Epic of the Broken Immortal

Steady

     Matthew spent the rest of night trying to learn the enhanced memory skill.  He could feel that he was on the cusp of making it work unfortunately he had to sleep since he was mentally exhausted.

     Waking up before the sun, he continued his routine. His perception was still increasing gradually.  His gain so far today was reaching the fifteen foot mark for expanding his mana perception and reaching a nine foot passive sense.

     Doing his morning routine of physical exercise showed that his body was still slowly adapting to the training as he was able to run just a little further today in the same amount of time.

     Today's walk to school saw the return of his bullies Kirk and James.  They had been placed in class F-1 since their satus' were slightly advanced for their age.

     Matthew altered his route to avoid them and made it to class without incident.  The class featured the same soulless looks from his classmates and his hulking teacher Mr. Falls.

     "Today we will be doing physical education.  Everyone make your way to the locker rooms and get changed." Mr. Falls said before leaving for the practice field.

     Matthew got changed the fastest and made his way to the field first so that he could ask his teacher the question that had been bothering him.

     "Mr. Falls, I have a question that I would like to ask you." Matthew asked straight away.

     "Alright Hart, go ahead and ask." Mr. Falls said

     "Is it possible for your body to contain mana even if your mana core can't hold any?" Matthew asked.

     Mr. Falls stared at him for a moment before saying, "It is possible, but the pain would be excruciating. Mana inherently is free and fluid. The core is naturally adapted to contain this energy, but the rest of the body doesn't have these same adaptations.  Why do you ask?"

     "I've been practicing a technique that has been passed down in my family. After the first practice,  my status updated to reflect one mana now contained in my body." Matthew said

     Mr. Falls looked at him seriously for a moment before placing his meaty hand on Matthew's shoulder and saying, "This technique, is it very painful? If so I'd like to recommend that you stop using it. Eventually, a way to fix your core will be invented, but currently the best I can suggest is that you train your body in preparation for that day."

     With that, the rest of the class had arrived and the physical training class had started.  The exercises were specially designed to break muscle down and rebuild them.  When it was finally over, everyone left for the showers and then went back class.  Most of the students looked like zombies walking back to the class as they were now dead tired.  The rest of the class passed in self study.

     Matthew spent the whole time trying to finish the enhanced memory technique.  It was obvious he was trying to employ mana as the others in the class could easily fell the man being drawn towards him.

     "Hart, what technique are you trying to use?" Mr. Falls asked having appeared next to him.

     "Sir, I'm working in the enhanced memory technique. Not only will it make learing future skills easier, but it will also work on my mana skills. It's a two fold training essentially." Matthew stated

     Mr. Hart nodded and said, "That is very true. The rest of the class could learn something from your tenacity. If you want to finalize that technique, I suggest you focus the mana to one spot in your brain instead of just drawing it in and churning it around relentlessly. Doing this and gradually expanding the spot will be more beneficial."

     It was like fireworks had gone off in Matthew's head when his teacher said that.  What if he applied the same to the body refinement technique?  It would probably magnify the pain mana times over, but if the gains were sufficient then it would be worth it.

     "Thank you for your insight teacher." Matthew said with a smile on his face.