{Meditation has reached its maximum level}

Because of already present Body cultivation method, Meditation is evolving into a breathing technique.

*Ting*

[Skill: Apex breathing method gained]

Apex Breathing technique: The art of breathing which helps the pursuer to channel the worldly energy through their body to gain strength beyond normal means.

[Skill: Mana regeneration gained.]

The procedure was simple. I had to breath in, hold for as long as I could, and exhale. But the catch was to repeat this breathing method till the very end, while sensing mana in the surrounding, and also keeping a relaxed mind.

This wasn’t an easy thing to do at all.

And knowledge that I didn't have until now rushed into my brain like a high tide.

Not only did it fill the gaps that I had about the body cultivation method, but also gave me new ideas and knowledge about what the thing ‘Mana’ actually was.

And with a new founded excitement and knowledge, I once again sat to meditate.

And unlike before, with this new way, I breathed following the method, and a new rhythm formed inside me.

Mana sense activated automatically with my breathing and made my world colorful.

Dots upon dots of different colors filled my sight.

My every breath increased the clarity of the said dots. I added perception to the mix and the cocktail of overpowered skills started attracting the dots toward me.

The lights moved slightly and slowly because the power behind my breath wasn't strong enough to empower the energies which were far away from me, but the one near me still vibrated and moved toward me.

And just when the first dot entered my body with my breath, new information emerged in the form of a Blue box.

You have successfully attracted and influenced the mana of the world to leave the bonds of nature and assimilate with you. Now to reach the first level, you need to assimilate enough energy to help you explode your muscles and enter the phase of rapid regeneration.

The blue box talked as if that was an easy job.

All that the first string of mana did was to open a new world for me, but the slope of difficulty to travel on this new path was too steep for me to traverse in a single day.

And the second string took almost an hour to reach and enter my body.

I checked my status to see any kind of change and noticed having gained a new stat. Mana it said and had 1/1 written behind it.

On examining it another window appeared.

To reach the first level in your body cultivation, you need to fill the mana guage and explode half of it inside your body. Remember that the process will be a very painful experience and can kill you. Therefore don’t go overboard and use the rest of the mana to regenerate your muscles.

Muscle strengthening has 10 levels and every level increases you strength by 4%, agility by 5% and Endurance by 3%.

And I cultivated until someone came to wake me up.

{Mana sense has risen to lv 3}

{Perception has risen to lv 11}

For some reason Tiny didn’t wake me up in the morning, and when somebody did wake me up from my stupor, it was already evening.

“You, what kind of training are you doing?”

I opened my eyes and saw one of the guards of the captain of the scavenger division looking at me strangely. I looked around and didn’t see Tiny, but he answered me before I could ask him where he was.

“Don’t worry about him; he has just gone to the training hall with the other kids. Looks like your work ethics charmed them too.”

I snorted at his comment and stood up.

“Okay, get fresh. The captain is calling for you.”

I looked athim for a second and sighed. I checked my mana levels and it was now 3/3.

I used clean and started walking in front of him. “Come on”, I said, and he came running behind me looking a bit fazed.

It didn't take us long to reach the headquarters. On the way I saw many ants adorning the fashion thing on their necks.

I asked the soldier whether he knew anything about the fashion thing, but his reply didn’t tell me anything either.

“Fashion? What’s that?”

He looked around but didn’t found anything out of the ordinary. The situation was so absurd that I had to point for him to understand what I was asking about.

“That, I don’t know about? I’m sorry I’m not well versed in these things you know.”

His reply really was no help at all.

We walked through the central hub and I saw the usual crowd waiting for the mission to be announced, after getting shy from the several glances by male and female ants later, I entered the captain's room.

"Ah!you are here. Good, good. Sit down, sit down. Now, would you like to have something; honey, or sugar?"

I declined his generous offer and asked him what was needed of me.

He looked stunned for a second and nodded his head laughing, "haha... it's just how they say it. When at work, only do work. Anyways, as you probably know we need to get the facts about your return straight. So why don't we start with you telling us how you returned back alive from the bees hive. Moreover alone?"

