“Ahhhhhhhh” A sharp inhale of air entered my lungs. It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! “Ahhhhhhh” I let out a soft, pained cry, unable to hold it in.

Everything was fuzzy… and needles in my chest. The next breath was sharp and restrictive as I struggled to take in my surroundings.

No longer in an alley, but enclosed in another wooden box.

I tried to stay still and unmoving, only using my eyes to view the surroundings. The room was plain, with a straw bed and a candle on a nightside table. And most importantly, this yarking box had a door.

I’m saved.

No dust or anything confusing, just in an unknown room. Despite the pain in my chest, I tried to make sense of everything that had happened before. My body shut down completely, as if rejecting itself, losing control of everything.

Whoever that man was, I’m never getting close to him again. It just sucks in every aspect. I thought I could stay around long enough to get everything in order, but that no longer looks possible.

Before rationalizing any longer, the emotions from the memories filled my mind. The hopelessness of being unable to do anything and nothing but a passenger of my own body.

I wanted to hide up in some hole and not deal with this. Why, why, why, WHY!

“Ahhhghgh.” The pain struck as I wiggled around, unable to ease the suffering.

Take another breath, take a breath, take a breath. My core, yes, my core. I closed my eyes and sensed inwards; the problem revealed itself. No longer neat and controlled mana core, but a twisted mess of intertwined mana strings.

Before, my core was a bubbling liquid, a fluidic spring of fresh water. Now it was a ball of yarn, tied together and preventing all movement. I sensed this transition when my body shut down, but now, the strings were tightened to the point of strangling each other, fighting for freedom.

I could feel them suffering through this unwanted torture as they were also in pain, calling out to me for help. Ever since I got this class, mana had seemed within the palm of my hand, yet it was so incomprehensible, beyond my understanding. It was not a person or being, but gave off intuitive emotion for me to feel. I still couldn’t understand them, but even then, I could connect with their pain and suffering.

With every breath, pain filled my chest, but with a controlled and slow pacing, it prevented the needles from puncturing too far into my lungs.

The cause of this is definitely the man in the store. All that chaotic mana messed with mine, just like Stool did to the surrounding mana. And something tells me being a [Manaborn] doesn't make this easier.

Mana is a part of me with this class, a reaction to the unnatural. Regardless, a rule of thumb from now on; don’t go near unnatural mana forces, unless I’m looking to die.

There’s only one way to assure this: leave the city immediately, preventing any accidental run-ins with the chaotic mana man. I could gamble and never go to the ‘nicer’ areas of town, considering powerful and important men like him would never need to go to the ‘poorer’ areas, but I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.

But can I survive out in the wilderness with my book knowledge alone? Probably not, so I’m screwed either way, but I’m probably dead faster if I stay here.

But I’ll at least need a day, so I can’t completely cancel out running into the turbulent mana man again. Or other’s for all I know.

“Ach.” I let out a grunt in frustration, but my chest flared up as I let out a pained cry, clutching my chest. The intertwined mana tightens around the mana core in response. White-knuckled fists as I gasp for air.

I laid fully down and spread out my chest to give the mana room to expand. It helped as the pain slowly dropped, getting to a reasonable level before long. Not enough to move, but enough to breathe. Ok, enough thinking about the future, I need to figure out where I am and why I’m in a room.

As if on call, the door opened and an enormous fellow entered. His stomach was overflowing out the hem of his shirt as he ducks to miss the door frame. The wooden planks complained as they flexed in response.

This time, the individual was not angered, but adorned a stone look on his face. This is the same man I saw yesterday, Sly, the [Blacksmith].

My mouth opened at the familiar sight, but relieved nonetheless. This is probably the best I could have hoped for. No enclosed box far underground, a temperamental old man, or whoever was at Pioneering Merchant, just the blacksmith who cared about his work, Sly.

“You ok?” Sly said, straightforward, no questions.

I took a second to respond, surprised at the simple question. “I’m. alive. and. Sorta. Ok. need. Some. time. to. Recover.” I spoke each word with utmost care as I worked with the pain.

“Ok, cooking some dinner now. I’ll bring it up shortly.” He ducked through the door frame and walked down the hall. Not bothering to shut the door as he left. The hallway beyond the door was simple, with some wooden boards not quite square to the rest, and a few replaced considering the color. A totally normal house, at least from what I’ve seen at the inn. It cuts off into a larger opening at the far end, where Sly walked into the kitchen.

Ok, priority one is to fix my messed up mana core, if that's even possible. Not sure if I’m totally safe, but I don't think I can use my mana to defend myself at this rate. So if I don’t get this fixed soon, I’ll be playing a dangerous game, especially considering that I have 4 abilities that work with mana and only one doesn’t use my own mana.

With my game face on, I refocused back on my mana core, wanting…. No, needing to find a solution. I would not waste this 10,000-year-old life.

It didn't take long before I realized something. Before, I was a bit too focused on the intertwining mana and didn’t realize that the overall size of my core was smaller than before. It wasn’t growing, gathering mana to naturally regenerate, but remaining stagnate.

The mana flowed around me like normal, but passed my core, unaffected. Worried that I couldn’t regenerate my mana anymore, I activated [Mana Gathering]. The mana gathered from around the room as normal, but it refused to take that last step.

