Mana depletion is scary!

I practiced till the morning. And there is something I discovered. I still can't control the mana in the air. Then, how can I do magic? The answer is easy mana inside of my body depletes every time I do magic.

When the mana inside of my body depletes I blackout. But the worst thing is after I woke up I thought I was dying. I guess it kinda gives depression. It was bad.

"Oscar, are you okay? You have a fever."

"I caught a cold, I guess. I will be fine if I rest a little."

"Fine, you can rest home today. But if anything happens you will call me okay? And if you don't get better till night we are going to a hospital."

"Yes, mom. Don't worry I will get better."

"I going to work, I will call you later."

"See you, mom."

It's a good thing that mom let me rest for today. If I was to go to school right now, things can go bad. I don't know all of the effects of mana depletion. Depression side effect is gone after an hour. But I don't feel any mana in my body anymore. Last night I wasn't fully aware of it but when I was drowning in that lake my body absorbed mana. Maybe that drowning thing is excessive absorption of mana. So, mana isn't naturally inside of the body. I'm sure this is why nobody noticed it.

By the way, after waking up I couldn't see the mana streams in the air. Then my eyes work with mana too. Anyway, after two hours of waking up my body was recovered. Still, I feel a little empty in my mind. So mana affects the mind most? Can the mana battery refill my body with mana or do I have to go to the cave?

I take the mana crystal to my hand. It is indeed transparent and not glowing. I closed my eyes and focused on the crystal. Mana inside of it slowly crawled to my body. This time I feel it. Mana is entering my body. It feels refreshing.

After a few minutes of recharging myself, I dropped to crystal on the blankets of my bed. There is a limit to how much I can absorb. If I absorb too much, I feel like drowning. This confirms at least one of my theories.

Today, I'm not going to practice magic right away. If I deplete my mana reserves things will be difficult. That is why I will go to mana spot and get some backup mana batteries. This time I will take bottles so that I can gather some of the liquid mana.

Well, right now it's 10 pm. Mom would call me roughly two hours later at best. It will take half an hour to get to the church. So, a whole hour to get me some sweet mana batteries. This time I prepared a backpack. I look at my phone and saw that after almost 9 hours it was still in full charge. I guess mana is way more potent than electricity but this does not explain it clearly.

I can figure it out later. Now I need a large number of mana batteries. Mana depletion is scary. It is blurry but I remember the feeling of severe depression. I don't want to feel it again.

Before I left home I checked the clothes I wore last night. There is no blood. Mana healed before blood could spill. But the wound back of my head did bleed. But in the end, it didn't bleed much. After I get enough mana batteries I should research the healing aspect of mana.

Fortunately, on the road to the church, I didn't encounter anyone. The city we live in, Daxhoull, is a moderate size city. Not big but not small either. The neighborhood I live in is somewhat crowded. Most of the people here know each other. So, it will be hard to explain why I'm not in school but on the road that only goes to the forest.

With the help of sunlight, I can perfectly see the state church. It is horrible. It is miracle that it is still standing but maybe mana is responsible for that. Also, there is a lot of thrash here. If I will use this place in the future ıt might be a good idea to clean this place.

After being sure that no one is inside I get into the church. It is the same as we left. When we leave last night we didn't close the altar completely. I will close it from now on.

I get down the same route as before and in just about 10 minutes I arrived at the mana spot. While coming down here I inspect everything I saw and found something interesting. Mana stone. It was simply a stone that radiates mana. I don't have any way to use it right now but in the future, it might come to

be useful.

Mana spot is, still glowing with blue energy. When I saw it again I realized how real all of this was. Being able to do magic is awesome but if I have to refill my mana every time, it's going to be difficult later on. If only I could control the mana streams in the air...

I gathered about twenty fist-sized mana crystals. Then I fill the bottles I brought with about five liters of liquid mana. This much should be enough for a long time. I took my necklace and inspect it one more time. It is mana crystal but a different kind? My grandpa passed away last year. I was so sad at that time. Now that I learned he had a mana crystal there are several questions appeared in my mind.

I know, I can't have an answer for most of those questions. But I have a theory. If he could use mana the same way as me, this explains why he carried mana crystal with him most of the time. Mana depletion is so scary that even my fearless grandpa carried a mana battery.

After stuffing everything into my backpack, I began climbing up. It only took me for half an hour to gather everything I need. When I reached to stone stairs, a question appeared in my mind. Could the basement have something to do with the mana spot?

Previously, we couldn't reach it. Even though we could get there we might not have found anything at that time. I can see mana because I fell into the mana lake. I am standing on a very shaky foothold and some of the stone stairs going down have collapsed already.

I jumped down and arrived at the bottom very quickly. Even without me controlling the mana, it enhances my body. It is handy because it doesn't consume much mana. In the novels I read, mages are physically weak. But with mana enhances my body this weakness will be gone.

In just a few steps I saw boulders blocking the way. It seems like the basement also collapsed. We could never get in the basement. It is a little cringy but it feels like a fate. Yeah, cringy.

Meeting with a dead-end is the end of my outing today. It didn't take long for me to reach to alter. Just as I was coming out I heard voices.

"Shit!"

This is not good. Am I going to get caught?