(James)

"So what magic can you do that's new?"

Dana closed her eyes and thought hard. As she did, the book in her hands opened itself and slowly flicked through the first three pages.

"I have three new spells from this book. They're pretty basic though."

"What are they, It might be worth learning them, and teaching me them. Because let's be honest, if we're going up against something big, I doubt this pistol and a few spears will slow it down."

"Hey. You don't know what that pistol can do. You haven't even fired it."

"True."

And with that, James rolled into a prone position and aimed at the same large bunch of fruit he had before.

This time, when he pulled the trigger, he felt a pull on his mana. When the hammer struck, his drained mana emerged from the barrel as a thin white bolt of energy.

The white bolt streamed through the air and exploded on contact with the fruit. James shielded his eyes as juice and flesh flew everywhere.

"Wow."

But then he saw the mana it had cost

"WOW."

"What?"

James nearly exploded with excitement.

"That only cost five mana. Just five. That's amazing!"

His expression turned from one of joy to one of deadly serious and he put one hand on Dana's shoulder.

"I need you to teach me everything you can about mana. I need to be able to do more with this."

Dana was immediately surprised and flustered.

"Um, sure. I. I'm not the best at it, but Yeah, I'll teach you what I know."

"Oh. Wait. First, what spells did you get? Sorry, I got too excited."

"Oh Yeah, I got Mana Bolt, Magic Missile and something just called Buff."

"Ok. So what do they do? I guess Mana Bolt is self-explanatory."

Dana closed her eyes, obviously reading off her status screen.

"Magic missile is like a better version of mana bolt. Faster, does more damage, but costs more."

"That's cool. Can you cast as many as you want at once?"

"I've never tried to cast more than one spell at once, But I could..."

She put her book to the side and outstretched her hands both aiming down a plant-lined corridor of the maze. But James stopped her before she tried anything.

"Wait, can you teach me how to use mana before you use all yours up?"

"Oh, Yeah. Haha, sorry."

"It fine, so where do we start?"

"It's pretty easy to get started. You really need to understand what mana is."

Dana was still sitting on the ground and had crossed her legs and fallen into a meditation pose with her eyes closed.

James smiled at how serious she was about this, and then easily eased himself into a similar position, facing her. It was

far more difficult than he thought, as the armour was quite restricting. He didn't have time to mess around for long though before she dove into the lesson.

"So you know what dark energy is?"

"Um, Yeah. It's supposed to be something that everywhere, we just can't detect it."

"Exactly. But now we can. What we thought was dark energy is actually Mana."

It was a ridiculous and unreasonable idea, but James had to admit, after everything he had seen, and especially that message from God stating such, it made sense. This mysterious energy that scientists had been trying to find for the last 10 years was now open to them all.

"So how do I see mana?"

"You need to unlock the skill. You need to understand it better."

James nodded, then questioned why he did it. They both had their eyes shut.

"Ok. What do I need to understand?"

"Well. Imagine that mana is like light, just a different form of energy. How do we know the light is there?"

"We can see It?"

When she didn't answer him, he tried to go more in depth.

"Uhhh. We can see how it interacts with surfaces?"

"Correct. Now. Mana interacts with everything. Imagine it is much like light and acts as a wave and a particle. It stands suspended in air, but at the same time, reflects off surfaces, leaving a residue."

James tried to imagine the scene she was describing. All he knew of mana was what he had experienced: the feeling of a wave flowing over him due to Mays spell, the fire that Dana had conjured, and the bolt of white from himself.

No matter how he tried to alter the imagery, he saw a world of white mana, layers upon layers. Couldn't mana work the same way as light?

"Do you have the sight skill?"

Dana sounded eager to advance, something that could only be done when he could see the mana with ease.

James grimaced in response.

"No. Nothing yet. Can you elaborate any more?"

Dana took a deep breath, getting increasingly impatient.

"Ok. How about this. Imagine the mana like air. It's everywhere, not solid. Not made of particles or anything. But it is also in everything as well as around it. It's more than an energy."

This helped James more. The image shifted from layers that flexed and dispersed motion to a dense fog, like what he had seen beneath his feet when he visited the deities.

He felt something click in his mind, But there was no notification that he had gotten anything.

