"Why did this meditation session feel much better than the first one?" Zane thought to himself. "Is it because I'm more experienced?" That explanation made sense, but he suddenly remembered one of the effects of his title: Hobgoblin Killer. It granted him a 10% increase in meditation.
Zane swiftly glanced at his left hand, and with a thought, the title and its effect appeared. "The part about breathing disappeared," he noticed. The title used to describe a 10% increase in meditation or breathing methods. "Could it be that breathing method is how [Knights] train their extraordinary powers? And now that I'm a mage, the title changed to fit my reality?"
This realization led him to understand that titles were more dynamic than he had anticipated. No wonder their director described it as a form of causality reflecting on the soul. Although Zane couldn't truly understand what that meant, he could deduce much based on the limited information at hand. And regardless of the truth, the soul crest will become an instrumental tool for all the transcendent individuals of Earth.
Zane woke up early to head for his morning meditation, followed by a morning run. Indoor exercise is fine and all, but there is nothing more calming than an early morning run. While everything appeared the same, the world has subtly changed, so keeping certain routines might not be a bad thing. However, as soon as Zane headed out the door, he instantly realized how he was no longer the same person he was a few days ago.
As someone who is conventionally attractive, he is used to being stared at by women and men and even being approached to ask for his number. However, today, he could "feel" every stare. Yes, feel. It's like he had a detector in the back of his head that allows him to sense when people are looking at him too intently. The worst part is it wasn't just the stare.
He sensed the cameras when he was in their line of sight; he sensed people's smartphones when they were secretly pointed at him. The sensation was so intense that he had to stop his run, rush to the nearest store, and use their bathroom. And only then did he stop feeling overwhelmed.
"Is this because of my mental energy?" Zane asked himself. Suddenly, he remembered how that Hobgoblin Priest was able to sense his observation despite using a phone to watch her from dozens of meters away. Now, he possessed the same ability. But that wasn't necessarily a good thing.
"This acute awareness is a good way to avoid danger, but if I don't deal with the sensory overload, I'll have to restrain myself from going to public places from now on," Zane thought. He could foresee how mages would easily become a bunch of shut-ins who don't really like to deal with crowds and maybe even people. That would be fine if he were already an introvert, but he was not.
"There must be a way to overcome this feeling," Zane encouraged himself. He exhaled deeply before exiting the store. Running was out of the question, and running in a public place with a lot of people would be considered the nightmare difficulty, which is something to be challenged at a later day.
After calculating a new route, Zane started walking slowly. In the process, he focused his mind to ignore the less intense glare, slowly training his brain to do so passively; the plan is to continue in this state until he can do the same for the most potent stares. By the end of the morning walk, the results were quite satisfying. A normal run in a less populated area was more than possible. Of course, he also understood this was not something that could be achieved in one day; there is still plenty of time before the next shift.
"Kid, where have you been?" Juan asked. If not for the text he sent a few days ago, the old man would have thought he had died.
"A distant cousin of mine died, and I was dealing with it," Zane said with a sigh.
"My condolences."
"How about you? Any friends or family members who suddenly died?"
"Thanks the Lord, no," Juan shook his head.
"That's good," Zane nodded. For the next few minutes until opening, the two talked about the state of the world. Julio came in late and joined the conversation. Unlike Zane and Juan, who were wary of the sudden changes in the world, Julio was excited. He did not hide his desire to join the Dimension Tower, become a mage, and shoot a fireball with his hand.
Zane — who had inside information on the subject — did not rain on Julio's parade. How hard was it to be a mage? Not only did he need to be lucky to be selected, but he would also need to survive the first trial and have the talent for magic. And even if he were chosen, was it a good thing? All signs indicate that the "chosen ones" were the soldiers selected to fight against the invasion of the Demon Lord. Their future will be one full of blood, death, and danger, with a small percentage of survival.
Today, four customers showed up at the auto shop, and Zane handled two of them. At this rate, he was confident he could make rent; otherwise, he would have no choice but to borrow some money. For the remainder of the day, he worked on the 1969 Cutlass Supreme and had lunch with his sister. He returned home, read (including the meditation book), then ended the day with the second meditation session, thus increasing his mana reserve.
Zane assumed he would keep such a schedule until the second dimension shift that his director mentioned at the beginning of August, but a week after learning the Gremorian language, and four days after starting meditation, the Dimension Tower finally contacted him again.
As Zane sat at his kitchen table, eating the last of the food his mother had brought him, he felt a sudden pulse on his left hand. As he glanced at it, a sudden urge to inject mana into his soul crest tugged at his mind. He followed his instinct, and a hologram screen appeared on his screen.
[Congratulations, Earthling Zane Kwame Skylar, for becoming an Apprentice. According to the Dimension Tower's training plan, we will provide you with two free spells: the 0-ring defensive Arcane Spell, Mana Shield, and a 0-ring attack spell of your choice.]
A few seconds passed before Zane regained his bearings; by now, he shouldn't be shocked by the tower's capability, but everything in the magical world still amazes him. The current state of Earth's holographic technology can only be described as fancy and expensive light shows. However, the thing before him could be called a true hologram.
His finger passed through the screen, revealing it was not interactive—or so he thought at first. It took a moment before realizing he could use his mind to interact with it, moving to the page with all the available spells.
0-ring Flame Spells: Little Fireball, Flame Wall, Flame Arrow.
0-ring Water Spells: Water Ball, Water Whip, Water Arrow.
0-ring Earth Spells: Earth Spike, Rock Projectile, Rock Hand.
0-ring Wind Spell: Wind Slash, Wind Blow, Hundred Cut
0 ring Lightning Spells: Electrocute, Lightning Discharge, Thunder Sound
Zane sifted through all the spells in every field: from elemental magic to life and death (necromancy) to mind, illusion, light, and darkness, and even subcategories such as plants, poisons, and shadows. Everything was included. Zane was somewhat influenced by Julio, so his first choice was the Fireball. However, after clicking on it, the following description made him pause:
[Little Fireball: Condensing a fireball no larger than a basketball]
[Average Casting Time: 8-10 seconds]
[Power: 0.8 Kosa.]
[Mana Cost: High.]
Zane was confused about what a kosa was; luckily, the thing came with a description. The Kosa System was a method developed by the Archmage Kosa Lyson. Based on a spell's magical field (elemental, light, necromancy) and its category (attack, defensive, restraining, wide area effect), the weakest apprentice spell will be designated as 0.1, and the most powerful and potent as 0.9. The same can apply to all levels of spell, including legendary 9-ring spells.
"I can imagine the amount of data and calculations required to create the database of this system," Zane first thought. Kosa Lyson would have needed to gather the data on hundreds, maybe thousands of spells in different fields and categories, before setting a minimum standard. From there, a new system would be built using that standard as the foundation.
With this new understanding, Zane started looking at the list from a different perspective. While the Little Fireball Spell was powerful, the fact that it took so long and the list warned that an apprentice might only be able to cast it once or twice times before running out of mana, he chose something else.
[0-ring Arcane Spell: Magic Bullet]
[Average Casting Time: 5-7 seconds]
[Power: 0.6 Kosa]
[Mana Coast: Low]
After selecting his spell, a light flew from the hologram into Zane's forehead, revealing information on how to cast the spell, along with two magical circle diagrams. The information also indicated that these two circles will remain imprinted in his mind for the next three days, but afterward, they will disappear. In other words, he still needed to memorize them himself.