The Hero Sidekick Is The Demon King

Teaching mana technique

While they have walked quite far from the village, Lance looked at Milla and speak to her.

“Milla, do you know how to use spell?”

Milla is a bit surprised at Lance’s question but she shook her head and replied.

“I don’t know. After all, learning on how to utilize mana is only for nobles. Me or my mother never get the chance to learn a mana technique.”

Milla’s reply is such a basic technique but Lance knows that it was the truth. Learning mana and spell is hard enough for normal people, not to mention the halflings. Not only because of the rarity of people with talent, but the technique to utilize mana itself is also very rare.

It might be a problem for anyone else to teach Milla how to use mana but it wasn’t a problem for Lance. As a former demon king, he has diverse subordinates and they explain to him about their race’s mana technique. As for teaching Milla who is a half-elf, Lance didn’t need to look far. His previous lover, Ysabel is a royalty of the elf race. The mana technique that she learned is of the highest grade and Lance naturally inquired about it when he got the chance in his previous life.

Learning mana techniques of other races might seem unbeneficial for normal people but for an expert, it will help them to learn how the other race use their mana and it is possible to use the knowledge in a battle to gain an advantage over them.

For example, after seeing the mana movement of the enemy and one concludes that the other party is going to unleash a spell from the right hand, a pre-emptive dodging movement can be executed. That is just for the basic example. For a higher level, blocking their mana channel so someone couldn’t use their mana to use a spell is possible if someone understands the principle behind the mana technique.

As to why mana technique is rare, it is because a mana technique usually passed down from mouth to mouth, from parents to their child. After all, it is a secret that is being guarded by a high-ranked member of a race with a high density of origin blood. The higher density of origin blood, the easier it is to control mana. As for halflings, the origin blood in their body is already very thin and the chance of them knowing a mana technique is very low. Some might learn mana technique by chance, not from their race but the effectiveness of it will be greatly reduced.

Of course, there’s exclusion such as geniuses that is able to figure out on how to use mana by themselves but it was very rare. Or special exclusion like Clyde who is blessed by the God’s and able to use mana without even learning mana technique beforehand. They are just able to use mana naturally as easily as if they are breathing.

A teacher of mana technique might want to find a student but they might not find the right one, a talented student might be found but their characters might be lacking. A good student might be found but they lacked the talent to learn the technique. As time goes by and as the pure blood of each race goes thinner as they got mixed with the others, the mana technique becomes exclusive only for selected people.

“Alright, I will teach you a mana technique but I will only tell it to you once. I won’t repeat myself the second time. How much you can learn; it will depend on your talent.”

Of course, Lance knows that Milla will be able to learn it as he has examined her beforehand and that is also one of the reasons why he chooses her. After that, to Milla’s surprise, Lance is actually explaining it to her in elven language. Even Milla herself barely able to understand what Lance is saying. It also makes Lance more mysterious in Milla’s eyes as looking at his young age, for him to be able to speak the elven language and in possession of the elven mana technique is such an enigma.

“You understand what I have just said right?”

“I barely able to understand it. I believe I won’t have a problem trying the technique out.”

“Okay. You better practice it later when we have a break. For now, try to engrave the technique in your brain.”

Milla followed Lance’s advice and the party is able to travel without any issue. There are a few attacks from the monster but it was all low-ranked monsters and only in a small group. The party didn’t even flinch at all looking at that, because after all, what they have seen before is scarier than this. Clyde also easily kills the approaching monster without much trouble. He didn’t even use his skill and honed his battle technique instead.

“To be honest, Clyde’s improvement after every battle is enormous.”

Lance always examined Clyde’s battle and it was as if he has a cheat of getting experience faster than other people. It might have something to do with the God’s blessings but Lance himself didn’t worry too much. On the way, it wasn’t only Clyde that is becoming stronger. Lance secretly absorbed all of the blood of the monster that’s Clyde killed and he has been using them to refine his origin blood. Although the quality is low, he is compensating it with quantity for now. He still has the blood of the monsters from the village battle too.

As for refining origin blood, it wasn’t possible for any other race but it is possible for the vampire race as their spell and skill mostly consisting of blood manipulation. Other races might attempt to refine their origin blood too with a special method for every race but the risks are too great compared to the vampire race that almost has no repercussion.

When finally, the group is taking a break and sit down to have their meals, the group split into two. One group is Clyde and the villagers that are surrounding him, trying to make their relationship closer for some extra benefit. The second group is the halflings that don’t even care about what the villagers are doing. In fact, the villager is scared to the halflings since their number is more than them and there’re a lot of cases where the halflings taking revenge on the humans and killed them by taking advantage of their number.

Lance is focusing more on Milla. After getting a quick meal, she finds a spot under a tree and she sits cross-legged. Lance knows that Milla is definitely going to try her hands on the mana technique. Although Lance acted nonchalantly as if he wasn’t going to care about Milla, he is paying close attention to her. After all, it won’t be quite easy to find another companion that hated Clyde right now.

Milla is now trying to recall the mana technique that Lance has passed to her earlier. She closes her eyes and is now trying to do the technique step by step. The first step of the mana technique is to feel the mana channels inside the body. Every race has different numbers of mana channels inside its body. The more mana channels, the better their aptitude is. That is why the dragon considered to be one of the strongest creatures that have ever existed. They have 999 mana channels in their body. As for humans, they are varied from 30 to 499. This is also where halflings are discriminated against. The mana channels on halflings are often blocked due to the impurities of their bloodline.

The successful opening of mana channels has an important factor that affecting it. That is the purity of origin blood. That is also why Lance managed to be a demon king after becoming the strongest person of the demon race. Using the vampire race trait of refining their blood to reach higher purity, more mana channels are able to be opened as their blood is closer and closer to their original progenitor. When Lance become the demon king, he managed to open 899 mana channels. The last 100 mana channels that he didn’t manage to open are actually located on his heart that is exchanged for immortality.

“Ysabel…”

Lance also unconsciously muttered that name. He doesn’t know why she betrayed him in the previous life. He needed to find it out in this lifetime. That is also what motivates him other than his motive to have revenge on Clyde.

Examining Milla, the purity of origin blood in her body isn’t that bad. Not to mention she seemed to have a fire affinity that is the rarest element to be had by an elf. It could mean that her aptitude is also exceptional.

Milla who is closing her eyes is trying to feel the origin blood inside her body. Following the step that Lance told her, she could feel that inside her body, there’s a small portion of the blood that is thicker than the rest and feels hot. She tried to guide the blood with her mind and surprisingly, it moved according to her wishes. It makes a circulation inside her body and finally settled at her forehead. The mana technique that Lance taught her requires the first mana channel opening that is located on the forehead to be opened first.

 Milla can feel as if a door existed on her forehead and the blood she ordered earlier is trying to open the door. It was hard as if the door is extremely heavy but Milla isn’t willing to give up. One time, two times, hundred times. Milla keeps on persisting to push open the door. She didn’t even realize her current body that is perspiring very badly until her clothes stick to her body.

“Should I lend her a hand?”