This chapter took me a longer time to write than the others, I have no idea why. Anyway, enjoy!

At this moment, within Dusk’s field of vision was an incredibly awesome sight. This sight was in fact so beautiful that Dusk was certain that were it not for his fateful encounter on this day, he would have gone his whole life without experiencing a sight of such splendor.

This sight struck awe into Dusk even more so than the nostalgic feeling of regaining control over his optical faculties (though in a completely different way).

As he looked ahead, Dusk could see his room for the first time since he came to this world. His vision, however, was not as he had anticipated. Everything before him was completely white in color. Even the bricks on the wall of his room looked different. While they were indeed shaped as bricks, all that Dusk could see using his eyes were rectangular masses that were constituted of small white dust-sized particles packed together.

Let alone the bricks, even the tables, chairs, even his bed, everything was like a mass of white particles stacked together. The only thing that differed between different objects was the shape of the object, the number of particles it contained and the density in which these particles were present.

The world in front of Dusk at this moment was completely white. Even the air in front of him was constituted of white particles that were moving about freely. One point of importance that Dusk came to notice was that even in the air, these white particles were more concentrated in certain areas than they were in others.

While Dusk had a speculation as to what had happened to his eyes, he dared not assume, after all, within his field of vision was his room, a room that he thought he was familiar with but was now constituted countless white particles. What was even more baffling for Dusk was that he had absolutely no idea of what these particles were.

More so, these particles moved at different speeds within different objects. While in some it moved at a pace even slower than that of a snail, in others they would move at lightning quick paces. Their nature was one of pure awe.

It was almost as though these white particles were unseen atoms of matter, only that their nature was vastly different from that of normal atoms. While Dusk had an idea as to what these particles were, he did not dare jump to conclusions because as of the moment, these particles were of very high concern.

Within his mind, Dusk had speculated these particles to be mana particles, however, as the nature of these particles greatly differed what he had come to learn of mana, he found that hypothesis really hard to prove. In as much as he found it hard to prove, unfortunately, it was the most probable hypotheses at the moment as Dusk knew nothing else of what these particles could be.

The main reason why Dusk did not want to conclude that these were mana particles was because he, as did everyone in this world, knew that the different elements of nature utilized different mana and so for there to be mana of only one color really troubled him.

While still in this dilemma, Dusk turned his eyes over to Stream who was laying a few ways away from him. Once his eyes fell on her body, Dusk fell as though he had been struck by lightning as a sudden realization hit him. Feeling the insight flow into him, Dusk could not help but smile, while he had not completely solved the puzzle, he knew that he had drawn completely close to the finish line.

Feeling this sense of closure dawning on him, Dusk could not help but look towards his own body for a final confirmation. As soon as his eyes landed on his body, Dusk finally felt that the question that had been plaguing him for a long time (a few seconds now) had finally been answered.

As Dusk was never really one who never liked to stay in the dark, he could not stand not knowing what the white particles were. Due to the feeling of displeasure that he felt, he decided to investigate it. After a couple of seconds, unfortunately, as he did not have much to go by in the way of information, he had failed to come up with any conclusion.

It was at this moment that he came to look over at Stream, a decision that he later came to think of as one of his best. What Dusk saw was that around Stream’s body, the white particles were more concentrated than they were anywhere else. Not only that, these white particles was constantly entering Stream’s body.

The most surprising part about this, however, was that once these particles entered her body, apart from a few of them, they all converged at one place within her head after which each particle separated into three parts. One of the two smaller parts was the color blue while the other was the color red.

The last part, which was vastly (almost a hundred times) bigger than the other two, retained a very peculiar color. This color, if Dusk were to say, had no identifiable name whatsoever. Surprisingly, once it separated from the other two particles, it began to disintegrate until it completely disappeared.

The remaining two particles (the red and blue ones) that were really small (almost microscopic in size) each moved and joined their respective sides where other particles of similar color were gathered in a gaseous yin-yang like formation. Dusk watched this process get repeated quite a number of times before he finally took his eyes off Stream.

Once he placed his eyes upon himself, he noticed that something extremely similar to what was happening to Stream was happening to him. Around his body, just like hers’, a lot of white particles were gathered. Once these particles entered his body, majority of them gathered at an area right below his navel upon which they would separate into not three but four particles, one extremely big, and three really small.

