7 Smokes

After a loud hiss, the ground shook as a 4-meter snake slithered out of a crevice near a tree.

Vin paled.

He began to duckwalk towards a large boulder nearby to hide from the snake.

With only 12% of mana left in his body, his brain began to process things at an unnatural speed.

These are his genetic modifications at work.

Then, information resurfaced in his mind. A typical snake uses its tongue to sense the scent of the hunted by letting their tongue out.

Using 2% of his mana, blue smoke drifted out of his eyes as he created a very tight wind sphere that blocked any scent or hormones released by their bodies.

Vin turned his head back to the snake and saw something peculiar.

While the snake had its head raised high and tongue out, its head kept looking around as if lost. Rocks attached on its skin are slowly aging and getting fragile as it shed away with a layer of white membrane.

It was shedding!

Snakes are typically color blind but are not blind. However, during ecdysis, some layers that are protecting their eyes also molted, causing temporary blindness.

Opportunity!

Under the protection of the wind sphere, the boys did not have to worry about their scent being tracked. With the snake's temporary blindness, there is almost no chance at being seen. Vin continued carrying Nathan to safety.

Seven minutes later, Vin gained a reasonable distance away from the snake. However, his mana is dangerously low at 5%. His vision is getting blurry as his mental capacity weakened.

At least they were safe. Relatively anyway.

Vin put Nathan down as he tried to cover himself and Nathan with dirt for insurance.

Afterward, he began to meditate.

Ten minutes of resting recovered around 30% of his mana capacity.

Thinking it was enough. Vin opened his eyes. A faint blue wisp of smoke escaping his eyes, which he did not notice.

He felt more nervous than earlier. It seems like the courage boost was only temporary. Yet, he still needs to go on.

Onwards!

As he stood up, Vin activated the wind sphere and began walking. He had no idea where so he just followed his instinct.

Soon enough, he finally reached an area where Nathan dropped marks on the ground. Now Vin was at a loss.

Two sides opposite of each other had marks, but he couldn't tell which way to go.

Even after recovering his mana, his brain remained muddled as entering the void state on increases mana regeneration and not mental strength.

Then he began to invoke his mana. If there's one thing he learned over these past few days, magic seems to be omnipotent. He just has to will it.

Suddenly, a blue wisp of smoke came out of his eyes. Vin did not notice it, but a voice in his subconscious pointed him in a direction.

With his muddled state of mind, Vin decided to just get on with it.

More and more marks passed by, and later on, he finally saw the mud gate covered with leaves.

They're home!

With a smile plastered on his face, the proud Vin began to move the mud gate with his magic as he finally reached safety.

After putting Nathan down, Vin began to assess their current condition.

Nathan remained out cold throughout the escape, his body heat remains normal to touch, and his eyes kept scurrying, showing him being in a deep sleep.

Vin looked at himself and discovered that he only had a paltry amount of mana left, with his feeble mind. He only realized now that when he created the wind sphere, he did not let a green circle out like he usually does.

If anything, only blue smoke came out of his fingertips as the spell activated. Vin was astonished at the discovery.

Forgetting that he only had 7% mana left, he began to cast fireball in their practiced way; however, this caused his mana to deplete, and Vin passed out.

A few hours later.

Nathan woke up. His mind is completely blank.

He had no recollection of what happened, nor he knew how he got home. The last thing he could recall was walking in a direction as he left his usual tracks.

And then... then, there was nothing.

Nathan then looked towards Vin.

From Vin's forehead, weak blue smoke continuously streamed out. Nathan panicked.

"What's happening?" he muttered.

To him, what he sees now is something akin to Vin losing his soul. Wasn't this is the exact depiction of anime losing their souls?

"Shit! Vin, wake up!" Nathan shouted as he shook Vin.

Having no reaction, Nathan felt panic rise in his heart. Before he lost it, an impulse within him made him act.

*PAK*

Nathan slapped Vin so hard. A red palm mark remained on Vin's face.

This woke Vin up. With panic on his face, he covered his head with both hands as he looked around. His eyes stopped at Nathan, whose right hand remained raised.

"What the fuck, dude!" Vin shouted angrily.

Nathan, who's still in a daze for what he did, answered absentmindedly, "I... I'm sorry I panicked." he paused then continued, "I saw blue smoke coming out of your head. It looked like your soul was escaping you!"

With an are you an idiot expression plastered on his face, Vin responded: "What the hell are you on about?!"

"Blue smoke was coming out in between your eyebrows! I tried to wake you up, but you didn't respond."

"I.." Vin tried to explain himself, but he couldn't recall what happened before he passed out.

Seeing his friend in this state, Nathan probed: "Can't remember what happened earlier too?"

In a daze, Vin replied: "Uhuh."

The two boys looked at each other, confusion apparent in their eyes.

The confusion slowly turned to fear.

After a short silence, Nathan said in a joking tone: "At least there's no more smoke coming out of your forehead."

"Smoke..." Vin muttered. "Ah!"

"What?" Nathan asked.

"I remember now! Yesterday when I cast spells, there were no spell circles nor nodes connected required. All that happened was a cloud of smoke coming out on my fingers.

Immediately, Vin raised his hands with his palm rising upwards. Blue smoke seeped out of his palm as he invoked the fireball spell.

*FWOOF*

A small ball of fire ignited just above Vin's palm.

Nathan had his eyes wide opened. "That... How did you do it?"

Vin answered, "Compared to following the scientific route of confirming the physics of the real world, this time, I just willed it."

Nathan: "Willed it?"

Vin: "Yes, it's like, I want a ball of flame to appear on top of my palm. I think the blue smoke is the natural mana, isn't that the color of mana in games?"

Nathan: "That... makes absolutely no sense at all!"

Vin: "It doesn't, but it works. Actually, this isn't the first time I did it, I think. I remember when I first woke up, I accidentally induced air to increase my movement speed."

Nathan: "Ah! Shit, you're right, that happened to me too!"

After figuring things out, the fear in their eyes had long become sparks of excitement.

With this new knowledge, Nathan and Vin began to experiment on what they can do with their wills and compare it to what they can do with science.

As the night settled, by practicing their magic, the cave expanded once again from 26sqm to 32sqm. However, the new excavated space was riddled with debris and looked more chaotic than when they did things scientifically.

In just a few hours, their initial findings came as invoking a spell is a bit more unstable compared to casting a spell.

Invoking required complete faith and instinct while casting already laid out a blueprint for the magic to take shape.

Another is that casting is more visible as a spell circle containing the spell nodes materializes on the caster. Invoking spells will make mana automatically seep out of the point of fire.

There is absolutely no control when invoking while casting requires absolute control.

The initial result of their experiment left Nathan and Vin ecstatic.