Heartbeats and Hazardous Decisions

'Either this is going to be a great idea which will go completely smooth or go horribly wrong and my veins will inflate and pop like those long balloons' I think to myself.

'But if I want to survive in this world I need to start taking risks in this life unlike my previous one' I think to myself while trying to muster up courage.

I sit down on a lotus position which I read about in a cultivation novel, right now anything that can give me any confidence is good, as I sat down and closed my eyes and began to visualize my whole body inside and out.

in this world there are no magic core where the magic is stored or a magic circle but rather the entire body of the person is a mana core, each part of the human body can store mana and once you learn mana gathering well enough the body on its own learns to collet mana from the nature, but there is a way for high ranking mana users mainly sorcerer's who have reached a higher level of power to turn their whole body into something called a mana vessel, when one turns their body into a vessel they massively increase the amount of mana they can gather but other than just this I don't know much about it, I should probably ask gideon about it.

"Now let's not get distracted and begin the task at hand" Lucian says to himself.

Lucian began to use body strengthening and slowly poured mana into his muscles after which he began trying to carefully and slowly transfer the mana from the muscle into his veins but no matter how hard he tried it wasn't working, Lucian then decided to take an even greater risk which was to target his heart directly, this was dangerous but since all the veins are connected to the heart he should have just done this from the beginning as the risk was still that of dying, Lucian then started to visualize his heart which was beating loudly as he began to push mana into the heart slowly.

'Ok now I just need to keep my rhythm and pour mana into my heart carefully even a single mistake could end in my heart exploding, just doing this much is making my heart ache like crazy' Lucian thinks to himself as he grits his teeth tightly covered completely in sweat. 

 Lucian felt like he was sticking tiny needles into his heart, the sensation was painful and uncomfortable but he didn't stop and as he slowly poured more and more mana into his heart it began to beat even louder but he could feel it, the heart was guiding the mana inside all over his body, he could tell this was the true sensation of what they call channeling and the feeling of calmness started to fill his mind.

'Even while i am still in pain this feeling of calmness that I have only felt a couple of times before in my life is making this a little more bearable, now I just need to make sure that I keep the same rhythm an-....' Lucian's thoughts stop in a split moment and the calm sensation he once felt is completely taken over by the overwhelming pain, his heart beats faster than ever and his muscles and veins begin to contract with his eyes turn blood shot red, as Lucian falls to the ground trying to get back up but the pain of his whole body shrinking and his muscles and veins nearly turning into grinded meat makes his unable to even move a finger after which he quickly loses his vision and passes out on the ground.

Lucian wakes up in shock as he begins to look around the room he is in.

"Huh…Where am i? Last thing I remember is me being in a whole world of pain and then it went all dark but I feel a lot more fine now" Lucian wakes up in shock as he begins to look around the room he is in.

The room only has one bed that he's in and a table that's filled with blueprints and papers looking at the hanging weapons on the wall Lucian guesses that he is in one of the rooms in the smithy, someone opens the door to the room and it's none other than Gideon who walks in and his expression is that of someone who is about to go on a rampage.

"YOU DUMBASS WHAT WERE YOU THINKING DOING ALL THAT!!? IF I WASN'T KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU, YOU WOULD HAVE DIED TODAY" Gideon shouts angrily at Lucian which leaves Lucian scrambling to make up an excuse quickly. 

"Well, I was just doing what you told me to do learn channeling" Lucian tries to say with a confident expression but even he knows that he went ahead and did something that could have ended his life and risked everything.

"You little bastard you think I don't know what you were trying to do, didn't I just say I was keeping an eye on you from the very beginning" 

"Wait from when? Didn't you go back to work after telling me to learn on my own?" Lucian seems confused.

"I was hiding and observing you from a far, but I would have never expected you to do such a stupid thing, DO YOU KNOW HOW DELICATE A HUMAN HEART IS??" Gideon shouts but this time he sounds more concerned that angry Lucian realizes how concerned Gideon is for him and apologizes.

"I am sorry for doing such a dangerous thing and i promise to never do such a thing without talking about it with you" Lucian says to Gideon.

Gideon looks surprised at Lucians demeanor but relived at the same time as he sees Lucian admit his mistakes.

"Just make sure to not do such things out of impulse ok?" Gideon asks.

"I won't you won't have to worry" 

"But I have a question why did you watch me from a far but not teach me directly today" Lucian curiously asks.

"Because I wanted you to fail today" Gideon says.

"WHAT, why would you want me to fail?" Lucian asks after being taken back a bit by Gideon's answer.

"Because I knew what kind of a kid you were after meeting you the first time" Gideon says as he walks up to his desk and sits down on the chair.

"What do you mean by that?" Lucian questions Gideon.

"With how far you have already come in both magic and swordsmanship I knew you were someone who wanted to go even further and reach even higher heights" Gideon says to Lucian as he opens a drawer on the desk and takes out a diary.

"But isn't that what everyone wants to do in the world, learning more, reaching new heights isn't that everyone's dreams?" Lucian says to Gideon.

"That might be true for some but not for all, yes there might be people out there who want only more power in life there, but there are also people out there who want to live a life that's just enough for them, no more no less" Gideon says to Lucian as he flips through the pages of the diary in his hand.