55 – Shared Frustration

When it was finally properly dark outside, I paused my blood exercises. I’d been trying to make a drop jump up off my hand, but hadn’t managed it so far.

Slipping outside, I was surprised by a few factors. First, the open path leading into the ‘garden’ opposite my window extended much deeper now. Somehow, I had forgotten that a full day had passed, so Mathew would of course have spent hours clearing it.

Second, annoyingly, it was raining. Not a lot, but the wind whipped the drizzle every which way, including right into my face.

I considered returning inside for a moment, but the thought of having to sit around in my room without achieving anything sounded worse than a bit of discomfort. I could of course continue my blood control exercises, but any progress on The Art of Magic would be out of the question without the mana well.

If it turns out to be unbearable, I can just grab a bunch of fruit and use those to refill my mana back inside. Mind made up, I set out down the still pretty rough path.

Another thing about the weather I quickly noticed was just how loud it was. Howling wind, constant drops hitting things and the creaking and rustling of all the plants around me added up to quite the cacophony.

Despite how uncomfortable it was on the ears, I actually liked the atmosphere it created. I had always enjoyed rain, even back on Earth. This would be the perfect background noise to drift off to… if I could still sleep. I grimaced a bit at the reminder.

Actually, how does a rainy day work with my new condition? I’ll have to test that. Carefully. If the weather holds until tomorrow, that’d be the perfect opportunity.

To be honest, I hadn’t paid any attention to what the weather was like during the day today. I’d been too preoccupied with mana control.

How exactly my body would react to being outside, even while the sun was covered by clouds, was still up in the air.

If I remembered correctly from Earth, clouds didn’t block UV light, at least not completely. So it was possible to get a sunburn even on an overcast day. The question was, what exactly about sunlight caused my blood to boil away and me to presumably catch fire if I ran out? If it was indeed UV light and my condition was basically a sunburn deluxe edition, then the presence or absence of clouds or rain wouldn’t change anything.

However, if it was instead some esoteric ‘sunlight’ concept, I might be fine. No way to really know without trying.

One point in favor of the more metaphysical explanation was that I very much doubted normal biology could react that extremely to a bit of light. Some magic has to be involved, right?

Not that I was a biologist back on Earth, so that was merely a layman’s understanding. Any confirmation would need to wait for now.

Also, it might just be my body reacting magically to UV light, who knows?

While thinking, I managed to fight my way through what remained of the brush beyond the path. It had already reached a good fifteen meters or so into the greenery. Not bad progress, especially if it had been so rainy during the day too.

Unfortunately, the strong wind meant the fruit tree’s large canopy didn’t do nearly enough to keep the rain away. The still heavily fruit-laden branches swayed back and forth, leaves rustling merrily.

Directly next to the trunk was a bit less wet than everywhere else, so that’s where I sat down. Even with the back of my cloak as a ‘seat’, I could quickly feel moisture seeping through.

Oh well, my outfit would probably have to be washed after tonight anyway.

Ignoring the distractions, I opened the book again in my lap.

Just like I had expected after the blood drop earlier, the woven metal thread making up the ‘paper’ was strongly hydrophobic. All the rain that landed on it just rolled right off due to the angle I held it at.

Slightly distracting, but not too bad. I quickly sank into a focused state of mind. As before, the simple shapes were a breeze. The stars quickly followed. What few breaks I took were just for regaining my mana, not because I was stuck.

When I got to the irregular shapes, I realized they actually were random. None of these were the same as the previous ones I’d solved earlier.

Still, by ensuring I had a full mana pool for every attempt, I pushed my way forward.

As much as I disliked these scrawled abominations, they were undoubtedly effective at their job. I could say confidently that I was making good progress in my shaping capability.

After a particularly frustrating one made up of barely connected triangles in a haphazard pattern, encircled by a long, thin spiral, the page finally shifted.

Instead of another assault on my eyes, the middle area just unraveled into that mess of metal lines for now. New text appeared at the top.

‘Good job. As I said earlier, you barely had any issues with even the more advanced flat shapes. Now, on to something a bit more complicated. Your next task: Same as before, fill the appropriate areas with mana. Just this time, you don’t get to see. Your only point of contact may be in the middle.

Don’t run out of mana, this part is timed once you start. Beyond that, use whatever method you like. Knock yourself out. Well, ideally not literally. Good luck.’

Fitting to the instructions, a small spot opened up in the middle of the tangled area. It was large enough to fit a fingertip, but that was it.

If I read the instructions correctly, did I have to find areas to fill by just using mana to feel for them? After a quick check, the messy lines all around were uniformly chaotic. There were no visual nor tactile indicators of where I needed to send my mana.

This will be difficult. I could already tell. There was some feedback from mana I sent out – that proprioception-like sensation – but it was pretty faint. Also, until now I wasn’t aware this could relay anything beyond the mana’s position back to me. Though using mana to detect things was pretty common for fictional magic on Earth, so I wasn’t all too surprised it was a thing.

No way to find out but to try. I began slowly feeding some mana into the page. I could faintly feel the mana spread out, but the metal lines blocked me from seeing the dark blotch it created. Frowning, I did my best to ‘listen’ for any change in feedback.

Half a minute of slow mana drain later, I got some feedback, alright. Unfortunately, it was in the form of a red flash under my finger and a series of several stabs into my will or wherever that pain was located.

Apparently, I’d crossed several boundaries without noticing. At least the pain and timing gave me some idea of when I’d messed up, if not exactly where. After refilling, I tried again.

Another half-minute or so later, I got ‘stabbed’ again. Less often than before, so my even more careful approach had helped a little. Also, I could almost swear I felt something a moment before. I just couldn’t identify what it was, nor react in time.

Like that, I spent a while under the tree, not that I was keeping very close track of time. Regaining my mana, sending it into the book and then subsequently getting ‘stabbed’. Over and over again. I was quickly completely soaked, but didn’t let that bit of discomfort distract me. Not like I could get a cold anyway.

My suffering bore some fruit at least. I began to feel some resistance when my spreading mana came in contact with the unseen shape’s boundaries. Not that it was enough to stop me from continuing my streak of failures. The main issue was just how disconnected the sensations I got from the mana were from my own spatial awareness.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

Just because I felt the tell-tale resistance in a direction, didn’t mean I could actually stop sending mana that way in time. Because the ‘direction’ was quite abstract to my brain. A bit like having to paint something from memory that I could only barely feel with my fingertips. At least I was slowly getting better.

The shape I had to fill was probably some slightly irregular polygon. That was at least what my brain was attempting to visualize it as. As far as I could tell, it hadn’t shifted between attempts, so a bit of my progress was owed to memorization.

Assuming future challenges in this section would follow the previous, I’d eventually reach a point where they would be randomized. Though I didn’t know whether that was per attempt or just per opening of the book. To find out, I’d first have to actually finish a single puzzle.

Shocking me out of my increasingly frustrated concentration, a squeaking bundle landed in my lap, right on top of the book. It took a short moment for my eyes to refocus and take in the sight.

It was, I quickly realized, my bat familiar. He’d apparently made a sort-of crash landing right into me. Luckily, my burst of concern was quickly alleviated. He was fine.

His wings were also blocking the book. “Mind moving aside, buddy?” I got an annoyed squeak in return. “What?” Based on what his mind was sending me, he purposefully refused to budge.

“What’s wrong? Why are you blocking my training?” I was getting annoyed in turn. Just as I was getting some progress done as well!

Reaching out a hand, I tried to scoop him up and move the little rascal to the side.