Chapter 5: Chapter 5-Mana Pathways

Mika wanted to jump for joy that she completed her quest on time but was unable to due to the pain assaulting her as information was drilled into her mind.

A few minutes later, the pain subsided, but Mika looked excited, confused, and shocked.

She received information about mana, where to gather it, how to circulate it through one’s body, and how to create mana pathways in one’s body to circulate it. 

The information didn’t mention much about how mana can be used, but it did reinforce the idea that mana is incredibly important. 

Those unable to use mana will be at a major disadvantage compared to those who can.

She knew nothing about mana, but with the information given by the system, she understood that it was much more complex than she initially thought. 

Every living thing born in this world possesses mana, but whether that amount is big or small and whether they can control it or not is mostly up to luck and talent. 

The amount of mana can be increased by absorbing it, but how fast one can collect it and how much one can contain is up to one's luck and talent. 

Of course, Mika is cheating a bit, but she’s unaware of this at the moment.

The first step in collecting and using mana in one’s body is to form a mana core. 

From what the System told her, mana is collected and stored in something called the dantian. 

The dantian changes into a mana core once either mana is collected inside or, if there is already mana inside, activating that mana will turn it into a mana core. 

Doing this will also determine what type of affinity they will have, such as fire, water, earth, air, and so on.

Once a mana core is formed, mana pathways can be created in the body, and these pathways will increase the strength of her body, heighten her senses, and many other things that the system left out for now.

There are two types of mana pathways, Passive and Active.

Passive Mana Pathways are just like the name implies; they passively circulate mana throughout your body. These pathways help increase the body's strength and can also increase her life span. The quality and quantity of mana that flows throughout her body determine the number of years added to her life. 

This shocked Mika and made her incredibly excited to increase her mana to gain more years of life.

Active Mana Pathways are pathways that have to be consciously used, and unlike Passive Mana Pathways, Active ones don’t increase the strength of her body. Instead, these pathways allow her to use spells and/or techniques. 

For example, if she wants to create a fireball, she will need to use her Active Mana Pathways instead of her Passive Mana Pathways. 

The System also provided information on how to circulate mana through her pathways and a bit of knowledge about the human body, specifically the parts she’ll need to know to create these pathways.

Mika finished processing all this information and decided to check out her new skill and quest.

[Meditation: Helps clear the mind. Can increase the efficiency of strength and mana recovery by 10% when used.]

‘Wow! That’s pretty good! Now time to check the quest.’ Mika thought with a smile.

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[Quest]

[Objective: Form a Mana Core and Mana Pathways.]

[Difficulty: Normal]

[Description: Successfully create your Mana Core and Pathways, and your future growth rate will increase exponentially! Failing this quest won’t result in a punishment from the System, but your potential at becoming a god will decrease exponentially.]

[Time Limit: 2 Months]

[Reward: New Title, Affinities Unlocked, and ???]

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‘Woah! I assumed it would be something like that. I can see why the System gave me the ‘Meditation’ skill. This quest also seems much easier than the last one considering all the information the system gave me for completing the last quest. Alright! Let’s get started!’ Mika exclaimed in her mind.

Mika didn’t waste any time and closed her eyes and activated [Meditation]. It felt like a fog was dispersing from her mind as her emotions started stabilizing, and all unnecessary thoughts, which she didn’t even know were there, started to lift. 

This feeling was very calming, and Mika found herself enjoying it. She felt like if she were to meditate on her swordsmanship, her skills might be able to reach a whole new level, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

After her mind was empty and released from any unnecessary thoughts, she started focussing her mind on all the information about Mana, Mana Cores, and Mana Pathways. 

She needed to clearly understand what she needed to do as she’ll only get one chance at this.

After creating a clear picture in her mind, Mika then sent her consciousness into her tiny fetus body to try and overlap the picture she created in her mind.

She studied and memorized the skin, tissue, blood vessels, bones, and organs in her body, understanding their layout and trying to overlap the knowledge from the System in her mind.

Once she felt like she had succeeded, she sent her consciousness out of her body and canceled [Meditation].

After canceling [Meditation], she activated [Mind Space] as she felt this would be the perfect testing ground. 

Now that she had a precise and exact copy of her new body (fetus), she focused her mind on changing her form to this new body in her [Mind Space].

Soon her body shrunk, her skin softened and became almost transparent, and she was unable to move due to how weak her body was. 

Mika felt incredibly weird after changing into this form. Whether it be because a fetus isn’t supposed to be alive without the mother's support or maybe she just realized how feeble she was, she felt that being in this form was really weird. 

She didn’t like this feeling but knew that she had to push through and complete the task at hand.

Mika took a deep breath and activated [Mediation]. Soon her mind cleared of everything except for the information about her body and Mana.

