To the best of my ability, I ignored all outside distractions, instead focusing all of my attention on the strange ball of energy in my chest; my mana.
Now that I was actually focusing attentively on my mana I can sense that it wants to escape, but was prevented by something. It was as if it was pushing against a wall, or like it was enclosed in something like a shell. I could feel the impenetrable field that enclosed it, and when I tried to gently coerce it into moving; it vibrated slightly before stopping.
This left me with an obvious goal of either, A, destroying the shell, or B, trying to open the shell to let the mana through. It shouldn’t be that hard, right?
To start, I gently tried to pull it apart. My skill in meditation helped a lot in this; the skill seemed to help me understand what was going on inside of my body and helped me to move around inside. The shell shook slightly before escaping my mind's grasp, returning to its normal position with ease.
Seeing how little of an effect being soft with it had; I then decided to be rough with it. I crashed my mind against the shell, sensing how it shook greatly, then while it was still shaking, I grasped it roughly, squeezing it tightly in my mind's grasp. I could feel the shell vibrating now, trying its hardest to escape my grasp. I kept squeezing it tighter and tighter, forcing the shell to become compress down into a smaller round shape.
The feeling of mental exhaustion was like nothing else I have ever felt; my head was pounding and throbbing in great pain, and I almost lost my grasp on the shell multiple times. I increasingly strained my mind, however, to keep the shell in my grasp. I couldn't tell how much longer I could handle this; but, I could feel the shell start to strain to contain the mana that it held within.
With a great and mighty final squeeze from my mind; the shell exploded out, causing the mana that it held within to also explode outwards. I sensed-----
FUCK
My eyes flew open, and my hands immediately gripped my head. Within seconds I lost control of my body, and the only sensation I felt came from within my mind: pain. It was whole and absolute, demanding my attention. Darkness came into my vision, clouding the edges before finally, I fell unconscious.
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System
Congratulations, Acott, for having unlocked your Mana, may it serve you well.
For unlocking your Mana, you have unlocked the full system, may it serve you well.
I awoke blurry-eyed but feeling far better than I ever have before. Strangely though a screen filled my vision... It was intrest-
Notification
Congratulations, You have leveled up!
[While unconcious]
Notification
You have unlocked the following:
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Classes
Titles
Notifications
Analyzing
Holy shit! The screens disappeared as soon as I finished reading them, bringing forth another, however, the unlocked screen seemed to be the last one... Hopefully. To much shit is going on right now, and I don't know how to react.
I took a deep and calming breath, bringing back some sense in my chaos-filled life. Luckily, it didn't seem that I was out that long, the bright moon shining through the trees' leaves to illuminate the entrance of my cave. I felt great, my soreness was gone, no hunger, no thirst, my mind was at peace; a stalk difference than what it was before.
Going back into meditation, my whole inside was different. My mana was stretched around the entirety of my body, and there seemed to be more, a lot more, and then the system's energy also increased, and seemed to have more depth to it than before. An odd sight, one different from what it was just an hour before... I think it was an hour ago...
I called forth the system through its energy, which was also very different. Before, it was fast, but not this fast. My status filled my mind.
Acott Myers Level: 1 Race: Human Class: None Mana: 19/19 Status: Strength-10 Constitution-8 Agility-7 Dexterity-6 Intelligence-13
Wisdom-10
Skills: Rock Climbing: 1 Meditation: 4 Survival: 1 Effects: Titles: Survivor
Woah. Yeah, a whole nine-point increase in my mana. That's a lot. I think. No class, of course, wonder when I'll get one of those. Then there's my status, it was such a nice feeling seeing it increase, even if it was by a little. A whole two levels in meditation, well deserved if you asked me. No effects, but one title, nice. Looking at the title I could feel a shift in the system's energy. It was moving over the title, expanding it then- surprisingly- gave me more information:
Analyze
Title: Survivor
You survived the system's integration. Congratulations.
Allows use of the System.
And, well, kinda disappointed. I mean I'm not disappointed that I get the system, on the contrary; without it, I wouldn't survive... It just that you know... The title kinda seemed like a participation trophy. As if the system is mocking me. I mean look at the congratulations!
Sigh, oh well.
Analyzing is a big deal. Depending on what I could analyze though. For now, though, I opened my eyes, closing out the system.
That, well, that is a lot of new stuff... I wonder though, did I pass out because of leveling, the mana exploding outwards, or because of unlocking the full system? I hope it wasn't because of leveling, that'll be really detrimental towards my future. Imagine leveling in the middle of a fight, and then blacking out. Yeah, not ideal.
The moon was slightly higher now, illuminating, somewhat, portions of the cave. I wasn't tired at all, in fact, I felt more awake than ever, and my mind was clear and ready for work.
As much as I wanted to try and figure out mana, I first wanted to explore analyze a bit.
I held one of my pointy sticks in my hand, focusing intently on it, and waited. And waited some more. Then after waiting some more, a screen appeared in my vision.
Analyze Poor Spear
A poor spear created by you; barely qualifies to be more than a pointy stick if not for the quality of wood used.
A smile crept on my face. I've been calling my weapons pointy sticks, but it turns out they were spears! I mean, they barely qualified, but barely is still qualifying!
With my curiosity about whether or not, I could analyze my weapons gone, I turned inwards, focusing again on my mana that now flowed throughout my body.