<Alex, Real - Endure, High School Class Room>

Alex pulled out his little clear box—specifically the one he'd gotten most recently—placing his hand on the side and trying to extend a thin tendril of mana into the box.

Surprisingly, it was easier with much of the odd stretchy, elastic feeling having faded after he rejected the 'dough ball' circulation technique. When he forced a bend into the flow, the mana seemed to more easily lock into that formation. Even as it was drawn passed, the mana that came after moved in generally the same manner, like water flowing through a channel carved of sand.

Also similar to water flowing through sand, as the mana was pulled past, it seemed to slowly erode the boundaries, the curves softening by the second, and requiring effortful maintenance to keep moving properly. Even so, it was a marked improvement. The process having turned from him keeping it 'perfect' through mental effort alone to the mana generally doing as he'd tried to make it do, at least for a moment.

It only let him get seven kinks down the widest part of the path, but that was so much further than he'd gotten before. Five had been his previous best, and that had been hard to achieve over the course of near to an hour. This he now did in mere minutes.

Still, that seemed like so little advancement, but to him, it was a monumental achievement.

Alas, despite his enhanced mind, it was hard to flip between seven distinct points and continually nudge his mana into compliance, especially since it required three dimensional stability, effectively making each turn in the passage require two axes of control. Moreover, each exertion used a fraction of a point of mana, which didn't seem like much until Alex realized that he was doing nearly a dozen such 'pushes' or 'pulls' every second.

As if that weren't enough, as he was going slower than the mana usually moved within his body, he was having to keep the straight sections from spreading out as well, adding to his mental and magical burden.

Finally, he couldn't keep it all together, and the box flashed red once more, his mana being utterly expelled. BZZT!

He growled, trying twice more before he realized that he needed to improve his tools before he could progress the boxes any further.

He settled himself, closing his eyes and falling into meditation. Soon, his box-breathing had calmed his racing heart—Stupid buzzer—and allowed him to truly center his thoughts on the mana within his body.

For ease, he started by focusing on his arm. The clear box was momentarily forgotten, tucked back into his Inventory subconsciously.

In order to circulate his mana, he could just do two paths, one down one side of his arm and the other back up the other side with smaller ones doing the same in each of his fingers.

It was as good an idea as any, and certainly better than the dough-ball method. With another shrug, he tried to start doing just that, but his mana was frustratingly hard to control. He could do it, but it would be a struggle the whole time until it was established.

Feeling frustrated, he shoved at the pool of power within his chest, trying to get it to move as well and allow him to draw the mana down the path through his arm more easily.

To his surprise, as the mana in his torso began to move, the bit he'd been pulling out moved much more easily.

He grinned, immediately thinking of a hot-tub.

"Well, then. Let's make a whirlpool. That should make this whole process easier."

With no real reason to do it any particular way, he began to spin the mana clockwise—assuming he was viewed from behind—creating a vertical spiral centered near his heart.

There was immediately an issue. He wasn't even close to circular along the needed access, so there was something like drag as the area through which he could move his mana shrunk and grew, creating oddly counter spinning vortices that made him feel a bit sick.

He groaned, stopping.

This was going to take some experimentation. In one sense, he felt like he could account for those counter forces, even using them if he were able to work it properly, but he was feeling mentally fuzzy when he tried to focus inward again.

Clearly he wasn't used to this kind of mental load, even given his massive mental stats.

Okay, then back to the box it is.

The morning passed quickly as Alex alternated working on his box, then the mana manipulation techniques. His progress on each seemed to aid in his efforts with the other.

In his times transitioning between the two, he hypothesized that the synergy of the two activities was largely responsible for this effect. One internal, the other external, one micro control of tiny threads of power, the other large sweeping motions of all that was within his mana pool.

Finally, after he'd eaten both lunch and first afternoon snack, he found the end of the path within the clear box.

In his excitement, he lost control and the box flashed red, even vibrating for the first time within his hands.

"Bucket of toenails! I almost had that." He briefly growled in frustration but didn't allow himself to be discouraged.

