After continuing the process I had developed in my previous session for a while I had refined it to focus more on the intake of mana as opposed to just opening my life mana barrier. The mana inside me had been slowly moving further and further towards my center, I felt like I was on the verge of opening up my Neutral Mana Core. The progress had halted though, my body felt weird and I was quite hungry. As I stood up to go get some food the door opened, and Arika walked in.

“You’ll need this” she said holding a plate of food, the timing was astonishing. It almost felt like she knew exactly what I needed at any given moment. I took the food carefully

“Thank you, I was feeling really hungry all of a sudden.” She just nodded and sat down.

“Have you done it yet?”

“You mean activating my Neutral core?”

“Mhm.” She nodded

“Not yet but I feel like i'm getting close” she sat down near the wall this time and gestured for me to eat. The food was good, really good. It may have had something to do with how hungry I was but I didn't care. I ate quickly and continued. Arika was still in the room, and it seemed like she intended to observe my technique.

After eating the process felt smoother and I was able to make a lot of progress quickly. In fact I felt like I could open up my Neutral core anytime. Pushing through the final stretch i felt something change, the amount of mana in the room seemed to be changing. The feeling of the mana became stronger and thicker, as if someone was dumping a ton of mana into the room. It felt similar to what Koshinori did earlier, just less intense and more dispersed, filling the room instead of my chest. This increase in mana concentration immediately boosted the speed at which I was able to intake the mana, and since it wasn't being forced inside me like before it felt natural and smooth. This went on for a short amount of time before I felt the mana reach the deepest part of me, opening up into a dark casam. As the mana flowed in it filled the casam and grew warm and bright. I had done it, I had opened my Neutral mana core.

“I think I did it. '' I opened my eyes, it didn't feel much different but I could still tell my mana had reached it. I looked over to Arika who was still sitting in the same place. She looked exhausted and was covered in sweat. “Arika! Are you ok?” I called out as I stood up and rushed over to her.

“Im fine, im fine” she said trying to calm me down, “It just takes a lot of energy and focus to manually increase the mana concentration of an entire room.” she chuckled a bit

“So that was you? I could tell something was different”

“I would have been amazed if you managed to miss it.” her face turned serious again, “How did it feel? Was it too much?”

“Hmm, it felt similar to what koshinori did to me, but it was still very different. His was aimed at me while this felt like it was aimed at the room as a whole, and since it was more dispersed it was overall weaker and I was able to take it in without it causing any harm.” I was talking off of intuition from my limited knowledge and feeling I was getting from the mechanisms I had observed thus far.

“That was pretty accurate. In the same way he released Neutral mana at you, I was releasing Neutral mana into the room, Increasing the density of mana and allowing you to cultivate your mana faster.” she paused, “Have you felt anything drastically different to tell you that you opened your core?” she asked.

“I just feel like my mana has reached the core, or what I assume is my core.” It really wasn’t that drastic of a change which was surprising to me.

“How you have been absorbing mana up until now is the wrong way, It's a way that works up until you open your Neutral mana core but after that it is terribly inefficient.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mana core works in the same way you breathe, but instead of air it's for mana.” She looked like she had more to say but decided to stop. I think she is testing me to see how much guidance I need, and if I can realize the next steps with just what she has said so far.

I sat down again. If it's like breathing but for mana then we can liken it to lungs it should act like a suction system to pull in mana on its own. What I've been doing has been similar but not the same since i couldnt use it before. I just have to figure out how I'm supposed to use it.

I made my first few attempts. “Ok lets start from somewhere familiar, breathing.” I began, first breathing normally but slowly trying different tactics to make use of my core and getting a feel for how it works. The sensation of attempting this was very unique, since I lived a full life without this body part. Like learning to use wings on your back or a tail. It's something my brain isn't accustomed to doing, and I'm stumbling through it getting closer and closer each time.

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I was getting a feel for what I needed to be doing. When I took a big breath in, the feeling of air entering my lungs was accompanied by a large amount of mana flowing in through the front of my body. The sensations were similar but I could feel the difference between the two clearly now. “Let's try this without actually breathing in this time.” I focused on only the sensation of the mana flowing in and how my core was doing that. This attempt was the one, and as I sucked in a massive amount of mana came rushing inside my core at once the pathway I had painstakingly carved out in myself was torn open wider and wider as the mana kept rushing in faster than ever. It Hurt a good amount but I held on until my core felt full. It was warm and bright inside me, and the rest of my body felt cold and dark in comparison. The roles had flipped, I no longer needed to fill my core with mana, I needed to fill my body with mana.

