Looking at the progress bar in front of my eyes, not even close to 5%, it appeared that there would be a while until the new tutorial phase will begin.

“In that case, I should focus on the mana skill for a bit. It still hurts like fuck, but I can tell that not even in the lungs themselves I don’t have things set up properly for my body to absorb and forward mana to other organs…”

That’s why I focused only on breathing in and out and calming down, while pondering about what to do. Looking at it logically, there were two courses of action: one, reinforce the lungs and the heart at maximum efficiency and then have the blood carry both oxygen and mana to the rest of the body. Two, focus on slightly reinforcing the other parts of my body in a similar fashion to the two organs I already did, meaning barely, by introducing mana to them.

“Now, for the pros and cons... if I go with the first option, the efficiency with which I absorb mana and send it throughout the body will drastically increase. The problem is that, if I do so and the mana an organ like the brain receives, is too much or too refined, I might die on the spot. For the second option, it is the safest way to go. While painful, I am certain that, if I send wisps of mana from the heart to other portions of the body until they get slightly used to it, I can return to the first option after and prioritize the maximum reinforcement, for maximum efficiency. The con for this option: while safe, I will lose a lot of time. Time that I might not have…”

I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place, but I couldn’t exactly gamble with my life. There weren’t enough details to work with, therefore I could only play it safe. Actually, even if I had more details, without a precedent, I wouldn’t take such a risk...

The course of actions I decided upon, would be to create ‘paths’ of mana from the heart to other organs, by slowly reinforcing the blood vessels as well once I’m at it. As for the organs I will prioritize, will be as follows: since I already worked on the lungs and heart, next will be the stomach, spleen, liver, kidneys and finally brain.

Why in that exact order? Well, if the world changed and mana is everywhere, maybe by enforcing the stomach I can receive extra mana income through the things that I’m eating, therefore increasing the mana I can gather. Spleen because of its role in renewing blood and mana-enhanced blood sounds like it would make things much easier towards the goal of having the entire body re-forged in/with mana. The liver… because I might require a new one after wasting my existing one with so little sleep for over 9 years now that I am either drinking tea or taking pills for it... The kidneys, well just because they are a major organ really and finally, the brain last, mostly because I am scared of what could happen, therefore postponing the inevitable as much as I can.

With the plan done, I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth and began focusing on the inside of my body again. Simply by breathing, I could see wisps of mana gathering inside my lungs and slowly moving towards the heart, using the vein I almost burned with mana between the two. Willing it with my mind, I dragged some of that mana forward, in the direction of the stomach, using one of the main arteries leaving the heart…

“Holly fu…”

I gasped in pain as it felt as if molten steel was being poured inside the weak blood vessel. I was sweating from both the pain and anxiousness. After all, what if the mana is too much for the arteries and they burst? Won’t I die because of it? Goddamit! I did not think things through properly enough!

However, what was done was done and I couldn’t exactly stop halfway. That’s why I bit onto my lips hard enough to make them bleed, all in order to make sure I stay awake and don’t faint because of the intense pain.

...

“Ugh…”

With a grunt, I fell on my back and complained about the clothes that were drenched in sweat. I will probably have to take another shower… again! After the entire artery was enforced, both mana and oxygen were moving towards the stomach much freely and quicker than before. Therefore… I was caught off guard and almost blacked out because of the pain. Luckily enough, I already threw up, once I was teleported here and had nothing left in there. That didn’t stop me from dry heaving, making the whole ‘focus’ thing harder and therefore allowing too much mana to pass through in the stomach.

“Fuck dammit! I don’t even have words to describe the pain… Holy cow! Now, not only I’m I dehydrated, lacking blood and dizzy, but I am also hungry!”

The curses flowed out of my mouth, as if it had been mana enhanced already. Mentally calculating the time, I realized that I must’ve rested for over an hour, until the feeling of finally being able to breathe properly returned to me.

“Spleen next… If I turn into an M after this, I swear to god…”

I kept on torturing myself for the next eternity or two and I have to admit that the feeling of mana being poured into your brain was the complete opposite of what I expected. There was no pain, but intense pleasure instead, like rain falling on an empty desert. Either that, or my brain was broken from the shit I put it through and found a coping mechanism…

Anyway, I exhaled a mouthful of stale air and opened my eyes to… well, the same grassy fields. Nothing changed! No, nirvana rebirth or at least an ‘Oh, yeah! Hell yeah it was worth it!’ type of revelation…

[Achievement earned! Trashy mana body: your body barely qualifies to hold onto mana. You are still far away from even getting started on this road, but you are getting there.

