Chapter 43 – First Mana Lesson

Chapter 43 – First Mana Lesson

*** Countess Esmeralda Silvana ***

"Hello, Yuki, I'm here about your rogue vampire," I say. I had hoped to surprise this annoying little Kitsune, but they're too familiar with magic. She just looks at me with disgust through her mirror before focusing back on her face to clean off her make-up.

"She is fine. I'm not sure how you heard about her, but you don't need to worry," Yuki responds, still just cleaning her face.

"Oh, really? I just had a little conversation with Alzi, you see, and she was begging my family to help her. She made quite the offer, one I found too good to deny. You should be happy to have the oldest vampire family help train the rogue," I say while trying to find a chair. The petty girl keeps moving them into her storage when I look at them.

"What deal? I'm in charge of the vampire, so only deals I agree to are binding."

"I don't appreciate the implication that you can own a vampire so easily. Alzi is Mai's friend. If she asks us to help her, we can. Now, if I put in a little bit of effort, I can find Mai, but I would prefer not to need to go through that effort. It would be best for both of us if we worked together to help Mai. I'll even personally be a part of her training, I need her to grow strong, or it would reflect poorly on me and my family," I say, looking for a seat.

What have I done to this girl? Every chair but the one she is sitting on has been removed! Even her bed was taken out. "May I please have somewhere to sit? We are both well past the age to play these silly little games. As I've stated several times already. I want to help Mai. I won't be taking her away. She can stay where she is and come back here to work once she has control. I'll even try to find time to come here and train her some more after. The price Alzi is paying for the training is well worth the extra effort of going to Mai."

"What price?" finally turning around to look at me. Even without make-up, her face is beautiful; Alzi is a lucky girl. Well, as long as Yuki isn't this petty about everything. Oh! She finally gave me a tiny stool. This bitch.

"She promised my family kids. Whenever I ask, she'll get a woman in my family pregnant."

"Another rich snob taking advantage of her. That is hardly a fair price. Your family hasn't had a kid ever, so even the one she's given you now is worth a lot more than helping a vampire that has already mostly gained control of her blood lust."

"Aren't you as well? You could've convinced Mistress to sell to you forever ago, yet you've let her suffer so she sees you as her lifeline. The woman that keeps her sane in these dark places," I say, pulling out my own chair to sit on. "As you said, we haven't had kids before. We'll need to wait and see how this first one behaves. We'll likely be taking the kids slowly; both parties have plenty of time to have kids. Besides, she'll be the wife of the Princess. So we won't even be taking advantage of your house. I'm willing to renegotiate when you all leave the Princess's harem."

"How do you know all that?"

"Easy, Quintella is friends with the Princess. So the sale was directly told to us. Next, it is easy to tell what the Kitsunes want. You all have a much worse rate of male births than humans, so you occasionally send out a woman to track down someone with a strong seed to keep your realm going. So you obviously have a plan to get Alzi back to your realm; otherwise, you would move on from her. Don't worry; none of this will be shared with the Princess. No need to piss off the family that holds the chance for me to have kids," I explain with a smile.

"Fine, your current deal with Alzi only last while we are in the Princess's harem. After that, we will work out a new deal. I'm about to head to Mai now so you can join me."

"I'm willing to accept that. Now, let's get going. I'll bring Quintella as well so we can take our carriage."

"Thank you, I'm a little tired of walking all the way out there." We stand up, and when I put my chair away, all of hers appears. Maybe I should make her run alongside my carriage. Sorry Alzi, I will be using your seed a lot just to piss this girl off. My girls are pretty, so you shouldn't mind.

...

I don't get a chance to make Yuki run; Quintella immediately welcomes the petty bitch inside. The journey was a lot farther than I had expected it to be. The Kitsune must have set up some teleporting ruins to be making this trip everyday.

