[Race has changed from Human to Mana Being]

[Gained Skill: Mana Control Lv 5]

[Mana Sense (Beginner) changed to One With Mana]

When I opened my eyes, I witnessed the stars of heaven shining on me, as if I was in their theatre named Earth. My body felt weak, yet it was coursing with power. I thought my body would feel awful, but for some unknown reason I felt like challenging three wyverns at the same time. I checked my status page to see what was happening, I felt my irises expanding in shock-

[Opening Status]

{ James,

Health 3800 Mana 19 400

Race: Mana Being

Job: Player Lv 14 Exp 40%

Title: Rookie Dragon Slayer

Base Status

Strength: 31

Stamina: 19

Agility: 31

Endurance: 19

Intelligence: 14

Allocatable Stat Points: 36

Active Skills: Stealth Lv 4, Navigation Lv 4, Analysis Lv 4, Power Strike Lv 3, ▛█▚▆ Lv ▪▪▪

Mastery Skills: Beginner Blunt Weapon Mastery 100% , Beginner Martial Arts 19%, Beginner Spear Mastery 39%, Beginner Blade Mastery 60%, Sharpshooting 40%

Passive Skills: Status Resistance Lv 2, Laplace Authority Lv 2, Parallel Thinking Lv2, Speed Processing Lv2, One with Mana, Mana Control Lv 5 }

[Mana Being: A race of beings who have become closer to the spirit realm than the physical realm. Much stronger than most races. Impeccable control over the mana around them.]

[Mana Control Lv 5: Race specific skill of Mana Beings, giving them much better control of the mana in the world. The only limit is your imagination and willpower]

[One with Mana: Your body has become attuned to the surrounding mana, allowing you to sense much more than the average mortal]

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, my mana and health shot up to a preposterous amount. What surprised me the most though, was that my “race” no longer read as human... ‘How will I explain this to mom’ was the thought running through my head but I then realised that most of the changes were internal. I needed to test this, what could this new body do?

***

I first started by trying to sense the mana around me. The world felt….more vibrant. It felt like seeing colour for the first time, everything-even the sand- possessed so much life and depth to it. I could sense all the different particles of mana around me. I tried to get the mana to move, and surprisingly, although the movement was a bit choppy, I succeeded. I spent 10 more minutes getting used to it until I could finally move the particles freely. I could also sense many more types of particles, each with a distinct “feeling” to it:

Robust Particles (Geo)

Free-Moving Particles (Aer)

Fiery Particles (Pyro)

Fluid Particles (Aqua)

Charged Particles (Astra)

Void-like particles (Entros)

Warm, Bright Particles (Lumis)

Blank Particles (Arcano)

I suddenly had a bright idea. I took out the tome I found previously. Now that I could control mana and sense it to near perfection I started meditating to form this “connection” to the world only to realise after reading the tome that it was unnecessary! The reason one had to form a “connection with the world” was to be able to influence the auracules around them. If I substituted the auracules for mana, then I wouldn’t just influence them, I could CONTROL them. I went to the next page to read and advance in these studies. I now had the means, so if I couldn’t reach the end then that just meant I was lacking.

~~~~~~~~

If you have reached this chapter, then congratulations! You have advanced towards the first step on the arduous path of sorcerers. Your next lesson now will be on the formation of spells. To be able to learn spells you must first learn how they are formed. The first thing you must know is that the natural gathering of auracules is in the shape of an orb, so the first spell you will learn is actually just giving said orb substance. Imagine the form of the orb in your head, and link that to a keyword. A keyword allows you to recall the shape of the spell in a much easier fashion.

~~~~~~~~~

I tried following the book’s teachings and controlled the mana around me. I first tried to imagine the ball shape, and then I yelled my first keyword:

“Fireball!”

