I am hoping to start posting new chapters within the next week or so, as they are already written, but after reviewing some of the writing reference material on this site I discovered just how much planning I didn't do prior to writing. I do a fairly good job of storyline development in advance, but I didn't do that with any characters. Over the next week or two I will be working on clarifying the personalities of the few main characters, as well as changing and updating some items in the story that just don't make logical sense (such as a lack of reaction to the Evolution changes in the beginning--the MC is entirely too accepting that his entire world has turned upside-down).
This will probably result in a re-posting of the first chapter with notable edits, but I don't want to leave you all hanging with nothing. So . . . below is a teaser for the second chapter, two segments based on what I have so far (without pretty tables):
After a very enjoyable dinner, whereby I identified every food within the visible range, I thanked Bardon and got back to work. I began by exhausting my mana on Identifying books and other library materials. Each time my mana ran out I would meditate until it refilled. Over the course of a few boring hours, I managed to get my Identify skill to Beginner 3 at 32%, and Meditate to Beginner 2 at 27%. I found that if I focused quite hard during meditation, I could just barely start to sense the existence of my meridians. It was around 10pm, but having nothing better to do than sit around, read, or sleep, I decided to continue. I hit Beginner 5 at around 1:30 am, but since I was still awake and only had a few bookshelves left, I kept going an hit 72% before I ran out of books to identify, which also just barely pushed me to Beginner 4 in Meditation at 3%. I found I was now able to clearly sense each of my 12 meridians, and also the 8 lesser vessels. I hadn't been able to find any books on them, but as I meditated more and gained awareness of the 12 main meridians, I found my awareness of the 8 slowly grew. I decided to try an experiment effort calling it a night at 3 am. I began to meditate again, but this time I Absorbed mana instead of just meditating. I sent the extra mana cycling through my meridians instead of just holding it in my mana core, also known as the dantien.
As I did this, I found it flowed quite naturally, and my meridians accepted the energy quite readily. When I reached a certain point I heard another status notification sound. Instead of ignoring it, I learned my lesson, opened my eyes, and read it.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
[Warning: You have reached maximum mana capacity. Further mana absorption will be dangerous.]
I stopped absorbing, but continued to meditate and observe the mana flow in my body. After a while, I noticed my mana channels imperceptibly grow bigger, as though the absorption had exercised them slightly and they had responded. Curious, I opened my status window and looked at my stats. While my base stats had all remained the same, my mana pool grew by 2 points and my stamina by 1. I had done it! I did a celebration happy-dance inside then settled down on one of the armchairs to sleep.
-------------------------------------------------
What must have been five or ten minutes later I heard a high pitched noise that was near-deafening, and it continued for a maddening amount of time. I received a status box when I heard the noise and was suddenly dizzy, nauseous, and had a splitting headache.
[Due to the Shrill Cry you have been afflicted with dizziness, nausea, headache, and disorientation. All movement has a 60% deficit for 5 minutes and Agility is temporarily reduced by 80%.]
I could barely read the status, but it basically told me what I already knew--I was crazy sick and mostly unable to move. I waited helplessly for the five minutes to be over, hearing all kinds of carnage outside. At one point during a hard impact against the classroom wall the cinder block of the room broke inward. I was very afraid the fight would continue in the classroom but luck was on our side and it didn't happen.
[Shrill Cry Debuff has ended. Movement speed and Agility have returned to normal.]
At five minutes the symptoms instantly subsided. Hearing no further activity outside, I slowly crept toward the open hole in the wall and peeked out. I saw the corpse of a hulking beast just outside, but nothing else was visible.
"Identify," I whispered.
[Ywedd-fyll Weir corpse: a rare beast that has the ability to change its physical form. It's Mana core can be affixed to items to add magical qualities and the meat, when cooked properly, can permanently raise stats. It's leathery skin can be used as a crafting item.]
Jackpot! I thought to myself. Too bad we nearly died. I wonder if that other beast is coming back. . .