The young abyssal is no longer aware of his surroundings as his full attention is focused on the energy in his body. It is fortunate that no danger lurks around.
The young abyssal advances his mana to encircle the foreign mana while doing his best to not waste this opportunity; it was really painful and gave him an unbearable headache that seemed to spread around his whole body. He was reminded of the time when the power of magic had struck him in the mind, and although this was less powerful than that experience, it was still somewhat comparable.
The young abyssal was shocked by how difficult it was to move the mana within his body. At first, he believed this would be a piece of cake, but disappointment struck him as he saw reality. There are obvious reasons he is having a hard time; one must keep in mind that he was underdeveloped, therefore it was plainly due to his already weakened mind that he couldn't accomplish something as easy as this effortlessly. He is smart, which is a miracle, but his mind is still less developed than the average abyssal of his age.
He took a long time to completely enclose the foreign mana in his body with his own mana; after that, he began performing the next step. He forced his way into the foreign mana and began to gradually attempt to change its entire structure to closely resemble his own.
This was far more difficult than the first step because the first one included merely shifting his mana, which was extremely taxing on him, and then the difficulty of the next step rose sharply. But it makes sense after all. This is the main step of turning any foreign mana into his own.
It was fortunate that the foreign mana that is within the fruit was still in the early stages of undergoing transformation into nature mana. If a mana, which has an affinity, was already present. The young abyssal's situation might become more complicated.
The reason is that a Neutral Mana, which is a mana without an affinity, has a more simple mana structure that is not altered in anyway like that of an Elemental Mana, a mana with an element will already have a more established and refined mana structure that is way harder to transform and turn into the element in which one is attuned to.
Now that the young abyssal is at the stage where he can't fail in any way, because doing so can potentially kill him or cripple him, making him unable to wield magic throughout his whole life, this is the development in which the young abyssal doesn't want; after all, being able to wield magic can make any being more powerful than that of an average individual who was unable to use magic. He already experienced this firsthand when his caretaker used mental magic on him in order to put him under control.
It was clear how the use of magic could significantly alter the outcome of a battle between two beings. For instance, if the young abyssal were to engage his caretaker in combat and the latter were able to enter the former's mind and corrupt it by distracting him for a brief moment by calming him or making him perceive a false danger from somewhere else, both of which would have the same effect of distracting him, he will probably be torn to pieces by his opponent's numerous tentacles, or the onslaught of mental magic could make his mind turn into mush.
With his resolve as firm as that of a steel, he concentrated intensely in order to make his mana have more strength so he could force his way into the mana's system and accomplish his goal. The Neutral Mana will naturally not just sit around and do nothing; despite the fact that transforming the Neutral Mana is simpler, the Neutral Mana will nevertheless fight back. Mana has a will tied to it that originates from the world itself, which is why this is the case.
The ache in his mind grew worse, and a burning sensation extended across his entire body as the internal struggle reached a new level as the foreign mana within his body began to fight back.
The agony he is experiencing only worsens with the passage of time. He felt like this had been going on for an eternity; subjected to this torture without any knowledge of when it would end, regret was starting to form in his mind. He wants to stop, but he knows he can't. He had chosen to suffer in order to get a reward, and he was aware that all this would not be for naught; stopping now will only shatter his pride that reached the skies, and stopping now will only make his suffering end in vain.
After regaining control of his mind, he slowly gets rid of the thoughts that are not beneficial for him in any way. He then put all his attention on the war within him; even though he felt like no progress is being made, he noticed that some of the foreign mana has been successfully converted and is now fighting alongside the beings it once regarded as its own enemies.
With the war slowly turning in his favor, his belief in himself surged to a great height, and with a newfound confidence, he intensified his attack. With the sudden increase in his attack, the foreign mana is slowly losing ground, and as the will in the mana senses it is slowly losing, like a cornered rabbit, it then commits itself to a final push in order to prolong his enemy's agony. It is aware that this is a lost cause; fighting more will not change anything. Right now, it has a new goal, which is to become a major pain in the ass, but in the case of the young abyssal, it is to become an excruciating anguish in his mind.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The young abyssal was taken aback as the foreign mana became more challenging to fight; it didn't know why, but it made no difference; for him, this is just a futile attempt to change its fate. He then increased the ferocity of his attack once more. Right now, he wanted to put an end to this war that had dragged on for far too long.