Similar to what was happening in stream, the big weirdly colored particle would disintegrate, leaving behind three really small (microscopic even) ones. These three particles, however, were of a different color than those in stream. While Stream’s were red and blue, Dusk’s were cyan, diamond and gold colored.

Once the larger particle disintegrated, the three remaining particles would gather in areas where gaseous particles of similar color gathered to form somewhat of a rotating gaseous triangle composed of three different colors. This sight was really beautiful. Dusk viewed this occurrence occur numerous times within a second before he finally came to a concrete conclusion.

After having witnessed all of this, Dusk was smiling his heart out, as he knew that he had gained insight into one of the most fundamental laws of this world. As of this moment, he had gained knowledge of something really important.

While Dusk had initially thought that the mana for different elements existed in different forms within the planet, he had come to learn that the truth was otherwise; mana within the world exists in its most pure and primal state, as a mixture between all the elements on the planet. Once the different-colored mana from the different elements converged, it would form the true and tyrannical emperor of all mana, the white mana, a type of mana that is within every single object that was conceived by this planet.

After having observed the nature of the white particles, Dusk had come to a conclusion that they were indeed particles of mana, the natural mana of the world that constituted of all elements within existence. Dusk had come to believe that all the free flowing mana in the universe was similar and only changed once it entered the bodies of living beings with certain affinities.

Take for example what was happening in Stream’s body. In as much as the mana was white while within her surroundings, once it got into her mana core, the fire and water parts of the mana were extracted and made hers’. Because the remaining mana particle was incomplete, it succumbed to its instability and thus disintegrated to oblivion.

The same thing happened to Dusk, though in a minutely different manner because of his different affinities. After having learned all of this, Dusk was feeling bliss in his heart because he had gained understanding to a question that was puzzling the inhabitants of this world for a very long time.

In line with his conclusion, Dusk presumed that should he have the chance to look at a child that had not yet awakened, he would notice that the mana within his body will be completely white.

During his initial meditation, Dusk had thought that he had a problem sensing mana because his affinities were rare, however, now that he thought about it in light of this new revelation, that manner of thought was completely whack, after all, all mana exists in the same form and so if he was experiencing problems, so were the others. The only conclusion that Dusk could come to was that other high humans incapable of sensing mana to a high degree.

As soon as Dusk managed to completely comprehend the insight that the whole word was constituted of one pure and primal mana, he could feel his body growing warmer as his mind entered a state of total comfort. This was something he could do nothing about, fortunately, as the whole process did not seem to be even the least bit dangerous, he did not feel any worry.

Before Dusk could close his eyes, however, he could see countless mana particles flying towards him at incredible speeds. Even Stream had opened her eyes and was rushing towards him. Before she could even arrive, though, Dusk was already immersed in that sense of warmth.

This feeling that he was experiencing was similar to what he used to experience as a baby when his mom held him next to her and wrapped her arms around him, an extremely comfortable sensation. The sensation was so comfortable, in fact, that by the time Dusk woke up from it, he felt that no time had passed whatsoever.

He was, however, met with surprise as soon as he opened his eyes as he noticed that his mana had instantly skyrocketed from its initial middle C rank into the lower B rank. This fact really surprised him, as such a breakthrough was something that would normally take at least two years for even the smartest of geniuses to accomplish. It was very difficult to move from one rank to another after all.

The thing that clued him in to the fact that he had improved was that his mana, even though still gaseous, had improved in density. As opposed to how it was less dense than Stream’s before, it was now denser than hers.

Of all this, however, the thing that surprised Dusk the most was that he had increased in strength so much in a short period of time that it seemed impossible. What could have lead to this? Dusk asked himself.

Thinking back, Dusk could only come up with one answer.

“Considering I entered that state immediately after I gained insight into the nature of mana then it could be assumed that whenever one gains insight into a mystery of the world, his/her strength will be amplified. Since the insight I gained was in regards to mana then my mana naturally experienced a boost.”

Upon reaching this point of thought, Dusk was really flabbergasted. If this was really true then that meant that this world was even more mystical than it seemed. As even Jade, his mother, did not know of this fact then Dusk assumed that very few people, if any, knew of it.

Upon coming to that conclusion, Dusk noticed that he was once again on his mother’s lap, only that this time, it seemed like he had been there for a few hours. “Guess that surge of mana really did draw attention, huh?” Dusk thought to himself.