My Bugged System Made Me Too OP!-Chapter 15: Why is this so easy?

Noah drew in a slow breath.

Then, carefully, he began.

He first focused on circulating the mana within his core itself. He guided the golden energy to spin in a controlled rhythm, matching the steady rotation he already sensed.

The mana responded easily.

It gathered smoothly, thick and obedient, swirling in a concentrated spiral at the center of his chest.

Next, he directed it outward.

He guided the flowing mana toward the two affinity orbs floating beside the core.

He had expected this part to be difficult. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Having two affinities was not common, and even those who possessed dual affinities often struggled to balance them properly.

Channeling mana through multiple affinities usually required precision and focus to prevent interference between elements.

He had braced himself for resistance.

This was the point he usually messed up, due to his mana lagging behind so bad, thereby ruining the whole channeling process.

But as the mana left his core and approached the two orbs, something surprising happened.

It felt simple, natural even.

The golden stream divided smoothly, flowing into both orbs simultaneously without hesitation. He did not need to consciously split it. It happened instinctively, as though his body already understood what to do.

The moment the mana passed through the lightning orb, it changed.

The golden color shifted into a bright, vivid blue.

Tiny sparks flickered along its surface, crackling with contained electricity.

As the energized mana flowed outward into the veins, it carried that sharp, electric presence with it.

At the same time, the mana passing through the pale blue orb transformed differently.

It retained the orb’s cold hue, becoming a softer blue with a faint, icy glow. A chilly aura clung to it, spreading gently along the veins it traveled through.

Two different elements, one bright and sparking with electricity, with the latter cool and frosty.

They flowed through his golden veins simultaneously, spreading throughout his body in synchronized cycles.

The contrast was striking.

As the lightning-infused mana coursed along one set of pathways, he felt a tingling sensation ripple across his skin, like tiny currents dancing just beneath the surface.

As the ice-infused mana moved through another, a cool, refreshing chill followed in its wake, soothing and steady.

His body felt both cold and electrified at the same time.

Under normal circumstances, such opposing sensations might have been uncomfortable, even painful.

But it wasn’t.

Instead, the two elements coexisted harmoniously, weaving through his veins in balanced cycles.

The cold tempered the sharpness of the lightning.

The lightning energized the calm of the ice.

The combined effect felt oddly complete.

Noah’s breathing deepened slightly as he continued guiding the flow.

Before long, the mana completed one full circuit through his body.

It was almost as if he had done this many times before.

He had expected resistance or to at least struggle at some point.

But there was none.

As the mana continued to circulate smoothly through his body, Noah’s brows slowly drew together.

He wasn’t used to channeling mana being this easy, so the whole thing felt a little... unnatural to him.

Confusion crept into his thoughts.

’Why is this so easy?’ he thought.

For years, he had struggled to complete even a single proper circulation. His mana would thin out midway, lose form, or slip from his control entirely. That weakness had defined his stagnation.

Now, it felt as though his body had been doing this all along.

He couldn’t ignore the obvious possibility.

’Is it because of the system?’ he thought.

The breakthrough had strengthened his core and widened his veins. That much was clear. But this level of efficiency... this instinctive coordination between two elements...

Channeling mana properly was not something that happened by accident.

It normally required a mana art.

Every apprentice was taught that from the beginning. Raw mana alone was wild and unstructured. To circulate it efficiently through the body, one needed a specific technique—a guided pattern that directed the flow along designated pathways.

Mana arts were not equal either.

They were ranked, from low, medium, high, and the rarest and best of all—Supreme.

The rank of the mana art one practiced heavily influenced the quality of circulation, the refinement of the core, and ultimately the speed of advancement.

A low-ranked art might allow basic circulation, but its efficiency was limited.

A higher-ranked art could refine mana more thoroughly, strengthen the veins more effectively, and produce far better long-term results.

The type also mattered, as a magus needed to choose a mana art that matched well with their element.

Noah’s previous self had been using a low-ranked mana art provided by the academy during his first year.

It was the most basic foundational technique, distributed to new students to help them get a feel for channeling mana.

He remembered receiving it.

Because he had shown little talent, the academy never offered him access to a medium-ranked mana art. Those were reserved for students who demonstrated great talent worth investing in.

He had remained at the bottom of the list.

So he practiced the low-ranked technique diligently, following its rigid breathing patterns and circulation routes.

And it never truly worked for him.

But right now—

He wasn’t following that method.

He could tell.

The pattern of circulation currently flowing through him felt completely different.

He was not consciously recalling the academy’s instructions.

He was not deliberately applying the low-ranked art.

He was using something else.

He could sense it clearly.

The rhythm, the structure, the balance—it did not resemble the low-ranked technique he had struggled with for years.

’What sort of mana art am I using right now?’ he thought, his brows furrowing.

Low-ranked arts did not produce this level of smoothness.

Medium-ranked arts were said to refine mana more efficiently, but he had never practiced one.

High-ranked arts were rare and usually guarded by powerful families.

Supreme-ranked arts were legends—almost mythical in nature.

Yet whatever he was using now did not feel crude.

It felt refined.

Perfectly aligned with his core and affinities.

But no matter how he searched his memory, he couldn’t find an answer.

There was no name attached to this circulation method.

It simply... flowed.

After channeling the mana a few more times, he decided to test something else.

Instead of focusing only inward on his core and veins, he allowed a portion of his senses to drift beyond his body.

At first, there was only darkness beyond his skin.

Then—

Faint specks of light appeared.

Dim, glowing yellow particles hovered in the air around him.

They were scattered throughout the room, sparsely spread like weak stars in a cloudy night sky. Some drifted slowly near the ceiling.

Others floated near the floorboards. A few shimmered faintly near the window where moonlight seeped in.

They were not bright.

Just tiny dots of energy suspended in space.

Ambient mana.

The quality of those particles paled greatly compared to the brilliant golden mana swirling within him.

The energy inside his body felt concentrated and vibrant, while the particles around him seemed thin and diluted.

Even so—

He could sense them quite clearly.

’I can... sense mana also...’ he thought.

The realization made his heartbeat quicken.

He had never been able to do this before.

In class, instructors had once explained mana sensing as an advanced ability.

It was an ability typically accessible only to those who had reached the Adept Magus rank.

And yet here he was, sitting in his small, dim room, clearly aware of the faint yellow particles floating around him.