Making his way to school, Matthew made sure to be on the lookout for his bullies. He didn't want to have a run in with them while he was still slightly sore from his first refinement session. It seemed that he had worried for nothing though, as he made it to school and class without incident. Putting his things away and making his way to class F-8. This was the class he had been assigned due to his current status. There only about six other students in the class with him.
The first thing that greeted him when he walked through the door was a few stares that held a look of pity.
'If only they knew that I'll be able to surpass them all if this regimen of mine succeeds.' Was what he thought quickly finding a seat.
"Good morning class. I'll be your teacher." Said a rather robust looking gentleman as he walked in.
He was positively ripped and his clothes seemed to barely be able to contain his hulking form. He was easily six and a half feet tall, bronze colored skin and dark hair without a trace of grey.
"This class, as all of you might not be aware, is for students that have poor stats or strange status'. It is my goal to do my utmost to help you improve in knowledge and physical traits to balance out your stats and assist with the learning of skills. Today is just a general introduction and I'll also be handing out your textbooks." Mr. Falls said as he wrote his name on the board.
Following his short speech, he handed out three books. The first read Introduction to Mana, and it's contents gave the history of mana and its uses. The second was Anatomy of Mana, it told of how mana affected the body as well as the uses of what mana could do inside the body. The last book was a book of skills without a title. It detailed how to learn certain skills through the use of mana and even skills that didn't require mana to learn such as enhanced memory.
"Now that that is out of the way. My class set up is mostly free study with one lesson a week. The rest of the time will be physical training or Q&A. You may ask me any questions that you may have and I'll do my best to answer them or find you then answer. Any questions so far?" Mr. Falls said
The room reminded silent since the vast majority of the students were rather bleak about their futures.
While Mr. Falls had been speaking, Matthew had been skimming the skills book that might be useful to him. He came across two almost right off the bat. The first was called enhanced reading which could allow him read through material very quickly and the second was enhanced memory which could give him the ability to memorize large quantities of information quickly. The later version of these skills would be helpful in the future and he wanted to use these as a foundation to that end.
'It seems I might have ask our teacher if I want to find out why my body now contains mana even though my core can't hold any. If he doesn't know then these skills will come in hand when I have to comb the library for the answers I'm looking for.' Matthew thought.
The rest of the class past with them all getting familiar with each other and then being dismissed for the day. Matthew didn't want to ask his question right away as he wasn't ready to be grilled by his teacher on how he had come by all of the techniques he was currently using. With that done, he proceeded to make his way home. It was time for him to push through into the major grade and another refinement.
School had ended so Matthew hurried home so that he could complete the experienced grade and break through in to the major grade. Grabbing a quick bite to eat on his way to his room he finished his food and quickly got to work. It only took roughly five minutes before he was able to reach the six foot mark and had the position completely solidified. One second he was holding at the six foot mark, and the next he was already at the seven foot mark.*Ding* *System updated*Matthew HartLevel - 1Titles - noneSkills - Mana perception (major), Mana gathering (minor)Health - 110Mana - 1Strength - 4Endurance - 5Agility - 4Intelligence - 6 -> 7Wisdom - 4Mana core - Tiny cracked core (broken) He had finally done it. He had reached the major grade. Having gained a stat point in intelligence made him feel refreshed so he could keep pushing toward the greater grade. Now that he had passed into the major grade, his senses could passively feel the mana up to seven fe
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 b
Matthew hurried home from school to try his new idea. If it worked, it could multiply his progress many folds over. Heading straight up to his room, he began as usual with his perception training. He was finally able to push his perception to the peak of the major grade and had solidified it up to twelve feet now. This kind of breakneck progress was astounding even among someone hailed as a genius. Having finished his perception training, he moved on to body refinement where he began to pull mana through his pores and into his bones. He first tired to concentrate on one spot and tried to create a clump of mana to circulate through his marrow. He quickly found that a clump of mana would be impossible, but the fact that he was able to concentrate the mana was already a start. 'This can work just not in this way,' he thought to himself as he tried to figure a way around it. He decided to give up on that idea for the moment and proceeded with the technique as norm
"Today will be self study. If you have questions about your skills or techniques, today is the day that I will devote to helping you with them. This was great news to Matthew as he was going to push to complete the enhanced memory skill. He quickly got to work on concentrating mana on the needle point sized sphere he had already created. About and hour in he got an update from his system that startled him and broke his concentration.*Ding* *System Updated**Mana gathering (minor) -> Mana gathering (experienced)* This would be a great help to him since he was actively trying to gather mana. He was surprised that he was able to raise the grade of this skill without being able to gather mana into his core. He smiled as he started to gather mana again that quickly changed the flow of mana around him. The other students couldn't help but notice this change as they all looked in his direction with determined expressions on their faces. 'It appears that he i
On his walk home, Matthew had sensed that Kirk and James had been following him. He had wanted to avoid the confrontation with them if he could help it, but it seemed that this time it would be impossible. Thankfully for him, his stats had improved to the point that he didn't believe they would be able to beat him this time. He had purposely lead them down a dead end alley so that they could have the privacy to hash this out. "It seems that you have no where else to hide from us cripple." Kirk said Matthew frowned at that, considering that he had no intention to stay a cripple. He planned to make Kirk regret making that statement. So instead of arguing about it, he took a fighting stance. Kirk and James both immediately made their move seeing that Matthew was ready to fight. The first to reach him was Kirk since his larger size and better stats made him faster than James. Kirk threw a punch that only connected with Matthew's out stretched hand. Matthew then p
Matthew and his father sat down at the kitchen table together and sat in silence for a moment before his father began to speak. "How is your progress with the book I gave you going?" his father asked. "Better than I could have hoped actually. My mana perception is advancing it isn't far from from the greater grade and my body refining has reached the point that I can begin to refine my bones." Matthew said "That's good. Be careful though, the bone refinement will be more painful than the marrow refinement. After that step though, it will get easier as your body with go through a change that will passively refine your body. Even if you stop using the technique, your body will still continue to change." his father said. "Dad, how do you know so much about the technique if you never used it?" Matthew asked "Well, my father invented it after all. I never had to use this particular technique since I was born with a regular mana core. He invented this tec
After his father had left, Matthew got back to his usual routine by getting a bite to eat then heading up to his room to get started on his training. Per the usual, starting with the perception training. After a round of pushing his senses he had hit the twenty foot wall in his perception and was able to push his passive distance of perception to the fifteen foot mark. Now came the hard part. Reading through the section in the book about refining his bones was harrowing to say the least. The whole technique dealt with the inside of the body the most as it basically viewed external refining like the skin as an afterthought. Refining the skeleton was no different than breaking every single bone and remodeling them into a shape that could handle mana better. The process didn't exactly happen that way, but there was a warning that did say that small bones could potentially break. Let it be know that the vast majority of bones in the body are in fact small. With a deep
Matthew awoke at the same time as usual, still feeling like he had been kicked by a horse. It was a feeling like having gravel in your bones. He could swear that he could hear his bones changing. He continued his routine any way with his perception training. He had reached the wall that was the twenty foot mark and now all he had to do was to continue to solidify that position. Try as he might he couldn't solidify it during this session. He had reached a secondary block at the eighteen feet mark. Not knowing how to fix this, he instead began to work on the enhanced memory technique for a bit then head off to school. "Alright class, I have important matters to attend to today so we will be doing another day of self study. Are there any questions before I leave?" Mr. Falls asked "Sir, my perception skill has reached a block of sorts at the eighteen feet mark and I'm uncertain how to over come it. Is there a method that you recommend?" Matthew asked before his