The blue cube rested in Deon's hands as he sat on the wooden bench facing the small lake.

Though his posture was slouched, his intense gaze never wavered from the cube in his hand.

‘Vierenna said the first step is to establish a connection with the cube, but what kind of connection? Mental? Physical? Or something else entirely?’

Deon decided to close his eyes and focus his senses on the cube without overthinking it.

But that wasn’t as easy as it sounded—his mind refused to quiet down.

‘The cube needs to link to my mana signature, and Vierenna said it's best to maintain physical contact with it. But how can I do that without involving my mind? Even holding it involves engaging my senses...!’

Deon's thoughts paused at this realization.

Indeed, the mind drives the body, and the senses mediate the relationship between them.

Therefore, mana must be nothing more than a new sense.

And all Deon had to do was explore this new sense.

‘The hardest part of the process is always the starting point, but at least I have something to begin with.’

Deon steadied his breathing and cleared his mind of excessive thoughts.

This time, he didn’t struggle much with his thoughts because he had already found a focal point.

Deon’s hands, which had been gripping the cube tightly, relaxed. His tense expression softened, and his breathing became steady and rhythmic.

It wasn’t long before Deon entered a state of sensory stillness. The connection between his mind and body dulled, almost fading entirely.

From the sidelines, Vierenna watched with a shocked expression. She knew Deon wasn’t in danger but hadn’t expected him to enter the exploration phase so quickly.

“How is he doing this so effortlessly...?”

Unbeknownst to her, she had stopped breathing while observing his progress.

Inside Deon’s mind, the realm of his thoughts had shrunk to a single white point. From that point, something new emerged.

‘A heartbeat?’

A rhythm pulsed irregularly at the back of his mind. It wasn’t the steady beat of his circulatory system, but something entirely different, something beyond words.

‘A new heartbeat?’

But no matter how much Deon tried to pinpoint its source, his senses failed him every time.

‘My senses? Why can’t I feel them?’

He tried to panic, but the instinctive bodily reaction to fear never came. Thus, Deon panicked without truly panicking.

‘What...?’

The erratic heartbeat continued, indifferent to his emotions.

Once again, all Deon could do in this situation was focus on the heartbeat.

But despite his efforts, the precise focus that typically comes with natural sensory direction eluded him.

The heartbeat continued its unpredictable rhythm—sometimes loud, sometimes soft, and occasionally utterly silent.

Deon repeatedly reminded himself of what he was doing before finding himself in this state.

‘The new sense...! What if the heartbeat is the new sense?’

Yet, nothing happened.

‘What if I’m already sensing mana, but I just don’t know how to interact with it?’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The heartbeat continued in the background.

‘Wait, Vierenna said exploring things on my own would be difficult. What if that’s exactly what I’m doing?’

And indeed, that’s what he was doing.

‘The cube! I need to reach it somehow!’

But Deon had already lost connection with his body. How could he do that?

‘The cube is supposed to help introduce my body to mana. But what if hearing this heartbeat is my direct interaction with mana without…’

Deon felt, somehow, that he was on the right track. He didn’t understand this feeling, but he didn’t plan to ignore it.

‘I need to stop hearing this heartbeat!’

At that moment, the heartbeat ceased, as if responding to his command. Slowly, Deon’s senses began to return, albeit faintly.

The first thing he did was connect with the cube, a process that felt instinctive somehow.

Vierenna, still watching from the side, had barely recovered from her initial shock when she was stunned again.

‘How can this be possible?!’

The cube in Deon’s hands began to emit a soft blue glow, a stark contrast to its dark color.

The glow lasted for three seconds before fading.

Complex patterns started forming on every surface of the cube, converging at multiple points. With each passing second, the patterns grew more intricate.

Although the cube retained its shape as a simple cube, the newly etched patterns imbued it with an aura of mystery and newfound power.

Soon, the patterns stopped forming, marking the completion of the cube’s new aesthetic.

