Chapter 3

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Squid power ON !

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From what Michael knew so far he could assume many things, when you have a body and a mana pool you need to have some basic knowledge in order to use 'magic'... But it seem that even without a body i can do the same since the simple actions of sending mana pulses for mana echolocation and/or waves to move around are part of 'mana manipulation'. So i should be able to use mana the same way mages do. The basics to use mana are:

--Mana Manipulation

--Mana movement

--Mana conversion

--Mana affinities.

It gets a lot more complicated very quickly after that for example:

Mana manipulation include: Attraction, repulsion, expansion and compression. And that is only for basic mana usages. I feel like i should give an example. To create a sphere of mana you need 1 'attraction point'. You place this attraction point 'that attract mana toward it' in the center of the mana lump, so basically like gravity... If placed at the center, mana will automatically create a sphere..

Now take that sphere and create 8 more 'attraction points' and place them 'outside' where each corner of a cube should be. What you are doing that way is basically creating a bulged cube. Each attraction and repulsion points need to be kept active with concentration, so having a shape using 9 points or more like a cube is like doing 9 things and more at the same time. You can imagine how mentally exhausting mana manipulation can get.

The difficulty is accentuated when you take in consideration that those 'points' are adjustable, meaning that you need to monitor how much attraction or repulsion is to be used. To much and you can rip the all thing out of shape.

This is just barely scratching the surface and more explanation aren't needed for now since i dont seem to have enough mana to do much. I can make a cube... And pyramids.. but 12 'manipulation points' seem to be my limit at the moment. I need to prioritize.. I need more mana and for this i need to use 'Mana conversion' which is used for leaching mana. Leaching mana from others may sound awesome, even overpowered in a way, but trust me it isn't... Any intelligent beings can do it, so why aren't they using it ?

Simple, because it is highly dangerous, have a lot of restrictions to it and can kill you in less than a second. Sighh i think more explanation are needed... To drain someone's mana you need to create a connection by linking your mana to the target's. Immediately when that's done a natural drag occur.. Which mean that the one with the biggest mana pool will start assimilating the other mana and this process can happens in the blink of an eye, with you being dead before realizing it.

So one may thing, as long as you 'link' to a smaller mana pool it's in the bag right ? WRONG... That's what i meant by highly restricted.. There's others very important and influential factors to it. And that would be 'Mental fortitude' or fighting spirit.. Basically mental strength. You can assimilate someone's mana pool even if bigger than yours as long as you have the strongest fighting spirit. There's other factors like blood thirst etc.

'Thank God i..[...] Fuck it. Thank Satan for my previous life as a spiritual vampire otherwise learning this the hard way would have certainly killed me many times.' (Michael)

The best way to describe mana leaching is (Mana tug of war). By the way, there's no such thing as 'mana drain'... That doesn't exist.. Things are never that simple.. This is not a manga or a game, mana is a periodic element (that do not exist in all realms) but like everything in the real world, it is super freaking complicated !

As weak as i am i wouldn't even dare play 'mana tug of war' with an insect.. But luckily i have what i think to be the solution right in front of my non existent eyes. More mana bubbles/slimes/clouds call it what you want there's lump of mana similar to me floating all around.. My understanding of it would be that my soul have been implanted inside one of these things.

They all have the same mana 'print' which mean they most likely don't have a consciousness therefor no fighting spirit. That to me sound like 'dinner' mwehehehe* This theory seem to be confirmed by the fact that unlike me they do not move much... they just float around aimlessly..

Slowly approaching one of the smallest lump i extent a mana thread toward it and soon create a mana connection.

Slurrrrrrrrpp!*

[...]

'Well.. that was easy... they are so weak willed that i didn't even had time to pull... ' (Michael)

I almost doubled my mana pool/body size. I guess there's only one thing to do now right?

Sluuuuurrrrrrrrpp!* Slurrrrrrrrpp!* Slurrrrrrrrpp!* Sluurrrrrrrrppp!* Sluuurrrrrrrrpp!* Slurrrrrrpp!*

(A few hours.. who really know how long, when you're in a cave it's hard to judge time. So.. 'What felt like a few hours' later)

Slurp!

'WOAAaa!' (Michael)

Everything got clear.

'I... i can see ?! Like.. eyes kinda seeing...?' (Michael)

When i then try to look around 'WOAAAAAaa What the fuck ???'.. I can see a red glowing orb straight in my face ! I'm kinda ashamed to admit it but it took me WAYY to long to figure it out... A few, 'what felt to be hours' later i finally understood what i was looking at.. My eyes... I can hear you thinking, how does one see his own eyes ?

Well my eyes are 2 red glowing orbs floating inside my body capable of independent movements. So i'm able to look in the front with one eye and in the back with the other. But with my body being almost transparent what happened is that i was looking at my left eye with the right one, and looking to the right eye with my left one.. You can imagine the weird optical illusion this created.. Not surprising it took me a while to figure it out.

