Chapter Seven

Instead of trying again, he fought against an almost childish giddiness of finally using magic. While he succeeded in casting his first card, the process was pitiful. His parents pounded into them the need to have perfect mana control. If he wanted to use his magic in combat, he had to be faster. Much faster.

With that thought in mind, Arden activated his Accelerated Growth card. This time he focused on holding onto as much of the mana as he could, even sacrificing speed. Even then, he lost over half of the thin stream he sent to the grass. Like last time, the grass grew several millimeters before the tips browned.

If he wanted to use his Accelerated Growth card for long-term growth, he needed to make the growth stick. Unfortunately, his knowledge of nature magic was almost nonexistent. Living his entire life in a desert didn’t lend well to knowing how to grow plans.

In fact, he wasn’t confident in growing anything naturally either. His knowledge of growing anything stopped at the need for water.

Once he returned home, he needed to do some research. How was he supposed to be a nature mage if he didn’t know the basics of mundane gardening?

For now, his focus would be on improving his base, which meant nurturing his mana core and perfecting his control over nature mana.

Instead of using a card, he diverted a stream flowing toward his core and sent it back through his bracelets into the air. Like when he used his card, the mana turned slippery, causing him to lose a bunch, but that didn’t stop him from continuing. He sent the mana in random zigzags while trying to clamp down on it. This soon turned out to be too much for him as the mana dissipated entirely within a few seconds.

Arden decided on a different approach. He grabbed more mana, but this time didn’t try to move it beyond pushing it outside his body. With all his will held onto as much mana as he could, significantly slowing its rate of dissipation. Almost ten seconds passed before the last of it lost form, returning to the ambient mana surrounding him.

Unwilling to settle for such mediocre results, he tried again and again, holding onto the mana for fractions of a second longer. He fell into a trance, almost robotically grabbing for more mana, only for it to dissipate in at most eleven seconds.

Unbeknownst to him, a pair of butterfly winged beings approached the edge of the forest out of curiosity, having noticed the disturbance in the ambient mana. However, before they could pass the tree line, several more fluttered frantically toward them, drawing their attention.

Curiosity forgotten, they followed their brethren deeper into the forest, out of sight.

Hours passed in the constant repetition. He ignored his growing headache, but one thing he couldn’t ignore was a disturbance in his core.

Pain speared through his chest as his core reached a precipice. The mana churned within the core, trying to expand the core a little more, but it held firm. Pressure increased with each passing second until his mana stilled, unable to move under the unrelenting pressure.

Sweat poured down his face as he gritted his teeth, trying to hold back a stream as the pressure ratcheted up further and further until, finally, something snapped. As if a dam broke, mana gushed out of his core into his body.

Unfortunately, the highly pressurized mana only worsened the pain. Though only for a few seconds, as his already prepared mana veins welcomed the mana. Just as quickly as the mana dispersed, his core refilled from the now larger stream sent toward his core from his bracelets.

The pain turned to an empowering warmth as mana pumped through his body. Unlike before, it didn’t stop at cycling through his primary veins, though. As he took a step into the integration phase, the mana seeped into his body, preparing it to handle future growth.

A sigh of relief escaped as his tense shoulders relaxed, basking in the warmth and washing away any residual pain. He wished he could speed up the initial stages just to get them over with, but all he could do was endure them as his base built.

Fortunately, this cavern was a marvelous location for him. Just reaching as far as he did would take weeks if not months in the desert with the meager nature affinity mana available.

As much as his parent’s forceful approach annoyed him, he couldn’t argue with their decision to send him to the cavern, though he would have rather had a say.

Arden flexed his arm, already finding his muscles respond much quicker. Soon his mana control practice would pay off. Even if he didn’t figure out how to use his cards to defend himself, his body wouldn’t leave him defenseless.

He never understood why many never learned how to control their mana internally. Mana could do so much more than just activate cards. Too bad he couldn’t use it until the next phase. Even then, he couldn’t control it consciously. He had to be patient, though if he played it right, he would be well on his way toward his goals.

With nothing else to do, he returned to practicing his external mana control. He wanted to reach at least Thirty seconds of external mana control before the next stage.

Fortunately, this phase was rather pleasant. Though he had to be careful, he read about stories of people becoming addicted to the feeling. Even after the phase, they would push more and more mana into their bodies well past their limits until it broke down just to feel a little more warmth.

Another reason he established his vein network during the initiation. Most didn’t have a fully built vein network until at the end of this phase, causing it to last much longer. The process forced many to embark on their class card quest before they reached the communion phase.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

As it was, he wasn’t sure he would reach the third phase in time, either. It was hard to tell what time it was in the cavern. For all he knew, he could be minutes away from midnight, though he doubted twenty-four hours had passed since his initiation. Still, he couldn’t risk slacking off.

His parents were quite insistent on certain benchmarks he needed to reach before he received his class card quest. The most important one was being at the bottleneck of the communion phase. He wasn’t sure why they insisted on such a specific point, though he understood at least reaching the integration phase.

Did he want to risk slowing down his growth by performing external mana exercises? Once he broke through the bottleneck of the communion phase, he could use his own mana to power his cards. As he would be grade one and a true mage though a fledgling one. Still, he wanted the flexibility of controlling ambient mana, especially in his current environment. Even if it was useless in the desert.

As he watched the stream flow through his bracelets up his arms and into his mana core before dispersing throughout his body, an idea sparked. What if he could practice without disturbing the process? He read in a book once that controlling ambient mana without first sending it through his bracelets was possible. Though useless for activating cards. For his purposes, it could be perfect. The only problem was it could draw attention from mana sensitive creatures nearby.

