Chapter 115: Ballet Of Mana [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

Alex nodded.

The man continued, "The people inside the Supermart have been told through Dwitter that the Wild Orc has been defeated. They’ve been thanking both you and Stefan repeatedly, and hoped we could tell you they were thankful. Once everyone’s ready, we’ll head inside together and clear out the remaining monsters to rescue them."

"Understood. We’ll wait," Alex replied.

The man nodded once more before quietly leaving the building. Alex watched him go with a thoughtful expression, noticing the obvious change in attitude. Throughout the conversation, the man had spoken respectfully with a straight back, almost as though he were reporting to a superior officer.

Sophia couldn’t help smiling after the man left. "Did you notice how he was talking to you? As if you were his boss."

Alex pretended not to hear her. Instead, he leaned back against the wall and prepared to check his spell evolutions. Before he could open the menu, however, he noticed Charlotta standing directly in front of him with an unmistakably expectant expression.

She didn’t need to say anything. Her bright eyes alone reminded Alex of the promise he had made earlier. He smiled faintly before holding out his arms.

"Alright, come here," he said.

Charlotta happily climbed onto his lap. Alex raised one hand in front of them. This was a good opportunity to show some magic to Charlotta, while training his mana control.

He slowly increased the output of the Battle Instinct Spell first, allowing his concentration to sharpen before manipulating any mana. As his focus improved, controlling even tiny amounts of mana became noticeably easier.

Thin strands of mana slowly floated out of his palm before weaving together.

He shaped them into several tiny stick figures with round heads, simple arms, and thin legs before making them march across his palm in neat little lines. Their appearance was crude, but making them look pretty wasn’t the goal.

The real challenge was keeping different parts of each figure in different states at the same time. Some sections needed to stay rigid, while others had to remain flexible enough to bend naturally, and every tiny limb moved independently at a different speed.

Compared to simply creating mana threads or hardening them into needles, this exercise demanded a completely different level of precision.

Alex had only come up with the exercise on a whim, but now he realized how effective it actually was.

Maintaining different levels of hardness and flexibility inside a single mana construct was excellent practice for improving his mana control. A faint smile gradually appeared on his face as he became absorbed in the training.

Unfortunately, the stick figures themselves looked terrible. Nearly all of his attention was focused on maintaining their movement and structure, leaving very little mental capacity to improve their appearance.

Even so, Alex was fairly certain that none of the mages he had met so far could manipulate multiple independent mana constructs with this level of precision, despite this not even being a formal spell.

Charlotta watched the tiny figures march across his palm before covering her mouth with a giggle.

"Hehe, big brother’s drawing is so ugly," the little girl said.

Her mother almost choked on her laughter. Ophelia quickly turned her head away and covered her mouth, trying her best to stifle it before Alex noticed. Even Rae, who had remained annoyed almost the entire time, couldn’t hide the small smile that appeared on her face as she heard the little girl’s innocent words.

The corner of Alex’s lips twitched, but he didn’t argue. If your mother called you handsome, there was always a chance she was simply being biased. But if a child called something ugly, then it was probably ugly. Children had an unfortunate habit of speaking exactly what they thought.

"Charlotta, that’s not what you should say to big brother when he’s using his time to play with you," Ophelia said after finally regaining her composure.

She gently patted her daughter’s shoulder before looking apologetically at Alex.

"Please don’t take what she said to heart. She’s always like that," Ophelia said.

Alex simply nodded, but he wasn’t going to accept the loss so easily. Without saying anything, he gradually increased the Battle Instinct Spell until it reached full power. His thoughts immediately became clearer, and every tiny movement of mana felt easier to control.

The crude stick figures immediately changed. Their movements became smooth instead of stiff, their shapes improved, and they stopped marching in straight lines. Instead, all four figures began spinning, bowing, and dancing around one another in a tiny ballet on Alex’s palm.

"Wow! Wow, wow, wow!"

Charlotta leaned forward with sparkling eyes while clapping excitedly. Whatever complaints she had about the figures being ugly vanished in an instant as she watched them dance.

Alex kept his attention on the mana, refusing to let himself become distracted by her reaction.

Compared to making them march, this was much harder. Every limb had to bend differently while the condensed mana remained stable, and each figure moved independently from the others at a different speed.

Even with the Battle Instinct Spell boosting his concentration, maintaining four flexible constructs at once demanded an enormous amount of control.

The only reason he could even do it was because he was using knowledge from two different mana manipulation techniques.

The shock-absorbing properties he had discovered while experimenting with condensed mana barriers mixed surprisingly well with elastic mana, allowing the tiny figures to stretch without falling apart.

The exercise was far more useful than he had expected, and he could clearly feel it improving his control little by little.

More importantly, Alex felt that he was very close to reaching Advanced Battle Instinct Spell. The fight against the Wild Orc had pushed his understanding forward by a huge amount, and now it felt as though only a thin wall remained before the breakthrough.

Training like this wasn’t just entertaining Charlotta. Every minute improved his mana control, and brought him a little closer to crossing that final step.

..

Author’s Note: If you’re enjoying the novel, consider leaving a vote. It helps the novel a lot. Thank you!