Achieving the Novice level of Mana Cultivation Using the Unsullied Soul Path: A soon to be deleted narrative by John Campos.

There are three stages, the first is achieving a state of purity, This particular school denotes purity not in any moral sense, but as a rarified sense of self purged of all the layered attachments and influences that society has imprinted on them. Depending on your point of view this is either remarkably well thought out or proof of the originator of this method’s sociopathy. Based on the impressionability of mana and the mutability of persona, flesh and even soul under its influence I’m going just have faith that it is the latter.

This is the most time consuming part of the process, and ideally would be begun during early adolescence, but my unique circumstance puts me at pretty much even footing with those hypothetical tweens, in fact in some ways I am the ideal inheritor. I’m an orphaned virgin (forever!11) that has been attuned to mana by portal hops (an odd fact that came up in the preliminary reading, frequent portalling has a similar affect to the electron aligning a cat scan could impart, passing through the transition space, even for the tiniest of moments, bombards the passenger with mana as they pass through the void, the alignment caused by resistance of passing through the medium. Why yes, there ARE negative side-affects, however did you guess? Fortunately it takes more than 5 such trips for the chance of terrible lingering death to creep up on non-cultivators.) but have absorbed almost none. So what is usually a year or so of painstaking self analysis over the reason that one feels a certain way while forcing any trace of mana out through the purity glyphs, then back inside to help dredge all the remnants of psychic residue out of one’s cultivation space, will probably only take me a few hours, a day at most.

Here, John saved the file and closed the laptop, confident that no one would ever be able to read it without his help. Hoping that he was correct in his assessment about how long this would take, John once again compared the circle of Higher Arcane runes that surrounded the cushions where he would be meditating until his body gave out or he succeeded. Even brushed on smooth stone with mundane paint, the impact they had on the small traces of latent mana was clear as they had started to brighten ever so slightly since they were painted. They would channel any mana inside that circle away and back out into the rest of the room. This served two purposes, it helped him attain a pure state without getting contaminated by the unprocessed mana of the world, and also taught him to cycle power quickly without radiating it or it would be lost to the suction of this formation. Most who reached this stage would have a small dense collection of mana whose only attribute was ‘me-ness’ when done. John expected to have a fine helping of nothing, but was willing to be surprised. John then settled himself onto the cushion and proceeded to write the glyph for purity on the backs of his hands, which he knew were working when they abruptly faded to almost translucence. He let out a sigh of relief. When the marks faded completely, he’d be ready for the next stage.

John was no expert at formal meditation, but what he did know about was getting into the zone, that perfect level of concentration where every part of his mind was consumed with the task at hand. And with that state as his goal John focused as hard as he could on the only thing that mattered in the world: Himself. He asked himself the questions suggested by his inheritance, which he had renamed the “The Purity Test,” in a fit of whimsy. Questions designed not only to make him confront his values, but the reason that he had them. And with every question he would continue his cycle of rhythmic breaths, and imagine that he could feel the energy cycling through his body, out one hand and into the other. As he mastered the two tasks he imagined he could feel the little motes of mana in the air around them as they quickly passed out of the circle. As he setteled deeper into the circulation it almost felt like he was scratching a deep itching and clotted furrow under his skin, tossing the dirt and blood out and letting fresh water rinse it clean.

Hours passed with no change, but eventually John must have developed the knack for it, as, unknown to the him lost in pondering his navel and circulating his limited trickle of mana over and over, the runes on his hands lightened and slowely faded to nothing.

When John finally opened his eyes and began to move to answer the many complaints of his still mortal form, he gave an small laugh of childish delight that the marks were gone, which was soon replaced by a complete lack of dignity as he flopped around trying to rub the feeling back into his legs and buttocks.

Taking stock after recovering and a quick trick to the bathroom. John returned to his laptop. By articulating his actions in writing he was able to crystallize his own thoughts and channel his small worries and doubts before each step.

After the long and ardous journey of 5 hours and 36 minutes the student of the Unsullied Soul will then turn to prevention, setting up the framework by which he will absorb unnatured mana into his soul, and from there to his body and mind. This is a relatively quick process in comparison (for anyone but the author anyway), and relies on the student to create a visualization of a vast and empty space within themselves, and build balanced three dimensional figure of the purity glyph feeding into a fractal geometric shape. From here its all about mana storage. The mana flows into the purity glyph were it is filtered just as it was during the journey to a pure state, which is then guided inward to the visualized storage shape. When the mana reaches a critical mass it will force itself out of the imagined image, and then the last stage of the pre-novice will begin. Any shape can be used, but for ease of visualization a pyramid is recommended. When cultivating in a mana-poor region, like this one, the use of manastones of any tier is recommended. Which, thankfully, I have in relative abundance from this way station’s treasury.

