Chapter 80: Florida Man Cooks Steak Using Flamethrower to Get Gordon Ramsey’s Attention, Accidentally Burns Forest

"Let's see... Releasing mana and molding it?"

Felix raised his index finger, mimicking Garudeer's earlier demonstration. However, he couldn't feel any mana inside him.

<Remember your breathing,> Jessica reminded him.

"Oh, right. The breathing."

Felix had forgotten. He stopped breathing like a regular human and began swallowing air into his stomach and lungs. The next moment, he felt a spark ignite inside him.

As Felix concentrated, a nearby tree revealed its true form, transforming into a man-eating trent. A wide, grotesque human face emerged on its trunk, the leaves fell away, and its branches spread out like human arms. Its roots lifted the trunk off the ground, and with an ugly smile on its face, it reached out to grab Felix.

Without looking, Felix exhaled, combining the flame from his lungs with the gas in his stomach. At the same time, fire mana circulated within him, rapidly raising his body temperature until he ignited in flames.

The trent was shocked. Facing the natural enemy of trees, the monster withdrew its branches in a hurry and retreat.

Meanwhile, Felix remained oblivious to the ambush. He frowned at the flames engulfing his body and complained, "Why does this always set me on fire?"

<You didn't warm up properly> Jessica pointed out.

"Oh, right. The warm-up."

It had been a few days since Felix last practiced the flame mana circulation, so he had forgotten the importance of fine-tuning. Shaking off the rust, Felix focused on his dual breathing technique and visualized his blood flow, closing his eyes.

In a trance, Felix felt as if he were dreaming. He sensed intense heat within his blood vessels, muscle fibers, internal organs, and bone marrow. Everything pulsed in rhythm, like a band performing at a concert.

As his senses sharpened, Felix's mind became one with his body. His five senses grew so sensitive that he could hear the footsteps of tiny insects and small ants underground. His skin could even distinguish between the natural wind and the breath of nearby monster trees.

As Felix's skin became more attuned to changes, he detected the cause of his mana leakage—his skin pores and the internal layers of his skin. After identifying the issue, Felix commanded his blood cells and muscle fibers to stop the leak.

This wasn't the first time Felix had issued this command. His blood cells remembered the instructions and acted accordingly, treating the leakages like open wounds. They seeped into the pores and sacrificed themselves to seal the holes.

With the leakages sealed, the flame mana moved toward Felix's finger as commanded, igniting his fingertip like a lighter.

Felix opened his eyes and inspected the result. He then glanced at his system status menu to check his remaining energy and mana.

…

Name: Felix Ariel

Age: 17/12,304

Bloodline: Void Phoenix

Element Affinity: Fire, Metal, Poison, Void

Authorized Level: Super Democracy Pass (E)

Level: 26

Energy: 6,941,180/6,942,805

Mana: 6,942,805

Innate Talents: Flame Lungs, Fast Learner, Fire Immunity, Poison Immunity, Ashen Resurrection

Skills: Flame Breath (Entry), Fireball Spitting (Entry), Flame Mana (Entry)

…

His energy and mana were still at healthy levels. Losing as little as one energy point per second was negligible. Thus, Felix started playing with the mana on his finger, attempting to shape it into a male genitalia.

The image came out nicely - an impressive 35-inch flame stick as thick as a baseball bat, with a dangling sack comparable to an ostrich egg.

Felix proudly smiled at his creation, but he felt it lacked something essential.

"A real dick must be able to shoot liquid! Man, I wish I could create magma or lava. This would be perfect if it could shoot white lava spit."

Jessica facepalmed in response.

Garudeer, who had been observing Felix in secret, overheard everything. He started sweating, wondering if bringing Felix here was the right decision. He made a mental note, **"Etiquette classes are in order..."**

…

Ants, insects, spiders, mosquitoes, and birds stared at Felix, waiting for an opportunity to strike. However, the temperature around him kept rising, preventing them from approaching with their current bodies. Trent monsters, giant flytraps, and bloodsucking flowers also tried to get closer, but they quickly retreated upon seeing the flames. S~eaʀᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

An hour passed, yet Felix hadn't been attacked once. He remained in the same spot, fiddling with his creation, growing frustrated.

"Oh, come on. Why does it go limp?!"

The glorious penile baseball bat suddenly wilted and dispersed, leaving only a ball sack and a handle. Felix tried injecting more energy into the object, but his mana kept leaking out.

"What's the next step? I know how to project my mana, but why haven't you taught me anything else?" Felix complained to Garudeer, who had been observing in silence. He checked the system map and noticed that the archmage had been staying at the center of the lake since the beginning, remaining invisible.

Finally, Garudeer broke his silence. "I'm actually surprised. Normal mages would need two or three days to master the 'Mana Release' technique. But you mastered it instantly after I taught you."

"Then why haven't you taught me anything else?"

Garudeer confessed, "I wanted to see if you could master the 'Mana Compression' technique without my guidance."

"Hey, I'm not Stephen Hawking or Neil deGrasse Tyson! I can't just calculate the universe and solve fourth-dimensional physics whenever I want, you know?!"

"...You've learned an interesting peculiar set of vocabulary I don't understand," Garudeer remarked.

He canceled his invisibility spell, appearing in the sky above the lake. Since Felix needed a hint, Garudeer demonstrated the next step.

"I think you almost got it right. The next step is the compression technique. After releasing a mass of mana and shaping it into the form you want, you need to 'contain' it. However, the air around the lump of mana is volatile. Therefore, you must mold—"

Before Garudeer could finish his explanation, Felix had already recreated the penis baseball bat, molding two pairs of balls as the cross-guard, transforming it into a baseball sword. The grip part remained the same, but the pommel was shaped into the head of male genitalia.

It looked more cursed than the man-faced trent.

"..."