"Why did this ditation session feel much better than the first one?" Zane thought to himself. "Is it because I'm more experienced?" That explanation made sense, but he suddenly rembered one of the effects of his title: Hobgoblin Killer. It granted him a 10% increase in ditation.
Zane swiftly glanced at his left hand, and with a thought, the title and its effect appeared. "The part about breathing disappeared," he noticed. The title used to describe a 10% increase in ditation or breathing thods. "Could it be that breathing thod is how [Knights] train their extraordinary powers? And now that I'm a mage, the title changed to fit my reality?"
This realization led him to understand that titles were more dynamic than he had anticipated. No wonder their director described it as a form of causality reflecting on the soul. Although Zane couldn't truly understand what that ant, he could deduce much based on the limited information at hand. And regardless of the truth, the soul crest will beco an instruntal tool for all the transcendent individuals of Earth.
Zane woke up early to head for his morning ditation, followed by a morning run. Indoor exercise is fine and all, but there is nothing more calming than an early morning run. While everything appeared the sa, the world has subtly changed, so keeping certain routines might not be a bad thing. However, as soon as Zane headed out the door, he instantly realized how he was no longer the sa person he was a few days ago.
As soone who is conventionally attractive, he is used to being stared at by won and n and even being approached to ask for his number. However, today, he could "feel" every stare. Yes, feel. It's like he had a detector in the back of his head that allows him to sense when people are looking at him too intently. The worst part is it wasn't just the stare.
He sensed the caras when he was in their line of sight; he sensed people's smartphones when they were secretly pointed at him. The sensation was so intense that he had to stop his run, rush to the nearest store, and use their bathroom. And only then did he stop feeling overwheld.
"Is this because of my ntal energy?" Zane asked himself. Suddenly, he rembered how that Hobgoblin Priest was able to sense his observation despite using a phone to watch her from dozens of ters away. Now, he possessed the sa ability. But that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"This acute awareness is a good way to avoid danger, but if I don't deal with the sensory overload, I'll have to restrain myself from going to public places from now on," Zane thought. He could foresee how mages would easily beco a bunch of shut-ins who don't really like to deal with crowds and maybe even people. That would be fine if he were already an introvert, but he was not.
"There must be a way to overco this feeling," Zane encouraged himself. He exhaled deeply before exiting the store. Running was out of the question, and running in a public place with a lot of people would be considered the nightmare difficulty, which is sothing to be challenged at a later day.
After calculating a new route, Zane started walking slowly. In the process, he focused his mind to ignore the less intense glare, slowly training his brain to do so passively; the plan is to continue in this state until he can do the sa for the most potent stares. By the end of the morning walk, the results were quite satisfying. A normal run in a less populated area was more than possible. Of course, he also understood this was not sothing that could be achieved in one day; there is still plenty of ti before the next shift.
"Kid, where have you been?" Juan asked. If not for the text he sent a few days ago, the old man would have thought he had died.
"A distant cousin of mine died, and I was dealing with it," Zane said with a sigh.
"My condolences."
"How about you? Any friends or family mbers who suddenly died?"
"Thanks the Lord, no," Juan shook his head.
"That's good," Zane nodded. For the next few minutes until opening, the two talked about the state of the world. Julio ca in late and joined the conversation. Unlike Zane and Juan, who were wary of the sudden changes in the world, Julio was excited. He did not hide his desire to join the Dinsion Tower, beco a mage, and shoot a fireball with his hand.
Zane — who had inside information on the subject — did not rain on Julio's parade. How hard was it to be a mage? Not only did he need to be lucky to be selected, but he would also need to survive the first trial and have the talent for magic. And even if he were chosen, was it a good thing? All signs indicate that the "chosen ones" were the soldiers selected to fight against the invasion of the Demon Lord. Their future will be one full of blood, death, and danger, with a small percentage of survival.
Today, four custors showed up at the auto shop, and Zane handled two of them. At this rate, he was confident he could make rent; otherwise, he would have no choice but to borrow so money. For the remainder of the day, he worked on the 1969 Cutlass Supre and had lunch with his sister. He returned ho, read (including the ditation book), then ended the day with the second ditation session, thus increasing his mana reserve.
Zane assud he would keep such a schedule until the second dinsion shift that his director ntioned at the beginning of August, but a week after learning the Gremorian language, and four days after starting ditation, the Dinsion Tower finally contacted him again.
As Zane sat at his kitchen table, eating the last of the food his mother had brought him, he felt a sudden pulse on his left hand. As he glanced at it, a sudden urge to inject mana into his soul crest tugged at his mind. He followed his instinct, and a hologram screen appeared on his screen.
[Congratulations, Earthling Zane Kwa Skylar, for becoming an Apprentice. According to the Dinsion Tower's training plan, we will provide you with two free spells: the 0-ring defensive Arcane Spell, Mana Shield, and a 0-ring attack spell of your choice.]
A few seconds passed before Zane regained his bearings; by now, he shouldn't be shocked by the tower's capability, but everything in the magical world still amazes him. The current state of Earth's holographic technology can only be described as fancy and expensive light shows. However, the thing before him could be called a true hologram.
His finger passed through the screen, revealing it was not interactive—or so he thought at first. It took a mont before realizing he could use his mind to interact with it, moving to the page with all the available spells.
0-ring Fla Spells: Little Fireball, Fla Wall, Fla Arrow.
0-ring Water Spells: Water Ball, Water Whip, Water Arrow.
0-ring Earth Spells: Earth Spike, Rock Projectile, Rock Hand.
0-ring Wind Spell: Wind Slash, Wind Blow, Hundred Cut
0 ring Lightning Spells: Electrocute, Lightning Discharge, Thunder Sound
Zane sifted through all the spells in every field: from elental magic to life and death (necromancy) to mind, illusion, light, and darkness, and even subcategories such as plants, poisons, and shadows. Everything was included. Zane was sowhat influenced by Julio, so his first choice was the Fireball. However, after clicking on it, the following description made him pause:
[Little Fireball: Condensing a fireball no larger than a basketball]
[Average Casting Ti: 8-10 seconds]
[Power: 0.8 Kosa.]
[Mana Cost: High.]
Zane was confused about what a kosa was; luckily, the thing ca with a description. The Kosa System was a thod developed by the Archmage Kosa Lyson. Based on a spell's magical field (elental, light, necromancy) and its category (attack, defensive, restraining, wide area effect), the weakest apprentice spell will be designated as 0.1, and the most powerful and potent as 0.9. The sa can apply to all levels of spell, including legendary 9-ring spells.
"I can imagine the amount of data and calculations required to create the database of this system," Zane first thought. Kosa Lyson would have needed to gather the data on hundreds, maybe thousands of spells in different fields and categories, before setting a minimum standard. From there, a new system would be built using that standard as the foundation.
With this new understanding, Zane started looking at the list from a different perspective. While the Little Fireball Spell was powerful, the fact that it took so long and the list warned that an apprentice might only be able to cast it once or twice tis before running out of mana, he chose sothing else.
[0-ring Arcane Spell: Magic Bullet]
[Average Casting Ti: 5-7 seconds]
[Power: 0.6 Kosa]
[Mana Coast: Low]
After selecting his spell, a light flew from the hologram into Zane's forehead, revealing information on how to cast the spell, along with two magical circle diagrams. The information also indicated that these two circles will remain imprinted in his mind for the next three days, but afterward, they will disappear. In other words, he still needed to morize them himself.
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