Gar awoke refreshed and ready for the day, he still had visions of what he saw the previous night floating in his head as he started on his daily chores. He watered his branch experiment with what was left of the water in his bucket before getting his bag on his back, setting out with bucket in one hand and spear in the other. Gar still moved cautiously through the forest but much faster than he had at first, repetition was starting to take the edge of his worries. That was until he got to the axen tree.
The area under the axen tree was stripped bare, the nuts and pods on the ground where all gone, all of Gar’s snares had been ripped down either the wire snapped or the branches they were attached to broken, looking up into the tree all the pods had been stripped from it as well, there were tracks everywhere and Gar could tell two things from them; first that whatever did this was not human or even humanoid in form, second that there where a whole lot of them. Not sticking around to see anymore Gar turned and fled, caution was no longer a priority he just moved with as much speed as he could, he was back at the ladder in no time and shot up it, only to drop all his stuff and climb down again. He was only down long enough to pull up the pegs securing his ladder, and then up it again pulling the ladder up as well when he got to the top. Gar pretty much collapsed to the ground breathing heavily from his short flight from the scene, he could feel the panic rising in him. He did not want anything to do with whatever had cleared the area. He would be staying at his base for the foreseeable future.
His heart still racing and his breathing heavy even after several minutes on the ground Gar knew it was no longer from the run but from the panic he felt. Knowing that he could not let the panic take over or he would shut down in fear, Gar looked around for a distraction something to do without having to go anywhere and he found what seemed like the perfect thing. His plant mana experiment, exploring mana and magic was one of the truly good things from coming to this world. He practically ran over to his little branch experiment set up, mana sight active before he even got there. He stood in front of the six branches and stared at them not really taking them in, just staring their mere presence and what they represented for him being enough to stop him spiralling deeper and deeper into panic. As his breathing calmed he started to take more of it in.
First his control pair the stick laying on the ground wasn’t doing good, to normal vision it didn’t look to bad but his mana sight was telling him a completely different story, there was barely any of the light green mana left in the stick none flowing in the branch just tiny pockets of it in the needles Gar lightly brushed his hand along it, any needles he touched that had no mana left in it fell off in his hand this branch wasn’t quite but soon would be dead.
The other control branch, the one stood in the shallow soil, was doing better all the leaves had mana in and none fell off at his touch, there was however only the faintest wisp of mana running up the wood of the branch. While it was undoubtedly doing better than the other control branch this one was also dying , it was getting a trickle of this light green mana and that was keeping it going but it wasn’t enough, Gar suspected that in a few more days it would be in the same position as the first one.
The next pair of branches where the ones that he had been watering, comparing the one laying on the ground with the control that was also on the ground Gar noticed that the watered branches needles where a more vibrant colour than the controls but the mana in it was much the same, when touched the needles without mana fell off except he did notice a few that stayed attached. This branch was doing better than the control but not by much. This was all important information for Gar, it showed that the normal things where still needed by the plant and did help it but it also needed mana. He didn’t know what use this information would do him but it was all more information than he had previously so he was glad to have it.
The planted branch that had been watered was a bit of a surprise it was doing much better than all the ones he had looked at so far, Gar could tell there was certainly less mana than when he had looked at it the other day but he couldn’t say with any certainty that this branch was going to die. The branch and needles looked vibrant and healthy, the mana in it was a little dim but nowhere near running out, surly simply watering it couldn’t make that much difference? Gar knew he had to be missing something. He would continue to observe it and try to figure it out.
The final pair, which he had watered and added the rotting scraps to, looked the most different. The stick lying on the floor was dead, the needle’s had shrivelled and gone brown, it was filled with mana but not the normal light green or even the yellow he had seen glimpses of this was a grey mana and it was stationary just sitting in the branch, looking at the pile of rot at its base there was also this grey mana in there, Gar wasn’t sure what this grey mana was but suspected it is what killed the branch. He figured that the branch in searching for mana had drawn any it could get into itself.
In stark contrast the branch standing with the rotting scraps mixed in with the soil at its base looked the healthiest out of the lot there was a strong flow of the light green mana in it, the needles looked vibrant and green the branch was healthy and strong when touched. No sign of the grey mana in it despite using the same rotting stuff as fertiliser, looking at the soil where he had mixed in the rot he saw why. There was grey mana but as soon as he noticed it appearing it seemed to sink in and spread out in the soil until he couldn’t see it anymore and even more impressive as it spread more of the light green mana seemed to come towards the base of the branch, looking closely at the base of the branch Gar could see little veins of green mana that he suspected where the start of root growth. It was fascinating the same stuff that killed one branch seemed to be helping the other thrive it was truly fascinating to Gar. He spent some time just going back and forth looking at each of the different branches making note of their appearance and any changes, he was really wishing for some paper and a pen before he was done.
