He had a headache. He was hungry. He was tired.
He was a cultivator of the Fourth Order. He could contemplate tens of different matters non-stop for months on end. He could go years without eating. And the only reason he bothered himself to sleep was that it felt good.
But now he had no cultivation. Yet habits die hard. The phantoms of his past haunt him. They kept whispering in his ear that he could last years before he had to move from his spot. They kept saying hunger and fatigue have no purpose with him. That his mind is so powerful that only Progenitor Gods would dare try to compare.
They deceived him.
[Tenacious Mind Unlocked]
This may have helped them. It made headaches easier to ignore but didn't get rid of them.
Up until a moment ago, aside from waiting for the owners of this place, he had spent nearly two days in an impromptu seclusion to quickly progress his skills and improve his condition. He had spent two days training his ability with the mana energy and that culminated in…
[Level Up: Mana Sense
[Level Up: Mana Manipulation
[Level Up: Mana Radar
The work he had done in the past two days revealed to him that the 'skills' have at least four ranks. Apprentice, Intermediate, Adept, and Master in ascending order.
He found Mana Radar to be a bit useless since when Mana Sense reached the Adept Rank it could do the same thing the skill did. But Mana Radar had a superior range, and it may develop interesting capabilities if he developed it further.
He gained Mana Manipulation when he could exert a certain level of control over the mana energy. It progressed quickly and after a while…
[Ice Magic Unlocked]
[Lightning Magic Unlocked]
[Darkness Magic Unlocked]
This gave him hope. Although a bit different, it was similar to the elements he previously had. Devouring Frost and Shrouding Dark-Light originating from his Extreme Yin Body. Astral Lightning from his family's Divine Yang Bloodline. He was most proficient with Devouring Frost but mostly used Astral Lightning. Shrouding Dark-Light was mostly for de-buffs. After unlocking the elements, he concentrated his efforts on Ice since he understood it best and the results were…
[Level Up: Ice Magic
He found this to be an interesting number, and he also found that using mana was really tiring, so he stopped there and went back to practicing Mana Sense. Practicing elemental magical developed both the element and Mana Manipulation, but Mana Manipulation would progress a lot slower.
When Mana Sense reached Master Rank, he sensed something. It felt as if it was binding him. The feeling was vague, but he was certain of it. He was now certain that some suicidal idiot had forcefully enslaved him. Sure, he had no power right now, but it wouldn't take long to recover a decent amount and kill the idiot. After he figures out how to break the enslavement. But when the skill reached level 2 of the rank, things changed. He could feel the direction of his 'Master'. It was close.
Like really close.
As in the other half of the magic circle.
Had his 'Master' been there for a whole two days and he didn't notice? Or maybe the 'Master' had only just arrived, and he didn't sense him approach?
Which was more terrifying?
More importantly, how big was this 'Master' of his and why was he hiding behind a rock?
He had approached the rock carefully, with a good portion of all his mana fuelling a mana shield, a sword made of ice and a blizzard attack consisting of many ice needles, to find a little black cat passed out behind the rock.
His eyes saw a little black cat curled up perilously close to the large rock, one couldn't help but hope the rock arrived on its place before the cat. His Mana Sense said the cat does not exist, but the enslavement came from where the cat was. His Mana Radar also said there is no cat.
He couldn't be sure exactly how strong was the cat, but he was now confident that he had been enslaved by this cat. It wasn't unusual for oaths to forbid servants from spreading their master's information, and with more money you could make it impossible for your servants to use certain techniques to collect that information about you. So, it was actually possible for the magic circle to put him under such an oath, an oath that forbid him from using mana to observe his 'Master'.
But who was his 'Master'?
The only cats he knew with decent cultivation were his adoptive mother and foster siblings and nieces and nephews. His relationship with them all was good so they wouldn't enslave, unless they did it as a joke.
But that's unlikely. The size of the cat in front of him as well as the colour and breed made it very unlikely that they'd be related to his family. The oath was also too binding for them to have an outsider bind a member of the family all in the name of a good laugh.
He thought for a bit. He created a sheath and holster for his sword. He dismissed the blizzard of glittering needles and bolstered his mana shield. This way he'll have a decent defence and a good weapon close by. If he grabbed the cat and it turned out to be some super powerful being, the sword and shield would help him survive. If he grabbed the cat and it turned out to be pretty weak, he only had to take care of until he figured out how to break the oath. He could even keep it as a pet.
When his preparations were ready, he grabbed the cat. It didn't wake up. He checked it out and found out that it was suffering from dehydration and hunger. He couldn't allow it to die since the oath would drag him down as well. He thought quickly and decided to continue with his seclusion. The cat wouldn't die if he only stayed a few hours more.
He went back to his spot and put the cat down on his lap and continued. It took around twenty minutes for a ding to sound, but he didn't open his eyes as he still found the boxes irksome.
Something was different that time, the ding brought the usual benefits but this time they ere accompanied by a wave of fatigue. When the fatigue hit him hunger, thirst and a headache came out of nowhere and hit him harder.
He first thought the advancement had allowed him to feel what the cat is feeling, but the thought was quickly discarded after his Mana Sense maintained its stance on the nonexistence of the cat. He used the skill to scan himself and he found his body in a mess. His internal systems were in disarray and his body was in the early stages of atrophy due to the lack of food and working non-stop for days.
He had to take a break, but he didn't want to sleep.
He used a few different breathing techniques to simulate the effects of sleep and to bring his body's systems under control.