Panic raised his heartbeat and fear coiled deep in his stomach. Silas's hands were shaking.
'I can't lose focus. It has been 15 minutes. I need to focus. Focus, Silas. Focus.'
He could control the mist from leaving his body. He tried every method he could think of. He tried to think of mana as an extension of his body,but it didn't work.
Silas closed his eyes and tried to visualize the mist. He felt a stream of energy leaving him.
The energy was leaving from various points around his body. He frowned.
'I can't control my heartbeat but I can try to slow it down.' He slowly willed himself to slow the rate of energy flowing out.
After a while, the energy did indeed get slow. But it was still leaving.
'Now that the first step is over, I need to direct the rate of flow somewhere.' Silas realized from the previous attempt that the flow of energy was never going to stop.
'Contain. Dylan said to contain.'
He let the leaving energy fly inside his body, trying to cover his body in mist.
It worked. Though, there was still some energy leaving. Nevertheless, it worked. That meant his theory of directing the energy back to his body was correct.
'The path I create for energy circulation is a bit rough. I need to visualize it like a flowing river.'
Silas adapted to his mistakes and continued to refine. He noted down the leakage he was feeling and stopped it in the next second.
He forgot everything around him and solely poured every ounce of attention onto the task as if his life depended on it. Because it depended on his life.
Under life and death, Silas's choice was obviously life. For that choice, he would try the best he can. More than the best.
Unknowingly, he sat on the floor to continue to refine the circulation.
After fixing all the mistakes, he continued to watch for any leakage in his circulation. He wanted to make sure that nothing passed under his eyes.
Checking three times, Silas opened his eyes and nodded to himself.
He looked up to check the surroundings, only to find Dylan and Daken staring at him. The rest of the mages were gone.
Dylan gave Silas a proud nod. "You did really well for your first contact with Mana. It seems that you even managed to completely contain your mana."
Dylan turned to Daken and said, "Well, that speeds up your teaching."
"Indeed. I was planning on focusing on the mana circulation for three days before learning the basics." Daken answered truthfully.
Silas got up from the floor, "How long was I in meditation?"
"About 5 hours." Daken said.
"Was it that long?" Silas said in surprise.
Dylan turned around and gave Daken an order. "Train him for a week. Now, I will be attending the House's meeting."
Daken gave Dylan a bow. Silas followed Daken's gesture.
After seeing Dylan leave, Silas let out a breath he was holding. He then took a look at his hand.
The hand was completely normal. But he poured more energy into the circulation in his eyes. This resulted in him seeing faint mist surrounding his hand. The mist was barely visible to others but under his eyes, it was clear.
Silas turned off the circulation in his eyes and looked at Daken.
"So you are my teacher."
"I am not worthy of such a grand title."
Silas frowned.
"But the truth can't be twisted. Indeed,I will be teaching you a few basics regarding mana and its application."
Silas nodded. "Okay, let's get started."
Daken shook his head, "We will start the lesson in the morning. You need to rest for now. You are now rather weak in turn of energy inside you. Make sense since you lost quite a considerable amount of mana during the first hour."
"But since we are working on a little time frame, I will give you homework." Daken said, smiling like a big fool.
He raised his hand and opened his palm. "The homework is simple. Use the mana around you to create a ball of something. It can be made of fire, ice, wind or something entirely different."
Silas took a look at his palm and tried to do the homework he got. Ever since his awakening, his eyes picked up mana around him. It was like being surrounded by a fog.
He frowned. "It is harder than I thought."
Daken chuckled and left the room. Silas patted himself and also walked out of the room.
He didn't want to experiment with Mana here.
After laying down on his bed, Silas raised his hand and tried to interact with the mana around him. He tried to grab the mana with his hand but it vanished.
The process was frustrating. It was like running while holding water on your palm. It would just leak through the gaps.
Silas attempted that many times. When he heard a knock from the door, he stood up. Immediately, the world spun around him. He couldn't open his eyes and vomited.
He clenched his head, trying to ease the headache he was feeling.
The maids noticed the anomaly in Silas and quickly came inside. They led him to a nearby room and lay there. The maids also fed him.
They were like an overbearing mom. After resting for an hour, Silas's headache was gone. He suspected that the headache was directly linked to the amount of mana he used.
Even while he was resting, Silas continued to observe the mana around him. He also studied his own energy.
He watched the energy transform into the mist like the mana around him as soon as it left his body.
'So something is forcing the mana to act that way.'
Silas looked at the young maid about 20 standing beside the door. Her face was beautiful and yet devoid of emotion, like a lifeless doll.
He raised his hand and gathered his energy.
"Hey, do you see something on my hand?" He asked the young maid.
The young maid turned to him and glanced at his hand. She shook her head. "I don't see anything, Sir."
"I see. Come here." He asked the maid. But it was more like an order for her. Which she couldn't disobey.
"Extend your hand. Tell me if I am hurting you."
The young maid nodded.
Silas looked at her hand and grabbed it.
'So soft and smooth.' He commented inwardly.
Silas released a wave of energy to her hand. Even though the distance between his hand and hers were so close, it turned into a mist.
"What do you feel?" Silas asked.
"I feel like my hand is submerged in warm water." The young maid gave an answer.
"You can return to your position." Silas said and continued experimenting with his energy.
'If only Daken demonstrated the entire process. I can use his demonstration as a blueprint.'
Silas was obsessed with his energy. Even if the mana he envisioned turned out to be quite boring. He knew there was something powerful underneath.
He just needed to peel off the layer.
'If I can't manipulate the surrounding mana, I will just trick it.' Silas gave a thought.
His idea was to scatter his mana into the air and merge.
Silas closed his eyes and let out a wave of controlled energy from his body. Under his mind's eyes, he watched as the energy instantly turned into the mist.
Even if the energy turned into the mist, he still had control over them. But it was weaker than the energy inside. Nevertheless, it meant he could control the mist.
An idea struck his brain.
Silas immediately stood up. The young maid was alerted and quickly went to come near his side.
Silas stopped her. "Leave. I am working on something."
The young maid bowed and opened the door to leave. "I will be outside waiting for your command,Sir."
She gently closed the door.
Silas stood up from the bed. This time there was no headache.
'They must have added something to the food. Every bite is filled with energy.' Silas shook his head.
He then checked how much energy he had inside. It was not full. And he didn't think it was meant to be full.
'Looks like I have quite a good amount of energy to practice my idea.'
Silas raised both of his arms in the air and circulated the energy to the maximum.
After building up the energy, he slowly released to the air. As always, it turned to the mist but due to the sheer amount of energy he released, he could somewhat control them.
He let his mist float around him. Then he recalled them to his arms. The scattered mist slowly transformed into energy.
He immediately felt the weight on his arms.
Silas opened his eyes and was surprised to see a large ball of energy he was holding. He then absorbed the energy back to his own body.
Then he noticed something. He was right. His idea was right.
Inside the ball of energy he was holding, there was mana he couldn't control before. He didn't attempt to absorb that mana.
Because it was foreign substance. He didn't know what happened when he tried absorbing it. He lacked the information regarding mana.
And his current goal was just to gather a ball of mana. He didn't know how to turn this mana into fire or air. So he just gathered a pure mana.
The idea was simple. Released the mist he created. Controlled that mist to gather or connect mana in the air. Then drew that gathered mana to his body.
Absorbed the mist he released back to his body, while avoiding the natural mana.
The ball of mana he gathered turned into a mist.
Nevertheless, Silas was proud of himself. Now, he just needed to speed up the process.
To do that, his energy manipulation needed to be fast and precise. Silas sat down in a comfortable position.
He closed his eyes and manipulated the energy inside him.