Except she wasn’t doomed, not even a little bit. As she hung there staring at an unmoving screen she actually took time to read it again. Then she reread it, had it changed since she last looked? No she was just being an idiot and hadn’t actually processed all the information, it was spelt out in blue and white.

First Timer Notice: Level 5

Reaching level 5 grants you the ability to infuse a skill with your mana type in this case being Cosmic (rare). While in this realm no time will pass allowing you to focus on developing your mana core and allow you to infuse the elements of your mana into your skill. Note how you have previously used the skill will influence it’s new effect.

Tip: picture a path for the mana to travel to your core and from that point to the place you are most likely to use your skill.

She hadn’t yet done anything about channelling her mana for the use of her walking skill. At least this seemed much easier than it could be. After all she knew where she needed the ability to manifest, it was obvious really, her feet. Ideally both of them.

She didn’t know if having it be both would be an option but to be only able to use the ability with one foot would be a massive pain to the point where it almost wouldn’t be worth doing at all. She fumbled around attempting to grab a single mote of mana. It proved rather challenging as the motes had all grouped up within her core and it wasn’t exactly a process she was familiar with. It required a very specific act of will that she wasn’t exactly familiar with. Like flexing a muscle she didn’t even know she had. She didn’t want to use too much mana as she wasn’t exactly clear on the effect it was having on her body. Plus the last thing she wanted was for all her mana to follow this path forming a second core by her toes or something similar.

After numerous attempts she had one that left her fairly certain she had a single mote of mana, or at least so little that she felt comfortable proceeding. She then pictured a mental trap door in the point in her ever moving mana core where the motes of mana would be at their lowest. Again it didn’t appear in quite the way she expected but after visualising many opening and closing contraptions and imposing her will on the mana to make it only pass through that point when she had so called ‘opened’ the valve or door.

Eventually she felt the process become a tad easier and by gently letting up on her control over the mana she was delighted to see it wasn’t passing through the door unless she willed it. She then cursed slightly as she realised the effort she had put into grabbing a single mote of mana had been irrelevant as she had released it while focusing on the door issue. Grabbing another one proved easier than it had the first time hough which was quite the relief to Beth. Especially if this was the kind of thing she would need to be able to do while on the go. She could currently barely concentrate on her actions and that was when in a literal void with no sound visual distraction or even the feeling of anything pressing against her skin. But she could worry about the future in the future. For now she needed to focus on getting this skill sorted. After all while no actual time was passing she wasn’t clear on how long it had been from her perspective she had spent there but it did feel like it had been too long. She was missing the vibrate greens of the forest if not the oppressive heat. Even the mix of colours that was Leeds would be a pleasant sight. She had stared into the cosmic void around her for so long she couldn’t help but begin to feel watched, as though the void was staring back at her.

Her mind began to wander to what other people experienced during this time. This had obviously been influenced by her mana type, were there people out there surrounded by flames or an infinite ocean? How rare was her rare mana type, were their other people held aloft in the cosmic void somewhere at that exact moment or was in the only one and they were cycled through. Many questions she couldn’t answer and would almost certainly never get the answer to. At least not in full, maybe Pete would do some research when the town got a bit higher levelled. He was interested in that kind of thing, and took delight in learning more. Personally Beth was much more motivated by what it offered her, the power and freedom to do anything she wanted. It didn’t matter all that much what it took to get her there.

Without external distraction there was also nothing that could prompt her into getting back on track but eventually her thoughts left their cyclical journey and she could focus back on the task at hand, getting the mana to both of her feet. She grabbed at the motes again willing a small bunch to stop in their journey and pushed them through the doorway she had made earlier. They then followed a fairly straightforward path straight down towards her hips. She considered having it skirt around her organs but the paths the mana followed didn’t appear to connect with the physical aspects of her body. Instead they acted as an overlay not interacting with her body unless she willed it. Something she wasn’t interested in doing at that moment in time. Plus the direct route would allow the mana to get to it’s destination faster which couldn’t be a bad thing.

Getting to the point in her hips where she wanted to split the mana she knew her concentration would be going into overdrive. She didn’t want to risk doing them one at a time in case it left her with an unskilled foot. Instead she separated the bundle into two more or less equal groups. This didn’t prove too challenging until she tried to move them independently.

It was like trying to tap her head while rubbing her belly, while also wiggling her ears up and down in sync and writing her name with her feet, all at the same time. That is to say extremely challenging. The mana took it’s journey at an absolute snails pace, every millimetre it covered a victory even if not one Beth had the ability to celebrate in the moment. Eventually she got the mana to her ankles. It hadn’t followed a perfect route. In fact Beth was acutely aware of all the wiggles in the mana’s path that had resulted from her lapses in concentration. After all they remained painted in faint purple for all to see.

All to see referring only to Beth and whatever, if anything, she felt sure was watching her. After all she was confident others wouldn’t be able to see these paths as she hadn’t been able to see it in others. Not that she’d been level 5 yet, wow there were just so many things she didn’t know. She wished she could chat to Tem again. After all Tem had had all the answers, even if they hadn’t shared many of them.

Reaching her feet with her mana she needed to decide what to do next, where did she want the mana concentrated. There were some more and less obvious options. After all having it focused in the top of her foot or just under the arches might have had their perks but Beth couldn’t imagine what they would be. In practise she could think of three useful areas, to concentrate it on her toes, to similarly focus it in her heel or to spread a thin layer of mana across her sole, like a thin coating of mud.

However if she was being honest with herself she wasn’t actually sure she would be able to concentrate it in her toes even if she wanted to. That would require further splitting up the mana and she was barely holding it together with the mana in just two groupings.

She also couldn’t imagine what she would be able to do with it concentrated in her heel. It seemed like it would help with power but that wasn’t exactly something she found herself lacking. If she needed to protect herself she was confident she could hold her own with her half-staff against most opponents. No clearly that wasn’t the correct choice either.

By process of elimination that left the base of her foot. She directed the two bundles of mana to their respective heels but before they could pool there she dragged them across her soles. As the process started she noticed with alarm the mana appeared to be leaking out of her feet, slowly but enough that if she didn’t speed up she would have to restart the process. So focused on speed and coverage she didn’t notice more mana trickling down from her core into her feet, following the paths she’d already drawn by instinct.

Soon both her feet were covered in the faint purple that symbolised her paths across the entire soles. However, something still didn’t feel quite right, she reorientated herself to get a better look at her feet, finding herself remarkably flexible in this realm. Immediately she could see the issue, most of her mana was seeping out at her heel because the path went straight there. As such the release near her toes was much less prevalent. This sat wrong with Beth and she began to brainstorm quick solutions before everything settled and she was stuck with it. What she needed was a reverse root system splitting up into many smaller branches but rather than sucking water up was letting mana out. She didn’t have the control to do this all at once and instead grabbed a small number of the motes and began carving new paths through her foot fast. Keeping an eye on them externally to know where she had trouble areas that could do with another passage.

She was barely satisfied with her results when she felt the tell tale switch in control that told her it was set in stone. Whether this was her having finished in just the nick of time or was only able to happen because she was satisfied she couldn’t say but she did know that she had gotten to the point of being content had felt it locking in then had felt the whole world lurch as though the void was throwing her up, depositing her in a place that she hoped was home.