Back in Neo Orcus, Michael and Fudge watched on with a curious attitude as Agnes and Jaku faced off against each other in a one-on-one sparring match.
After the Rebornians taught Yuna's demi-human escorts about baseball, they reciprocated the favor by teaching them some much-needed lessons about Physical Arts.
Agnes was the famous battle maid of the Montgomery family, with lots of life-or-death experiences under her belt. So, she had a lot to teach the newly evolved Dragonborns, who despite their potential, were still wet behind the ears.
"How strong is your attendant, really?" Michael asked Yuna, who was sitting beside him petting a sleepy Fudge.
"She's a renowned 7-star Physical Arts user personally taught by Kruger, a Heavenly Knight from the Order, master of the Way of the Axe. Who, by the way, is also an Orc."
Michael looked at Agnes and saw how orderly the mana inside her body was. They flowed with synchronicity in her veins as she moved, enhancing her physical strength with no wasted energy or strength.
Meanwhile, Jaku had mastery over ridiculous amounts of mana, but barely no control over them. That was the difference in experience between both of them.
"I will begin," Agnes warned Jaku as she raised her double-edged battle axe in the air.
"Please go easy on me," Jaku said jokingly as he adopted a low stance. But, he kept his right hand on the hilt of his sword, ready for any sudden movements.
Agnes took a step forward and swung her axe.
In a split second, Agnes' body blurred and disappeared from her original spot, reappearing just in front of Jaku with her battle axe ready to swing down towards his body.
Jaku was caught off guard for a moment before he drew out his sword, letting its blade meet with the axe in the air.
The two weapons clashed, with sparks flying off at the moment of impact.
If it weren't for his skill [Thousand Bolts], which allowed him to have reaction times as fast as lightning, then he wouldn't have been able to defend himself against Agnes.
The Ogre battle maid raised her eyebrows, impressed that Jaku was able to take on one of her attacks. She lowered her strength to the point of being barely stronger than Jaku, yet he showed a surprising quickness that was able to deflect her attack.
"Hm… I'll take it up a notch," she warned the Dragonborn.
Michael saw the tiniest bit of Fire mana erupt from her body, which directly translated to a great boost in every physical aspect of her body.
She retracted her axe and swung it wide, intending to separate Jaku's lower half from his upper half.
Jaku tried to parry the axe but found it to be too heavy to slow down. Her sword continued to swing unimpeded towards his waist, forcing him to take a step back.
But with a single step, Agnes caught up to him and continued to batter him with heavy swings that broke any sort of posture or stance that he had been preparing.
Unable to defend, much less attack, Jaku was forced to run away. Well, at least tried to.
Meanwhile, Michael leaned towards the fight as he observed the mana flow in Agnes' body.
ChatJK3, are you seeing this?
[Analyzing magic flow…]
[Adding newfound knowledge to the memory bank…]
He found a lot of differences between Physical Arts spells and the Mystical Arts spells that he had been so familiar with.
The most glaring difference would be their mana cores. For example, his mana core and the mana cores of someone like Seberus Augindore were positioned near the abdomen. This was what mages called the Dantian. And because it was a source of mana for casting Mystical Arts, the mana cores were freely floating in their own spaces completely avoiding any other organ of the body.
This was because mana cores were filled with mana and were therefore overflowing with energy. Having it close to vital organs was tantamount to exposing it to an open campfire. In other words, they would burn. And quickly too.
Mana cores can be thought of as the cartridge of a gun, with mana being the actual bullets.
Mystical Arts users cast spells with the magic theory, which would act like an actual gun. This 'gun' would be accessing the 'cartridge' and taking a 'bullet' so that they could fire it out of the body.
Now, as long as the mage points the 'gun' away from their body, then they wouldn't be affected by the explosive power of the 'bullet' in any way.
But for Physical Arts users, that was exactly the opposite of what they were doing.
They were essentially pointing the gun toward their body and firing the bullet at themselves! But somehow, Physical Arts users were able to wire themselves in such a way that they would get empowered by that bullet instead of getting destroyed by it.
The way they did it was by spreading out their mana throughout their body evenly, as opposed to the mages who concentrated their mana as dense as possible to make the energy burst out and create a bigger spell.
By spreading out the mana, their body would be able to endure its volatile energy and transform it into overwhelming physical power!
And because of this, Agnes' internal body changed drastically over time. Her veins were connected to her very mana cores, allowing mana to be distributed evenly in the same way that blood spread throughout her body.
It was truly a different experience seeing something firsthand from a veteran.
[Assimilating flow of Physical Arts mana…completed!]
Michael felt the mana cores inside his body rumble, with elemental mana particles reaching out into his very body and trying to connect to his veins the same way that Agnes assimilated her mana cores to hers.
As he did, he slowly felt the pure volatile energy of the elemental mana course through his entire body.
If any other person tried to forcefully do this without the proper training and exercise required, then they would find their blood turning into steam as the pure energy of the elemental mana heats their body like a furnace.
But Michael was different from everybody. He had a Supreme Skill, which allowed him complete control over all elemental mana!