"It's simple," 008 explained.
"You just need to cultivate while holding the feather pen, focusing on it until it feels like an extension of your own body. When that happens, the pen will respond to your will more naturally."
"Was it that simple?" Kisha asked again as she stared at the feather pen in her hands.
"Yes, host," 008 added thoughtfully.
"You just need to let the item adjust to your mana. You're accustod to using your spiritual energy, but you haven't really practiced channeling mana much."
"It's natural that you feel unfamiliar with it. Because of that, your mana flow was awkward, and the item could sense your hesitation, which made it resist you."
Kisha nodded slowly, finally understanding. What 008 said made sense, and she realized that her lack of familiarity with mana was the true source of the issue.
Kisha carefully stored the table back into her inventory before resuming her cultivation.
This ti, instead of focusing primarily on her spiritual energy, she shifted her attention toward her mana.
Though she still cultivated both, her focus was now on the mana, feeling its subtle flow throughout her body, its currents gently swirling around her heart.
As she directed the mana toward the Phoenix Feather Pen, she felt it tremble in her hand, responding to the energy she sent through it.
It took Kisha three hours of steadily channeling her mana through her body and into the Phoenix Feather Pen to beco familiar with its flow.
When the pen finally felt more responsive and the resistance faded, she stopped her cultivation.
Taking the table out from her inventory, she resud her practice of inscribing.
This ti, with a smoother connection to the pen, Kisha felt more confident as she traced the scriptures onto the magical parchnt.
As 008 had suggested, she could now sense the difference in her control, and her movents felt more fluid and purposeful.
This ti, the contract's inscription was much easier to read than before.
While the writing still wasn't flawless, the outco was a success.
The first contract she managed to complete worked as intended.
Though it couldn't compare to the powerful slave contract she had purchased from the system, which could bind ten individuals at once, Kisha was satisfied with her progress.
Her contract could bind just one person, and while the restrictions weren't as harsh as those in the system-purchased contract, it was still effective.
For her first attempt, Kisha felt it was a solid achievent.
It wasn't until Kisha learned inscribing that she fully understood the contract she had signed with Aston and the others.
She realized that it was written in the sa way as a standard contract from her world, with one key difference: the repercussions for breaking the contract were clearly outlined.
The consequences for betraying Party A were explicitly stated, detailing the suffering they would endure if they violated the agreent. This newfound understanding made her see just how serious the terms were.
With this newfound understanding, Kisha wrote her first contract in the sa format, though, as a beginner, she couldn't impose severe punishnts for breaking it just yet.
The best she could do was include a mild consequence: "The party who breaks the contract will suffer severe hair loss, lose a tooth, and have one finger broken."
Her beginner status limited her ability to enforce harsher penalties, such as those that could result in a person's death, so she had to settle for these less severe but still significant repercussions.
As Kisha's proficiency in inscribing grew, so would the strength and severity of the punishnts she could impose in the contracts.
Each contract an inscriber created drew from their own mana, power, and mastery, so the more skilled they beca, the more potent the contract would be.
Conversely, a less experienced inscriber would craft weaker contracts, and if too little mana was poured into the inscribing process, the binding power of the contract would be weaker as well.
Writing even a single contract was already physically draining, especially if severe penalties or violations were included, as the energy required to enforce such terms was imnse.
After understanding all these intricacies, Kisha continued inscribing, experinting with different punishnts allowed by her current level of proficiency.
She pushed herself until her mana was completely depleted.
Unlike when her spiritual energy ran out—where she would feel a sharp pain in her head—draining her mana had a more severe consequence.
Her body, unable to function without mana, shut down entirely, and she fell into a deep coma.
Unaware of the risks, she collapsed right where she sat, her body unresponsive to the world around her.
When Duke ca to check on Kisha, he found her asleep, likely exhausted from her work.
With a gentle smile, he brushed aside the bangs that had fallen over her face, tucking them behind her ear as he gazed at her for a mont.
Then, quietly, he pulled a blanket from his Space Ring and draped it over her before returning to his cultivation.
As he turned to leave, his eyes caught sight of the contract Kisha had written.
The language and script were from the fantasy world, so he couldn't understand it, but he knew she was up to sothing.
With a soft chuckle and a fond shake of his head, he left her to rest, heading back toward the central area where the crystal was located.
If Kisha ever exhausted her mana during battle and fell into a coma, the consequences could be dire—potentially even fatal.
Fortunately, she discovered this now, sparing herself the dangerous experience on the battlefield.
It took her a full two hours to recover just a fraction of her mana, and when she woke up, her body ached as though she had been brutally beaten.
This made her realize how serious the consequences of depleting her energy could be, and she knew she had to be cautious going forward.
Fortunately, with the help of the Spiritual Crystal Gatherer and the cultivation manual, she could simultaneously cultivate both her spiritual energy and mana.
This allowed her to increase both her spiritual and mana pools at the sa ti.
Over ti, she would build up a larger reservoir of energy, reducing the risk of exhaustion and giving her more resources to rely on in battle.
Only by cultivating both energies simultaneously would she be able to use them continuously for different situations.
As if a thought struck her, Kisha retrieved the vial of black liquid and downed it.
Sure enough, the mont she consud it, her depleted mana began to recover instantly.
With newfound determination, she resud inscribing, crafting one contract after another. As she worked, her eyes landed on the proficiency bar.
[Profession Proficiency: Inscriber Newbie 15%]
'That was fast,' she thought, gazing at the progress bar, a hint of satisfaction in her expression.
"Yes, host, that was impressive progress! Maybe you really do have a natural talent for this, more than we initially thought."
"Of course, it could also be thanks to the system injecting the knowledge directly into your brain, speeding up the process."
"But even if that's the case, those who've been learning from a young age might want to beat black and blue if I ntioned it."
"So, the only explanation left would be talent and a bit of a gift," 008 explained, throwing in a playful tease alongside the complint. Kisha couldn't help but smile, feeling a bit of pride at the praise.
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