Meditation was far duller than he had expected and the book was written in such a way that it told readers:'If you can't do this then there is clearly something wrong with you.' At least that was the vibe he had gotten with the book constantly calling the exercises 'simple' and 'easy'. It wasn't easy or simple to stop thinking or worrying about things. There wasn't an off switch to those things. After spending 2 hours trying to do the exercises the book advised he decided that this book wasn't for him. He understood the fact that meditation was a hard thing but he hated how the book made him feel. He immediately started getting dressed in order to return the book. He wasn't the type that normally hurried like this but after sitting around for hours trying to figure out how to meditate he was willing to leave his house for the sake of helping one of his coworkers move out through as he finished getting dressed he wondered what kind of excuse he could offer to get a refund. He didn't want to be the guy that makes a scene to get a refund and he couldn't exactly say:'This book makes me feel dumb.'

With a sigh he got into his pajamas again and picked up the meditation book before sitting on the bed with his legs tied to eachother before closing his eyes and starting to take deep breaths while trying to empty his thoughts but just trying to not to think made it hard for him to not to think. He really wanted to give up on this meditation thing altogether but whenever he thought about it he sensed a lot of displeasure from his guide so that idea wasn't really applicable. Perhaps it was his repeated tries finally giving fruit or perhaps it was due to him getting too sleepy to actually think but he actually managed to empty his mind to a degree after sitting idly for 15 minutes not that it did much. He didn't suddenly sense thousands particles that were floating around or a large force suddenly flooding into him. To be honest he wasn't even sure what he had to sense in the first place. After some time he finally opened his eyes and realized he had fallen asleep on his bed.

He sighed and sat up on his bed before sighing and closing his eyes again and after constantly repeating 'Don't think of anything. Focus on the darkness.' for 10 minutes that felt like hours he finally managed to stop thinking to a certain degree. Considering monks trained themselves for years to truly empty their minds there was no way he could just achieve enlightement. After 10 minutes of meditating he sighed and decided to end it for today. His guide had to be satisfied with this much effort and even if she was dissatisfied he had shown a lot of effort so he shouldn't have been punished. After thinking these he almost instictively expected a response but no response came so he decided to get dressed and head to the park in order to read his book about positive thoughts. Normally he was a bit of introvert so he preferred reading at home but considering his attempt to meditate felt like it had taken the whole day he didn't feel like being cooped in the house.

After putting on a brown shirt and blue jeans he fixed up his hair and left his house pedalling towards the park while hoping he didn't run into anyone he knew along the way through halfway his stomach started to grumble reminding him he had skipped breakfast and it was lunch time already. As soon as he reached the park he bought himself a hotdog followed by a second and a third followed by a stomachache caused by eating heavy unhealthy food with an empty stomach. Getting to the nearest bench he sat down and started to slowly rub his stomach while watching the lake waiting for the stomach ache to fade away before starting to read his book. It was as boring as he expected it to be telling random stories about how thinking positively changed his life. After finishing two chapters he closed the book while feeling more negative than usual.

By now it had become around 3 pm so for now he decided to head to an internet cafe and play some games to get rid of his stress by playing some random game that didn't demand a lot of thinking from him. He wished he could just go home to play games but his laptop had gotten old and even the simplest games caused it to start overheating and shut down after 10 minutes have passed. Unfortunately he couldn't afford a new laptop with his salary and as a principle he wanted to avoid getting a loan. After all regardless of how well he researched by nature loans were designed to rip him off in his opinion.

Paying the owner for two hours he sat at the computer and started a random shooter game where he didn't have to worry about tactics or such just going around shooting aliens. After the game started up and the logo showed he just used the default playername before starting the game. While he was playing the hours flew by and by the time the computer locked itself up due to time being up Mark had felt like only 10 minutes had passed.