In a similar motion to exhaling I tried to expel some of my mana throughout my body. It was slow and painful in comparison to the main channel I had opened in my chest over the past days. But I continued through it, Working my whole body using my Neutral mana core as the pump this time. It was much faster this time than before.

______________________________________________________________________

I exited the room and saw Koshinori and Arika sitting around the table talking. They both looked over at me.

“How's your progress?” Koshinori asked

“I think I've got a rough Idea of how to form a mana shield but I would like a bit of guidance if possible.” I responded. In the process of filling my body with mana, I found that areas where my Life mana barrier was worn down, the mana would sometimes pool up. It wasn’t quite a shield but It was a step closer so I just needed a bit more information.

He laughed a bit but responded in kind “Yeah sure come over here for a second.” During my session I managed to open up a good amount more of my Life mana barrier, expanding the area in my chest to about the size of my open palm as well as a hole in my back, other areas were thinking out as well. As I walked over I felt the mana in the air increase, every step I took felt harder and harder than before. It continued to the point of pain, Koshinori just looked at me and waited. I paused and focused on gathering mana in my chest and back, the pain was alleviated somewhat. I tried to harden the mana like tensing a muscle in my body, and It contorted and contracted but seemed to get firmer. I focused more and more mana and held it tighter and tighter in the areas where I was exposed. Eventually the pain ceased and I was able to approach the final few steps and sat down at the table.

Koshinori then turned to Arika and said “Your right, all you need to do is provide him the opportunity and he seems to deliver on it. That's amazing.” Arika nodded.

“It sounded like the same thing happened with Oraki from the way his story sounded. He just gave him the information and he took that and ran with it.” Arika confirmed Koshinori’s point.

“You said He was able to handle a Higher mana concentration than the standard one?” He asked.

“Yes he was.” Arika smiled slightly as she responded. “Should I…” she started but koshinori cut her off.

“Yes, yes you should. Just be careful, if we lose senki the church wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to snatch him. He has a record of drawing unwanted attention, if the innkeeper wasn't a friend then it could have been much worse.” Koshinori stood up and walked to the door, “Im gonna get going too, You get him started on that, then see if he can fight anything after that. Just stay as discreet as possible.” and with that he left.

“Sooo, where is he talking about?” I asked.

“You’ll see. We should get going now.” We got up and headed out the door.

______________________________________________________________________

We arrived at a small building that felt very off, but nonetheless Arika led the way in quickly. I followed, and saw a series of doors along a long hallway. The hallway didn't seem like it should have fit in the building, let alone all the rooms. At the end of the hallway there was a man standing there, we walked over to him.

“What brings you here today Arika?” His voice was rough and deep.

“What do you think I would be here for?” she responded.

“I thought you didn't want to rely on these anymore.”

“It's not for me” she turned to look at me, the man's eyes followed. He looked me up and down, he said nothing. He looked back at Arika “what level?” He asked.

“Let's start with two and see how it is.” she said confidently.

“Not sure if you’ll wanna go down?” He snickered.

“Not sure if we’ll wanna go up.” she retorted.

He hesitated for a moment, but then began to move, he led us back up the hallway to the third door. He pulled out a ring of keys and fit the key in on the first try, he turned it and opened the door, gesturing for me to enter. I looked back up at Arika who nodded, so I turned and walked into the door.

As I stepped over the threshold I could feel the mana around me thicken. It was like a flat wall, one side was normal and the other had about a three times higher density of mana. It was a bit more than when Arika had filled the room with additional mana, but not too much more, I was still relatively comfortable in the room. I turned to look back at the two of them from inside,

“How does it feel?” Arika asked eagerly.

“Fine,” I responded. “I'm pretty comfortable in here still” I said while I stretched one arm over my head, then stretched the other.

“You never cease to amaze me when you come here Arika” the man chuckled a bit. “You’ll want to try the next one I assume.

“I don't see why not,” I responded casually.