The Retired Hero is an Extra

The mana inside his body followed a strange pathway after exiting the mana core.

First, it passed through the mana veins around the heart, then to the spleen, and cycled back to the lungs.

The next instant, the mana went to the kidneys filled by the liver and returned to the mana core, forming a complete cycle.

Of course, not every drop of mana followed the pathway; only more than half did, while the rest spread throughout the body.

It enriched the body and increased its strength and resistance due to the mana going back and forth continuously.

This entire process was referred to as mana circulation, and every hunter did it without fail.

Even if they were mages, they did have mana veins to let the mana spread to their skin and interact with the atmospheric mana to cast spells.

However, Jash had created a different kind of mana circulation than any known.

'Should I reverse the flow?' he wondered if his body would be able to handle it but sighed, giving up on it in the end.

Unlike his casual words, if any other hunter dared to run their mouth, they would be afraid to jinx themselves and actually reverse their mana flow.

Simply put, reversing the mana flow would be nothing but a path to suicide and one could only serve as a time bomb at that point.

Yet Jash knew that his mana circulation was different and he really wanted to try it.

If his current mana circulation pathway was gentle and seemed to represent a flow that of nature, then should he reverse it, it would become its polar opposite.

It would become the embodiment of chaos to some degree, but it would boost him to unparalleled levels.

However, the price would be internal mana injuries if he exceeded the safe limit and prolonged its use.

Still, it was far better than dying just to reverse the mana flow in the human body.

Not that he had the guts to do it if not for wide mana channels, or the mana would end up disrupting itself.

As it would clash in two opposite cycles, one couldn't be too sure what would be the result of it.

"Haa... I am still lacking compared to my past self," Jash sighed, getting up and shaking the sweat off his arms.

He directly walked out of the two rooms and went to take a shower to cleanse himself as well as cool down.

Although the water had long begun to prick him like dozens of needles, he still continued to take cold showers.

"So refreshing," he muttered after exiting the shower, mist emanating from his mouth, while wiping his face with a soft towel.

Rather than doing anything more, he just dressed himself into a soft and comfy pajamas.

A heavy weariness washed over him, urging him to sleep and recover his body from the mental fatigue.

If not for having gone through one life already, he would indeed be grunting and on the verge of fainting from the pain.

Yet he seemed completely fine; alas, he knew better than to overwork and overestimate himself.

Anyways, the next day the joint classes would begin and his life at the Academy would only get tougher.

So, it was fine to indulge in sleep for more than 10 hours for the last time, right?

With that thought on his mind, he slept with a clean conscience, uncaring about anything else.

—Ring!

Naturally, the forced alarm buzzed, waking him up as he was incapable of waking up before being forced to.

He somehow didn't complain and actually got ready on time, exiting his room with slightly droopy eyes.

'Is she not here today?' he thought half-heartedly, not seeing Ziva on the ground floor and directly ordered the same breakfast as yesterday.

"Make that two sets," he said before backing away coolly, finding Ziva just exiting the lift.

One could only imagine her shock at seeing the late guy here early, even having ordered breakfast.

However, his lips could only twitch at her expressions, making him wonder, 'Just what does she think of me?'

Nevertheless, he chose to let go of it, feeling slightly under the weather due to having pushed himself just the day prior.

"Hm," Ziva narrowed her eyes, studying him with a mix of curiosity and suspicion, feeling something different about him.

"What are you doing?" Jash asked after seeing her strange actions.

"Nothing, nothing, it's just that you seemed... different today," she replied while continuing her scrutiny, ignoring his speechless look.

"Maybe you fell for me?" Jash wanted to joke at first but cringed inwardly at his own words, swallowing them whole.

"Ahem," he coughed to put away his feelings of embarrassment. "It's no big deal, I broke through," he shrugged.

"Oh, so you broke through," Ziva nodded as if it made complete sense but it didn't!

"Wait, what? Didn't you only breakthrough recently??" she blurted out in surprise.

"Yeah? What's wrong with that? I just reached Mid-E Rank," he said it casually.

His tone of voice could really anger others to death if they heard the insignificance and disregard with which he considered the matter.

Well, who else other than him could consider it no big deal?

In the end, Ziva just gave up having a civil talk with him, choosing to ignore him and directly left after breakfast.

'Not like we have the same class right now,' Jash shrugged, unbothered by her leaving.

Today was Jash's class for [Elemental Theory] and Jash was going to the class through the exchange sector.

'It's a joint class, only with students who opted for it,' he recalled, knowing that not many chose it.

In fact, only a little over 100 students had enrolled in it.

Only mages studied this subject, and the number of mages among the Hunters was lower than other paths.

But Jash did find a few familiar faces.

The first one was Caera herself who had chosen it despite knowing her element and being a Battlemage.

Aside from her, there was Rura, Lyra, Vivia, and Caeron already seated but he was sure that he would see more familiar faces soon.

It mattered little if they knew him or not as he could still recognize them, thanks to the novel's descriptions being quite accurate.

That was one thing he was surely grateful for.

The Elemental Theory was conducted in the Mage Art Block and seeing Jash here made the students whisper skeptically.

They refused to believe it was him, but his different uniform was hard to miss for anyone.

Still, it was not like too many students had seen him as there were five such blocks in the Academy:

Mage Art Sector, Weapon Art Sector, Research Sector, Artisan Sector, and Arena Sector.

Utility Sector and Exchange Sector were different from these five as these were where classes were conducted.

Each of these sectors was five times the size of all Blocks 1 to 5 combined as these sectors were common places where students from different years could be seen.

'Really now?' Jash sighed, aware that this was a surefire way to end up meeting Seniors who would obviously not avoid their juniors.

Even some of the Year Representative of the freshmen had been bullied right here yet Jash seemed to have none of it on his mind as he had already settled onto a seat at the back.