The patterns, initially glowing faint blue, turned black as they stabilized, signaling that the cube had ceased drawing mana from Deon once it linked to his mana signature.

Deon opened his eyes to the familiar scene of the small lake.

He took a deep breath and looked around to reorient himself.

Vierenna was still beside him, staring with her gray obsidian eyes as though trying to pierce through his skull.

“So, I’m back. Only you have such looks.”

He said without embarrassment.

“My gaze is perfectly normal, and you see it that way.”

“Of course, I didn’t say otherwise.”

“So! What happened?”

‘What happened, indeed!’

Deon had his theories about why he had heard the heartbeat and lost all his other senses.

Mana Sense.

One of his four innate abilities.

Mana Sense: The key to the world’s greatest mysteries.

Though the description was as vague as the ability itself, Deon was almost certain of his suspicion—no, his conclusion.

Even the description referred to it as an innate and latent ability.

Deon felt he wouldn’t need the cube to hear the strange heartbeat again, but how would he control it?

That? He didn’t know.

‘I also have Sword Sense, and the Sword Attraction. the latter is described even more ambiguously than any other ability I have. I wonder if the three are related... No, I’m getting ahead of myself.’

Deon refocused on Vierenna, whose curiosity threatened to set the entire garden ablaze.

“At first, I didn’t know what to do with the cube or how to feel it. But remembering your explanation led me to a logical conclusion that helped my mind focus and calm down. From there, I felt all five of my senses fade... I don’t know how to explain what happened next, but somehow, I managed to establish a connection with the cube. It’s hard to describe.”

Vierenna nodded at his words. She had felt the same when forming her initial connection with the cube.

‘But not this quickly... Less than five minutes! This…’

“Thanks to your explanation, I was able to do it.”

Deon’s words were sincere. Without her guidance, he would have been left in the dark. She had been his greatest help, and it hadn’t even been a full day since he arrived in this world.

“How do you feel now? Your connection with the cube?”

Deon held the cube up to his face, examining it with curiosity.

“It’s like a puzzle I need to solve, but the puzzle is... me... maybe?”

Vierenna gave him a wide smile and began patting his head firmly, ignoring his resistance.

“My baby brother is right—it’s indeed a puzzle you must solve.”

“You’re... ruining my hair!... The hair you styled... yourself... Stop it!”

Deon tried to resist, but how could he against her superior strength? Her authority as the older sister gave her the upper hand.

“And I’m a great sister and a great teacher! Don’t you think?”

Deon managed to escape her grip, pushing himself to the edge of the bench.

“You are, absolutely, just stop!”

She looked displeased by his retreat but didn’t act further as Deon spoke again seriously.

“What now? I mean, after the cube.”

“After the cube, more work with the cube. The cube will help your body familiarize itself with mana, and only when you reach the point where you can manipulate mana at will can you begin learning your first spell. Though I’d advise against rushing to learn spells.”

“Why?”

“Because the more familiar your body is with mana, the faster you’ll learn spells. If you choose to learn a spell while only having minimal control over mana within your body, it will take a long time to learn. Even casting it won’t be easy with shallow control.”

“.....”

Deon fell silent.

Vierenna’s explanation was logical from an objective perspective. Though there were rare instances where rushing yielded the desired result, rushing was usually a fast track to failure.

“I understand.”

Deon said, his calm expression reflecting his sharpened determination.

Seeing his resolute expression, Vierenna smiled warmly.

“You’ll accomplish great things, baby brother.”

She said from the side.

Deon nodded at her continued support.

“What now?”

“Now, we both need to rest. I’ve already gone past my bedtime. Let’s head back. Tomorrow, your training begins.”

She rose from her seat, and Deon followed beside her toward the mansion.

“So you’re admitting you were asleep earlier.”

Vierenna glanced at Deon’s face, which held a smile that said, ‘I knew it.’

She smiled in turn, and without a word, punched him lightly in the elbow.

Then she continued walking as if nothing had happened.

“That hurt!”

“I know.”