Universal Power System

Mako couldn't hold back his emotions anymore as he had been receiving a continuous amount of shocking information from the woman sitting opposite to him as he yelled his disbelief and confusion out loud.

'WHAT!'

Rose instantly raised her finger and a water bubble formed around the table they were sitting at so that no noise would escape outside and potentially disturb her other students who were deep in concentration.

Mako paused in the middle of his exclaim as he watched his surroundings get quickly surrounded by a water bubble.

Given the fact that Rose had just used a water ability move, Mako had a quizzical expression on his face as he turned back to face Rose while being stuck on the point that Rose just claimed that she had no abilities.

The sudden use of the water ability was a legitimate sign that he still didn't fully understand what Rose was trying to tell him as all he could think about was how could Rose manage to do all those other things if she didn't possess an ability.

Unable to maintain his curiosity and shock any longer, Mako asked Rose the main question.

"How did you do that?" Mako asked.

Rose began to snicker which quickly transitioned into light laughter all the while Mako continued to stare at her, his eyes begging for an answer to satisfy his thirst for curiosity.

"Ha ha ha... It's mana, silly. Why do you think I have been talking about it, this whole time?" Rose replied while still snickering.

"Mana...?" Mako repeated, still confused.

"I used the mana inside my body to access the mana surrounding me and once I am connected with the natural mana of the world, I can influence it however I want. How do you think you guys use your abilities in the first place?"

Mako paused as he didn't have an answer.

"There is a special type of mana stored inside your bodies which you guys refer to as your aura and when you use an ability, that aura is released into the natural world to cast abilities and moves. The aura is just you using your mana to influence the mana of the outside world to generate abilities." Rose answered her own question.

A wave of realization hit Mako as he looked into himself and noticed how the aura bubbles residing in his body were quite similar to the raw mana that was coursing through his mana highways; although it wasn't exactly the same.

"Then... what's the difference between the aura of our abilities and pure mana?" Mako questioned, his surprised demeanor quickly fading away and being replaced with his true self as someone who was just excited to learn something new and gain more knowledge.

Similarly, a warm smile also appeared on Rose's face as she observed Mako become more open and genuinely just interested in the topic and wanting to learn more.

"The only difference between your aura and pure mana is that pure mana has an affinity to every single thing in the universe as it governs all matter and energy, but because of this, it is very difficult for anyone to utilize pure mana to cast powerful skills and moves of a specific ability."

"This is where your aura has an edge as it is basically filtered mana. It is a special type of mana that only holds an affinity towards a specific resource, power, or ability which means that it can only generate, influence, and control that specific thing and nothing else; however, thanks to this restriction, the concentration of this special mana can be greatly increased, allowing a person to store great amounts of it in their body and cast much stronger and greater skills than what would normally be deemed impossible." Rose explained in detail.

Mako nodded as he understood Rose's explanation with ease.

"Um... I understand that but as you know we humans don't naturally possess any type of aura and instead, we gain our abilities from ability books. How is that aura stored inside a book which could then be transferred inside of us?" Mako asked.

"An excellent question, Mako," Rose commended Mako as very few of her students had given any thought to the very thing that allowed them to gain abilities.

It was true that humans naturally didn't possess any abilities and in turn any type of aura naturally inside their body. They were only able to awaken abilities after absorbing ability books, something that the Yalhvi introduced to the humans.

The ability and skill books were a big mystery for Mako. He knew that they were created from the power crystals of the slain power beasts but he didn't know what the process was to convert them into the books that granted him his abilities and skills.

The ability books always had a single crystal that was embedded into the cover and by breaking the crystal, the person would receive the ability that was stored inside of it.

The crystals that Mako had harvested from the many beasts that he had slain on the island were all raw crystals that only provided Mako with a small percentage of the actual ability making it quite confusing as there was only one crystal embedded in the ability book and it seemed to provide the complete ability.

"For me to explain how ability and skill books function, I would first have to explain the history of mana itself and the very fundamentals of mana manipulation," Rose stated with a complex expression on her face.

"On a universal scale, all living creatures can be classified into two groups; ones that are naturally born with an ability and ones that are not. Humans are one of those creatures that do not possess an ability naturally, and the beasts that you encountered on that island are creatures that do possess a natural ability."

"Now the difference between us and those beasts is that although they have been blessed with a naturally occurring ability, they have been restricted by nature to only being able to use the ability given to them and the ones which have been laid out in their path of evolution, and nothing more."

"On the other hand, humans and all the other creatures that don't naturally possess an ability might think of themselves as unlucky that they weren't similarly blessed by nature as those beasts but you would be mistaken."

"Although it would seem so at the surface, humans actually received the better end of the deal."

Mako had always dreamed of how much different his life would have been if he had an ability just like all the other kids who used to bully him.

He really did feel hopeless and cursed by nature itself for his misfortune and bad luck, and now Rose was telling him that humans were actually lucky that they weren't born with an ability?

"How so, ma'am?" Mako questioned.

"The reason is because creatures like us humans have instead been blessed with the ability to directly influence mana itself," Rose replied.

"Directly influence... mana... itself?" Mako repeated with uncertainty. "We can't do that either..."

"Of course, we can, haven't you heard of the countless legends from our long history of people becoming superhuman, surviving immense injuries, and even manipulating nature?" Rose replied.

Human history was littered with stories, tales, and legends of many people from the past who were said to be unnatural as they possessed abilities such as super strength, or extraordinary healing abilities that would help them accomplish impressive feats.

Mako's grandmother was quite a fan of those urban legends and would often tell their stories to Mako as she would put her to bed, but in the end, they were only stories, right?

"But those were only fairy tales, the Yalhvi hadn't even come to earth at that time," Mako stated as the timeline of everything just didn't add up.

"Oh? So you think us humans were nothing but ravages before the Yalhvi found us?" Rose asked while raising one of her eyebrows.

Mako immediately felt like he had stepped out of line and had said something he shouldn't have. He felt that he should have just listened to her whole explanation before opening his mouth but now it was too late.

"Uh...Um... No...no ma'am... I..." Mako stuttered as he quickly fumbled to try and put together an excuse.

However, before he could continue Rose began to chuckle once again.

"You don't have to walk on eggshells around me dear, I just love messing with young students," Rose said while giggling.

Mako put his head down with a sigh of relief but also with the embarrassment of getting played by Rose one more time. Even though Rose wasn't excreting any type of aura or pressure that would warrant him to be careful or scared of her, somehow he still felt inadequate and inferior in her presence making him careful not to accidentally piss her off.

"In my opinion, humans were indeed ravages before the Yalhvi found us. All they did was destroy themselves and the very planet they called their home with corruption, unnecessary wars, and deception all in the name of greed and power." Rose stated.

"However, not all humans were the same. There were also many who cared for the planet and its people and worked their entire lives for the greater good of humanity."

"And to answer your question, yes the Yalhvi did indeed introduce the concepts of mana and abilities to humans but the actual ability to harness and manipulate mana itself was something that humans possessed naturally from the time they were born."