The morning we planned to leave Shanghai, I had a great surprise waiting for me—a message from Lis.
Yes! Thank you, Spirits!
TR. LM
"Inventor, Versailles, Hungry, Clueless"
Hello, my dear friends. I hope you are well.
First and foremost, the Dragon Realm is terrifying. Don't you dare come here before ALL your Traits are over 200 and your stealth skill has reached a maximum of 25. I'm serious; don't you dare even think about it.
But as you see, or read in this case, I'm fine. I reached the city of Holmeserion and met not one dragon, but dozens.
The best way to describe a dragon is as a mix between a wise sage and a curious puppy. The combination sounds strange, but that's as close as I can describe them.
I presented them with the entire package of books I had brought and informed them that John Rue from the world of Gaia had generously provided the books (don't even try to say the name Earth; it doesn't translate well; stick to Gaia). They assured me they would widely recognize your name and treat you as a significant individual upon your arrival.
Tomorrow, I'll start teaching English lessons so they can read the books.
Plus, it turns out all dragons have wizard-like magical abilities, and when they heard you were a budding wizard, they bombarded me with suggestions for exercises you could do and things you could learn or research. I won't share the entire list at once—I promise it will overwhelm you—but I made an exact list of everything. I will give you four basic exercises, and when you tell me you've mastered them, I'll give you more.
After consulting with one dragon, and after I told her about the stone balls you created, she recommended the following exercises:
Exercise 1: Always have your mana sense active. Initially, it will make you tired and give you headaches, but don't give up. Continue until it becomes second nature, and you don't have to think about it.
Next, learn to keep it active even in your sleep. Again, it will take practice, but she promised me it will be very beneficial, and an enemy will never surprise you.
Exercise 2: She told me you should learn to immerse yourself in the surrounding mana. I told her you already do that and have Mana Oneness as a skill. She found it to be very impressive. Apparently, you skipped another step before Oneness—Mana Immersion. I told you that you're talented—now even a dragon says so. Anyway. Keep practicing and learning about mana.
Now, she told me that exercises 1 and 2 are things you should always keep doing. The dragons do not see these as exercises, but as basic actions like brushing your teeth or combing your hair. She emphasized that these are not exercises, but a way of life. I called them exercises anyway.
Exercise 3 (or 1, according to the dragons): Practice moving small things all over your mana-sensing field. The emphasis is on the entire field, not just the border you reach easily. They promised it would be easier when you have your mana sense active. Start with small things like a leaf, move to a small piece of wood, then a pebble, and work your way up until you can move things all over the field.
Exercise 4: This one is more active and more complicated.
1. Start with a stone you created and gradually increase to five stones.
2. Fill the stone with mana until it vibrates.
3. Pick it up with your mana and spin it around your head—not with telekinesis, but with free mana.
4. At first, it will require a lot of concentration, but quickly, it will become easier and more manageable. Get to where the stone is spinning around you all the time, with no special attention on your part. I mentioned the term "muscle memory" to her, and she said it was precisely that—only mana memory.
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5. Once you reach this point, keep adding stones until you reach a total of five.
6. Now, it gets more complicated. Return to practicing with one stone, but do it with mana only from the Mind power center, not all your mana. Again, with just your Mind Mana, reach five stones spinning around your head.
7. Now, switch to your Spirit Mana and repeat the exercise.
8. After achieving total control, incorporate Mind Mana and perform both.
9. After achieving complete mastery in both, you can begin using Body Mana by starting with a single stone and gradually incorporating more.
10. Once you become an expert, you can spin fifteen balls: five balls around the head with Mind Mana, five balls around the center of the body with Spirit Mana, and five balls around the lower body with Body Mana.
11. In the next step, you start all over, but the rotation is different. She showed it to me, and the best way to describe it is an "atomic pattern." Again, go through the whole process until you get to where you control fifteen balls in an atomic pattern around your body with no balls colliding with each other—she assured me it's going to be complicated for you, but will raise your mana control to levels you can't even imagine.
12. When you reach that stage, combine exercises 3 and 4: move the stones around you, and then shoot them all over your mana-sensing field.
13. Next, ask somebody to throw the stones at you, and you will practice grabbing them in motion, completing the pattern around your body, and shooting them at the "enemy."
14. In the last step, do the same as no. 13, but with different objects that you didn't infuse with your mana.
She also instructed me to remind you of the golden rule, a concept I don't fully understand, but she assured me you would:
Never force >> guide
Never pressure >> ask
Never exert control from above >> seek Unity
I hope you find this information valuable, and I look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know how it goes.
That's all I have to say today, and I'd love to hear how you're doing.
With friendship and love
Lis, aka Inventor
Upon hearing that he was OK, the relief that flooded me was so intense that my knees buckled, and I had to take deep breaths to stabilize myself again. As more time passed without hearing from Lis, my fear grew, but I refused to dwell on it so it wouldn't paralyze me. I lost too many people in my life. I wasn't ready to lose my first friend. Knowing he was fine, I let the emotions flood me, and my body began shaking from their intensity.
When I felt stable again, I reread the message, chuckled at the puppy comparison, and wrote down the exercises—they were fantastic.
Tr. JR
"Clueless, Versailles, Hungry, Inventor"
Hello, my friend; it is so good to hear from you. With every passing day, I became more and more worried.
Thank you for the exercises, and thank your dragon friend. I promise I'll practice. We'll have an ocean crossing two months long, and now I know what I'll be doing.
All three of us are fine. We purchased a boat in Yichang and are now sailing in China between the Gates. Mahya and I just finished a project to turn the boat into a Magitech. While we still need a dungeon core, Mahya believes we can get by with our mana crystals and mana from us, if needed.
It appears that the mana levels on Earth have increased to seven, so we will not fly to the United States but sail there.
Speaking of the United States, if you scroll down through the Archive, you'll see a call for help from a Traveler being held captive by the US military. We plan to rescue them, and I'm having difficulties with it. Maybe you could ask the dragons for advice.
You have always referred to it as 'controlling external mana.' However, Alfonsen told me about a wizard who channeled external mana through his familiar. Additionally, I came across a book written by a pompous wizard who also refers to it as 'channeling external mana.' Are these two concepts distinct, or are they synonymous?
If these are distinct practices, how can I learn to channel external mana—not control it, but channel it—and then channel it through Rue?
It will be beneficial to rescue the Traveler.
We bought a hot-air balloon but still don't know how to fly it. Our goal is to train over the ocean.
Other than that, I have little to share. We travel and go sightseeing. I take pictures, and we visit the Gates. Rue eats and watches movies and TV. I train my mana—yes, I promise I train. Mahya studies your notes and blueprints and plays with her mosaic ritual circles, and Alfonsen reads romance novels about vampires and werewolves. No, I'm not kidding; that's what he's reading.
While I miss your presence here, I'm delighted to know that you're enjoying yourself and expanding your horizons. I hope to meet you down the road.
John, aka Clueless
A weight I didn't know I was carrying fell off my shoulders, and I felt like I could breathe again. My friend was fine, and I didn't really lose him—just his presence with me. But e-mails or Archive-mails were fine too. What truly mattered was the ongoing communication between us.