Demon King of the Royal Class-Chapter 488

The power of Mana Reinforcement, refined to its extreme, did not result in mana emission.

Initially, when someone performs Mana Reinforcement, their body would be enveloped in a blue aura. This was merely a kind of phenomenon created by incomplete combustion of mana, a result of mana that was not properly condensed being released externally. Therefore, proper Mana Reinforcement did not result in the emission of power.

Complete Mana Reinforcement... I had succeeded in taking the first step toward it. Although I could only do it with a very small portion of my mana, I was able to compress that power to its limit in a state of calm and tranquility, achieving an extremely refined form of Mana Reinforcement without any emission of power.

“I thought you might have been caught up in some strange fantasy when you said you were meditating, but it seems you’ve achieved something,” Luna said with a slight smile, as if she had read something in my eyes despite my silence.

Strictly speaking, neither Luna nor Ronan had taught me anything. It was Arta who had thrown hints my way.

“Give it a go,” she said.

Knowing what I had to do, I immediately used Mana Reinforcement.

I focused on using just a very small portion of my mana. I focused not on the release of strong power, but on the feeling of transmitting my mental state into the flow of mana coursing through my body.

It felt like I was expressing my tranquil mental state through my entire body.

There was no visible change, but a sense of exhilaration from the circulation of mana enveloped my entire body. Although the output was certainly weaker than when I exerted my full strength, there was a definite sense that I had achieved maximum efficiency.

Luna quietly observed me as I succeeded in achieving this Mana Reinforcement that had been refined to its extreme. And then, still looking at me, Luna placed her thumb and middle finger together, and brought them to my forehead.

“... Mother?”

She was about to perform an action commonly known as a flick.

Snap!

“Ouch!”

My head snapped back from that unrestrained flick, and I fell over.

‘What the heck? What was that?’

“Why did you do that all of a sudden?” I demanded, and Luna pointed at me with a smile.

“Look at yourself.”

“...?”

My body, which Luna was pointing at, was faintly enveloped in blue mana. I immediately understood what she meant. My composure had been disrupted by a single flick, causing me to lose control over the flow of mana I was regulating and resulting in mana being released externally.

“It’s still too soon to use it in actual combat, isn’t it?”

“... Yes.”

Maintaining a tranquil mental state and completely controlling the flow of mana—I knew that was the right approach, but ultimately, I had to use this power in combat. But if my mental state could be disrupted by a single flick, I would never be able to use this power in actual combat.

After taking a few deep breaths, the mana that had been released externally came under control, and the light around me disappeared. However, I hadn’t deactivated Mana Reinforcement.

Luna helped me up from where I had fallen.

“From now on, maintain this state all day long. So that the constancy of your mind can manifest as the constancy of your body. So that manipulating mana becomes more natural than breathing, and eventually, you can forget the sensation of manipulating mana altogether. Do you understand?”

Maintaining complete Mana Reinforcement all day meant maintaining a tranquil mental state all day. It had to become so natural that I wouldn’t even know I was performing Mana Reinforcement.

If I could reach that stage, I would have reached a point where I could maintain a tranquil mental state all day without any special effort.

Maintaining a clear and calm mental state without conscious effort...

Soon, I would enter a state of perfect clarity and tranquility.

“Yes.”

Perform Mana Reinforcement all day, and at a very refined level...

I had to maintain very refined Mana Reinforcement all day. Could I do it?

“Enduring one day like that is just the beginning.”

Although I had thought it to be so, Luna’s warning that this was just the beginning sounded daunting to me.

***

What Luna had tasked me with was very simple: maintain Mana Reinforcement all day.

The fact that my mana capacity was among the highest in the world remained unchanged. Therefore, I could maintain Mana Reinforcement much longer than most people.

Even if I used it in my usual way, releasing as much output as possible, I could maintain it for at least two hours, despite my inefficiency. That was the level I was at.

Therefore, maintaining Mana Reinforcement using only a very small portion of my mana all day should have been an easy task.

Of course, it wasn’t easy at all.

“Hey, what are you doing?” asked Arta, tapping my shoulder.

Tap!

“Ow! You bastard!”

“What, what? Why are you suddenly angry?”

I frowned at the blue mana light emanating from my body. It wasn’t just about maintaining Mana Reinforcement, but also maintaining a tranquil mind.

Maintaining such a state all day was by no means an ordinary task.

***

For a week after receiving the task from Luna, I was careful to avoid any external stimuli. Of course, I knew that doing so was misconstruing Luna’s intentions.

Maintaining a clear mental state all day meant maintaining a psychological state that was unaffected by any external stimuli. Therefore, what I had to do was not to lock myself in a room or sit under a waterfall maintaining Mana Reinforcement all day, but to maintain the extreme state of complete Mana Reinforcement while going about my daily life, such as eating, talking to someone, helping with farm work, and so on.

However, I couldn’t even reach that stage. I couldn’t even last an hour maintaining that extreme level of Mana Reinforcement just sitting alone on my bed.

After about thirty minutes, my whole body would be drenched in cold sweat, and eventually, I would become exhausted, and the state of Mana Reinforcement would break. Even without any external interference, just maintaining that state alone was challenging.

By pouring all my energy into maintaining peace of mind, I ended up exhausting myself.

I was experiencing the strange paradox where maintaining peace of mind also destroyed my peace of mind.

If I tried to relax my concentration, believing that excessive focus was the problem, the texture of my Mana Reinforcement would change, and my Mana Reinforcement would revert to its old form, where mana was released externally.

The previous method of Mana Reinforcement had already required extreme mental concentration. Getting used to consuming mental energy to activate Mana Reinforcement in that way was already quite challenging, and now I had to get used to a new method that required mental concentration that was several times stronger.

