As Lan emerged from the depths of the earth, what greeted him was not a landscape he was familiar with. He was kind of expecting this to happen, since this was probably a whole other world, but still, things here were BIG. Everything here was made for big boys.

'I mean, isn't it a bit absurd for a butterfly to be half a meter big? Or for the earthworm down in the ground to be the size of a regular snake? Like, I get it, magic and stuff, but now I am feeling a bit insecure. Seriously, I'm still less than a meter in size, how am I supposed to compare? Oh well, not that anyone will find me down here without digging for me deliberately... They won't right?'

As the lad was lost in his own thoughts, something big entered his perception range. At first, Lan thought that his eyes were deceiving him, but he checked it again several times, and the fact remained unchanged.

That was a damn 5-meter-tall deer.

And it wasn't just the size that was different from regular deer Lan knew, no, if that height wasn't intimidating enough, local mother Nature decided that its' antlers (of which there was an additional pair, for some reason), were needed to be perfect for piercing, curved in a way that you would definitely not want to be rammed in your gut.

And this deer was only the first one. Behind it followed the rest of the herd. At first, Lan thought that it was a group of males, because all of them had antlers, but no, apparently the females had one pair, while the males had two. Well, they probably do need means to protect themselves in a world where everything is supersized.

Speaking of sizes, the female deer were not short either, reaching three meters, some of them not far from four. The males were generally four meters tall, so that tall one must've been the leader.

So, the herd settled on the small clearing that Lan just so happened to have gained the ability to look over.

Local critters scattered away, avoiding the fate of getting stomped into a paste by the newly arrived herd.

'Well, I guess it's gonna be like that huh? If everything is super big and deadly, then I have to be super big and deadly too, right? But how do I exactly do that if I can't exactly move... Right! Magic!'

Lan suddenly remembered about the desire to explore the depths of his newly discovered ability to wield magic, which he had forgotten about because of the ongoing 'domain expansion' as he, completely unironically started calling the process.

'So, I can feel mana, that's typical step one done. As for step two, I guess manipulation would be it?'

'However, I felt mana by associating it with breathing, so how do I exactly master moving it?'

The aspiring magician first tried to move mana by... 'Exhaling' really hard.

All that came from that though was a slight decrease in the radius of his domain, which freaked Lan out.

'Whoa, now that's not pleasant at all! All right, crossing that off the list. Now here's to hoping I can just cycle it back to normal.'

At least that turned the way Lan thought, with the domain returning to the size it previously was at.

'In conclusion, the domain may be reduced if I, the crystal, lack available mana. So, in theory, if I were to be completely deprived of it, would I be back in a state of complete blindness? Now that's a scary thought. Guess I have to watch out for that.'

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Still, the mysterious research on the usage of magic returned to square one.

Since Lan found out that messing with the cycling is a big no-no, he started to focus on the ways he began to feel mana in the first place.

'I started being able to see when I 'felt' the mana when I uh... Merged with it? So I guess I would need to do something similar?'

So, he focused.

Like, really hard.

If he could, he would sit cross-legged, that is if he still had legs.

'I am one with nature... I am one with the world... I am one with the universe...'

In the end, the chants didn't really help. But, they did give him another idea.

'Wait... So if I need to 'merge' with mana, then do I just... Attune to it? Guess that's the word. Sounds magic-y enough to do.'

His question remained: How the hell to exactly do that? When he attuned to 'neutral' mana, for lack of a better word, it was instinctual. Now that he had to make a conscious effort, it was quite a bit different.

'So uh... Am I supposed to meditate on it for a century, comprehend the Great Dao, and do other monk stuff? Doesn't sound exactly appealing...'

So, Lan started searching his memories for a reference of what mana attunement was supposed to feel like.

Neutral mana felt like tasteless water, the same as the smell of fresh air, the same as the color white. Just as its name suggested, pretty neutral. No inherent qualities, probably prone to change, though that remained to be tested. It was everywhere, permeating everything, like air above ground.

'However, now that I am focusing on it...'

As Lan moved his attention around his domain, focusing on the neutral mana, he noticed a curious thing about it.

'In the deeper parts of the domain, it is denser than the upper ones. If above ground it is as dispersed as air, then deep underground, it is closer to gas, though still not dense enough to see with a naked eye, I suppose.'

When it was aboveground, just like air, it was floating around, with no particular direction of movement. Again, just like air. Underground however, it could be sensed that it moved outwards from the depths, and upwards to the surface. That gave the lad a couple of ideas.

'My guess is that either there is a core source of mana deep underground, which emanates mana, which then permeates the land and disperses above. It could also be a 'mana vein' or a 'dragon vein' somewhere below me, a network of mana-dispersing lines, which are spread throughout the world. At least that's how they wrote in the novels...'

Yes, novels are a surprisingly good source of information and inspiration when spontaneously dying and appearing in a world of magic one way or another.

Still, while that was helpful in some ways, he didn't really know how to use it. So, he decided to try and manipulate the neutral mana somehow. The experiments continued.

'Since it just flows around, the fact that I can cycle it means that I already manipulate it to some degree. When I 'breathe in', I absorb the flowing mana inside me, or rather the crystal, my Core. And when I 'exhale it', I discharge it back out, however, it 'belongs' to me, which is probably why it can spread my perception, and thus forms my domain.'

As Lan was in the process of inventing mana science, he gradually figured out some answers to his questions.

'The size of myself, that is the 'Core', yes, let's go with that name, directly influences the amount of mana I can claim. Then the reason why just forcing mana into the Core doesn't help it grow is probably because neutral mana is kind of passive, being only a sort of a 'carrier'. Though mental energy or maybe 'mental mana' is different in some way. I don't really understand it yet, but I guess that the source of this mental mana is me, which is kind of obvious in hindsight.'

He figured out some things, that would probably help him in the future, but the problem of finding useful mana to manipulate remained.

'What would be useful then? Fireballs and Wind Blades come to mind, however, there is no fire here, which probably means no fire mana either. The wind on the surface is a light breeze, barely noticeable, not a valid option in the short-term as well... What else is there... Ah!'

Earth mana. For some reason, it only hit Lan now that he was 300 meters underground, surrounded by stone, dirt, and occasionally other common minerals. So, obviously, earth mana should be abundant here. What remained, however, was to attune to it.

'If neutral mana is, well, neutral then earth mana is earth-ish? How is that supposed to feel? Guess I won't know until I try.'

Concluding on his course of action, Lan focused his attention on the rocks and stone deep under the surface. Specifically, he tried to focus on the feeling of mana.

At first, he tried to imagine how it would feel.

Hard, Solid, Stubborn, Persistent.

Immovable.

Then, as if responding to his focus, to his will, he felt it.

Faint, slow, crawling amidst the stones, almost unnoticeable, but there.

Earth mana.