It was as if his veins were bursting apart. Pain tore through his body, setting his nerves ablaze. It was as if ants crawled through his arms and legs - a very uncomfortable feeling. He lost the ability to move his extremities, just like after waking up with a numb arm, just 1000 times worse.
Even so, the pain he was currently feeling wasn't even coming close to the Recen's Last Trial. He never thought pain could make one feel an out-of-body experience, but he lived through one such situation himself.
And since he was still very conscious of the pain he was feeling now, he could confidently say it wasn't that bad.
Even when pain filled his mind, Alex was still beaming. His idea works.
Since every living being in this world has a meager amount of mana inside their bodies, Alex figured he could control that to open the floodgates to the mana plane. He didn't know what to call that plane, so Alex left it like that.
Focusing so hard he sweated even beneath the downpour of a waterfall, Alex looked down at the space between his palms.
He has since changed his hands' position. He wasn't cupping them any longer, instead pressing his fingertips together like grasping a ball.
And in the middle of that space, a pebble-sized orb of light stood suspended in the air. That was the mana Alex managed to extract from his body.
It was a significant first step, but now Alex pondered how to use this mana. He could release it, but it would vanish and leave him bedridden for a long while.
Truthfully, Alex went wild with excitement and extracted the mana from his body without thinking. And now, he didn't know how to put it back inside, so he was stuck holding his mana for an undefined amount of time until he figured something out.
Alex could compress the mana to no end, but he didn't think that would achieve much of anything.
Without anything coming to mind, he figured to train in something he had never trained before. Mana manipulation.
Just holding a sphere of mana in his hands like this was incredibly draining. Alex couldn't imagine how draining it would be if he actively tried to change its shape.
However, that's not all. Alex knew that even sitting just like this was very risky. Not because he risked being attacked by something or anything like that. Well, that was a valid risk, but that wasn't what Alex was afraid of.
The problem with manipulating mana is that once its reserves are low, there is a chance of mana slipping from under your control. Well, this chance existed at any time and wasn't something one could merely avoid.
Even when brimming with mana, it could still slip, so to speak, and either disperse through the air or, worse, hurt its wielder.
Now think back on Alex. Not only were his reserves zero, but he also withdrew the mana existing in his body to use it.
'I spilled the milk anyway, so what's the worst that could happen?'
From a sphere to an egg shape, Alex slowly changed the shape of the mana in his control. Time slowly passed, and Alex steadily learned how enjoyable controlling mana was. It was like shaping mud piles but with your mind.
It took some time, but Alex eventually succeeded in shaping the mana into a cube. As it turned out, making straight lines and corners was hard. After that, try as he might, the young Recen couldn't advance his shaping techniques.
He didn't know if it was because he started feeling very tired or because of a lack of mana, but something impeded him from continuing.
'Can I do it now?' Alex thought, his thoughts circling back to his plan.
He still wasn't sure how to catalyze mana yet, but he was sure as hell it required him to somehow shape his existing mana.
'Fortunately, I haven't lost control of my mana.' It was of little comfort, but Alex was genuinely glad the worst hadn't happened.
And so Alex sat again, unsure how to proceed.
'How the hell could you take something from someplace you cannot even see or touch?' Alex muttered angrily. It was like trying to reach for the top shelf while being short. Impossible.
Still holding his mana suspended, Alex wondered how other people catalyzed mana.
Fortunately, he lived seven years at the Nozim estate, so knowledge about things like this had been ingrained in his bones.
Although he didn't personally experience it, he knew other mages would catalyze mana using mana crystals. It was the most efficient way of cultivating, compared to just draining the mana from the crystal.
Even so, Alex had no mana crystals to use. He was stuck, with no way of advancing.
'How the hell did the first beings learn to catalyze mana in the first place?'
The young Recen grew increasingly frustrated with his inability and lack of knowledge. Cursing Elder Pyrus in his mind once more, Alex eventually resumed his manipulation training without any concrete intention behind it.
Since he couldn't shape the mana into something other than a ball or cube, Alex wondered how to work around this hindrance.
'It doesn't have to be solid, right? I can shape it like a hollow ball.' Without anything better to do, Alex reasoned it was better to continue training than wait for the moment mana would slip from his control.
As he did so, Alex frowned. There was resistance to him hollowing the ball.
It felt rubbery, totally unlike when trying to shape mana. The latter felt like opening a rusty door. It was hard, but once opened, it remained so.
'Maybe it's like this?' His eyes glowed with renewed excitement, burning with fiery intensity.
It made sense, after all. Mana was just like water, pushing and pulling on itself. If you try to expand it, the water would try to pull itself together. That, or it would try to get more from somewhere.
Alex continued manipulating the mana, sweat, and water flowing down his face, yet his eyes remained open and unmoving. His concentration peaked, making him conscious of even the most minute change.
Although he couldn't see it from outside, Alex felt it. A small void took hold in the middle of the pebble-sized mana ball. Yet even this diminutive accomplishment filled Alex with expectation.
The void slowly grew more extensive, from the size of a needle point to the size of a grain of sand.
But something was wrong. The gap grew and grew, and the resistance Alex felt increased exponentially, yet new mana didn't catalyze.
He frowned, thinking he had done something wrong. Maybe there was something he was missing?
Still, Alex couldn't stop now. He knew if he abandoned right now, the gap would close instantly, causing him to lose control. He could only continue.
Slowly, the void grew. Increasingly larger, the strain on Alex's mind reached new records.
His face flushed, and his ears burned. Alex's eyes throbbed as though ready to burst, and his nose bled.
Yet, he didn't release the pressure. He wanted to see if he could catalyze mana this way.
A few seconds passed, and the void slowed down.
*RRRRIIIIPPPP!*