Chapter 3

(Week later)

It took quite a bit to get a hang of controling outside mana. Now controlling mana itself wasn't really the hard part, well it was hard but the actual hard part was to control it without having to put all my focus for a couple minutes to do so.

To explain it better I should tell you how I did it at first. Well it's not that complicated, when I started to feel mana I was trying to figure out a way to manipulate it and the thing that I tried was what the cultivators in Chinese novels did, since I do live here, I lived here for like 9 years now. I sat down, in the classic position, put my hand on my knees closed my eyes, and focused. At first, it didn't work but I took patience lessons from Chinese masters and did it again and again, not like I had any idea what else to do. After a while I saw some results and after a few more whiles it actually worked, but I had to sit down and focus for a while, I wanted to do that on the fly

STATUS:

Name: Alex Mori

Level: 0 (exp 0%)

HP: 100%

MP: 14.8/14.8

Str: 10

Vit: 9

Dex: 10

Int: 10

Mag: 2

Abilities: Light Magic(lvl 1), Mana Manipulation(lvl 1)

Skills: -

Well I didn't really slow down on my light bulb training, but I didn't really try anything new since I was more focused on being a wannabe magic cultivator. The point in Mag is nice tho.

I'm currently making some light since it's getting dark, the twist is I'm not making it with my own mana but the ambient mana that's literally everywhere, it's not dense but it fills up the void quickly when some of it is used. I can actually make the light last infinitely when I don't have to use my meager mana reserves, well I don't think it's infinite but I haven't had it run out yet I always turn it off myself when I don't need it anymore.

I said before that I didn't try anything new with light but that isn't exactly the case, I can now make more lights at the same time and I can move them around easily. Well, maybe not 'make' at the same time but oh well.

Now I want to try something with my light magic though, it's been a while since it got to lvl 1 and I think what I have to do is to experiment. The first thing that I tried was if I could heal wounds using it so I made a tiny cut on my arm that didn't even take a percent of my health and did the usual; sat down and focused. Sad to say it didn't work, I tried using ambient mana since there's more of it but it didn't work either, honestly I expected it from what I noticed light magic is what it says, it isn't any holy magic bullshit what it does is make and manipulate light and for now that's it.

Since that didn't work I want to try something I'm almost sure is possible, that is making hard light. Or at least making it denser I guess. So I sat down and closed my eyes, made a light, and focused on it really hard, I tried to compress it using my own mana first and it worked, barely but it did. Since I used all of my mana I want to try using the ambient mana next, honestly it's pretty much a hack, while it's harder to control and I can't take it inside my body it's nearly endless from my perspective, maybe once I can do some crazy shit with magic it won't be but for now it is.

Using ambient mana feels weird, I can't truly control it, it follows my directions but loosely and it's a bit different from the mana inside me. Then again, it would be broken if I could just have it. By that I mean absorb it and expand my mana pool just like that from the start, maybe that is a thing but there is no way I could do it right now.

So I sat down and made a light, then I started focusing on compressing it as much as possible. I was successful but it wasn't satisfactory, the effect was barely better than before. I repeated this process I don't know how many times until I had to stop since my stomach was begging for food.

After opening the fridge I was surprised by the lack of anything inside. I forgot to buy food. The only thing inside was milk and ketchup, and that is not something that will help me right now. I scrambled around the kitchen trying to find something to eat but the only things were three slices of stale bread. The only thing I could do was to eat a slice of bread to not fucking die, dress up and go to a grocery store.

After leaving my apartment I walked down the street, and after making a turn I saw a man crossing the road. I immediately stopped and looked at the guy in shock, he looked to be in his thirties, maybe early forties, fairly tall and with black hair but that was not what surprised me, what surprised me was the fact that this guy wasn't normal, I don't think he is a mage, he doesn't seem to have mana, but he has some sort other energy. I realized I shouldn't be staring like that or he will notice me acting weird so I immediately started walking in the direction of the store trying to act like nothing happened.

When I came back I threw the bag on the floor and breathed a sigh of relief. It scared me, I knew I would find someone like that eventually but I didn't think it would be so soon and so close. I don't think I could do anything if someone like that attacked me, I don't really have anything to fight with, the only thing I could do at the moment would be to try to blind him and run away. I don't know how strong that guy was but he had more of that energy than I have mana. Now that I know that there actually are people with powers, and they are close to me, I might not really be at risk but who knows, I was always paranoid about stuff like this. I need to step up my game now.