02. Mana and Absorption Technique

it has been a week and cripple no.1 passed his day quietly in peace tried his best to stays unnoticed, he would awake at morning, scrounging till afternoon just before sunset and gave all of his earnings towards the burly man Master Q,

sometimes it wasn't him that collects beggars earning, it would be another underling thugs, cripple no.1 keenly aware what he could do and what he couldn't, he didn't gave anyone a chance to snitch on him,

he witnessed just in this week, there were already 2 victims got snitched just because they bought some bread with their own earning due to hunger and some immature b*stard beggars snitched on them, the result? one of them became another cripple and the other one had it much worst, and the snitchs? as cripple no.1 already expected, he got some bullsh*it commendation and nothing more, yet the b*stard still retaining his foolish smile without knowing that in fact he got nothing in return from his action.

cripple knew it wasn't fair but he stood still as he witnessed, helpless to watch of their situation. what could he do? the original subject no.1452 wasn't saint or hero that would help anyone on sight, at least not right now with his current condition, so he would just gave everything he earns to his master right away avoiding some annoying problem.

surprisingly, his buddy pocket no.6 even with her slightly mischievous nature has a great talent for pick pocketting, sometimes she would share some of her earnings to him in secret, afterall his condition with wound ridden, eye missing, and crippled right leg gave him some hardship while roaming the street, it wasn't much but enough for both of them.

also he affirmed that the real cripple no.1 already knew the truth about the blonde girl gender in disguise from the beginning 2 years ago, all this was deduced from his finding from the tone and the way both of them interacted in the past week, yet the silly blonde girl didn't notice anything. still, he continued to care for her in natural way as to honor his predecessor.

***

as usual this morning he and pocket no.6 went away with their usual routine, in the middle of the way, pocket no.6 waved her hand and left him in cheerful manner looking for an unfortunate target, as for himself he went to the opposite way, this had already become his daily routine.

he already left his first usual spot, venturing to another area to get more information enriching his current understanding toward the city and the people itself.

it wasn't easy, often times people would chased him away, got beaten by some thugs or came accross other beggars, as always it would turn into a conflict of territory, and as usual he would get beaten up due to his condition, yet he still persisted to this day.

had it not for the serum effect and breathing in motes of light around, his wretched body would succumb long time ago.

at night after another exhausting day he stays on his tiny corner in dilapidated barn where the beggar childs stays, he hold broken clay bowl with wooden spoon, there was some sort of gruel in it, he and the other beggar childs usually get the gruel after presenting their earning to the thugs, if anyone failed to get their quota in a day, they wouldn't get anything to eat or even worse, got abused.

"brother cripple i got lucky this day...", said pocket no.6 beaming with her usual smile sitting beside him holding another bowl of gruel.

"really? tell me...", replied cripple no.1 while continued to eat.

pocket no.6 start to narrate all of her discovery and experiences to her buddy while eating, they always share their days experience at night.

"listen, i got new information, next week the lord will hold criminal execution on western square and the lord himself will attend! lets go watch it..." pocket no.6 filled with strange anticipation.

speechless with her, he glanced slightly, "execution?"

nodding forcefully she whispered, "un, un, that's right, listen brother isn't this our chance?"

raising his eyebrow, cripple no.1 replied in hushed voice, "chance for escaping you mean?"

her emerald eyes look like it was shinning at the moment, she smiled while nodding.

"you want to meet the lord directly and ask for help?"

again she nod, her smile getting wider and wider. "as expected from brother cripple, you're smart." she gave him a thumbs up

sighing helplessly while looking at her innocent face, he begins to knock some sense to her.

"brother, you should know that the place we're at now wasn't some random criminal den..." breathing slowly while eating he continued, "listen, this place seems simple yet it wasn't, remember what i said before? Master Q isn't our boss but there's another person above him?"

"un un...so? who is it brother?" asked pocket 6, curiousity shown all across her thin face.

with a sigh, cripple continued on, "i don't know but one thing for sure, one or more of this criminals are magician...i'm more or less 90% sure it's the big boss himself." he said while glancing slightly toward his left hand, sometimes ago he felt an odd mana fluctuation on his left hand, not only his but from the other child beggars as well, he had his conjecture regarding this, perhaps the mana oddity he felt was some sort of marking magic casted on him and the others, some sort of tracking magic, he thought it was no wonder no one was able ran away from here.

"per...sens? what's persens means brother? and how much is 90 persens? is it more then 100 coppers? also big boss? isn't Master Q our boss?" tilting her head innocently she look quite confused hearing those terms.

speechless of her reply he tried to clarified, "my silly friend, percent is...",

he stopped right there then, "anyway...Master Q isn't the big boss, at most he was only small boss, he's just an underling that managed us here, the big boss is someone that stood on top of those thugs." while pointing to his top,

he realized it would be meaningless to teach what percentage is to this silly girl right now hence he changed the topic.

with wide eye, pocket 6 stares at him full of disbelief and astonishment, "brother, you mean there is much more powerfull people than Master Q?"

nod*, "there always is, you must know that there's always sky above the sky...." lectured cripple to his buddy. "...you mustn't be a frog in bottom of the well in this world, if you want to survive."

"there's always sky above sky....and frog at the bottom of the well..." mumbled pocket no.6 seems full of contemplation.

"anyway, just dont do anything stupid...." warned cripple flicked her forehead.

