Mana Core
~
Even after a few hours, Ky kept failing to sense the mana throughout the air.
"F*ck!"
He would occasionally sense it, but the feeling would disappear not even a second later, causing outbursts like that.
He thought he might be doing something wrong, but even after taking out the scroll and reading it a few more times he couldn't figure anything out.
'It might just take some time. I have to practice patience like Mom and Dad said.'
His impatience was another effect of his entitlement of being a rich kid. His parents tried working on it with him multiple times but always failed.
They would now be applauding their son in the afterlife if they heard his thoughts.
Ky was taking his parents' words more seriously now after their death. He didn't want to disrespect them by not making an effort to better himself because they had tried so hard to do so when they were alive.
Ky didn't magically turn into some nice, respectable young man after his parents death, but he made more of an effort now.
If this was a few days ago, Ky would have given up on forming his core after 30 minutes. Yet he continued for a few hours today.
'That's all I can do. I'm way too tired.'
"Hahhhh.." He let out a yawn and stretched his arms over his head.
"Ouch!"
Ky forgot about his currently injured left shoulder when he stretched…
He got up and grabbed the fur to roll it up and make a temporary pillow and bed.
Ky didn't need a fire tonight, because for some reason it was moderately warm inside the cave.
A cold gust of wind would flow through occasionally, but other than that it felt like he was surrounded by a warm blanket all the time.
"WAIT!" Ky jumped up.
"That's mana!"
He realized the warm blanket he felt around him must have been mana. It was too unnatural of a feeling to be the air around him, but he failed to realize it earlier because of how the scroll described mana.
It said it would feel like a smoky substance and that it would have a distinct smell.
It didn't feel like that at all for Ky, and he couldn't make out if it had a specific smell because the natural smell of the cave was overpowering it.
Sitting back down and closing his eyes Ky attempted to feel the mana again.
Almost instantly he felt that warm blanket feeling surrounding his whole body.
'Got you!'
He tried to pull the mana into his body and instantly noticed some movement.
It was like the blanket was rubbing across his skin very slowly.
He tried to pull the mana to his core through pure willpower.
He knew it was working, but it also seemed very slow.
He could sense that not a lot of the mana was making it all the way to his core, but was seeping back out through his skin and going back into the air.
~
After what felt like a few hours of this, Ky stopped his meditation.
'I'm way too tired to continue, and I don't even know how much I filled my core up.'
Ky could only vaguely sense his core within his body, but his mana senses weren't good enough yet to be able to tell just how much mana was in his core.
*Ding*
When Ky opened his eyes, a notification popped into view.
—-------
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill
'Mana Sense'
+1 Stat point
—-------
'Nice!'
'Open Interface.'
-------------
Race: Human
Name: Kyden Price
Rank: Unranked
Divinity: N/A
Total Stat Points: 18
Available Stat Points: 0
STR: 2
AGI: 6->10
DEF: 2
INT: 3
STA: 1
Skills: Stealth (1), Mana Sense (1)
-------------
Ky realized he had forgotten about the 3 stat points from the birb and added those as well. He now had 10 agility, which was 2 points faster than all the wolves he had met so far.
After adding his stat points, Ky went back to his makeshift bed and closed his eyes to sleep again.
'Man, I really miss my comfortable bed back home.'
A few tears started streaking down his closed eyes.
He was crying not just because of his dearly missed bed, but the loss of all comfort, the constant alertness he needed, and the loss of his parents.
All of those things separately would have made Ky feel frustrated, but he was going through them at the same time.
These events weren't something some rich kid from California could normally handle.
It was very overwhelming for Ky.
He ended up making himself stay awake for another 30 or so minutes with his crying, but it helped to relieve at least some of the stress from the past 2 days.
~
"No mom, I don't want any bacon."
"SSSSSS!"
Ky popped up with a sharp intake of breath.
He reached to his cheeks and felt their wetness. He was crying again even in his sleep and after waking up.
His dreams did not help him at all with his grief.
He could vividly remember his dream. His mom was trying to make him eat the bacon she made along with the rest of the breakfast he was eating, but he didn't want to.
"Hahaha." Ky laughed at how dumb the dream was.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" His laughter soon turned deranged.
It then evolved further into loud sobbing.
"I'm sorry mom! I'd give anything to eat that bacon right now! Wuwuwuwu!" He cried with his head between his knees.
