Tomorrow at the Inn.
Adam was in his room sitting cross legged in his his bed, Asutrix was going to teach him meditation techniques today. He even woke up earlier than usual because of his anxiety.
"Asutrix, teach me meditation techniques! It's tomorrow already."
"Brat, aren't you a bit too excited for this? You just woke up some minutes ago... Ah whatever, it's your fault if you end up sleepy for the rest of the day." Asutrix was a bit surprised seeing his excitement.
"First, I will explain what meditation techniques do. They replenish your mana faster and increase your capacity for it, something very important at your level. Mage Apprentices are divided in low, medium and high level, counting your mana capacity and the amount of spells you know. You only know one spell that you are not even proficient at, and your mana is slightly higher than a average person, so your level is obviously low." Asutrix explained a lot of things to him.
"Now, let's get straight to business. Since I don't feel like wasting weeks teaching you a meditation technique, I will just transfer the knowledge to you like last time. Be prepared."
"Wait wha-" Adam don't had time say it before feeling the knowledge starting to fill his head, causing a headache just like last time. The knowledge had all the theorical knowdledge about the technique plus the sensation of praticing it, and it still had no information about Asutrix.
The meditation technique name was Embrace of Earth, and it was obviously a earth attributed meditation technique.
The benefits of techniques like that were the increase in the elemental affinity of the said element and people that alredy high affinity in it would need less effort and have better results meditating. The downside of it is that the other elemental affinitys end up decreasing, but since Adam other attributes were bad, he doesn't care about it.
Adam was seriously tired after the knowledge transfer ended, and just fell in to the bed panting, not wanting to get up. He spent a lot of time like that, before finally getting up in his bed and deciding to pratice the technique.
"Wait a minute brat, go to the forest before praticing it." Asutrix stopped him.
"Why? Can't I just do it in my room?" Adam don't wanted to walk so much for the time being.
"Techniques like these have better results being used in enviroments that fit them. A example is someone with a water attributed technique would have way better results in a lake than in a desert. The closest place with good earth elements is the forest, so go there." Asutrix explained the reason to him.
"Ah shit..." Adam was unwilling, but his excitement to magic got the better of him. He got out from his bed and set out to the forest with a face like he don't had any sleep at night. Finally reaching the usual place in the forest, he pratically fell to the ground from tiredness.
"I told you this would happen. Don't skip sleep next time brat." Said Asutrix. Adam could almost see a old man with a long beard laughing in his mind.
"Haaaah.... Well, let's do it..." Adam got in a cross legged position, closed his eyes and started chanting something. He needed to feel the mana in the ground and guide it to his body. He repeated the chant a few times before starting to feel a formless, mysterious energy in the ground. He also felt it in the air, plants, water, almost everything. He started to focus in the energy in the ground, wich had one the biggest amount here.
Very small strands of mana started going into his body, to a unknow place he had no vision of. Even then, he could still somewhat feel his mana increasing. The unknow place was his soul, the source of mana for human beings. Mages guide the mana that comes from their soul with their mind by using chants, forming what is called spells. Because of that, every single mage had a powerful soul, no matter what magic they pratice.
Adam continued to meditate for a unknow amount of time, until he felt like his soul couldn't take anymore mana. He opened his eyes and felt like his mana capacity increased, it was not a big increase but it still would accumulate by doing it everyday. He also was somewhat surprised by finding out that his sleepiness was slightly gone, he still wanted to sleep but it was a little less now.
"Doing meditation can rest your body just like sleep by letting it absorb mana, but with your level now you still needs to sleep." Said Asutrix knowing what he was thinking now.
"Hmm, how much time do I need to wait before meditating again?" Feeling his mana limit increasing was addictive.
"Do it just one time per day, doing it anymore than that would cause harm to your soul by forcefully increasing it's limits. Harming your soul causes a lot of problems, from impossibiliting you to use magic to mental problems like dementia, and is incredibly hard to cure. If your harm your soul now... Hehe..." Asutrix scared the hell out of Adam.
Adam was sure he wouldn't try to meditate more than a time per day. Getting back from the forest to his room, he throwed himself into his bed and had his well deserved sleep.