Reward: +15 base stats; 0.01% Malice Rate ]

“Fuck! You are trashy! Your mother is trashy! Your whole family is trashy! Freaking trashy system!”

[…]

After venting because of the horrible pain I went through for a while, I opened my status page, as well as my mana skill sub-page and grinned broadly.

Mana

A primordial energy that exists everywhere and nowhere.

Its purpose is to enhance all forms of life.

To use mana you must feel it by meditating, followed by condensing it into a core.

Different mana colors represent different attributes and different core colors represent different ranks of mana purity.

Skill proficiency: LVL 1 (23%) Power: 273 ATK Rating: 278 Survival Rating: 268 Base Stats Total ATK: 33 Total HP: 38 Total Pierce: 28 Total DEF: 31 Total Hit: 30 Total Dodge: 34 Total Crit: 32 Total Firm: 32 Superb Stats Damage Add: 0% Damage Dec: 0% Malice Rate: 0.01% Malice Resist: 0%

“Holy! That escalated quickly! Trashy, huh!? I’m really curious how many of the other participants in the tutorial already achieved these results? Huh!? You trashy system!”

[Answer: 32 others have already reached the same level as you had, with six of them already on a level above you.]

“Fuck! Wait! You can answer questions!? Bullshit! Why didn’t you say anything until now!?”

[Answer: no questions have been asked.]

I blanked out at this AI, or whatever the fuck it was, that was currently taking revenge for what I said earlier. But then, couldn’t I make use of this? Six people are already ahead of me, which means that I’ve missed something… what?

“What exactly did I miss or what did they do extra which I didn’t?”

[Answer: according to your biometric response, you have successfully introduced 7 major organs to mana, connected 5 of them to receive refined mana through 5 arteries which have also been refined, as well as a vein that supplies the heart with mana from the lungs...]

“Wait, hold up! What do you mean only 5 of them? I…”

Then, I realized it! I created a way to supply the heart with mana from the lungs, but not the other way around, therefore reducing the efficiency in my mana intake.

Hastily deciding to correct this flaw, I enforced one more artery and connected it. While at it, I also reinforced the veins returning from the major organs back to the heart, since I decided that copying the blood system might be a good thing to do. A slow process ensued, as I was lacking the material to do go through with the entire thing.

For whatever reason, now that the brain was ‘enhanced’, there was only a sting once mana was being poured through the veins, making the entire process a lot smoother. What I didn’t expect was the feeling of being utterly empty that followed once I was only done with the vein connecting the brain to the heart.

“System, what happened? Why can’t I use mana anymore? Is there a limit?”

[Answer: Incorrect! You have simply ran out of stored mana to use. Given that you do not have a core, your body passively absorbs a miniscule amount of mana, which quickly diffuses through your body. Therefore, you are currently out of mana to use.]

I made a bitter smile and shook my head at the reply.

“Ahem… I guess that makes sense. So, can I just meditate and gather more mana like before?”

[Answer: correct!]

Retaking my lotus position, I focused on breathing until I reached the same feeling of being full. The only difference was that now, I could tell that it was my lungs that were giving off the said feeling, having reached their maximum capacity for storing mana.

Once reached this point, I kept going back and forth between stockpiling mana and then using it to reinforce the veins, which apparently required even more than triple the amount of mana than the organs themselves needed.

“Any specific reason why the mana needed for the veins is higher than the ones needed for the arteries or the organs?”

[Answer: through refining your body, impurities will be removed out of your organs. Requiring a way to transport them, veins need further reinforcement in order to cope with the workload.]

“Hmm? Does the impurities cleaning start immediately?”

[Answer: correct!]

“But I only connected the organs to the heart… What happens in that case?”

[Answer: all impurities from the other organs will gather in the heart, fill up the tissue and cause a heart attack that will eventually kill you.]

“Holy fuck! Say that sooner! What do I need to do in order to have the impurities removed safely?”

[Answer: by creating paths between all major organs including the intestines and the spine, the impurities collected will travel from one place to the other undergoing further refining, until they are deemed unnecessary. Many of the impurities might contain substances needed into other organs, therefore, after running them through a cycle where each organ dumps their own toxins and impurities, while refining and taking away things they need from the other organs, the remaining that cannot be used would simply be taken out of the body using the sweat glands.]

“Meaning I have to connect the sweat glands too… Well, that was very helpful. Thank you!”

[You welcome!]

I spaced out slightly at the unexpected words, wondering if this really was an AI, or something else entirely, but soon forgot about it and focused on the task at hand.

There were six people ahead of me that I need to catch up to!