The end was within sight. There were a total of ten twists or turns to the target point within the containing magics.

Less than fifteen minutes later, his mana touched the weak point in the box's spell, and the thing flashed green before dissolving, allowing the odd, tri-ring thing to fall into his hand.

He immediately Analyzed it.

Tripod of Mana Manipulation Practice, Ring (Rare) These three rings are a device meant to help the user practice mana manipulation. When worn, mana may be sent into them to generate a mana manipulation puzzle. The complexity of the puzzle created will be directly related to the amount of mana put in at activation.

Removing the rings will cause the puzzle to disperse, the invested mana will be lost.

This is a reusable item.

Alex's eye twitched.

He almost screamed in frustrated irritation, but then he took a long breath and simply decided to verbalize his anger. "My reward for completing a mana manipulation challenge is the ability to create other mana manipulation challenges for me to work on…"

Only the Rare tag on the item kept him from throwing it away from himself in disgust. If he understood such things properly, that meant that item could help him push his Mana Manipulation skill up to Rare with time and practice, time and practice that would now be reduced due to the tool.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Even so, he almost tossed it aside. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in continuing to practice, it was the principle of the thing.

Still, he flattered himself by thinking that he wasn't often prone to foolishness, and he realized that the anger he was feeling was a bit foolish.

He groaned, shaking his head. It was what it was and griping about it wouldn't change anything.

Alex groaned again, leaning back to place his head against the wall for a moment, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. He felt like he needed a mental break, but he also wanted to understand the task before him.

That in mind, he steeled himself and sat up straight once more. He tucked the tri-rings into his Inventory and pulled out one of the boxes that Natasha had helped them find in the bank. He'd been thinking about the rings, and thus he grabbed one that had a ring in it.

By this point, he was quite familiar with the type of construction, and he found the mana entry hole with ease.

Two minutes later, the box dissolved, leaving Alex shuddering with indignation, his left eye twitching.

"Six… This had SIX turns? That's it?" He growled. He could have opened this hours earlier.

That part of his mind that was thinking clearly momentarily thought it odd that the boxes were so 'insecure,' but after a moment, he grunted, realizing he'd been thinking about it incorrectly. The opening of the box hadn't been 'fast' by any means, so he supposed when combined with the bank's other defenses it made sense from a security perspective, but still, he'd expected it to be harder.

More the fool, him.

To take his mind off his irritation, he Analyzed the prize.

Ring of Breathing Once attuned to a wearer this ring allows the attuned to breathe as dictated by their biology.

Ongoing mana cost is determined by the normal infeasibility of this action.

Alex almost threw the ring across the room in his mentally befuddled, grumpy state. But then, the full description actually sunk in. "Wait… There is no restriction? Underwater? Outerspace? Being choked?"

In theory, this ring would allow him to breathe anywhere.

He clutched it to his chest, suddenly feeling like there was little that would be more valuable to have.

It didn't say 'breathe safely,' but the implication was there, and he was willing to bet that's what it meant, given it was hard to argue that someone was actually breathing when they were inhaling poison gas and dying… but knockout gas would likely get through as he could breathe while unconscious… It would take experimentation.

There was also the fact that in many games, attuned items unlocked greater descriptions once so attuned, but that was for later. He hoped that the greater unlocking would include a rarity for the item.

A grin spread across his face. With this prize in hand, he had a burning curiosity: What else did the bank boxes hold?

Hold on, Alex, remember that these need to be split with John and Natasha too… He looked at the ring with longing, then put it in a corner of his Inventory. "We'll determine distribution together."

With renewed excitement, he looked over the other clear boxes within his Inventory. The only one he didn't have was the spear, as he couldn't easily fit it, and he hadn't really expected to be able to open them so soon.

His grin growing at what was to come, he went to work.

As he went, he got better and faster despite each box being effectively a unique puzzle of similar difficulty. In the end, he had a nice little pile of items.

There were a total of six magical rings, three seemingly mundane gemstones the size of the end of his thumb—a diamond, ruby, and emerald—and two knives that each reminded Alex of modern military knives back on Earth… not that he'd seen many of those.

