Mannat sat in concentration in front of a capsicum plant. He had learned with practicing that this plant had the highest tolerance to unstable mana, at least in the range of his mana capacity.

It was able to endure the 40 points of mana his ‘mana strike’ releases, unlike the eggplant that would usually explode and spit slimy matter at his face once things go wrong.

He pressed his hand against the green bell pepper, eyes closed. He found it easier to concentrate this way. Although he still failed to sense mana inside other things, even himself, he still had gains. Turns out, mana sense had multiple phases. He needed to be proficient in a good number of things for the skill to evolve.

Mainly, the sense of closeness he feels around others was but the first domino in a stacked line.

He believed this was ‘mana sense’ at first, then he asked the Witch and she broke his worldview. She told him it was barely a kind of primal instinct; it was a better fit for someone like Pandit, or hunters in general, but didn’t serve many purposes for a budding magician apprentice.

He argued with her and countered with a few simple questions. She asked him if he could tell others emotions, whether they were sad or happy. Whether he could tell how much mana they had if they were sick or healthy. She asked him if he could read the mana leaking out of other's bodies and figure out their thoughts.

He had only one answer for all her questions, and she wasn’t interested in hearing it. Her questions were the challenges Mannat faced in the race to evolve ‘mana sense’.

Back in present, a minute had paused since Mannat sat down in concentration in front of the capsicum. The goal was to crystallize the mana inside the bell pepper. A cold gust passed him, playing with his loose shirt, but it failed to disturb him.

Then the strangest of sensations burrowed up into the palm of Mannat’s hand. It was the gentlest of touches as if a petal had kissed his palm on its journey to the dark clouds in the sky.

Mannat opened his eyes and saw what success looked like. He held the bell pepper in his hand. It wasn’t shrinking or deforming. He could feel its weight.

The bell pepper was heavy, almost as heavy as the sensation he could sense. Its mana had crystallized. Mannat could eat it.

His mana had dropped by a full 40 points, but he didn’t feel tired. The result stunned him silly. He never thought he would succeed so suddenly. He didn’t reach any conclusions or figured anything new. It just happened. It was like an instinct—

“Spirit moves mana.” The Witch corrected his internal chain of thoughts, but who cared for that stinking, wrinkled, old hag! Mannat cringed. Okay, he did care about her. He hoped she’d understand.

He turned and saw her staring at him. She wasn’t blinking. Okay, she was definitely mad. He wanted to hide. Just then, bells rang in his mind. A translucent message covered his sight and saved him from the Witch’s wrath. He smiled happily.

[Congratulations! Your Skill: Mana Strike has risen to level 2.]

[Now you can adjust your mana output by 10% while using the skill.]

[You can adjust your mana output by an extra 15% for opting for the Wisdom route to improve the skill.]

[Your Intelligence has risen to 25 points.]

Wasting no time, he went straight to another bell pepper to see if he could repeat the fluke. The messages said he could adjust his mana output in each strike by 25%, which was 10 points. However, in the week of learning the skill, he knew that a single point of mana could also crystallize the mana inside the vegetables. It was a matter of control. That’s how the Witch had taken a tomato from the garden. He succeeded again.

Two bell peppers were enough to cook a meal. He decided to gamble the last two shots he had.

He went for a tomato. One had a little over twenty points of mana and another was on the opposite side of the spectrum, and infinitely closer to his new lower limit. The last tomato had been sensational; it had added such richness to the carrot stew that he couldn’t forget.

Two bell peppers and a tomato roasted over a fire and seasoned with spices and salt. He could almost imagine the taste, and it continuously filled his mouth with saliva. He was done for. The Witch’s garden varieties had thoroughly entranced him.

His second attempt failed to achieve the same result, but he wasn’t sad. Instead, he hungrily went out to prepare a meal. He didn’t sense any mana leaks for them when he roasted them over the naked fire. The last time he hadn’t noticed anything overly different after eating the tomato, but his senses were sharper and keener this time around. The heaviness couldn’t escape his senses.

