Chapter 2

He remembered a jolt, then some falling and then everything went dark.

He woke up with something crushing his chest and some sort of purple box floating in front of his eyes. He got the urge to punch the box, but he controlled himself. He pushed the rock off his chest before focusing on the purple box.

[Entity ??????? may not leave magic circle without the permission of Master]

Glowing words written in the First Tongue of the Sage, the primary language of his clan, flashed in front of his eyes. He tried to touch the box, but it disappeared with a puff of smoke. With the box gone he contemplated the message. He was most likely the entity mentioned in the message, he also noticed that he didn't remember his name. It didn't bother him that much since he didn't have much use for it. He was satisfied with remembering the more important titles and those he commonly used.

But this encouraged him to check how much of his memories remain. He remembered people but he couldn't put a face or voice to those people. He had a strong impression of those people but vague memories regarding them. He remembered many places that felt important to him, but he couldn't remember why and where they were. He also had random pieces of information floating around in his head. Despite all these he somehow felt as if all was right with the world.

This worried him a fair bit.

It also told him the parallel processing technique he always had activated was deactivated. He usually had several minds maintaining avatars posted at the library so he could constantly cram information into his brain. He needed several minds to order and process all the information he had. A few minds were needed to carry out research in a variety of subjects. A few minds to deal with minor tasks and people. His body was usually by the side of the Monarch, and he had assigned several minds to serve her and observe the surroundings. He used a few minds to deal with matters regarding his cultivation. Lastly, a few minds to coordinate everything. All in all, he usually had 37 different minds churning at any given time.

But now he had one…

And that single mind was trying to do the work of 37 minds. He now knew why he had a headache, and why his thought processes were so messy. He had thus far failed to notice that some things were off, his instincts were felt off, there were contradictions between what his senses told him and his reactions to everything that was happening was off.

His mind churned for a while longer before he noticed how far he had strayed from the message in a box. While still lying down he closed his eyes and used a breathing technique to calm himself down. Once he was calm his mind returned to the message. 'Magic circle' most likely meant the formation he was lying on.

He wasn't sure what the whole Master thing meant though.

Did it mean the Monarch was close by? Maybe the Young Miss? Maybe one of his teachers? It was also fairly possible that an enemy delivered him here and used some technique to enslave him?

But he didn't feel enslaved.

He felt as if everything was off today so he was in no way certain that he could tell if he were enslaved. After thinking for he a bit, he decided to meditate for an hour or two to make his mind focus a bit more. He couldn't leave without the permission of the Master. He found it to be particularly stupid to try to leave this place with his mind still so chaotic. And he wasn't in a rush. He was currently so weak that any cultivator of the first step could kill him with a slap. Never mind his enemies, the weakest of which was at the bottom of the Third Order. The fact that he was alive meant that whoever summoned him here currently had no intention of killing him here.

Or maybe he got here by accident.

If he passed out during the fight and someone then hit him hard, it wasn't impossible for him to get thrown light years away. But in such a case he, and this planet, should have taken a lot more damage. And it wouldn't explain why his techniques don't work. Nor any of the other problems plaguing him today.

.

.

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He had to meditate for more than two hours before he felt his thought process was sufficiently clear, nowhere near perfect but acceptable. With his clearer mind he tried to investigate his body, he still couldn't scan it, but he could tell her a few things.

For one, he had no qi. He couldn't even feel his dantian but there was a weird energy seeping into his body and flowing in his meridians. It felt vaguely similar to qi, like it was a cheap copy of it. He couldn't control it but if he concentrated hard, he could detect it in the air up to a meter away from him.

*Ding!

[Mana Sense unlocked]

A blue box appeared and the first thing he noticed was that it didn't take as much effort to sense the strange energy. Even with his attention elsewhere he could feel it flowing through him, and if he paid attention, the internal flow was much more detailed.

It felt wrong.

It had taken him months to learn how to sense qi, and many months more to go past the level of being able to tell that its there to the level where you could possibly tell how it interacts with the body. He hadn't reached that level with the 'mana' thing yet, but a single message showed up and his proficiency jumped.

It didn't feel like a breakthrough, it felt like cheating. It felt like what you achieved wasn't done so through your own ability. It left a bad taste in his mouth.

He took a deep breath before continuing, and before long…

*Ding!

[Level Up: Mana Sense <Apprentice Level 1>]

A blue box appeared with a different message and without doing anything he could feel that his proficiency with sensing mana had increased. He tried to touch the box and it disappeared. He pushed the thought of the box to the back of his mind, shut his eyes and continued.

*Ding!

He didn't open his eyes, but he felt the difference.

*Ding!

*Ding!

His mind strangely felt clearer as more notification sounds rang out.

*Ding!

That irked him.

.

.

.

*Ding! *Ding! *Ding!

He didn't know how many times he had had to grit his teeth through the accursed sound, but this time it felt different. It had previously focused on the mana inside his own body, he could now sort of scan his body using the ability. But now, the range of the external sense improved. He felt compelled to open his eyes and see in what way was the message different. He found the boxes irksome, but the scholar in him found the thought of running away from knowledge abominable.

Opening his eyes, he found tens of boxes floating in front of him. After looking around, he found three boxes that stood out.

[Rank Up: Mana Sense <Intermediate Level 0>]

[Feat Accomplished: Ranked Up skill <Mana Sense> without the use of Skill Points | +5 Skill Points]

[Feat Accomplished: Rapid progression of skill <Mana Sense> | +5% mana affinity]