What's even cooler is that i can't see any sunlight, nor can i feel any wind.. So i must be very deep underground so i should be in total darkness.. Night vision has it's limits but i could see as clear as day! Must be some sort of advanced mana based night vision, but even the most sophisticated type of night vision can't see in perfect (no light at all) darkness.. If i could see so clearly there's had to be a light source somewhere.. Then it hit me. My eyes !! Yes them again.. They are glowing.. Mana based bio-luminescence ?! Well who really care what really matter is that the faint red glow they are giving off is enough for my night vision to pick up as a light source. Ever seen a infra red light/camera ?

Finally being able to 'see' in the proper sense of the term i then proceed by assessing my surrounding. I definitely am in a cave, but i am surprise to see that the wall are not made of rock but made of dirt.. I can also see giants, medium and small roots all around strangely giving off the same mana print as the lumps i've been slurping all this time.

I can only assume than those mana lumps are being generated by the tree who's roots belong to. I can't feel a mana pool from it but more as if the cells of the tree were producing a very small amount of mana, be it via photosynthesis or other means. I could explain to you how mana is generated in the world but ill keep that for later. (Let's just say that i know there's 2 'sun' on this planet.)

With all that in mind this tree is the closest think to a mother i can think of... My body was basically born from it. I can't wait to see what this tree look like above ground but that will have to wait. I then named the tree 'Mother tree'.

Sob*

'So much for motherly love. Well let's finish this...' (Michael)

Sluurp! Sluurrrp !

[...]

Much later after absorbing all the mana lumps i could find it suddenly feel very empty/lonely in here.. I am a heck of a lot bigger than i was and started using another mana manipulation technique called 'compression'. The same way you can compress air, mana can also be compressed. By slightly compressing my body i shrug, became heavier (still not heavier than air tho) and i also became more opaque.

Like fog, the more compressed i am the more opaque i become. But after doing so i found a solution to avoid being blown around by winds when i reach the surface.. The more compressed i get, the heavier i become, then the hardest it'll be for wind to blow me away. This tho create another problem that i will need to figure a solution for and that is, if i become heavier than air, then i can't 'float' around anymore.. I'll need to find a new way of locomotion.

But for now, being down here in this cave i don't need to worry about it, and my train of thought is actually aimed toward the makeup of this cave.. If it isn't rock but dirt.. Then one would think that this cave isn't that deep after all. (Contrary to what i first thought.) There's tree roots after all, so being close to the surface yet having no wind or light, it might be possible for this cave not to have any exits.. Not that i would have noticed since i don't need to breathe..

Well let's think about that in due time shall we.. For now i need to practice the basics of mana. Let's start with manipulation.

Making cubes* Making pyramids* making cylinders* making thin/thick/expanded/compressed mana threads...

Then make the same shapes again but with more attraction and repulsion points making the shapes more crisps.. Sharper... Seems like i've reached a point where i can make more 'points' than my mind can handle.. So that's why i need to train my concentration.. And train a lot since im only capable of what would be considered baby steps in magic.

(Many hours or maybe days later...)

Today i got a brilliant idea.. It came to me thank to the knowledge of 'air bullet'. It is an air based ability that can be emulated with simple mana manipulation. To use such technique one would think that you need the mana affinities 'air' to use it but with high control and understanding of mana manipulation the same result can be achieved without it! Noted that i still dont know if my mana have any affinities at all but i dont have enough mana to start experimenting on that.

In game and manga you often hear of earth-fire-water-air-light-dark affinities but in real life it's a heck of a lot more complex than that.. There's hundreds of different affinities and new ones are still being discovered till this day.

Going back to my brilliant idea! I though of a way to propel myself at high speed trough the air thanks to this air based 'mana manipulation' technique. You just need 3 manipulation 'points'...

1: Attraction in the center of my body turning myself into a sphere.

2: Repulsion also in the center turning myself into a hollowed sphere.

3: Repulsion outside on the opposite side of the directions i which to go to. This create a opening on one side of the hollowed sphere.

Then simultaneously removing 'point' #2 and increasing the strength of 'point' #1. This create a blast of air quickly exiting trough the hole created by 'point' #3 propelling me forward at high speed. It is the exact same method squids uses to propel themselves excepted with water instead of air.

If one were to see me they would see a semi-transparent orb jellyfish-squid looking creature moving at high speed all over the place.. With my 2 glowing red eyes no doubt i would be marked as an evil spooky creature but i don't care. I'm all alone. With no one in this world except myself to keep me companies. Not surprising that i recently started talking to myself.

I quickly need something new in my life, i need to get a move on and see the world ! It's only a matter of time before i go nuts in this dark hole.

'Look like it's time for some cave exploring! Speleology mode activated ! Go squid go !!' (Michael)

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