Three rules, Two meditations and one sword that...

Since Zatu had already experienced it Arbo explained a bit more about the truth state.

"Zatu, no one truly knows exactly what the truth state is."

"Even I, through all my years in this life, found only three consistent rules that it follows."

"One, the more you seek the truth state the harder it is to encounter it."

"Two, hearing about other people's experience in the truth state makes it harder to encounter it."

"Three, the best way to encounter the truth state is to look inside yourself and follow your heart."

Zatu frowns a bit.

"That sounds a bit vague grandpa."

"It has to be like this Zatu, rule two is no joke and if I tell more details I won't be talking about the truth state anymore, but about my experience with it."

"Take these three rules to heart Zatu and be careful when talking about it with others, lest you block their path unintentionally."

Zatu nodded, thinking it is a pity he wouldn't be able to share this with Schalt.

 "I understand grandpa Arbo." 

Happy with his exemplary teaching, Arbo walks to a chair close by and starts basking in the sun.

Zatu, with the little strength he recovered, drags his body under a tree and sits down in a lotus pose.

His bastard sword resting upon his lap.

With deep long breaths he closes his eyes.

His focus shifts instantly to his sword before he pulls it away from this habitual practice.

'Let's try recovering mana first.'

Following his instincts he tries to bring back the mana sense he felt during the awakening.

 A feat impossible to him just a day ago, that now worked instantly and with barely any effort. 

As if he just knew how to do it and had already done it many times in the past.

For a moment a feeling of deja vu crosses his heart and before he understands where it comes from.

'It's the skill helping me, the mana control skill.'

Free from confusion he continues to feel the mana around him.

Much like a pebble at the bottom of the ocean he cannot see the end of this sea of mana.

And as he felt this sea envelop him from every direction a series of continuous and dense pulses of mana caught his attention.

Turning towards it and opening his eyes he sees the southern wall of his backyard.

Noticing they seem to come from deeper inside the city's inner core.

A pointed guess comes instantly to his mind.

'The Unbreon Tower? '

A tower built in the epicenter of Unbreon, so tall it pierced the clouds.

Used as a command center for city officials and residence for the viscount and his family.

But all that and the pulses were not important for Zatu at his moment.

So shaking his head He closes his eyes once more.

His mind feels the mana around and commands it to enter his body.

As if a damn opening mana from the world floods his body as soon as he commands.

With speeds so fast Zatu didn't even have time to react, beforea sharp headache hit his head.

 A grunt of pain escapes his lips and just like that his focus was broken.

The next moment the mana gathered in a matter of moments poured out just as fast as it entered. 

And the sharp headache also lessens, till after a few deep breaths it finally subsides.

"Everything alright there Zatu?"

"Yeah yeah, just forgot you could overflow on mana."

"Oh , hehe." Arbo chuckles, his eyes glazing over with nostalgia "It's been quite a while since I last saw someone do that during a meditation." 

Zatu sighs glancing back to his resources bar he sees the mana has not changed from the earlier 0/1.

Going back to meditation he tries to focus on the mana once more.

But instantly a weak but growing headache convinced him to back down for now.

Changing his focus to his sword he strokes its metallic body, the tether between him and it appearing in his mind.

As he breathes in and out he imagines himself wielding his sword.

With each stroke of his hand a different strike in his mind.

Through the tether he feels a small almost imperceptible amount of sword intent flow into his sword.

Then after a moment it flows back to him.

He feels the sword tremble under his palm, resonating with the mental movements.

Time ticks slowly, the usual 15 minute long sword meditation extending far beyond its deadline.

 Till when he finally opened his eyes a full hour had gone by.

[Mana] -- (0/1) / [Sword Intent] -- (4/4)

Happy with the result he connects once more with the world's mana.

This time no headache, but he doesn't dare to be careless.

Frowning his brows he focuses on a small amount of mana, willing it to enter his body once more.

Once inside, he just... lets it sit there, confused about what to do next.

Though Arbo's teachings had allowed him to have a perfect first actual sword meditation, when it came to mana Arbo simply hadn't taught anything.

'Maybe if I resonate it with the sword.'

He thinks.

And for a time he tries to send the mana through the tether with between him and the sword, but the mana inside his body doesn't even budge.

Some other ideas come to mind, maybe he needs to make a mana tether, but doesn't know how.

