Resolve and Effort
Remirg was pulled into the door before he knew it. He was dragged in at such a great speed that he didn't even notice the message which popped beside him. The adrenaline was already making him scream.
[CONGRATULATIONS! THE PLAYER HAS SUCCESSFULLY ENTERED THE SACRED GROUNDS!]
It took a full minute of resisting the temptation to pass out before Remirg finally landed with a muffled 'thud' on a very soft ground.
He almost puked on the floor if it had not been for a mysterious aura around him that restored him to his healthiest state.
Instantly activating Prana Presence, which has now become his physical instinct upon encountering any new extraterrestrial phenomenon, he stumbled upon the fact that the whole area surrounding him was covered with a thin wall of pure white prana particles.
All of them falling slowly, creating an ethereal environment. For some reason, they seemed to possess no malicious intent at all.
instead, they provided a soothing effect to Remirg's soul, calming his mind. All of his anxiety while experiencing the fast travel seemed to be sucked out of him.
Starting to get a hang of his surrounding area, he realized that he was standing right on top of a floating island. And a small one at that.
Wanting to conform the fact he had been dreading the most, he carefully made his way towards the edge of the islands, peeking downwards, just to see an endless void surrounded by clouds.
"Goddamn! What the hell will happen if I accidentally fall off?"
Gulping what felt like a liter of saliva, he turned away, gradually making his way back to the center.
In front of him lied a singular slab of marble, on which something was etched in the same mysterious language. Beside it lay two stands over each of which lay a golden pot.
Walking with brisk steps, Remirg reached one of the pots.
Examining what was inside it, he noticed a mysterious, thick, silver liquid swirling seamlessly in the form of a hypnotizing spiral. It almost felt like he would be sucked right inside its epicenter if he stared at it for too long.
Somehow tearing his gaze away from it, Remirg turned his head skyward, where the most ominous object rested.
A cylindrical monolith, almost the size of a watchtower, was suspended motionlessly about a hundred feet above the island's grounds.
But before he could even start examining its features, the Simulator had popped him a new notification.
[THE FIRST TRAINING QUEST HAS NOW OFFICIALLY BEGUN! THE PLAYER MAY POSITION HIMSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SACRED GROUNDS BEFORE COMMENCING WITH THE TRAINING.]
Remirg, upon reading it, followed it like an infant and dashed right in the middle of the island. Mysteriously, the bright sun which was blazing over him was not searing his eyes at all. His vision was perfectly clear.
As he stood in the middle of the small island, the Simulator, aka Mark, who remembered all the instructions by heart, sent him the next set of instructions via a new notification.
[THE PLAYER HAS MET THE REQUIRED PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS TO PROCEED WITH MAGIC! YOU MAY START WITH THE FIRST POSSESSION SPELL,
SHISU KANNAS,
YOU MAY PRACTICE IT ON ONE OF THE POTS ON THE SHINSU STANDS. THE POTION INSIDE ALLOWS THE POT TO RESTORE ITSELF TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE IF BROKEN.]
Making quite a prominent scowling face, Remirg thought,
"At least, they got a fool proof setup, knowing that I would smash things up hundreds of times."
Nevertheless, his eyes immediately wandered onto the first spell, which the screen was showing in a yellow highlight.
"God bless me.... This is my first time trying my hands on such a thing as magic... Even though I can control the flow of my prana particles quite well, I don't think I'm still cut out to perform magic yet.....
Let's see what happens".
Breathing nervously, he gazed at the pots in front of him.
With what felt like a de facto, he extended his right arm, pointing it directly at the pot lying on the right of the marble slab.
Taking a deep breath, bracing himself for it, shouted out loud, in a clear voice,
"Shisu Kannas!"
He closed his eyes in anticipation of the production of a bright light or other otherworldly apparition, but nothing of such assumption happened.
The pot remained put at its designated place.
Quite disappointed, Remirg let out a sigh of dissatisfaction. Even though he knew perfection doesn't come before a lot of practice, it was an inbuilt attribute of a being to get disappointed even at the slightest of failures.
Nevertheless, he extended his arms again, shouting the incantation louder than its predecessor, expecting to get a result this time.
Still, his fresh attempt resulted in a failure as well.
Proceeding it, Remirg tried performing the same procedure again and again for dozens of times, each of them resulting in a failure. The result of it was that the temper of Remirg was rising, slowly.
He could not comprehend the head and tail of what he was supposed to do with the spell. The only thing the Simulator had provided him with was that singular goddamn spell. That and nothing else.
He was going to extend his arms again when right at that moment, the real solution to his problem dawned upon him.
He had been too foolish not to think about that. What he had been doing just now was fashionably pointing his hand and shouting out random words.
In order to perform real magic, he had to merge the surrounding world energy with the magical core he had inside himself. In other words, he had to manipulate prana particles within himself before he chants.
That was the key to it.
As simple as it looks, the more difficult it is to master.
Repositioning his hand again and activating prana presence simultaneously, Remirg turned his gaze at the pot, a new determination blazing in his eyes.
Accumulating as much prana possible in his right wrist, Remirg shouted the incantation again, which now strangely sounded mystical.
"Shisu Kannas!"
The accumulated prana shot out of his hand like a bullet, as the strange magical core inside his body started to rotate at a very fast rate.
The outburst of prana, carrying a large amount of momentum, made Remirg lose his balance.
As he fell, he could see the pot falling off its stand as well. The prana had burst through it producing a hole large enough for a glass tumbler to pass.
Smiling with satisfaction, he said to himself.
"Now that is a good start!"