The once ball of mana now circulated around my body, flowing like a stream. The stream started, and ended, in my chest; from there it flowed around my body reaching down my arms and legs but not touching my hands or feet. The mana stream reached up towards my head before curving back down and reaching my chest, once-more starting the cycle anew. Weirdly enough, and it might just be me, but the mana seemed happier, freer. I don't know how energy could be happy, but I just summed it up to it being some mystical stuff that I do not yet understand.

For my current goal, which was to control this energy, I gently prodded some parts of the stream, to make it deviate from its set path. I was pleasantly surprised when it actually worked, at least somewhat worked. A small and thin stream left from its larger form and stretched slightly outwards, creating a new path that the large stream didn't flow into. However, the stream didn't last long at all, which was my fault, really. I wasn't expecting for the mana to actually listen to me so readily, so when it actually worked I lost my focus on it; resulting in the stream failing, and going back into the main one.

Once I confirmed that the first time wasn't a fluke, by trying it again about five different times, I know willed some parts of the mana stream to reach down my arm, then I willed it further down; making it reach into my fingers, I had to concentrate more and more to keep the stream running but it was still not that hard, like moving a limb kinda.

Then I reached it. The exit. Really it was the end of my finger. However, when I tried to push the small stream through my finger it was as if I hit a wall. The level of concentration I had to use to keep the stream alive drastically increased, and the mana felt as if it wasn't making any leeway in breaking through this wall.

That's when I really cracked down on the wall. I kept as a minimum focus I could on the stream while it tried breaking through the wall. With the minimum focus being kept on the stream I had to move fast, and so I did. I slammed my mind against the wall, willing it to fall with all the will that I could muster.

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It hurt. Like really hurt. Nothing compared to the pain I felt from actually opening the mana, but it still hurt. But, I pushed through it, shooting the mana stream at the wall with great force while the wall was weakened. Reaching the wall, it faltered for but a second before shooting through it.

The pain in my head cleared somewhat as the mana stream broke through the wall, and, feeling confident in myself, I opened my eyes to look.

Coming out of my finger was the pure mana inside of me. It was invisible, but small movements of my finger sent ripples up to the small stream. Looking at it, I don't see how this could be used for any combat purpose... maybe its the intent behind it? Like in those books I read as a teen... What were they called again? Can't remember.

Going back into meditation, I tried to will my mana back in. Key word tried. Instead of coming back into my body, it dissipated outside, turning into nothingness. So, when mana is used outside of the body it can't come back in. Lesson learned. Luckily I still had plenty left.

I let the small amount of mana go back into the larger stream. This time I pulled a thick stream of mana down towards my hand. Right before sending it outside my body, however, I sent thoughts of warmth and fire down onto it. Imagine if I could start a fire that easily. That'd be cool, and a lot easier than starting one myself.

As I poured more thoughts of fire and warmth into the mana stream, it took on an orangeish, yellowish, hue. However, the change only occurred to the mana nearest to the outside.

I pushed the mana outside once more, looking closely at any differences from the pure mana.

The colored mana pushed through the wall easily, but took more mana from its stream to reach outside. On the outside I felt flickers of warmth coming from my finger.

I feeling of excitement traveled through me. Opening up my eyes I saw a small candle-like flame hovering over my finger. The flame was a bright orange that brought warmth to a small area around it. It cast flickering shadows onto the cave's walls. Amazing. It was so strange, being able to create something like fire by my self.

Grabbing one of the spears next to me, I put my flame to it. The heat of the flame caused the wooden spear to char slightly where it touched.

A smile reached my face.

Yeah, this will be useful.

Canceling the flame, darkness returned to the cave. Then in the dark quietness of the cave, three notifications from the system appeared in my vision.