Chapter 99: New Year - New Coop
Coop woke up late in the morning. His first sleep-addled thoughts went to the start of the new year. He’d have to let someone more qualified decide how to categorize the first year after mana, but he figured it would represent the start of a new calendar era at the very least. What better way was there to start such a momentous period other than sleeping in?
“Mmm...” He hummed in comfort.
He was cocooned within his blankets, warm and cozy, but he had already slept so much that falling back asleep would be impossible, no matter how comfortable he was. Thanks to mana, he was feeling better than ever, despite the gauntlet of fighting the settlement completed the day before.
He rolled a few times to free himself from the wrapped covers, then spun to put his feet down over the side of the bed. The old wooden floor was smooth to the touch and slightly cooler than the air in the lighthouse. He scrunched his toes on the wood grain as he stretched his neck, first up toward the similarly aged wooden ceiling, then to the left, and finally to the right with a sigh escaping his lips.
Jett was sleeping on the edge of the mattress, blissfully sprawled on her side. Coop leaned over and stroked her shiny black fur for a few minutes, indulging himself in taking his time, lazily waking up without the incessant timers ticking away in his peripheral vision. Jett’s coat had grown even softer after mana activated. She purred in her sleep while Coop ran the tips of his fingers through her fur.
The thoughts of mana roused his sleepy mind a bit more. Knowing slightly more about what mana actually was didn’t really change how Coop considered the overall situation. As far as he was concerned, it was still magic, but maybe he’d be able to make some small adjustments when he activated his skills. He knew he was probably deluding himself, but it was worth trying to take advantage of the expanded knowledge that had been bestowed upon them. He didn’t think trying something new would cause any harm, and if anything, just consciously practicing with Presence of Mind would be worthwhile.
As he rubbed Jett’s cheeks and stroked her back, Coop activated Presence of Mind to inspect her aura. Instead of brute forcing his imaginary bubble to engulf her aura like he had in the past, he deliberately pushed his own aura forward. He imagined a chain reaction, physically passing along his purpose like a microscopic game of telephone.
If the one that called herself the Avatar of the System was to be believed, mana wasn’t an unknowable, mysterious entity that simply existed, but something that was piggybacking on all matter while gatekeeping the established rules of reality. Basically, it really was still magic, but it meant they might not need to throw away the accumulation of human knowledge to adapt to their new world. There was no sense in starting from scratch if they didn’t need to.
Coop envisioned magic as the caster’s intent being passed along and mana making it happen, as long as it was within accepted parameters established by the system. It wouldn’t explain all of the phenomena they had experienced since the assimilation began, but it helped Coop visualize some of the limitations. He wasn’t trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, just wrap his own head around the situation in a way that would help him progress.
Coop’s working theory was that the system operated as an interface that allowed them to partially manage the mana around and within them, and affinities were the language each individual used to communicate with the ever-present mana. The system afforded some level of control over mana, even if the system and mana really weren’t parts of the same whole. He couldn’t start a fire at his fingertips, even if he understood the physics of how it would work and put his effort into compelling mana to make it happen, but if he had a skill through the system that started a fire, he could summon it at will. The language he used to interface with mana was the limiting factor.
In any case, he looked at Jett’s aura, practicing his mana control through a new lens of rather basic comprehension. The cat’s information came to him much like it had before. Maybe it took a bit less effort, but any differences were more likely caused by his imagination than an actual improvement.
[Awakened Cat (Level 87)]