Chapter 15

...

[Floor 2 – Day 5]

[Total Days in Trial: 46]

A few days passed, and as it turned out: Gaining a Class was surprisingly uneventful.

Class: Disciple Rarity: Low Class Bonus: +1 Total Skill Pool

Through my efforts at poking around the Status menu a bit, I was at least able to get a little more information, but it was still surprisingly lackluster from what I'd been hoping for. Based on the Global Messages I'd been getting at the start of each round recommending I try and obtain a Class, I expected something a little better. Some sort of starting ability, or more Attribute points, or something.

But no, it was that I could now have 7 Skills, instead of 6.

So far as I could tell, that was it.

I could make some assumptions, that perhaps the "Low" rarity seemed to hint that other Class options would have more benefits associated with them. As one of the starting perks had been related to instantly gaining a Class, it seemed reasonable that there were more things that might be possible. Without more information though, all I could really do was guess.

[Status]

Name: John

Attributes

Class: Disciple – Skills: 2/7

Titles:

Perks:

Strength:

15

-

Lesser Analysis

Dexterity:

12

Archery 6

Constitution:

18

Resist Poison 10

Intelligence:

10

-

Wisdom:

10 [+2]

-

Wise man of the Mountains

Charisma:

10 [+5]

-

Ambitious [ACTIVE]

It bothered me a little. Not only that I didn’t gain any Attributes, but I hadn't managed to gain any Skills either. Apart from Resist Poison ticking up, there was very little progress. And considering that a few days had passed, this wasn't for lack of trying.

I went around following the Priest, listening when he spoke and following his instructions when he felt something needed to be done. That second part was mostly chores and helping with the garden. Also, when he used a Miracle on me, which was something he did every day when we ate dinner, I would be instructed to pay close attention. It seemed he was hoping for me to obtain a decent sense of how it worked. Which, I did... sort of. By decent, I mean I really didn’t know how it worked, but I was starting to put the pieces together.

More important than all of this, though, was the fact that I wasn’t dead.

I cannot stress that enough, in fact: I should have been dead. It was nothing short of a "Miracle" that I wasn't. Terrible pun intended.

The healing that was placed on me each day, seemed to be enough to keep my body from falling apart. I would eat with the Priest. Always a very simple meal, of hard bread, dried meat, and some sort of vegetable or two from the Priest’s garden behind the Church. After eating, the Priest would cast the Miracle on me, and for a short period of time, my illness would be mitigated.

The specifics of this were of great interest to me.

One thing is clearly seemed to do, was purge my blood of dangerous amounts of poison. While there was no way for me to specifically check if this was actually happening, I could feel the sudden difference clearly enough. And based on experience with my condition, it certainly lined up.

The other thing I had to assume it was doing, is that it was somehow allowing me to use the food I was eating. For a short while, at least. Perhaps, just enough for my body keep itself going.

Scientifically speaking, I had to assume it was finding a way to either prompt my body to produce its own insulin for a very short period of time, or the "Miracle" was acting as insulin in its absence. So, while I was losing weight and generally felt terrible a majority of the day: I wasn’t yet in a coma or dead. Which, would have been the normal outcomes. That I was still awake and aware, days after being dropped into the second Floor with no medical supplies, was astonishing, and I wasn't about to complain.

The Priest said that he was only granted one Miracle a day, and unfortunately could not help more. He seemed sincere, so I didn’t press him on this, as I was already quite grateful for his help. It was clear that the fact he could not completely heal me, weighed on him. He also wasn’t a very talkative man, so opportunities for conversation were limited. As his new Disciple, it seemed he would bring up conversation with me, or it would lapse back to total silence. My own intrusion of that silence, by directly asking questions of him, was surprisingly difficult. To the point were my "sixth sense" of Charisma seemed to agree in avoiding it.

In fact, following its guidance: I had a strong feeling that the less I spoke, the better an impression I would make.

But, as a result, my life was very simplistic.

Very.

Compared to the first floor, my efforts to improve my body by gaining Attributes in Strength had come to a screeching halt. I just didn’t have the energy. Working out was almost impossible. My caloric intake was absolutely hugging the line of barely a thousand calories a day, simply because I could only risk eating when within a close time range of being healed. That restricted me by default to a single meal, and that meal was limited by the honest lack of much being present to eat in the first place. This meant that moving around and wasting calories, was inadvisable.

I had taken the bow for short strolls in the nearby woods every morning in an effort to attempt to secure the occasional small game animal to clean and cook, but I'd only managed to get one small animal, and it had been a real process to get that ready for consumption. Aside from this, there was food stored in the small church, of bread and dried meats (which were likely stocked by resupply runs) and there was what the garden behind the building could provide.

So, apart from my morning routine to try and hunt small game, I tried my best to simply follow the Priest’s lead. And mostly, this meant meditating in silence. Doing more than this was strenuous to the point where I was utterly exhausted anyways, so there was a lot of sitting very still.

It reminded me of what many religious orders from the East seemed to practice back on Earth. Where those practicing would be focusing inward, instead of actively preaching to an audience. There was no leading me through a lesson about the "God of Light" or anything of that nature. Instead, it was all breathing exercises, and a lot of sitting very still.

