Chapter 94: Learning through Mistake 1

But Vespera continued:

"Don’t confuse quality with quantity."

Adam understood immediately.

"Your reserves are incomparably greater."

"Exactly."

"So even if one unit of my mana approaches the density of one unit of yours..."

"I possess vastly more."

"Very vastly more?"

Vespera looked at him.

"Very vastly more."

Adam chuckled.

"Very scientific."

"You understand."

Then his gaze became more focused.

"But that’s not the most interesting thing."

Adam raised an eyebrow.

"What is it then?"

"Your purity."

He froze slightly.

Vespera continued:

"It was already abnormally high when I began teaching you."

Adam immediately thought of his Mana Body.

"And now?"

"It continues to improve."

She conjured two small spheres.

One represented her own mana.

The other Adam’s.

"When I first started seriously working on compression, my mana wasn’t as pure as yours was at the same stage."

Adam looked at the two spheres.

"Is that rare?"

"Very."

Vespera replied immediately:

"Most people naturally accumulate small impurities in their mana."

She began to list them.

"Elemental residues."

"Poor circulation."

"Energy absorbed by potions."

"Heavily charged environments."

"Imperfect techniques."

"Certain injuries to magical circuits."

Adam listened attentively.

"And the purer the mana..."

"The higher its yield."

Vespera nodded.

"You lose less energy when casting a spell. Rune structures react better. Compression becomes more stable. And techniques requiring high precision become more effective."

Adam looked at his hand.

"So even if I have less mana..."

"You can waste less of it."

"Like improving the efficiency of a program without increasing the machine’s power."

Vespera was now familiar enough with her analogies to answer immediately:

"Yes."

Adam smiled.

"You’re improving."

"I’ve been listening to you for several days."

Then she added:

"With more training dedicated to purification, your mana could surpass mine in yield."

This time, Adam was truly silent.

"Surpass yours?"

"In intrinsic quality, yes." "

She crossed her arms.

"In viscosity, you’re already close. In purity, you have a clear natural advantage."

She gestured toward her chest.

"When these two parameters have improved sufficiently, you’ll essentially only have one major drawback."

Adam already knew what it was.

"Quantity."

"Exactly."

Vespera remained silent for a moment.

Then she added:

"And that’s by far the biggest difference between us."

Adam smiled.

"That puts things into perspective."

"It has to."

She continued:

"Even if you surpass me in density, purity, and yield, but I have a hundred times, a thousand times, or more of your available supply, you still won’t be more powerful than me."

Adam nodded.

"But every unit I obtain will be better."

"There you have it."

Vespera made the representations disappear.

"Now, we’ll see how far you can increase the viscosity today."

Adam inhaled.

"I was waiting for that line."

He sat down in the center of the room.

Closed his eyes.

Then he concentrated.

The mana was already flowing under compression.

Adam tightened the structure even further.

Slowly.

The sensation changed almost immediately.

His mana became heavier.

Not physically.

But in the way it moved.

As if a current that had been like water was gradually taking on the consistency of a much thicker liquid.

He continued.

The pressure increased.

His breathing slowed.

Vespera stayed close to him.

"Again."

Adam pushed slightly further.

His energy circuits protested.

Not really with pain.

More with resistance.

The flow was more difficult.

"Don’t block the flow," Vespera reminded him.

Adam immediately changed his technique.

He mustn’t simply squeeze harder.

He had to maintain the movement.

Circular compression.

Exactly as she had taught him.

The mana swirled.

Slower.

More densely.

Then it stabilized.

Adam suddenly felt that going any further would require much more effort.

"There."

Vespera raised a hand.

"Stop increasing it."

Adam didn’t release his grip.

But he stopped pushing.

His mana remained at this new density.

He opened his eyes slightly.

"Is this my maximum?"

"For today."

Adam breathed heavily.

"I feel like my mana has turned to syrup."

Vespera thought for a moment.

"Acceptable comparison."

"I was only half joking."

"It’s still acceptable."

Adam closed his eyes again.

Then he sat down on the ground.

"Now?"

"You adapt."

He gave a tired laugh.

"Naturally."

The first few minutes were unpleasant.

Each breath threatened to slightly alter the pressure.

Every movement of his torso affected the circulation.

Even moving a finger created a tiny variation.

Adam had to rebuild his automatic responses.

Breathing.

Circulation.

Pressure.

Viscosity.

Stabilization.

Again.

Again.

Again.

But Adaptation was working.

After about five minutes, the fluctuations lessened.

After ten...

The sensation began to feel less unfamiliar.

And a little before fifteen minutes...