"Here we are," Yuki calls out. We're in front of a decent-sized house for the area. Just a single floor, but it should have a decent amount of room inside. Enough to train the basic skills at least. Quintella insists on coming inside; I worry a bit about the other Kitsune, The Crazy, as she is known. Well, her name should explain my worry. But I can't force her to stay no matter how much I want to. I'll just stay glued to her side. I do wonder how true Yuki's statement about how close Mai is to controlling her bloodlust, it would be nice if we didn't need to work hard to handle that and instead could just focus on the vampire aspects.

*** Mai, When Yuki and Vampires Arrive ***

Yuki should be coming soon, letting me be done with these stupid jumping exercises. The Crazy is even making me do them naked! Fucking pervert. My tits have even grown, making them jiggle a little with each jump. She's been taking notes the entire time. She better keep growing in strength cause as soon as I can overpower her, I'm starting up my own boot camp for her. See how much she likes mild sexual harassment while I claim to just be conducting scientific research.

"Dear teacher, here is some about mana first. Nakuma is doing a fine job in her physical training. I'll leave a few better exercises for her to do with Mai here. Tiring out the poor girl won't help her learn control over any of her abilities." Thank you, Quintella. I've got this blood affinity, yet nobody has said shit about it. They've just made me do perverted exercises!

"Ugh, fine. Do you have an affinity and class now?"

"Yes, blood affinity and ..."

"Don't share your class. That is for you and your family," Quintella interrupts me, earning her a harsh look from the Countess. Why didn't Yuki and Nakuma warn me? I'll have to ask that later. I didn't think classes were that secret. Yuki says that even two people with the same class can have wildly different abilities, mana, and skills even at the same level.

"I thought classes were just general overviews of what you do. Each class provides very different skills to each person?"

"They do, but they give people an idea of what you are capable of. This is fine when you have a sex class or other noncombat class. But in a fight, letting others know your class gives them some knowledge of your abilities. It's small, but when it is, your life is on the line; well, you should do everything you can."

"Oh, I guess that makes sense. But how do you know my class is combat-focused?"

"All vampire classes have combat to them; it may not be the focus, but it will be a component."

"I see."

"First thing. Do not teach Alzi about mana. If her Mistress hasn't let her learn, but someone tells her about it, she'll lose the ability to use mana completely till her owner allows her to learn."

"Fucking stupid, but ok."

"Good. Now mana gets created all over the body, but mainly in the breast. Hence why, size matters for a woman. Men just create more evenly throughout their bodies. Men create less by a large margin because of this. Mana can be released freely if you wish, this is likely how Alzi does it currently. This will release a lot of what is called unrefined mana. It will have a hint of your affinity in it and will listen to your commands, but it will be weak, slow, and easily destroyed. Refining mana requires to circulate in the correct pattern. Starts in the head, down the left side, first through the heart, then the lounges, passing through the breast tissue, down to the womb, up the right side to the lounge through the breast tissue, and up to the head. Notice that this skips your arms and legs. Once you get stronger, you'll be able to add them to the path, but for now, you don't have enough mana to do that. Nakuma or Yuki can tell you when and the full path."

"Can you use the mana in the air?"

"I'm glad you're asking questions and not just foolishly acting. Yes, you can. But only a small portion close to your body. It will be wild and hard to control; as you are now, you likely couldn't make it do anything. You can try to force it into your body to supplement your supplies, but it takes years of practice to gain the control needed. Best to start with your own mana first."

"I see. Should I try circulating it?" I ask, wishing to use magic that has evaded me all these years.

"Yes, don't focus on a skill; just try to manifest pure blood mana about an inch from your nipple."

I try. I don't feel much mana in my head, but I'm able to make it move down to my heart. Past that, it runs rampant. It doesn't hurt me, but it does make me lose focus and smell that sweet blood I want so bad.

"Good, keep trying. The first turn is the hardest. You'll likely spend a week trying to get that part and then the rest will follow in a week after that."

"Ok, I won't give up. Thank you for the lesson."

"Happy to help a new vampire. Someone from my family will be around here tomorrow. Keep practicing, but don't forget to get some sleep." Quintella gets off her wife's lap, and the sweet blood disappears.

I keep trying as the leave the building, always failing just as I try to turn the mana.