The metal working book was about as the man expected, a book about basic techniques, touching on why it was important to learn the basics, then going onto some exercises to do to develop one's metal working better.

The other book, 'A Guide to Magic', was very different however. The first thing was that it was interactive. It asked the man questions about what he knew of magic, and then gave explainations.

"Magic is the phenomena created when Mana interacts with a combination of elements, and intent. To use magic one must be able to interact with mana and imbue it with their will. After one does this they can already do the most basic of all magic, elementless magic, also called Null Magic.

That is not to say that Null Magic is simple, nor is it weak however. It's simply due to the magic lacking the added complexity of elements being a necessary component to cast spells, Null Magic can get complex later on in the way of filtering atmospheric mana to cast with pure mana, lacking in all elements, but that is far too complicated for a beginner.

The first thing is to learn how to harness the mana that you have availiable to you. To do this you need to concentrate on yourself. What makes you yourself? How do you view this world? What do you envision to be perfection? Asking such things sounds foolish, yet, it will also cause your mana to move as you sink into a meditative trance. Once you can focus on that feeling and achieve it out of meditation, you will have achieved the first step of learning magic."

He went to look at the next page, but simply couldn't comprehend it. Not as the text was complicated, but that the text was obfuscated. After trying for a bit, the page rearranged themselves.

"Complete your First Rotation"

'First Rotation?' The man thought, and then it kicked in, 'Ah, the meditation thing.'

He sat there, thinking about the world as he had seen focusing on just that one thing, and after a long while, he felt something move, and he focused on that feeling. As if there was a wheel in his body, the energy slowly went around. After a while of studying the phenomenon, the man tried to emulate it, and with little issue managed to do it. He could feel it fighting against his will and losing. Eventually it felt like it was no longer fighting, and he managed to complete a few rotations on his own, the wheel spinning around and around, slowly, but steadily.

[You have unlocked the Active Skill _Mana Circulation]

The man opened his eyes to see the text appear there, and although the text still annoyed him, he still couldn't help but smile. He then picked up the book again and found himself able to read the next page.

"You've completed your First Rotation, good job. You probably already know why it's called a rotation by now, but I'll explain it as I feel it to the best of my abilities. It's like a wheel, slowly going through the body. Although not a circle, it just incites that image. This is a general consensus among mages all around, but there are others who get a different feeling depending on what they use their mana for. For some, it's vines growing up and around the body, finding purchase where it can, for others it can be like the water cycle, mana falls, and then it slowly goes back up like a vaper.

Now we move to the next section. You need to be able to infuse mana with your will. This is nothing like simply moving your mana, now you have to try and make it part of you. To do this you need to focus as much of your willpower as possible on your mana and imagine it moving. It will likely take time to grow that ability, so start with small acts of will. If you want something, force yourself the other way, if you are hungry try to keep food close and don't eat it. Actions such as these are difficult, and can sometimes be tortuous, but it is the best way to raise one's willpower. Goodluck."

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The man sat there, and it took a bit for him to comprehend what the book was wanting. It was, after all, a difficult subject. It was literally asking him to make himself another limb... Access a locked sense...

'Well damn.' The man began to manipulate his mana focusing his entire mind on it. He could feel something there, but he was not quite sure, at least not until it suddenly clicked for him. He felt something that he almost couldn't comprehend, a new power, a flow of sorts, it was his own mana, but... it felt like a whole different creature. It no longer felt anything like a wheel as it once did. And just as suddenly it snapped, and he could only feel it as a wheel once more.

'That was... strange.' The man thought, as he opened his eyes for a minute.

[You have unlocked the Active Skill _Mana Perception]

The man looked at the text, not really surprised at this point, and then tried to do it again. This time, he continued, no longer as shocked by the development, and he found himself pulling mana out of his body as he wished, and managed to even hold it together as well. He managed to infuse his will into it! And with the lapse of concentration, the mana dropped.

The man couldn't really care less about as he moved to grab the book, finding the next page unlocked.

"Congratulations, you now have most of the knowledge to be a mage. Now you just need to learn about forms and elements. There's a reason why this book is so thick, and it's due to these two things. Forms, in the simplest terms, are how you can stably shape mana without infusing an element into it. This is usually trained by making shapes out of mana, such as a cube, a sphere, and a truangular prism, this is because it's both simple and many more advanced magics use these shapes at their core, there are a few unique cases however using organic shapes.

Elements are simply used to give additional power to your spells, not being strictly necessary to cast, though usually expected by most mages of today.

For now focus on making shapes and learning to infuse your will while moving as well as being able to passively move your mana in your body."

The man closed the book, which then made a.click sound and a small strap with a lock appeared on it.

[You are now Soul Bound to 'A Guide to Magic'. No matter where the object is, if you wish it to be there it will appear. Additionally, you are the only one capable of using the object.]

'Well that's cool I guess.' The man got up withe the book, and went back to the Smithy to try out the new techniques he learned from the 'Fool's Guide'. As well as practice movibg his magic while doing other things.

The 'Fool's Guide' contained a handful of basic techniques, which the man began to practice, such as strength control to better manipulate how one used the hammer and moved the metal, as well as detailing to improve hammer control and get familiar with different hammer types. As it turns out smiths use a multitude of different hammer types, from big ones to get rough shape and move a lot of metal, to tiny ones for details, and ones in between to get a more defined shape. More interesting to the man was that all these hammers seemed to be in different shapes, perhaps he would go looking to find out why that was. Either way it improved his overall ability when it came to metal working. Even more important was the fact that he was also shifting his mana around constantly as he did this, slowly becoming familiar with it and the strange churning feeling he had while using it slowly vanishing.

[_Metal Working has leveled up]

[_Mana Circulation has leveled up]

He was rewarded for his efforts with a level up from both of the skills as well, so he had to be doing something right.

The man put his equipment away, and decided to go explore for a change of pace. He wasn't sure how long he had been smithing and reading, but he knew multiple days, at least, had gone by, and he wanted to make sure he knew his way around just in case.

[Status]

Remnant - Lvl 3 - exp 10 | 250

Title - °Embracer

Class - null

Health (con x 2 x 10) 330

Mana (Will x 10) 220

Strength - 17

Dexterity - 17

Endurance - null

Constitution - 15

Intelligence - 11

Wisdom - 12

Charisma - 5

Will - 24

*Free Points - Null

SKILLs

-Passive

_ Aviary Expert

_ Phoenix Born

_ Holy Resistance I

-Active

_Mana Perception I

_Mana Circulation II

_Metal Working II

Looking at his status before he left, he realized that his stats had increased by small amounts. It was good, but he wasn't sure why it happened and was somewhat upset about his Equilibrium being lost.

'System. Why did my stats increase?' The man turned to have his questions answered by the strange entity that appeared as text.

[The user is still at a point where training will still increase stat points, only by small amounts, but still an improvement]

'I see, so I can become even stronger, huh?' The man made a mental note of that, and left the smithy which had pretty much be come his home.