Maybe he can mix it directly with the imbue lightning, but the skill fails to activate with the crude mana.

Idea after idea he keeps trying and failing and soon a couple minutes pass.

It is then that he notices a difference.

The mana he had gathered earlier had slowly started to transform from its simple neutral form to a more complex and much more familiar type.

Lightning mana.

Seeing just holding it there seemed to have at least some effect. 

He just sat there as the minutes passed, breathing in and out slowly.

Quietly holding the mana in place.

Only half an hour later he feels his body saturate with lightning mana.

The crude mana that was left being expelled by its purple sparky form soon after.

[Mana] -- (1/1) / [Sword Intent] -- (4/4)

Though happy it worked, an unsatisfied thought floated in his mind.

'Okay, there is just no way I'm doing this right.'

 He shakes his head, before instantly dumping his mana and 1 sword intent on his sword.

For a moment a dim purple glow covers its edge.

One of the things Arbo had reinforced the most was that resource pools grew with use and also recovered slowly by themselves.

Standing up Zatu this way to the sleeping Arbo.

His old but muscular body unbothered by the hot sun, stirred on his chair like a lizard on a rock.

"Yo, wake up old man." Zatu pokes the sleeping Arbo at his side. 

"huh? What's the matter kid?" He asks groggily.

"Do you have a manual for mana meditation or something? the one you taught me just doesn't work with it. "

"Not really, I forgot that class of yours even existed so I didn't prepare anything for mana."

"You forgot? I guess, getting old is really tough huh?" Zatu snickers.

"Stop nagging me boy. It's really rare to see it on tier 1 okay and even for those that get it later on almost no one bothers picking it."

That gave a pause to Zatu, a little worry appearing in the back of his mind. 

'Did I mess up? It shouldn't be the case, else Grandpa would have said something about it... right?

"What?! why not? The description sounded really good to me."

"Stop panicking boy, the class is really good, but the drawback of half a leveling speed is no joke." Arbo scoffed before going on with his wise old man voice.

"Think with me, the first tier takes at least a few months, double it and you have at least half a year, which is not too bad."

"Tier 2 can take a few years, Tier 3 a decade, the higher your tier the harsher your leveling and that's all considering a constant grind and no leveling debuff."

Arbo shakes his head before going on.

"Of course harder achievements or tasks for your class can speed that up too, but for combat classes that generally means either underdog wins or close calls with death."

"Shit." Zatu curses under his breath only now fully realizing what double the work to level up truly meant. "Tell me straight grandpa, am I fucked?"

"HAHAHAHA." Arbo laughs at his face. "Relax, if I said it's good, the class is good."

 "Zatu, a leveling debuff is far from special and having one is a great indicator for a truly harsh, but great class."

"The biggest reason why your class in specific is really rare is because of the dual resource aspect."

"Why though? Isn't having more just, better?"

"In your case? For sure, but not everyone gets swordsman as a tier 1 option, much less magic swordsman. So when you factor the time adapting your whole combat style to having mana after months or in most cases years without it, the answer is just not that clear cut."

At that Zatu raised an eyebrow, clearly doubting that statement.

"What? You don't believe me?" Arbo scoffed.

Zatu shrugs.

"I meeeean, the requirements didn't seem that harsh, it was just meditation and a bit of sword skill."

Hearing his adopted grandchild Arbo face palms himself.

"I swear I tried to raise you right..." he mumbles just loud enough for Zatu to hear.

" Boy, you'd get jumped for saying shit like this outside, not everyone has a sword wielder of my level doing personal teaching daily!"

Arbo stretches in his chair and shakes his head.

A smug smile shines on his lips.

"If I said I was the second at the sword in the city nobody would claim first, with a teacher like me of course it seems easy."

Zatu thinks for a bit before nodding.

"I guess I can see your point... Still don't have a good mana meditation method though."

"So much nagging, I didn't think it would matter okay?" Arbo scoffs. "Look, I could get you an official manual from Unbreon, but honestly your friend should have access to one that fits your element better."

That gave Zatu a pause, Schalt did come from a large merchant family. 

"You're right, thanks grandpa."

Zatu says as he walks away, since training his skills without it would be ineffective.

He might as well just go pay a visit to Schalt now and already reserve a vip room for tonight.