The Retired Hero is an Extra

Drowned in his own thoughts, Jash was so busy admiring the elusive nature of his enlightenment that he missed the great phenomena all around him.

At the moment, he continued to feel the mana's turbulent flow inside his body, trying to grasp it.

Yet it remained just short of being reached, causing his brows to furrow in concentration.

The only thing he knew of it was to let it become an extension of his intent, but that was not something easily achieved.

Despite his body's discomfort, he spared no effort on it, focusing entirely on understanding the mana flowing within and how it reacted to the water elemental mana.

It had long formed a connection, causing Jash to feel a faint, tingling sensation inside his mana core, allowing him to awaken to the water element first.

And it was a good decision, as it was one of the softest and most neutral elements, though it could be one of the most destructive ones as well.

Unbeknownst to him, the dense and heavy pressure had been alleviated, allowing him to relax significantly, though some of it still pressed down on his body.

As he frowned in displeasure, his focus, stolen from its initial position, shifted slightly to the spots he felt were being battered by water currents.

'This... isn't this too much?!'

Jash was stunned speechless, his thoughts whirring endlessly at such a 'coincidence'.

The silently stolen attention actually guided his focus, helping him attune to the mana's energy.

In that instant, Jash truly lost himself in that feeling, getting into a state of complete focus as if the mana running through his veins and the water element was all that existed in the world.

Suddenly, some words from a long-lost memory echoed into his mind.

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"Feel the mana responding to your will... Guide it like an artist crafting a masterpiece."

The words once obscure and deemed irrelevant were spot-on at the moment, almost helping him achieve the state of enlightenment.

Though he didn't quite reach that specific stage—just short of it—and could understand things on a grander level than before.

Jash could even feel the faint pull of mana, like a gentle current tugging at his senses.

His focus narrowed intently on this feeling, imagining the mana flowing around him in a coordinated manner and following his will.

And then... it finally happened.

An unconscious obscure smile graced Jash's lips as the thread of mana connecting him to the water element became more and more concrete.

'I've awakened one element,' he concluded with an air of coolness, instantly cooling the water around him a little to mist.

This would be one of the grandest achievements for someone else, however, to Jash, all of it was just the first step.

And there was one thing which pleased him after awakening the water element.

'Thankfully, I don't have some stupid trait or physique limiting my elements,' he heaved a huge sigh of relief.

While traits or physiques granted individuals enhanced physical attributes—strength, speed, durability—they also came with limitations.

Some limited the type of mana one could interact with, some came at the cost of being unable to manipulate external mana effectively.

And that was a big no-no for Jash, he'd rather be average at using elements than being forced to give up on being able to use mana freely.

His body was already a conduit for raw power, what he lacked was the finesse for complex mana manipulation.

That's what he wanted!

'Indeed, this was the case,' he mused, recalling a certain musclehead who went around the world to constantly challenge other people to ensure he was the strongest.

Of course, there were many other reasons as well, but that's for a later time as Jash had limited time in the Elemental Manifestations chambers.

He couldn't afford to waste time mulling over irrelevant things for now, and took the decisive step to leave the Water Elemental Manifestation chamber.

Now that Jash had awakened the water element, there was no need to waste anymore time being immersed inside.

It was better to utilize it and aim for another element, even if it was highly unlikely to work.

But Jash was also conflicted deep in his mind, he had to choose between wood and air.

'Calling it air or wind doesn't matter, but I don't know which one would suit me better?' he thought indecisively, letting the familiar pressure of dense mana overcome him again.

In the end, he didn't have long to choose and could only grit his teeth and mutter, "Whatever happens, happens!"

In a bout of indecisiveness or maybe idiocy, he chose to mix the two elements and try to awaken a mutated element, something not very fawned upon.

It was already difficult to master the well-known and developed elements, let alone elements without history or different from their natural forms.

Sometimes, one could be lucky and end up with a previously known element, or just a mild combination of both the elements.

But... there was the extreme case of lack of knowledge and access to the element itself.

Yet, Jash had already entered the Wind Elemental Manifestations chamber, intent on learning a mutated wind element with wood.

Naturally, he had already made preparations in advance and was hesitating at the moment of truth.

'I've never had to deal with such tricky and unknown elements, but I think I can make do with it,' he told himself before begrudgingly letting the nano-armor off.

Instead, he wore a deeply ingrained wood-elemental clothing, everything on him was deeply constrained from the element.

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Not only that, he had even brought some wood elemental awakening spirits and pills to pass by.

Spirits weren't really spirits as in some other race, they were similar to pills but couldn't be consumed, and could only be kept around during the elemental awakening.

The more apt description of it would be wood-elemental mana stones or mana gems.

Though it didn't have anything to do with the other, that was how it was used and explained in this world, and even Jash's understanding was shallow on this aspect.

'The darned author could waste an entire chapter on how the protagonist's swaying hair made the female with swaying hips swoon, but couldn't be bothered with actually important stuff!!'

If Jash could meet such a person, he wouldn't hesitate to spit on their face and shout: "DERANGED! SCUM! GO! DIE!"

Alas, such fortune eluded him, and he could only focus on the moving air currents and how it would soon cut through his skin and armor.

Indeed, it protected him, but for how long?

Air wasn't a weak aspect of nature and was just as fatal as any other aspect, so it would be unbecoming of Jash to take it lightly.

Especially because he had witnessed cities and even entire nations getting destroyed by forces of nature, so he wouldn't take any element lightly.

While others debated whether their element was superior, Jash feared not having learned it!

In his eyes, all of it was nothing short of nonsense as only his strength mattered and he had to suffer to grow.

It was different from his previous time with the water element, he really couldn't repeat the same method because his goal was different.

Earlier, he only focused on awakening the element, which was primary level and something almost everyone hoped to achieve.

But as mentioned before, mutated elements were a headache on one end and a true boon on another, it just depended on the person involved and the element.

However, the entire process varied if one aimed to achieve that from the start.