Chapter 282 The Truth About Mana

-----

Since we left that Village where we found my Uncle Grandpa, one of the heroes that accompanied my parents into their journey to defeat the Demon King that he had decided to accompany us. It has been around a week ever since we left the village, and it has been a looooong trip towards the next village, the one right before reaching the coast. Uncle Arafunn is a very fun man, he's always singing around, composing new songs, and making up new songs based in what he learns from people's own lives.

He had been learning a lot about our journey and all the adventures we had together with Aquarina and Zack, so he had been composing a song named "the three little heroes" or something, and he said he'll get it ready in a month or so… I don't really know what to say regarding that, but I can't help but admit I am excited to listen to it.

We had been traveling at a rather quick pace through this week, but the distance was very big so it took us a week and 1 day, this day in the morning we finally could see a big village in the horizon. My parents said this village was named "The Dungeon Village of Eastgrain", and seems to be made near a medium-sized dungeon by a lord some years ago, abusing the products made out of the monsters and materials processed from the dungeon nearby.

This will be my first experience in visiting an actual real dungeon this time, as the other was more like an abandoned ruin with barely anything inside, not even monsters, just my demon friend we found there. Father said that he heard that the Eastgrain Village is suffering from some problems, apparently the monsters in the dungeon are growing abnormally strong and it might mean the birth of a "Miasmic Pupa"… I don't know what's that, and he didn't bothered answering me, so I am in the blue.

Moving on, through the week I've been mostly practicing magic and swordsmanship in the back, while exercising my body and doing some mana manipulation as well. I have noticed that I am growing a tiny bit stronger, and also, my Mana is weird! My mother inspected it the other day and the two of us realized it was very strange.

"Your mana… I have never seen nor sensed such pure mana before."

That's what she said while being shocked. I am already used to shocking my parents, but that day she was really surprised. My mother explained to me various things about mana in that day.

"Mana is often not pure inside a person's soul or body. Mana over time gains impurities, which need to be expunged from the body periodically to maintain it healthy. Normal people don't know this and this is why they grow sickly or become unhealthy over time. Humans that practice magic can live longer than common people because they learn how to remove mana impurities from their bodies, reaching more years of age and even as old people, they're quite healthy."

Apparently, all people grow impurities in their mana, and these impurities accumulate inside their bodies over time. When someone that accumulated too many impurities dies, their bodies begin to exude miasma, and their bodies might… become undead. Or even worse, in a large area with too many people like this, their miasma could even "distort space" or something, and create a mini dungeon, which is even worse because monsters might begin spawning inside.

This is why rituals to purify bodies of diseased people before burying them is rather common in most societies, some other societies or tribes of demi-humans burn the bodies and then spread the ashes in the ground or the rivers or oceans. This world is definitely more dangerous and people have to be careful of stuff like this.

In most magic academies they teach children to purify their impurities, Aquarina learned it from my mother already, and all our family know how to remove them and often do it automatically. I never had to learn it because my Mana simply… never grow any impurities.

"A-And your mana… it somehow always flows? Don't you feel tired? It is constantly flowing outside, but it so soothing and light, like air itself, so if I don't put attention to it, I often don't realize." She said as well. My mother was quite worried about me, but she quickly thought of this as more of a great talent than something to be worried about. I've been living 7 years by now and my mana is the same… so there's nothing wrong with me. She said that this might explain the high quality of my spells, and the purity of my body energy.

And might as well explain how I can work out so much without growing tired so easily, although that's more like Mana abuse using spells that refill stamina and remove exhaustion. She also discovered my body was "strange" because I never grew unhealthy nor even caught a cold in my life. Which is common even for people that has eaten dragons or bathed in their blood.

Maybe having this glitched HP does that to me? Well, whatever's the case, I am always on top condition, apparently! And anyways, I've spent this much time socializing with my family, my friends, and my spirits. I've been trying to convince Beelzebub with tasty food every day, and I am slowly managing to lower his guard, he's already dying to eat a cake I showed him yesterday, so he'll eventually eat what I show him in a few more days, sealing the deal.

Because he's a spirit and he's inside my soul, I can force a contract on him whenever he "agrees" to my terms, and eating my food is "agreeing" so he's resisting it because he knows it would be dangerous to accept it.

Fufu, but how long will he last? I am already teasing this big fly inside of my soul as of now, let's see what he'll do now.

-----

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.