Two weeks after realizing the new method of Mana Reinforcement...

“... This is driving me crazy.”

Even in a state with minimal external stimuli, I could not maintain the desired state for more than two hours.

***

In the end, feeling that I was getting nowhere and unable to bear the frustration, I decided to take a day off and met with Arta and Lena.

“So that’s what you’ve been doing all along? I thought you were sick or something,” Arta said.

“... Yeah.”

Whenever I went outside, I would take a step and pause, then take another step and pause again, afraid that my concentration would break and I would lose my state of Mana Reinforcement. It seemed like Arta had noticed that behavior.

I couldn’t blame him. If someone who didn’t know my situation saw me, they might have thought I was a bit slow in the head.

Arta nodded, as if he finally understood why I had been acting that way lately.

Lena tilted her head. “Mana Reinforcement all day? Is that even possible? Arta, can you do it?”

“Well, I’ve never tried it, but I’d probably collapse from exhaustion before that.”

Arta seemed to think that doing it all day was impossible for him because of his mana capacity, and not because of any issue with his concentration.

‘Wait... Does that mean if he had enough mana, he could do it all day?’

Maintaining a tranquil mind all day... Someone like Ellen would be suited for such a task.

Sabioleen Tana, who had reached the rank of Grandmaster, also did not seem to have much fluctuation in her emotional state.

Of course, Ellen was naturally like that, but did those who mastered Mana Reinforcement to such a level naturally evolve somewhat indifferent personalities?

No matter how I looked at it, though, Arta didn’t seem like that kind of person. He wasn’t a frivolous person, but he wasn’t indifferent either.

“Hey, what’s your secret to mental concentration?” I asked.

“... Secret?”

“Yeah.”

Arta didn’t seem like someone who had undergone intense mental training. Yet, Arta was someone who could use extreme Mana Reinforcement even in practical situations, though I had only seen it in a practice duel.

As I was, I had to be extremely cautious even in my movements in order to maintain this extreme Mana Reinforcement. Naturally, I couldn’t even dream of practice duels.

At the very least, if I could be like Arta, I wouldn’t ask for anything more.

Arta crossed his arms and pondered my question. “Well... I don’t really know if I have any secret to mental concentration...”

In terms of the flow of Mana Reinforcement, leaving aside output, Arta was superior to both me and Ellen, although he could not compare with either Ellen or I in actual skill.

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried maintaining Mana Reinforcement all day like you.”

“Then why don’t you try it?” Lena suggested.

Thanks to Lena’s suggestion, Arta ended up joining me in the challenge of maintaining Mana Reinforcement all day.

***

In a sudden turn of events, Arta ended up doing what I was doing. It wasn’t like before, sitting under a waterfall, but sitting quietly in an open space, maintaining complete Mana Reinforcement.

This continuous maintenance meant that the moment our concentration wavered and mana was released externally, it was over. Although I could refocus and return to that state, what Luna wanted from me was to maintain this state all day.

I sighed. “Damn it.”

I eventually became exhausted after maintaining that state for about an hour. Although I had enough mana to continue, it felt like my mental energy was being consumed in real-time.

Meanwhile, Arta sat quietly, completely focused, without moving.

I sat beside him, repeating the cycle of focusing and then losing concentration, for about three hours.

“Ugh, that’s it for me as well. I’m too exhausted,” Arta said.

Arta had lasted about three hours before collapsing onto the ground. He seemed to be reaching a state of mana depletion.

I felt as though my mental energy was being consumed, and only lasted about an hour, while Arta had no issues with mental energy but was limited by mana capacity, lasting about three hours.

Those were each of our limits.

Lena, who didn’t even know what we were doing, tilted her head at the result. “I can’t really tell, but is Arta really amazing?” she asked.

“By my standards, yes, even if I don’t want to admit it.”

“Why do you have to say you don’t want to admit it?” Arta chuckled while lying limp.

I didn’t know Arta’s actual mana capacity, but it probably wasn’t very high. He was just using that mana with maximum efficiency.

Despite not having a high mana capacity, he could maintain Mana Reinforcement for about three hours.

This meant that once I fully mastered this method, I would gain incomparable power and endurance compared to before.

“Anyway, the secret to mental concentration? I don’t know. I really don’t.” Arta said, lying sprawled out on the ground and staring blankly at the sky.

The secret to good mental concentration...

Just as Arta said, what secret could there be?

What else was there besides being good at mental concentration because one was good at it?

“Hmm, I can’t say for sure, Reinhart, but I think I know what’s the difference between you and Arta,” said Lena with a tilt of her head. She had been watching both of us for three hours.

“Really?” Arta asked.

Lena nodded. “Arta doesn’t think about anything.”

“... Huh? What do you mean?”

Arta was dumbfounded by the sudden implication that he was a simpleton.

“And Reinhart thinks too much.”

“... Is that so?”

“So Arta is kind of laid-back, like whatever happens, happens, but Reinhart is... how should I put it... it’s like his whole body is tense, even his eyes...”

Lena looked over at me. “Just watching you makes me tired, Reinhart,” she said.

“Oh...”

“If just watching you makes me tired, then how tired must you be while doing it?”

If one tried to maintain a tranquil mind while tensing their whole body and even their eyes, of course, they’d be exhausted.

“But if you just relax, your mind will naturally waver, won’t it?” I asked.

Lena silently pointed at Arta, who was sprawled out on the ground.

He was a real-life example of someone who maintained his mental concentration even while relaxed.

I had nothing to say in response to Lena’s simple observation.

“Hey, I do think about things, you know...” Arta said.

Of course, Arta didn’t seem too pleased with being told that he went through life without thinking.