CHAPTER 72: MOLECULAR MANA MANIPULATION

Yelena took a slow breath and leaned back for a moment, letting her thoughts gather as she gazed at Charlotte, who was watching her with intense curiosity. Then, with a soft, proud chuckle, she said,

"You know...if it were anyone else, anyone else at all, who found out they had unlimited potential, but no way to ever unlock it...they would’ve fallen into despair."

"And not just a little sadness, Charlotte. I’m talking about the kind of despair that eats you alive from the inside. That leaves you feeling like you’re nothing."

"...Like the world gave you a treasure chest and then melted the key in front of you."

She picked up her glass again, the remnants of the exotic bird broth still steaming gently, and took another sip before setting it back down carefully.

"I mean it. If that had happened to me, if someone told me that I had the potential to become something incredible, like a king, even, but I would never be able to access it, never be able to take that step forward, I don’t know what I would’ve done."

"...I would’ve felt so worthless. Like my entire life was locked behind an unbreakable door, and I’d been forced to live in the hallway forever."

Her voice softened for a moment as the weight of that thought lingered.

"To have that kind of power buried inside you and to be told, ’No, you can’t ever touch it’, that’s cruel. It really is. And honestly, I couldn’t even bring myself to feel sorry for him at the time. Because the thought of it alone made my heart ache. I didn’t even want to imagine how he must’ve felt."

She paused and then leaned forward, her eyes brightening with pride, her voice taking on a renewed energy.

"But the thing is, Mika isn’t like everyone else. He’s...he’s something else entirely. That boy, he doesn’t crumble. He doesn’t break."

"He’s the kind of person who, when told the rules of the world, doesn’t just accept them, he laughs at them. Spits on them. Tries to twist them until they snap."

Charlotte’s eyes widened just a little, her breath caught in her throat as Yelena’s tone shifted again, swelling with admiration.

"I still remember the day he found out. He was just a kid, still so damn young. We told him straight to his face that he wouldn’t have a blessing. That no matter how much potential he carried in his body, it would all be useless."

"Wasted. Nothing would bloom...No one would have blamed him if he cried, or got angry, or shut down, but you know what he did?"

Yelena leaned closer, her voice low but brimming with pride.

"He scoffed. He actually scoffed. I can still see that look on his face. That honest, arrogant, fearless smile. His head was held high, his eyes were burning, not with sadness, but with sheer defiance. And then he said—"

She paused dramatically, her smile widening.

"I don’t need a blessing. The rest of the world might be incompetent enough to leave their fate to chance and the likelihood of gaining a blessing, but I’m not like those dummies...I’ll carve my fate with my own hands."

"...Of course, he was a child back then so he didn’t really know any curse words, so he could only come up with calling other as ’dummies’ as an insult."

Yelena chuckled as she thought about how cute his indignant face was back then.

"And that’s exactly what he did. He didn’t wait for fate or some higher power to save him. He built his strength from the ground up."

"He trained harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. Pushed himself to his limits and beyond, again and again."

"He learned how to manipulate his body, how to stretch the very edge of what was possible. He took all that raw, unshaped potential buried inside him and forced it to listen. Forced it to obey."

Charlotte’s eyes were gleaming now, nearly on the edge of her seat.

"Wait, what exactly did he do, Mama?" She asked, breathless, barely able to keep herself still. "What happened next? What did he unlock?"

Yelena smiled at Charlotte’s barely-contained excitement. Her eyes sparkled with a deep pride, but her voice became calm and steady again as she continued.

"Before I tell you how Mika did it...I need to explain what blessings actually are. I know you’ve grown up with yours and it all probably feels natural now, but the truth is, most people, even adults, don’t understand what a blessing really is."

She sat up straighter, her expression now a bit more serious.

"No one knows exactly where blessings come from. Not the top researchers, not the saints of the other worlds. They just...appear. A phenomenon that only a select few receive. It’s like they’re imported into the body from somewhere else."

"A divine download from a place no one can trace. All we know is this, when someone receives a blessing, it’s like being handed a spellbook."

Charlotte blinked, leaning in. "A spellbook?"

"Yes." Yelena nodded. "But not a complete one. When the blessing first appears, it only grants the most basic spells, low-level things. Beginner-level tricks, if you will."

"But as the person grows, emotionally, mentally, physically, as they embrace their potential...new pages start to appear. New abilities awaken. It’s like the spellbook is writing itself with each step forward."

Charlotte slowly nodded as her thoughts drifted. "That’s how it was for me...my abilities just...came to me over time."

"Exactly." Yelena said. "That’s how it works for almost everyone. A blessing is basically a framework. A structure, a path laid out in advance. All the spells and powers are already inside you, like pre-installed software."

"All you have to do is keep using it, keep growing, and the software slowly unlocks itself...You never had to truly create anything. You just had to keep walking and the doors opened for you."

She picked up her glass again, swirled the broth slightly, then set it down again.

"Think of it this way: each new ability is a door. And the blessing is the room those doors are set in, already programmed to unlock those doors one after another. Some people learn how to speed it up. Some learn how to optimize the growth. But in the end...they’re still just unlocking what was already there."

