Dressed in a simple tunic and a pair of shin-length free trousers that felt more comfortable than they had ever done since he had started wearing them, Luan mirrored the cross-legged position he had seen the person in the book performing.
Then, he breathed in and out, trying to draw in the mana present in the atmosphere.
As he inhaled, he felt the wind move through his nose into his trachea, his bronchi and then into his lungs.
As he exhaled, he felt the difference between the air he breathed in and the one he breathed out. The former was refreshing and soothing, while the former was a bit hotter.
He just took note of these unimportant details as he spent time in his cross-legged position.
He kept his senses alert for any fluctuations or abnormalities as he maintained his rhythmic breathing.
He didn't move, didn't speak, didn't pay attention to his feelings, but kept his eyes half-open, not wanting to get jumped by some stray beast or even worse, a monster.
Apart from his eyes which were kept in a half open state, Luan's position resembled the one he took in the forest last night, but with warmth included.
The action of breathing was repeated several times in the span of four hours without any changes, but he wasn't impatient. In fact, he was enjoying the feeling of serenity and tranquillity his breathing exercise brought him.
He felt his mind become clearer, but wasn't really sure if it was the pool where he sat cross-legged or the way he breathed, but as he continued, he felt the air he breathed in travel through a weird channel that he never thought existed in human biology.
This patch eventually led to a point where he felt the air condense before dispersing into nothing.
'Ah? What's this? The book said that the mana would be absorbed through mana channels, but I can't feel a single… oh wait.'
As Luan closed his eyes and directed all his perception to the breaths flowing through him, he discovered something concerning in his body.
Instead of condensing into a ball like in the book he read, the breaths were condensed into miniature cores that ended at different points in his body.
These miniature cores had pathways coming out of them that extended to every inch of his body, not dissimilar to the path the blood used to flow through his veins.
Luan didn't feel anything harmful from the "anomaly" his body had undergone, he simply continued his exercise with a smile on his face as he felt faint fluctuations begin to come in with the breaths he inhaled.
He felt calm as the mana began to enter his miniature cores after a number of hiccups that made him feel ticklish.
He breathed in…
Then he breathed out…
After three hours, Luan stopped his exercise. He knew that he was almost at the very edge that separated the breath and mana he was absorbing to actual mana, but something made him stop.
Two things actually.
First, he was hungry.
He looked at himself and tried to reason about the last time he ate… and failed.
'It was only a day ago, but it feels like weeks after being attacked by those bizarre entities…
'Either way, I should go out and hunt… maybe something smaller than a boar in order to hone my hunting skills.
'But what kind of hunter doesn't have a bow?
'The Luan type, I guess…'
As for the second reason, Luan took a look at his miniature cores and fell into thought. When he was absorbing the mana into the miniature cores, the mana was bluish silver in colour, but was almost transparent.
When he tried to absorb mana into his main core though, he found out that the mana started having other colours of brown, red, blue, light blue, bright yellow and bluish silver– this one having a deeper and opaque hue.
Although he was clueless about what having different hues in his actual core meant, he just didn't like the way his main core looked so different from his miniature cores.
Therefore, he stopped, and he was hungry anyway.
Luan picked up his sword as he studied the bright forest from the door of the temple.
'How do I even find an animal that's small and aggressive at the same time?
'That's probably impossible, but what if I lay on a tree and catch them by surprise?'
He cupped his chin and walked around the temple, ignoring the towering figure of the stone giant for the first time.
'I could also try hunting fishes, but I don't even know where I am in the forest.
'So… honey Badgers or a dwarf mongoose then, because I don't want to face a skunk ever again.
'Why am I even standing here and thinking? All these thoughts will only be valid if I find prey.'
Luan rubbed his temples, then picked up his cane and walked out of the temple. He shivered slightly as the memories of last night came pouring into his mind, but he steeled himself.
'If I can't even do this, how will I have the courage to face her?'
As he stepped on the floor, he hesitated a bit, half expecting the vines that hung from the tree to come lashing at him the next second.
Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.
A smile broke out on Luan's face as his eyes turned to the vines.
Then, his grin got wider.
'I'm only fourteen, so I think I should act like one hehe.'
He climbed the nearest tree, grabbed its vine after making sure it was sturdy enough to withstand being swung.
Then, he jumped from the tree, vine in hand.
As he felt the wind on his face, a sense of exhilaration that he hadn't felt in a very long time set in. His two hearts beat wildly in his chest and body as he swung himself from one vine to another.
Tears came out from Luan's eyes and flowed past him, but he didn't pay them any attention as he immersed himself into the feeling of being as free as a bird.
But then, all things had to come to an end, right?
Luan let go of the vine in his hand while he was mid-swing, at the lowest point, and rolled forward to minimise the impact he would have when he hit the ground.
Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much as he thought.
'Maybe it's the mana in those miniature cores.'
When he stood up, he quietly unsheathed the austere blade and promptly hid behind a robust tree.
On the other side of the tree and munching on the vegetation, was a boar twice the size of the one he had killed the other day.
An adult, a full fledged adult.
Luan mentally facepalmed as he studied his unlikely prey.
Eventually, he sighed.
'But why?'