Well… Yark. I’m kinda screwed.

[Mana Gathering] wasn’t the most precise ability, only able to pull mana from the surroundings to a nearby point of my choosing.

Awesome, I can’t regenerate mana, well I doubt I could use it, anyway. Ahghhgahg. I let out an internal yell of frustration at my bad luck.

Can’t I just enjoy a day of peace? Why does something always need to make the day difficult? Not even a full day after being kidnapped.

Well, if I think about it that way, the underground box wasn't so bad. At least I didn’t have to deal with this. I can’t even walk and with a yarked up mana core for who knows how long.

The wood creaked in the hallway and I saw Sly returning with 2 bowls in one hand and a pitcher of water in the other. Reaching the bedside, he held the bowl of porridge, expecting me to take it from him.

I just laid there, unable to grasp the bowl. “Sorry, I. Might. Need. Some. Help.” I felt even worse after that. I’ve already inconvenienced the man enough for one day, and now I need him to feed me. It’s kinda pathetic. Well, not really, but I just felt useless.

Sly placed both bowls and the pitcher down on the nightstand. “One moment.” He said before proceeding to pulling out a chair hidden at the bed’s foot and sat down next to me.

With that, the embarrassment of being fed by another person was actualized. It was uncomfortable, but it had to get done somehow.

We finished the meal, with the memories locked away forever into the depths of my mind.

He’s hardly spoken since I woke up, not very talkative, or he’s trying to be considerate of my situation. Either way, he seemed to be a decent guy. “Thanks.” I said, simple yet conveying all the meaning it needs to.

He nodded with a grunt in response. “How. You. Found. Me. And. How. Long. Been. Under?”

He took a second to understand my broken speech. “I was walking home after making a delivery and noticed you curled up and on the ground in an alley. It’s been almost a day since.” After the words, he took a spoonful of porridge, since he couldn’t with the whole feeding me thing, and took a bite.

A whole day, guess that's to be expected. Guess it’s time to ask the big question. “May. I. Stay. Until. I. Recover. Enough.” I would be dead in a second if he rejected my stay, so all I could do was hope. Hope that I won't get thrown to the wolves so soon.

He stared directly into my eyes with a straight face, and the fuzzy feeling returned. The same feeling I got when we talked in his shop. It was a subtle shift of senses or a suspicion. It all felt kinda weird, but it was soon to disappear.

I had no clue what he’s doing, but it must be some sort of ability. “No problem, you’ll be by yourself for a majority of the day, but that’s all I can do.”

Guess that's the most I could have expected, and it’s definitely welcome since I’d be dead otherwise. After some more small talk, he grabbed seconds and left for bed. In the process, he brought all my things into my room. He might have looked through my bag to make sure nothing suspicious was going on, but I couldn't care less after what he’s done so far, and I still had all my things.

Safety was better than anything I could ask.

With Sly gone, I needed to get to the core of my problem, quite literally. Since the original attempt to put more mana into the core didn’t work, I tried the opposite, taking the mana out of my core.

Since it’s corrupted, then maybe I could remove that corruption.

I activated [Mana gathering], but its weak pull was only a gentle wind, unable to affect my mana core.

This will not work.

I never had the chance to think about it, but [Mana Bolt] wasn’t the same after… you know, the whole Stool incident. It grew in size naturally, from that of a pea to that of a grape.

Hollow mentioned little about it, but if I had to take a guess, it was a Feat. It had little to do with the overall scale of the accomplishment, but the relative difference to your capabilities.

You wouldn’t be rewarded if you were the strongest [Chevalier] in a kingdom and eliminated a group of murderers, but if you happened to be a regular [Baker] and accomplish the same, it would be a Feat.

I wasn’t a regular [Baker], but considering I just walked out into the world for the first time, it might as well have been. And Feats could be anything and everything, as long as it was considered outside one’s capabilities. So, in return for such an accomplishment, the world and mana gave a gift, just as they do with classes.

But this time, [Mana Bolt] improved, growing in power.

I doubted I would be lucky enough to accomplish another feat, but it just proved that classes and abilities weren’t straightforward.

It wasn’t thinking of such a grandiose thing, but surely, I could at least change how I used [Mana Gathering] to better suit my predicament.

Take one.

“Heed my call mana… gather from one side”

I didn’t need to say anything, but the words helped form a mental image, guiding mana to what I wanted.

The mana gathered at the same rate, but only pulling from the direction my core laid in. The passing mana flew alongside my core, acting as a suction effect, elongating my core. It resisted the change, but as I narrowed the pulling direction [Mana Gathering], it was futile.

“Ahhghg, ahhghg.” I let out pained cries, but hope was forming. A couple of mana strings untie a little as one end left the elongated spheroid. More strands loosened up, but after a few pained seconds, two strands let go, breaking apart.

They dash forward, no longer tied to my core, and right before they reached the point of [Mana Gathering], they broke apart further, returning to their natural state as individual mana particles. A sense of joy washed over me as the pain loosened in my chest.

My breath, now exasperated with the exertion, but a smile plastered itself across my face. A success. It may take a while, but it should only be a matter of time.

The excitement didn't last long as my eyes dropped, too tired to continue.