It was lukewarm and dark. Sotis an occasional flash of light would streak through the space, but nothing that completely dispelled the darkness surrounding rlin. But he remained calm regardless. He was well aware of how delicate one had to be with handling the whole mana dissecting process, and he was not willing to be lost in the void because he let himself lose his head. He controlled his breathing (if what he was doing could even be called that) and thought of what was happening and what he could do.
The shining stars he had seen surrounding the nucleus were nowhere to be found, but rlin was certain they had not just up and disappeared. Maybe if he was able to find them, then he would be able to decipher sothing about this place that he was.
Another flash of light streaked through the space then and rlin’s eyes narrowed.
What could those lights probably be? It would have been easier for him if Kieran had partook in sothing like this in Singularity Mage, but he couldn’t keep hoping for handouts now, could he?
rlin took a deep breath and exhaled. If there was nothing in this space, and the only clue of sothing besides a black void existing was the light streaking through the sky, then maybe…
A thought wandered into his head. He nodded in alignnt with the thought and waited. He watched the black space in anticipation for the reappearance of the streak of light, and when another appeared, he followed it.
rlin didn’t believe that he was faster than or on par with the speed of light, but his mana was within his body and aligned with his subconscious; in other words, where he was was his world, and he had full control of the occurrences within it.
Willing himself to move faster than he was, rlin’s body turned ethereally light. He flashed through the dark space, chasing after the light, and without much trouble, he caught up to it. The problem was that it had no particular direction. The light kept going, not stopping for once or just vanishing out of sight. rlin arched his brows as he realized what was going on. He had not been seeing different lights streaking to the sky. It had been one singular light that had kept going round, like an orbit.
Am I to just keep following it then? he asked himself. I’ll be here for all eternity at this rate.
rlin’s mind beca a whirlpool of thoughts, but he didn’t let it bleed into his emotions and throw him into disarray. He cald his heart and thought of what he could do. Which was truly only one thing.
Every ti he’d wandered into his subconscious to interact with his mana, the way he had been able to do that was by directly coming in contact with it. Obviously, now it shouldn't be any different.
rlin had been keeping an arm’s length from the streak of bright light, but now he closed that gap and reached for it. As soon as his fingers connected with it, though, a scorching heat burnt them and pain flared in his head.
In an instant, the void shook and veins of cracks appeared all over it. He quickly pulled himself back, realizing that he had lost control of himself there. But reining himself in didn’t repair the cracks that had appeared.
rlin pinched his lips. Was his thought flawed, or was this the part where he got through the whole process without letting himself succumb to pain? Was that even humanly possible? Just touching the light had given him a glimpse of what happened when one was caught in a fire. It was like every single tissue in his fingers had been snapped out of existence by a blazing force in re seconds. There was no way he could withstand that.
Maybe I should just get out of here… rlin shook his head. No. That was not the right train of thought. Taking the easy way out was no longer on the cards for him. He had a lot to take care of now, and he couldn’t let himself be weak.
rlin grit his teeth, held his breath, and reached for the light again.
The pain was enormous. It burnt through his fingers, up to his hands, and to his forearms, before completely shrouding him completely. rlin wanted to scream, but he tried his best to hold his ripping mind together. Cracks slowly appeared around the void, and he knew he was failing. But he didn’t stop; he kept on trying, battling through the pain. Humans were beings known for their ability to adapt and evolve. And that was what he had to do here. He pushed further into the light, telling himself continually that pain was temporary. He couldn’t die here, and he wouldn’t. For a mont there, though, he’d tried to use his power over his subconscious to reduce the toll on his body, but nothing changed. It seed he wasn’t exactly omniscient. So, instead, he closed his eyes and pushed. And his effort paid off when he suddenly stopped feeling any pain.
rlin opened his eyes to a different space this ti. He was in an empty white chamber with pillars to its sides and a large door at its end.
Success? rlin asked himself, unsure what to call his unusual transportation. He looked around the pristine chamber. Am I inside the light? Then what am I to do now?
The colossal doors to the end of the chamber groaned open of their own accord then, drawing rlin’s gaze in their direction. He blinked as he was t by a vast blackness and he clicked his tongue. Was he really to walk from light to darkness again? For how long?
He sighed and shook his head. It didn’t matter that the whole process was daunting and annoying, he just had to do what he could. There would be light at the end of the tunnel.
As rlin took a step forward, hands shot out of the colossal doors. He had made up his mind to not let his emotions leak out, but there was only so much he could do when he was taken by surprise in such a manner. He flinched and pounced back, readying himself to evade whatever those hands were planning to do to him, and thankfully, the room he was in didn’t react to his spike in emotions.
However, he was unable to avoid the hands. They grabbed onto him, as they moved faster than he could, and he was pulled into the doors, shutting him inside.
By the ti rlin got a hold of himself, he found himself in a bubble filled with countless lesser bubbles.
What’s this? rlin blinked as he used his fingers to probe the gelatinous bubbles that were surrounding him. All they did was bounce off of each other. But he knew that he wasn’t here to just play with the little balls. He tried everything he could, however, grabbing the balls, probing them, but nothing happened. Which left him with only one other option, the one that always got him answers.
rlin took a deep breath, crossed his legs within the bubble as he floated, and took on the burse pose. Shutting out the noise and concentrating had never failed him, and they didn’t this ti as well.
rlin’s eyes snapped open, first a blur and hurting, then they cleared up. He glanced around the sitting room where he was and saw that Chima and Hakyun were still within their trances, and sweating rather profusely. He wiped off his own sweat and turned on the air conditioning. They had put it off while making the kimchi and had forgotten to turn it back on before moving on to their next agenda.
He exhaled, uncrossed his legs, and fell backwards onto the rug as he concentrated on the words floating before his view.
[Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 38.5%/100%]
Oh… Compared to my usual growth, that’s so significant progress. It went up by ten percent…
Usually his exploits into his trance world produced a single percent for twenty minutes in that state. rlin picked up his phone and confird that he had spent only just a minute over the landmark, and yet his progress had gone up by ten percent. It shouldn’t be surprising, after all, Miss Eun-Wol had told him that he had been doing it wrong ever since, he had not just been expecting the growth to be this significant.
The problem with this thod, however, was that he couldn’t seem to do it continuously. He was trying to keep a cool façade, but his head was hurting so much more than it usually did when he ca out of his trance, and his body was aching. He had been bombarded with so much information on his mana while he had been in the gelatinous bubble, and he knew that he hadn’t even scratched the surface. There was so much more to mana than t the eye, and if he figured it out completely… He glanced at his fist as he clenched it. He would be so much stronger than he already was. His progress with his Intelligence would be boosted significantly, and he would also beco much more versatile with the concept of the ability.
At this mont, though, rlin just wanted to sleep. But before that…
Assign three Attribute Points to Resilience…
[Assigning...]
[Successful]
[ 3 Attribute Points have been assigned to Resilience]
[Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 38.5%/100%] → [40%/100%]
It was more like a band aid, but it did well enough to reduce the intensity of rlin’s headache. And because of that he was able to take a deep breath and relax a bit.
rlin sighed as the words of the System hovering before his view took their leave, recalling a certain finding he had co about while probing through his mana.
It doesn’t have an identity, huh? His brows narrowed as he stared up at the ceiling. I wonder what that ans…
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