And understanding that this was just regular procedure, I started narrating my experience in the hive.

It took me quite some time, almost an hour to completely convince him that with the ascension of the bee princess I saved, our relation with the Bess would probably get better.

He said it was okay to have allies, but it was still better to be strong yourself. Anyways, most of his questions revolved around the attack on us by the enemy black ants.

{Narrator has risen to lv 6}

"So did you hear them say who they were targeting or anything of that sort?"

I asked him whether my team leader didn't tell him the story, and he said, “No we did get everything from her. We just needed to understand the whole story, view all the angles. Maybe you found or heard something which she didn’t. Only after comparing both testimonies can we walk up the step and get closer to understand the actual truth.”

So I told him that I heard the black ant asking my team leader to back off, and let them capture me, but they failed to do so because my team leader used her brain unlike them, and called out the bees on guard using her pheromones.

"Okay, that's alright."

He said and asked me to wait outside with the other scavengers for the mission.

And just as I Came out of the room an ant jumped at me, and held me tightly.

{Fast processing has risen to lv 4}

{Concentration has risen to lv 5}

That not only scared me, but also froze me up. I was going to retaliate, but stopped, when I saw the familiar faces of my team standing in front of me.

Vice captain had a huge grin on his face, the scout had tears in his eyes, the others were spilling happily and team leader was hugging me. Refusing to it me go, as If the bees were going to once again come and take me away.

"I didn’t know how you did it, but welcome back."

"Yes. I'm back." I replied and the other pounced on me too.

"What the hell kid? Wasn't fighting and breaking the skeletons of other ants alone enough, and now you are breaking myths too!"

"Oh shut up.Don't forget... he is the hero."

We reconciled and talked about the mission.

“One day or another we are going to kill those bees!” Captain yelled, but I hurriedly cooled her mind saying there was no need.

I told them how Lara helped me get out of the hive and the bees wee now our allies rather than the enemies.

Though it hurt me a little to see a new face standing behind the team rather than the familiar Carry, but because others didn't say anything, I also didn't talk about it.

I understood that if I was feeling so bad about it although I only knew him for a day, then they probably would be having a very hard day themselves.

We were just talking, when the new mission was announced. I saw the ever cheerful Vice Captain standing on the podium and getting ready to shout.

"Attention everyone!” and with a voice loud enough to spread across the whole hub, she gave the details about our next mission.

“This is an Orange mission. I repeat this is an Orange mission!"

And everyone around me stiffened as if someone was invading us, and my thoughts were away from the target by that much.

"The enemy is our rival black ant colony. Every team leader is advised to check the notice board and met with their squad leaders by tomorrow morning.

And team leader and vice leader started walking toward the front, where the notice board was hung. While the announcement continued.

“The one who fail to report to the squad leaders will be punished with their rank stripped, and they will be made to work in the civil department.”

I asked the scout what was happening, and she replied with an unusually tense voice, "We are invading the black ants."

{Intermediate knowledge has risen to lv 10}

Team leader soon came back with a tag in her hand.

“Let’s go.”

Her expressions didn’t look any good, but we followed her.

It didn’t take long to reach the barracks allotted to our squad leader.

On the way I saw the ants moving around hurriedly. It was chaos.

Entering the barracks I saw another four teams already standing in front of a slightly slim ant who had white dots all over his body.

A quick appraisal and it turned out to be a mutated scout ant. A rank 2 mutated scout at that.

Name

…

Level

24/50

Species

White dotted soldier ant (Mutated)

Rank

2

Job

Soldier/Spy

I couldn’t see his skills, nor his stats, but it wasn’t a hard thing to follow. After all, I was appraising someone way over my head.

He looked toward us with his forever squinting eyes and spoke in his almost whispering voice.

“Welcome.” And although his voice didn’t echo or for some reason leave behind a trace, I heard him clearly.

It was as if he was speaking directly to me and no medium stood between us to distort his voice. I remembered that my [Whisper] also had the similar function.

“Now that all five of you teams are here let’s get down to business. All five of you…” He spoke referring to a team as a single body and continued, “Will spy the enemies for us.”

And thus began our mission.