Otherworld Adventure

"Ugh..." Cecil was currently in class and he was groaning in annoyance.

It was the next day and Cecil had to attend class. School was a curiosity for him so he very much looked forward to everyday he spent in class. However today was different. It was a first for Cecil and he, himself, thought it was unthinkable for him, but right now he only had thoughts of running away from class.

Why? This was because the rest of his classmates were all enthusiastically trying to crowd around Lucia and him.

Cecil had to thank Lucia since she was, in a way, blocking the crowd of people flocking towards him.

Lucia had fully recovered from her mana deficiency and earlier when they walked into the class their classmates had started crowding around them immediately and began expressing their admiration to yesterday's battle.

Some raised the question on how they were able to get so strong, to which Lucia answered simply, "We trained real hard."

Then the questions barreled down from there. The first question led to a second, the second led to a third and so on.

Questions like, how did they train? How did they cultivate their mana? What combat style did they use in yesterday's match? What techniques and spells did Lucia use? How many original spells did she create? How did Cecil come out unharmed from Lucia's all-out attack? What was the aura that wrapped around their bodies during the fight?

Other such questions were asked and this caused Cecil to become annoyed even though he wasn't the one answering them.

It gave Cecil a headache so he grabbed Lucia and flashed to his seat and he was now cowering behind her in silence while fiddling with his MID.

'Annoying...'

Lucia was patiently answering their questions to the best of her abilities right now. Cecil had to give her praise at how well she got along with other people and how patient she was.

Although it was annoying, but on the bright side however, their classmates no longer avoided their small clique anymore. This was something Cecil welcomed, but the current overenthusiasm that his classmates had was unsettling for him.

'Where is the instructor when you need him?' Cecil inwardly complained.

"Lucia, that aura and mana technique, what exactly was that?" a curious harpy girl asked. The girl was called Aery Fenix and she was ranked 15th in class.

"Oh that..." It was a question that Lucia kept on avoiding to answer. Before, another student would just ask a different question to which Lucia would immediately answer and avoid the aforementioned question.

But now, with her answering all the other inquiries, only this question remained unanswered and the enthusiastic class was now waiting for her to give them an answer.

"Uh... that's Cecil's technique! I learned it from him so you should ask him instead!" Lucia dodged the bullet and passed the baton over to Cecil.

Cecil who was fiddling with his MID looked up to see that multiple curious eyes were gazing back at him.

"..." Cecil was thinking on how to reply, but was quickly saved from the effort when Instructor Jin abruptly dashed into the class in high spirits.

"GOOOOD MOOORRRNNIIIINNNGGG YOUNGSTERS!!!"

Everyone quickly scrambled back to their seats and greeted the instructor.

"GOOD MORNING INSTRUCTOR!"

"Good! Haha, you kids. Seriously, you have given me a lot of face! WAHAHAHA!"

After motioning for the class to sit down, instructor Jin continued.

"I'm very pleased with all of your test results! Now, it's time for morning announcements!"

Instructor Jin began giving some general info about the school's news, activities and that classes would finally start today. After the general announcement, it was finally time for the test result announcements.

"Okay! Yesterday's results were beyond satisfactory for our class! But, nevertheless there are some of you who have gone above and beyond! And that means there will be rewards due!"

The students who won their match yesterday immediately became excited.

"For the winners, the headmaster has given you permission to go to the academy's library to pick a combat technique, magic spell, or mana cultivation manual! You can only pick one and you may freely choose one from the 1st to 4th floor of the library!"

The winners in class immediately cheered, the losers however could only sigh in disappointment at the missed opportunity.

"Now, now. Let me finish first, alright?!"

The class immediately calmed down at the instructor's words.

"For the losers, don't worry. The headmaster has agreed to give everyone a chance to choose a technique, spell, or manual from the 1st or 2nd floor of the library! Now, remember this, the techniques may have different grades and it goes without saying that the higher the grade, the stronger it is! But, keep this in mind. The stronger it is the more difficult it is to cultivate it! So pick a technique, spell, or manual that is compatible with you, don't bite off more than you can chew! Now everyone, get up! We're heading to the library!!"

The class immediately erupted into a cheer and they followed the instructor out of the class room.

