Brandon woke up with a start. Before even a single thought could surface, he was gripped by intense pain, as if thousands of needles pierced the flesh all over his body. The sensations did not relent as time passed, instead they ebbed and flowed with each breath.

So it's my breathing, there must be something wrong with my muscular tissue if every action, even a breath is this painful. Wait, what am I thinking about, what in the name of the Fathers is muscular tissue?

He knew the answer, of course he knew, he had excelled in advanced biology, something as simple as muscular tissue shouldn’t be a shock. Wait, the Fathers? There are… three suns?

The realization forced his body to jerk and his eyes to open for the first time, which turned out to be a terrible idea. Pain flooded him in waves far stronger than before, he whimpered and snapped his eyes closed then forced his errant thoughts back under control.

One thing at a time. First off, my name is Jiran, and this is my body. The last thing I remember is the Tiering Ritual, something went wrong and all my mana was absorbed. Now, I clearly have memories of being someone named Brandon from—

The moment he attempted to recall more about Brandon, pain radiated out from his neck and sliced through his head, halting his thought process completely.

Ugh, this is so frustrating! Once more he took several slow steady breaths to calm down.

So I've got some surface level memories of Brandon, but trying to dig out anything specific is dangerous. What do I already know?

I'm different, I've never had such clear thoughts in my life. Just thinking back to yesterday I can picture the greedy gleam in Elder Mireg’s eyes. She wanted me to return that favor alright, likely sooner than later. Skandor was pissed off that I took his meat, and those kids are definitely going to start trouble.

How could I not notice, everyone was being so obvious, but I was completely oblivious? Well probably because I was a child yesterday. Wait, how old am I? Around six in Earth time, considering my size and maturity. Geez, this planet has some crazy stellar orbit, which makes sense with the whole three-suns thing.

Was I reincarnated? Not exactly relevant until I get this whole excruciating pain thing figured out.

My mana was… Holy freaking bananas I have magic! Actual honest to God magic.

Slow down, slow down, keep calm. I don't exactly have any magic right now, not even a drop. I've never felt myself without any mana before, and wow does it sucks.

Seriously this is not fun, how did I get so hurt though? I was tiering, which was… rebuilding my body? To handle more mana? In the middle of that, somehow I got access to these memories of being someone else, then all the mana went away.

So I was being rebuilt, something went wrong, the tiering stopped. Like a surgeon walking away mid-surgery. But the tiering was changing my whole body all at once. How am I even alive?

I need to see how bad this is, which means opening my eyes, which means more suck. Okay here we go, I got this.

After psyching himself up, Jiran slowly eased open one eye and then the other. Taking his time while moving definitely helped with the pain. After staring at the ceiling for a few moments he ever so slowly tried moving his left arm into view.

The agony ripped through him, but like an animal caught in a trap and ready to chew off its own leg, he pushed through and lifted his arm.

What he saw was not comforting. Cracks ran through his skin in the tens of thousands. Where his skin moved, due to repositioning his arm, small amounts of blood and pus leaked from the cracks. Jiran gently lowered his arm back to its resting position, then took several slow steady breaths to get his emotional state back under control.

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That is, not good, yeah I’ll go with not good. So my body is still mid-tier, this is definitely not something that will heal naturally before it kills me.

If someone else could fix it, they would have already. Where does that leave me? I need to get my mana back and finish tiering. How do I get my mana back?

What do I know about Density? Density is the world's voice… yeah that dogma crap mom preached at me isn't going to help.

Back to the basics then, eat a powerful monster, and get mana. Eat food grown by people who ate a powerful monster, mana.

So it comes from monsters? Nope, that's not right, well it is, but there has to be more. Our village walls have Density packed into them, the houses, tools, rocks, ocean water, doesn't everything have some in small amounts?

So even the air should have some Density, of course it does, because it's almost Densoon Season when massive amounts of Density flood the air. Which kills anything not strong enough to handle the influx of energy.

Testing his theory, Jiran took several long, deep, breaths paying as close attention to the air entering his lungs as possible. Sure enough, he felt the smallest trickle of moving Density enter him, then almost instantly get whisked away into the black hole the rest of his mana had fled to.

Whatever that thing is, it's seriously pissing me off right now!

Wooh, breathe, breathe. Try again but hold the mana, don't let it get swallowed. Time swiftly passed as Jiran tried again and again to hold the mana inside him. To force it to do what he wanted instead of getting sucked away. He pictured gripping it in a hand, begging with it, guiding it with mental imagery, but nothing worked.

He thought back to all the times he saw his Uncle use mana while working, the farmers, and his parents.

What did they all have in common? They would always close their eyes and focus, or chant, then hold out their hands or weapon. Energy would build from their chest outwards then travel to hands or tools or weapons then finally be released. Okay, start at the chest.

This time Jiran focused on his heart as he breathed, he searched for a connection, anything that responded to the trickle of Density that flowed in with each breath.

But all he felt was frustration, pain, guilt, annoyance, and fear. All these emotions gripped his heart and tore at his mind. When the emotions reached a boiling point and threatened to overwhelm him again, he felt a flutter. No more than the smallest swerve in the river of Density flowing out of him.

He let out a small gasp from the exertion, then clenched his jaws from the pain caused by the sudden movement. As the pain receded to a level he could think again, a tiny grin spread across his lips.

Success!

What made the difference? Was it the emotions? What are emotions? Emotions are part of how the brain communicates with the body. Nerves feed signals to the brain, then the brain releases chemicals and electrical signals to bridge the gap with the rest of the body.

Do I need to use the chemicals from my brain to control the Density? That seems far-fetched but I’ll try anything at this point, here we go.

With a clear goal in mind, Jiran focused on his strongest feeling, desire. Desire to get healthy, to get his mana back. Desire to move freely, to run and jump. Desire to help his family, to repay the kindness shown to him by his uncle.

Just as importantly, he focused on exactly what he wanted the mana to do, finish Tiering his lungs. Repair the damaged cracks he could feel with every breath. Make the tissue strong and durable enough to handle any amount of mana. Far stronger than it was the day before, when he had that uncomfortable feeling of being too full in his own skin.

The trickle fought him like it had a life of its own. Jiran did not relent. He poured in every scrap of willpower he could find, he demanded the mana to obey him.

You're in my body!

You are mine!

You belong to me!

As if a switch had been flipped, the Density flowed, converting smoothly into mana, and coated a small space on the inside of his lungs. Tissue was repaired and the pain eased. It was just an inch, but a single inch of normal in an ocean of pain was more than enough to bring tears to his eyes.