Deranged Writer's Afterword

The frowning girl in front of me was someone I knew very well.

Sighing internally I say,'' What do you want, Lecia ?''

Lecia was someone that came to the orphanage long before I did and she's an atrocious little brat. She's kind of like an elder sister to me if your elder sister was a little asshole.

Pointing a finger at me, she commanded me

'' Play with me, now.''

'' Alright.'', I say in a tired voice.

Arguing with Lecia was like fighting against the tides of an ocean, there was no need to struggle, just give in to the tide.

Why are my thoughts so suicidal?

Maybe I should see a shrink.

Lecia and I play on the seesaw silently.

'' What are you thinking about ?", Lecia asks me in a curious voice

'' The future.'', I say nonchalantly.

'' I want to be an artist.''Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m nov𝒆lb(i)n.c(o)m

'' Huh''

'' I said, I want to be an artist.''

A pout appears on her little face.

''That's cool''

She stopped the seesaw and looked at me expectantly.

After thinking for a while, I say in a low voice.

'' I'm gonna be a hero.''

~~~~

The next day, I pretended to be sick to bunk my classes and stayed behind at the orphanage. I lie on my bed in the dorm room and look at the ceiling blankly. I had been planning for today since ages ago.

Today was the day I was going to upgrade myself, literally. Usually, a 7-year-old child could never awaken the mana within their own body without external interference, But I know of a method through which one could force the awakening process. This method was not known because humans didn't use it, the beings that used this method were the angels. The young angels used this method on themselves to awaken their mana forcefully.

The only reason I've been putting it off until now was that this process was supposed to be mind-numbingly painful. But I had no choice, if I wanted to survive in this world, where the strong devoured the weak, I had to become strong myself.

I get up and get into a meditation pose, I breathe in and out slowly. After regulating my breathing to a certain extent, I raise my right hand forward and punch myself in the solar plexus as hard as my 7-year-old body allowed.

I jerk my body instinctively as I feel the pain, but I don't stop. I continue to hit my solar plexus as hard as I can, again and again. I hit my solar plexus so much that the area above my abdomen gets a purple hue due to bruising. But I still don't stop, I continue hitting my solar plexus until--

'' Cough... Cough''

I cough out blood.

I stop harming myself and start regulating my breathing.

Yes, finally. I feel a pleasant feeling wash over me.

No, don't misunderstand, I'm not a masochist.

The pleasant feeling was caused by my mana trying to heal me instinctively.

I feel the presence of a blue ball of energy near my abdominal region. I try to control it, it was a little sloppy but it would do.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. The angels are barbarians, they beat the mana into their children. It wasn't that simple though.

By continuously beating the solar plexus, where the mana was located, you damage the mana in your body, and your body instinctively tries to repair the damage by moving the mana. You just have to remember the exact feeling at that moment and tada!

You can control your mana now.

Suddenly a blue screen appears before me interrupting my thoughts

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Name: X

Age: 7

Potential: F- rank

Strength: G

Agility: G

Stamina: G

Intelligence: F-

Mana Grade : G

Vitality: G

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Job: Swordsman lvl: 1

You have a innate understanding and talent for the sword.

Techniques: None.

Skills:

Author's Authority [ SSS rank]

Using your lifeforce you can change the present to your whims. The more significant the change, the more vitality is taken. Can only be used once a day.

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I frown upon reading my status screen, it seems that I had already acquired a skill which would be a fact to celebrate if not for the fact that the skill's description was so grim. I plan to live a long and peaceful life in this turn so no way in hell am I using this shady ass skill.

I put the skill under the future problems section for now. I had more bigger fish to fry.

The biggest issue right now was my talent. I had expected this body to be talentless but to think that it would be this talentless !

But it was no issue. I had plenty of time to improve myself. I also knew the location of cheat items which were scattered across the human territory, these would help in my growth exponentially.

Perks of being an author I suppose.

But right now, as a 7 year old child I couldn't get my hands on any of those items, but there was something I could do about my talent. But this method would be even more painful than the last one.

No pain, No gain I suppose.

The method that I had in mind was something that was practiced by the royalty of the demons. The demon king decided to not publicize this method because it would distort the power scale of the world. It was through which one could raise their talent by a level, in a literal sense.

I breathe in and out rhythmically and close my eyes and feel my mana.

Mana was something that replenished naturally over time, supplements could be taken to make the rate of replenishing faster, so I take out all the mana together and continue to use it without waiting for it to replenish itself. Soon all the mana within my body is gone and I feel exhausted. My body feels heavy and sweat starts forming on my forehead. I still try to use mana even though there was none within me.

Soon I feel something break inside me, excruciating pain torments me throughout the entire process. The ' something' that just broke inside me was my mana container. The thing which holds mana in my body. The breaking of the mana container was a common phenomenon as heroes would sometimes use all their mana and naturally overexert themselves breaking their mana container.

The mana container would heal itself over time so there was no need to worry. It would still hurt like hell though. This process was called, ' Mana Exhaustion'.

I cough out more blood, but I remain calm and wait for my mana container to heal itself. In about an hour, it was almost completely healed, just before completely healing I force the mana container down, I put pressure on the mana container using the mana within it, and the mana container gets pushed down. Now all I had to do was wait.

After an hour of waiting, I felt the presence of two mana containers within my body, what happened was after forcefully breaking the mana container. you wait and before it can completely heal, you can push the mana container by using the mana within our body.

Usually the mana container wouldn't go down even if pushed but a healing mana container's position wasn't cemented so it was movable, because I moved my mana container down, my body gets fooled into thinking that the mana container got broken yet again and forms another mana container.

Now comes the painful part.

Bracing myself, I try to fuse the two mana containers within my body using my mana. The fusion succeeds and a bigger mana container gets formed, but due to the fusion a mild mana explosion takes place within my body.

A mana explosion takes place when the mana within your body gets unstable. After a mana explosion occurs within your body, you become unable to use your mana properly. A mana explosion meant that the career of a hero was finished but not for me.

I cough out more blood but now I was more or less used to it.

I couldn't feel my mana anymore, but I could feel a huge mana container within me. I calm down my breathing and feel the mana around me. I imagine taking the mana from the atmosphere and putting it in myself. It takes a few times to get it right, but I feel the mana from the atmosphere entering my body and filling up the newly formed mana container.

Now all I had to do was wait and my ability to feel my mana would return.

Through this process, I increased my my total mana capacity and also increased my ability to control my mana more smoothly.

I look down at my clothes and sigh internally as I start wondering what I should tell them about all the blood on my clothes.

' Crash'

Suddenly I hear the sound of the a cup breaking and after turning around, I find Lecia looking at me with a bewildered expression.

' I'm fucked, aren't I ? '

~~~~~~~