Beck lost his hold for the fifth time that morning.

He hadn't expected it to be easy, but he hadn't been expecting mana to be so slippery, either. Kenna had given him a starting point, but wouldn't give him much else. You can only go so far with "Grab it and see where you can move it without losing it." He barely knew where to start, outside of the big woman poking him in the chest.

Speaking of Kenna, she was currently talking with Mason about something or other. Mason had shed his armor, opting instead to wear his normal clothing. Kenna still wore her usual breastplate and leg protectors, but the newer additions were left back in the sleeping car.

That was as much attention as he could spare to his friends, though. His focus was directed inwards, towards his inner world. On his first attempt, he had dove in, only for Kenna to smack him on the back of the head as soon as he touched the not-water inside. It helped to show him what not to do, but she wasn't great at giving actual guidance.

Now, Beck walked the fine line between focusing on and entering that space. An exertion of his will caused a tendril of ocean-blue mana to slowly rise from the pool, growing thinner the further he pulled it. As it began to approach the edge of his inner world, which was much smaller than it had seemed in the past, its resistance to his efforts grew.

When it came near to touching the boundary, it refused to move any further. In the last attempt, he had tried to force what he had to go through, until his focus wavered for a split second. By the time he realized, it had collapsed back into the pool at his center. Now, he deliberately split his focus, doing his best to keep what he had already pulled stable while a second tendril began to manifest from near the middle of the pool.

This second tendril of mana was even thinner than the first, and by the time it reached the edge, it could only be described as a thread. With the mental strain it put on him, it was a miracle he had gotten that far. Still, he pushed the tendrils against the boundary with as much force as he could muster.

It didn't do anything, same as the last couple tries. When his focus finally wavered, the mana flung itself back into the pool and he slumped back in his chair, heaving a sigh. For a brief second at the end, he could swear that he felt something change. Even so, if he continued to repeat the same thing over and over again, he wouldn't get anywhere. Or, at the very least, not before they got to their destination.

Once more, he began to pull a tendril of mana outwards. When it had risen a sufficient distance from the pool's surface, though, he felt at [Shape Water], trying to will the Skill to freeze what seemed like water. It was even harder than pulling at the pool, but eventually, he had a pillar that, had he entered fully into the space, would have been as tall as him and as big around as his arm. In addition, the strain on his mind eased as the mana settled into a more "solid" form inside of him.

The pool itself seemed slightly diminished from the effort, though from the bubbles coming from the middle, it seemed to be replenishing itself. As a test, Beck melted some of the frozen mana in the core of the pillar. It immediately tried to return to the pool, and it was only through a heavy effort of will that he was able to both keep the construction upright and re-freeze the mana.

After a moment to recover, he pulled more mana up the pillar, freezing it as it reached the top of the pillar. A few small structures to brace the construction kept it stable as the pool drained past its base, but after that, every inch added only made it harder to pull more. When it had finally reached halfway to the boundary, he found that he didn't have the strength to continue. With nothing else he could do, he let his focus drop and found that, to his surprise, the pillar didn't collapse.

The structure felt solid, if a bit strange. As he inspected it, though, he had an idea. Everyone knew ice floated, and he had a pillar of ice that he could melt and freeze specific parts of with effort. That in mind, he set about melting the core of the pillar once more. Keeping the thing upright took almost as much willpower as the melting itself.

As the effort approached the bottom, he began to carve out an egg-shaped piece of "ice". When the bottom half had finally fully melted through, it shot through the liquid mana at speed, breaching the surface and continuing on until it hit the boundary. It bounced off harmlessly, lacking the energy to actually do anything.

On the bright side, the process took long enough that his pool had begun to regenerate. The liquid mana had once more reached the base of the pillar, and so he used that mana to pull the thing closer to the slot in the ground. Once it was in position directly next to it, he began pulling more and more of the stuff to the top, adding about half again as much height onto the construct. Between the height and the amount of "water" filling its length, he hoped that it would carry enough force this time.

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The moment another projectile had been formed, it shot skyward once more, and when it struck the boundary, something immediately felt wrong. All of the frozen mana immediately liquified, causing large waves to crash into the banks of the pond as it all fell. The sudden overflow caused his insides to lurch. His eyes flew open, and he realized that he was hunched over, clutching at his chest, with Kenna and Mason having both turned their attention to him.

