World Filter

The ocean waves gently lapped against the sides of the boat. Mark was currently sitting in a lotus position with his eyes closed; he took a deep breath of the cold night air.

The document had been short but incredibly useful.

Apparently, before you could use any of your energy you first had to sense it. This step was the most important and was needed for all three energy types. Once you found it, the next hurdle was getting it to move as you wanted. If you didn't learn to manipulate it, you'd only be able to use it in a reactionary manner. Like when you were in true danger… or say, if your friend was trapped under a beam while a hoard of zombies approached.

The document also went on to say that each energy resided in three separate energy centers. Mana was in the brain, Aura was just below the navel and Prana was still unknown but theorized to be somewhere in the chest.

The faster you could detect and manipulate the energy the better off you'd be. As this shows synergy with the respective energy. Mark was excited but also confused. He never needed to detect his Prana as far as he knew the energy appeared as soon as the system had. So maybe he had a really good synergy with it?

How would he even test that right now?

Suddenly, as though hit by a bolt of inspiration Mark opened his blue boxes again. His eyes fell on his unspent stat points.

He was happy he hadn't spent them all because if this worked he may have a new method of sensing the different types of energy.

If this was going to work though he needed a control test.

Mark closed his eyes and concentrated on his chest, searching for his Prana. Instantly the energy became brighter, it flourished in his chest. Flitting about waiting for him like an old friend. He smiled warmly, and without hesitation, he willed an unspent stat point into Prana. The change was stubble but still noticeable. His Prana got bigger, stronger, and more robust if only a little.

He started by shaping and moving it to different parts of his body. The Prana moved freely and willingly. Once he'd played with it enough he decided to move on.

Now for the experimental case.

Mark started searching for a different feeling. One that was supposed to be in his head. He was searching for Mana. No one said just because he specialized in Prana that he couldn't use Mana right?

He searched around but couldn't feel anything like Prana in his head. After a while of not being able to detect it on his own, he put his plan into action.

Whenever he had put points into Prana he had felt it grow. The trick here was to figure out what to look for.

Trying not to doubt himself too much Mark willed a single point into Mana.

The moment he did he knew he’d hit the nail on the head. He felt something swelling in his mind. Like a pool of frigid water. Completely different from Prana, if Prana was life, warmth, and protection. Then Mana was pure potential. It was the ability to bring thought into reality.

Unlike Prana that only resided in the body, even needing a medium to travel. Mana was limitless. Even now he could sense the small amount in his Mana center was interacting with the mana in the air.

Mark grinned triumphantly.

Right, so he had detected it, now what. He tried to get the Mana to move as he did with Prana, but that turned out to be a huge mistake because the moment he gently willed it to move outside of himself, it was like trying to rein in a wild horse. The Mana just dispersed out into the air completely unwilling to listen to his gentle requests. He lost about 40% of his Mana in one go.

Mark paused, unsure of what to do. It had not listened to his pleas at all.

He needed another approach. Mana was fundamentally different from Prana. Prana was docile and kind, while Mana was raw and free.

Well then perhaps it required a different type of control.

If it would not listened to him when he was being kind, then he would have been more insistent. He would give it an order that left nothing to the imagination

He willed another portion of his Mana to the surface and just as it passed through his skin into the world he clamped down on it.

It tries to pull away but Mark didn't let it. He bent the Mana with his mind and demanded it takes the shape of a sphere in the world.

The Mana buckled and thrashed, but no matter what it did he just held on tighter, forcing it to adhere to his demands, and when it finally gave up he released it. Opening his eyes Mark could see a faint outline of his Mana. Held in a perfect sphere in front of himself.

Grinning from ear to ear, Mark tried to change the shape again, however, he noticed he could not change it, was fixed. He couldn't yet alter the shape, bringing it closer he inspected the ball. It was about the size of a quarter.

This little orb had cost him close to 10% of his remaining Mana, but he realized something. When he was creating it he hadn't been thinking about what he wanted it to do other than it being circular. So at the end of the day all it was, was a faintly glowing orb with no purpose.

Releasing the sphere, it faded in seconds.

Mark faced his palm up and closed his eyes again.

Thinking back to the manifestation of the orb. What it needed was a direction, an intent behind the Mana. Formed before creation.

So it came down to what the spell's purpose was and knew just what he needed right now. Once more he moved a portion of his mana to the threshold of his palm and as it was passing he enforced the idea of a pressurized bubble that detonated on the first obstacle it came into contact with. The Mana fought him every step of the way, but in the end, it was not a complex idea, so eventually, it fell in line. Separating from himself his mana condensed into a small sphere and rested in his open palm. It was similar to the previous one. Only now it was dense, it felt alive like the mana knew its purpose and wanted to accomplish it.

