TAOTB) Chapter 8) Fana (Patreon)

I looked at the fox girl, who was slowly waking up. She seemed to be still in a daze as she gazed at me. “Reni?”

“So you are able to recognize me,” I said with a smile.

“Reni could turn into a bug, and I will still know it was you,” Chloe replied with a smile as she dived into my chest and hugged my waist. “It was painful.”

“MMm… I know. But we survived and are much stronger now.” I replied gently, scratching the fox girl’s ears. Chloe’s expression turned to one of satisfaction as she nuzzled her nose into my chest.

“When…. When will we need to fight?” Chloe asked.

“In about two days, I guess? The first wave of monsters will arrive then. For now, we need to make good use of our time and take in as much fana as we can. If we can reach level three in two days, then we will not need to worry about dying.” I looked down at the water eyes of the fox girl and knew what she was thinking. I sighed as I said: “Thirty minutes no more, okay?”

“Mmm… I just want to feel Reni once more.” Chloe grinned as she stole a kiss.

So,  after some fun and a bath, we finally settled in, and I began teaching Chloe how to take in fana. “Chloe, to detect fana, you will need to shut out all common sense and think about a more fantasy like feeling. Feel the warmth in the air that slightly tingles your skin. This tingling is the fana trying to enter your body. Our bodies now have a magic palace. This magic palace is where our fana is stored. The more fana you have, the stronger you are and the more powerful your spells will be.”

“Isn’t this just mana? Why is it called fana?” Chloe asked.

“This is a very good question. Because it is not mana. What will one day in the future be revealed to the world is that mana is actually a substance that humans are unable to take in, and Earth itself has an abundance of it. There was once a race of humans who were able to use mana, but they were killed during the witch hunts. Stories of Merlin the wizard were also true. But no, there might be one out of a hundred million humans who can use mana. And their ability to do so is so small that the most they can do is maybe generate a small candle flame if they are lucky.

“Fana, on the other hand, is more like spiritual qi. You can take it in and use it to reforge your body, as well as use it to cast spells. Just think of it as a cross between spiritual qi from chinese fantasy and mana. You can keep gaining more to level up with it, but at the same time, you can cast magic with it.

“The main point of fana is that you can create any kind of magic as long as you have a perfect picture of it in your mind and enough fana. Getting good at this to be able to use magic in a fight is another story, though. For now, you will first take in fana to strengthen your body.”

As I explained things, Chloe did not even blink. She asked questions when she needed to and listened intently to what I had to say. Chloe was an extremely fast learner. In about six hours, she was able to begin taking in fana. While it was slow, it was enough to raise her level a bit. As long as she can get to level three strength before the first wave, then we will be okay.

Now that she was getting the hang of it, I went to work myself. I sat on the other side of the room so I would not disturb her as I began taking the fana around me in. With my eyes closed, I could feel the familiar sensation of fana around me. I did not hesitate to start taking it in. Unlike cultivation novels, there were no special veins that fana ran through. There was no visualization of what fana was. You could not see it. The magic palace thing I was telling Chloe was just a metaphor. To give her some visualization.

Fana went into your body, strengthened it, and accumulated. That was it. One could think of their entire body as the palace in which fana accumulated. Once it reaches a certain amount, you will level up, and your fana will grow stronger and denser than before. Past level ten, it was like passing the first gate. This would be when your life span extended by a hundred years. Every ten levels seemed to give an extra hundred years of life span.

Why this was, I do not know. I only know that after level ten, food and water no longer mattered. But you could still eat it. Fana nourished the body and allowed you to go for many days without rest. For those under level 20, it was about two weeks without rest. Although it really did take a toll on the body.

But this also depends on the person as well. As a dragon kin, I guess you could call me, I went almost a month with our rest when protecting this very city. And this was before level ten. As my level rose, the longer I could go without sleep. At one point, at level 99, I went an entire year without rest. Not because I wanted to but because my life depended on it. Being attacked and chased consistently by so many… I will never forget the hardships I faced and the faces of those I slaughtered. The people who hunted me down as if I were some prized animal. I will never forget any of it for as long as I live. One by one, I will kill them all. I will laugh as I watch the monster devour their flesh and bones while they are still alive.

Save them? No… no saving. I will no longer care about saving a soul. Only those who stood by my side during the chaos and died for me are worth saving. At times when I was almost dead. These people jumped in to shield me. They were the ones who wanted nothing more than for me to live. Whether it was for love or because I was the only one who could stop what was to come. I do not know the answer to this, but they still died for me.

As time passed, I could feel the fana inside me rising quickly. Level 2…. Level 3…. Level 4…. Finally, as the tremors of monsters heading toward the city shook the building we were in, I opened my eyes. I could only reach level five in such a short time. To be honest, this was already very fast. I looked over at Chloe, who had also opened her eyes as she looked at me. “Reni…. How do I tell which level I reached?”

I smiled, held out my hand, and began to explain. “Move the fana within you to your hand. It will naturally give shape to a disk of fana. It will then show you what level you are at.”

Chloe was really amazing. With such a simple explanation, she did as I said and moved the fana to her hand. What surprised me more was that she had actually reached level 4! “My wifey is very talented,” I said with a bright smile. I got up and walked over to Chloe and fell on top of her, hugging her tightly. “Chloe. Do not stray too far from me. The battle ahead will be hard, but we are only defending our building.”

“Okay. I will stay with Reni no matter what.” Chloe nodded her head. She then took a chance to give me a kiss and squeezed my butt. This girl just loved taking advantage of me when she could. It seemed after having sex, she was much more open about things. I gave her a kiss in return before getting up.

“Get your swords, and let’s go outside. From the vibrations, the monster wave should just now be hitting the city. But the pets already in the city and other wildlife should already be around. But the thing we should be watching out for the most is insects. They are hard to hit and are very fast.”

We had been locked up in the apartment, not making much noise, so we did not know how things were on the outside at this time. But I was sure many in this building alone had already died. When taking in fana, one needed to make sure their surroundings were safe, which was why I closed and locked all doors and windows and moved to the bedroom. Even after things settled and this city was used as a base for a new kingdom, the insects and flying animals were still a huge problem. Patrols had to be done twenty four hours a day with no gaps between shifts. Otherwise, you would risk losing many.