Chapter 9: The Hidden World

“Wait, wait, wait. You unlocked your mana pool, through combat? That’s… well, maybe not unHEARD of, but that’s not happened in ages! They even teach us at the Academy, that if someone doesn’t unlock their mana pool at 15, they will only get stamina skills unless they are a ‘true genius’. That’s… YOU’RE a ‘true genius’ Risa!”

Risa hadn’t really had time to let it sink in, but yes, she had beaten long odds in getting a mage skill. Even better, it was apparently a rare one, or at least, not one Martin had ever been told about. Though, that could be because it was completely useless… “Okay, slow down there. Before we go declaring my ‘genius’ to the world, shouldn’t we figure out what the skill actually does?”

Martin nodded. “You’re right, if we can figure it out now, we have a better chance of convincing an Academy you aren’t just making things up. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried that, after all. Never ends well. Okay, okay, first off, we need to get you some mana. Let’s kill some… shit, not allowed in a dungeon. Uhm… can we trust that weird alchemist to not screw up a simple mana potion?”

The standard way to regenerate mana, when you didn’t have a skill for it, was to kill monsters. Risa wasn’t really thinking of that when she agreed to stay out of dungeons for the next week. But she did have another plan in mind. “Actually, I was thinking… perhaps you could show me Basic Mana Absorption? Martin blinked several times in succession.

“Risa, I know you like learning skills through training, but I can’t just SHOW YOU a skill. The vast majority of my past year was doing absorption exercises over and over, and only then did I actually get the skill!” Risa pointed a finger. “Still, you probably absorbed a bit of mana before actually getting the skill, right? ‘Skills are just the minimum’ and all that? Can’t you at least teach me those exercises you were talking about?”

Martin frowned. “The skill isn’t supposed to be taught to outsiders… but I guess that’s to avoid commoners hurting themselves trying to force mana into their bodies before unlocking their mana pool. Now that you have one… mm, fine. The first few exercises are basically a form of meditation, honestly. The easiest one is to sit down and focus on your breathing while looking at your mana pool percentage. Focus is a big part of the skill; you need something to concentrate on. Eventually you start to find a focus that’s more specific to you, but the Aleph’s percentages going up is a good place to start…”

For the next few days, Martin, Sammi, and Risa met at Morgin’s training ground to work on absorbing mana. For Martin, it was remedial, but working through the regeneration slowdown, received when having used too much at once, was still useful for the skill’s level. For Sammi, it wasn’t entirely necessary, as her one mana-using skill was surprisingly efficient, meaning she could usually get away with just killing monsters for her mana regeneration. Still, she wanted to learn it, and had been going through a few of the exercises even before coming to the village. She wasn’t technically a student of an academy, rather the guardian of someone who was, but that was close enough to get a guide to the skill on request.

For Risa, the sessions were pretty frustrating. She focused on the mana pool readout in her mind’s eye for hours at a time, willing it to go up. Eventually, she also did some experiments with Basic Strength Infusion to get her stamina down, then tried to feel the sensation of stamina returning to her body. Martin told her the two weren’t really comparable, despite being listed the same way on the Aleph’s stats panel. “Stamina is an internal resource that your body produces over time.”, he said, “While mana is something absorbed from the environment.”

That turned her efforts towards using Basic Awareness. It had reached level 5 at the end of the shaman fight, tying it with Basic Strength Infusion as her highest skill level. If she could become aware of the mana in the environment around her, perhaps she could start to take it in? It was Sammi who pointed out that Basic Awareness was usually considered a requirement for the more coveted Mana Sense skill, so there was some merit to that.

Eventually, through the combination of all her efforts…

Mana: 1%

“YES!”, Risa yelled out, startling Martin and Sammi from their own meditative efforts. Martin looked at her strangely. “You actually absorbed mana?” Risa was all smiles. “Yeah! Only 1 percent of my pool, but that’s just the start, right?” Martin nodded. “Alright, I wasn’t thinking you would get here this fast. I should warn you: the Academy rule is to never cast a skill at 5% or less mana unless your life depends on it. Running too low on mana while trying to cast an active effect takes away from your health in a way that’s hard to restore, even with health potions.” Risa nodded. “So, I just have to do what I did 5 more times, and then I can figure out what my skill does?” “I… suppose you could look at it like that, yes.”

