The following day, I sank my awareness into my mana els and examined every millimeter. They looked fine, and I wanted faster mana regeion, but I still hesitated to cast the Absorb Mana spell on myself again. My exploration into magic was starting. I didn’t want to cripple myself ahis fantastic journey.

  I tried to create the spell around me, not by casting it, but by “c” the mana around my body with the “absorb” fvor. After half a day, I succeeded, but the result was that the surrounding mana became thicker and denser, and I could regee faster because of the density. Still, it was nowhere he speed I regeed when I cast the spell on myself.

  , I tried to create the absorb aspe one of the mana els in my arm. My mana ticked up faster, but my el itched almost immediately, so I stopped. I was gd I didn’t cast the spell, but only created the aspect. Judging by the speed at which my el itched, five minutes would have been torture.

  Finally, I bit the bullet, sank my awareness into my mana els to monitor them, and cast a spell on myself again, hoping that the spread of it all over me wouldn’t overwhelm my els. I could “see” my els expanding, and the more they expahe more severe the itg became. I felt pins and needles, but the spell ended before I got apprehensive. Yesterday, I had about half a minute of worry before the spell eoday, maybe twenty seds.

  Hmm, so it trains the els to expand?

  I was excited about the idea, but wanted more trol. The spell had a fixed duration; I tried to trol the duration. I approached this from a different angle. For the hree days, I learned how to trol the amount of mana that gets the “absorb” fvor until I could trol it perfectly up or down.

  When I felt in perfect trol of the amount, I colored a minute amount of the mana in my left hand with absorption a flow in. I slowly raised the amount until I felt a slight itg a it there.

  After a while, the itg stopped, so I upped the amount but didn’t feel the mana go in. I couldn’t uand what was happening. My el looked fihe fvor was correct, and I had no idea why it stopped. It bugged me the whole day, so I only stared at the view. In the evening, after dinner, I facepalmed and checked my mana: 7200/7200.

  Basically, I’m an idiot sometimes.

  Ro approached me and said, “The two weeks you paid for ended. It will take another four or five days to reach the location you want. Pay me for four days, and I’ll tell you if you o pay more.”

  “No problem. How much?”

  He gave a strange look and answered, “One gold a silver.”

  I gave him two gold and said, “Don’t give me ge. If it takes another day, this will cover it. If not, the excess is a thank-you gift for excellent service.”

  He thanked me a.

  I cluded that the strange look was because I said, “No problem.” It’s probably an expression they are not familiar with.

  Oh well, I’m Johhe exporter of Ameriism.

  The following day, I tinued my barrel examination and experimentation. I learhe “release” part of the spell as a way to spend mana. It was much more plex than the “absorb” part and took me two full days to master. When I felt I had it 100%, I wet a towel and cast the spell on it—nothing happened. After a few minutes of being stumped, I cluded that the fvor doesn’t just involve a simple ‘absorb’ or ‘release,’ but rather ‘absorb mana’ and ‘release mana.’ Si was the spell’s name, I felt like an idiot not thinking about it before. Now, I had no idea how to test the spell. I had no iion of casting it on myself. I liked my mana ihank you very much.

  I attempted a sed time to create a Purifying Aluminum Blob. Taking out my cast iron potjie pot, I put in the aluminum blob infused with the Purify spell, aed it once again. When it melted, I cast the absorb and release mana on it repeatedly, with the occasional Purify, just in case, until it cooled. While doing this, the red light started blinking, but I ig.

  Wheal solidified, I scooped another bucket from the river and put the blob inside while monit the water with my mana. In two to three mihe water ure. I was so trated on the blob that I felt the mana being absorbed, taking on the fvor of purification, and released with the spell.

  YES!!

  I created my first autonomous magical item. This time, I didn’t stop myself. I went into the tent and danced Gangnam Style.

  I checked the red light.

  You have learhe spell [Exude Mana]

  Progress is something I absolutely love!

  I returo the absorption experiment with my mana els. As I colored the mana in my left arm, I could feel it getting absorbed. Wheg stopped, I added another minute amount with the colored mana, and again and again. My mana was full in uwo days instead of three full days, and when I pared the els in both arms, the one in my left arm was wider. The difference was a hair thin, but there was a difference.

  Ro informed me we would reach our destination sometime tomorrow, so I rexed, pyed with Stretch, and learned a new song for my guitar.

  While looking through the songbook, I came across the song “The Boxer” by Simon & Garfuhe moment I heard this song as a teenager, I instantly fell in love with it. I still remembered all the lyrics, and with my guitar-pying level, it took me ten mio learn the chords.

  As I began pying and singing it, Stretch joined me, and Jul and Rin moved closer.

  “I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told...”

  When I reached the st part of the song, which was only “Lie--lie,” I sang at the top of my lungs a a pure serenity of existend joy.

  I was happy with my aplishments, journey, progress, and most of all, about being alive. The weight of grief that had once g to me had lifted, repced by a newfound sense of freedom and joy. Each strum of my guitar and every word I sa like a release, a celebration of how far I had e. My past sorrows no longer defined me, and the possibilities of the future invigorated me. The feeling of being alive was no longer just a fact—it was a triumph, a testament to my resiliend growth.