Aren’s ribs were completely shattered, and he flew back several yards. 

“AREN!” Lillia shrieked, running over and kneeling beside him.

“I’ll…be fine. Just take care of…those things for a little bit.” He coughed up blood as he said these words, worrying her even more, but she nodded and stood up.

One of the things that Aren had learned in his fight with the Titan of Chaos, is that mana could be used in more ways than he had previously thought. Mana allowed perfect control over everything inside of the body, which included placing broken bones back in their correct places or repairing damaged organs. Knowing this, he began to piece his broken ribs back together. Although this would not heal him and he would have to constantly be using mana to maintain the form, they would be in their exact previous state though much weaker. But with the recovery abilities of a person in this new world, they would fully heal extremely quickly.

It took Aren just a few minutes to piece his bones back together, so he quickly stood up to assist Lillia. She had killed many of the monsters, which were completely white with lines of a strange language written all over them. They were unable to damage her at all, as compared to the Titan she had taken multiple hits from, they were like ants.

This time, Aren did not act carelessly. He easily defeated the monsters, as they could not even budge an inch under the weight of his Gravity Domain skill, which he had renamed from Gravity Field as it was now much more powerful.

Once the remaining enemies had been dispatched, Lillia approached Aren.

“Are you okay? How are you even standing?”

“I used mana to hold my body together. You don’t know how?”

“No…”

After learning that Lillia did not know how to use mana in the way he did, they decided to rest for a few hours before carrying on, while Aren taught her what he knew.

Mana coursed through the veins of a person, acting as a second type of blood, and being naturally absorbed from the outside world. It can manipulate absolutely anything one could think of, although someone couldn’t simply do something absurd like freezing time. A person could only manipulate the things that their ability entailed, for Aren that was gravity and heat. But he also couldn’t manipulate everything about heat, only being able to use it in the form of Infernal Aura. 

It would theoretically be possible for a person to have the ability to freeze time, but the amount of mana required would likely be impossible, since the more complex things that a person tried to use their abilities for, the more mana was required. For example, Aren could either simply let Gravity Domain flow out of him, or use it on a specific object or being. The former would require much less mana than the latter.

The reason he was able to use his abilities on a scale as large as something like the Titan of Chaos, was due to mana absorption. Every race had a specific body part that was used to absorb, store, and distribute mana to the body, or the Mana Catalyst as Aren deemed it. For him, it was his horns, and he found that for Lillia it was her eyes which he noticed were a light green, the color of mana.

Previously, he had been simply letting his body naturally absorb mana from the surrounding world, but that was an inferior method. To consciously take it in, one had to simply focus on the body part that handled the mana, which would, in turn, allow them to see the flow of mana in the world around them, which appeared like rivers of green light. Then all they had to do was imagine grabbing onto that flow, and directing it into their Mana Catalyst. It ended up being quite easy for Lillia to grasp this concept, and it increased her defensive endurance greatly.

Mana could also be used to increase muscular power by assisting the movements of the muscles themselves. However, Aren had not tried this yet as it was very dangerous. If he used too much, he assumed so much power would be generated that it would literally rip his limbs off. He warned Lillia to not try this just yet.

The final and probably most important thing about mana was using it with abilities. Imagining the ability just working and doing what it was supposed to would indeed activate it, but it was much weaker than actively using mana to form the ability. Aren did not know what system allowed abilities to be used without consciously manipulating the mana. 

To use the most powerful version of their ability, one had to imagine and control the mana flowing out of them, and then manipulate that mana to take the form of their ability. This resulted in far greater power for Aren than before he had learned this.

In addition, controlling your abilities by your own power allows you to use them to resist others’ abilities. He hadn’t tested this just yet, since he hadn’t had the chance to fight other people.

After informing Lillia about all of this, she insisted on staying on this floor while she trained, which ended up being a few days.

Her power increased by an insane amount, and Aren wasn’t even sure if he could beat her in a fight at this point. Her Force Barrier was at a level where he could not possibly strike her, and the defensive nature of her ability would be able to resist much of his Gravity Domain.

After four days, Lillia finally spoke in her token bored-sounding voice.

“Aren, I’m ready to go now.”