My Bothersome Life

Controlling Mana

I carefully packed up my stuff to head towards the medieval-like room again. Daniel announced that I would be paired up with Luke again while Ellen and Shelly exchanged partners with each other.

Since the change was permanent this time, I decided I would study really hard to get a nice upgraded room and an abundant amount of points.

The amount of points you had determined how luxurious you could live in school. In some ways, the school was getting rid of discrimination between the children who come from the top elite families in the first district. However, I scoffed at the idea since it was the source of all my miseries.

There was an exam tomorrow which determined how I would live for the next few years in middle school. I saw Luke already unpacking his stuff while I placed my stuff on top of the straw bed.

"Should we head towards the library?" I interrupted Luke from settling into the room.

Luke's eyes went round like he was genuinely surprised by my question. It did make sense that Luke knew I didn't like his intense study sessions with my frequent complaints and groans. But studying with Luke brought good results and I was tired of sleeping on a straw bed for the past month.

The table was topped with countless piles of books in the study room. I yawned as we ended up spending over forty hours from cramming all the materials that I had to catch up to from the past month.

By the time it was morning, I felt confident that we could at least avoid getting minus points from losing a night's worth of sleep.

I flipped over all my booklets and proudly handed them in to the examiner. My eyes gleamed with anticipation as I actually looked forward to the results unlike the previous times.

The results were projected onto the board for everyone to see as usual. However, everyone gasped and froze from surprise except for Luke and I.

The monitor displayed:

Helena and Alex: 100 000 points

Rika and Luke: 20 000 points

Michelle and Allan: 90 000 points

"Rika didn't get any minus points this time!" Alex gaped.

"As expected of Luke!" Daniel praised Luke after he unfroze himself from the shock.

"..." Allan, Ellen and Shelly looked back at me wordlessly.

'Was this really that surprising? Luke and I usually got a bit more than the amount of points in elementary school than the ones projected on the board,' I tilted my head in confusion.

"How should we spend the points?" I happily skipped to our room while leaving my surprised classmates behind.

I wanted to move into a good room right away so I could sleep without the moldy smell of the rock walls covered with a bit of moss.

"Well, since moving to a smaller but better room cost about 15 000 points, I think we should refrain from moving just yet-"

I clasped my hands while making myself look pitiful as I pouted, "Please~. I promise I'll study harder for the next exam that's one week from now!"

Luke gave in to my constant begging as he reluctantly decided to upgrade the room, leaving the rest of the 4800 points for our meals. But left the 200 points out to rent two straw beds to sleep on for the next week.

At this rate, everything was the same as the medieval-like room except for the modernly furnished washrooms and the cozy three metre squared room.

I wondered if there was a cheat in the dimensional library that would allow me to absorb all the materials instead of cramming it into my brain all the time. I checked if Luke fallen into a deep sleep later in the night with my mana.

I opened the dimensional library after looking around the room as I asked the guide for the nth time, "Is there any way I could absorb all the contents inside the books instead?"

[Since you're in middle school now and your brain is more developed. You have obtained the ability to absorb a maximum of two books per day!]

'Finally!' I internally screamed.

I knew there was a cheat in the dimensional library!

'But to think it would take this long. Since the exam was next week for sixteen subjects, it meant I had seven days left to study. I should absorb as much books as possible! Leaving me to only work on physical education and practicing my mana. Why couldn't god give me this ability earlier?' I conquered up a plan.

I picked two books that covered this week's materials for two subjects. I instantly felt the knowledge naturally filling up my head like it was being tattooed into my mind.

'So, this was how it was like for someone who studied regularly and thoroughly?' I grasped my hand with determination.

This was how I came to be in the mana practice room to learn to control my mana so that I could earn more points from the exam.

I always did well on my physical education exam, so there was no need to practice for that subject. However, having too much mana was a problem because it was harder to control.

I wondered what my problem was all this time. Why was my mana running out of control? It wasn't like I was putting way too much power into it with my visualizations.

Maybe I should try casting mana while opening my eyes? I only closed my eyes because it was easier to visualize and it kept me from distracting myself.

I imagined a blazing fire dancing on top of a sleek dart heading towards the bullseye while opening my eyes. However, I covered my ears as it ended up creating an explosion as the entire target area ended up being swept up in ashes.

'Why?' I almost cried as I hopelessly toppled onto the ground.

After absorbing my books in secret, the next day, I went to the mana practice room to attempt to control my mana again.

However, I soon got kicked out by the teacher after I destroyed the target area again.

'What could I be doing wrong?' I went over the whole process in my head again.

'Maybe Luke would know the answer! I was told that Luke had huge amounts of mana that could even potentially come close to mine, but I never saw Luke's mana coming out of control like mine did.' I eventually came up with the idea to ask Luke.

I went to the library to find him studying for next week's exams with Alex. I knew he would be in the library because Luke was the type who would make sure that he would get perfect results on the exams to balance out my miserable results.

"Do you have some extra time today?" I bluntly went up to their table.

Luke looked up from reading his book, "Does it have to be now?"

"Well it can whenever you have extra time today." I shyly fidgeted with my hands behind my back.

"No, I'll go now. I'll meet you later Alex!" Luke immediately got up to follow me.

I led Luke to the field where I saw a few upperclassmen practice their mana.

"Can you tell me how you control your mana?"

"I don't know why my mana is always running out of control and I heard from the teacher that you also have a similar amount of mana that comes close to mine. But, I never seen your mana getting out of control," I confessed with my head down.