“Ugh, I’m gonna throw up.” he groaned, looking at Avir moving away from him. And even though he felt like his body was about to go somewhere without him, there was a rare, wide smile on his face.

  “Don’t you want to get some sleep or something?” asked Eyharnis.

  “Nah, it’s fine. I think later I’ll do a little training, but for now, I’m afraid of losing my last meal.”

  “I can use a pain-relieving skill on you.” Egill suggested.

  “Thanks, no need. It’s more of a nausea thing.”

  “We actually have various medications that could fix this for you, but the problem is, they’d just push away the inevitable. If the situation allows, it’s better to suffer these things right away, or even better, just sleep through it.” Egill added.

  “Only an idiot tries to do something on a hangover when he can just sleep.” said the always friendly shalard.

  “Do you remember what you saw?” asked Zaiah whose voice raised suspiciously, just like when he was supposed to talk about mana.

  Orion nodded and told the group about his visions. Naturally, he began the story with his space travel.

  “Oooch, you saw the scene from the creation of the first universe!”

  “Huh? You’re telling me these were real images? Besides, how can a fetus in a sphere be the origin of the universe?”

  “That’s what convinced me the most. Of course, these visions are mostly metaphorical and can have many meanings or refer to different aspects.”

  “Hmm… but how is it possible that I even saw something like that? I thought the drug was just making me hallucinate.”

  “Well, the substance you took, while neither expensive nor difficult to obtain, is still quite complex. First, it makes your body hypersensitive to mana and allows your mind to cope with a sudden overabundance of stimuli. That’s why you’re in this state right now. In addition, even with a sudden effort for the mind and body, it is very easy to become addicted to the whispers of mana, hence the drug’s label. In short, hallucinations are a side effect of this process. But even though it’s a side effect, mana uses it as a medium to convey its meaning.”

  “It’s… I think it’s too complicated, precisely because of the state I’m in.”

  “So let’s break it down to its basic elements, then! Among the aspects…” Zaiah started, but a big green hand landed on him.

  “Let the boy rest.” Eyharnis said. The rest of the team chuckled under their breath, witnessing eliko getting worked up.

  “Thanks, Eynis.” Orion said. As much as he enjoyed listening to Zaiah talk about mana, this time he really didn’t have the strength.

  The green-skinned woman glanced at him and smiled, evidently pleased that he remembered her preferred abbreviation.

  “I know you want to train, but you should get some rest. Remember, you need to get yourself together by the time of your meeting at the Guild.” said Egill. “We, on the other hand, should be going. We have a quest we need to take care of outside the city, so we won’t be around for a while.”

  “Understood. And really… Thank you for everything. Take care of yourselves.”

  After a brief farewell, the team left the room. Orion sat against the wall, intending to view a description of the unlocked skill, which he was notified of while working on the cube. Before he did, a panicked Avir came into the room, took the vase with him, and walked out, talking some nonsense, now clearly relaxed.

  [Skill: [C] Minor Mana Control [Level 1 (0.3%)]

  Description: Allows you to control mana. Passive skill.]

  The System recognized his skill when he had transformed about forty percent of the cube. Orion noticed that with each step it got a little harder, and he was forced to work harder.

  His experiences and what he felt during his drug hallucinations clearly pointed him in the right direction. It also made him realize that without them, he could continue his previous attempts for a very long time and still have no effect.

  Maybe if he could use his skills, he could track active energy input or output. The problem was the skills he possessed didn’t guarantee that. The only possible option was Consumption, but to use it, he would have to kill something first, and it’s unknown whether this skill even required mana… well, consumption. He would have to check that, and he currently would rather not inform anyone that he had such an ability.

  Even its rarity wasn’t on the official rarity list. Based on what the System said and its tag, he expected it to be an anomalous rarity skill; something that shouldn’t exist.

  Getting back to the issue of control, although he had adjusted his approach after every failure, the result was he had always tried to move something physical in a way. Whether indirectly or directly, he was trying to find something he could grab or push, like a movement of an invisible limb or a release of air from the lungs, but without engaging that organ.

  But mana was not physical, at least not in the typical sense of physics. Moving it was more like moving a thought or a feeling than something real. It wasn’t until it was out of his body that he could sense its expenditure, and it was by no means obvious.

