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The tip of the pen scratched against the paper, making a rustling sound.
Soon, a blank page was filled with black text, summarizing the disadvantages: inferior mana, "kitchenware" not yet tempered, and lack of combat auxiliary abilities like Mana Zone...
The advantages were also very clear: there was still "time," and methods to resolve inferior mana and accelerate the tempering of "kitchenware" were available...
Therefore, a plan addressing these issues was clearly written out and integrated into a six-month timeline, from months down to individual days.
Time passed bit by bit, and the sun slowly reached the center of the sky, its rays enveloping the entire land.
It was a clear, sunny day, making one feel comfortable.
Shaking his slightly numb arm, Bai En stood up, pinned the plan to the wall, and left the room to prepare lunch.
Harvesting wishes through food to increase mana was something he had to do every day.
Of course, this was far from enough; he planned to expand the locations where he cultivated mana from the church to the entire Hage Village, and even to several surrounding villages, but that was a topic for later.
He found a pile of wild yams in a corner of the kitchen, selected the large ones, peeled and chopped them.
Rice and wheat were grown in the Clover Kingdom, but due to the church's economic problems, they rarely could afford such things.
However, ever since Bai En and Yuno grew up, they would help villagers with tasks for compensation, and also go to the forest to catch fish; if they were lucky, they could even catch wild boars, and life slowly improved.
Those foods they used to drool over slowly made it to the dining table.
He took out flour from a bag, kneaded it into dough, cut it into noodles, and then took out some smoked wild boar meat.
Today's meal was pork noodles and wild yam soup.
Smoke rose from the chimney, and a fresh, savory aroma wafted from the kitchen.
He had expected Nash or Liga to be the first to rush into the kitchen, but it was Yuno, returning from training outside.
"Why are you back?" Bai En, who was serving soup, had just asked this question when he felt he might have misspoken.
He rephrased: "You're back from training so soon?"
"Mm."
The cool, handsome guy maintained his usual demeanor, completely forgetting how he used to cry behind Bai En and Asta.
Bai En nodded, handed the bowl to Yuno, "Then help take it outside."
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Yuno's delayed action, Bai En asked, "Is something on your mind?"
"How... did you do it?"
This question was quite sudden and strange. What did he do?
Yuno realized his question was a bit vague, so he explained in detail: "Yesterday, when you fought that guy, how did your mana last so long? Your mana clearly isn't high."
"Compared to me..."
"Huh? What kind of strange statement is that? Are you openly mocking my mana for being inferior to yours?" Bai En pouted, "Your words are really hurtful, Yuno."
"No, I didn't mean that. I..."
Bai En waved his hand, picked up two bowls of noodles, and turned to leave the kitchen.
Yuno followed behind him, "You want to ask why my mana recovers so quickly, don't you?"
"Or, to put it another way, you want to know how I condense the mana from nature into my own, right?"
Yuno's tightly furrowed brows relaxed, and he nodded.
"Mages with mana are naturally able to sense the presence of mana.
It varies from person to person; some can sense it far away, others close by.
In professional terms, this is called 'Mana Perception.'"
"Within the range of Mana Perception, you can feel the mana in that area, whether it's within your own body or in nature."
"First, perceive the specific location of natural mana, then use your own mana to draw it into your body.
Complete these two steps, and you can do it."
"It sounds simple, but the process of interaction is actually not easy, one could even say it's very difficult, even for a genius."
Bai En placed the noodle bowls on the table and shouted outside, "Nash, Liga, call the little ones, it's time to eat!"
"Okay!"
The wind rustled the leaves, and cheerful echoes came from outside the door.
"Then how do you manipulate natural mana?" Yuno asked again.
He remembered that in Bai En's fight with Rebuchi, the sword not only had slashes but also incorporated natural mana, though not much.
Bai En looked at Yuno and said lightly, "It's a state achieved by continuously refining one's own mana and persistently strengthening physical functions with mana.
Books call this 'Magic Skin.'"
"Continuously practice and refine 'Magic Skin,' and to a certain extent, you can manipulate the mana floating around you."
"Is that how it is?"
"By the way, being able to control the mana in nature to enhance your own magic, making it more powerful and allowing it to be released from various angles, Mages call this 'Mana Zone.'
This is an ability that needs to be mastered to become strong."
"I understand, thank you."
Seeing Yuno about to rush out the door again, Bai En asked, "You just got back, what are you going to do?"
"Training."
"Aren't you eating lunch?"
What a loss! I should have told him after he finished eating. Don't even think about stopping me from increasing my mana.
"Eat first, or next time I won't tell you these things," Bai En said firmly.
"Then... alright."
"Be careful not to stunt your growth like Asta!"
Yuno, eating noodles at the table, wasn't idle.
The natural mana scattered throughout the church surged towards him.
In Bai En's Mana Perception, small azure hands, materialized from mana, condensed around Yuno, reaching out to the surrounding mana.
Although he failed again and again, it made Bai En's eyelids twitch. 'Could this guy learn to condense natural mana today?'
'Asta too, Yuno too, such disgusting comprehension and talent ~ I knew I shouldn't have been so eager to teach people, it's infuriating ~'
----------
Bai En wasn't idle in the afternoon, but unlike Yuno and Asta's training, he was flipping through donated books in the church, searching for materials that matched the nature of his "kitchenware" to accelerate its cultivation and tempering.
However, the books in the church were jumbled, with few introductions to weapon materials.
Perhaps he would have to visit the Royal Library after the Magic Knights exam to find all the relevant tempering materials.
Fortunately, Bai En finally discovered one, specifically for forging "Zan Yan"—Iron Essence, an ore that can enhance a weapon's sharpness.
If he could smelt Iron Essence into Zan Yan, not only would it increase the power of his slashes, but even against Asta's Anti-Magic, the real weapon wouldn't dissipate, and he wouldn't fear Anti-Magic then.
Judging by descriptions like "rare" and "precious," the price of Iron Essence probably wouldn't be cheap.
Perhaps he could ask the village's old blacksmith, Vio.
He rode Father Orji's magic broom to the blacksmith's shop, only to return dejectedly.
One kilogram of Iron Essence cost a staggering six hundred thousand yule, an exorbitant price for Bai En currently.
Even if all the money from everyone in the church was pooled together, they couldn't buy a tiny speck.
And this was just the tempering material for the first knife; he didn't even know what the later "kitchenware" would require, but he suspected it wouldn't be cheaper than Iron Essence.
Bai En felt he needed to add one more item to his six-month training plan: making money.
Immense pressure!
In the afternoon twilight, Bai En collected the Iron Yew trees he had cut down while practicing "Hado" and "Sokatsui" in the forest.
He cobbled together a small cart.
The cart was ugly and took most of the day, making Bai En conclude he definitely had no talent for carpentry.
He would just have to get used to it; next, he would use this cart and his cooking skills to complete his initial capital accumulation and mana cultivation.
No one would know that in the future, Bai En would become a legend at the end of the Clover Kingdom because of this cart, earning Hage Village the title of a generation's culinary village.
In the evening, Asta and Yuno returned to the church, dragging their dirty bodies, the smell of sweat and the mud clinging to them testaments to their hard work.
Indeed, those who can turn the tide are never solely geniuses.
An invisible competitive spirit slowly rose in Bai En's heart.
Internal competition, huh? Well, let's see who makes the most progress after six months.
Flames seemed to ignite in the eyes of the three.
Only the king of internal competition would laugh to the end.
Who understands? I'm competing in internal competition with the male lead and second male lead in a magic world, crying, /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~...