Chris had let go of his tools as had rapidly paced between the main forge and the secondary ones, obviously deep in thought. Meanwhile, Felix was feeling a little lost.

Why was it that even in the game, his luck was so rotten? He didn’t even know what Chris was talking about, but according to him, Felix wouldn’t ever be able to get past Level 50.

Maybe that for an NPC it wasn’t that big of a deal, but he was a damn player. Was he supposed to stop playing after he reached Level 50?

Eventually, Chris stopped, and asked, "Your curse… I don’t know. I really don’t know."

Felix asked, "What about my idea then? Isn’t that a possible solution, no matter how unlikely it is?"

Chris frowned and asked, "I still don’t see the link between your problem and your idea."

Felix shrugged and replied, "Well, what if I used Runes for spells? Imagine I had the ability to perfectly control my Mana, and was the most knowledgeable Runesmith in the world. Don’t you think I could set Runes on the air to make spells? Wouldn’t that resolve my problem?"

Chris stopped, his frown slowly clearing away as he said, "Yes… yes, that could work."

But then his face darkened again, "Well, it’s a nice idea, but you are only Level 1. And you can only go up to Level 50. The control needed over your mana would be exponential too. Maybe forming a single Rune would be possible for you, but even the weakest of spells would require several Runes. And the stronger the spell you try to…"

Chris did not even finish his explanation, and simply sighed. He felt defeated.

Felix did not.

"Thank you for worrying for my sake, Chris, but I’m not ready to give up. So where should I go if I wanted to learn to manipulate my Mana?"

"You don’t have to go anywhere, I can teach you. I’m probably the best at it in this town anyway. But fine, I guess you might as well try. Tell me, how much Intelligence and Spirit do you have?"

Felix sent a glance at his Status, and said, "22 Spirit, and 16 Intelligence."

"S-Sixteen?"

"Yes."

"I’ll be damned! The Spirit was to be expected, but the Intelligence… Fine, let’s do this."

Chris sat down on the ground, and so Felix followed. Chris crossed his legs, his feet resting on his thighs, and relaxed his arms as he said, "This, is called the Lotus Position. It is something I learned from a trip I had in the East."

Felix copied his position, and said, "I think I heard about it before. What does it do?"

"By itself? Nothing. However, you are going to meditate, and this will help your muscles not get sore. Meditating in the wrong position often results in cramps. Now, I want you to close your eyes."

Felix did so, and Chris continued, "The first step to controlling your Mana is feeling it. The first time is going to be the hardest, it usually takes hours. What you need to do is to empty your mind for as long as possible, and you will feel something new at some point. The longer you keep your mind empty, the better your chance at sensing mana will be."

Felix, whose eyes were still closed, couldn’t help but ask, "Won’t I fall asleep?"

Chris chuckled, "You shouldn’t. Also, a method I found to be useful towards emptying your mind is to focus on your body. Try to follow your breath, or feel your heartbeat. It’s hard for a beginner, but it should help."

Felix nodded, and did as he was told.

Taking a breath in through his nose, Felix mentally followed the air as it went down his throat, and reached his lungs, filling them with air as they expanded, moving his diaphragm as every little bronchiole was filled with air.

Then, he breathed out, a vacuum-like effect pulling away all the air from his lungs, through his throat, out his mouth. Was this really what happened? Felix didn’t know, but it was what he felt.

Breath in, breath out, breath in… quickly, Felix’s thoughts started losing their coherence as they blurred, the words losing their meaning as they turned into an incomprehensible mess. The amalgamation of his thoughts slowly started fading away, his body continuing to work as his mind shut down.

Until, he felt it. Felix could hardly put into words what it felt like, it…

[You have learned the skill ‘Meditation’!]

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Felix was suddenly pulled away from his meditation as the system woke him up with the notification.

"Fuck!"

Felix could help but curse, which prompted Chris to open his eyes. The small black beads showed both surprise and amusement as he asked, "Did you get the skill?"

Placing a hand over his chest to feel his quickened heartbeat, Felix said, "Fucking scared me! What the hell!"

Chris grinned, "Yeah, it does it to everyone. I didn’t expect you to sense your mana so fast though. It feels quite unique, doesn’t it?"

Passing a hand through his hair, Felix nodded, "It does, I never felt anything quite like it. It just was there, it didn’t really ‘feel’ like anything, it simply existed."

Chris nodded, "Yes, and that’s why Mana Manipulation is arduous. Some races are blessed with an innate control over their mana, but we unfortunately aren’t one of them."