FWOOSH

To my surprise, a ball looking like a miniature sun appeared above the palm of my hand, floating there, unmoving. I then realised that I could make this process more efficient. Instead of imagining the process, I physically gathered the pyro particles in my hand. Eventually enough particles gathered to form an orb shape. I wasn’t satisfied with just an orb, so I made it spin on its own axis and compressed it so that instead of a baseball it was about the size of a marble. The orb now looked like an orange marble, I sent it flying towards a nearby sand worm that appeared underground on the map…and the results were more than satisfactory. The worm caught fire and blew up as soon as the orb made contact, making my last battles seem like child's play. I was truly baffled at the strength contained in this little marble of flames. I then heard the system’s voice-

[Please name the new spell]

It took me no time at all to think of one

“Hellfire Marble”

[New Spell Learned: Hellfire Marble]

For my next test, I tried shaping the pyro into an arrow, but not everything always worked. The spell was stable for about 10 seconds, but then suddenly the particles started to repel from each other. I tried to look at the tome for some help, and found out that shapes weren’t compatible with certain properties. If I translated that to my system, then that meant pyro particles wouldn’t be stable as an arrow while another type of particles was. I started testing the different particles to find their attributes. I think I found a few interesting facts about them:

Pyro particles tended to be more explosive, resulting in better compatibility with blunt shapes and less compatibility with shapes such as swords Aer particles are perfect to form slashing weapons and pointed projectiles Geo particles did form blunt objects, but showed their true potential in defensive equipment such as shields and armour Aqua particles were very fluid in their movements, making them better for whip like weapons Astra particles were very fast, making them fit for projectiles. They also possessed magnetic properties which can be useful Entros weren’t very good as a weapon, but were great for moving while hidden Lumis particles were the fastest of the bunch, but were much better for support use like blinding the opponent, they also possessed healing properties that all the others didn’t have Arcano particles worked in any shape, but didn’t have any specialised properties. All the particles worked as an orb

To find these facts out, many drago-worms had to sacrifice themselves for my cause. What I didn’t understand was why I didn’t get any new spells from the tests. I have two guesses for this, the first being that I needed to create the spell from scratch. The second guess was that I needed to “master” the spell before it’s added to my status allowing me to cast it at a near instant pace. To test this hypothesis out, I started reading more into sorcery. To my surprise most of the beginner’s section was just about forming a spell and how to stabilise it, which I had already done. I went straight to the intermediate section, and my eyes nearly popped out. This section talked all about an idea I hadn’t thought about, fusing properties. I activated speed processing to read and understand the entire section as quickly as possible. After I finished reading, I started to summarise what I read. The essence of spells wasn’t possessing one property, but having multiple properties intermingle to strengthen each other. Finding the correct way to do that was what the path to being an intermediate sorcerer was all about. For example, it was possible to have a property such as pyro form an arrow-like shape by mixing it with Aer particles, although just like with the shapes, some properties such as pyro and aqua weren’t compatible.

I delved deeper into this until I finally found what my first test would be. I wanted to see the compatibility of arcano particles since they could form any shape. To my surprise, just like the feeling associated with them, the particles were like a blank slate taking in any properties given to them. I shaped the arcano particles into an arrow-like shape while bestowing pyro properties onto them. I finally managed to create a flame arrow! However, one arrow wasn’t enough. I created multiple arrows and with the help of parallel thinking I bestowed a different property onto each of them. I ended up with hundreds of arrows floating around me. The final step was to have them all rotate in place giving them penetrative power close to that of a drill. I finally launched all of them at a sand wyvern nearby, decimating it almost completely. The system finally sounded out again:

[Please name the new spell]

“Elemental Rain”

[New Spell Acquired: Elemental Rain]

[Warning, Player’s mana has reached below 20%!]

I didn’t realise how much I was testing until that message sounded out. I headed back to the shelter for some rest. I’m planning on finding and taking the boss down tomorrow, I’ll need all my energy for that. Hopefully this will be the final day, only three hours should've passed one the outside…..