Sitting at the desk in my room, I opened the 361st Beginners Guide to Mana, and began to read.
Having run around and explored Slyvenia at the whim of Lunia, I was thoroughly worn out, and after reboarding the airship and having my hands magically healed by Thalric, I had immediately sunk into my bed, only waking up by the time the sun had set, and we were once again in the air.
Feeling as if my mind had been refreshed after the short nap, and with nothing better to do, I began to study.
As I progressed through the book, I learned just how much I resembled a frog in a well.
Despite not even what mana was, I boldly declared to Aurelia my goals for the future, and barely even midway through the first chapter, my cheeks were already burning from embarrassment.
Frantically shaking my head, and slapping my palms against my face, I resumed reading with the utmost concentration.
Mana was an invisible, energy source that permeated the world. Everything had mana, but some were able to sense, and harness it for personal use, most commonly through the casting of spells, or “magic,” as a term for general use.
Monsters instinctively formed “Mana Cores,” a singular, large spherical pool of mana, while humans, through centuries of research, created the magic circle system, or leveling up as it was colloquially called.
Depending on whether or not one possessed enough talent, they were born with a “nub,” a small stone-like container for mana located in the middle of one’s soul, and after filling that nub using the mana gathered, they would officially become a mage, or cultivator, after the formation of a magic circle around the stone, which would constantly absorb the mana in the atmosphere even when one was sleeping.
As time passed, the mage would form more and more magic circles around their first, eventually reaching a total of 4.
With the formation of 4 magic circles, they would then have a “star,” an armillary sphere like structure where the circles would constantly spin, and rotate around the nub. And with the creation of a star, the mage would then have the ability to safely create another stone, on the condition that they still have space within their soul.
The more magic circles, the higher the rate of mana absorption, while the more nubs, the more mana one was able to store, while with monsters, although they had the ability to store more mana with their singular core, their rate of absorption was much lower, and in a battle of attrition, they would lose 100 times out of 100.
With the creation of magic circles, the cultivator would undergo a series of changes, including but not limited to an increase in all physical traits such as strength, speed, and endurance, as well as the purging of any and all impurities from the body.
Feeling excitement bubbling up at the path outlined in the book, I sat on my bed cross legged, and began the first step of the process, locating the first nub through meditation.
I closed my eyes, and shut myself off from all of my senses, letting everything fade away: the creaking of the airship’s wooden frame, the faint smell of dust the room had, the slight pang of hunger coming from my stomach, the almost excessive softness of the bed, everything became nothing, and all that mattered and existed was my mind, and the thoughts that inhabited the inside of it.
Gradually, over the course of an hour, my breathing slowed, my heartbeat steadied, and although I still experienced external stimuli, I no longer processed them, and I was transported to a different plane of being.
Opening my eyes, I found myself transported to a different plane of existence, where I stood on top of a gargantuan glass like sphere, and the sky was blanketed in tens, if not hundreds of what looked to be lines of string.
In awe, I willed myself to fly closer to the sky.
At first glance, the blue strings appeared to be the only things in the sky, but upon closer inspection, the strings were more a dirty, smudged, barely considered blue color, and even more interestingly, there were thousands upon thousands of completely black strings, to the point where the strings that had any color at all were in the minority.
Feeling a slight unexplainable dread, I flew back to the transparent sphere, and willed myself inside.
As I moved closer and closer to the middle of the enormous sphere, I eventually spotted a dull gray stone.
Taking that to be the nub, I closed in, and came to a stop, somehow touching it despite my currently lacking fingers.
It was ice cold.
The feeling of dread growing even stronger as time passed, I returned to the surface in a cold sweat, despite my not even having a body in this plane.
Sitting down, I closed my eyes once again, this time not focusing on myself, rather, the air surrounding me, but not, at the same time. On the immaterial, that which did not exist, yet existed at the same time.
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Another hour passed, and gradually, I was able to very slightly “feel” the mana around me, but it was a very faint, illusory feeling, akin to having something to say, then forgetting what it was, but still being able to just barely remember it but not to the point of transcribing it into speech, only in reverse.
Deathly afraid of somehow exiting the state I was in by forcing myself to become further immersed, I stayed still, and remained, such that I was somehow sitting on both the sphere and my bed at the same time, gradually growing used to feeling, and sensing mana.
Over time, growing the slightest bit more confident, I attempted to guide the atmospheric mana particles to my body, and absorb them into my active channels, even succeeding somewhat.
Suppressing the excitement I felt, I looked up from the glass sphere into the sky, and the few strings that were colored blue had begun to faintly glow brighter and brighter.
