A blinding blue light flashed before his eyes before suddenly being replaced by a blackness that was darker than black.
The darkness comes together with intense pain, making him temporarily forget about what he was doing or what he was trying to achieve.
When Jack's back fell to the floor from the lotus position, his hands spontaneously moved to cover his eyes, clutching them as if he was going to rip them off. He felt like his eyeballs had been replaced by a boiling metal liquid. Before he knew it, blood started to seep out from the wound that was dug by his own nails.
Jack groaned in pain as he wailed and unleashed all the curses he had kept all his life.
The blackness changes color to dark blue before gradually getting brighter until his vision is filled with pure white light.
At that time, his body suddenly convulsed uncontrollably. The excruciating pain slowly took away his consciousness.
When he woke up, the sky was already dyed by the light of dawn. Orange beams of light slip through the gap of the window and illuminate the room that Jack was in with a golden luster.
His vision has returned to normal, and the pain is no longer present. But the weak feeling in his mind and body prevented him from getting up. Only after a few moments passed did Jack could move his body again.
'So thirsty.' His throat felt droughty as if he had not drank water for several days.
After leaving the puddle of sweat area on the floor surface, he reached the water jug on the square table in the middle of the room with a trembling hand before pouring all its content into his mouth.
When water passed through his throat, he noticed a thin layer of blue light shrouding his hands that were not there before. After taking a closer look, Jack could see that the dim light emanated from his skin pores. After making a tiny circle outside of his skin, it re-enters his body via the same pores.
A similar process took place all over Jack's body except for the hair and nails.
He looked like a neon man, but for some reason, the dim blue light did not illuminate anything even when he moved into a room that was devoid of light. As if the glowing effect is not coming from the light itself but from his eyes.
'So this is what Mana looks like?'
Jack sat back cross-legged before focusing his attention on the eye area. Using his mid, he cut the mana flow that leads to the eye lens. When he opened his eyes again, the dim glow shrouding his body disappeared.
He could still feel it but couldn't see it anymore.
Jack closed his eyes again and reactivated the mana flow, so he could perceive the blue neon glow once more. After that, he opened the status window to see if the system had changed after becoming an Awakened.
And right. The title "Transmigrator from another world" is no longer grayed and lit up with a dim blue glow. Besides that, a new tab appears beside the status windows and equipment.
Transmigrator from another world: [You come from a distant world carrying a knowledge that does not exist in Terrenia. [INT+18]]
"So this is why my INT stats are so high. I didn't know that a title could boost my stats. 18 is more than a level's worth of stats points. This will help me a lot when I could cast a spell."
But doubts begin to appear in Jack's mind. "Wait! How did a title could logically increase my stats? So far, the world mechanics are so realistic. A mere title shouldn't be able to increase his stats for no reason."
Jack starts pondering about the underlying principle behind it, using the knowledge from Earth's science, history, and even lore as a reverence. But none could explain the correlation in how a title could increase someone's power.
After an unknown period of time, Jack chooses to give up and presume that the increased stats might come from some kind of blessing from a higher being such as gods, or maybe from the world itself.
Then he decided to move on and switched the status window to the new tab. The tab split into two parts, skills on the left side and technique on the right.
The skills section is still empty, but two new techniques have been listed beside it. "Mana Circulation" and "Mana Vision".
The former is learned when he Awakened. As for the latter, he believes that it is a byproduct of his painful experiment by opening a hidden mana pathway that leads to the eye lens.
Mana Circulation: [A technique to circulate mana all over the body and infuse them with consciousness. One must learn this technique to be able to cast a spell. Mana Circulation is divided into two sections, main section and secondary section.]
The Main Section is the one that keeps Mana Central working like a heart. The Secondary Section starts when mana spreads throughout the body via the bloodstream before being used to cast a spell.
Mana Vision: [Injecting mana into the eye lens gives the user the ability to see the mana itself.]
After reading the description a few times, Jack starts to look for another change in his system.
The Equipment tab is still the same, only displaying Crow Armor undershirt and pants. Its gray letter indicates his inability to see its description. So he decided to inspect them using mana vision.
'Wait a minute!' the corner of Jack's mouth raised when an idea suddenly flashed past his mind.
Jack gets up, runs to the bedroom before taking the stabbing dagger from the weapon rack, and slowly examines it. After a few moments, he tried to inject his mana into the dagger.
At first, he only managed to move his mana for a few centimeters from his body. But after trying for about half an hour, the dagger was finally covered with a dim blue glow just like his body.
Immediately, Jack opens the system interface at the equipment tab and finds that the words "Steel Stabbing Dagger" lit up with a blue luster.
Steel Stabbing Dagger
Dagger made of pure steel specially designed for stabbing.
"I am right! My system is born from my mana."