At the back of the group, Cecil and his clique were currently discussing on what kind of technique they wanted to get.

"What're you getting Lucia?" Fina asked.

"Dunno... I'll wait and see if there are any good spells or techniques I want."

"Why not choose a manual? Oh wait, I almost forgot you're at the mana core stage."

"Well, even if I wasn't in the core stage, I'd still not choose a manual. My family has a traditional manual that we use and it's something passed down in the family so I won't consider changing my training method~"

"Oh! So you're just like me then Lucia?" Fina asked in surprised.

"You have one too Fina? Haha, we're the same then!"

"I'm using my family's manual too," Eli added.

"Hehe, that goes without saying for me!" Ainz haughtily said, "Let's choose a magic spell or technique later then! I'm going straight to the 4th floor HAHA!"

"What about you Cecil? What're you going to get?" Eli asked the fox boy next to her.

"..."

"Cecil?"

Cecil who was deep in thought snapped his head back in their direction,

"AH! W-what?"

"... Eli asked what you're going to get at the library... What're you spacing out for, huh, Cel?" Lucia asked with a frown.

"I was just thinking about what I should get... I have no need for techniques or spells, so I might get a manual for references sake."

"Oh, you don't have a mana cultivation method of your own?" Eli inquired curiously. She thought that Cecil was bound to have a top-notch cultivation method since his stage was high and he was able to leap stages and fight Lucia who was at the core stage.

"No, I have one. It's just I want another one for reference and comparison."

His words caused his 3 friends to give him a puzzled look. Why would someone want a manual just for reference and comparison? Comparison for what?

He was lying with a straight face, but only Lucia knew that Cecil actually didn't have one. The only reason Cecil had an abnormal amount of mana was because of his body's constitution.

Cecil has actually never learned how to cultivate mana, and the meditations he's been doing was only there to help him calm his mind and strengthen the foundation of his mana point.

If he wanted a proper cultivation method then this was a good opportunity for him to get one. It's been 5 months since he's tested his mana quantity back at Fauxe Village and the amount of mana he's gained from the 5 months of meditation was negligible and he was stuck at where he was.

Silver was a monster so he didn't need a cultivation method and all he needed was to acc.u.mulate mana inside his body's mana point and quickly condense his beast core and cultivate it to raise his stage.

Lucia had her mother's cultivation method and went from Mana Vapor to Mana Sea in only 2 months after they left the village. Now, she was almost at the advanced Mana Sea stage after another 3 months of cultivation during their journey to Angla City.

Cecil however had stagnated. His only saving grace was that his body had an abnormal amount of mana. Truthfully, Cecil was only at the pseudo mana sea stage. He hadn't even properly stepped into the mana sea stage at all.

The only reason that the academy's testing equipment judged him and Lucia to be at a cultivation stage higher than what they really were in was because for Cecil, it was his abnormal amount of mana.

For Lucia, it was because of her unique mana cultivation that gave her the ability to condense mana into her tails that would then act as an artificial mana core, which in turn deceived the testing equipment into giving her an evaluation of having stepped into the mana core stage when she actually wasn't.

Cecil had only been lucky when he had somehow condensed his mana inside his mana point into a liquid state. The rest of the mana inside his body however, was still in a gaseous state. Hence, he could only call himself being in the pseudo-mana sea stage since not the entirety of his mana had condensed into liquid form.

'Now that I think about it, my family's martial arts manual may be a Mana Cultivation manual. I've been meditating, training, and breathing as usual, but sometimes my mana would automatically circulate inside my body when I did so. It's strange, but if I can get my hands on a good mana cultivation manual inside the library, maybe I can find some similarities and clues. If it does turn out to be similar to a mana cultivation method then I might just have the chance to develop my own unique mana cultivation method using my family's martial arts!'

The thought of being able to create and own an exclusive mana cultivation method made Cecil's face brighten and he began smiling slightly. His mood was so good that he even began humming.

Cecil wasn't very expressive so his out-of-character actions caused Eli, Fina, and Ainz to look at him in surprise. Lucia however had a tired expression on her face when she saw Cecil's facial expression.

'Argh, I know that look... *sigh* here we go again.'