With no visual input to make sensing magical essence more difficult, Kaltyr then did her best to block out the ambient forest sounds before searching within herself for those magical channels she knew were there.

“These gray lines…”

Her mind’s eye open, Kaltyr observed the countless meridians snaking through her entire body. Her meridians, she knew, were what her mana would flow through. Yet, when she recalled the guidebook’s section on magic…

Basics of the Magic System

Don't be too shocked, Kaltyr, but this world called Manic has magic! Yes, magic! Your gut might tell you that this is impossible, but don’t listen to it! Magic is impossible in your world, but not mine. And it just so happens that you’re in my world! Yippee!

However, I'm (not) sorry to say that this you will have to figure out on your own…for the most part! Because I'll give you some limited information:

1) You’ll only begin to feel it after reading this book through to the end, but all around you is magical essence. It lies in just about everything and complex living things can absorb it into their bodies to process into mana—also known as magic power and whatever else people want to call it. You, too, will be able to absorb and refine magical essence into mana to use magic.

2) Magical essence is absorbed into and refined within the soul, which you'll eventually find within yourself. When you finish processing it into mana you can then move it through your meridians—channels for internal energy that work similarly to your blood vessels—and out from your body, if you wish to do so.

3) There are countless places you can make your mana exit your meridians from and countless ways you can channel mana. It's really complicated, so you'll have to learn from experience.

“’Magical essence is absorbed into and refined within the soul’…but what does that mean?” She thought.

The girl gingerly moved her perception around within her body until she clearly saw the burning white light residing within her head where her brain was.

“If anything, that should be my, uh, soul, because it’s the only ‘thing’ here besides my meridians. Since that’s the case…how do I use it?”

As far as Kaltyr could tell, she had no control over her “soul”, nor did it appear to be doing anything. It just sat still within her brain. Meridians did connect to it, so it was at least some part of her magical channels, but nothing flow-

Kaltyr’s train of thought stopped dead as she more closely inspected the dull, gray lines within her…because there was definitely movement there that she didn’t notice before. The meridians in her chest continued following the rhythmic beating of her heart, but there was more to it. Something that she overlooked because her heartbeat almost completely distracted her from it.

“My breaths!” She said aloud, accidentally pulling herself out from her literal introspection. “Ah, shit. One sec…”

After a minute of calming herself, she reopened her mind’s eye and again observed her chest area, which also followed a rhythmic beat, but one much slower than that of her heart’s—which is why she didn’t notice it the first time. The meridians of her chest, once intently inspected, very faintly pulsed with the same charming blue sparkle that she saw all around her. It was so faint, in fact, that she not only didn’t feel it, but the blue very quickly faded away soon after appearing.

“It looks to me like I have to breathe in the magical essence, but…I’m always breathing, yet I’m not gathering that much. Does it take super long, or something?!” Kaltyr grumbled to herself in her mind.

The lass poked and prodded at her meridians with her consciousness similarly to how she moved her internal sight around. She imagined contracting her magical channels, trying to move the little slivers of magical essence within them like her heart did to her blood…

To no avail.

“Okay… These meridians are what magical essence and eventually my mana are supposed to travel through, but I can’t control the meridians? Shouldn’t these be like water pipes, where I have pumps to push water through the pipes?! I need an explanation!”

But Kaltyr received none, and her irritation threatened to destabilize her will and close her mind’s eye.

“Calm down, me. I may not have all the time in the world, but it’s only been a few minutes since I sat down to try this. Maybe refining magical essence is supposed to take a really long time?”

The girl sighed, then closed the view of her meridians and returned her senses to the outside world. She felt the need to gaze into her campfire for a bit to rest before returning to her experimentation. The depressing sense of being overwhelmed had returned once she couldn’t immediately figure out how to absorb and refine magical essence, and Kaltyr needed to rest her mind, to acclimate to this new, dangerous environment, despite seeming to have done so a little before.

“Now that I think about it, it seems like half the time I’ve been here was spent wallowing in fear while during the rest I was excited and full of perseverance. Am I bipolar?”

Kaltyr looked deeply into the campfire before her as though it would give her answers—which she dearly wanted it to do. Then, the next moment, an inkling feeling that something was wrong crept up on her…

“Aaagh! Damn it!” The girl exclaimed, jumping to her feet. “This fire burns way too quickly!”

Despite gathering what she thought was a suitably large amount of kindling, the fire had burned through most of it in a matter of minutes, prompting Kaltyr to look around her clearing in search of fuel. But, considering the fact that she was inside of a dense forest jam-packed with flora, finding more kindling wasn’t an issue—the issue was safely gathering it.

Gulping, Kaltyr looked back to where the eyes looked at her from…then panicked.

The eyes were no longer there.

“Nope nope nope nope!” She let out, dropping back into a sitting position. “Not going to leave this little circle of safety if I don’t know where that monster is! Plus…” Kaltyr looked around at the dark, looming trees. “Nothing said that there’d only be a single enemy around at a time.”

She hugged her knees again, fighting off the fear that threatened to set in and engulf her.

“Well, I might as well make sure that the first beast isn’t lurking nearby…” The girl half-heartedly whimpered, extending her magical sense outwards into the darkness.

“Wait, what?!”

Eyes wide open—as though it would help her Magic Sense work better—Kaltyr gawked over the information pouring into her mind, because something strange was happening to the blob of mana that was the mysterious entity in the bushes. The blue sparkles that represented magical essence around the beast almost seemed to form a slow whirlpool of sorts as they flowed in a funnel toward it. The sight was…magical.

Then, Kaltyr flinched as the entity suddenly stood up, interrupting the whirlpool of magical essence, causing it to break and scatter. It turned toward Kaltyr.

“Somehow, I know that it noticed that I was observing it. In fact, it probably stopped watching me once I stopped showing intent to wander. So, was it taking the time to refine magical essence?”

Her mind filling with questions, Kaltyr shook her head. Most of the questions didn’t matter because she wouldn’t be able to find their answers.

“But what does matter is the fact that whatever is hiding in the bushes was just generating mana! And it was suuuper fast!”

Kaltyr compared the amount of sparkles and slivers she saw around the beast to what she remembered her lungs naturally gathered from regular breathing…and the difference was astounding!

“Clearly, I’m missing something simple, and the sooner I figure it out, the better it is for me. Back to my meridians!”