It's Pronounced Mah-nah, Not MAA-nuh

+200 exp

The eruption behind John wasn't hot, but he felt as if it seared his nerves when a wave of tingling energy crashed into him from behind. It felt at first as if his entire body had been punched, but it quickly gathered in his chest and **** the air from his lungs. Violently billowing blue washed over John's vision as his body was propelled by the **** of the burst. The explosion carried him a few yards before dissipating and dropping him to roll and slide to a halt among dirt and grass. Strangely, he didn't feel the landing at all.

-15 hp

"John!" a voice called out. He could not tell if it belonged to Adelle or Erica. "Are you still alive?"

"U'm ogay..."

Oh. That didn't come out right.

John lay motionless on the ground under a heavy blanket of pins and needles. He felt nothing but the constant prickling static assaulting every part of his body. Even his eyes felt covered by it, inside and out. He could still blink, but now that he thought about it, the sky was a lot cloudier than he remembered, and the surrounding foliage a lot duller. He flopped his head to the side, in the general direction of Erica, and noticed that it wasn't just around him, everything was in shades of gray.

"Who durned oth da co'or?"

"Uh oh, looks like a pretty bad Mana Shock." Erica walked over to John and squatted down next to him. Her brow furrowed in consternation as she held a hand up in front of his face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"T'ee."

"What's my name?"

"Ewiguh!" John shouted.

"Okay, one more. What is best in life?"

"Tiddies!" John's mouth pulled into a limp approximation of a grin. Erica burst into laughter and softly patted him on the cheek.

"Yeah, you're good." She stood back up and cocked her hips, still staring down at John's splayed out form. "You'll get feeling back in a bit, just give it a few minutes."

"Ogay." John attempted to raise his right arm and offer a thumbs up, but only succeeded in flinging it over his chest. "Hehe, I got 'oodle a'ms!" he shouted. He repeated the motion with his left and, after getting the same result, continued to gleefully wave both useless limbs around over his head. Erica shook her head with an amused sigh and turned to check on her other student.

"You alright, Dell?"

"I am fine," she answered between heavy breaths. John couldn't see her, but she sounded like him after running laps. "Do not worry about me."

"If you say so." Erica shrugged while she surveyed the carnage around her. There was a small crater where the Golem had been standing, and pieces of it were scattered all around the courtyard. One of the larger chunks had flown all the way to one of the statues flanking the entrance and taken it out. All in all, her students had made an impressive mess; they had done their teacher proud. "You guys really did a number on this place."

"I am sorry," Adelle said. "I did not mean to destroy the Golem's core, but John's life was in danger. I could not afford to hold back."

"Did you consider the fact that the blast could have killed him?" Erica frowned.

"I did, but I could not think of any less risky way. I am sorry."

"Relax." Erica's expression lightened significantly. "You made the right call, I just wanted to make sure you thought about it. Whatever you did to heal him was enough to keep him alive, and that's what's important. What was that, anyway? I've never seen you pull that move before."

"There is a reason for that," Adelle panted. "As you can see."

"Yeah, you look like crap," Erica said. "Shame that John went out of bounds."

"What?" Adelle's surprise briefly overpowered her fatigue. "No!"

"I'm afraid so." Erica gestured towards John, still entertaining himself off to the side.

"Whuh?" John's arms fell. He ran the tips of his slightly less numb fingers through the blades of grass, groping for understanding. Even in his addled state he was able to put two and two together: the grass was not dirt, but the circle was made of dirt, therefore, he was not in the circle. "Buh we won! Da's nah fair!"

"Life's not fair, dude. I gave you two rules, and neither of them said you had to win the fight. You decided that for yourselves, and broke one of the rules trying to."

"But Dame Carpenter, the-"

"HOWEVER," Erica shushed her Squire with a stern look, "the danger of being knocked out was removed after you blew up the Golem; there was nothing left to test against. Considering that John only left the circle after that happened, and he stayed conscious, mostly… I think you guys can call this a success." Erica dropped the reproachful facade and smiled. "Good job."

"YAAAAAY!" John resumed his wanton arm flailing with renewed vigor. He resembled one of the inflatable men often found beside used car dealerships. Both young women silently agreed to ignore him.

"Thank you, Dame Carpenter."

"You earned it." Erica offered a hand down to her Squire. "Now come on, let's get you somewhere more comfortable than the ground."

Erica had only just begun to escort a heavily fatigued Adelle over to the benches when Moira, still clad in full armor, entered the courtyard with an urgent stride. She had her hammer in hand. Not the wooden replica, but the real thing, in all its oversized glory. A pair of helmeted knights trailed behind her.

"Erica, what happened?" she barked, more of an order than a question. "I could feel the explosion from across the estate. Is everything alright?"

"We're all good, Moira," Erica replied. "My students got a little too eager to please me and blew up one of the training Golems. Sorry about the mess, you can dock my pay for the repairs."

"Nonsense, we'll cover it. This isn't the worst state I've seen the yard in." Moira waved off Erica's offer. Beneath the haze, John found himself a little disappointed at her appraisal. "But what do you mean 'blew up' one of the training Golems? Dismantle or destroy I would understand, but how did this happen?"

