Reading up on the basics of mana from the book he bought, he felt rather confident. Thankfully the steps seemed very straight forward, it wouldn't be worth developing his talent so mana would be his life line.
First, one had to sense the mana outside the body. One mind had to be calm and still, otherwise they wouldn't be able to sense anything. This was relatively easy for him and he quickly understood. To him it looked like there was a thin blue gas all around his body when he was trying to sense it.
The next step was to move it into the body and incorporate it. It could enter you via breathing or directly through the skin, with breathing being more efficient and skin contact being a more passive, always on approach.
The first part was also easy for him. Instantly he was filled with a felling of incomprehensible power, even this slight boost in mana made him feel like a god. Where ever there was mana, there was a boost in power.
He suppressed this feeling of invincibility and tried to move on, but the next truly confused him.
For this stage he had to consolidate all the mana in his body into one place and form a mana core, this would be the base of his power in the future. It would become an artificial organ with equal importance to that of his brain, heart or lungs.
Normally mana in the core is very rigid, like stone, but to use it it had to be fluid, like water. The difference between the solid and liquid like stages was difficult for him and the switching proved to be quite the problem. If he couldn't switch between them successfully then he could forget about forming a mana core.
'I guess that's what you'd expect from an F rank talent, whatever it does.'
The book depicted examples of how it should be done and the competency of internal mana manipulation was determined by how quickly one can switch between the two. One had to master internal manipulation before coming anywhere near external manipulation.
'I won't be able to learn any spells if I can't figure this out. The guys in the book can swap in milliseconds yet it takes me a minute and a half. This isn't going to work.' Truly pissed, he took a break and looked outside his window.
At this point it was already night and all he could see was the dimly lit up river that flowed next to the apartment building he lived in.
'Huh, they said then when you use mana, it has to flow like water, but when you're not, it's solid. If it really is like water, then wouldn't that be like freezing it every time you're done cooking and melting it when you need it again? That seems really stupid, why not keep it liquid all the time?'
Feeling like he was onto something, he looked it up on one of the many forums and found nothing that addressed his concerns, so he posted his question and went to try it himself.
First feel it, then absorb it, but this time instead of making it stagnant inside him, he let it flow like he was about to use it. He was immediately vindicated and was in full control of all the mana in his body. When he needed it, it was already in the useful state and when he didn't it just continued flowing in him.
'Damn this is difficult, no wonder no one does this. I bet when someone reads my post they're gonna think I'm an idiot.'
Having to consciously control the flow of mana was very taxing and in the traditional way, one only had to worry about this the moment they needed it. Any other time it was stagnant and stored away.
'But I don't want to start over from sensing it every time I'm going to need it. How the hell do I solve this? I can't do it the normal way and I'm too dumb to do it the other way.'
Quickly taking a breath he realized too focused on his mana and he wasn't breathing.
"Damn, maybe I am an idiot, how did I forget to breathe." he shook his head.
'Wait a minute, if a mana core is supposed to be like a part of your body, if I understood the book correctly. Then why does flowing mana through me like that use so much mental energy? I can control how much and when I breathe and that doesn't tire me out.' A light bulb flashed in his head.
'And my heart is always beating and I can't even control that. If I can control mana like my breathing then wouldn't that solve my problems? When I'm going to use it then I take control and when I'm not then my body can take over.'
'And why even bother worrying about how it's going to flow through me, my blood flows fine through vessels. It's not like all of my blood is moving in the same direction at the same time in one big mass. Why would mana be any different?'
Feeling like he was making progress, he started writing it down on his pc. He didn't want to forget any of this.
'But if I do it like that then it would be many times more difficult. I'm having trouble moving all of it at once. Wouldn't doing the same thing in thousands of different directions and amounts be more difficult?'
'But like I said, blood does it like that all the time and doesn't have any issues, but does so via the blood vessels. So how do I mimic the blood vessels but for mana?'
'But why do I even need to mimic blood vessels? They are already there! Can't I just use the existing vessels?'
Quickly jotting down his suspicion, he sat down cross legged and started the process over again. Sense, absorb, circulate. This time he tried to make it flow in the same path and relative quantity as his blood, starting from his heart and flowing through his arteries, then capillaries, veins and back to the heart.
'Okay, so it's easier but still difficult. I won't get it on the first try anyway.'
Writing down his findings, he tried it again and found it slightly easier, so instead of stopping after one circulation, he kept it going. With every cycle it got easier and easier, and with more and more of his blood vessels "carrying" mana, his capacity also increased. He still needed to focus to have it circulate and do the minor adjustments that felt more natural, so instead of the more optimal breathing, mana was pulled through his skin and was quickly absorbed into the flow.
The rate of absorption was unnaturally high, much higher than with breathing alone. And the faster his mana was circulating, the rate of absorption was also increasing.
Writing that down he continued to circulate, adjust and note that it got to the point that it was as easy as breathing, maybe even easier. At this point the streams of mana in his body were as thick as a thread , branching from one that exited the heart and were almost long enough to form a complete unbroken chain, but when it did something truly unexpected happened.