Chapter 5

Mana Circulation

"How the hell am I supposed to relax and meditate with that revelation? The System gave me a body that belonged to someone else! That guy is still here!" I growled. I could feel my tail trying to swipe against the arm of the chair. My ears laid flat against my head, my lips pulled up a bit as I spoke."And it put.. what? A part of him in my mind? I did NOT sign up for that."

"The System's algorithms must have determined that this would be necessary. It would never disrupt the natural order otherwise. I regret to inform you, you accepted the System's determination when you accepted the contract. So you did in fact sign up for it. I am sorry you were not aware of the possibility. But it is part of the job. The original owner of the body cannot be removed until the body dies. The System is unable to untether souls. The original owner will remain in a sleep state for as long as the body lives. When the body dies the System will create an empty host for him, in an environment that the soul will find to be, as they say, like heaven. He agreed to that contract with the System with enthusiasm. You saw it yourself in the dream. The situation is not going to change because you don't like it. You need to make peace with what is. You have experience with the idea, this is your new normal! Remember, for all the flaws, you are young, healthy and strong."

I shuddered, my mind summoning memories of the progression of my sickness. The endless cavalcade of new normals. That was a low blow, and it was almost exactly the same as my own resolution not long ago. It was true, I had been given the chance at a new life. I resolved again to try not to whine about the details. I couldn't be the person that keeps having to be reminded that anything at all is better than potential non-existence.

I closed my eyes and centered myself. "Okay, I'm done whining, let's try this."

Dux led me through some breathing exercises, when I breathed in, the mana flowed into me, and flowed through me. When I breathed out, there was just a breath. He guided me to feel where the mana flowed. I located my core. For a while he just had me trace its paths. It was like a second set of veins that existed for mana. I noticed that even though my stripes didn't glow in this form, they still marked the locations of super highways for the flow of mana. They all worked together to facilitate the fueling of my core.

I was momentarily broken out of my meditation by the realization that this seemed awfully familiar. I wasn't the biggest fan of the genre, but this sure seemed like how cultivation had been described.

"It is very similar, isn't it? Consuming, and circulating mana through their core is a small extra boost to advancement that spirit beasts enjoy. This is more about setting up your mana flow to actually be easily usable than empowering yourself though. However you would find rather extreme diminishing returns if you locked yourself in a room and just circulated for hours. The System is far more efficient at enhancing people with mana than any 'cultivator' could be. It rewards actions that further your assigned role more than anything else. Let's get back to it, you need to get that mana moving, and make it a part of you."

I sighed and returned to Dux's training.

As I meditated, I felt the presence of more and more mana around me. I remembered reaching out and pulling it to me when I was starving earlier, but I wasn't doing that now. The mana seemed to be crowding around me all on its own.

"It's your boon, Mana's Friend, loose mana is always drawn to you. When you actively work with it, it will respond more fervently. You haven't had the opportunity to notice because I have control of the mana levels in the realm, and have been keeping them at minimum levels until you required more. I believed they would be distracting otherwise. Now let us work on circulating your mana. It will help expand your mana veins, and strengthen your core."

The first step to circulating, was learning to take control of as large a quantity of the mana in my core as possible. The mana that flowed into my core was mostly, it seemed, inclined to just sit there, and collect. My core was already almost completely full, it seemed that some small amounts were seeping out through a second set of almost dry mana veins. Dux told me that was normal. To grow my capabilities, I needed to make a firmer connection to my core. Make the mana a true, functioning part of myself, and start a process where it would be in a constant state of flow.

I worked hard coaxing the mana inside me to shift around the inside of my core, and out through narrow passages that had been nearly empty of mana until that point. They joined back up with the veins carrying incoming mana, and back to my core.

