During the first two weeks, I dove into learning about mana using the first three books Lis had given me. I tackled three ru a time and then tinued reading about mana. The first book covered a lot of what I’d already figured out through my experiments: sensing the surrounding mana, eling awareness into objects to detect the mana, and reizing that mana had its own color or fvor.

  From this book, I picked up that mana has both an asped a. They’re not the same thing, and it have both. Elements are the natural things—more than just the four basies Lis had mentioned—and aspects are the various aana perform. It was fusing at first because fire, for instance, has the element of fire but also have aspects like “heating,” “ption,” or “ging the state of matter.” It took me a while to grasp the difference since, initially, they seemed the same a identical when I examihe mana. But with practid intense focus, I eventually distinguished between them now and then.

  In the sed book, I delved into the practical uses of mana. It expihat mana gains both an asped a based on the magi’s i when casting a spell. You could yer these elements to create plex spells or use mana as a tool. At first, the author’s eborate and fluage made these cepts hard to grasp, but bit by bit, I unraveled them based on my experiences.

  When I harvested the mukar, the mana didn’t have any clear aspect or element, yet I could still use it for a specific purpose. I realized why the system didn’t reize my harvesting as a spell—it wasn’t a spell. I was using my mana like a tool—free mana manipution, as it was called in the book.

  The book also provided fantastic exercises for practig adding aspects or elements to mana. Adding elements was retively easy for me, but aspects were trickier. I was familiar with the “fvor” of the four major elements—fire, earth, air, and water—so adding their colors to mana was straightforward. Adding aspects, however, required iion. I had some experieh this from my healing spells, but the exercises in the book demanded a fiouch, which I struggled with. It wasn’t as simple as saying, “I want to cut something.” Instead, it required a position of aspects like “sharpness,” “transition through matter,” and “separation,” all harmoniously bao avoid g each other out. I realized that my medical knowledge helped me create spells with iion, and I likely applied the right aspects subsciously.

  The third book focused on w with mana—bang mana levels, sing it of aspects or elements for rituals, log areas with higher mana for rituals, and predig where dungeons or mana portals might appear.

  It also covered teiques to drain an area of all mana, creating what the book called a “dead zohis gave me an idea: if I mastered these teiques and created a total “dead zone,” I could use any teology there. No ma no tech issues. I bookmarked this for future practice. Currently, I had other priorities, so I couldn’t dedicate time to mastering the plex and involved teiques.

  This book introduced me to “Mas.” It described how the world has these vents through which mana rises from the core to the surface. I recalled something simir from Earth books, called Ley Lihough the descriptions differed. In the fantasy books, it was a work spanning the world, while this book described them like vents leading from the world’s core. Regardless, the topic was fasating.

  All three books about mana had exercises to actually practice what the book taught. Some were simple, like sitting with your eyes closed and feeling the surrounding mana. Others were more plex, such as fog on maniputing a small ball of mana to ge its color or fvor, which helped refine one’s ability to distinguish between different mana elements and aspects. One particurly intricate exercise involved creating a stable mana strud then gradually introdug various aspects—like heating, cooling, or sharpness—while maintaining band cohesion. This helped build skills in managing multiple aspects simultaneously without them interfering with each other. Another advanced practice was the formation of mana patterns or symbols in the air, which required precise trol and uanding of how different aspects and elements ied. These exercises aimed to enhane’s mana manipution skills and deepen the uanding of how to effectively harness and utilize mana for various magical applications.

  Once I fihe mana books, I moved on to rituals. The shift was jarring. While the mana books were rich with flowery descriptions and philosophical musings about existehe ritual books were teical—detailed rules, precise measurements, diagrams for creating mana els to ect runes ic scripts, and other teical specifics. It felt like studyironics or puter hardware engineering. Precision was key.

  The first book covered the basics of rituals, including how to build one by w backward from the desired oute through precise steps until you reach the starting point.

  The sed book tained diagrams and drawings of various ritual structures and their uses. There were basic structures like rings (either separate or overpping up to 30 pert), cubes built from magic script and mana, or stars with four to seven points. Both books were highly teical, and the learning process was a far cry from the first set.

  My daily routine became a cycle of breakfast, learning three runes, studying a chapter from the rituals book, mana exercises, sketg or outlining steps to ensure uanding, revisiting the chapter to crify or remember details, lunch, learning three more runes, more mana exercises, more sketg or outlining, a neter, additional mana exercises, dinner, reviewing ritual material, more mana exercises, and finally, sleep.

  It took me three weeks to get through these two books, and I still didn’t feel like I’d mastered the subject. It was too teical. I realized I couldn’t learn them by heart—you o uand the basid use the books as regur references when crafting a ritual. With time, everything would stick. For now, it was overwhelming.

  I started reading the book about familiars, which mostly echoed what Lis had briefly summarized. It had more details on awakening animals, a lengthy discussion on the pros and s of different familiars, and other insights. The most exg revetion was that, with time, mas might develop magical abilities. This magic could be elemental, if the beast or its master had an ination in that dire, or take other forms. For example, there was a story about a snow wolf that developed aack, alongside magic to sharpen its teeth and a sonic attack to stun its prey. The subject was absolutely fasating.

  After five weeks, I felt ready to start the ritual. Lis would be back soon, so I didn’t want to dey. I took a day off to clear my mind a mentally. I pyed with Rue, pyed my guitar, cooked, took a long, hot bath, and rexed.

  Tomorrow, it was ritual time.