The Villain's Story

Mana is the most dominant and abundant form of energy present throughout the universe. While it cannot be compared to Aura in terms of physical enhancement, it far exceeds it in all other aspects.

Mana can be used to bring forth absurd and impossible phenomena to life. It was the fuel behind magic, and magic is limitless. Mana sense is an external application of mana.

As stated previously, mana is the most abundant energy present. All beings, with the sole exception of dragons, depend on the mana present in their environment to both develop and cast magic.

From the moment of birth, unless burdened by some restriction, a body begins to take in the energy around it. All beings possess some sort of energy dormant within their body, and once this energy reaches a certain threshold, they awaken.

The nodes in their bodies open, their energy veins surge with life, and they are granted with fantastical strength, as well as the ability to improve. The amount of energy a person has varies by age and person. Some vessels can simply contain more.

A newborn baby can have more energy than a man in his prime. This standard is what is used to determine the ‘talent’ ranking. After all, the more mana you can hold in your body, the more you can develop.

Coincidentally, everyone born with more than usual reserves of mana is also gifted with greater control. Only in very few cases do individuals emerge unable to control their reserves of energy.

However, you cannot waste all your energy to cast magic, lest you risk Mana Disease, Mana deprivation, or, in the worst case, death. When one casts magic or uses their energy to perform any task, their reserves lessen.

They replenish their reserves by taking in the mana of the environment, purifying it, and then holding it in their body. This is a slow process, incredibly so.

Mana sense, however, does the exact opposite. Instead of taking in mana from the environment like all usually do, it pushes your own mana beyond the confines of your body and connects it with the mana of the outside world.

It is a difficult but vital skill to master for all those who walk the path of magic. Mana sense not only increases the range of your perception and deepens your connection to mana, but it also rapidly increases your absorption of mana as well. Though it is incredibly taxing on the mind, it is well worth it.

A dragon, however, is almost always in a state of mana sense. After all, their perception of mana is always the highest it can be. They do not need to manually activate [Mana Sense] as well.

After all, they do not depend on the outside mana to replenish their reserves; their heart produces more than enough for them already. A Dragon is an infinite reserve of energy, gifted with an engine that can produce it infinitely. The rate of production increases gradually, but it never stops.

Alan, even after learning the skill, hardly activated it since he did not need it. Not only were all his five senses at a superhuman level, but they were all greatly attuned to mana as well. Mana Sense provided but an insignificant boost to his senses. He didn’t need the absorption effect as well.

The mana in the environment always listened to him, unless he was contested by another dragon; Alan would always have the upper hand in manipulating outside mana. Unfortunately, he had little use of this skill on Earth simply because his reserves far outclassed the mana in the environment in both quality and quantity.

Mana sense, however, did provide some special effect. It granted a ‘new’ sense. The ability to see mana through mana. It was similar to echolocation. You send your mana out in periodic intervals, and it passes through the environment and reports back to you. It is also capable of revealing many things the normal senses can’t identify.

Upon losing his sense of vision, touch, taste, smell, and sound. Alan activated [Mana Sense] for the first time in quite a while, and finally, he could perceive.

His mana escaped the confines of his body and granted him with another type of sight, one where he was the center and could see in every direction from a fixed point. It ran through every crevice of the boat and back to him, reporting everything. Alan exhaled in relief.

The tension, the sense of loss, and the creeping might of the darkness threatening to consume him were gone. He could perceive the light of the boat, he could perceive his body, and something else as well.

‘…?’

A little patch of darkness right underneath him, his own shadow, shivering in fear as it tightly clutched itself, inching away from Alan. But of course, since it was his own shadow, it couldn’t go far.

The ‘little’ guy was scared; he had witnessed Alan tear his body apart to sense anything, so it was granted. Alan had forgotten that his shadow was sentient as well. Unfortunately, he couldn’t feel it unless he activated Mana Sense, and Alan couldn’t perceive through his shadow as well.

He was just ‘company’ here for the moment. But since Alan was still unable to hear his own thoughts, or anything but the mana, he couldn’t converse with it as well.

Not that he wanted to… what crazy guy would talk to his own shadow? That was ludicrous, even if the shadow moved like it wanted to. Alan ignored the little guy and let him sulk in silence, as he expanded his mana sense, unaware of what he was about to do to himself.

His shadow reacted immediately, waving its hands frantically and shaking its head. But Alan didn’t see it. It tried desperately to warn Alan, to try and stop him no matter what, but the little guy just failed.

Mana sense releases mana from your body to the environment, but what if the environment possesses mana that your own mana can never compete against?

Alan was about to find out…