Continually absorbing the atmospheric mana, the rate of my absorption eventually plateaued, before completely dropping to 0, and the strings that had previously only continued to increase in radiance now stayed at a certain brightness.
Despite my channels no longer absorbing atmospheric mana, I felt only excitement, such that had I possessed a face in my soul plane, it would be grinning ear to ear, as I would now be able to move onto the next step.
Taking control of the mana stored in the strings, I slowly but surely channeled it towards my soul, going past the barrier of the transparent sphere, and to my nub, where it then entered, and was able to be permanently stored.
Completely transferring all of my mana from my channels, I excitedly willed myself back into my soul and peered into the stone, only for the feeling of dread that had somewhat diminished to return, having grown exponentially stronger, and mutated to become despair.
There was nothing; the nub remained empty, with very little, if any of the mana I absorbed stored in it. Denying the reality plain in front of my eyes to see, I frantically returned to the surface, closed my eyes, and began to absorb mana once again, only for a sharp, crippling pain to radiate from my abdomen.
I felt as if a thousand knives were consecutively stabbed into me, each one twisted back and forth, only I didn’t feel the sensation of my skin being torn open, as it was all internal.
Having my concentration broken, I returned to my bed, gasping for breath, and keeling over in pain. With my mouth open, gagging and nearly choking on my spittle, it was only a minute later that I was spared from further suffering.
Curled up in the aftermath of the torture, I lay on my bed in a fetal position, but the pain I went through was the last thing on my mind.
I had a concrete explanation for why the wave of pain came; I had attempted to absorb more atmospheric mana too soon after previously sending mana into my soul to my nub. The book even cautioned the reader against doing what I did for the reason that they would go through exactly what I went through.
The problem was, I didn’t know why my stone didn’t store my mana in the first place. I conjured up a thousand different potential explanations for why: I had sent the mana in too quickly after it was absorbed, the rate at which I sent it in wasn’t constant, I was distracted by my thoughts.
Regardless, I calmed myself down, sat up, and closed my eyes, this time not immediately absorbing mana, but just sitting there.
Judging that enough time passed such that I had completely recovered, I went through the motions again, absorbing the mana into my channels, then observing the increasing brightness of the glowing blue strings until it plateaued.
Though, this time, I waited until the atmospheric mana had settled into the strings, before putting all of my focus, and concentration into channeling the mana from the channels past the transparent sphere, into my soul, then into the nub.
With the strings completely devoid of mana, and back to its dull, unglowing state, I anxiously willed myself back inside of my soul.
Nothing.
Absolutely no noticeable change in the amount of mana stored.
In exhaustion, I completely exited the soul plane, lay flat on my bed, and stared up at the ceiling of my room.
Maybe it was a mistake to leave; maybe Thalric, for some cruel reason, had lied to me that I was talented. I should’ve listened, stayed at the bakery, and grown old. It wasn’t too late, as we weren’t even at Celestia yet, so maybe I could still go back.
Back to Frosthelm, back to Aurelia.
Hopefully Thalric wouldn’t be too angry about my wasting the 10 gold coins.
BANG
The door to my room burst open, and Lunia charged in, jumping on top of me.
Too exhausted to even act surprised,
“What do you want?” I brusquely asked.
“We’ll be landing again soon,” Lunia cheerfully replied, not taking offense to my bad temper, “Did you not hear?”
Looking out to the patio, the sun had risen again.
I had spent the entire night awake for nothing.
At the sight of the sun, a wave of fatigue hit my body all at once. I hadn’t even noticed how tired I had gotten I had been so concentrated.
And for what? Nothing, no progress made, I couldn’t even permanently store atmospheric mana.
Getting up off of me, Lunia walked to my desk, and stared at the open beginner’s guide to mana in curiosity. Not even paying attention to what she was doing, I tiredly got up, about to explain how I would be staying on the airship to rest, only stopping at the sight of Lunia.
Lunia stood in place, eyes hazy, engrossed, and reading the open book.
Out of curiosity, I stayed on the bed, and watched her.
Barely even 10 minutes passed, before her eyes shot open, and she stared in amazement at her hands.
Noticeably straining her arms, such that her nonexistent muscles tensed up, a translucent blue energy briefly flashed into existence between her hands.
With an expression of amazement, Lunia’s head shot back up, and smiled at me.
As a result of my cultivation over the past 24 hours, I was able to vaguely sense the atmospheric mana coalescing around her body, and being unconsciously absorbed.
She had formed her 1st magic circle, and reached level 1.