There was flashing in his peripheral vision.

Mark was excited until he realized he didn't know how to make the orb go away. Panicking he tried to let it disperse, but quickly realized he had just disturbed the spell's structure and now it was unraveling.

With seconds to respond, Mark got up and chucked the orb over his shoulder, and turned. He watched it arc and slowly land a good distance from them in the water. The moment it touched down there was a mini detonation of sound as the water went flying everywhere.

Mark was happy, the orb had produced a good amount of force. If he had to guess he’d put it somewhere near a high-caliber rifle.

“What the hell did you just do?!” Grace said.

Mark looked back at everyone. Both Grace and Daphne were staring at him. While Donny still looked like he was locked in a trance.

“Um, I... ”

He looked back over his shoulder and then back to them.

“My bad, I was just messing around with Mana. I didn't mean to shock you.”

Both women just stared at him but in the dark, it was hard to make out their facial expressions.

“You detected it already?” Grace asked. Mark could hear the shock in her voice.

“Yeah, cus I found a trick you can do to shorten the time it takes,” Mark said with faux smugness.

“What! Really? Could you show us?.” Daphne asked.

“Sure!” Mark freely explained what he did by searching for the energy at the same time as increasing the stat.

This method helped one to locate and lock down the feeling, the beauty of it was if they missed it they could just keep putting points into the stat until they found it.

He also created a post online explaining the method. He saw no reason not to share this knowledge. If it could be used to help someone then he hoped they made use of it.

Both Daphne and Grace sunk into what Mark was now calling their meditation poses and it once more became quiet on the boat.

Mark Pulled up his Boxes to see the changes

Spell acquired: Force bolt - Rank 1.

The user creates a small bolt of compressed force that can be launched in any direction, flight can be altered by the user depending on the user’s mental acuity.

Multiple bolts can be created simultaneously at a ratio of 5 Mana /1 bolt. The speed and strength of this spell are based on the Mana attribute and metal processing speed.

Current simultaneous creation limit: 2

Spell cost: 1 Mana

Name: Mark Young (22 - M)

Level: 2

Next level: 3/4

Stats:

Resistance Aura Mana Prana

10 0 10(+1) 43(+1)

Unspent stat points - 3

Corruption value: 0.04%

Spells:

Passive Regeneration(Self)[1], Force bolt[1].

‘Okay, so where to put the last points?’ Mark wondered. His prana was really high at the moment, so it was between Mana and Resistance. Just for fun, he tried putting a point into Aura. The attribute wouldn't even allow him to spend the point, it just never responded to his inputs.

If he thought back to the stats he had when this whole thing first went down. He started with at least something in every attribute excluding Aura. So it stood to reason that everyone was the same, of course, these numbers would vary widely due to people's natural disposition.

However, he had to assume that everyone started with some Aura. Meaning that everyone would have at least some strength and physical defenses from it. This left Mark feeling a little squishy, literally. Anyone with a high enough Aura score could just bump into him and smear him across the sidewalk.

His Choice was made, he dropped all his remaining points into Resistance. It was subtle but he had been watching for it this time. When he confirmed the points in Resistance, he felt a minor change in his body frame. He felt firmer, and denser, his mind and senses felt sharper and more resilient. Even his stamina started to grow and return faster.

This attribute was definitely important to Mark, while it was not as fancy as the other three. This stat improved his defenses and senses all round. Even if it was expensive to see any big change, it was literally his only defense against the physical.

There was movement on the boat, Mark opened his eyes to see Donny standing up. He was staring down at his hands in wonder. His eyes were practically glowing a red-gold color in the darkness.

He looked up and saw Mark appraising him.

“Ah, sorry dude, did I disturb you?” He looked sheepish.

“Nah all good man I was done anyway” Mark reassured him. “So did you figure it out?”

A full grin broke out on Donny's face.

“Yeah, and it’s amazing, as long as I have Aura I can do some pretty amazing things. The least of which is being able to continue to fight as long as I have something left in the tank. Not to mention how tough my body feels right now, I just feel like more, you know?”

Mark did, probably not in exactly the same way, but gaining stats was an addictive feeling. You were becoming more than you ever were before. Who wouldn't want that?

There was a crackling sound to Mark’s right. He turned his head in time to see fine tendrils of electricity arcing off Grace and collecting in her hand.

She opened her eyes and smirked.

“Got it” she hissed.

At the same time, Mark spotted Daphne. She hadn't gotten up yet but he could see that same red-gold glow fading from her eyes.

“Right so we all got our power-ups, Please tell me it's almost time for food,” Mark said. As if summoned, his stomach growled out into the night.