Elemental Cats

For the second time in an alarmingly short period, Toz surprised himself by waking up. But the surprise at waking up was quickly replaced by his surprise at the restriction disappearing and freeing his mana pool.

Toz noticed almost as soon as he woke up that his body was brimming with power as the mana that had been locked inside his mana pool was now free to circulate around his body.

It took a few more moments for Toz to snap out of his shock and realize that the sound of something popping he barely registered before passing out was the sound of the restriction bursting. It was most likely due to how his mana surged in response to the foreign mana inside his body.

It wasn't quite how Toz expected things to go down. He had originally intended to use the string of fire mana he brought inside himself to attack the seal. The plan went sideways halfway through, but he discovered that his mana could act on his own if there were mana inside his body, which surprised him. But it also made him happy.

Toz hadn't had much time or reason to think about it lately, but it was something he had been trying to achieve ever since the beginning of his journey after he picked up Scrael on Roaring Skies.

After Scrael joined their group, before that even, Toz had started getting jealous over how the cats could train whenever they wanted and leave the actual traveling to him. That was what had prompted his idea to try and learn how to train while moving. Unfortunately, all his attempts ended in embarrassing failure.

Toz could at least conclude something from the failures, however. And that was that he couldn't actively train his mana while doing something else. He didn't know what to do with that conclusion until now. If his mana moved by itself, he wouldn't need to do anything.

Although he had been unconscious when it happened, Toz was convinced that the presence of foreign but still wild mana, not under anyone's control, inside his body had prompted the mana inside his mana pool to act.

Considering what had happened with the martial energy that got stuck inside his body after his fight with Dristel, Toz could guess that someone else's mana would get expelled. It would get forced out since Toz's mana couldn't claim it and turn it into his. Toz hadn't noticed his mana acting on its own back then because he had done it manually. Even if his mana did act on its own, Toz doubted it would be as effective as if he did it himself since he knew how to counteract the martial energy and didn't only follow something similar to instinct.

Toz turned his attention back to his body and mana pool. Now that he had freed himself from the seal, he was able to use magic again, but he didn't do anything rash until he could properly assess the situation and any other defensive measures of his cell. For all he knew, the chains and the room might be enchanted to react to any use of magic. Just like they were enchanted to isolate the inside and the outside of the cell.

Now that he had his magic back, Toz could tell that the cell's walls, floor, and ceiling were enchanted in a way that prevented him from trying to perceive what was on the other side. However, since he didn't know much about enchantments, he couldn't tell what they did in detail. He only noticed what they prevented him from doing when he tried to do it.

Toz also noticed that the cell was partly responsible for his inclination not working properly, but after the seal came undone, he could at least tell that the cats were alive, even if he couldn't communicate with them.

After confirming the cats' safety, a weight lifted from Toz's shoulders, and he could focus on his personal improvement before rushing to try and escape from his cell.

The first thing Toz wanted to do, even if he was curious about using magic while activating his mana vision, was to learn how to train his mana automatically. Now that he finally had a clue on how to proceed, he couldn't just let it go. And his mind and clone had recovered to the point where the strain would do them some good instead of threatening to break them down again.

His mind was still a little unstable, but the fractures were mostly gone, even if they left some scars behind. However, straining and forcing his mind to make up for its lack of stability would help prevent the scars from turning into significant weak spots in the future. Or so Toz hoped.

And it seemed like as long as the entire clone didn't dissipate, it would eventually recover. Toz was a little unnerved at the abilities that seemed like something a ghost would have, but since it was beneficial for him, Toz vowed to overcome his fears eventually. Maybe a little later. There wasn't really a need to rush it.

Toz activated his mana vision. This time, he didn't instantly try to attract mana into his body as he wanted to become more familiar with the ability before doing anything else.

He used the mana vision to take a look at the chains and the cell. It would have been an exceptional sight if he could understand what he was looking at, but since he didn't know much of anything about enchantments, it just looked like a tangled mess of mana. The one useful thing he gleamed was that the enchantments were high level, possibly ninth level, which was the limit of what Toz could fight against. And when dealing with enchantments, which a skillful enchanter could transform into an endless source of strength, Toz wasn't sure he would be able to break free, even if he wanted to.

Temporarily giving up on breaking through the mana-laden chains, Toz went back to focusing on the mana in the air.