Ellis, now alone in the room, awkwardly sat cross-legged in his small body. He had already decided to observe Silas's reactions more carefully the next time he fondled her breasts. The last thing he wanted was to force himself on her, after all.
With a deep breath, he calmed his thoughts and began his training. He focused first on sensing the blue sparks inside his body, and then the dimmer sparks scattered throughout the room around him.
Slowly, he began to move the mana inside his body. His actions were careful and deliberate, always aware of his limits. Though his mental strength had recovered somewhat during these six months, it was still not strong enough to push too far. One wrong move could exhaust him too soon, sending him into unconsciousness.
He took it slow, circulating the blue sparks, moving them inside his body once, twice, then three times. Then finally, he shifted his attention to those outside of his body. He didn't try to pull, push, or move them just yet; instead, he simply interacted with them.
It was far more difficult to control mana outside his body than within, after all.
As he approached his limits, he finally tried to nudge the sparks... just slightly.
He was careful with his actions once again, as the purpose of this training was to get accustomed to handling mana—not to achieve something grand. If it were just about moving mana carelessly, he could have done that much more easily.
But this was training... training to be more precise, and to eventually be able to handle a larger amount of mana, effortlessly.
… Was he walking the right path? Was there an easier training method out there?
He didn't know, as there was no one to teach him... but he didn't care either way. What he was doing was bound to be useful, one way or another.
And, as he had already said... he didn't mind taking some detours!
Ellis took some time sensing the mana around him, keeping the range narrow. He interacted with these blue sparks for a while, focusing his mental strength as if it were materializing... before he finally stopped.
He took a moment to raise his concentration to the highest level, as the next step was something he had failed to succeed with during the last month.
Ellis had always treated the mana inside his body and the mana outside it differently... separately. But he didn't want that anymore. He wanted to make a change.
And so, after coating the mana within a ten-centimeter range around his body with his mental strength, he began pulling it toward himself.
Then, he started circulating the mana inside him, with the added effort of including the mana outside his body in the same circulation. He wanted to absorb it, to make it a part of him.
Just absorbing a spark of mana into his body wasn't enough to make it his own. So, Ellis's idea was to circulate the mana from outside with his own, hoping for some change.
He'd been attempting this for some time, but completing one full circle was proving difficult. Even so, he was determined to finish this circle... if he couldn't complete it on the first try, he would try again, and if it still didn't work, he would keep going until he succeeded.
When he was more than halfway through his current circulation, combining both his own mana and the one he had just absorbed, Ellis started feeling the strain, just like every time before.
But he pushed through, pouring all the mental strength he had left.
It was the hardest when he was nearly finished with the circle, the very place he had been stuck the previous few days.
… But through the small daily improvements he had made during these past few days, Ellis finally broke his previous record. He pushed through, completing the damn circulation circle.
Many system notifications flashed at the corner of his retina, but he wasn't able to check them. Instead, he finally stopped everything, knowing he had achieved his goal.
Ellis was breathing heavily, feeling as though he might pass out at any moment, especially with his blurry vision and exhausted mental strength. Sweat gathered on his forehead, and it took a long while before things finally started to feel more bearable.
He took another moment to rest, lying down, before finally opening the system notifications—already curious about what he had achieved.
[Your skill Mana sense has become Lv.20]
[Your skill Detection has become Lv.3]
[Your skill Mana Circulation has become Lv.10]
[Your skill Mana Circulation has become Lv.11]
[You have learned the skill Mana Breathing Lv.1]
[You have learned the skill Mana refinement Lv.1]
[Your skill Meditation has become Lv.13]
'Isn't the word Mana appearing a lot?' Ellis, who had learned two new skills and was naturally happy, couldn't help but find his mind wandering to another thought... the sheer number of skills he had now, all related to Mana!
Detection was yet another skill he had gained due to his mana sense, and an accident when he tried to make sense of his surroundings through it, after all.
That just left the meditation skill... but even this skill was ultimately learned to help him sense mana, circulate it, and perform other actions.
In the end, Ellis wasn't too bothered by this particular detail. He turned his attention to his two new skills. He opened their descriptions, reading through them. Both were straightforward, just like their names: one allowed him to breathe in the mana around him, making the absorption process smoother, and the other was for refining the said mana.
After all, the mana inside his body and the mana outside were different. Inside his body, the mana was already refined, while the mana outside was still raw, lacking the same purity.
Ellis was naturally very happy, knowing that now he could finally absorb the mana, process it, and make it his own.
… He would finally be able to increase his mana on his own through training, rather than just waiting for the natural process, where his body would accumulate mana as he grew older or spent the mana within him.
These two methods were naturally based on his findings and thoughts, with the second method being one he couldn't fully confirm the credibility of. His meditation skill didn't consume mana, and only the detection skill did, but even then, the amount of mana it consumed was so small it was nearly negligible.
It also primarily drained his mental strength, but that was a minor issue.
In any case, Ellis finally felt like his training would progress more smoothly from here on out.
And with that, he opened his status window.
[Status]
Name: Adrian Reid Valemere (Ellis Miller)
Age: 0 (21)
Race: Human
Physique: **** Physique (Incomplete)
[Attributes]
Constitution: G
Soul: C- (C+)
Mana: D-
Blank points: 0
Ability: Ephemeral Soul Genesis (Passive/Dormant)
Skills: Absorption (Passive) Lv.1, Spearmanship (Passive) Lv.1 , Knife Mastery Lv.1 , Mana Sense Lv.20 , Meditation Lv.13 , Mana Circulation Lv.11 , Detection Lv.3 , Mana Breathing Lv.1 , Mana Refinement Lv.1
Despite the increase in his skills, and some of them reaching high levels, Ellis couldn't help but feel that his status window still looked rather shabby, especially his attributes—though that was excluding his soul, of course. After all, a C- in Soul felt pretty overpowered.
… For a beginner like him, of course.