—Don't be surprised, Karan is stronger than you thought. [Spirit Integration] only allows you to receive 20 percent of his strength. With mana, it allows you to have 10 percent more of Karan's strength.
Tang Shaoyang was surprised to hear this from Zaneos. He never thought Karan to be weak of course, but he did not expect that he could only receive 20 percent of his strength.
—Alright, stop the integration for now.
"Huh? Why? I haven't tried the other skills," Tang Shaoyang wanted to try to cast [Wild Axes], [Earth Split], and [War Cry]. He wanted to test the skill with mana.
—Do you plan to fight the beastmen with your people later, right?
Zaneos had read Tang Shaoyang's mind easily as the latter nodded.
—You used 100 mana for [Spirit Integration], do you know how to recover your mana, then?
At the question, Tang Shaoyang closed his mouth. Of course, he did not know how to recover the mana, "I can't recover the mana naturally?" He asked curiously.
—You can, but it will take a long time to recover naturally. I have a method for you to recover your mana and it may help to increase your Magic Power too
Tang Shaoyang's eyes brightened up. He followed the instruction and canceled the integration. He sat on the ground and leaned his back to the tree, indicating he was ready for the lesson.
—Good, try to sense the mana in your body. Close your eyes and focus
"How? How to sense the mana? I don't even know what mana looks like," the dumb Tang Shaoyang asked.
—The cooling sensation you feel earlier, that's mana. Try to feel it! Just close your eyes and focus
Even though he was still clueless, he followed the instruction. Tang Shaoyang was trying to remember the cooling sensation he felt earlier but he failed to sense anything in the first five minutes.
—Concentrate just like the morning training, and follow the breathing technique I taught you! It should be easy because you already have mana in your body.
Zaneos instructed the man through the mind. Following the instruction, he took a deep breath and slowly released as per the spirit's instruction. In his mind, he kept recalling the earlier sensation, and soon he felt a pulse of that sensation around his arm.
—Don't get distracted, keep going!
Zaneos reminded Tang Shaoyang sternly as soon as the spirit felt the man was about to open his chest. The voice kept his concentration and five minutes later, he saw something amazing inside his body.
In his chest area, he saw a blue whirlpool. It rotated there while the splash of blue energy spread toward the other parts of his body, toward the head, arms, and legs. The whirlpool was around seventy centimeters, not that big but created a beautiful portrait.
—That's your mana pool! Try to move the mana to your body, control your mana.
Tang Shaoyang tried to move the mana, it was much harder than he thought. It took him ten more minutes before he succeeded in the feat. The mana moved, roaming around through his body, moving around and returning the whirlpool.
—Good job, now try to sense the mana around you
"Huh!?" He did not understand what Zaneos meant earlier but soon he understood it. He could sense it, the mana around his body. It was creating a smooth blue wave. Tang Shaoyang opened his eyes but he saw nothing.
—Mana can't be seen with naked eyes unless you have special eyes. You have to feel it, try again
He closed his eyes again, trying to feel the mana around him. This time it was easier than before, less than a minute before he could see the flow of mana in the air.
—I don't know if this technique is working with a human but follow my words
It was a chant in Demon Language that was about three sentences. To Tang Shaoyang's surprise, it was not hard to follow the chant. After he memorized the chant, he repeated the chant in a small voice, and soon he noticed the change in his mana pool.
The whirlpool started to move even faster, and then he felt that the mana around his body was absorbed through the pore of his body. The man entered the body and followed the flow of mana inside the body toward the whirlpool.
He repeated the chant and five minutes later, the whirlpool's rotation returned to a normal rate, and his body stopped absorbing the mana.
—You have recovered your mana.
Zaneos informed Tang Shaoyang. The latter opened his eyes, he was about to open the status window until a notification rang in his head.
[You have learned a skill, Mana Perception!]
Tang Shaoyang stunned for a moment, unsure what actually happened. He was surprised to learn a skill from following the chant.
—It actually worked
He heard the demon whisper in his head, "What is this?" He asked for an explanation.
—It's a skill for us demon races to increase our Magic Power.
"I can increase my magic power by doing that?"
—Yes. You can use that to recover your mana as well to increase your Magic Power. I am kinda envious of this world now
"Huh!? Why?" He wondered what was good about his world. He felt that Zaneos's world would be more exciting than the boring Earth where money almost could buy everything.
—We have to work hard to train our technique but you only need skill points to get stronger. Killing other races does not make us stronger while you can get stronger by killing undead and beast.
—Mana Perception, different name huh. You can repeat the chant to increase your mana pool's capacity to hold mana, and that may increase your Magic Power. As for Mana Mastery, it helps you control your mana, that skill may help you to reduce the mana cost to use the skill.
Tang Shaoyang was delighted to hear this news. Yet another way to increase the attribute, "Can I share the chant with my people?" Since mana could help to strengthen the skill, it would become a big help for his people, especially his subordinate with the advanced class.
—I don't think you can. It's not that I don't want you to share it and it's not the demon race's secret too. Even if you teach the chant, your people still can't learn it because they can't sense the mana.
—We, The Demon Race, are blessed with a body that can sense the mana the moment we are born but you humans don't have that capability. From my understanding of humans in my world, humans have a special method to sense the mana.
"What about me? I can sense the mana even though I don't have the blessed body you talked about," Tang Shaoyang asked in confusion.
—Because of Mana Mastery. You can't sense the mana but thanks to Mana Mastery, you sensed the mana the moment you learned the skill book. Moreover, you already have mana in your body because of the Mana Mastery and that made it easier to sense the mana inside your body which is helping you to learn Mana Perception through my chant. If you want your people to learn Mana Perception, you have to let them learn Mana Mastery first.
—As a demon, I have to learn Mana Perception before I can master my mana and apply it to my sword skill. Your order of learning is special, normally you should learn how to sense the mana before you master how to utilize the mana. Do you understand?
"Ah!" Tang Shaoyang let out an understanding gasp. He thought Zaneos did not want his secret to be shared, but that was not the case.
—In my opinion, your summoner and the necromancer to learn the Mana Mastery. Mana will be a great help for them.
"Necromancer?" He blurted out in confusion. He knew who the summoner was, but it was his first time hearing a necromancer.
—The dude who you recruited recently, the guy who has zombies.
"Ah, Yu Shun! But how do you know about his class? I never asked him about his class before," Tang Shaoyang was curious how Zaneos could know Yu Shun's class.
—It's common knowledge in my previous world that Necromancer is about controlling undead.
"Interesting. We need to chat about your world later, I want to know more about class and skill," he realized that Zaneos had the knowledge that could be shared with him while Origin had its limitations.
"Then what about mage? I have to save Mana Mastery for Mage," he returned to the topic. The Demon Swordsman mentioned that mana was essential for a mage, he was thinking to save the skill book of his people who would take the Flame Mage class.
—The mage class should include either Mana Mastery or Mana Perception skill or both. Without mana, a mage could not use the spell. You don't need to worry about them.
"I see…" He nodded his head understandingly, "I can trust Li Na, but not Yu Shun. He just joined us and he seemed to lack trust in us even though I saved him twice. I can't let him learn Mana Mastery until I can fully trust him,"
—Glad if you understand that.
"Mnn, I need to have a chat with him to understand his disposition. Moreover, the couple is too clingy, the girl is too dependent on him…" he was talking about Luo Lan. Yu Shun was overprotective of his girlfriend, it was not bad but also not good. The girl had to learn how to survive as well or she would be an obstacle for Yu Shun's growth.
"Let's save that for later, we have a village of beastmen to take care of," Tang Shaoyang then headed back to the safe zone.