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Risa immediately went back to meditation, although she was too excited to really do much more that day. She considered telling Morgin about her progress but wanted to keep it a surprise for now. She would tell him once she figured out what Hidden World actually did. The next day, she was able to absorb another percentage, showing it wasn’t just a fluke. The day after that, she absorbed two percentage points, though keeping up Basic Awareness for all that time exhausted her. Her father was starting to get angry at the lack of new funds, so she gave him a small fraction of her savings just to keep him quiet.

On the day that Martin, Sammi, and their guardian Preston were set to leave the village, Risa was able to reach the milestone Martin had said.

Mana: 6%

Risa didn’t think Hidden World was directly an attack skill, but mage skills could be unpredictable. So, the party went out into the forest surrounding the village, and Martin set up some barriers around Risa, of course including a hole for him and Sammi to have some idea of what the skill looked like. Now, it was the moment of truth. While skills didn’t need to be said out loud to activate, Risa still thought it fitting for her first cast. “HIDDEN WORLD!”

Everything changed.

Risa was standing in a gray wasteland. Off in the distance, she saw towering mountains. “H-hello? Martin? Sammi?”, Risa cried out with worry. There was no response. She gulped. Should she stop the skill? …no, she needed to learn more about what it was doing, first. Surely it wasn’t a teleportation skill, right? She hadn’t heard of any place like this on the entire Continent, and for skill to send her somewhere around the world on her first use had to be impossible.

She checked her Aleph statistics. Mana: 5%. The spell only took 1% of her mana pool? That made it remarkably efficient. But that also implied it was an ongoing skill, rather than the kind that requires a burst of mana all at once. That had to mean she was only in this terrible place as long as she was actively casting the spell. …she hoped.

She wandered about for some time, finding absolutely nothing but a flat, gray, surface of rock. She seemed to be in some sort of valley, cut off by mountains on all sides. There was, however, one thing of note. Looking in one direction in particular, Risa felt… something. It could have been as simple as a compass pointing her towards the ‘north’ of this strange world, but she felt it was something more. So, she walked towards that direction.

And walked… and walked… she could use another one of those defective Swiftness potions right about now. After all, she was only moving in a straight line. The feeling got stronger, but never moved. Risa still wasn’t sure what it even was. After all this time, her mana had only gone down to 3%. She hoped Sammi and Martin weren’t worrying about her, she had been gone a while. How long, she couldn’t say, for the dim light in the sky didn’t move like the sun. She WAS getting close to the mountains, though.

Looking at them more closely, the mountains had a feeling associated with them as well. Somehow Risa instinctually felt they were… solid, stable, rigid. Impossible to move. Granted, that was true of mountains in general, but Risa felt this on an instinctual level she couldn’t quite describe. This was sort of like the feelings she got on her first, accidental activation of the skill. Not quite the same, though.

Risa eventually made it to the mountains and saw that while they were close to the gray rock that made up the wasteland, there was a tinge of brown. However, they were still hard as, well, rock. She had 2% mana left. She decided to climb up the mountain for as long as she could, for that was where the strongest sensation was coming from. Strangely, the mountain had little definition to it, it was mostly just a steady slope upward. The rock got more and more brown as she hiked up the slope. Eventually, she saw a strange sight.

The mountain had a large tunnel cut into it, and the inside was entirely brown. Although, even as she watched, the brown faded into more gray. Well, there was nothing to do but go through. It wasn’t a terribly long tunnel; she could even see light coming through the other side in short order. She was only at 1% mana, though. At Martin’s guidance, she should probably stop the spell now. She was too close to give up, though. She ran through the tunnel as fast as she could.

As she did, the sensation pulling her in this direction got more distinct. It felt the same as when she looked at the mountains, but even more powerful. In her head she got the sense of a god who created all the mountains on a whim. There was another feeling as well, though, a weaker one. It told her to slow down, that she was too tired to go further. But while she felt it, it fortunately wasn’t strong enough to truly affect her.

Feeling her mana about to run out, she finally made it to the other end of the tunnel. And what she found was… another wasteland, but with two statues that towered over her. The taller one was made of brown stone, and the shorter one was a twisted purple metal. And if Risa focused, they looked just like…

Martin and Sammi?

Risa’s mana went down to 0%, ending her skill. She found herself collapsed on the ground, with her friends rushing to help her up.