Felix had read about other races, although the players could only play humans, there were Dwarves, Elves, and all kinds of intelligent races populating this world. However, Red Dawn Town was only made of humans.

Since he was awake, Felix decided to go check the skill he had gotten.

[Basic Meditation]

[Rating: E]

[Effect: Allows the user to feel their Inner World.]

A rather cryptic effect, but Felix understood what it did anyway. Rolling his shoulders, Felix once again closed his eyes, and tried to resume his meditation.

He found it even easier than the first time as he entered meditation in seconds, once again feeling his Mana.

In this state, his mind was half asleep, meaning that forming thoughts was harder to do. Still, Felix did his best to send his intent towards his Mana, for it to simply move.

And to his surprise, which unfortunately brought him out of his meditation, it did move.

Forcing himself back into his Inner World, Felix continued playing with his Mana, which helped his mind awaken more in his Inner World.

[Intelligence: +1]

Once again, a notification had awakened him.

Frowning, Felix returned to his Inner World, and a cycle started forming as he continued playing with his Mana.

As his mind awakened itself more and more, Felix’s Intelligence Stat grew faster than any other stat before. Each notification pulled him out of his meditation, but he felt that as his mind awakened more and more, the notifications also got less bothersome.

Time flew by quickly as Felix made his first steps towards magic. Until his mind awakened.

[‘Basic Meditation (E)’ has evolved into ‘Meditation (D)’]

This time, despite the notification, Felix did not get pulled away from his meditation. Instead, he felt himself dive deeper than before.

Without really understanding how, Felix found himself in a vast void. There was nothing around him, nor did he have a body. However, Felix still ‘felt’ himself.

He was in this place, and so was his Mana.

Curious about what happened, Felix opened his Status.

Name: Odin

Level: 1

Title: Otherworlder

Profession: N/A

HP: 120/120

MP: 220/220

Vitality: 12

Spirit: 22

Strength: 11

Agility: 12

Intelligence: 25

Faith: 5

Free AP: 0

Skills: [Expand]

Equipment: [Expand]

Evolving his meditation skill had allowed Felix to earn himself 9 Attribute Points for his Intelligence, which was quite something as not only was it already quite high, he had also earned those points in a very short span of time.

[Meditation]

[Rating: D]

[Effect: Allows the user to enter their Inner World.]

His meditation, which had gone up a rank, had a minor but important difference. Instead of sensing his Inner World, he was now capable of entering it, meaning this void Felix was in was actually his Inner World.

Closing his system, Felix willed for his mana to move, and it did. His mind fully awake now, he didn’t have to limit himself to mere intent either as his mana started taking different shapes.

A cube, a pyramid, a sphere… Felix went through every geometrical shape he could think of, and it was unexpectedly easy.

However, that was only when he used all of his Mana. As he tried to use a smaller amount, simply dividing it to take a small part felt hard, and once he managed to do so, he found controlling the smaller ball of mana to be harder.

Still, Felix could feel that as he manipulated his mana with difficulty, it progressively got easier.

But as he was deep in meditation, Felix suddenly felt someone tap his shoulder. He was brought off his meditation, and saw Chris in front of him.

"You’ve been at it for several hours already, it’s time to take a break."

However, Felix barely paid any attention to his words as he felt something he didn’t expect to feel. His Mana. He tried to move it, but he found the task harder than expected as even moving all of his mana was dozens of times harder than when he was in his Inner World.

"Are you listening to me?"

Snapping his attention back to Chris, Felix stretched slowly as he asked, "Why is it so much harder to control my mana now?"

Chris froze, before chuckling, "You- You can feel your mana?"

"Naturally, my Basic Meditation evolved to Meditation."

"Naturally he says… Sensing your mana without being in your Inner World doesn’t simply come with the evolution of the skill, you need to have some experience with manipulating your mana for it to appear to you in your physical form. It is supposed to take days, not hours."

As he finished stretching, Felix did not feel particularly strongly about his apparent talent at Mana Manipulation, since it came from his Curse anyway, but he asked, "Doesn’t it take forever to learn spells for other people then?"

"That’s what classes are for."

"Oh."

"You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?"

"Oh."

Chris snorted and explained, "Through either system recognized feats or certain quests, you can get a Class. A Class allows you to learn some skills faster, among other things."

"I see."

Felix got up and looked at the forge, but Chris said, "It’s about time for your training with Caleb."

Surprised, Felix asked, "It’s that late? How long have I been meditating for?"

Chris shrugged and replied, "About four hours. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal to lose track of time while meditating. You’ll learn to feel time with experience. Go now."

Felix smiled, and grabbed his spear before leaving the forge.