While I worked, I started to be able to sort the different types of mana when I breathed them in, each type had a flavor to my mana beast senses, and a complex array of associated feelings riding along with it. One tasted like pure sugar, another like cinnamon, and another tasted like a juicy steak, one didn't taste like much but was more of a sense of cooling refreshment. The flavors did not mix with each other. I somehow tasted each one separately. I tasted them through their whole journey to my core, where they lost their flavor, officially becoming part of me. It was strange having a whole body sense of taste. The more I got used to their different sensations, the more aware of them I became. The feelings they carried were too complicated for me to make heads or tails of for the moment. When I focused on the one that tasted like sugar too much, it broke me entirely out of my meditation. It gave me a sudden but thankfully fleeting urge to do something, anything, to move. I resolved to ask Dux for help sorting that out later, and didn't try a second time. As eager as I was to start actually using this mana for something, Rome wasn't built in a day, and something told me that mana could be very dangerous if I was unprepared for it.

Breathe in mana, breathe out air, and circulate. It was both relaxing and difficult. After what must have been hours of solid work, I got to the point where I barely had to ask the mana to move. My core began to act like a second heart. The previously narrow pathways exiting my core had widened quite a bit.

Eventually I found myself having trouble cramming any more mana into my system. The pathways started feeling strained, and my core was full. I felt a pressure in every part of my mana system. So I stopped.

"Oh, you came out of it! Thank goodness, didn't you hear me? I kept telling you that you could hurt yourself if you kept on going. But you didn't respond. You should have been able to hear me no matter what. I'm in your damn head. Well, you stopped in time, but the next magic lesson is postponed a bit. If you strained your exit channels right now we'd be in trouble."

I didn't respond to Dux, I was too busy dealing with how coming out of that, apparently too deep meditation felt. I felt dizzy, my eyes were having trouble focusing, and I felt so stuffed that I wanted to hurl. I was aware of the beating of my heart, and the pulsing of my core. They were linked. When my heart beat, my core pulsed. Mana and blood flowed in tandem, and it seemed like both were rushing through my ears. That wasn't all that distracted me though. I felt the System asking for an acknowledgment. I focused on that feeling and the System's trio of voice text and feelings flooded in.

Congratulations

For taking novel actions in accordance with your class, you have been rewarded by:

Level up × 3

Wisdom + 9

Intelligence + 9

Perception + 6

Free Stats + 9

I shuddered as I felt a strange form of mana settle into me. I could feel how it was under the control of something infinitely stronger than me. It sank into every part of me, but the lion's share gathered around my head, and coated my currently stressed mana system. The mana sat like that for a moment before it started to act, started to change me. My skin and whiskers tingled unpleasantly, as whatever it was doing triggered seemingly random sensations.

Then it got to work on my mana system. Its actions caused the sense of overfilled pressure I was already experiencing to increase to the point where I would have screamed in pain if I could. The hold it had on me limited my vocalizations to a weak groan. Then, all of a sudden, the pain disappeared, and the stress I had been feeling vanished entirely. The mana retreated, and I inspected what it had done. My core seemed to have grown slightly, it was no longer completely full.

I also noticed a slight increase to my senses, but they were already so much more intense than I was used to, that I wasn't sure how much had changed.

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Then the System forced another notification at me.

Please focus on the desired placement of free stats

Thinking of the last day, I felt an overwhelming desire for Dexterity. My instincts screamed at me for it, because the lack had made me feel helpless.

9 free points distributed, congratulations

It didn't even ask for confirmation, just heeded my unspoken desire. I felt the foreign mana surge through me, sinking into my brain, muscles, and ligaments. My hands especially glowed and tingled with mana. I watched as they physically changed, my fingers becoming slightly more slender, they seemed like they would be much more usable.

"Oh, well that works I guess. Congratulations on your first levels. Are you ready to talk to me now?" I felt Dux's annoyance at having been functionally ignored.

"Ah, yeah Dux, I'm sorry. I'm not sure what happened. I just got really into it? It felt so good." I purred thinking about the sensation of moving my mind with my mana. I wanted to sink back in, and feel it again. Dux stopped me.