Rather than stop here as he had before, John went on to describe the third and final stage, as there would be no time for an intermission when he reached it.

When the mana is sieved and compressed in the cultivation space, (which though entirely visualized somehow exists on the soul level, or is made to exist by the presence of the mana perhaps?) the mana then bridges the gap between soul and body, starting the first mana baptism. If left unguided the stray subconscious impulses of the image of myself I’ve been focusing on will come to fore; heighten certain senses, improving the appearance, enhancing strength, all in an adhoc fashion. Many schools allow this to happen, but the Unsullied Soul School deems this a valuable opportunity. After so much meditation on one’s self and goals, the cultivator has an opportunity to lay a pattern for future growth by carving a formation into ones very being that is self-reinforcing. Thus a glyph and a bodily location or system would be selected and meticulously meditated over so that the wave of mana would be condensed without conscious thought.

Going slightly out of order, out of the countless thousands of ideas left in my inheritance, I have chosen to focus on the ideal of movement, isolated on the major joints. The path that I’ve decided to travel is of course towards the ideal of mastering portals, and this glyph is the fifth most common in appearance on the mandala surrounding the gate, and, most importantly, the easiest for me to understand as completely as possible.

There is also the benefit that this arrangement will make my actions graceful and increase both speed and accuracy, though perhaps not as far as someone focusing on those ideals exclusively, mine encompasses them and thus still yields the effect. Without any spells, by channeling the mana that will then be inherent to by body, I’ll simply be superhumanly ‘better’ at moving.

Here John paused, and began the incredibly boring process of creating both the required visualizations on sheet after sheet of drafting paper. Then he went to sleep, trying to dream about the shape and the desired path of the mana. In the morning he woke and did his exercises, forcing his mind to return to the shapes and the circulatory path over and over again, until finally, four days later and one before the expected return of his mercenaries, John found that it would require effort NOT to think of them.

And so John opened the box of crystals, fell into a comfortable pose, and tried to cultivate.

In the beginning, he felt like he was just wanking around. He could feel the gentle radiation from the crystals in front of him, and he tried to pull that sensation deep into the purity glyph he had burned into his mind. As more and more time passed he became sure that he was actually doing something, as he felt a pressure on his cultivation space, trying to just bypass the glyph for the vacuum in the pyramid below. John drew confidence from this resistance, and thus reassured that he was gaining traction, bore down on the belief that the mana would behave in the manner he had meditated, traveling from the mouth of the glyph to its exit, shedding psychic resonance to the small barbs and channels that filled the internal space of the glyph that injected his sense of self into the mana. Then the first drops began to enter the pyramid, and his entire mindscape shuddered under the new pressure. John grit his teeth and focused, the pyramid was unbreakable, the mana would be contained.

John shook with the strain at first, but the longer the image held, the easier it became. Instead of relaxing, John reached his newly developing spiritual sense out in front of himself, trying to contain and funnel the radiant mana, and when he felt that was meekly obeying his will, tried to tap a crystal.

John could feel it giving way to him like cold gelatin, but when his senses touched the condensed mana within he only felt PAIN! The tendril of his spirit dissipated and the mana bloomed in all directions. Some was siphoned to his cultivation, but the greatest part of it spread out like dye in the ocean and was lost to his senses. John struggled to keep the cycle going as his mind reeled from the shocking pain, but it slowed to a mere trickle compared to steady stream he had earlier been controlling.

John just let it be, letting the mana slowly purify and condense while he recovered. There was no reason to be hasty. Quick was good, but waste was abhorrent. He needed to nurture every resource as if it was his last.

While he had excellent mental focus, eventually he had to stop. The mental fatigue was too great to continue and still keep the mana wrapped up tightly in its pyramid, which he guessed to be about a third of the way full. John let his total focus relax, then blinked his eyes and moved to flip the lid back over the crystals, clucking in rueful shame at the broken and dark shards amidst the steadily glowing nest.

The mana pulsed in his conscuosness, but his cultivation space was firm. John felt confident that he would be able to easily hold it until the babtism. John dreamed of pyramidal crystals budding and filling with power.

Rule #9- Never try to swallow an energy source larger than your head. Also, plagiarizing an entire cosmos of great thinkers no one else has access too will make you look pretty fucking awesome.