  Filling the cube with mana was also something else. It looked like the cube itself was sucking it in the moment it left his hand, and the process got weaker and weaker as mana was absorbed. Orion at this point theorized that he would be able to imbue his Spatial Ring once he managed to transform the entire cube into a glass state. He tried to do it once before, but the ring didn’t seem to notice his mana, so he figured that the cube was gradually teaching him precisely how to imbue.

  Orion also wondered what his perception of mana would be like in the future. He remembered that during the lecture, Zaiah mentioned that the ‘flesh’ races have something between the organ and the instinct called Aethericulum. It was supposed to be a kind of spiritual organ, responsible for the perception of etheric things.

  According to explanations, it was supposed to develop in parallel with his stats, level, and skills similar to those responsible for mana control, and it could be manually worked on to improve it. Apparently, later on it was also possible to saturate both core and Aethericulum with a chosen aspect, producing in yourself an affinity, which would greatly facilitate the perception and control of the mana of the saturated aspect; something akin to tuning with it.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Looking at the cube in his hand, Orion was tempted to continue. These few centimeters of progress brought him a strange kind of satisfaction he hadn’t felt in a very long time. But he knew that every moment he delayed sleeping was a moment wasted. So he decided to lie down and try to sleep. Something that, strangely enough, happened pretty quickly this time.

  Opening his eyes in his Dream Domain, the first thing he thought of was the cube and trying to learn more. However, it turned out that he felt a certain dullness here as well. It wasn’t as noticeable as when he was awake, but the cube appeared much slower, and its sides weren’t as perfectly even.

  It also seemed that the local version of the cube wasn’t the original but a generated, or rather dreamed-up, copy. Deciding to make a few attempts, not for learning but more for testing, he drew some new conclusions.

  First, his mana control in this place was much better. It was clearly palpable, but it brought up another problem. Orion didn’t know to what extent the control was real and to what extent it was imagined. He didn’t even know if there was a definite percentage because of the minimal ability to sense at all. So far, he’s noticed that this place has been functioning the way he or his subconscious wants it to, but apparently it hasn’t reinforced his perception of that energy.

  Another thing he learned was the still noticeable effect of the drug. Except for the fatigue and the kind of sluggishness in generating things, the creations had flaws. On closer inspection he noticed some instabilities, creating a familiar, delicate movement of unevenness. So it seems that to some extent, this dreamy land was also subject to his state of body or mind.

  The next change was that the rainbow sphere; in which he was seeing his nightmare and listening to Neru’s recordings, was spinning in colors more irregularly than in his previous dreams. The colorful patterns, usually fluid and gently undulating, now sometimes suddenly vibrated and moved, like a frightened fish, only to stand almost still after a moment.

  Last ‘night’, when Orion was dreaming of his friends, he spent all his sleep sitting on a wooden log and enjoying the silence interrupted by the sounds of a burning campfire. But this time, he decided not to waste his time, and instead, he wanted to devote it to testing and learning to control, even if it was to be done without the help of the cube. So his next test was trying to interact with the rainbow sphere.

  Attempts at touch proved a quick disappointment. The first time he laid his hand on it, it stopped like on a glass surface. The next attempt ended the same way. During the third, his hand went through the wall of the sphere as if there was nothing there. His last approach was different in that he expected nothing to stop his movement. So it seemed the sphere was also working the way he, or his subconscious, wanted it to.

  Just like when he saw the recording of Neru, he wanted the sphere to become transparent again, but this time he managed to capture a new detail. Not only did his intention make the wall lose its visibility, but it looked as if it had driven the colors away. After another series of tests, such as trying to touch it with his eyes closed or trying to transform the surface itself, he decided it was time for the next step.

  He currently assumed that dreams, which he had no control over, were taking place within the sphere, but they only worked when he was fully inside it. He decided to test it out by attempting to increase the immersion gradually.

  Another conclusion came pretty quickly as it turned out that the moment he put his head into the sphere, he started seeing images from the previous day. There was both a snapshot of him in the store and one containing an avalanche of colored shapes he saw during a drug high.