Charlotte’s eyes widened, fully focused now.

"And that is why Mika is so extraordinary." Yelena said with a proud grin. "Because when he found out that he didn’t have a spellbook, when he realized he didn’t get a blessing like everyone else, he didn’t cry. He didn’t break. He scoffed."

"...And then he said something that still makes my heart race to this day." She paused, her smile growing.

"He said, ’If I wasn’t given a spellbook...then I’ll just write my own.’"

Charlotte’s jaw dropped. "He what?!"

Yelena laughed, loving the reaction. "You heard me. He didn’t whine about it. He didn’t wallow in self-pity. He said, if everyone else had pre-installed programs in their body, then he’d code his own. If they had doors and keys, then he’d build his own doors and forge his own damn keys."

Charlotte jumped up from her seat, shocked and thrilled.

"That’s crazy! He created his own blessing?! On his own?!"

Yelena waved her hand with a chuckle. "Calm down, you little devil. Sit down, sit down, don’t shake the table."

Charlotte quickly dropped back into her seat, but her eyes sparkled with sheer awe.

Yelena leaned in, her tone a little softer now.

"I don’t even know exactly how he did it. Honestly, I don’t think anyone does. That boy...he’s something else. But somehow, he realized something, something no one else had, which was the second thing about him that was so unique about him."

"He found out that not only did his body have infinite mana, but it had the unique ability to manipulate it. Not just use it, like everyone else, but shape it. Bend it. Like a sculptor with clay."

Charlotte blinked rapidly. "Wait, he can manipulate mana itself?"

"Yes." Yelena said with a solemn nod. "See, most people with blessings can only use mana as a fuel source. Like gasoline. You pour it into your pre-installed engine, and it powers your spells."

"...But Mika doesn’t have an engine. He is the fuel. And more than that, he can restructure it. Shift it, reconfigure it."

"But..." She added with a thoughtful pause. "...as powerful as that sounds, mana in its raw form is useless."

Charlotte tilted her head in confusion. "Huh?"

"Think of it like this." Yelena explained, gesturing with her fingers as if moving invisible pieces. "Mana is like the atoms in the air. It’s everywhere. It’s in everything. But if you just move atoms around randomly, nothing happens. You don’t get fire, or ice, or light. You just have floating atoms. Harmless. Pointless."

"And that’s the thing. Mika realized that too." She tapped her temple. "He realized that mana, in its base form, was useless. But instead of giving up..."

Yelena’s expression brightened again, voice swelling with arrogance like she herself was the one who figured it all out.

"He decided to make it useful. He figured out a way to shape that mana into something that could act. Something that could affect the world. He began creating his own internal system of spells. Spells that didn’t come from a blessing. Spells that weren’t pre-installed. He reverse-engineered what a blessing does, and began to build it manually."

Charlotte’s breath caught. "So...he’s writing a spellbook from scratch...inside his own body?!"

"Exactly that...He calls it Molecular Mana Manipulation." Yelena nodded, eyes gleaming. "He’s coding his own blessings. Piece by piece. Not unlocking a prewritten program, but writing it line by line with raw, wild mana."

"...Do you have any idea how absurdly difficult that is? It’s something no one’s ever done before. And he’s doing it alone."

She paused for a moment, letting that thought settle, before continuing with a quiet reverence in her tone.

"In concept, Mika’s ability to manipulate mana isn’t all that different from manipulating atoms themselves....Think about that for a second, Charlotte. If he knows the exact molecular structure of this glass here..."

She said, lifting the glass in front of her, turning it gently in her fingers so the light hit it just right.

"...and knows how every particle fits together, interacts, bonds, then in theory, just with mana alone, he could create this piece of glass. From nothing. With no tools, no materials. Just raw mana."

Charlotte’s eyes widened so far they looked like they might fall out of her face.

"That’s the truth of it." Yelena smiled seeing her daughter’s disbelief. "He wouldn’t need sand or heat or machinery, just knowledge. Just understanding. Because if he can manipulate mana at the most microscopic, atomic level...then he can build anything. As long as he knows the structure and function, he can reconstruct it perfectly."

She then tapped the rim of the glass, while looking at the swords around her.

"This is the same concept as blessings, by the way. All of them, mine included. The swords I use, the way they form, move, fly, they’re not magic in the traditional sense like you would see in a fantasy story."

"They’re just collections of mana particles, bound together in the right way, instructed by prewritten commands that my body executes when I activate my blessing."

"...I don’t know how it works. I don’t need to know. The blessing handles all of that for me."

She turned her gaze back to Charlotte.

"But Mika? Mika doesn’t have those commands. So instead...he’s writing them himself. From scratch. And if he really wanted to? He could replicate my swords. My exact technique."

"Even make them better. Stronger. Faster. Sharper. All from observation and analysis. Because once he understands how something is made...he can recreate it entirely."

Charlotte blinked, mouth hanging slightly open.

"That’s...that’s too much. That’s way too overpowered!" She gasped. "That kind of power could...it could change the world! He could make anything!"

"...He’s basically...he’s basically a god!"