Liam watched as the slab slowly closed behind him. He thought that after the door had closed there would be some sort of light that would appear.

It didn’t happen.

Instead, he was left inside a dark and quiet corridor.

Liam reached his hands out to his side and felt the walls. He took a step forward and felt his hands glide against each wall as he cautiously moved forward.

After a few moments he noticed a light off in the distance. As he approached it, he noticed it led into a new room.

As Liam walked into the room, he noticed how small it was. It wasn’t just small, but there was only one light in the entire room. It hung directly in the middle of the room with a podium under it.

Liam looked to his right. A blank wall with nothing there.

He looked to his left. Another blank wall with nothing there.

Behind the podium on the other side of the wall was a closed door.

Liam looked back at the podium with a puzzled look upon his face.

He walked up to the podium and noticed a medium glass bottle standing up.

The glass bottle had an interesting design Liam had never seen before. What made him even more curious was the liquid inside. It was a dark red with orange and yellow swirling about. It reminded him of liquid fire.

“Just what the hell are you?” Liam muttered in a quiet voice as he assessed the item.

A red message flashed in front of him making him curse.

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“Due to the contents of the challenge, item is not assessable.”

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“Well, isn’t that a load of crap,” Liam frowned.

Liam looked around the room once more before walking up to one of the walls. He searched the wall for any signs of hidden spots, switches, or traps.

He found nothing of the sort and then moved on to the next wall.

After searching the other walls, Liam approached the podium once more and stared at the vial.

Hm. What are you? Liam thought as he kept staring at it. Maybe I can get a clue if I try using Mana Sight.

Liam’s eyes widened as he saw the vial light up brightly with red, orange, and yellow mana colors.

“Ok, so this is a concoction full of mana,” Liam stated. “But what am I supposed to do with it?”

Liam looked at the door. Something about it nagged at the back of his mind making him walk over to it.

He looked at the slab that was sitting in place, blocking his path.

There was nothing weird about it. It was a normal slab of concrete.

He then turned his attention onto the archway. It was intricately designed with excellent craftsmanship.

As he started to turn away, something caught his eye. It was between the slab and the archway.

In between the two was an object tightly wedged, keeping the slab from moving.

“Huh,” Liam muttered. “What do we have here?”

As he kept staring at it, thoughts started forming on what was going on.

Voicing his ideas out loud, Liam said, “We have a slab blocking the door that needs to move in order for me to go to the next area. However, the slab cannot move because there is something wedged in between it and the archway.”

Liam brought a hand to his chin as he continued, “So, I need to figure out how to get that wedged object out so the door can open up. But what can I do to get it unwedged?”

Liam’s mouth opened as he thought of something. He turned around and looked at the vial sitting on the podium. “Maybe I need to use that?”

He walked over to it and grabbed the bottle by the neck and went to pull it and turn around, but was forcefully stopped as his hand gripping the vial didn’t move.

“What the hell?” Liam stated as he turned back around.

He tried pulling the vial again, but once more it didn’t budge.

“Seriously?” Liam asked as he released it and stared at the vial. “How am I supposed to use the contents if I can’t take it with me?”

He stared at it and continued to think.

What the hell is this challenge trying to make me do? Liam thought to himself.

Growing up playing games, Liam fell in love with the ones that had puzzle dungeons. He loved trying to figure things out and solving what creators made. However, there were always hints as to what to do. This puzzle dungeon really wanted to make him think things through with no hints whatsoever.

He started feeling frustrated as he continued to think it over.

After a few minutes of failing trying to come up with a solution he yelled out, “God damn it! Just what the hell are you trying to get me to do!”

He then kicked the podium out of irritation. However, the podium felt like it was as solid as a rock causing a slight pain to run up Liam’s foot.

“Ow!” Liam shouted as he limped away from it. He stared at the podium with a look of anger.

He let out a gust of irritation and quietly muttered, “I won’t get anywhere getting irritated or frustrated. I need to calm down and think it over once more.”

Liam closed his eyes and breathed in. As he slowly released it he muttered, “Calm the Storm.”