At that thought, Arden looked down at the forest below to find the fairies gone. His fingers twitched, tempted to try it, but it just wasn’t worth the risk in an unknown area.

If he had earth affinity and was sitting at home, it would be a different story, but who knew what lurked in the forest below? He would have to settle for either waiting or taking mana away from the integration process. It was already risky practicing external mana control at all.

He didn’t doubt he disturbed the ambient mana with his earlier practice. Though from his studies, such a disturbance usually didn’t draw attention. It wasn’t unusual for magical creatures to create similar disturbances just by existing.

The more he thought about it, he was better off waiting until the next phase to focus on his external mana control. At least then he could somewhat defend himself, and using mana from the inflow wouldn’t affect his progress toward the peak of integration. He couldn’t stay on the ledge forever either, but there was no point in moving until he received the quest for his class card.

Deciding to prioritize reaching the next stage as fast as possible, he let the bracelets do their work while he wandered the ledge.

In case he wanted to use the flowers for practice later, he tried his best to avoid them as he walked to the edge.

A glance over the edge told him he was well over fifty meters up. From his previous vantage point, it didn’t look like he was that high. Fortunately, height didn’t scare him, though a shiver ran through him at the thought of falling.

His eyes ran over the cavern wall leading down, finding it frustratingly smooth, crossing out climbing down. Not that he wanted to in the first place. While he had plenty of experience rock climbing courtesy of his parents, it was a different matter climbing down from such a height without the safety of his parents nearby to catch him.

Done with examining the cavern wall, he returned his attention to the various flowering plants, none of which he recognized. Could he use his Convert Seed, Accelerated Growth, and Vine Extension together? He wasn’t sure if he had the skill to do that, though. How did he even find the seeds in the first place?

Curious, he approached a patch of plants, most of which had bloomed blue and red flowers with some white ones mixed in. However, a few didn’t have flowers but little pods.

If he remembered right, some plants in the desert grew little pods near the end of their lifecycle. One time when he was a kid, he cracked one of them open to find dozens of little black pebble like seeds. Though he wasn’t sure if these plants functioned the same way. The plants looked healthy otherwise, nowhere near dying off, so maybe it was a bud.

Arden unsheathed his dagger and sliced through a pod, then reached down to grab the fallen pod.

The moment his hand came in contact with the pod, spores shot up from the other plants. He jumped back, but he was far too slow to stop the spores from entering his mouth.

Using his robe sleeve, he covered his mouth, but the damage was already done. His vision turned blurry as his mind grew cloudy.

In a panic, he grabbed control of the stream of mana pumping into his core and sent it to his brain, but in his haste, he didn’t think through what powered the spores.

Instead of overpowering them like it would if he was using his own mana, the spores multiplied within his body, breaking what little clarity he had left.

The last thing he saw before everything went dark was his bracelets shining dark green, signifying the activation of a card.

An unknown time later, Arden blinked awake before clenching his eyes shut at the bright light, exacerbating a migraine going ham on a drum set. Clarity snapped into place when he realized mana flooded his mind on its own, providing immediate relief. Whatever lingering effects the spores left behind washed away, along with the migraine.

Arden sprang to his feet, only to stumble and fall again as he misjudged how fast his body reacted. This sealed the deal on his theory. He broke through to the communion phase and, going by how fast his mana reacted, he was well on the way into the phase.

Curious, he prodded his mana core, trying to siphon off mana, but as he expected, the mana slipped through his fingers. That meant he didn’t break through the bottleneck at the peak of the communion phase. Not that he expected to break through the communion phase bottleneck in his sleep.

Even if he was at the peak of the communion phase, he wouldn’t attempt a breakthrough. His body needed to stabilize before he made the final push. Besides, he needed to get used to having mana boost his body.

As carefully as he could, he sat upright, then climbed to his feet while watching his mana rush through his body following his actions. Once he found his balance, he glanced at his core and the stream of mana still feeding it, though at much smaller quantities. The stream was his umbilical cord, at least until he broke into grade one, where his core would produce its own mana. No matter what, he needed to reach the grade one before he left the cavern.

When he returned his focus to the outside, his eyes landed on the patch of plants responsible for his blackout, only to find them withered. Still, he kept his distance as he reached down to grab his knife and sheath it.

As he stood back up, he caught sight of the pod, but for the same reason as the plants, he didn’t approach.

Instead, he retreated with extra slow strides to the platform, away from all plants, until he regained his coordination.

Just as he stepped onto the platform, a bright light descended, causing him to stumble back, though this time he kept his balance as he stared at the pillar of light. His heart rate skyrocketed as he stared at the particles gathering on the platform. Within seconds, the particles formed a rough outline of three cards before filling in the rest.

As quickly as it came, the pillar vanished, job accomplished, leaving behind three cards with glowing writing visible from his position almost five meters away.

Unable to resist, Arden ran forward, only to catch his foot on the edge of the platform. Fortunately, while the mana pumping through his body, messing with his coordination, it also improved his reaction speed. He braced himself with his hands just before a rather undignified face plant.

Instead of trying to climb to his feet, he crawled the last couple of meters and reached for the cards. Upon contacting the closest one with his hand, it glowed a little brighter, warming to his touch as if welcoming him.

Excitement and nervousness warred for supremacy as he peered down at the card, knowing his future could depend on what it said.