Jiran subjected the cube to a low, manageable heat. The red cable slowly unfurled but was soon blocked by its white brethren. He brought his other hand to the cube and activated his ice mist.

The two shapings instantly reacted with one another. The cold snuffed out the tiny flame while the fire's heat burned away most of the mist.

Hmm, I need them to either combine or just affect the cube in different spots. Well, there is no way I have enough control for the latter. Maybe a combination?

Jiran attempted multiple combinations of the elements but they just canceled each other out. He noticed the wires did not retract back into the cube instantly, which gave him a narrow window to activate the next shaping.

He attempted to use one, and then the other in rapid succession. The timing worked but Jiran realized that once he was dealing with all four cables simultaneously, this method would not be enough.

The cool air remnants made his fire uncontrollable. Then while attempting to increase the power of the fire he singed his hand.

Jiran released a deep sigh of annoyance. He was about to drop the cube for now, but stopped as he observed the effects of his exhalation. His breath had disturbed the air, which pushed gently on the small puff of flame.

Why have I been making my shapings stationary? If they are moving around the cube, that will allow them to interact with each other more fluidly, which should help stabilize them.

Jiran grinned like a madman.

With newfound inspiration, he created the flames once more. Instead of an unmoving flame resting in his palm, he continually moved the area of release. From his thumb to his palm, then from palm to pinky finger, finally jumping to his other hand where he ran the series in reverse.

The result of an hour of coordinated frustration was a gentle flame slowly revolving around the cube. Fifty times, one hundred, five hundred. After a thousand rotations, the mana flowed smoothly in a circular motion, from hand to hand as naturally as breathing.

With barely suppressed excitement, he added the ice shaping. While the flame was coming from his right hand, the ice came from his left.

The two elements chased each other around the cube, each threatening to extinguish the other.

Several times he failed. Yet each failure brought him closer to the perfect synchronization of mana and thought.

Long after the suns had set, Jiran finally reached a perfect equilibrium between the two shapings.

The opposing elements danced around the cube like two comets circling each other on their voyage through the cosmos, bound together by gravity's cruel whims, never allowed to touch.

Within that point in time, he felt his consciousness swell and grow. A connection with something greater had formed. He felt as if he was deep under the ocean and a great whale brushed past him, sending his body spinning through the depths.

Something in Jiran's brain shifted, like a nail that had been protruding was suddenly hammered in with a single strong stroke. He collapsed in a heap as the inevitable headache bloomed. He clutched his skull in agony, moans and curses escaped his lips.

The pressure ratcheted higher and his eyes began to water. Then, with an audible click, his brain spasmed and the bliss of unconsciousness took him.

Jiran woke up some time later. The sounds of birds and bugs stilled as he moved for the first time in hours. He clutched his throbbing skull and took long steady breaths in an attempt to calm himself.

The fear of becoming denless once more gripped him. He trembled uncontrollably as he gingerly scanned his body. He found nothing, just the headache. His mana was full and responded eagerly to his call.

I still have my mana, I didn't lose it again.

Jiran slumped against the side of his cave, tears rolled down his cheeks as he was momentarily overwhelmed by the non-stop stresses. Not only was he alone in a dangerous forest, but now something had happened to his brain that he didn’t understand, and he was forced to confront the fear of returning to a life without magic.

I should have prepared myself more. Trained harder, and longer. I need to keep pushing myself. This world is not Earth. I can't expect it to go easy on me or stay predictable.

I was given a new life in the manor. Being out here, facing the very real dangers of this place, I now understand. If I want to protect my life, I have to be stronger than anything this world can throw at me. I can’t slow down, I won’t slow down.

With a renewed mindset, Jiran pushed mana into his head and opened a communication bridge. He hoped listening to that voice would shed some light on what had happened to him. The feelings that fluttered across the emotional bridge were as confusing as ever.

A meaningful conversation with a friend. Singing, arm in arm with a coworker on a Friday night. Finally sliding the right puzzle piece into place after looking through a hundred nearly identical pieces.

After the incoherent jumble of emotions, came an easily understood, more. Jiran knew this meant he could safely push mana into his brain and heal his headache.

After doing so, the pounding hammers in his brain evaporated as if they had never been.

His last vestiges of his earlier melancholy vanished as his pain was washed away.

With a strong desire to combat the stress of being in the wilderness, he jumped to his feet ready to move his body. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so energetic.

Nothing like the fear of being crippled for another three hundred days to wake you up in the morning, who needs coffee when you can have existential dread?

Moving through his morning routine was bliss. His muscles sang as he ran to the creek. He exulted in the feeling of cold water on his strong body.

His cheer was undiminished by the massive salamander swimming right at him, only its blood-red eyes visible above the surface of the water.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Jiran had never been drunk, but he had plenty of memories of Brandon being hammered. He sobered from his cheery mood in less than a heartbeat. Just like the time cops showed up at his frat house with guns drawn.

Fueled by instinct, mana pumped into his legs as he jumped straight up and out of the water.

Jiran's problem was: what goes up must eventually come down. As he reached the peak of his jump, the salamander opened its mouth wide to catch its incoming breakfast.

If I come down, I'm dead. I need to move. What should I do?

The jaws inched closer as his brain raced for a solution.

That's it! I blew on the shapings and they moved, my breath, pushing air.

Jiran pushed mana through the soles of his boots while conjuring the image of gasses escaping his body. The released air propelled him up and to the side, away from the sure death below.

The long hours he practiced controlling his mana and shaping images had saved his life.

Unsteady in the air but no longer falling to his death, he focused with all his will. He expected to struggle with adding a second active shaping, but was shocked as his blast of ice flowed from his hands with ease.