In a short period of time, the war ended, and obviously, he won. It was easy; he didn't even break a sweat or feel any pain, thought the narcissistic young abyssal, completely ignoring the torment he had gone through.
Feeling giddy over his win, the young abyssal then attempted to have a celebratory wiggly dance, which is a huge mistake. As the young abyssal tried to dance, he felt the pain in his body intensify. He let loose an unrestrained screech out of surprise. He felt thousands of small needles poke his body repeatedly, ten times more effectively than the original pain that they were intended to inflict. Not only that, combine it with an intense burning pain, as if he were being burned alive. That's the pain he is currently feeling right now.
He was abruptly woken up from his deep euphoria by another torture he had inflicted on himself, and while he was under the pain, he remembered another important piece of information. He can now heal himself by channeling the surging mana within him.
Feeling threatened by his current body, he hurriedly circulated his mana throughout his entire body to complete his task. Surprisingly, moving his mana is no longer as difficult as it was when he first started. He now appears to be somewhat familiar with what he should do, and some of the information that he couldn't even understand at first appears to be more clear, which he immediately incorporates into what he's doing, making things easier.
Unsurprisingly, he was not impressed by this development. He thought that it was only natural—after all, he is much smarter than anyone in this place. He thought that if he couldn't do something like this more easily in his second attempt, he should just give up on his dreams and kill himself.
He then put those thoughts aside and cleared his mind. He currently has another goal to complete. The process of healing himself with mana is only slightly different from using mana to strengthen his entire body. While both processes revolve around spreading and permeating mana in the body, the healing process focuses more on enhancing the heart of a person in order to help it circulate the blood in the body, which in turn increases the blood flow and the delivery of the necessary nutrients to heal the wounded part. Not only that, but mana also improves all types of blood within a person, making the blood work more efficiently and increasing the person's immunity to foreign bacteria and viruses, which significantly help to stop the infection in the wounded area. Obviously, under the influence of mana, the body may still mend itself without the assistance of the heart, although its effectiveness will naturally decline.
Of course, this has a downside, which is that it uses a lot of stamina. If the person doesn't have the necessary stamina, the healing might abruptly stop or the wound might take longer to heal, which are both fatal if the person is in the middle of a fight.
Meanwhile, the strengthening process focuses on permeating the mana into the body parts in order to enhance them, which are divided into two groups: those that need to strengthen themselves primarily for protection, such as the heart and other important organs; and the group that needs to be strengthened, not only for protection but also to be able to exert more power, which is typically the bones, muscles, nerves, and, finally the skin.
It was fortunate that healing himself is easier than strengthening himself; right now he is spreading his mana throughout his body while most of it moves to the location where his heart is located to enhance them; it took only a short period of time before he accomplished it. He then continued doing it; this was only his job; the enhanced heart and blood will do the bulk of the work; he only needs to supply both of them with mana, and he can chill throughout the process.
While supplying mana to the two workers inside his body, he instantly felt an invigorating sensation throughout his whole being. This feeling pushes him so hard to relax, but he knows he can't because he still has a job to do. Right now, even though he is recovering, he still doesn't want to let his guard down. He already did it once; doing it again will be foolish.
After a long period of recuperation, the young abyssal was fully recovered. He then examined his body, thinking that he might still have some injuries that he hadn't noticed. Fortunately, there was none, but unfortunately, he was really tired. His body only wanted to do nothing but sleep, and then sleep for a long time.
But he fought the drowsiness; right now he was significantly weakened, and sleeping in the open would only invite trouble to seek him. He wouldn't be able to fight if something appeared and decided to eat him because they'd be jealous of his big brain, his irresistible, delicious body, and his tender tentacles. Tch... tch... being perfect is such a hard thing. It was a good thing that he was the only one who was inflicted with this curse.
He then uses his senses to inspect the surrounding area and spots an average-sized cavity that is in the same place that the branch he is standing on or clinging to is sprouting from.
This discovery delighted him, and he moved slowly towards the area he had already marked as his territory. No, this entire tree is his territory! Nah, make the entire forest his domain, and the tree he was in will be his castle, and the cavity he discovered will be his royal bedroom. Yeah! That is a fantastic idea. He can't believe he thought of that; what a great brain he has.
After reaching his royal chamber, he proceeded to find a comfortable spot and lay down. With a huge and deep yawn, the young abyssal slowly dozed off. It's been a long day, and he deserves a good night's sleep.