The only problem, was that it was difficult to focus on these things when I was starving. Sitting and meditating is well and good, but I was struggling to keep up a strong front in order to not offend the Priest with my growing frustrations.

This was amazing. I was still alive, relatively healthy, and doing my best to learn. But the inevitable was being delayed.

Without a single doubt: I was still dying. With the Priest’s Miracle, I was stalling that death rather effectively, but I was clearly circling the drain.

And it got me really trying to deconstruct what was happening.

As for the science behind how the “magic” of the Miracles being cast on me seemed to work, I wasn’t entirely sure. From my best guesses, it either imitated how insulin was supposed to work, or it allowed my body to produce the hormone normally while it worked to purge my system of whatever it considered "poison." Providing a temporary flood of “healing” seemed to let my body quickly return to some level of good health, while the lingered effects allowed it to work normally for another several moments as the "healing" faded.

I interpreted this to mean that the Miracle was allowing my cells to take in the blood sugar for a short while, normalizing me in some sense, before I gradually went back to returning to my normal, very unhealthy, state.

It was basically resetting things, over and over. But it wasn't frequent enough for me to live anything close to a normal life, and at the rate I seemed to be losing weight, this was going to be a major problem sooner or later. While I wasn’t starving to death yet, I might be in a few weeks. Each day, I basically had a few good minutes to stuff the cells of my body full of food, before I was right back to the danger-zone.

So, I really did try to adapt to meditation. Even if I couldn't fully understand the purpose of the breathing exercises or the fact that the Priest was happy to sit in one place for hours at a time, I could at least get behind the concept to save calories.

And, it was somewhat interesting. A little of the time, I mean.

The old Priest seemed so keen on it, sitting in a full lotus, breathing in slowly, and deeply. He almost appeared to glow, on occasion. When he really sunk into things, and the hours began to stretch. It felt like he was reaching out towards something I couldn't see or percieve by ordinary means. And when he was done, conversations about meditating turned out to be one of the few ways to prompt him into speaking. He had a habit of occasionally providing oddly cryptic advice on how to expand my senses.

“Focus on your heart. The heart will push the flow of both blood and Mana. Follow these as they travel, and recognize that they are linked.”

I nodded, and I felt his off-center stare focused on my back, watching as I breathed in. The garden around us was quiet, and with my eyes closed and legs crossed in the best imitation to his form I could muster, the only real sound was of the trees shifting in the wind, and the beating in my chest.

“As the blood flows, it brings life." The Priest continued. "As you breathe in, hold that breath for as long as you can. Wait until your lungs burn, then let the air escape. Let it free slowly, before taking in another breath. In this, you will find your answer.”

He'd said as much to me before. That I might "find the answer" to the breathing exercise. Although I had no idea what answer might be, I was happy to go along with it. For all I knew, the menu-system would let me know when a breakthrough was made.

And like I said- it was interesting. At least, a little bit. As if the breathing routine had become a little game I could play, the days had continued to pass, and I was able to hold that breath in for longer and longer. My heartbeat would slow down, and I would carefully count down the seconds. I’d reached the point where I could easily hold my breath for a full minute or more, and I had observed the Priest hold his for at least five minutes, regularly.

There was certainly something to the breathing pattern. I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. Not "supernatural" exactly, but very refined. Perfected, for the sake of something specific. My heartbeat slowed, my senses dulled, and I focused solely on the Priest’s voice, between bouts of nothing at all.

“Mana is the gift of the Gods. It can be used for many things, and is the instrument of countless deities. The Lord of Light is but one of many, and gives the Miracles that grant banishment, healing, or protection. In truth, light can only harm those that hide from its touch.”

Perhaps the Priest had picked up on my silent questions, or maybe he'd finally felt I was making real progress, for he was offering far more information than normal. Nodding along, I continued to resist the urge to exhale.

“To breathe in air, is to take in more than just air. Within the world around us, is Mana. Within the air we breathe, is Mana. By holding it in, we instill its presence in our own bodies. The longer we practice, the more our bodies will collect. The more our bodies will naturally retain. The awareness of this, is key to channeling a Miracle. For a Miracle is not quite a Spell, as [Caster] might use. Instead, it is the foundation by which we channel a divine gift.”

I nodded, mentally noting the new information about the [Caster] Class.

That could be interesting to learn more about.

“As you become aware of the Mana you possess, you will in turn become aware of Mana outside of your own body. Given time, you will be able to observe the patterns that move through this world, and the patterns that move through others. Through this, all can learn Miracles.”

It was a lot to take in. For a man who'd gone days barely saying anything, to all of this at once. Objectively, of course I could take on the analytical mindset and collect information, but to actually go ahead and put what had just been explained to use, was incredibly tricky.

Knowing my own body, sensing my own body. Influencing my own heart to slow, so I could truly feel the blood flowing through my veins… There was something there. Just out of reach, I could sense that oddly intimate, oddly alien, pressure.

Through repetition, I continued to reach for it.

Over and over, and over, until I finally had my breakthrough.

[Wisdom + 1] Skill Earned:

[Meditation]