The creek froze. The beast froze. The very air froze as moisture crystallized.

Jiran’s attempt to land gracefully was doomed from the start. He crashed down, barely managing to avoid any rocks as he fell into the sandy bank.

Standing up, he admired the gigantic ice sculpture before him. There was no way the beast had concealed itself in the creek's waters alone. It must have been half underground using some kind of mana manipulation to move through the sand.

The beast was four meters long from tail to snout, with large hooked teeth that could easily trap prey in its jaws. Powerful scale-coated muscles covered its bulky frame. This monster was a true testament to the Densoon's ability to create ferocious predators.

With a determined stride, Jiran approached the beast. He melted a space on its side just large enough for his hand. He placed his palm a few centimeters from the scaled hide and then shot wave after wave of lightning into the salamander.

If it survived being frozen solid, it’s certainly dead now.

A chattering and rustle of tree limbs alerted Jiran to his monkey saboteur, who quickly fled through the treetops.

With a sigh, he mentally reviewed his most recent battle.

I was taken completely by surprise, again. I'm in a deadly and dangerous forest and got swept up in some stupid fantasy. Two more seconds and I would have been breakfast.

At least I didn't freeze up this time!

Jiran chuckled at the terrible joke and pressed on with his evaluation.

I used a new shaping purely on instinct.

Then I used two active shapings at once, something that took hours of practice yesterday. I also shielded my hands from the cold without even thinking about it.

So three active shapings, at the same time? How is that even possible?

I need to pay more attention to my surroundings. I also need to keep pushing my shapings and imaging. They've saved my life twice in as many days.

Finally, I need to figure out what happened to my brain last night. Sure, thinking faster and being able to do more at once saved my life this time, but I'd at least like to know why.

With only half of his mana remaining, Jiran decided not to waste energy on melting the frozen beast. He would come back once it had melted naturally.

The return trip to his cave was blissfully uneventful.

Before he got lost in the cursed cube again, he chose to work on his new air-jumping technique. Mobility had been his biggest weakness in every encounter so far. That shortfall could not be allowed to continue.

Jiran stopped himself as he remembered a phrase from Brandon’s life. 'The best process is no process, the best part is no part.'

Was his jury-rigged technique what suited him the best? Did it use the least mental concentration and mana? Was it the most powerful?

Memories of Skandor’s battle so long ago played through his mind.

Skandor enveloped his entire lower body in manipulatable air. Mana-inefficient to be sure, but the maneuverability was the real deal. Should I try that approach, or mine, or a mix?

Skandor was probably using a casting, which I can't do yet. Also, shouldn't one always emulate the coolest heroes when possible?

With his mind made up, Jiran focused on what he wanted. He started with the gasses trapped inside the human body, Carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and methane.

He scoured Brandon's memories for specific and relevant details about the gasses but came up with very little. Only having a few clues on where to start, he used the tried and true method of one experiment at a time.

Each gas was tested separately in controlled bursts from his hands. Satisfied that he could produce the individual gasses with mana, Jiran began phase two.

With the most resilient protection he could summon on his hand, he created a flame in his palm. With extreme caution, he pushed tiny amounts of gas through the flames.

The results were better than expected. Hydrogen and methane had the strongest reactions. Both gasses, when ignited, applied significant push on his outstretched arm, even though he was using such a small amount of mana.

Curiously, nitrogen instantly doused his flames, a reaction he would have to remember for the future.

With renewed confidence, Jiran chose to stick with hydrogen, as it gave slightly more power for the mana spent.

As he began practicing in earnest, he realized something had fundamentally changed with his ability to simultaneously control multiple mana functions.

Just yesterday, I struggled to control a rotating fire and ice combination. Until I had one on autopilot, there had been no way to do the second. Like juggling, I was really just doing two processes as quickly as possible, not truly multitasking.

However, today I can fully focus on two things at the same time, like a dual mind technique!

Jiran couldn't keep the grin from his face.

Testing his multiple focus, he counted from one to ten and from ten to one at the same time. It felt natural, as natural as looking left and right simultaneously could possibly feel.

Is this from the headache? Did the mana remake a part of my brain to allow for what I was trying to do with the cube? Was this all part of Lenton’s plan?

Unable to piece together the meager clues he had, he instead resumed his practice.

When Second Father peaked, he took a break.

After a hearty meal of bear, and a side of even more bear, Jiran dug back into his practice with the cube.

Replicating yesterday's rotation of ice and fire, he watched as the two shapings chased each other around the cube. In order to unravel more layers of cables, his next element would need to be wind.

Jiran had no idea how to add wind without upsetting his current delicate balance. Without worrying about it overly much, he channeled mana into his mouth, then blew.

Several things happened at once.

The blast of gasses he expelled, caused the fire to flare up and then sputter out.

The icy mist shimmered and expanded as if he had poured water on it, which froze instantly adding to its mass.

Those reactions were secondary as his attention was almost entirely drawn to a new phenomenon.

The space around him, roughly one meter in an oval radius, flexed and undulated, like he was surrounded by an egg of quaking space that shook the air and ground.

For a split second, he could feel all of the space inside that cocoon as if it was an arm or a leg. Every inch became a mere extension of his own physical body.

What the hell was that!? Did I connect with the Density in the air somehow?

Normally, interacting with ambient Density is like touching calm and predictable waves on a lake. Whatever that was, it felt like jumping right into the lake!

Was that… the mana body? But the mana body isn't supposed to unlock until the fifth Tier. This cube is insane. First it snaps my brain in two, and now it's giving me a shortcut to the mana body.

I knew bagging me a wizard was a good call!