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After a while an idea struck him, these plants have mana in them he can see, so did the conrex, that was how he found them and he knew he had a mana pool so presumably he had mana in him. Could he view his own mana? Once he had that thought it grabbed onto him like an eagle with a fish. If he could see his mana perhaps he could move it and if he could move it then perhaps he could do more with it. With that new line of thought Gar moved his attention away from the branches and onto himself. He started by looking at his hands trying to make out any mana in them but he could see none, not to be dissuaded Gar looked from his arms to his chest, where he felt his mana pool was. Still he saw no colours, no sign of any mana in him at all. That had to be wrong he had a mana pool and he knew it was full of mana, he stared at himself trying to look deeper, willing himself to see his mana. When all of a sudden it happened, his vision sort of flipped and inverted and he was looking inside himself, not physically but in the mana spectrum.
Before him he saw a bean shaped organ glowing with mana, it was dense with a rich royal purple coloured mana. As he watched he realised it was moving inside his, he was unsure what to call this mana organ thing but settled on referring to it as his mana core or core for short, inside his core mana was moving seemingly all on its own, or so he it seemed until he saw the mana leaving a hole in his core. He followed it with his sense seeming to float along behind it as the mana flowed out of his core, it then immediately spread round the outside of his core before traveling outward in a myriad of directions all at once. He watched and followed the mana flow for ages forming a map of its route in his head, it was complex and convoluted seeming to cross over and double back on itself, it got thinner and thicker seemingly randomly while branching off and coming back together all over the place. He knew he was not able to remember all of it or really even much of the mana’s path but he was able to keep enough of the overall picture to realise the mana was flowing all throughout his body. He had seen a picture of a human’s arteries and veins mapped over a body once and the path of his mana through his body was many times more complex than that. Eventually the mana no matter what route it took was brought back to the outside layer of his core where it again spread out over the core, but not mixing with the mana that was leaving, returning into the core through a different hole than the one it had left. It was fascinating, Gar watched wanting to understand more, he did not understand why or how the mana was flowing; the core did not pump or move in any way that would cause the mana to move the mana just moved it was as if it had a will of its own. Then he realised what if it’s not a will of its own but his will or more specifically his willpower stat that was keeping his mana moving without his conscious thought just like how the brain kept the heart pumping blood even when you weren’t thinking about it. He suspected that was the case but had no proof so would need to remember to keep objective and follow the evidence where it proved not just force any evidence he got to fit his theory.
Gar stopped himself from focusing on possibility’s and maybes returning his attention to his mana core. He had found it; the next step was to control it in some way. He stared at the mana in his core trying to work out how to move it. He was seeing inside himself he couldn’t use his hands to move it so it would have to be his mind, without further ado he started picturing what he wanted the mana to do, nothing to complicated, simply to swirl in a clockwise fashion. Gar pictured what he wanted to happen until his head hurt and he seemed to “pop” out of his internal mana vision, blinded by the bright light of the sun in contrast to the mana glow of his internal world. Gar knew it was probably time to take a break but he wasn’t ready to stop yet.
That time it was nowhere near as difficult to flip his vision back into that internal view, taking a different approach this time he focused on sending his instructions to the mana enforcing his will upon it, he knew he would get it to obey him it would start to swirl. Nothing happened at first but Gar was patient he kept his mind focused on what he wanted to happen. He wasn’t sure if it was really there when he first noticed it or if he had imagined it, he kept focused and it wasn’t much longer before he noticed it again. Focusing in that particular spot he kept watch until he saw it happening, the mana was starting to swirl, not a lot of it just a little bit but it was defiantly moving in a way that it wasn’t before. His excitement got the better of him and he lost his focus the slight patch of swirling mana returned to the unintelligible flow of the rest of the mana in his core. Not easily put off and knowing this was his first step to performing magic, actual magic, he jumped straight back into trying. He spent several more hours working on moving the mana, he could swirl a small patch clockwise and anticlockwise and even change the direction when he was brought out of his practice by a feeling of weariness, he let go of his focus and he returned his vision to normal. Only to have notifications immediately pop up
“New skill acquired mana control level 1”
“Mana control levelled up mana control level 2”
“Mana control levelled up mana control level 3”
Blinking away the messages Gar went to stand only to get a head rush and sit back down again. It was only then sat on the ground that he realised it was night; he had been practicing for pretty much the whole day. That was when he realised what his problem was between the disturbance at the axen tree freaking him out and his need for distraction, then his wonder at what he found causing him to throw himself into his mana work. Gar hadn’t eaten or drank anything all day. To rectify this he got to his feet, slowly this time, no head rush, then he made his way across to near the fire pit where he stored his food , having not made it to the river that morning he had no water so he decided the dried meat was probably not a good idea. Leaving that in favour of some of the thorn berries in hopes that the juice would help with his thirst, he didn’t feel like starting a fire so just sat there eating some axen nuts and finishing off his supply of thorn berries. Not wanting to think about what he was going to do the next day Gar finished his meal and went to bed.
