"For a hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character."

Cressida Cowell

I might not be a hero but this last month Magic is proving challenging for me.

I have continued to make great progress with my old skills and seemed to have capped nearly all of them to level 10. But when it came to trying to work out a way to minimise my mana pool I hit the problem I had worried about from the very start and a rather alarming complication.

After a long time focusing on my Mana I was able to push part of it from my body gaining the skill Expel Mana. I was so elated about achieving the skill I didn't notice for a moment the pain and panic it caused my mother.

Frantically, I attempted to pull my mana back into me succeeding in part due to being able to sense the difference between our two mana pools but it was more blind luck than anything else. Although, after the mutual panic and hasty withdrawal of my mana back into me I managed to get half of it back, calming my mother as hopefully the pain went away and gaining me the Absorb Mana skill.

Hopefully it just felt like heartburn and nothing more than that. Still it was alarming for both of us and this is where the complication came in.

I had managed to expel 20 mana from my pool dropping it down to 180. I was thinking to try and push out 20 at a time, 5 times to lower my pool to 100 to be in line with my physical stats at 10 each. As well as check regeneration time.

However, when I checked my status to see if it had any affect I found to my horror an extra type of experience.

Combat experience.

The 10 Mana I had failed to recall had been given back to me in a different way and it looks like I caused 10 experience worth of damage to my mother. Looking at my current health I can only assume that she will be fine. That she surely must have significantly more health than me after living in the world long enough to be old enough to have at least two children.

Anyway to test that I attempted it the other way around. It felt significantly harder than absorbing my mana back into me. But eventually I was able to take 1 mana from my mothers pool. It pushed my pool up to 201/200. It was uncomfortable but not painful. Still when I looked at my status again my Health had decreased to 149/150 and continued to decrease as long as I held onto that extra 1 mana. Although silver lining to all this experimentation was another skill, Mana Drain. Not only was it another skill it was at a Tier 4 skill gaining me 800 experience for it's first level.

The other difference is the speed I was able to gain these skills. All my original skills have taken increasingly longer to level up and took a solid hour of practicing the skill before I was able to get the first level.

But I was able to gain these first levels almost instantly. It might have taken me a long time to work out how to do them but once I had worked out how to push and pull. The skills came instantly with the action. It didn't take an hour of expelling mana, an hour of absorbing mana or even more than 1 mana drained to gain the three skills.

The only reason I can think of for this is that it is linked to the new combat experience. Somehow impact on others, gives skills quicker than simply practicing for hours on end.

What kind of world is that fact going to make?

If it is so much quicker to level skills through combat than drilling or practicing in your mind perhaps levels don't get capped at level 10. It is just that with level 11 taking 1024 hours or approximately 128 days of practice there is no way I will find that out in here.

All in all though, it simply isn't safe to practice magic in here and defeats my idea of somehow hiding my mana pool through some sort of magical skill. Delivery day is any day now and there simply isn't time to develop a magical method of hiding it.

Still I'm not giving up, just yet.

Looking at my status I can't help but focus on my most powerful Tier 5 skill, mind fortress. Is there some way that I can use it. The extra experience through my new skills, levelling up my old ones and the Origin experience for new songs and books I am filling my mind up with has been just enough to push me up to Level 8. I doubt I will make it to Level 9 or 10 before my birth day, but maybe just maybe I can do something about about hiding my status.

Defeat is temporary, giving up is permanent.

Level: 8 Experience: 10 / 51,200 Age: 5 months 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours

Health: 150/150 Stamina: 117/117 Mana 200/200

Vitality: 15

Endurance: 10

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Senses: 25

Mind: 85

Clarity: 20

Magic: 20

Free Points: 80

Skills: Time sense (LV 10) Listening (LV 10) Meditation (LV 10) Sense Mana (LV 10) Swimming (LV 10) Eavesdrop (LV 10) Memorisation (LV 10) Echolocation (LV 10) Recall (Lv10) Composition (Lv 10) Mind fortress (Lv 10) Expel Mana (Lv 1) Absorb Mana (Lv 1) Mana Drain (Lv 1)

Skill experience: 11,500

Origin experience: 2000

Combat experience: 10

Right, that looks awesome to me.

But how can I hide it from others if there is such a thing as an Analysis or Inspect skill?

I think I am going to have to do some renovations of my mind fortress for what I have in mind.

As I continued to level up my Mind Fortress skill to Lv 10 I developed the ability to create 10 rooms of sizes, 1x1,1x1,2x2,3x3,5x5,8x8,13x13,21x21,34x34 and 55x55.

So far I haven't filled the larger rooms with anything so I won't be losing anything when I attempt this.

First up, I allow the larger rooms 6 to 10 to slowly collapse, layering my orginal 5 with their remains until I have more of a mind bunker than a mind fortress buried deep in my mind.

The next step is the trick and one I hope is going to work.

Working my way up through the 16 layers I was able to build on top of my mind fortress I build a staircase reaching to the top.

Then at the top of my mind I build once more what was the first wall of my fortress my status wall. But this time it is just a wall not a room, a false wall if you will, for a false Status. Leveled to what I believe would have been my natural growth without my consciousness being reborn here.

Level: 1 Experience: (100/200)

Health: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 Mana 100/100

Vitality: 10

Endurance: 10

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 10

Senses: 10

Mind: 10

Clarity: 10

Magic: 10

Free Points: 10

Skills: Listening (LV 1) Swimming (LV 1)

Skill experience: 200

Fingers crossed this works, but I will hopefully know one way or another soon

I've reached the end of my mental count down, D Day has to be any day now.