Discovery

After talking with Leus for a couple more minutes, Veta left his room.

Leus closed the door behind her and stared at the piece of paper she gave him

'Let's try this spell' He thought with excitement

He sat on the table and began memorizing the chant for the spell.

After about a minute, he went and activated the Barrier

'Time to begin'

He chanted the spell then closed his eyes and focused on the Mana inside his body.

'Let's see how this works'

First, he felt a strong wave of Mana course through his body and go to his heart.

The wave of Mana encompassed his chest, surrounding his heart with Mana

'Kinda like submerging my heart under Mana'

Then slowly, a tiny portion of his Life Force was separated from the Life Force stored within his heart, and it transformed into pure energy.

The new energy was Mana, but it didn't feel like Mana

'It's not the normal, Neutral Mana ... it's like a pliable form of it'

Leus sensed that the new Mana was a lot easier to influence

'As if it's so pure that it is an elastic, flexible form of Neutral Mana'

The amount of Life Force consumed was very tiny

'Maybe 1% or so'

So Leus didn't feel any physical difference.

He focused on something else

'Life Force spells are different, they don't need any special training to be able to silently cast them, all I have to do is to try and re-create the feeling, then I'll be able to silently cast this spell.'

Silent casting was instantaneous, he didn't want to waste time by chanting a spell to be able to activate his Skill, so he decided to do that first.

He tried to mimic the flow of Mana the spell created inside his body by manipulating his neutral Mana.

And after only a few tries, he made it

'It's extremely easy'

Because he used the spell multiple times, he also got to know something else

'I think I can transform my Life Force into energy without spending Mana at all, it'd just need a lot of concentration and willpower to control my Life Force...'

After that thought came to him he tilted his head, Leus immediately stopped what he was doing and had a confused expression on his face.

"Wait ... What?"

He repeated what he thought of loudly

"It'd just need a lot of concentration and willpower?"

A realization hit him, which made his eyes open wide

"That's just an Abstract!!!!!!"

He didn't really think about it before ... it's known that Life Force is used to cure all sorts of illnesses and injuries, but ...

"What if there were other uses? What if Life Force is a form of Magical Energy ... just like Mana?"

"What if Life Force could be manipulated to grant specific buffs or create something new?"

Surely the idea wasn't far-fetched...

'If it can create Mana, why can't it create Magic?'

Leus sat on the floor and calmed himself down

'Let's not jump to conclusions ... there's something here, I don't know where will it lead me to.

Actually, I don't know if it'd lead me to anything at all ... but there's something'

Leus didn't know if he had just discovered something new or if it was something that was already there and only he didn't know about

'But anyway, it doesn't really matter, what matters is that I discovered an Abstract'

'It also didn't seem difficult or complicated ... I mean it wasn't easy, but wasn't difficult either, I know that I can comprehend it.'

He put his hand on his chin and asked himself

"Should I tho?"

'Unlocking an Abstract will take a while, maybe a week or two ...'

'Should I spend this time on unlocking a random Abstract I discovered instead of focusing on my goal?'

Leus mulled it over

'I do have enough time until my mother gives birth, and actually, a Life Force Abstract may help Mom one way or another.'

There was also something else

'The reason Arno made me unlock so many Abstracts in the first place is that once I evolve, the Abstracts will evolve with me'

After considering all that, Leus came to a conclusion

'It's worth the time'

A smile appeared on his face

'LifeForce-based Abstract huh? ... Yeah ... I really want to see how that works'

It was very appealing

'An entirely new genre of Magic'

With excitement, Leus closed his eyes and focused his perception on his heart. How it was pumping Life Force with every pulse, and how that Life Force was being evenly distributed throughout his body.

From that moment on, Leus began trying to fully understand and comprehend exactly what Life Force is, how it worked, and most importantly

'How to directly manipulate it without Mana'

Hours passed like that

Leus was sitting inside the barrier with his eyes closed.

His mind was trying to unveil the secrets and the fundamentals of Life Force.

Very quickly, hours turned into days, and days turned into weeks.

But Leus didn't notice any of that, he was in his own little world.

With every passing second, Leus felt that he was getting closer to unlocking what he now called (The LifeForce Abstract) and that feeling of getting closer to his goal was exhilarating.

It was so thrilling and intoxicating that it made him only focus on progressing further.

As he got more and more drawn into it, his mind entered a trance;

His sense of time became so distorted that hours didn't feel any longer than seconds. External stimuli were irrelevant, the day and night diurnal cycle didn't make any difference, the door knocks didn't make any sounds, and the lights switching on and off didn't cause any disturbance.

Leus was so enchanted by the new Abstract that he entered the trance Arno warned him about before; The one he entered when he was trying to unlock The Abstract of Levitation, that time he ended up aimlessly hovering in the middle of the barrier with all the boxes around him.

The only difference between then and now is that this trance would come to an end, eventually.