I closed my eyes, dredging up the memory of the original "Adrian" attempting to meditate.
It was a primitive, pathetic process. The fool had tried to forcefully 'drag' ambient mana from the air using sheer, unrefined willpower—like trying to fill a shredded waterskin with a high-pressure firehose. His mind had been a chaotic mess, torn between an obsessive thirst for power and a crippling fear of failure. That mental static had caused the mana to violently ricochet inside his pathways like jagged shards of glass.
"Random meditation. No structural integrity. Zero calculation of pressure flow," I murmured bitterly, a cold sneer twisting my pale lips. "No wonder you destroyed yourself."
I initiated my first attempt. Carefully, I extended my consciousness to isolate the 10 units of stagnant mana lingering in my core. The moment my mind brushed against the magical energy, it felt as though a geyser of molten lava had erupted straight up my spine.
[Warning: Mana pressure exceeds the threshold of ruptured pathways!]
[Status: Severe Neurological Agony - Probability of Collapse: 78%]
I clenched my jaw so hard I tasted copper. The pain was completely illogical. It felt as if thousands of magnetized needles were simultaneously impaling every cell in my body. Cold sweat instantly washed over my pallid face, and my vision violently vibrated behind my closed eyelids.
"Calm," I ordered myself, forcefully isolating the agonizing sensation as secondary, irrelevant data. "Pain is merely a misfiring electrical signal. Focus on the flow. Focus on the 5%."
The mana writhed, attempting to rebel and breach the newly unlocked pathways. It was a torrential flood, desperate to annihilate the dam. The sensation of an imminent rupture seized my chest, and a warm trickle of blood slid from my nose, staining my crisp white shirt. In that split second, my consciousness teetered on the brink of explosion, my survival instincts screaming at me to abort the process.
"I do not stop," I exhaled, my voice unnervingly tranquil amidst the internal hurricane. "If this body is a broken equation, I will simply reduce the pain and factor it into a constant."
I began to apply 'Mental Engineering.'
Instead of violently dragging the mana, I commanded it to rotate in microscopic, calculated loops, strictly confining it within the 5% of unlocked pathways and completely bypassing the scorched, ruined channels. I imposed a rigid mathematical rhythm to distribute the strain: P = F/A (Pressure equals Force divided by Area).
By purposefully constricting the 'Area,' I maximized the flow efficiency without detonating the fragile conduits.
And suddenly, everything went still.
My mind transitioned from the deafening roar of agony into a state of absolute, profound silence. The opulent room faded. The frail, trembling vessel of Adrian Faulkner faded. Nothing remained except my consciousness and the 5% network of pathways, now glowing with a faint, flawlessly rhythmic purple luminescence.
I had entered the Deep Flow State.
[Ding! Pathways successfully stabilized.]
[Introductory Quest: Complete.]
I opened my eyes just as the first sliver of dawn bled through the window. A strange coolness coursed through my veins. It wasn't the chill of lethargy; it was the cold, efficient hum of a stabilized system.
[Ding! Distributing Reward...]
[Skill Activated: Analytical Vision]
I blinked, looking around the room. Instantly, the world shifted.
The room was no longer merely composed of wood, stone, and fabric. My vision overlay the physical world with hyper-precise geometric lines. I could see the structural density of the wooden desk, the exact angles of light refraction piercing the glass, and the subtle, swirling kinetic vectors of the morning draft.
When I looked down at my own hand, I could see the ten strands of mana rotating within my stabilized pathways, flowing with breathtaking mathematical precision.
[Current Data Interface]
Name: Adrian Faulkner
Title: The Trash Professor
Level/Rank: No Magic Circles (Pathways stabilized at 5%)
Mana: 10 / 10 (Stable)
Skills: [Analytical Vision]
"Now then..." I swiped the dried trail of blood from my upper lip, staring coldly into the mirror. "My garbage vessel... is slightly less garbage."