Atlas sat on his bed, the book given to him by Long in hand. The book was titled 'Basic Mana Manipulation'. He opened the book eager to learn. Half an hour later, Atlas closed the book with a confused look on his face. The book didn't specify anything apart from a very basic and almost useless method to sense Mana, it didn't mention how to manipulate it or convert it into an element. It seemed more like a book recording the thoughts and experiences of famous Magic Users when they sensed Mana. Nevertheless, he had learnt how to manipulate Mana, so it was not totally useless.
"Status." He called out remembering the word he said to call out the blue screens.
[STATUS]
- NAME: Atlas #######
- RACE: Hybrid
- TITLE: World Tree's Blessed
- AGE: ????????
- ALIGNMENT: Chaotic Neutral
- CLASS: World Mage LV 1 EXP: 0/100
- JOB: Game Master LV 1 EXP: 0/100
[STATS]
- HP: 300/300
- MP ??????/???????
- STR: 13
- AGI: 17
- DEX: 16
- VIT: 11
- INT: 18
----------------
Atlas didn't read the rest of the blue screen as he was fixated on the lines of text next to his previously empty Title.
World Tree's Blessed!
The name of the title itself almost gave Atlas a heart attack, the World Tree in his mind had been turned into a figure that had gone insane. If an insane asylum patient walked up to you and declared that he has taken you as his disciple and that he was going to 'bless' you with his teachings, would you happily follow him with a smile on your face?
Definitely Not!
He stared and the words when another blue screen popped up.
[Title: World Tree's Blessed]
- Rejoice lucky one! The almighty World Tree has blessed you! But is such a blessing really something to look forward to?
- Effects: Grants user a higher affinity with any magic type being studied.
- The holder of this title will slowly be corrupted and will become insane.
- Cannot be unequipped.
- Can be stacked with another Title
----------------------
Atlas fell to the ground in anguish as soon as he read the description.
Of course it was trash! Not only was it trash, it was also useless trash that could not be thrown away and would eventually lead to suffocation due to it's a crappy smell.
He despaired for a few minutes before hurriedly reading through the other information sighing in relief when he found no abnormality in his status. He shed a tear of sadness for himself, the effects of his Title were not exactly bad but he already had a perfect affinity for Lightning and possibly other elements.
He paused at that thought. He seemed to have seen many elemental affinities when he touched the testing ball.
"Affinity." He said hesitantly and sure enough a blue screen popped up.
[AFFINITY]
- Fire
- Water
- Earth
- Wind
- Lightning
- Light
- Ice
- Plant
- Space....
----------------------
The screen was longer, but Atlas had already blanked out after reading to that point.
Approximately half an hour later....
Atlas jumped up in shock after looking at the list.
If all these were Perfect grade. He shuddered at the thought.
After he had gotten his bearings back, he opened the virtually useless book to read it again, after all what was the use of Perfect affinities if he couldn't even use magic.
After he read the book two more times, he took a deep breath and lay sideways on his bed. The book said that in order to sense Mana he had to first feel his Mana Core and only then would he be able to draw Mana into it and refine it to cast spells.
He closed his eyes, blocking out all his thoughts and according to the book, he listened to the sound of his heart beating for a few minutes before he 'felt' something else beside his heart, it seemed to be beating in tandem with his heart. Although he couldn't confirm it's shape, he was sure it was there.
"Is this my mana core?!" Atlas muttered excitedly. Next, he was supposed to imagine the pulling something into his core even though he couldn't sense it.
He imagined his core pulling in mana as though he was breathing in air and indeed felt something permeate his body, filling him with an odd sensation of strength before converging into his mana core and disappearing without a trace.
A strangled, confused noise left Atlas' throat before an outburst of pain erupted in his heart making him double over, clawing at his chest as small, pained noises escaped his lips. The pain left as quickly as it came leaving him gasping on the floor wondering what happened.
"Could it be?!" He had a sudden epiphany and called out the status screen, "There"
[CLASS SKILLS]
-World Magic: User can only use ambient mana in their surroundings to cast magic.
Atlas stared at the screen trying to decipher the statement that contradicted what he had just learnt.
Magic users could not directly manipulate ambient mana; it had to be fed into the mana core to be converted into personal mana that could be used to cast and now that seemed to be impossible for him.
After thinking for a while he sat down in a meditative stance and tried to sense the mana surrounding him. In an instant he felt the presence of mana surrounding him which he hadn't paid attention to earlier as he had rushed to absorb it. The mana in his senses seemed to have different 'colors' which separated them into what he intuitively guessed were the different elements and they enveloped him in a multicolored, dizzying hue without trying to enter his core.
Atlas tentatively tried to push away the other mana presences and reached for the one with the most 'weight' which was what he assumed to be Earth or perhaps rock as it was a dull brown 'color.
As soon as he thought about it, the element coalesced into his palm and a piece of a brown rock burst out of his palm.
Atlas blinked at it in disbelief as he truly began his path to magic.