"What does this mean?" I asked at Mirthia, without taking my eyes off of that little tree.
"No idea, meow. This is the first time I see this kind of reaction. At least we can deduce that you have affinity with the plants… and it seems to be very big, meow."
Mirthia picked up the tree and began to inspect it up and down with a shocked expression.
"That's good… I guess…"
"At least it makes a lot easier for me to teach you. Ok, now that you have the theory it is time to move on to practice. You have been lucky, you are in the best place to learn earth magic. This forest overflows with the power of the earth."
She threw away the little tree as if it didn't matter to her anymore and approached me with a wicked smile on her face. She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and forcibly dragged me out of the house, and the village too. We walked for about ten minutes through the lush forest, which did not allow us to see much beyond three meters, until we reached a large clearing that seemed to have been made by the hands of those cats.
In the center of the clearing was a tree that rose more than fifteen meters above the others, reaching a height of approximately forty meters or more. Its trunk was big enough that ten people together wouldn't be able to hug it.
"This is a… big tree…" I murmured, with my eyes fixed on the colossal plant.
"Impressive, right? This is the great sacred tree, the center of all Fandragoth and the place where I found you wounded", Mirthia answered, with a prideful tone.
It was really a huge and imposing tree, and that was not all. As I got closer, I noticed that something around me was changing. I actually started to feel it as we were approaching the clearing, but it wasn't until I was right next to the tree that I could clearly notice it. It was a strange feeling, as if I was immersing myself in a liquid that thickened the closer I got to the tree. It was not an unpleasant sensation, on the contrary, it made me feel much better. The wounds that had not fully healed yet started to hurt less and I could notice that began to quickly heal once more.
I moved my hand in the air, trying to catch something that seemed non-existent. Still, I felt like my hand was touching something. It was more of a sensation than a stimulus transmitted by my senses, but it was obvious that there was something there.
'Perhaps…'
I clenched my fist after instinctively understood, I had survived thanks to falling in this place. The clearing had something that allowed me to heal my wounds, wounds that would have killed me in minutes if I hadn't been for this strange thing that was surrounding me.
"Thank you…" I whispered quietly to the tree in front of me before turning back to Mirthia.
Seeing my determination, Mirthia smiled and walked over to a stump. She began to hit it, showing that wanted me to sit on it.
"First of all, you have to learn to recognize your own container. Knowing how much mana you can use is crucial. Sit here and focus inside yourself, meow. If you can get in a profound meditative state you should be able to create a mental image of yourself and see what is hidden in the deepest of you."
I followed her instructions and sat cross-legged on top of the cuted log. I closed my eyes and began to meditate.
'Meditate… meditate… meditate… meditate… meditate…'
"I don't see anything…"
A stick was immediately smashed against my head.
"Don't complain and continue with it, meow. If this could be done in two seconds everyone would use magic as soon as they were born!"
"Ok, ok, I get it…" I mumbled, rubbing the bump that just appeared on my head.
I closed my eyes again and concentrated as much as I could. I spent at least a quarter of an hour without getting any results. I finally opened my eyes again and lowered my head in exasperation. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the little sword hanging from my belt, Vurtalis. It was inside a leather sheath, but the hilt was still clearly visible. On this one, the inlaid gem glowed with a more intense green color than when we were at Mirthia's house.
'Could it be that…'
I drew the sword and held it in front of me with both hands.
"What are you doing, meow?" Mirthia asked after seeing me draw the sword.
"I want to try something, don't pay too much attention to me."
Mirthia's face cheekily showed her thoughts that seemed to keep saying constantly: "You're stupid… meow."
I closed my eyes and concentrated again. Having Vurtalis in my hands really caused a huge difference. Maybe I was self-suggested or maybe the sword really helped me, but I managed to plunge my mind into a deeper state. Although I was still unable to see anything, I began to notice something inside my body. It was a sensation similar to blood moving through my veins.
'This is mana?'
However, unlike how Mirthia had said, the origin did not seem to be within me, but entered through the sword in my hands. I focused on that feeling and made an effort to immerse myself even more. Little by little, an image began to take shape. I found myself inside a space without a floor, walls, or ceiling. A completely black place whose only content was a pile of fine yellow threats that flowed like tiny rivers out of control. I walked through that infinite space for what seemed to be hours, unable to find anything at all.
'First, what am I supposed to be looking for?'
I was supposedly looking for a container full of water, but… what kind of container was it? All I could see were those yellow threads.
'Wait… I'm inside my mind, right? Then…'
If that was a mental representation of my inside, I should at least have some control. Instead of blindly searching in the middle of the void, wouldn't it be better to force what I was looking for to take shape in front of me?
The image of a container appeared in my mind. The shape was not important, I simply needed a cavity capable of filling with large amounts of water. Something like… a swimming pool. Then, as if the world itself reacted to my intentions, a large hole began to open in front of me.
'Incredible, it really worked…' I thought as I began to inspect the pool I had just created, 'But it's empty…'
The hole that was supposed to be full did not have a drop of water in it. I didn't know what to do, so I just opened my eyes. Mirthia was lying a few meters from me, snoring.
"I found my container," I woke her up.
"Meow… really? I thought it would cost you more time," she replied with a yawn.
"Well… the problem is that there is nothing inside."
"Meow? That should not be possible. Even with your mana depleted you should be able to see the tiny drops filling it up."
Before her answer, I had some doubts. She told me that mana was something that was generated inside, within the same container, but I was sure that this yellowish water was entering my body from outside.
"This… Is it possible that instead of mana my body was filled with that natural energy you said?"
"No way, ha, ha, ha. Apart from the fact that there is no way to control the energy of the world itself, if you mixed your essence with natural energy, I assure you that your body would not come out unscratched. You would die or worse, meow. Imagine that you put the natural energy of the fire directly into yourself, you would burn to ashes in a moment, meow! It would literally be like you were breathing fire. It's crazy, ha, ha, ha.
"I… I se…"
We returned to Mirthia's home in the evening. Upon arrival, I checked my body from top to bottom. The pain that remained by the time I entered the clearing had already completely disappeared. Some wounds had even healed in the time I had been there.
"That yellow energy definitely has something to do with this."
All kinds of dangerous thoughts filled my mind at that moment. I had no way of knowing if that was mana or natural energy, but I didn't feel my body getting worse. On the contrary, the more energy accumulated the better I feel.
"Probably I shouldn't worry."
I returned to the profound concentrated state. The energy threads seemed to be more abundant than before, so without a doubt, the energy continued to slowly accumulate in my body… but the container was still completely empty.
"The hell… it looks like this container has a hole in it…"