Hajin watched Elise and Sable for a moment, then gestured for them to sit on the floor in front of him.

"Before I tell you the plan," he said, looking at Elise. "Tell me something. How do you actually understand mana?"

Elise blinked, her back straightening on instinct. "Mana is the ambient energy of the world that can be absorbed and channeled through a person’s core," she recited immediately, her voice taking on that crisp, fast tone again.

"It requires a proper resonance between the individual’s spirit and the surrounding etheric field to manifest as physical or magical force."

Hajin let out a long, heavy sigh, his hand moving to rub the bridge of his nose.

[ CringeSlayer91: LMAO ]

[ ShadowMage44: she’s doing it again ]

[ LurkerNoMore: hajin looks like he wants to die right now ]

"I didn’t ask for a dictionary definition," he said, looking back at her. "I’m asking about your experience. When you pull mana into your body, what does it actually feel like? Is it hot? Cold? Does it feel like water flowing through a pipe or like electricity sparking under your skin?"

Elise opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, her brow pulling together in confusion. She looked at Sable, who was also staring at Hajin with a strange expression.

"And on a scale of one to a hundred," he continued, leaning forward. "How would you rate your control? Not your power, but your ability to move a single drop of mana to any point in your body at any moment without wasting any of it. Be honest."

Sable let out a short, dismissive breath. "What is this? A therapy session? We’re here for an exam, not to talk about our feelings. My control is fine. I’d rate it at least an eighty."

"Same here," Elise added, though her voice was a little less confident. "I’ve practiced mana circulation since I was six years old. I’d say I’m easily in the high eighties."

He didn’t say anything, just kept staring at them with that same flat, unbothered expression.

’They really are overconfident,’ he thought, watching the way their mana was leaking out of their pores in tiny, invisible wisps. ’But they’re not even looking at the right thing. They think control is just how hard they can hit, not how precisely they can hold.’

"Close your eyes," he said. "Try to move a single point of mana to the very tip of your index finger. Don’t push it, just guide it until you can feel it pulsing right under the skin."

They both looked like they wanted to argue, but after a second, they did as he said.

The room went quiet for a long moment. He watched as their mana started to shift, moving in clumsy, jagged waves toward their hands. It was like watching a group of drunk people trying to run through a crowded hallway.

After a few minutes, Sable’s eyes snapped open, her forehead covered in a thin layer of sweat. She looked down at her hand, then back at Hajin, her expression shifting from confidence to a dawning, uncomfortable realization.

’Wait,’ she thought, her fingers trembling slightly. ’I thought I was in control, but it’s like I’m only steering a tiny fraction of the energy. The rest is just... doing whatever it wants.’

Elise’s eyes opened a second later, her face pale and her pride looking even more bruised than before.

"Forty," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "I... I’d rate it a forty, maybe less."

Sable didn’t say her number out loud, but the way she looked at the ground told Hajin everything he needed to know.

"Good," he said, standing up. "Now you’re actually paying attention. If we’re going to scratch that core, forty isn’t going to be enough."

He raised his hand, and a single, needle-thin point of mana manifested at the tip of his finger. It didn’t flicker, leak or glow with the messy intensity of Gorren’s axe. It was just a tiny, perfectly stable spark of light that sat there like a object.

"For me, mana doesn’t feel like a tool," he said, watching the spark. "It feels like my own blood. I don’t have to fight it or guide it, it just goes where I want it to go because it’s already a part of me."

’It’s the bloodline,’ he thought, feeling the effortless flow of energy through his core. ’I was born with a level of compatibility that most people spend decades trying to reach. It’s not just talent, it’s a literal biological advantage.’

He looked at Elise and Sable, who were staring at the spark with a mixture of awe and frustration.

’But I can feel theirs too,’ he realized, his eyes narrowing as he sensed the jagged, turbulent currents of mana inside them.

’It’s like their bodies are rejecting the very energy they’re trying to use. If I can just nudge it into the right rhythm, I might be able to force their compatibility higher.’

He hesitated for a second, rubbing the back of his neck as he felt a sudden wave of awkwardness wash over him.

"I can help you with the control," he said, his voice dropping into a low whisper as he looked away. "But I need to do it manually. I have to touch your backs... not through the clothes, but the skin itself. I need to feel the flow directly to synchronize it." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The reaction was immediate.

Elise’s face went from pale to a deep, burning crimson that reached all the way to her ears, while her hands flew to the collar of her white tunic.

Sable didn’t blush as much, but her eyes went wide, taking a sharp step back while her hand moved to her chest as if she were protecting herself.

"Wh-what?" Elise stammered, her voice pitching up an octave. "Bare skin? Right here? In the middle of an exam?"

"Are you serious?" Sable asked, her gaze darting toward Allen, then back to Hajin. "You want us to... strip? In front of everyone?"

Hajin felt his own face getting a little warm, but he kept his expression flat. "I didn’t say strip. I just need access to your lower back. If you want to pass, this is the only way I can think of to bridge the gap in time."

They both stared at him, their faces a mess of panic and indecision, while the stream chat went into a complete frenzy.

"Wait, Hajin," Juna said, stepping between them with her ears twitching nervously. "Is this really okay? A woman’s body is... special, you know? You can’t just go around touching—"

He reached out and pinched her cheek, pulling it lightly until her words turned into a muffled squeak. "I’m not doing it for fun," he said, letting go while she rubbed her face with an indignant huff.

"We have twenty minutes before the exam timer starts to really matter. If they want to pass, they need to sync up. Now go keep an eye on Gorren so he doesn’t try anything stupid while I’m busy."

Allen stood at the edge of the arena, his eyes fixed on the ceiling but his ears angled toward the group. He was using a simple mana enhancement on his hearing, catching every word of the conversation with perfect clarity.

’Direct skin contact for mana synchronization,’ he thought, a faint, fascinated glint appearing in his tired eyes. ’It’s a primitive method, but highly effective if the initiator has enough control. I’ve only ever seen high-level mages attempt it with their apprentices. Let’s see where this plan of his actually leads.’

Elise and Sable looked at each other for a long moment before finally nodding. They sat down on the floor with their backs to Hajin, both of them blushing so hard it looked like they were running a fever.

He sat down behind Elise, his own pulse quickening just a fraction as the weight of the situation hit him.

He wasn’t doing this to be a creep, but the proximity was definitely making it hard to maintain his usual unbothered expression.

"Try to stay relaxed," he said, his voice a little stiff. "If you tense up, your mana will fight me."

He reached out, his fingers tracing the hem of her tunic before slowly slipping his hand underneath. The heat radiating from her skin was intense, and the moment his palm made contact with the small of her back, she let out a sharp, high-pitched sound.

"Eeek!"