Training

"How do I increase my Intelligence?" Mark asked Pass.

[The best way to increase Intelligence is through gaining knowledge about magic]

"How do I use magic?"

[You will the mana within your soul to do what you want it to]

With his new knowledge, Mark found that he could now sense that there was something in his soul. Looking around his soul, he could see thin blue mist around him. He willed it to leave his soul, and part of it started to stream out of his soul. When it was outside of his soul, it became harder to control, but controlling it was still manageable. He then will the mana to turn into water, and it did just that.

The water formed a ball, but he lost concentration, and it fell to the ground.

'So I can't lose concentration,' Mark speculated.

After testing it six times, he confirmed his conjecture and learned more about how mana works. Mana was harder to control outside of his soul, he can change the shape of the mana or water if he wills it, and the mist inside of his soul was slowly regenerating. Also, when the mana is inside his body, it dissipates slower than in the air.

The mist inside his soul was too little to do anything with after a few minutes of testing. If he wanted to do more test he would have to wait for it to regenerate, so he decided to train constitution.

"How do I increase my constitution?"

[Constitution can be improved by a multitude of ways. When you train your body, strength, speed, and constitution can be increased, depending on how you train your body. Training your body the natural way is more effective for strength and speed, though. A better way for training your constitution is by moving your mana around your body, so that your body can absorb the mana, which is called body refining. By refining your body, it will become tougher and stronger, so your strength will increase as well, although less than constitution]

"Since you've described how to increase everything else, how do I increase Will?"

[Will is increased by pushing yourself passed your limits]

'That's pretty vague,' Mark complained in his mind. He wanted to increase his constitution, so he decided to try body refining.

Willing all of the mana he could to go inside he body, all the mist entered his body. Then he willed the mana to move around his body; however, his arm, which he had move the mana to first, started to hurt. Ignoring the pain, continued moving the mana. Every part of his body hurt after the mana cycled through it once.

[The pain is caused by your body trying to adapt to the mana. Continuing would be disadviced for anyone else after the pain spreads throughout the body, as it could cause permanent damage. In spite of that, with me you can be healed, so if you can, you should continue]

Pass made continuing sound far easier than it was. Trying to move the mana around his body again hurt far more than the first time. It almost hurt as much as the time acid spilled all over him.

*Flashback*

The boy had lived a little easier after escaping from the lady. Even though he lost an arm, his water supply hadn't been low, and the trash bin always had edible food.

He was traveling outside of his alleyway to get more water from a puddle not to far away. There weren't many people here anymore. Not to long ago, most of them left. The boy was unsure why, but having less people around him only helped him.

The puddle was just in front of him. It was about fifteen centimeters deep, and several meter wide. Using his left arm, that had a small bucket in it, he scooped down to get the water. That was when it happened.

A vehicle came flipping towards him. Before the vehicle crushed him, it flipped over, and soared above him. From inside the vehicle, barrels of something fell, and when they hit the ground, liquid came spilling out of them.

The liquid got all over him and started to burn his skin. His eyes hurt, enough to make him wish he were dead, but more pain washed over him. Every part of his body, from his toes to his face, burned. His mind blanked out, but before he could celebrate the relief from the pain, his mind came back, along with the pain. He was forced unconscious and then forced awake repeatedly.

"All of civilization should have been evacuated from here. Should we kill the boy?" A man wearing black clothes asked the person next to him."

"Do it"

*End Flashback*

Resisting the pain, he continued to cycle hsi mana. He managed to cycle his mana four more times before he ran out of mana. His mana had only barely regenerated, so he assumed he would be able to refine his body more in the future.

"Did any of my data improve?"

Name: Mark

Profession: Null

Health-100

Mana-50

Constitution-11

Strength-5

Speed-5

Intelligence-5

Will-21

Abilities:

Minimal Regeneration(Rank 1, Level 1 0%)

Light Marking(Rank 1, Level 1 0%)

Water Manipulation(No Rank, Level 1 3%)

"How do I use Minimal Regeneration?"

[Instead of cycling your mana in your body, only fill your body with mana. As a natural ability, Minimal regeneration will occur as long as your body has mana. Light Marking is similar, but you fill your eyes with mana instead]

"Is there a way to regenerate my mana faster"

[Spin the mist within your soul until it forms a vortex. This causes the mana in the surrounding to be drawn to your soul, and enter it faster than the natural rate]

Spinning the mana in his soul was easier than moving it in his body, so a vortex formed quickly.

[New ability acquired]

Minimal Meditation(Rank 1, Level 1 0%)- By forming a vortex in your soul, mana is drawn into your soul at a faster rate. At higher level, the vortex will draw in more mana.

Making a vortex wasn't hard, but losing concentration at all caused it to fall apart, and the vortex was slow and rather small.

Now that he had everything ready to train, he needed to scout the area for anything that may be dangerous. First he continued meditating, which made him gather mana about ten percent faster, until his soul couldn't hold anymore.

With his soul filled with mana, he was ready to explore, so he was going to go outside, but it was to dark. Deciding to search tomorrow, he laid on the floor of the cave and went to sleep.

...

It was once again bright outside. Mark woke up and stretched. It felt nice to have his arm back. Every part of his body felt better than it ever had before. His eyes opened wide as he reveled in the comfortable feeling.

[I can sense the surroundings by vibrating mana around you, so you don't have to be worried about getting lost when you leave, however, the farther away something is, the less detailed it becomes]

"Is there anything notable in the area?" Mark was only worried if there were humans.

[There is]

Mark's heart beat a little faster after hearing that. He didn't want to see another human. It was his hope that they wouldn't exist in this dimension.

[A small pond about a kilometer to the right of the entrance of the cave]

If Mark could feel anger, he was sure he would be angry at Pass. Possibly to the point of wanting to strangle him.

Traveling was much easier now that his body was healed so he reached the pond quickly. Looking at the pond's surface he could see his face.

He had short, black hair, dark blue eyes, his skin was slightly tanned, and his face was already starting to mature, and clean for the first time in many years.