled as if alive. Perhaps a normal person would have been scared at that moment, but I couldn’t help staring at my right hand in amazement, bringing it closer to my face as a mixture of fascination and excitement overwhelmed by thoughts. Was this what I think it was? Did I actually just conjure electricity out of thin air? Me?! Was I actually doing this?!

Careful not to break my concentration, afraid I might never be able to produce the same effect again, I tried the same thing with my left hand, again immediately successful in producing a current of blue electricity as red tinted mana particles danced ferociously around both my hands. How had I never noticed this before? Contrary to what I knew other mages perceived mana as, which was white, almost shimmering particles all around us, I had been able to see different shades of mana particles ever since I had awakened to my comtype, although I had never told anyone this for fear of being labelled an outcast. 

But never before had the red tinted mana particles I had always been able to observe, behave erratically in this manner, at least from what I could remember. So why now? The strange thing was, I wasn’t even thinking of a particular spell or effect, all I had done was try and make the red tinted mana particles vibrate faster by bombarding them with my own internal mana. And somehow, this had produced… electricity!