It took another hour for Kyden to calm down. Even then the only reason he stopped was because he realized his face was a mess of snot and tears and he had no tears left to cry. His waterducts were all dried out.
For a long time Ky just sat there staring at the wall, lost in his thoughts.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he was finally ready to begin today's activities.
*Sigh*
"No use crying over something I can't change. It is what it is…" He mumbled to himself.
Ky sat in his meditative position to resume forming his mana core.
~
Like this around 4 days went by, but Ky had no sense of time anymore. He didn't leave the cave at all throughout these 4 days. Even when his stomach grumbled he didn't hunt for food.
He was surviving solely off water right now.
But finally, he saw some progress in his core forming.
He spent almost 10 hours every day for the past 4 days trying to pull mana into his core.
*Pop*
"AGHHHH!!!!"
An intense pain assaulted Ky in the chest area on the 5th day.
The pain lasted only a few seconds before it was followed by a cooling sensation.
This cooling sensation gave him immense relief and even helped his sore body to feel better.
Ky looked down at his left shoulder because it felt very itchy at the moment.
What he saw amazed him.
It was visibly healing.
It was slow, but he could see the skin moving towards the other side of the opening at a snail's pace.
"EW!!!"
A nasty smell interrupted his train of thought.
A black gooey substance started leaking out from every part of Ky's body.
Even his eyes, ears, and nose weren't spared.
It was everywhere and it reeked.
Luckily Ky wasn't on his fur bed at the moment so it didn't get infected, but that was the least of Kyden's worries right now.
He jumped up and sprinted to the lake.
It was actually a pretty fast sprint for someone who didn't compete in track and field events at school.
Ky's agility stat was now at 10, meaning he was now .1 times faster than the average human. While that wasn't a massive increase, it was still significant.
The average took into account only people that were active, so couch potatoes did not count towards the average speed of a human. But, the fastest people in the world did count towards the average, so this boosted the average speed of a human according to the system by a bit.
As he was now, if Ky were to compete in a 200 meter sprint competition, he would probably come in 2nd or 3rd place, whereas previously he would have probably not even been able to make it to 6th.
"Why wont this shit come off!!!"
Ky scrubbed viciously at his whole body to get rid of the disgusting substance that was all over his skin.
He didn't even notice the screens that popped up into his vision until after an hour or so of scrubbing.
Deciding to give up for the moment, Ky walked to the edge of the lake and sat down while still in the water. It only went up to his chest at the part he was at, so it was comfortable.
Looking down finally, he read the messages that the system gave him.
—-------
Congratulations! You have unlocked your mana core!
You are now Rank 0. Remember, before trying to rank up make sure your stats are at the correct limits.
To rank up to Rank 1, all of your stat points need to be at least 50 in all categories before your body will be strong enough to handle having a dark gray core.
You can purify your core to close to dark gray if you would like, but be careful because if you go too far you will start the rank up process.
+5 stat points
—-------
—-------
Congratulations! The formation of your mana core has unlocked a few skills!
Gained: 'Mana Manipulation (1)', 'Mana Reinforcement (1)', and 'Mana Assimilation (1).
+3 Stat points
—-------
"Nice!" Ky shouted.
'Open Interface.'
-------------
Race: Human
Name: Kyden Price
Rank: Rank 0
Divinity: N/A
Total Stat Points: 16
Available Stat Points: 8
STR: 2
AGI: 6
DEF: 2
INT: 3
STA: 1
Skills: Stealth (1), Mana Sense (1), Mana Manipulation (1), Mana Reinforcement (1), Mana Assimilation (1)
-------------
Ky took a few minutes deciding how to split his stats before he settled on something.
'Open Interface.'
-------------
Race: Human
Name: Kyden Price
Rank: Rank 0
Divinity: N/A
Total Stat Points: 24
Available Stat Points: 0
STR: 2->6
AGI: 10
DEF: 2->4
INT: 3
STA: 1->3
Skills: Stealth (1), Mana Sense (1), Mana Manipulation (1), Mana Reinforcement (1), Mana Assimilation (1)
-------------
~
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I should be putting out a few more chapters later today. Again, don't forget to add the book to your library if you enjoy, also reviews and power stones help me a lot so thanks to anyone willing to give them!
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