Viewing her spiritual body again, Kaltyr ran through her mental checklist of ideas related to refining magical essence.

“Firstly,” the girl thought, “the book says that I can ‘absorb’ magical essence, so, that’s what I’m working toward. Secondly, I don’t seem to have any control over my meridians nor what I think is my soul, which doesn’t make sense! You’d think that this would all work something like how breathing does, with the meridians or soul representing the diaphragm and/or lungs, with magical essence being the air, but…”

Kaltyr paused her train of thought to move her will over to a random group of meridians in her chest, then attempted to squeeze and contract them.

“Ugggh! Nothing!” She mentally grunted. “How did the stupid creature in the woods do it if the meridians don’t do anything?! Do I have to somehow, mysteriously figure out how to make the magical essence around me flow into me on its own?!”

By this point, the girl’s frustration destabilized her will enough to return her back to the physical world. Then, as she threw her hands up into the air in frustration, a low howl pierced the relative silence of the night, making her flinch.

Kaltyr sat absolutely still, her eyes wide open and lips tightly pressed close, as though any of that would help her hide from whatever creature made the noise.

“You know what?” The girl nervously asked herself. “It’s best not to waste time being angry over not figuring it out, and just figure it out.”

Powered by the fear of stepping outside her little clearing, Kaltyr reopened her mind’s eye and looked over her spiritual self once more—this time, with a deeper pool of patience.

“Okay, so, by watching the scary thing in the bushes, I’ve confirmed that absorbing and refining magical essence is possible, and I also know that contracting my meridians doesn’t seem to be the way to do it.” She thought over that last sentence. “Well, it might just be that it doesn’t work now because I don’t meet the qualifications or have the right skill for it…or something. But I sure hope that’s not it, because then it’s really up to chance whether I can figure out how to make and use mana before this clearing loses its protective ability.”

Kaltyr sighed, then shrugged—both mentally.

“I can’t do anything about it if that’s the case, but I also have no guarantees that it’s like that, thus I should continue experimenting.” The lass grimaced at the idea of spending days, or even weeks, on accomplishing the single goal of wielding mana in order to better survive and thrive in the forest she found herself within. “Plus, what if it turned out that it was all as simple as willing it to happen?”

She didn't like the idea of giving herself false hope, but the thought that she might miss something so important as how to do what the guidebook said all complex life could do… It would be tragic if that happened, because if it turned out that everyone and everything could make mana, and it was as much a part of life as breathing, then she would have a severe handicap in pretty much all matchups—not exactly the optimal situation for someone whose mission was to survive and thrive.

Unwilling to end up in such a disadvantageous position in her new life, Kaltyr unfocused her attention from her magical channels to refocus it on what lied outside her body. She saw within her mind's eye the countless azure wisps and sparkles of magical essence flickering, floating, and flowing around her, seemingly unbridled and care free as they lazily meandered from one place to another.

“Then, I'll just…”

Kaltyr tentatively reached out with her mind to the ambient essence, designating the area directly above her head as the focus of her little experiment. She flexed her will, blindly grasping out, hoping for anything at all to happen. The experience was tantamount to dipping her hand in a pool of water and expecting to lift a chunk of it out…and it worked.

Almost.

“Holy sh-" Kaltyr began exclaiming, before deciding not to waste time on expletives. “Again!”

Kaltyr immediately returned her attention to the magical essence above her and grabbed it with her will in the same way she did to try squeezing her meridians. After that, she felt the magical essence she designated be thrown into chaos. The sparkles, shimmers, and flickers of shiny blue light were suddenly disconnected from their peers and violently zipped around without a purpose. Their flow had been disturbed.

“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…” The girl repeated, shock and joy simultaneously flooding her system as she frantically considered the results of her experiment. “That IS how it works! All I needed to do…wow. But I still haven’t exactly succeeded. How did the beast do it?”

Kaltyr recalled the image she imprinted in her mind of the cyclone of energy funneling into the creature stalking her.

“Compared to how much magical essence that thing was manipulating, I was just moving handfuls! How did it do it?!”

Falling out of her spiritual state, Kaltyr gripped both sides of her head and mimed pulling her hair out while pretending to scream.

“It’s already so difficult to move just a little bit of magical essence, and even that much didn’t follow my commands! Is this a new skill I have to level up?!”

She flailed around for a while until she got tired.

“I haven’t received any notifications telling me of a new skill…” Exhausted, the girl heaved yet another sigh, then mused at the idea that she was sighing enough for ten people. “So, The System is leaving me in the dark about this?”

At this point, Kaltyr was sick and tired of whining, moaning, whimpering, and griping about every inconvenience…but still recognized that she was quite justified in her complaints. After all, how many amnesiacs awoke within a new world that felt simultaneously familiar and foreign with concepts they remembered and understood but didn’t seem to work the same way they thought?

“I can’t just continue moping around when there’s more experimenting to be done…” She groaned.

For what Kaltyr hoped would be the last time that night—because her eyelids were getting pretty heavy—she assumed the meditative stance called the lotus position and opened her mind’s eye, focusing her attention on all the essence flowing around her within a few meters. The task placed a monumental burden on her spirit, seemingly weighing down and slowing her thoughts. Since she hadn’t expected such a backlash, the shock of her will shaking under the immense pressure resulted in her being booted out of her meditation.

“Oh my fu-“ Kaltyr began, before quickly cutting herself off and wiping sweat off her forehead. “No! There’s no point in swearing. The only reason it didn’t work was because I didn’t prepare myself for the pain. Now that I know of it…”

Faster than before, the lass returned to her meditation, and with dominative intent, latched her will onto the surrounding ambient magical essence one more time. The mass of essence bucked and roared like a wild animal, beginning a fierce tug-of-war with Kaltyr, bent on keeping hold of its freedom. The two forces struggled with each other for seconds that stretched on to become an eternity.

And Kaltyr had the edge.

With one final, mental grunt, the girl’s invisible hands yanked the rope right out of her opponent’s grip, and the world turned upside down.

No, not upside down, per se. In fact, everything except upside down, as the energy around Kaltyr swirled in a circle, forming a funnel and flowing directly into her nose and mouth. She took long, deep breaths as the sparkles of magic flooded her meridians. In the split second she had to think, dread took hold of Kaltyr at the thought that she had been too rash and that the magical essence, without anywhere to go, would destroy her from the inside.

Yet, immediately after the worrying thought was born, another idea automatically came to being, giving Kaltyr the impression that something could be done about the situation.

“No way…” The girl mumbled, astonished at how easily she took control of the magical essence once it had entered her system. Not only that, but the automatic impression also led to Kaltyr understanding the purpose of the bright, burning light at the head of her meridians. Yes, it was her soul, and the soul was what refined the essence into mana.

Kaltyr watched as, with minimal effort, vast amounts of magical essence flowed into her body through her every breath, then circulated its way up to her brain where it began to transform.