Confused, I slip my tongue back into the ring. Nothing happens for a while, and just when I was going to consider it some sort of hallucination, I feel the sensation again, that weird ethereal feeling.

I smile; it looks as if the gods have truly given me a way.

I focus on the feeling. It is as if there is another heart superimposed on my original, spreading a weird ethereal substance to other parts, although to what other parts I cannot perceive.

The feeling is quite odd and wondrous. I feel a need to study and strengthen it. I try to grab onto that odd and beautiful ethereal substance, likely called mana.

I immerse myself in observing and grabbing onto my mana for so long that I don’t even notice the whole day pass by. I finally come to when I hear the dorm’s door open.

As the man walks in, I suddenly realize that I should have waited before snatching the ring to see how much attention he paid to it. And when he glares at me, I pray to the gods for him not to suspect anything.

Thankfully, it's just one of his random glares that he occasionally does, to scare me.

After shoving more food down my digestive tract, he leaves like every other day.

When he leaves, I wait for a little while and then begin my meditation onse again.

After coming back from wherever he goes after feeding me, he sits down on his bed and starts meditating.

Looking at the man, he seems to be fully focused on his own soul, confident that he won’t notice me practicing mana control. I continue to observe the mana in my body.

Eventually, though, my mind starts to wander, and my attention starts to slip. In the midst of my meditation, I fall asleep.

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The next day, I awaken with another slap. I almost swallow back the ring in surprise. Fortunately, I don’t, and another meal is fed to me.

The day passes by the same as the last. The man doesn’t realize the disappearance of the ring, caught up in his constant busy state.

Another month or so passes. The weather has become a lot colder, and the days have become a lot shorter, likely symbolizing the end of the first year. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been quite the wondrous experience I expected joining the academy would be. It would be an understatement to say that it has been quite rough. Well at least, the meditation sessions help pass the time, and it seems the more I handle my soul’s mana, the further I can perceive. Currently, I can perceive around a fourth of my body.

The man has caught me meditating a couple of times, but it seems he didn’t care much about my peaceful habits. So, seeing that the man doesn’t care, I have stopped hiding my meditations.

One day, as I am peacefully observing my mana, I am suddenly slapped out of my focus. Looking around, I see the amoral bastard standing in front of me like a weirdo. My hands subconsciously move up to rub my cheek to soothe the pain of the slap, and as I rub my chick I realize my hands are free.

I look at my free hands in surprise. The place where the ropes were tied to restrict movement is bruised blue from the lack of blood flow, and my skin is pale and dry due to the lack of sunlight. But before I could enjoy my regained sense of dexterity, I hear the man say, “Get up.”

At this point, I have learned not to question his weird questions and requests, or else a session of skin peeling is likely to come. I follow his instructions and attempt to straighten my knees. But they won’t budge. I put in more effort, but the only thing I can feel is my aching leg muscles ache more.

The man yells, “I said get up!” I put everything I have into pulling myself up. Yet, in the end, I only lift a smidge off the chair and immediately fall back down.

Damn it, I can’t move my legs. I look up at the man in anger. Of course, I can’t move. I haven’t been walking for gods know how long, that uneducated swine.

I calm myself down from my panic. Fear and anger won’t gain me much in this situation. The fate of my future walking capabilities rests on this man. I should not do something stupid in front of him.

Just as I am about to throw away any semblance of self-respect I have left to ask him for help, I suddenly hear him say, “Move your left leg up and down.”

I follow the peculiar request, and after more come my way, I realize he's trying to make me exercise my legs.