Kayla began to panic, not knowing what to do.
She felt like she had already spent several hours here and honestly, she already wanted to leave. Being constantly in a place with nothing in sight was stressful!
"There must be a way, there is no way the old man would teach me something that would put me in danger!" Kayla quickly thought of several things that could get her out of there and quickly carried them out.
Kayla tried several things, such as flying up as high as she could, although she gave up when she felt like hours had passed and she didn't see anything; She also tried to get closer to the golden sea, but she quickly gave up when no matter how much she tried to get closer, the golden sea remained far away, as if it moved away from her when she tried to get closer.
And those were just some of the many things she did...
"Ahh shit!" Kayla screamed in frustration. If she couldn't get out at that instant, she would go crazy!
"Why the hell can't I go out?! I want to go out now! Now!" Kayla threw a tantrum, with nothing else to do.
However, she was stunned when the dark space in her vision changed and her eyes suddenly opened, being able to see the various colors of the old man's subspace.
"I went out?" Kayla murmured, stunned.
"Yes, you finally came out Kayla."
The old man's voice rang out behind Kayla, making her spin around quickly as she yelled at her furiously. "Hey, why didn't you tell me something like this would happen?!"
I had thought for a moment that I would never be able to get out of there!
"Haha, I'm sorry little one, but even I didn't expect you to get into that state." The old man looked at Kayla with various emotions in her eyes. Which varied from doubt to excitement.
"...What do you mean?" Kayla suppressed her anger and waited for the old man to explain himself.
"Sigh… you know, not everyone can do what you did even if they wanted to. You carried your consciousness within your body and saw your mana storage firsthand."
"There are people at level 200 who can't do it yet and you come and do it as soon as you awaken your mana...those rookies would kill themselves from envy if they found out about this." Even though the old man said that there was a smile on his face.
But who could blame him? It had been several years since he taught anyone, let alone a talent like Kayla, with high intelligence and a newly discovered talent for mana.
Any teacher would be excited to teach a child like that!
"What? How am I supposed to bring my consciousness into my body? I didn't even do anything special..." Kayla looked at the old man doubtfully.
You enter that unique state because your sensitivity to mana is so high that you can even visualize it and create an image of your mana in your mind..."
The old man explained several things to her about what Kayla had just experienced, resolving several of her doubts.
Apparently, the state Kayla entered was called "full mana sense". A state in which the person had developed complete awareness of his own mana, being able to sense any changes in it.
People who had reached this state gained incredible control of their mana because they could sense it completely. As well as gaining the ability to visualize her mana storage, which is what Kayla had experienced.
Although to think that the way to get out of that mana visualization state was to simply think intensely about the idea of getting out... Kayla felt stupid thinking about all the things she did.
However, there was one thing that stumped Kayla for a few moments. The old man had said that only an hour had passed since she closed her eyes and also told her that time passed normally when people visualized their mana storage.
That time passed so quickly is apparently a quirk of mine... But what caused this? Kayla fell into deep thought the moment the old man told her to rest for a few minutes before continuing her training.
Although there were several possibilities, she had thought of something quickly and she checked it out immediately. Her lips parted slightly and she murmured something.
"State"
Her status quickly appeared before her eyes, but she ignored it and quickly turned to the notification panel on the side.
Several notifications that she had not read before appeared before her, but she quickly found what she was looking for.
...[You have entered a unique state of mind]...
...[Some skills are being used unconsciously]...
...[The skill, accelerated thinking, is being enhanced by the unique mental state]...
...[The skill, accelerated thinking, has risen to level 3 for being used beyond its established limits for an extended period of time]
Yeah! Kayla smiled brightly. She had never expected that at the end of all that suffering she went through there would be such a juicy reward!
Kayla quickly checked her skill information.
[Accelerated thinking Lv3: You can think twice as fast for two minutes]
Kayla's smile widened as she saw the change in her ability. She had always felt a little bothered by the short activation time of her ability since she got it!
In the time that Kayla had traveled to Alteon with Ethel, she had hunted some monsters to experiment with her abilities and it always bothered her that she had to calculate every use of her ability millimetrically so that would not suffer severe pain head.
With this increase in skill time, she could fight much more comfortably!
"I see you've checked everything, so why don't we start teaching you how to control mana?" The old man, who had been drinking a cup of coffee while waiting for Kayla to finish, spoke suddenly, breaking Kayla out of his thoughts.
"Of course, I've been looking forward to it!" Kayla smiled excitedly. Even though many good things had happened to him, he still felt that learning to control his mana would be much more exciting!
"Haha, what energy…" The old man smiled as he sat in the lotus position in front of Kayla while he motioned for Kayla to do the same.
"As I told you before, there are three steps to be able to use your mana to use magic or tricks like this." The old man made a ball of golden mana again and threw it at Kayla with a smile.
Kayla almost dodged it on reflex, but the ball of mana touched her before she could and exploded into thousands of golden particles. Kayla looked at the golden particles with fascination.
"You have already done the first one, which is to feel the mana. Now there are the second and the third. The second is to circulate the mana through your body. So tell me, how do you think you can do that?" The old man asked as he closed his eyes.
Kayla didn't respond immediately and closed her eyes too. Since he still didn't know how to circulate his mana, he could only do the only thing he knew how, feel it.