"I put them up against one due for repairs," Erica confessed. She sat Adelle down to speak with Moira one on one. "The core wasn't totally stable and it had a crack in the main shell. I wanted to see if they would figure that out and find a way to exploit the weakness, but I never expected them to blow the whole thing to hell. Looks like someone's been holding out on me." Erica glanced in her Squire's direction with playful suspicion. Adelle wilted beneath it with a faint blush.

"And Newman, how did he fare? Wa-" Moira's expression contorted into bewilderment as she beheld the Gamer. He had just recently rediscovered the ability to roll and was merrily flattening swaths of grass beneath his tumbling body. "What happened to him?"

"Mana Shock." Erica pinched the bridge of her nose. "He was a little too close to the explosion; been dumb as a stump since. I guess this was his first time being exposed to so much raw mana."

"Hiiii Moiraaaa~!" John waved between rolls. "I like your armor!"

There was a nearly indiscernible twitch in the Paladin's cheek. Most people, maybe even her father, would have written it off if they had even noticed it, but Erica knew Moira well enough to know that she was suppressing a smile. She held back her own, and John interrupted the rest of her train of thought as he bumped into her shin.

"Dude." She planted a boot on his chest. "Stop."

"Awwwww…"

John's brain was working at full capacity about ten minutes later, more or less. His fingertips still tingled when he moved them, but color had returned to the world and his thoughts were clear. What happened after the fight was mostly a blur to him, however. The first thing he could recall with clarity was staring at the manor staff, watching them break down and clean up the Golem's remains. He was seated on the ground, propped up on the bench near Adelle's legs. The others had filled him in on what happened after they noticed him reach up to wipe drool from his chin.

"Does this Mana Shock thing happen all the time?" John rapped the side of his head with a palm, as if trying to knock free any lingering problems. "Like, can you just make a big 'Stupid Bomb' and reduce a city block to brainless toddlers?"

"Not really, and yes," Erica replied, "sorta. Moira, you wanna field this one? This isn't really my area of expertise."

The young Warden had been standing nearby, overseeing the work being done until John had recovered. Erica was next to her, keeping an eye on her students. Moira nodded and turned to face John.

"Mana Shock to the degree you suffered isn't common in the general sense, but it happens to new mages sometimes," she explained. "It is the result of being subjected to an influx of more mana than you are able to handle. It can happen on accident, such as when attempting to draw excess power from a mana battery, or," Moira raised an eyebrow, "by standing too close to a detonating mana core, for instance."

"I didn't really have a choice, you know," John said, indignant.

"It was only an example, not a criticism."

"Right." John rolled his eyes.

"Regardless," Moira continued, "the severity of a Mana Shock depends on both the person in question and the strength of the incoming exposure. Had either Erica or I been in your position, we would likely only have experienced some numbness. Squire Kingston would possibly suffer disorientation or partial loss of motor function. You, on the other hand, are a new mage. Your body is not yet used to channeling mana, let alone a dose of such magnitude. Some of your symptoms were a result of your mana channels being **** open; others, your body's attempt to shut systems down to avoid trauma and shunt the mana elsewhere. Fortunately, your case wasn't so severe as to leave any permanent damage."

"So basically I short circuited and blew a few fuses," John said.

"Not a bad analogy, actually." Moira nodded. "Some like to consider a person's mana in terms of circuitry. I don't personally, but it is a useful way for Late Bloomers, who were not raised in Abyssal society, to understand the basics."

"So what now?" John flexed his fingers. He felt different. It was subtle, but there was a strange emptiness inside him. It didn't make him feel lighter or weaker, but something still felt missing. "Do I get more mp-" he coughed, "erm, to hold more mana?"

"No." Moira shook her head. "It's more nuanced than that, which is why the circuit analogy only goes so far. Channeling mana is an effort of body and soul in unison. It is possible that your body is now able to accept more mana than before, but your soul is not. The disparity will balance in time, but for now you should remain the same. On the bright side, you should not suffer so much should you ever find yourself near concentrated explosions of pure mana again."

John took a look at his character sheet and confirmed Moira's words. His maximum mp was no higher than before.

Ripoff.

-
<Achievement Unlocked!>
Unlimited POWER!
Suffer a 3rd degree Mana Shock and survive.
New Skill
-

-
<New Skill!>
Overcharge - Lv. 1
Augmentation - Passive
Hold (Skill Level x10)% mp in excess of maximum without consequence for one hour.
Unused excess mp may be relinquished at the end of the duration. Exceeding the limitations of Overcharge subjects the user to Mana Shock as per normal.
-

Oh. That's better!

"Souls confirmed then," John said, casually dismissing his windows.

"I'm sorry?" Moira's eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes, souls confirmed." Erica stepped in and clapped John on the shoulder. "Not in the 'Angels With Harps' way, but yeah. It's kinda complicated."

"'Complicated' is a grievous understatement, Erica." Moira frowned. "Souls are not so easily understood as even the most complex arcane study."

"Souls: pretty important. Got it," John said with a smile. It was Moira's turn to roll her eyes.

"Newman, do you deliberately try to test my patience or are you simply dense?"

"Cut him some slack, he's probably still a little rattled." Erica interposed herself between the two and cut John off with a scolding leer before he could make a snippy response. "We can drill him about it all later."

"Fine." Moira crossed her arms and diverted her gaze. "You make a fair point."

"Speaking of feeling better," John poked his head out from behind Erica, "you got any food around here? I'm fuckin' starving."