Leaving the shop he prepared to get on his bike when a female out called out:"Mister mage." which caused cold sweat to run from Mark's back. Was he in danger? Was this woman going to attack him. Slowly turning around with a pale face he noticed the fact that the woman had curtsied through upon noticing Mark's face the woman looked at him like he was being extremely weird. The woman was wearing a grey dress that embellished her figure without being revealing. She had long black hair and blue eyes that seemed to allure one into doing whatever the woman asked. She also had a small black bag hanging from the side. If it wasn't for the fact that Mark was extremely scared he could have thought of this woman talking to him as a miracle. The woman then added:"I am not here to harm you through i doubt i could actually do it regardless of my physical ability. I know the powers of your kind enough to avoid confrontation with you."

He wanted to retort by asking her to explain the power of his kind to him. Despite his urge to retort he didn't say anything and allowed the woman to continue her speech. The woman said:"There is a...friend of mine in our clan that needs your help. As our clan is the richest among the vampire clans we can acquire artifacts or magical items that you require." which nearly made Mark go 'Uhhhhh' like his brain was fried and it showed on his face but at that moment the woman was too busy explaining the proposition so she didn't notice it simply continuing:"As for my friend. Another person from your kind thought he was being irritating and probably found the idea of novelty witches funny so he turned my friend into a frog. So can you help us?"

Mark wanted to just decline and run like hell but his avatar 'urged' him to stay and ask if they had any books related to occult and magic in a rather harsh manner. The woman was now looking at him now so Mark was extremely scared about things going wrong but he managed to say:"I am going to need books regarding occult and magic to understand what happened to your friend." with a constant stammer. The woman seemed to misunderstand his stammer and said:"If you are like this with the little old me you will probably be stunned upon seeing people that truly care about beauty in our clan. Perhaps i could arrange for one of them to accompany you or perhaps i could accompany you myself." before giving him a wink. She then produced a business card from her purse and offered it to Mark. She then said:"Give me a call within two days and i'll give you the location where the books you might need will be arranged at." which Mark could only respond by nodding and taking the card.

When he managed to get back home he wondered just how deep he had sunk in this thing. Well there wasn't much he could do today so for now he decided to just get in his pajamas and lay down in his bed. After all people said things looked better after getting a good nights sleep. Despite it only being 5 pm he actually fell as soon as he laid on his bed due to mental exhaustion caused by that encounter and when he opened his eyes he was in the same place as he was in his last dream. Everything was exactly the same except a bookshelft was added into the edge of the room.

The woman said:"Well i guess i should apologize for the encounter but it was for your own good. If you don't reach a certain mastery of your powers you might suffer a lot of detrimental effects. If you are unlucky you will end up wishing to die. In any case those guys think of you as a trained mage so they are afraid of you."

After a brief pause with sweat running through Mark's face and the whole dream world shaking he forced himself to drink a cup of tea thinking the tea had calming effects and he actually felt a bit calmer. After finishing 4 cups of tea he could finally think properly through now he wasn't sure if the tea actually had calming effects or if it was placebo effect. Despite being relatively calm he was still worried about his future so he decided to ask:"So what happens now?Do i read their books and hope i can get strong enough to fight my way out or should i try to actually change this guy back?" which his avatar responded by simply saying:"It is your choice." Then she added:"You are a mage. You have to be bold. You might die while being bold but it is better than dying of old age without accomplishing anything. Anyway considering this was a nap rather than true sleep our time is rather short. Good luck."

After hearing those words the world faded around him and he woke up in his bed with sweat covering his face and he started to wonder what to do. Things were getting too real for him to be able to adapt quickly. For now he decided to open his laptop and sent a mail to his boss asking for a vacation for a week in two days citing personal reasons as emergency. Chances were it wouldn't be accepted but he had to contact that woman in two days and he didn't expect the woman to understand he had a life to maintain considering the woman seemed to hold him in a really high regard.

Name

Mark Hilson

Race

Human

Mage

Attributes

Magical Statistics

Physical

Arete

3

Strength

2

Spheres

Dextery

2

Correspondence

3

Stamina

2

Entrophy

0

Social

Time

0

Presence

2

Life

0

Charisma

2

Matter

0

Manipulation

2

Mind

0

Mental

Prime

0

Wits

3

Forces

0

Intellegence

4

Spirit

0

Resolve

3

Time

0

Paradox

0

Quintessence

0