He looked at the witch, who hadn’t moved since the morning. She was staring back at him with enthusiasm.

“Why isn’t the mana leaking?” He asked seriously.

The Witch’s lips curled up in mocking. She asked back. “Would you feel the heaviness, as you call it, if it wasn’t the bell s weren’t leaking anything into your surroundings?”

Mannat thought it made sense. He wasn’t knowledgeable enough to know otherwise. Suddenly, his mind started working. The Witch's perfect mana control could be the reason why he couldn’t sense her. It was entirely possible. No wonder she could sneak up on him like a ghost.

Then an even more absurd thought arose in his mind. Did he also leak mana? He couldn’t sense it. Perhaps, the Witch could.

“You finally figured it out.”

Mannat heard and a chill went down his spine.

“I thought I would have to lay it out for your dull brain.”

She had taught him again. God damn it! Now, wait a minute!

“So it possible to control… no, completely seal the mana from leaking?”

The Witch snorted. “There are always leaks. No matter how tightly you trap it, mana always finds a way to escape. Don’t forget that mana is fighting miasma inside your body. Some of it will always get expelled out of the container, no matter how you try to control the spill.”

Great, now he had another job on his already laden plate. Actually, didn’t it mean--

The Witch interrupted Mannat before he had even completed the thought. “No, you can’t become a magician without gathering all your mana into a core. The mean and the end will take care of each other. You just need to concentrate on what’s ahead of you… one step at a time.”

“Madam,” Mannat joined his hand and politely requested, “Please stop reading my thoughts. I can’t stop you, but it’s annoying. Let me have some peace of mind.”

“Do you also want me to accompany you to sleep at night?”

“No ghosts do not haunt me, so I don’t need your help. Just tell me if the crystallized mana inside the bell pepper will do me any harm?”

The witch threw her head back and chuckled. Shaking her head, she turned and told him while leaving for the hut, “You can find that out yourself. All you need to do is eat,” and she left. She went inside the hut, but Mannat knew he wouldn’t find her inside. There was definitely a hidden trap door inside. How else could she disappear on him every time after entering the hut?

The food’s taste was one thing, but the warmth that arose from his stomach after he had taken a bite of the roasted bell pepper not only refreshed his mind but also energized his limbs. It mingled with his blood and climbed to his heart, entering his lungs and reaching for his brain. The same thing had happened the last time he had eaten a tomato.

Frowning, he looked for the Witch and was not disappointed. She had really disappeared on him once again. He only found the raven inside. She was nodding her head in sleep.

The two of them were similar in ways. One liked to make fun of him, and the other had no regard for his wellbeing and never thought twice before hurting him for the smallest of mistakes. People make mistakes. Everyone forgets. Yes, the Witch gave the raven the right to punish Mannat, but that didn’t mean she should attack him with her talons and peck him on the head. It was abusive behavior and the Witch needed to teach her pet to be considerate of the boy’s feelings!

Mannat shook his head to get the distracting thoughts out of his mind. He went back to the fire burning in the pit. It wouldn’t have been wise of him to let it burn. A single spark could have burned the Witch’s cottage to ash. He had learned the fact in the smithy. Leaving a fire unattended was a disaster waiting to happen. There was enough dry fuel in the woods to turn anything into a wildfire. Others things didn’t matter, but it would be the end of him if the garden and the tree caught fire.

He took another bite of the roasted bell pepper and the warmth spread further from his stomach. It didn’t seem to be hurting him in any way. Mannat’s felt relaxed whenever the warmth erupted. He inspected himself to see if anything had changed and found nothing wrong. Only that his total mana was higher than expected.

His eyes opened wide. The skewer almost fell from his hand, but he hurriedly made a grab for it. It bounced from his hands a few times before he caught it with both hands. A blood-curdling scream erupted from his throat. He wasn’t screaming in joy! The damned skewer was hot as a rock that had stayed out all day in the summer heat!