She looked at the golden sea in front of her calmly. Although she could come up with many long and complicated theories, she was someone who learned from her mistakes. She had already been wrong in thinking that complicated things would be more correct than simple ones, so she decided to follow her instinct this time.
The old man said that we humans can control mana because we were simply born with this ability as if it were another limb...
Kayla looked intensely at the golden sea as she imagined that a part of the sea separated, creating a small river...
Surprisingly, the mana in her mana storage followed what she imagined and a small stream made of golden mana began to spread towards the darkness.
If mana is like a limb of ours, then I simply have to use it...
Kayla smiled. As he had imagined, there was nothing complicated about circulating mana through his body. I simply had to move this new limb I had recently gained.
However, using a new limb was complicated. Kayla was basically learning to walk at this point. And all the babies fell when trying to walk for the first time.
The current of mana, which was like a small river compared to her mana reserve, suddenly dispersed into brilliant golden particles that returned to the golden sea.
Kayla frowned. Yes, I guess this is going to take a while...
Kayla again divided a part of her mana to create a thin wobbly current.
The golden mana stream moved like a snake through the dark space before dispersing into particles and returning to the sea of mana.
Kayla frowned but didn't give up. She tried again.
When he failed, he tried a second time, and when he failed again, he tried again. The cycle repeated itself constantly.
Fourth attempt...
This time, the stream of mana advanced a little further.
Seventh attempt...
The stream of mana, previously thin as a thread, had gained a bit of thickness.
Nineteenth attempt...
The previously swaying stream of mana now only trembled a little as it spread towards the peak of the dark space…
Fortieth's third attempt... Sixtieth seventh attempt... Ninetieth third attempt...
Kayla didn't know how much time passed or how many attempts she made, she had stopped thinking about those distractions and focused on her task, almost reaching the point of obsession.
And amid Kayla's constant attempts, there was finally a change. The current of mana that had been guiding me towards the top of the place finally touched something.
Kayla's eyes widened in surprise as she was forcibly pulled out of her mana visualization by the new sensation coursing through her body.
"This is mana?..." Kayla looked at her hands in a daze.
"It's incredible, isn't it? It is as if your body, which had previously been thirsty without you knowing it, was suddenly hydrated with liters of water full of minerals…" The old man, who was still sitting in a lotus position in front of her, smiled.
"Yes... it's like she's been dead all this time." Kayla wondered how she had been able to live without this before.
Her body, which now had mana circulating through it, felt totally different than before. There was like a new strength in him... something that gave more strength and energy to her entire being.
It wasn't just the new feeling of power that made her feel this way... it was the extreme comfort her body felt. she couldn't help but move her "new" body.
The old man smiled as he watched Kayla stretch her body, getting used to her new power.
...This brings back memories of when I experienced that same feeling of power and comfort. The old man smiled as he remembered the old days. He had been a young man without mana by nature and struggled quite a bit to learn to control it when he won his class.
However, unlike Kayla, it took him much longer to circulate his hand over her body. Compared to the two hours Kayla spent trying, it took him almost two months to do it...
How will those old people react when this little monster arrives? The old man thought that the untamed jungle academy would be quite hectic very soon.
"Tell me, now that you've gotten a little used to your new strength, why don't you try creating a mana sphere?" The old man walked towards Kayla while she was doing several jumps.
"Of course, I've been wanting to do it ever since I saw it!" Kayla immediately stopped stretching and waited for the old man's instructions.
"This is the third and final step to control your hand, externalize it. You try to control your hand so that it comes out through your hands and creates a sphere…" The old man looked at Kayla with emotion. He was very curious about what this genie's mana would be like.
Kayla nodded and extended her hand like the old man had been doing every time he made a mana sphere.
She closed her eyes and visualized her mana. However, this time he did not see a golden sea. Instead, he saw a vision of his body with fine golden lines running through it.
These lines overlapped with his veins, giving strength to every part of his body.
Kayla guided some mana from her mana storage, which now seemed smaller, into the golden lines that acted as mana veins located on her hand.
The mana followed his instructions slowly but steadily, without stopping for a second.
Soon, the mana had reached Kayla's palm.
"Okay…" Kayla took a deep breath.
Although nervous, she controlled her mana to leave her body and pool in her palm.
Kayla looked at her hand intently, waiting for the first particle of mana to appear in her hand.
And without waiting long, the first dark golden mana particle appeared in her hand.
Kayla's eyes shone with joy and with newfound confidence, she urged her mana to come out faster.
Particle after particle appeared in his hand, merging into a single larger and larger one. Soon, a deformed sphere of mana appeared in Kayla's palm, slightly illuminating her face.
The old man looked at the deformed golden sphere with thin purple lines and smiled. Yes, it is certainly a unique color...
"Old man, look! I did it!" Kayla looked at the old man and screamed with excitement. Unfortunately, his warped sphere of mana exploded into thousands of particles the moment he was distracted.
"Ah…" Kayla looked at the particles spreading through the air somewhat lost.
But after a few seconds, she smiled. The scene of thousands of golden particles flying over a meadow was fascinating to him, despite having seen it several times already.
I don't think I'll ever get tired of a view like this...