Adam opened his eyes.

He slowly moved his hand.

Then his arm.

The circulation remained stable.

Vespera observed.

"Good."

Adam smiled slightly.

"Fifteen minutes."

"You’re faster than yesterday."

"Adaptation."

"Not only that."

He raised an eyebrow.

Vespera continued:

"You maintained your compression all day. Your body practically never stopped practicing."

Adam realized she was right.

Selene.

Elaria.

Shiora.

Walking.

Talking.

Thinking.

He had consistently maintained the same process.

"So even my other classes are training my magic."

"Yes."

Adam sighed.

"I don’t know if that’s reassuring or worrying."

"Both."

He stood up.

"So, shall we resume the strengthening?"

"Yes."

Vespera conjured the magical silhouette of a human body before him.

The different areas lit up.

Muscles.

Skin.

Bones.

Tendons.

Joints.

Organs.

Mana circuits.

The day before, Adam had started by touching the first two categories.

The muscles.

And the skin.

Today...

Vespera had him start again in exactly the same place.

"Start with the legs."

Adam circulated a small amount of compressed mana toward his muscles.

The difference was immediate.

With the new viscosity...

The strengthening was much more intense.

Adam opened his eyes slightly.

"It’s much stronger."

"And much more dangerous."

He immediately reduced the amount.

"Same density. Less volume."

"Exactly."

He stabilized.

Then he took a step.

His foot left the ground.

The distance he covered was greater than he had anticipated.

Adam adjusted his balance upon landing.

Vespera watched.

"Still too much."

"I know."

He tried again.

This time with less mana.

One step.

Then another.

More stable.

Next, the skin.

Adam spread a thin layer of mana beneath the surface.

The new density made control much more difficult.

Some areas received too much energy.

Others not enough.

Vespera used several extremely weak, small magical projectiles to test the distribution.

With each impact, Adam could feel the differences.

Shoulder.

Correct.

Forearm.

Too weak.

Torso.

Too dense.

He corrected.

Then started again.

After several attempts, Vespera suddenly raised a hand.

"Now, make a mistake."

Adam froze.

"Excuse me?"

"Make a mistake."

He looked at her.

"You’re always telling me to avoid mistakes."

"Uncontrolled mistakes."

She approached.

"It’s not the same thing."

Adam waited for an explanation.

Vespera pointed to the magical figure.

"So far, you’ve mainly been moving forward by immediately searching for the right solution."

"That’s generally the principle of training."

"Not always."

She conjured several representations.

In the first test, the muscle strengthening was excessive.

In the second, insufficient.

In the third, the distribution was unbalanced.

"To truly understand a limit, you sometimes have to slightly exceed it."

Adam narrowed his eyes.

"You want me to deliberately induce small errors."

"Controlled."

Vespera immediately emphasized the word.

"You gradually increase a parameter until you can feel precisely the moment the structure begins to fail. Then you stop."

Adam understood.

"Like testing to the breaking point to know the true limit."

"Yes. But under supervision."

She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I’m here precisely to prevent a controlled error from becoming a catastrophe."

Adam looked at her.

"It’s still a rather brutal method."

"It’s effective with Adaptation."

This answer didn’t surprise him at all.

Vespera continued:

"Your body learns a great deal when it encounters a real consequence."

Adam thought about training with Selene.

The blows.

The mistakes.

Weapon changes.

Each defeat had indeed produced an extremely rapid correction.

"So you want to give Adaptation more information."

"Exactly."

Adam crossed his arms.

"What if I get hurt?"

Vespera remained perfectly calm.

"We’ll stop immediately. I’ll treat you. We’ll analyze the error. Then we’ll resume only when your body has returned to a safe state."

Adam looked at her for a few seconds.

"You had this answer prepared."

"Obviously."

She added in a perfectly serious tone:

"As long as you don’t suffer anything irreparable before I intervene, you’re not going to die here."

Adam remained silent.

"That’s probably the least reassuring sentence a teacher could utter."

"Yet it’s true."

He looked around the room.

The barriers.

The protections.

Then Vespera.

A dragon among the most powerful mages he knew.

If anyone could supervise this kind of training...

It was probably her.

Adam took a deep breath.

"Very well."

Vespera stepped back.

"Begin."

Adam strengthened his legs.

This time...

He deliberately increased the amount of mana a little too much.

He took a step.

The force immediately exceeded what his unstrengthened joints could properly handle.

A sharp pain forced him to stop.

Vespera was already in front of him.

"Stop."

She canceled the exercise.

A healing spell enveloped his leg.

The pain lessened.

"What did you feel?"