GUARDIAN OF THE END

"Ugh… Why does it feel as though I went drinking last night?" Jason groaned as his eyelids slowly opened up.

His head was hurting badly the same way a hangover would have. The curtains in his room were drawn shut so he had no idea what time it was.

[ It's evening, host. You were knocked unconscious in the morning due to expending your mana in one huge go. ] The system's voice was like a soothing melody to Jason. It seemed to reduce the pain in his head to quite some extent.

As his headache started to disappear, Jason remembered that he had tried to make his mana appear in physical form which had resulted in an explosion.

The explosion had thrown him back and Risa had prevented him from hitting the ground. After that, his memory had gone hazy as he had lost consciousness in his grandmother's arms.

'And here I thought that I would be able to do it on the first try.' Jason thought while chuckling humorlessly.

[ Though you have talent, it doesn't mean that your execution would be good either. You just have to keep trying until you succeed. ] The system provided some wise words from Jason's memories in hopes of trying to cheer him up.

However, Jason wasn't demotivated at all. He stood up from the bed and pulled the curtains to see that the sun had already started sinking.

'Tomorrow, I will try the same thing again.' Jason thought as he made his way to the stairs and started climbing down.

His grandfather and grandmother were seated at the dining table and were chatting happily with Nora. The young demi-human face lit up with a smile when he saw Jason arrive.

The latter pulled up a chair and sat on it before looking at Risa.

"So, you know what you did wrong?" The read-head woman asked while keeping her face expressionless.

"I used much more mana than I should have," Jason replied as he saw Risa nod. "But I didn't exhaust my mana reserve, did I?"

"No, you didn't completely use your mana, or else you would have landed in a coma for a month."

Hearing her words, Jason thanked his luck that he hadn't used all of his mana. Being out of commission for a month would make him lose a huge amount of progression.

"Then how can I limit my mana usage?" Jason then asked but both Issac and Risa shook their heads.

"Every person has their own understanding of mana and how to use it. Neither of us can help you know yours," Issac replied before pointing at Jason. "Only you can find the way you want to go in."

"Then I will let my mana recover completely and practice again," Jason replied with a slight bow as a delicious smell suddenly hit his nose.

His stomach growled loudly as he hadn't eaten anything the entire day.

"I forgot to mention but your aunt and uncle had captured a bear today and were cooking it outside," Lisa smirked while seeing her grandson's gluttonous expression. "They should be bringing it in a few minutes."

That night, Jason ate till his stomach was about to explode before going to sleep.

The next morning, he was awakened by a ringing sound echoing in his ears. He had asked the system whether it could replicate his alarm back from Earth and the reply had been yes.

It was early morning when Jason had decided to wake up and go outside for practice.

'Yesterday, I used too much of my mana while trying to make it appear in the palm of my hand. Maybe the second option will be much easier for me.'

After thinking that, Jason planted his feet apart and closed his eyes in concentration. Risa's mana had appeared around her body in the form of a cloak and Jason tried his best to imitate that.

[ Host, be careful. Risa is not here currently to help you. ] The system warned as Jason lost his concentration.

'I know that. Now, don't interrupt me unless it's something urgent.' He replied and focused on his thunder element again.

Just like yesterday, Jason felt something expanding in his chest as he imagined it spreading throughout his body.

Slowly but surely, the thing in Jason's chest spread across his body until he could feel it in each of his limbs.

Jason then imagined a cloak of mana surrounding his body and felt the mana leaving his body. He felt that he was about to succeed when the mana left his body.

Unfortunately, it didn't appear in the way he wanted it to appear.

"Sh*t," Jason muttered as he felt his skin being covered by a gooey thing. Upon looking at his arms, he could see a yellow slime-like material cover his entire body from head to toe, like a cloak.

It would have been so bad if not for the smell that the slime produced. It smelled as though someone had left dead fishes out in the open for weeks and the same smell came from Jason.

He knew that if he went back home in such a manner, Risa was definitely going to be mad at him while Issac would laugh wholeheartedly and give him two thumbs up.

'Not like I have any other choice…' Jason thought while wiping the fingers of his right hand free of the slime and closing his nose.

He then made his way to the manor and entered it silently. But due to his luck, Risa and Issac were right there in the hall.

Risa, who was moving a small desk, paused and stared at Jason's body. Issac did the expected and chuckled loudly.

"Jason, go and wash yourself right now," Risa said with a small smile. "We will talk after that."

For some reason, Jason felt that his grandmother was not angry which was surprising. Risa was one of the most cleanliness loving women he knew and someone like her would have been angry at the yellow slime he had dragged in with him.

'Could it be that she had experienced the same thing?' Jason wondered as he quickly made his way to his room and removed his clothes.

After entering the shower, he spent an hour rubbing his body free of the slime. There were no soaps in Duphia since the shower itself was made using magic.

The water that passed through it was not only extremely clean but would also fragrant. So after such a long bath, Jason smelled as though he had just been sprinkled with a special spring collection perfume.

,m "That was quick." He muttered while wearing a new pair of clothes. His old slimy clothes had already been taken away and the floor had been killed.

No traces of the incident from earlier remained as he had washed all of the slime down the drain. Though he had no knowledge about the drainage Jason was sure that it could easily dispose of the slime.

Otherwise, the entire house was going to be smelling gross for quite some time.

After getting ready for the second time, Jason made his way down the hall to find Risa waiting for him.

"You tried using the second way?" She asked with a smile as Jason nodded.

"I didn't expect it to end that way…"

"Getting a cloak of mana on your skin is easy and results in the same thing that happened to you. However, getting one in the air is much harder but you can keep trying. Don't worry about your clothes or the floor."

Risa finished before patting Jason's head and encouraging him to continue. She then excused herself by saying that she had a few chores on her hand and that he could continue his practice.

'If only she knew that I ended up using half of my mana to create a slime cloak…'

---

Two months passed away in this manner yet Jason had no progress.

After the blunders created by the first two ways, he wasn't enthusiastic about using the third one. He decided to not use it until he managed to use either the first or the second way.

Due to that decision, he would either be knocked unconscious till the end of the day or would just come back home as a monster from some children's book.

Jason tried asking Risa or Issac for tips but the two of them would refuse by saying the same thing.

His aunt and uncle weren't any help either as they would spend most of their time outside the manor.

He had no idea as to what they did but knew that both of them were the only ones bringing back food for the family to eat.

Nora on the other hand would often come to see him practice and would giggle whenever he would end up making a mistake.

If not for being like a real younger brother, Jason would have already pulled Nora's cheeks to teach him a lesson. Nora also pulled him back to the house if he fell unconscious so there was that too.

Despite the many failures, Jason didn't lose hope. But after waking up on his bed after being knocked unconscious for the umpteenth time, Jason realized that he couldn't do it alone.

'I need a teacher.'