"What even is this place?" Zephyr paused in thought, standing in the clear white space as his thoughts echoed through the expanse. He took in the space again with new eyes, failing to comprehend how his consciousness could literally enter his mana core. There seed to be no correlation whatsoever to warrant such an absurd situation. He thought back to the first ti he had entered here. Back at the military camp when he had been threatened by a gas-like chilly substance that invaded his body and was eroding his mana core whole. He had been the only one to feel it and be invaded by it.
The only thing that saved him was that mont where the invading chilly gas-like substance seed to have weakened significantly, allowing him to push back and drive it out of his core.
It had been going for his mana node— No. In fact more than that. Zephyr had felt a kind of hunger from the substance, it was going for where the threads that erged from his mana node led to up above... Origin... or so Zephyr thought.
That was where the instructions for the concept he just comprehended had to have co from.
He tilted his head up slightly to see if he could gaze at the beyond, but he quickly snapped back subconsciously as that feeling of reverence threatened to overwhelm him again.
’I’d better not pry further.’ Zephyr thought to himself in slight fear. He felt like he was trying to touch upon things he should never even be able to in the first place. This situation was already as absurd as could be, and yet things were relatively stable, there had been no repercussions per sé, so he didn’t want to attract any attention from whatever was beyond and ruin this... opportunity? He didn’t know yet. So he instead focused on the matter at hand he was here to do.
He tried to see if he’d notice any difference in his mana core, but as he scanned around, nothing seed to be particularly different. The glyph-like, structured lines that ran across the ground all the way to his mana node were still the sa. Nothing was out of place.
Zephyr held his chin in thought, walking around. "Perhaps it’s because the Bit isn’t a physical process? More like a deeper understanding of the nature of mana. Breaking it down into its smallest unit...’ he pondered. ’But I felt sothing settle into my core though...’ he looked around again, more careful, just to be sure. But still, there was nothing.
He glanced at his mana node, musing, ’Should I have a go at casting a spell again?’
He’d tried that once, back then, and it hadn’t gone the way he expected at all. He’d almost lost his mind in the stream of pure information that overtook his consciousness when he placed his hand on his mana node to cast a spell.
But things were different then. His mana core as a whole was under attack, so that might have caused an interference, limiting whatever little access he had to mana, prompting him to seek a direct source... hence his very daring attempt to touch his node to cast a spell.
He settled his mind and focused on visualizing the mana barrier spell—his go-to spell for quick casting. This ti, he felt a difference. He still could not cast a spell in here, obviously. But he felt the beginning of the spell try to take shape, and within that brief mont he felt the concept of the Bit. The individual units that made up the mana stream that was about to be transford and given instruction as to how to behave to create the intended effect.
He felt it very clearly. Clearer than he had when he’d cast the mana barrier spell in the outside world earlier.
’Geez. This is nearly tangible,’ Zephyr repeated the process again, just to have that feeling. It made him wonder how the next thing he learned would be like in here— Transistors. Aegis had charted out a pathway for an overall balanced and even more superior mana processor as opposed to the "Path of The Optimized" inheritance that was given to him.
After playing around with the feeling and seeing there was nothing more to it, that there was nothing he could do to utilize it yet, he walked to the edges of the space and felt his consciousness slip back to reality. He sat up straight instantly, "forty-seven minutes," Zephyr glanced at the ti, noting how much ti had passed on the outside compared to how much he felt should have passed based on his perception inside his mana core space. It wasn’t one-for-one, Zephyr could tell. But it was a slight difference, and nothing too drastic like double the flow of ti.
Over a few trips there, he was sure he was going get the ratio down.
Knock knock
He heard so footsteps at the door before a knock again.
"Rita..." he whispered, standing up to open the door.
"Hey—"
"Ahhh" Rita groaned tiredly, walking in and slumping on the small sofa in the living room.
"Okay?" Zephyr shut the door. "Tough day? Or what?" he chuckled lightly.
"You don’t even know." Rita said exasperatedly. "They had us draw— Okay. First, guess what class I was thrown to?" she asked, sitting up.
Zephyr shook his head slightly in thought, "I dunno... Beginner?" he asked.
"Yes! Beginner!" she said, staring at Zephyr like he should understand.
Zephyr was confused. "Uh, yeah, but aren’t you a beginner?"
"I am a beginner. I know that. But not like that...?"she muttered.
"Then what’s the—"
"They put in a class with eleven and twelve year olds," she deadpanned.
"Oh... but that’s not so bad, right? I an you’re just there to learn the basics before you get put in your normal grade," he shrugged.
"Zephyr, I’m seventeen."
"You’re seventeen?" Zephyr asked, actually surprised. "So you’re a year older than I am," he noted with a smile.
"It’s Teacher Veronica. She’s the one who made this arrangent so I’d be on my toes and learn as quickly as I can," Rita muttered to herself, lost in her own world. "So embarrassing. When I walked out of the class, so people my age even saw . Those guys would think I’m so kind of dud or sothing now..."
Zephyr watched her rant with an amused look before placating her, "Hey. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve also been thrown into a situation where I was the oldest among my colleagues..." he tilted his head, "but in my situation, it was more due to my talent than needing to catch up." He chuckled.
Rita pursed her lips, prompting Zephyr to hold his hands up in surrender as he quickly changed the topic. "So aside from that, what did you learn?"
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