As his mind started to calm, he thought to himself, Object wedged within the crack of the door.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He took another breath in. As he slowly released it he repeated, “Calm the Storm.”

A vial of mana filled liquid that can’t be moved. He continued to think.

He repeated his breathing in and out, calming his mind even more.

Mana filled liquid, wedged object, unmovable bottle.

He repeated his actions again, feeling like he was on to something.

Need to move the liquid…Bottle won’t move…Mana touched liquid…

Liam’s eyes snapped open as the answer presented itself while in his Zen-like trance.

“Mana Manipulation?” Liam stated with a confused expression. He then looked at the bottle and asked a question that suddenly formed, “Can I use Mana Manipulation on liquid though?”

Liam pulled up the ability and read the description.

“Mana Manipulation - Objects touched by or filled with mana can be manipulated into moving, or bend to the user’s control. Only small objects can be affected during the lower levels of the ability.”

As he closed the notification he said, “If I read that right then it should be possible.”

Liam popped his knuckles and rolled his neck while psyching himself up, “Only one way to find out and that’s to do it.”

Liam reached for the stopper and pulled it off.

As he opened the bottle, a pulse of heat rolled out from within.

“Jesus, I can feel that from here. Now I really want to know what it is,” Liam muttered as he repositioned himself on the other side of the podium, facing the door.

He placed his hands on both sides of the bottle, careful not to touch it, but was still close enough to feel the mana and heat within it.

Liam stared at the liquid and pushed his will at it.

Nothing happened.

He tried pushing his will a bit harder this time.

Still nothing.

“What the hell!” Liam frowned.

He thought back to when he first tried using Mana Manipulation.

It was hard then too, but he was still able to move the object. The object however was his daggers.

A sudden thought popped into Liam’s mind as he muttered, “I was able to do it last time because the daggers had my mana in them.”

He looked at the liquid and said, “Maybe I need to channel my mana into it to be able to do it?”

Liam repositioned his hands on the sides and began to channel his mana.

He watched as the mana appeared on his hands and started to condense.

He then guided the mana from his hands into the bottle. As his mana approached the foreign mana in the liquid, Liam felt his hands start to warm up.

Liam’s brows furrowed. The closer his mana got to it, the hotter his palms started to feel. Before he knew it, his hands felt like they were about to touch the burner of a stove and he swiftly retracted before he could get burned.

“What the hell was that about?” Liam questioned as he shook his hands.

As he stared at the bottle, he noticed something at the corner of his eye. His stamina bar had dropped about a quarter of its total amount.

“What the hell?” Liam muttered.

Why did my stamina drop? Liam began to think. I don’t know what was going on there either when my mana was getting close to the liquid’s mana.

Liam was stumped by what was going on. He had no clue why this was happening. He tried to think back on what he knew from Knowledge theories, or from his discussions with Alicia and Fia about Mana Channeling, Control and Manipulation.

The more he played their conversations over in his head the more he couldn’t figure out any scenarios like this. If he had to compare it though, he would have to compare it to when he learned how to make toxins through Poison Crafting. He needed proper equipment during his training in order to handle the mixing of the poisons through his mana.

“Wait a minute. If this was like crafting, then that’s why my stamina bar was draining the way it was. And if that’s the case then…,” Liam muttered as a thought struck him. He then let out an irritated gust of air as he exclaimed, “Bah! I need to wear the right gloves to do this.”

Liam opened his inventory and pulled out a pair of blacksmithing gloves he got from Fia. “Good thing I saw her today,” Liam muttered as he put his other gloves away. “There we go, this should help hold back the fire.”

He remember Alicia complaining to him that he needed to wear the proper equipment when dealing with different mana types. At least until he got stronger and had better control over his mana. For now, wearing these blacksmithing gloves when dealing with fire like mana.

Liam pulled his goggles over his eyes and grinned as he stared at the bottle once more.

“Let’s try this again,” Liam muttered as he started to concentrate.

His mana quickly covered his gloves and slowly started to crawl into the vial. This time his mana didn’t feel the heat as bad like he previously did as his mana connected with the foreign mana.

