My smile didn't falter as I kept reading. Everything that followed in this part of the book was about the importance of each aspect of what magic is. It was a fairly technical text, but very easy to understand because, damn, it was written so that anyone with the intelligence of a normal person could get it. Also, the fact that some images moved, giving the impression of a video, was the best part and constantly reminded me that the book was magical.
Anyway, I spent a few hours reading like an addict until I got to the next part of the book. This section taught a mage how to manipulate their magic, and the first step was to feel your own magic. In humans, this neutral energy is called mana, and it serves no purpose until a mage chooses to give it one.
The magic manipulation exercises were simple—well, the explanations behind them weren't, but the exercises themselves could be summed up in five steps:
1. Spin the mana: All you had to do was spin the energy in any vector direction as long as it stayed within you. This was considered the simplest exercise, given that due to the biological composition of humans, energy naturally takes this form when used internally. Doing this allows you to charge spells faster, so even if it's basic, it must be practiced.
Since it was simple, I just followed the steps. After all, I wasn't wasting any magic, and it was the same method I used to summon the Twice Critical, right? I'll have to give it a better name later.
2. Redirected expulsion: This one involved taking one of the many currents formed by spinning the magic—like separating a thread from a spool. This step was also considered simple and was very well explained. After about half an hour of trying, I got the hang of it. I could see a strand of that whole vortex inside my body rapidly spinning and extending out, fading into the air.
But the next steps were considered difficult due to the neutral nature of mana. I wasn't as successful with them, but the book itself said these steps were mostly about practice, so I had to go crazy with training.
3. Magic compression: Now that I had magic outside my body, one exercise to gain control was to compress it. Basically, make it occupy less space and maintain that compression. That's the hard part. It was like trying to crush an apple with your bare hands. Sure, the apple isn't very tough, but unless you have above-average grip strength, crushing it like paper is tough.
4. Expansion: The next step was the opposite—you had to expand that magic outward. This was way harder than the previous one because you were dispersing a specific amount of magic. It's like putting dye in water—while still keeping control over that dye. This exercise was for fine control.
5. Vibration: And finally, the hardest control exercise I've seen—making the magic vibrate inside your body. If I understood it correctly, this gives a mage the ability to perceive external magic using their mundane senses.
That last part struck me as odd because I already see magic. But according to the book, my mana isn't vibrating to perceive the world at this moment. So I theorize that, since I come from a mundane world without magic or the supernatural, I'm better at perceiving supernatural energies. For me, it's as if the world had always been silent (no magic), and now there's noise everywhere (magic), so my existence naturally picks up that background noise.
Anyway, those were the steps to achieve acceptable control as a human mage.
When I finished reading and proved I couldn't yet do the last three exercises, I summoned the Sacred Gear again and stored the book inside.
I rubbed my eyes, a bit tired from reading so much. Although my general curiosity was satisfied, there were still more problems to solve—like food, water, and securing this place.
Since I was tired, I first made sure to secure the area. With Twice Critical still active, I cautiously left the cave. I looked in every direction, searching for a rock to block the entrance. About two hundred meters away, I saw a rock roughly my size.
I didn't want to drag this out, so I ran fast—and let me tell you, my speed was like a decently fast car because I covered the distance in under four seconds. It felt good, like a sense of freedom.
Anyway, with effort comparable to lifting a slightly heavy backpack, I picked up the rock and ran back to the cave just as quickly. I entered first and sealed the entrance with the rock.
With a sigh of relief from feeling safer, I deactivated Twice Critical and collapsed from exhaustion.
…
I slowly woke up in the darkness of the cave.
"So it wasn't a bad dream," I said to myself, brushing off the dust that had collected on my clothes after sleeping on the floor.
Once I was fully awake, I made a list of my priorities:
Get water and food
Complete the magic manipulation exercises
Train my body
Get out of this damned place
For now, food and water were most important. So, once again being extremely cautious, I moved the rock and stepped out of the cave—with Twice Critical in hand.
I wandered the area slowly, marking easily recognizable stones along the way so I wouldn't get lost. I searched for a relatively high spot to gain some advantage. A few hours had passed, I think. I was now on top of a twelve-meter rock. Its slanted shape made it easy to climb.
I scanned all the visible areas I could access—not much, mostly the same. But in the distance, on a rocky formation full of holes, I saw a group of about twenty of the same mutant cassowaries. Apparently, they were splitting into groups of three, each group heading in a different direction. These things had some level of intelligence.
He fixed his gaze on a group already moving in a relatively close direction. A smile formed on his face.
And he ran—faster than any human could. By the time the unsuspecting group of birds noticed, it was too late. With the force of a car, his gauntleted hand struck their necks in a crescent motion. It wasn't a clean cut—more like the blow of a super-compressed vehicle.
His smile grew wider. His eyes burned red like bottomless pits, and once again, he tasted the blood of his victims.
With quick movements, he stored the bodies of the monsters inside his dark gauntlet.
…
He almost got lost on his way "home" if it weren't for the marks he had left earlier.
Once inside, he didn't pay much attention to the food stored in his gauntlet. He simply took out one of the monstrous cassowary corpses. He decided to ration his food, tearing off a piece of the creature's leg with ease due to his enhanced strength while using Twice Critical.
He looked at the piece of the animal in his hand. Something told him he didn't need to worry about trivial things like cooking it. As long as blood flowed, everything would be a simple meal in his hands. His eyes moved rapidly in impossible vortexes as if in a trance. His teeth tore into the flesh, his tongue savoring the blood, and for the first time since arriving in this world, he felt whole—like something fundamentally missing had finally been given to him. The trance lasted until even the bones of that limb were gone.
A closed-eyed smile spread across his face before his eyes opened—those red eyes, now a bit closer in color to blood.