Still, the weapons were in hard sheaths with latches that seemed designed to allow the blades to be affixed in any orientation for easy, fast drawing.

With the spear included, the haul seemed designed for their party of three, even if they didn't seem designed for this scenario, particularly.

The two knives were also identical in their magics, Exigent Wounding. Apparently, any wound made by these knives would be incredibly distracting and hard to ignore. Though, Alex wasn't sure what form that would take.

In truth, Alex could think of quite a few ways that would be useful, if he was already in close with something at least. It would also help keep enemy focus on him if he was acting as a front line defender for less defensive companions.

The gems were easy enough to deal with, even if he didn't see a point to them. At that thought, he hesitated.

"Oh, you're being an idiot, Alex." He'd dismissed them because they didn't show up as magical to his Mana Sense, and so he'd assumed they were simply as they appeared. That was a foolish assumption to make. Shaking his head, he used Analyze on the red one.

Mana Crystal (Fire) 1000 MP of Fire Aspect Mana, stabilized and ready for access.

Not Rechargeable.

The clear one was the same, but for Force, and he could tell that the verdant green one was obviously Life mana even before he used Analyze on it. He did so anyway just to be sure.

He was correct.

Well, that was almost foolish. I was going to have us divide them up by favorite color…

The six rings were a mixed bag in that Alex wanted all of them, though he suspected that two would be useless.

All told, there were two each of Rings of Breathing, Regeneration (Mana), Simple, and Regeneration (Health), Simple.

If he thought the bonus would stack, he would have given up all rewards for the rest of… well, a long time—to get all the Regeneration (Health) rings.

"Eight times HP regeneration would be massive."

Still, as he examined the two, he felt an odd pull between them.

It wasn't like a magnet. The pull was even, and didn't physically move the objects. It was more like he felt a desire to bring them together.

With a shrug, he put the two in his right hand. The two touched the one he was already wearing and a notification popped up in his vision.

Synergy of System Granted Rewards Detected 3x Ring of Regeneration (Health), Simple detected.

As these rewards cannot be used together, would you like to combine them? Note, the resulting item will not be as beneficial as the three individually, if spread out among your companions.

Combine? Y/N

Alex's eyes widened. "No!"

The notification vanished without fanfare. That done, he instantly tucked the rings into his Inventory before he could fall to temptation.

"That was… close." He would have felt like a right jerk if he'd made such a decision in regards to their shared bounty without talking with Natasha and John.

He nodded, pushing himself to his feet, feeling slightly wobbly for having been relatively unmoving for so long. Moreover, his recently increased strength—something he still wasn't entirely used to—made the slight loss of coordination doubly difficult to deal with.

Still, he found his feet quickly enough and went in search of his companions.

As he opened his door, he almost ran smack into Natasha as she raised her fist to knock.

They both jerked, moving backward, weapons coming to hand before they realized whom they faced.

The two let out irritated huffs in near-unison before hesitating and chuckling also in tandem.

"Are you done then?"

Alex nodded. "I was just coming to find you and John. What's up?"

Natasha's eyes widened at the implication, excite in evidence on her features as she asked, "The boxes?"

He grinned. "They're open. If you can get the spear, I should be able to open that too."

She almost spun and ran for it in that moment, but she clearly held herself back. "The Initiates are meeting in the cafeteria, all of us."

Alex gave a slow nod. "Okay. I can convey what I learned, then."

She raised an eyebrow. "More? Even beyond the existence of Mana Circulation Techniques?"

"Even more than that, yes."

She shook her head. "Careful, Alex. You're going to make yourself indispensable."

He grinned and teased back. "Hey, I thought I already was? You know, curing the turning plague and all that?"

She gave him a humorous smirk. "Ahh, how could I have forgotten. Then more indispensable?"

"Is that even a thing?"

Her look turned flat, and her eyebrow rose again. "Do you want to stay here bantering, or may I go get the spear-box?"

"Right, yeah. I'll see you in the cafeteria?"

"See you there."

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