Neidr pacing around his room in order to relax his muscles while reading the note left by Professor Laszlo.

"In order to accumulate mana, you must first build your natural awareness of it. To do this, you must meditate. There are no shortcuts. Building up your mana awareness is not dissimilar to learning to use a limb you didn't know you had. In order to feel and manipulate mana, it is best to avoid environments you are not attuned to and seek those that you are attuned to. This usually ends at as a blind guessing game unless you receive good guidance. Unfortunately, I am not an expert in this area, so I recommend meditating in a dull or blank room. This should ensure mana neutrality. Although you are not receiving a positive mana effect, you are not being hit negatively."

Neidr looked around his blank room and shrugged his shoulders. This should be good enough. Neidr sat down with his legs crossed. At first he was bored, but then his mind started to run rampant thinking of different things. Don't be confused, Neidr was not thinking anything of value. Rather, his current thoughts were his 'inventive' pickup lines.

'Hey baby, are you Joan of Arc? 'Because you're hot.'

'Hey baby, are you Catherine the Great? 'Because my hearts Russian.'

'Hey baby, are you Ching Shih? Because I want a piece of that booty.'

Yes, Neidr is in fact a degenerate dreg of society. His obsession with puns disgusts us all. What is worse, is that he didn't design these to use them. The people of this world did not share his history, afterall. Neidr giggled to himself, enjoying the puns just for their sake! After revelling in what he had done, Neidr shook his head and said,

"This meditation thing isn't working out very well." [Neidr] He looked back at the note and noticed the very next sentence.

"In order to meditate, you must empty your mind and rely on your senses to feel the world around you. If you have trouble with this stage close your eyes and focus on your breath. People are overly reliant on the eyes, and they have a tendency to pull us out of a meditative state. Remember to remain immobile. Meditation is not about acting or reacting. It is simply being."

Neidr shook his head and reminded himself that he should probably read all of the directions in the future. Neidr followed the directions. After a couple of hours, Neidr was truly immersed in the meditation. He was not thinking about how to feel the mana, he was not thinking about the time. He was just feeling his breathing.

Soon enough, he felt. A trickle at first, but his spiritual eyes were soon opened to a new world. Mana was everywhere, even though he had never seen it. Mana shifted and flowed throughout his room. It ignored boundaries, and it came from everything. It came from the beds, the came from the walls. It came from him. There was a certain amount of mana that remained in his body, or at least the space that it inhabited. He could feel a tinge of control over this mana. Some mana broke off, joining the great mana stream. This mana, he could no longer move about.

For the first time in a long time, Neidr felt greatly interested in something. The mana that irradiated from the stool and the beds had certain characteristics. The same was true of the mana from his soul. Even though it was hard to see, in the great expanse of mana, his mana was unique. What was strange, was that he couldn't 'see' very far at all. There was only and foot of vision surrounding all of the mana he controlled. Neidr tried to make something magical happen with his mana. He worked at it and worked at it for an hour, but to no avail. Then, a lightbulb went off in his head. He rushed over to the paper to read it.

"When you attain your mana sense, you will likely want to cast a spell. This is impossible without a medium. Rather than that, focus on the Trickle method. Try to stop irradiating mana from leaving your shell. Once you have sealed yourself off, wait until you feel as though you will explode. You will feel a great deal of pressure. However, whatever you do, DO NOT EXPEL THE MANA ALL AT ONCE. That would be the bursting method, although it is similar in theory, these methods have incredibly different results. Only release as much mana as you need to reduce the pressure. This requires a great deal of control and willpower. If you feel you are not up to the task, you are allowed to wait until tomorrow to converse with me. "

Although Neidr was greatly disappointed, he followed instruction regardless. It took him awhile just to start reigning the mana in. When he finally closed off the irradiating mana...

it sucked.

It was like swimming underwater at full power. Being unable to breath. Neidr knew he would likely give up soon if he kept thinking about it. The last sentence on that piece of paper kept ringing in his head. Couldn't he just wait until tomorrow? He felt like his head was going to explode, and there was no limit to the duration written. Neidr looked back at the paper starting to convince himsef.

However...

'requires a great deal of control and willpower. If you feel you are not up to the task'

This phrase was starting to seriously piss him off. Even since he met Laszlo, he felt he was always on the losing end of their conversations. If he really gave up and went back for help tomorrow...

How long would that be held against him? Neidr could already imagine Laszlo's response to any backtalk being-

'That is a very interesting statement coming from someone who needed my help to do basic mana training.'

"FUCK!" [Neidr]

Neidr sat down and began to meditate, knowing very well if he was allowed to continue to think it would be his undoing. The pain was intense, but Neidr focused on releasing as little mana as possible, as well as his breathing. Soon enough, he was not thinking at all. He put his full focus on his task. At this point, doing anything else was sure to make him fail. Hours passed, but Neidr could no longer tell the time. There came a point where he was no longer doing this out of pettiness, but the pure bitter work of it gave him some sense of fulfillment.

shing

The pressure in Neidr's body had not reduced whatsoever, regardless, his meditation made it bearable.

shing

Neidr did everything he could to remain in meditation. He ignored hunger, He ignored sleep, He ignored thirst.

shing

Neidr ignored all the sounds in the vicinity. He did this because he felt he had to sustain what he had. Then, a thought broke through into Neidr mind.

'If I continue this way will I die?' Neidr started to waiver. He had put a lot of effort into this, he had wanted to prove a point to his teacher. What point would there be if it killed him? Why did he even bother doing this stupid shit to begin with? Wasn't his goal to be lazy and avoid pain?

shing

Neidr felt a hand was placed on his shoulder. He unconsciously opened his eyes. Laszlo was knelt in front of him. His face was a picture of stoicism. Then, he smiled.

"Student, you missed the six a.m. starting time again. Run with me."[Laszlo]