  He woke up still partially leaning against the wall, away from the bed. During his sleep, he slipped out of his sitting position, and judging by his completely immobilized left arm, it must have taken some time. He remembered that once he fully entered the sphere and stopped thinking about anything, he gradually began to lose his ability to track time. So apparently it had the function of a normal sleep, with the ability to go out into the Dream Domain.

  And even though his dream ended sooner than he originally expected, he wasn’t disappointed. He had additional tests planned, but those could wait. Learning while awake was much more important.

  [A 03:68 / 10]

  Orion’s drug hallucinations took some time, though it was definitely less time outside than in his head. In addition, he apparently underestimated how exhausted his body was, because a quick check of the clock showed that he had slept for more than a cycle. His meeting was scheduled for 8:00.

  Since he still had quite a bit of time, he decided to freshen up after his long sleep. When he left the hotel, after an invigorating shower, he felt alive again. And as much as he wanted to get down to studying long-awaited mana control, his stomach looked at him with an increasingly insulted look. So he turned to The Regular Chapter.

  With a strange breakfast of sweet ‘snails’ and jelly in sparkling sprinkles, he headed to the meditation park. There, taking a seat between the lush hedges, he continued working on the cube.

  The initial approach was met with some mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was a little more difficult, since his body was apparently no longer so sensitive to mana. On the other hand, he was now sober, but he could still feel this subtle loss of energy, like a thought being thrown out of his body.

  Being about sixty percent of the way through the cube’s transformation, Orion noticed that it had almost stopped. The glass continued to take up more and more space, but now, to be sure, he would have to draw lines on it to measure its previous condition.

  Recalling what Zaiah had told him; and also drawing some inspiration from the way he controlled the System interface; he concluded that the key issues in mana control were intention and determination, as well as precision in weaving them into the released energy.

  Thus, the slowing progress made him doubt himself, which automatically worsened his results. So he decided to close his eyes and try to work without checking the effects.

  By cutting off this sense, he could perceive the presence of mana a little better. He had earlier compared it to moving thoughts, which was also not the wisest step towards understanding this energy. Thoughts were inherently elusive, so comparing mana with them made it harder for him to work. In addition, following this line of thinking, he’s been trying to rationalize and compare everything to something he’s encountered before.

  But mana was not a thought.

  It wasn’t a current in his veins.

  It wasn’t blood in a spiritual state or any other metaphor.

  Mana was mana.

  “Fucking duh.” he muttered, wanting to scold himself for his stupidity. For a moment, understanding dawned on him of how terrifying a process it must be to try to extract some aspect from this energy. However, suppressing his doubts, he continued.

  After adjusting his approach, instead of expelling the mana from his body, he decided to move it around his body. First, he collected everything around his head, then poured it into his right hand. Then it returned to the brain to direct it to the left hand. Repeating this motion, he noticed that when he lacked the intention to release the mana, he began to feel a slight tension at the point where it was gathered.

  Opening his eyes and trying to pour mana into the cube again, he noticed another centimeter of progress in the transformation.

  A wide smile formed on his face. However, neither the rapid heartbeat nor the rush of dopamine to his brain affected his thinking. Still, somewhere deep down, he was himself, and he knew it was just a natural reaction to a chemical being released. Therefore, there was no need for this reaction to influence his thought process.

  Calming down, he stopped transferring the mana, only to return with another wave, this time enriched even more by an additional portion of intent to make the spent mana soak into the cube.

  The subject responded again, rewarding him with another dose of transformation. Orion was now holding a roughly eighty-five percent glass cube in his hand. Despite his earlier calmness, now a laugh came out of his mouth, which he quickly blocked with the other hand.

  He already understood, and he was pretty close.

  [A 07:84 / 10]

  “The meeting!” he shouted, feeling something akin deja vu.

  Orion got up and immediately regretted the sudden movement; or at least immediately after he had managed to form some sober thought. Forgetting his body for a moment, he noticed that he was half-submerged in the hedge.

  As he disentangled himself from the twigs and brushed off the leaves, only then did he notice the mana bar showing thirty-two percent.

  Taking another moment to reflect on the situation, he noticed some difficulty in thinking. When he came into this world, he had a lot less mana, and yet he didn’t feel so numb. Was it the effect of sudden or constant usage?

  After a while, to calm his dizziness, he ran.

  Thank you for reading the chapter. I hope you liked it!

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