Kenna had one large hand on his back, while Mason was left watching him worriedly. He barely managed to croak out, "I'll make it," before he fell back into himself. The waves weren't spilling mana onto the banks of the pond, but instead were rebounding and striking each other. In an attempt to stabilize them, Beck pulled tendrils of the mana up and away from the pond, each tendril calming the pool by a small bit.

An excruciating few minutes later, the pool was calm, and he held five separate tendrils above the now-full pool. It was all he could do to hold them there, but as they were, they would fall the moment he released them. He had to send them elsewhere. Each tendril of mana shot off into the sky, slamming into the barrier between his core and the rest of himself. The mental load was vastly lower than before, almost as if the mana was assisting him.

When the third hit the boundary, he could feel a bit of give to the thing. The fourth hit, and he could almost see how it distorted. Finally, the fifth hit, and all five broke through. A pressure disappeared that he hadn't felt before as an ice cold feeling spread from his chest and to his extremities. Instead of the deadly chill that would normally accompany such a feeling, though, it felt almost comfortable.

Now, when he looked inside of himself, he could see five small rivers spreading out from his core. And it truly deserved the title of "core," now that it was no longer separate from him. Before, it felt detached from his body, but now, it was anchored into him by invisible roots as much as by the new channels it had carved into him. When he opened his eyes once more, his chest no longer hurt, but Kenna and Mason were still staring at him. There was also a notification waiting for him

You have learned the Skill [Mana Manipulation]! You have unlocked the secrets to shaping mana! The path of the mage lies before you, if only you have the creativity and strength of will to take it! Unlocks Mana Display.

Pulling up his status screen confirmed the addition of a new field in the nameplate section, which read "Mana: 90/90." He took a brief second to put a tracker into his peripherals, similar to how auto-minimized messages work.

Kenna was the first to speak. "What did you do? I thought the Hands were gonna take you."

He cracked an awkward smile before he started on his little story.

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An hour after he finished, which was coincidentally shortly after lunch was served, a high-pitched voice rattled through the pipe in the ceiling and loudly declared, "Attention passengers, we are drawing near to Oasis. If you purchased a ticket, this is your stop. If you are a pass holder, and would like to disembark here, the next train should enter the station in about six hours."

That was also their cue to re-pack their bags and don whatever equipment they weren't carrying in their bags. This meant Kenna's pauldrons and pick, Mason's oversized armor and shield, and Beck's breastplate and crossbow. By the time everything was together, the train had already begun to slow, so they returned to their respective cars and prepared to disembark.

Their first stop was the Casino attached to the station, where they secured rooms for the time being. Seeing as Mason didn't have a pass, he would be staying with Beck, while Kenna slept in a room across the hall. Once they had dumped their stuff in their respective rooms, Kenna came into theirs and flopped onto the bed widthwise, causing the frame to bend under the force for a moment.

Beck preempted any comments from his two larger companions. "So, we don't have any money. I ain't gonna ask Mason for any, so we're gonna need to figure out somethin' to do to feed ourselves."

Kenna sat up when he finished. "We could hunt something."

"Do you know the area?"

The large woman looked away. "No..."

"Then that's out for now. We can ask around and see if there's anything else."

Mason raised his hand, to which Beck nodded. "I ain't got that much, myself, actually. I still don't know how y'all got passes."

Beck waved away the implied inquiry. "Not somethin' to worry about right now. She still ain't told me what a Dotspa is. For now, we look around, see if we can find anything."

"Dotsp'"

"That's what I said."

The big woman waved her hand dismissively at him, then returned to her previous lounging position. "Now's as good a time as any. The Dotsp' is a tradition where, when a child of a chief is old enough, and has successfully lead the First Hunt, the tribe sends her off to make connections and learn about the towns. We get to choose one other member of the tribe to join us and something to make sure that both of them are able to feed themselves. Usually its a weapon or other trade goods."

"So, hold on. You could've picked anyone, out of the whole tribe, and you picked me? Why?"

Kenna propped herself up on her elbows once more, grinning. "Because, I think you're funny." Beck cocked an eyebrow, and she rolled her eyes. "And I wanted to keep an eye on you. You'd be dead twice over if you didn't have me."

He inclined his head to her. "Can't deny that. You also gambled away all of your 'spending money', though, so I guess we'll just have to watch out for each other."

The big woman let herself drop once more, then waved at him. "Whatever you say."