Mika sent her consciousness inside her body and went straight to her dantian. This was going to be her first attempt at creating a Mana Core. Fortunately, she could mess up all she wanted in her [Mind Space], so she didn’t have to worry about failure.

She searched around her dantian, looking for anything that felt different from the rest of her body. Even though the System explained Mana to her, she still didn’t understand. 

The only thing she understood was that mana is a very mystical and supernatural energy. So that’s what she was looking for; a mystical form of energy.

After searching every nook and cranny of her dantian, she was unable to see anything out of the ordinary, but that didn’t discourage her. She wasn’t expecting to notice it on her first attempt.

From this attempt, she deduced that Mana wasn’t something that could be seen, touched, heard, smelled, or tasted. At least not in its current form. Without any concrete evidence of how to find Mana, she felt she could only rely on her intuition.

With that in mind, she stopped trying to find it and attempted to sense anything that felt off within her dantian.

After slowly going through her dantian, she felt something was a bit weird at a certain point at the bottom of her dantian. She sent her mind there and started trying to contact whatever was there. 

She didn’t know 100% whether any Mana was there, but her intuition told her there was something.

When her mind made contact with whatever was there, she felt a weird sensation come over her mind and body. It felt invigorating. 

This feeling soon spread out from that area and into the rest of her Dantian. Mika then felt her dantian change forms, almost like it was elevating to something higher. 

It took nearly an hour for this feeling to finish, and once it was over, Mika felt amazing! Like she was another being! Like she had become something superhuman! 

She was in total euphoric shock due to this feeling and only wanted to experience this longer. Her [Meditation] ability canceled as her mind began to fill with nothing but this amazing feeling!

‘Amazing! I knew Mana would be spectacular, but it seems I severely underestimated it. I now understand why the System placed so much significance on this quest. I can feel it deep within my soul! Without mana, my life would be much harder, and I would certainly be at a huge disadvantage against people who could freely use Mana.’ Mika immediately understood why Mana was so important, yet she also felt she understood even less now that she had experienced it first-hand.

‘It’s gonna be a long journey,’ Mika thought, but a grin never left her face.

After enjoying this feeling a bit more, she moved on to create her Mana Pathways. Her Passive Mana Pathways will be the longest and pass through her organs, bones, bone marrow, muscles, and some along her skin.

Her Active Mana Pathways will be sent to similar areas, but the quantity will be less than her Passive ones, and these pathways will be concentrated more along her skin, limbs, and head. 

These will be the pathways her Mana is sent through when she intends to actively use magic so the closer they are to the skin, the better.

She activated [Meditation] and focused on the picture she had in her mind earlier. When she was ready, she grabbed the tiny amount of Mana within her Dantian and started creating her Passive Mana Pathways first.

She sent the mana to her skin first and worked inwards until she reached her organs. After completing her Passive Mana Pathways, she moved on to creating her Active Mana Pathways.

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She ended up back in her dantian and started from there. These were a bit more complicated since she was unsure which direction to go in first, her head or feet. 

Ultimately she decided to start with her head and go down.

These pathways stuck close to the skin and required more finesse than her Passive Mana Pathways.

It took her a while to complete all her Pathways, but after she finished, she moved on to the last part, creating her Mana Core. This was the least complicated part of the process as she just had to move the leftover mana so that it encases her Dantian, forming her Mana Core. 

However, although it was the least complicated, it was the most time-consuming as she was not quite used to controlling her mana in such a way, but after she finished, she felt like a shackle broke. It was hard to describe, but it felt like her whole existence was just slightly elevated.

Mika wasn’t sure how to feel about this but ultimately decided to just revel in this feeling since she didn’t know the next time she might feel something like this.

After she enjoyed this feeling for a bit, she decided to ask the System to see what it thought.

[I’d rate your mana core and pathways at 60% potential. You couldn’t completely grasp the mana in your dantian and didn’t create your pathways fast enough after your mana core was created.]

[Your mana pathways lacked efficiency as you took too many unnecessary paths.]

[Although you succeeded in creating a mana core and pathways if you want to have a chance at reaching godhood… these are completely worthless!]

The System bluntly replied, then proceeded to tell Mika where she went wrong. Mika was a little depressed as she felt proud of doing something like this, but she didn’t know it was so useless in the eyes of the System.

‘...Fine.’ Mika and then reset her [Mind Space] body.

She meditated on what went wrong and what the system said. After sorting out her thoughts and coming up with a new plan, Mika began to try again, except this time, she had some experience behind her.

This time she was able to access and grasp more mana from her Dantian, creating a better Mana Core. 

She put to use what the System said with the Mana Pathways and realized how stupid she was before. 

For the Passive Mana Pathways, she decided to start in her organs and go outward rather than the reverse like she did last time. 

