Having already eaten a short while before, Soma was already full enough. His body has been filling up nicely for a while now, a thankful matter since how he looks like he had a small degree of something between his skin and bones.
"Well, if I have to start somewhere then this would be as good a place as any. It is the basics, after all.
"
Nodding to himself Soma used the ingredients in his kitchen and some chalk he found in the house, preparing a simple but effective formalcraft magic circle around himself. Its purpose being simply to keep the outside mana from mixing with his own and allowing him to complete the ritual easier.
Sitting down in the center of the circle Soma closed his eyes and concentrated. The ability to wield magic is one that was absolutely essential for someone like Soma if he wanted to put to use what he had learned for so long.
It was the lifeline of a magus, the most essential part that served to define a person's potential in many cases.
"Well, even if it is like that I still am just a truly average human though. " Soma said with a mirthless chuckle.
Soma knew perfectly well that he only had a total of 34 magic circuits, an average amount all things considered as people from Magi families with innate potential would all have at least 45 magic circuits and those that are called genius would all have at least 70 circuits. Even the quality of his circuits were all average, the amount being about the same as if you tried to compare him to other people.
He wasn't too weak or unlucky, but he was also not blessed in terms of potential and talent. He was average throughout, simple as that.
Even still, even if he was naturally just average across the board, he would still try his best to become the strongest. He would do that no matter what because, because.
. .
"If I don't become worthy of the Throne of Heroes and can go back there, who knows if those lunatics won't find some way to find me after death and beat me up for wasting their time. "
Yep, the finest of motivations to become strong, sheer terror.
Taking a deep breath he started the process of opening his magic circuits. It was a painful process, like if you were opening a vein in your body by shoving magma through it.
The feeling of burn, of pain, was terrifying.
And yet, for Soma something to this degree really wasn't anything much. Compared to some of the trainings he went through, the experiments he had to endure under the researchers there who wanted to test hypothesis on a 'fresh' subject, the many experiences he had to endure in that place, compared to all that this was nothing.
///---///
"Phew, finally over. It took longer than expected.
" Soma said as he cleaned his forehead from the sweat covering it.
Opening the circuits was slightly tougher than he expected, but it took him only about one hour to complete it. Opening his hands, blue circuit-like patterns could be seen covering his hand and he smirked seeing this.
"Instantaneous reinforcement magic to the precise limit of what my body can achieve, it seems like I can do that already. " Soma said as he continued to test and see if he could still do it properly.
Flooding every single cell of his body with mana and reinforcing all said cells together at once, this was one of the things he took the longest to be able to do instantaneously whenever he wanted, especially since he managed to do that for even the parts of the body that one normally wouldn't dare try, like the eyes or organs.
After testing for a while more Soma nodded his head, satisfied with this first act.
"Now, before I go eat something, I guess I could take advantage of the momentum and try that. "
What he meant by 'that' was the results of one of the many experiments he had undergone while in the Throne of Heroes.
Namely, Soma concentrated his energy and began to use Alchemy in his own body, namely he used it first in his skin. Namely, this was an experiment made by a joined research of Irysviel Von Einzbern, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, and Paracelsus to see if it was possible to use alchemy in someone to improve on the human body itself.
No big changes to sensations or things like that, just the 'materials' it was composed of.
For instance, Soma was now turning his skin's carbon into extremely elastic and malleable carbon fiber while still keeping its general durability. It was a feat that would be seen as impossible for any technology of the present day, a skin like this was not something anyone normally would have, and yet Soma was turning his skin into that.
It was one of the great experiments he was forced to help by those mad scientists back in the Throne of Heroes, a tentative to find a way to make humans be stronger than before without losing what makes them human in the first place. Simple augmentations in their body, make their organism better than before.
A beneficial operation that demanded extreme knowledge of Alchemy that made even a production of a Philosophical Stone look cheap in comparison. Truly, a marvelous achievement.
Or, well. .
.
"Fuck, shit, asshole, this hurts way too fucking much. " Soma complained as he continued the process.
What he was doing was essentially removing and replanting his skin while letting all his pain censors work overtime as he could not risk simply not letting them work properly.
By the time he finished, his mana reserves he had only managed to change the skin of the palm of his hands, that is it.
Looking at the said palm of the hands he could only let out an unamused chuckle.
"To think this is the most I could manage, and that is because I am still only doing the skin. Just to think how long until I get to the veins, muscles, organs, bones, and nerves, it will take a very long time indeed.