"That's better, but still no skill."

Dana swore and muttered something about it being easier with May.

"Fine. Open your eyes."

James obeyed and was met with an intense stare from Dana. Her eyes were glowing blue again, and she had her hands held out towards him.

"Do not blink and do not move. I'm going to do something probably dangerous."

James didn't dare move his head or make any other indication of his reluctance, but Dana had already begun. The edges of his vision turned blurry, and his eyes widened in surprise.

But he trusted Dana, even if she was doing something potentially dangerous. The worst case scenario was that he would have to recover his vision. No biggie.

His vision continued to blur as if the air immediately in front of his eyes was warping.

Tiny flexes from Dana's hands began to colour in his sight. A light blue tint became darker and richer until everything he saw was the vague shape of everything on the other side of this blue shape.

"Ok. There are two lenses of condensed mana in front of your eyes. I want you to try and use Mana force to hold on to them."

James slowly lifted his hands until they were level with his eyes, and for the first time, activated mana force. He could immediately feel the thickness of the air like water; heavy but not restricting. He could also feel the pull of mana towards his eyes.

He tried to feel the shape of the mana without disturbing It, and gently pushed more mana towards them. Then he tried to hold the mana there, tight in the circular lenses.

"Ok. You're holding them. Slowly, and I mean really slowly, pull them towards your eyes."

James' eyes were burning and he desperately wanted to blink, but it would hardly kill him to have some determination, so he kept a strong hold on the shapes and inched them closer.

The closer they got to the surface of his eye, the clearer the image became. Once it merely looked like the view through coloured glasses, the mana on his eyes reshaped itself and he let go.

Skill learnt: Mana Sight (B)

"Oh thank God."

Dana perked up again when she heard his relief.

"You got the skill?"

James nodded as he imagined what he looked like with the same glowing eyes.

"And I managed not to blind myself."

He deactivated the skill and the reactivated It, marvelling at the difference he could see.

"What's that thing in your chest? It's the only, not blue thing I can see."

Dana leaned back on her hands, putting some real thought into her answer.

"I think it's like a mana core. When you absorb mana from the air, it goes into the core, and when you use mana, it comes out the core."

"So it's like a battery?"

"Kind of. I think it also refines the mana. Makes it more concentrated."

"Cool. So. Shall we go find the others?"

Dana tensed up as what James assumed was guilt took over her.

"Oh my God, yes. I completely forgot. Let's go."

James smiled and tipped the loot from the cache into his bag. Dana held onto her book so that she could mess with it while they walked, and he kept his gun out, just tucked into his belt.

"Oh yeah, you got any water? Or food? I'm actually starving."

"Water I have plenty of. But we didn't bring much food with us. Just grab some of the fruit off the trees, it's all good to eat."

"Awesome. Shall we go?"

James offered Dana his hand again and lifted him up. Then he spied her armour stashed under one of the bent and broken benches. He threw it to her and she made a face before shimmying into it. James wasn't entirely comfortable in the armour, but it had saved him a potentially fatal injury the day before.

As she pulled it on and adjusted herself so she could breathe properly in It, she was led a question that James should have asked a while ago.

"So. Where exactly are we going?"

James paused. He hadn't actually thought about it. Of course, they wanted to go back to the workshop where it was safe. On the other hand, they had no idea where the rest of their group was. It had been over 12 hours since they had last been seen, and it was making James nervous.

"I say we complete the mission. We're halfway there already. Let's go to the office and get our phones. Then we can actually find out what's going on in the world."

Dana instantly got serious and nodded.

"Ok. But you're carrying the gold and crystals and stuff. And the spears. I'm going to try read more of this as we go."

James had to agree. It was important that she got the most out of that book.

"Sure. Just once we get out of the garden. I have no idea where we're going."

"You didn't get the Pathfinder skill?"

"Uh, no. But I haven't really had to try and remember the paths of the maze at all. You've led me almost everywhere in here, or I was just wandering around."

Dana sighed, obviously a little disappointed.

"Fair enough. Let's go."

James tucked both his spears in the gap between his back and armour, making a 'v' around his head. James could only imagine how cool he looked right now.

"Yeah. I feel ready. Let's do this."