Dux yelled "Stop! I can tell what you're thinking, I should have warned you before. But people can become addicted to mana. You are probably already addicted to it. Mana Beasts are likely born that way. That's okay, because the worst side effects of excess mana won't happen to you. I'm sure you noticed that once it reaches your core the mana loses its element. That's what you consume when you eat mana. So the elements won't permanently alter your mental state unless you let them. But you obviously can fall into the flow of it. You will need to keep hold of your conscious mind when you meditate. Though I will admit that the worst that it seems to bring for you is a complete lack of awareness, and a bit of overconsumption. In the outside world that could be deadly"

I took in everything he said. "I think I felt the effect of the altered mental state when I tried to understand one of the mana types. The sweet one, it made me feel restless."

"That would be air I think, and mentally touching raw mana will do that. It's dangerous, but it's also a big part of your class. That is our next lesson, you will have to eventually learn to operate normally while in contact with mana. I will teach you the basics of how to insulate your mind. Wild Mages don't cast spells, they ask the mana to do things that are in its sphere of influence." Through our connection, I could sense Dux felt nervous about the coming lesson.

Hearing his warning, so was I. I was already irritated with the influence of my instincts, that brief glimpse of what it was like to touch air mana filled me with dread. What did the other types of mana do? And how well would that insulation Dux mentioned work? I really loved the idea of magic but that seemed scary.

So, what do you do when you are dreading something? You put it off! I just leveled, I had a very good excuse to spend some time navel gazing! I told Dux I wanted to look at my character sheet and he agreed. I focused on it, with a desire to leave out my contracts, unless something had changed.

Name Angel

Race : Spirit Beast

Level : 3

Class : Adventurer (Wild Mage)

Str 25 Con 20

Agi 20 Dex 15

Int 21 Wis 19

Per 36 Cha 3

Traits

Species Trait: Manavore

Species Trait: Aura of the Apex

Species Trait: Predator Instincts

Species Trait: Cat-Like Reflexes

Species Trait: Pride of the Apex

Species Trait: Bestial Form

Boons

Mana's Friend

Mana's Student

Goddess Mark: Belua

Imposing Frame

Sense Danger

System Assistant

Sense Mind

Abilities :

Mana Call

Mana Sense

Mana Manipulation

Mana Cycle

Assume Form

Forms available: Demihuman, Mana Beast

Looking it over, I cursed myself for putting all my free stats into Dexterity. Not that I expected the System to just do it with no confirmation.

I probably should have put my points elsewhere. Like the stats that helped me with magic, since I was a mage. Maybe, I thought, I should put points into Charisma. Get myself out of "scares small children with a single glance" territory.

The more I thought about it, the more that seemed like a good idea, given my job.

"Dux? Is the System always so fast when it asks you to distribute your free points?" I asked, still annoyed by its quick allocation.

"Oh yeah, I think in the early days they had trouble with people holding onto them for no good reason, so now every time you level, it gives you a short time to choose before it distributes them on its own according to your history. If you held onto them through a lot of levels, it would have trouble giving them to you without extreme pain. Some people went insane, it was very bad for everyone." I felt Dux mentally shudder as he neared the end of his statement.

"It didn't even ask for confirmation, though, it just went all in on the first thing I thought of." I scratched the side of my head.

"Well, if you want something strongly enough to trigger a point spend, it must be important anyway, right? In the future, you'll know to be prepared, too."

"It's okay Dux, I'll probably get more levels before you're done teaching me right? If the System is going to reward me for acting in tune with my class. Then your next lesson should count for a lot." I was straining a bit to look on the bright side there, I admit it.

"Oh, definitely, you'll get more levels in no time. You definitely don't need to worry about that. Just focus on learning how to use what you're getting!" Something about how Dux felt when he said that made me slightly worried, but I put that aside for now.

"Okay, Dux, let's get started, I hope this doesn't go as badly as I'm worried it will."

"Ahh Angel, don't worry so much, this is a controlled space, made just so you can learn this. If things go sideways, I can just take away all the mana."

My instincts paled at the idea of a place with no mana, but that sounded like a good enough solution to me.