She found it much more efficient and even much easier to create. 

Next were the Active Mana Pathways. The system didn’t give too much advice on this, as it wanted Mika to figure it out for herself, so she decided to start from the feet this time and make her way toward the head.

It took her a bit less time to complete this trial, and Mika asked the System for its advice after she finished.

[I’d give it a 75%. You can still do better in creating your mana core. Your passive mana pathways are decent, but there are still some unnecessary movements that can be eliminated. The main issue is with your active mana pathways, but I want you to figure this out yourself.]

Mika was happy that her grade went up a full 15% compared to last time but was still depressed to know that there is still another 25% to go. That’s a fourth of her potential that she’s not utilizing. 

If she were to put it into cultivation time, out of 10 years of training, she might be able to shave off at least 2.5 years if she perfected her Mana Core and Pathways. That’s 2.5 years she could be spending doing something else! Like focusing on her swordsmanship!

She instantly meditated and searched for her mistakes and how to fix them. After doing this, she exited her [Mind Space] and studied her physical body more to fix any minor details. 

She then went back into her [Mind Space] to try again.

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Mika kept doing this until she reached her 10th try. On this try, she had already perfected her Mana Core and Passive Mana Pathways, but it wasn’t until this try that she finally had an epiphany on what she needed to do for her Active Mana Pathways. 

She needed to not only start going toward both her head and feet at the same time, but she also needed to create all the branches for this pathway at the same time. 

Meaning she either needed to split her mind between doing several tasks at the same time, or she needed to have created the branches so many times that it’s second nature to her.

Obviously, she hoped for the former, but splitting one’s mind is incomparably harder than creating Mana Pathways. So she opted for the latter and thus started her adventure of grinding Active Mana Pathways until they became second nature.

Obviously, with each try, she would also create her Mana Core and Passive Mana Pathways, so these became second nature as well.

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It wasn’t until attempt 100 that Mika finally memorized all of the branches for her Active Mana Pathway, and the action became second nature to her. Now that she had finished this, it was time for her to do it all simultaneously.

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50 attempts later, Mika was finally able to create all of the Active Mana Pathway branches simultaneously, and the System graded her potential 100% of her body’s capabilities. 

Her Mana Core and Pathways couldn’t be more perfect. Her Mana Core had a higher quality and quantity of Mana than before, her Pathways were slightly bigger with no wasted movements, and Mana traveled through her body perfectly. 

Although Mika was satisfied with this, she wanted to practice and study her physical body more before actually trying the real thing. She only had one shot and didn’t want to mess it up. Therefore, she went back to studying her physical body and practicing.

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Mika practiced, practiced, and practiced some more until there were only 3 days left before she reached the deadline of the Quest. 

By this point, she had lost count of the number of times she spent creating her Mana Core and Pathways, but it was definitely hundreds of times; maybe it even reached 1,000.

‘It’s time to do this for real. I’ve done this so many times that it should be like second nature to me, but I can’t let my guard down. I only have one shot at this; if I fail, my growth potential might be stunted! I can’t have that! Also, I need to keep in mind what the System said before. That something will be slightly different when I try it on my physical body, and all I have to do is be prepared for it. I have an idea of what it is, and I’ve prepared for it. All I can do now is do my best!’ Mika hyped herself up before canceling her [Mind Space] and returning to her physical body.

Mika took a few deep breaths, cleared her mind, activated [Meditation], and emptied her mind of nothing but the process of forming her Mana Core and creating her Mana Pathways. 

After reaching a total concentration point, she started creating her Mana Core.

She knew something would be different about this attempt, and it came immediately. There seemed to be two different types when she felt for the mana in her Dantian. 

One gave off a warm yet fiery feeling, and the other gave off a cold and dark feeling. 

Mika knew that although something would be different, the process wouldn’t be different. All she needed to do was continue like she had been doing, and everything will end up perfectly. 

She didn’t hesitate for even a split second as she carried on like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Soon, the warm and fiery feeling started to intertwine with the cold and dark feeling until the two mixed together, filling up her dantian and upgrading it into a Mana Core. Without paying attention to the new sensation, Mika moved on to creating her Mana Pathways.

First was her Passive Mana Pathway, and then she moved on to the more difficult Active Mana Pathway, but she didn’t make a single mistake. Everything was perfect, and she finally completed the creation of her Mana Core and Mana Pathways!

[Congratulations, Host, for completing the quest and taking your first step toward Godhood!]

[Title Unlocked: Body Of Mana(EX)]

[Elemental Affinities Unlocked!]

[Fire Affinity(EX) Unlocked]

[Darkness Affinity(EX) Unlocked]

[Unique Body Cultivation Power System Unlocked]

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