Hell yeah! Liam thought. Now onto the next part.

Liam filled the vial with his mana, connecting it all together. Once he finished doing that, he focused on trying to pull the liquid out.

It resisted.

Liam frowned as he forcefully pulled the liquid out as hard as he could.

The fire-like liquid suddenly shot out. This caused Liam to lose his concentration on it, making his mana slip off of the liquid.

“Crap!” Liam shouted as he shielded himself ready for the liquid to splash against him.

After a few seconds had passed and there was no burning sensation from the liquid, Liam brought his hands down and saw the liquid slowly going back into the vial.

Shocked at seeing this, Liam just stared. He was trying to comprehend what was going on. It took him longer than he wanted to, to really understand what happened.

“The bottle must have some magic or function to pull it back in,” Liam muttered. “If that’s the case then that explains why it was hard to pull it out.”

He eyed the bottle once more.

“Let’s try this again,” Liam said as he placed his hands in position.

He pulled his mana out to his gloves and was about to start up again, but then stopped. His mana receded back into him and a massive headache pounded against his head.

“Gah!” Liam shouted as he brought a hand to his head. “What the hell is going on!?”

A blue bar blinked at the edge of Liam’s vision. He stared at it and noticed his mana was emptied.

“Jesus, I went through all that mana already?” Liam said as he pulled a mana potion out and drank it.

After he finished downing the contents he stated, “I am so glad I learned how to make mana potions. Now I don’t have to worry about nasty tasting potions anymore.”

Liam looked back at the bottle and then at the door as he waited for his mana to be replenished.

This is tougher than I thought it would be. Liam thought. It’s testing a lot more than I thought it would, and I’m still at the first room.

Liam lifted a finger for each thing he listed off in his mind. Mana Channeling, Mana Control, Mana Manipulations, Crafting Stamina, my M.P. and possibly my ability to judge how long I’ll be able to do this.

A wide grin started to form on his face as he said with an excited expression, “This is going to be so much fun.”

He saw his M.P. hit full and got back into position. He didn’t wait and just dove right back into it.

Once when his mana fully engulfed the liquid, an idea came to mind.

Instead of channeling my mana into all of it…I wonder if I could… Liam thought as he pulled some of his mana back and concentrated it on a small portion of the liquid.

His mana slowly pushed a bit of the liquid out of the vial. When just a small amount had exited, Liam moved his mana to grip the edge of the Liquid’s mana and slowly pulled it out.

Even though Liam’s mana was only touching the edge of the liquid, the rest slowly followed behind.

“Yes!” Liam grunted as he moved the liquid through the air towards the edge of the slab.

He watched as he brought the liquid as close as he could to the open space. He then dropped it down a bit, close to the ground and slowly guiding into the open area.

When it connected into it, Liam saw the spot light up and smoke started to sizzle out. He then slowly moved his mana up, tracing over the line and slowly pushing it in. When he got to the top, he stopped and then started to move it to the right.

As he reached the end of that line, he felt sweat start to roll down his forehead. This caused his sight to see his mana and stamina getting dangerously close to empty.

Shit! I need to finish this! As he thought this, he felt his mana ripple and almost lost control of the liquid. Oh fuck!

Liam swiftly regained his control and proceeded to go down the space.

It was now a race to finish this without messing up and running out of mana and stamina. He watched the two bars hit the single digits as he reached the last quarter of the frame.

Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Liam repeated frantically as he pushed on.

Starting to panic, Liam gave one final fast push as his M.P. and Stamina Pool hit zero.

A raging migraine pounded against his head as lack of oxygen made him start to pant for air frantically.

As he fell to his knees, he kept his eyes on the door, hoping he didn’t mess up at the end.

He grew a big grin while gulping for any breath of air he could grasp as he watched the liquid sizzle and smoke within the open space between the slab and archway. After thirty seconds had passed, the glowing light within the open space faded and the slab fell backwards.

Liam raised a hand into the air in triumph before falling to his stomach, all out of strength. As he laid on the ground waiting for his strength to return to his body, chime sounds began to echo in his mind.