Guardian Of The End

"But isn\'t our body already acting like a mana cube? We store mana inside us and use it to produce magic whenever we want." Jason replied in a confused tone.

"You are correct about that. Mana is present inside our body in a deactivated form. When we use it to produce magic, it flares to life. A normal mana cube follows the same procedure.

However, there are some mana cubes which contain activated mana inside them. If you add just a tiny bit of mana inside them, they will perform a specific task." Risa explained.

"So basically its like the black cube Albus had used to start the trial of fear." Jason muttered.

"Yes, that\'s an example of a mana cube. But that cube is a lot more complex and different so we won\'t count it now. What I will be teaching you is to store your activated mana in certain regions of your body.

For example, if your arms are about to be cut off, the mana will immediately kick in and start healing your arms before they can be cut off. If you add dark mana to the mixture, it will be even more useful due to its natural high corrosiveness.

Of course you can generate the same effect with light element but using a mixture of both elements is much more practical." Risa finished.

She stretched her right arm forward and touched the area below her wrist with her left hand\'s fingers.

"Watch closely. I won\'t create a mess but still." Risa warned before raising her left hand. "Also make sure that you are using your mana vision to see the movement of particles."

Jason nodded and increased his focus. The system too was ready to record any strange thing that Risa might do.

Seeing that he was paying attention, Risa proceeded ahead with her demonstration. She brought her hand down on the area below her wrist before lifting it again.

It all happened in an instant and if Jason wasn\'t using his enhanced vision, he wouldn\'t have been able to witness what had happened.

A coating of dark mana had covered the sides of Risa\'s left hand. The moment her hand had made contact with the other arm\'s skin, her hand managed to pierce through her skin.

Her hand had almost cut her hand off her arm yet something had prevented that from happening.

A burst of life mana and dark mana had been released on the spot of impact. The dark mana had engulfed the wound and had started corroding it.

The life mana on the other hand had not hastened the healing process, it had also started regenerating the layer of skin directly below Risa\'s other hand.

Jason couldn\'t help but feel amazed when he saw that the dark and life mana preventing Risa\'s hand from going further.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds and by the time Risa had lifted her hand, the entire wound had closed up.

"This can only be done when you have reached a higher level." Risa smiled. "Normally I would tell you how to create a mana cube inside your body and slowly take it from there. However, you have already cleared the basics of this."

"Wait, so my passive healing that happens is actually due to mana being stored in active form inside my body?!" Jason asked with an in incredulous look.

[ That also explains why your ability works in that peculiar manner. The moment you are injured, the activated mana automatically seeks the spot of injury and starts curing it.

The reason you can\'t cure bigger injuries is because your suppl  of mana is limited and your knowledge of healing is quite low. Your body can only do this much at its current level.]

After hearing the system\'s explanation, Jason knew that it was right.

"Yes, some of the healing you do is only possible due to the fact that your activated light mana is healing the wound. Your dark mana, unfortunately, doesn\'t play a role in it. If I teach you how to do that, you can get much better at this.

You might even be able to regenerate light fractures and damaged tissue. Though neither dark nor light magic focus specifically on healing so there\'s no knowing what your limit would be." Risa muttered.

"So what are we going to do know?"

"We are going to help you use both of dark and light mana together similar to what I did once you learn how to do this, we will proceed ahead. But be warned, this is a slow and grueling process that will take weeks to master."

"As long as I can learn it, it doesn\'t matter how much time it will take for me to master this." Jason replied with a determined expression.

"Good because the first thing we are going to do is to remove the upper layer of your skin from the top portion of your hands."

"…" Jason didn\'t know whether he heard the right words or not. He had to ask the system for confirmation to make sure his hearing hadn\'t been affected by the thunder training.

"If you want to learn this, you will have to create a wound you can\'t heal passively. This is the least painful way for you to learn how to use both dark and mana in passive healing," Risa replied in an apologetic tone.

Though she didn\'t want to see her grandson getting hurt, it was the only way he could learn things.

Risa herself had mastered some of her healing abilities this way. Unfortunately, her teacher, who was also her father, had taught her harshly and cruelly.

\'My teenage self would have committed suicide if she knew that I would be teaching my future grandson the same thing.\' Risa sighed before focusing her attention on the present.

"Jason, do you know how to cut off your pain receptors with the help of dark magic?" she questioned.

"No, I don\'t."

"Take some of your dark mana and guide it towards your shoulder. Once you are there, think of the dark mana slowly numbing your the neurons, aka nerve cells, inside your arm. Limit the numbing or else you won\'t be able to use your arms.

Now gently let go of the dark mana and your arms won\'t be able to feel most things for the next two to three hours. This is the general way to cut off your pain receptors." Risa instructed.

Jason gently guided the dark mana inside his body towards his shoulders. Once the mana had reached his shoulders, he slowly sent it through the rest of his arms.

Slowly, a numbing sensation spread through Jason\'s body. He made sure to not go overboard and kept the numbing sensation to a minimum.

"So how do I check that I can no longer feel things?"

"Let me do that for you." Risa stepped forward and gently ran her right index finger through Jason\'s arm.

The latter couldn\'t feel Risa\'s touch and had no idea what had happened. But when he looked down, Jason was surprised to see that blood was dripping from his arm and falling on the ground.

"Its strange how I don\'t feel any pain despite seeing the blood falling right in front of me."  He muttered.

The wound slowly started closing up, indicating that Risa hadn\'t dealt a major blow to him.

"Now the next part is the tough one…" Risa sighed before holding her right hand forward. "If you feel even the slightest amount of pain, immediately tell me."

Risa\'s finger once again traced Jason\'s skin and this time he was staring directly at his arm

Inch by inch, Risa\'s finger dug deeper into his skin as black blood oozed out from the wound. Jason had never seen such a huge amount of his own blood, at least not in his current lifetime.

Surprisingly, he didn\'t flinch in the slightest and simply let Risa do her job. He had understood that it was hard for her to do something like this to her own grandson.

If not for the fact that he could no longer feel pain, Jason was sure that Risa wouldn\'t have proceeded ahead with the procedure.

Like that, many minutes passed by.

"Finally…" Risa sighed and stood straight. "Its done. I only cut a small portion but still, it looks quite ugly."

Jason had to agree with her on that. His skin had been cut off and he could directly see the tissue and muscles underneath his skin.

Risa had only removed two to three inches of his skin in the form of a square. It was enough for him to practice and could easily be mended later on.

\'My blood is no longer flowing out of it…\' Jason observed.

The blood around the wound had seemed to be frozen, probably Risa\'s doing. Though it looked pretty disgusting, Jason had to admit that he would rather prefer this frozen version than to see his blood continuously dripping out of the wound.

"Now that we are over that," Risa sighed. "Its time for you to start healing it. For starters, slowly send some of your dark mana towards the wound. But make sure to overload your arm or else, you will once again feel a searing hot pain spreading throughout your arm."