Sam nodded, and started to channel his mana into his hands. He could feel immediately that he was doing something wrong, as Gordanus shook his head slightly, but he continued. A ball of mana formed above his right hand, which was something that he had not done in quite some time. There had been no reason to do so.
He began to compress it with his mind, trying to force it into a shape that was smaller than its current size. The orb of mana smoothly shrunk down, until it was about the size of a marble. Sam pointed his finger at the ceiling, and tried to push the mana away with his mind. However, the orb simply dissipated into thin air, vanishing as if it had never been there.
“Alright, I have gathered a few things from that display of yours. Firstly, you are quite good at internal energy control, which is likely to do with that advanced Dao that you have. Secondly, I can tell that you have been using your elemental energy and Dao energy as a crutch to make up for your lack of ranged techniques. Is that correct?”
“Now that you mention it, I think it is,” Sam said, realizing that he had never used his mana as anything other than a basic stabilizing element within his trifecta of powers.
He had only ever used it briefly on its own in the very beginning, with his Mana Bulwark skill that he had formed all those months ago against Lena Scarlet. Afterwards, his Dao had taken him on an entirely different path. His only ranged skill at the moment barely factored mana in at all.
He had begun to use it simply as some sort of energy glue some time ago, and had never rectified the issue, not having known that it actually was one. However, after having seen that masterful technique from Gordanus, Sam realized just how limited he really was.
Sam watched as Gordanus started to weave his mana together again, trying to see what was going on. He could vaguely sense threads of pure power working their way up from Gordanus’ core toward his hands, and exiting through his skin, but he could tell that there was something else going on there. It almost felt as if it was being purposefully isolated from his other energies.
Sam started to copy the man, trying to isolate the signature of his mana within his body. He found it very hard, trying to separate it from the other two forces within his body, which he had been used to mingling for so long, but he eventually managed, and he was able to find his mana core itself.
To his surprise, it was not in fact his actual core, but right beneath it, hovering in the darkness of his corespace. It was eclipsed by the power of his Daos and of his actual core, which he was fighting to keep in his vision, but it was still there.
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He had never actually looked at the full expanse of his core before, and he was now seeing that it was far more interconnected than he had thought. Before, he had simply looked at the individual parts of his corespace, such as his Daos, but now that he was actually zooming out, he could see how everything connected to one another.
There was a holistic exchange of energies going on between his core, his mana core, and his Daos, feeding into his body itself. His core was something that Sam had never really explored before, and he had no idea what it actually did, save for storing the energy within his body, and acting as a signifier of a greater rank.
Sam moved towards the thing in his mind's eyes, and touched it, finding that it was warm to the touch. It was a vast, golden orb within his mental image, and Sam found that there was a well of energy inside, that seemed to be constantly replenished from his other stores of power. However, he had not come here to gaze upon his core. He had come here to find his mana.
Drawing himself away from the golden orb of energy, Sam headed towards his mana core, which looked like a sphere of blue power squatting beneath his central core. The orb had a much more limited sense of power coming from it than his Daos had, but it was also more concrete, more defined. That was why he did not have a meter for his Dao energy on his stat sheet, but he did for his mana. It was more reliable than his Dao, but not necessarily as powerful.
Instead, Sam focused on it as a finite source of energy, trying to figure out what exactly it was for in his mind. He knew that one could aspect mana with elemental energy, but that was a task that was completed outside of one’s core, and in the real world like with his elemental shield. As far as he knew, that was not possible within the core itself.
Sam drew off a tendril of mana from his core, and as soon as it entered the space between his mana core and the others, he saw what was wrong. Small tendrils of power from his Daos and his elemental energy were being drawn to his mana as it emerged, trying to merge with it as it left his core.
Sam shielded the tendril in a coating of his will, rebuffing the attacks. However, the task grew harder and harder the longer the tendril became, as he had to shield its entire length with his mind. As soon as he reached the halfway mark between his core and his skin, his fences shattered, and the other energies came rushing in, tainting the mana. Sam let out a sigh, and opened his eyes, to look upon the face of Gordanus, who was looking intently at him.
“So that is why you were having trouble making pure mana. Now that I have seen you in action, it appears that it is not a fault of your own, but rather the fault of the power of your other aspects. Most people have a more balanced distribution of power between their Daos and their mana, but your Dao energy is far more powerful than your mana. As a result, it has begun to seek to exert its own will on the world around it, and when you extend your mana outwards, the Dao energy hitches a ride. This is a curious issue, and one that I am not personally equipped to solve. However, I know someone who can help.” The man paused, and closed his eyes. “Come with me into the Interweb. I have an acquaintance there that will be able to help with your issue.”