The bell pepper had crystallized mana, he ate it and his mana recovered. It was simple to understand but had life turning ramifications. The whole world had turned upside down by a war that happened over mana crystals – small crystals that could recover mana. Although the said crystals had many more uses, ranging from cultivating plants to improving the quality of metals, the aforementioned quality was the one true reason behind the war. Mana was strength. The empires were jealous of it, and the natives of the No man’s land had proved it by annihilating the two imperial armies.

There was no reason to look in the distance to find examples. Mannat’s basic ‘mana strike’ had the strength to obliterate a plant. It was impossible to understand the kind of performance a well-trained magician, someone who could actually move the Earth and rain fire, have. This was not a question. It was the truth, and something that deserved his ‘computing’ to level up and it did level up, ringing bells and whistles in his mind. Only that, the importance of the garden had Mannat so stressed he simply ignored the notification. He needed to find the Witch and clarify the matter with her.

‘How can she be so careless?’ Mannat thought taking another bite of the roasted bell pepper. Once again warmth flowed from his stomach and his mana increased by another five points. It also reduced his anxiousness, but the warmth was not hot enough to overturn it completely. What it did was to remove some of his doubts.

No wonder the Witch didn’t want to sell the vegetable to the villagers. What personal differences and moral obligations, she was also afraid of attention. He took another bite of the scrumptious roasted food and moaned in fulfillment. Savory and rewarding, there was no other place in the world like the Witch’s garden.

Perhaps, the vegetables grown under the mana crystals would also have such effect, but that would be akin to wasting time and nothing more. Unless it was difficult to absorb mana from the crystals, in which case mana crystal-influenced vegetables were also fine.

That day Mannat tried to find everything he could about the ‘No man’s land’ and once again met with disappointment. He even wondered if the Witch had purposefully removed all traces of the place, but figured he was making a fool of himself and forgot it as soon as it had registered in his mind. Coincidently, he didn’t find anything about the mountain kingdom either.

In a way, the kingdom was a lot less mysterious than the ‘No man’s land’. He knew the kingdom created the thin yellow paper that he used to throw away like trash. However, Mannat did find some geographical maps that denoted the whole mountain range to be under the Kingdom. The map was obviously old, that didn’t mean it was not accurate. Perhaps, the kingdom had cities on the mountain peaks, adjoined by rope bridges. He didn’t find anything concrete, but Mannat wasn’t disappointed. He had gained a lot. Just that only time would tell whether the information would be of any help to him or not.

The next morning silently arose from the shadows of the dead night, and Mannat woke up under the tree, feeling empty-headed. It was a special feeling, one filled with the joy of being in a state of pure emptiness. The world appeared slightly more colorful to his eyes. The sky was extra vibrant. The grass seemed to tickle his heart. The wind played cheerfully around him. He could hear the birds singing for him. It was a magical sensation.

The sensation didn’t accompany him for long, and the illusionary world of bliss popped around him like a bubble after a few moments. He woke from the trance feeling refreshed and energetic. Turned out he hadn’t gone to sleep but meditated all night under the tree. Yet, his mind was fresh, as if he had just surfaced out a cold and bone-chilling river.

“So meditation also has such a magical effect?” He mumbled and made the decision not to abuse it. he found, his body wasn’t in as good a condition as his mind.

His legs were stiff and trying to move them made him groan in pain. His lacking physical attributes were dragging him down. He needed to get that last level of 'vigor' as soon as possible. It’s just that, it hadn’t been long since he had last gained a level in the skill. He knew from practice how hard it was to level any skills pertaining to the physical attributes. The skill needed a tripod of strength, constitution, and dexterity to progress in a balance in order to level up. He simply wasn’t doing enough physical work to suggest such an increase.

Among everything convoluted and half-assed, there was also good news. A blue phantom box was flashing at the upper left side of his vision, and it inflated his mood once again.

The reason was simple.

Last night his skill ‘meditation’ had also increased to level two. Three of his skills had leveled in a single day. It had never happened before, and Mannat was sure it would never happen again either. He had learned some mysteries, understood some things and earned some levels.

He could confidently say that it was the best day of his life.