"Just a little more, young master. Muster up your focus just a little more."
"You have been saying that for several minutes now Barderossa. Can I not just stop?"
"No, young master, focus, the mana is dispersing, you need to hold it. We are at 25 meters. If you push just a little further we will reach 26. Come on."
'If we reach 26 he will pester me until I reach 27. Then 28. Then 29. Then 30. Is this really necessary.'
'I should not have asked that question.'
---
A while earlier Andreas had been listening to Barderossa explain the concept of thaumic radius, the distance from a person's brain to the furthest point at which they could exert control over mana. A person could only manipulate mana within their thaumic radius, which meant if the radius was too small, even five centimeters, they would be unable to use aura within their own body or cast spells, since the spell circle would form inside their skull and kill them.
A normal person's thaumic radius sat at around two meters. In fortunate cases it reached ten. A grand mage like Barderossa had a thaumic radius of fifteen meters. While it didn't determine talent outright it remained a significant factor for any mage. And in combat, a sufficiently large thaumic radius allowed interference with another person's spell circle, their aura, or in extreme cases, if their mana storage method was circular, outright killing them by destabilizing the circle and causing it to explode from within.
So Andreas had innocently asked the question.
"Then how large is my thaumic radius?"
Barderossa had told him to form a sphere of mana and extend it slowly outward.
Now, at 25 meters, Barderossa had no visible intention of ending the experiment until he had a complete answer.
---
"Ughh."
Andreas surrendered himself to the comfort of his bed.
"When it reached 30 meters I thought it would end. Why did we have to do it five more times? I even had to skip spearmanship training because Barderossa wasn't satisfied."
The experiment had continued until Andreas could hold a mana sphere at a distance of 33 meters. He complained to the empty room for a while and then sleep took him before he finished the sentence he was forming.
It was a new morning.
"Good morning, young master."
"AAAghhhh—"
"Relax, young master. Why are you screaming?"
"What are you doing here Barderossa?"
"After witnessing your exceptional performance yesterday I had a conversation with the lord and obtained his permission to expand our magic training schedule."
"But why are you here first thing in the morning?"
"To cultivate a healthy mind, young master. Now, thirty minutes of meditation, and then we will practice a new mana gathering method I have developed specifically for you."
Barderossa settled into a position that looked deeply uncomfortable and Andreas quickly copied it, though he was not entirely sure why.
'Really shouldn't we be training. What is the point of this.'
"You shouldn't open your eyes, young master."
'How does he even know.'
Hmm.
Hmmmmm.
Hmmmmmmmm.
"How much time is left Barderossa?"
"Around 29 minutes, young master. You need to relax your mind."
"But this is wasting time."
Barderossa didn't answer immediately. The silence stretched long enough that Andreas assumed the answer wasn't coming.
Then Barderossa said, "Young master, how old are you?"
"Eleven. Since three months ago."
"This thirty minute session, do you know what fraction of your life it represents?"
Andreas calculated without thinking about it. "1/2,365,200."
"And do you know how long you will live?"
"Probably a few centuries."
"No." Barderossa's voice was quieter than usual. "You will live forever."
Andreas said nothing.
"Normal demons age. Great demons like me age, you need only look at that old monster beside you to confirm it. But you will not, young master. As long as you do not die, you will not die. Your body will not decay. Your hair will not fall out. Your skin will not lose its youth." He paused. "But your mind will."
Barderossa looked at the young archdemon sitting across from him.
"Even dragons, masters of the sky, cannot fight the decay of the mind. So they sleep to escape it. You will not be an exception. Which means you need to learn to get along with your own mind, young master. These thirty minutes, not even one ten-thousandth of your life, may feel long right now. But if you cannot stand the feeling of stillness, given enough time it will eat you from the inside."
Andreas didn't say anything else. He sat in silence for the remaining twenty-nine minutes and did not ask again how much time was left.
---
"Now. Let us increase your mana capacity, young master."
Barderossa produced several mana crystals and crushed them between his fingers. Before they fully dissolved he continued.
"Do you remember the method we used previously to increase your mana reserves?"
"Yes. Breathing — taking the mana absorbed by my lungs and drawing it directly into my core in the appendix."
"Correct. Normally this is the most efficient method available. Rather than attempting to draw ambient mana from the surrounding air, using the lungs as an intermediary keeps the pathway short and the absorption rate high."
He let the last of the dissolved crystals disperse into the air around them.
"However, that method was designed for normal cases. Your thaumic field encompasses a volume more than ten times my own. If you simply attempt to draw ambient mana from everything within your thaumic radius, even if only one percent of it successfully reaches your core — the total yield would be dozens of times greater than anything the breath method could produce."
"Then what should I do?"
"It should feel quite natural. Simply try to take control of every mana particle you can sense in the surrounding air and guide them toward your core. It does not matter if the success rate is low. As I said, even one percent is more than sufficient."
Andreas took a slow breath and focused. He reached outward with his awareness across the full extent of his thaumic field and tried to do what Barderossa described, not forcing it, just drawing, the way water finds the lowest point without being told to. The sheer number of mana particles made precision impossible but precision wasn't the goal.
'This really is more effective. I can feel it. Around a third of my reserve restored in one attempt.'
"I restored all my mana."
"A good start, young master." Barderossa's expression was the carefully composed version of deeply pleased. "Now we simply need to continue expanding your reserve capacity. Just keep doing exactly that for approximately..." He paused. "Nine more hours."
"..."