"ah! that's hurt, so you got plan brother?" questioned pocket no.6 while rubbing her forehead.

cripple took silent for a while then he stare straight to her emerald eyes as he said seriously, "not for now, but don't worry the opportune moment won't be long."

pouting her small lips, pocket no.6 hurriedly emptied her bowl, then quickly laid on her usual spot getting ready to sleep.

"hmpf...when is opportune moment then? we'll just rot in this place for all i care...." she grumbled in low voice while closing her eyes, but not for long her breathing comes even.

after a while cripple no.1 also finished his meal, making sure that no one was awake then he starts to focused on his surrounding, soon after he saw the motes of light all around, he proceed to absorb those through mouth breathing, in this past week he invented a special way of breathing so he could get those motes of light as much as possible, it was all thanks to human anatomy knowledge and martial arts from his past life for him to succeed.

'...whenever i finished this set of absorption, all my fatigue would gone, now i don't even need that much of sleep either, unlike before. how weird, and this feeling's quite magical...', he thought, quickly he cleared his mind as much as he could, cripple no.1 found out that with a clear mind those motes of light he had absorbs would have better effect on his body in turn made his body condition better and stronger on each passing day.

'...come to think of it, if i could absorb these "mana" i should be able to use it right? but how?..', for a while he start to analyze his finding, then with firm mentality, he says, '...lets find out then...'

in actuality cripple no.1 still has not 100% sure that these motes of light floating around was the so called 'mana', but he thought then, why don't he probe further? he doesn't actualy need that much sleep at night anyway due to the motes of light effect, so now was his better chance to find out about it, after all night time was his time.

next he put his right hand palm on his chest front, then with an outstanding amount of focus he open it slowly as if he was undergoing some sort of rite, he does so because he need to try meticulously probing and feels his body in attempt to find any clues of these so called 'mana' existence, and whether he could get any sensation of 'mana' movement inside his body, then while pointing his palm upside down he slowly opened his bony fingers one by one.

for a while he tries to grasp anything that resembled mana sensation from inside his body, yet still it was all for naught.

'...what to do?...' he thought for a while,

then he starts to looking for some answer from his immense knowledge, but what he got was almost nothing, it couldn't be helped as earth didn't had had magic, it was such fantasy figment through and through, still he didn't gave up, he focused more until the frown on his face becomes heavier and heavier.

then suddenly, '...wait...i think, there was some sort of saying that said, 'one don't feel it by brain, but feel it by heart'... or something along those lines?...', he stopped what he was doing and sigh full mouth of breath taking some rest while gathering his thought once more.

'...by heart huh? then how? i always think using my logic inside my brain, thinking by heart? how can i do that now? analyze, logic, idea, plan, fact...it was all i always do...now i need to think with my heart? isn't it ridiculous? how's that possible?...',

once again cripple fell inside his own mind, filled with thinking and tinkering, just like how people play some puzzle, he tried to assemble his thought so he could get to the bottom of things.

he slowly laid back on his own gunny sack on the floor, raising his hand as if he wanted to grasped for something up front, something tangible yet intangible.

in his reverie he thought, '...brain and heart, heart huh? if it is heart its called cardiovascular it has atrium and ventricle, then brain...brain huh? brain.....',

all of sudden he startled and forcefully sat straight, his sudden movement even waking up his buddy beside him silly pocket no.6 from her sleep.

with a grunt she asked clearly annoyed, "brother cripple what's wrong? yawn....."

aware of it, cripple no.1 tries to soothe his buddy back to sleep. "it's nothing, go on go back sleep..."

"hmpf...bad brother..." she snuffled and getting back to sleep.

calming down, just now cripple no.1 finally got an epiphany, he commenced his own thought once again.

'....that's right! brain has its left and right side, all of my thinking came from my left side in charge of analyzing, logic, planning and fact, then what does the right side do? it's in charge of intuiton, art, creativity, feeling and.....',

his breathing getting louder and louder, realization dawned upon him, the looks of enlightenment could be seen across his gaunt face, his remained left eye was full of wisdom and sometimes it looks like it was flickering.

while immersed with this wonderful sensation, once again he open his palm upside down and within it there was wallnut size ethereal ball exuding sublime azure glow on top of his palm!!! it grew larger and brighter as cripple no.1 feeding it with his accumulated mana stored inside his body,

'....and....'

'....imagination, hahahahaa i succeed!!!...',

finished with his thought he focused on what he had done currently, his gaunt face was colored with glee and joy as if a boy found a new toy to play, he made the ball bigger and brighter sometimes he would reduce the mana input on it making it smaller and dimmer, next he made the ball bigger yet dimmer and vice versa.

at this moment he finaly could feels that the mana which he absorbed all the time actualy went to some sort of bottle like vessel inside his body, also from his perspective the vessel feels like an ethereal organ, it was there yet at the same time it wasn't, just like how human could perceived the heart existence within the body from its beat, it was such a strange feeling.

that's right, as of now cripple no.1 starts to use his right brain ability, he uses his own 'creativity' and 'imagination' for him to proceed, and his endless thought was finally gained its reward. a huge reward.

from the vessel he could also feel that it sends the accumulation of mana to various channels circling his body which he didn't know it existed before. just like how a reservoir sends the water to various irigation channels to moisturize the crops, he finally ascertain on how his body had been nourished whenever he absorbs mana.

if any other magician witnessed him at this moment, they would probably dying with envy, after all it was universal knowledge that in this world, in order for an individual awaken as magician they need to be able 'sense' mana in its surrounding and absorbs it, and no matter how talented individuals are, they couldn't do it much less seen it just like cripple no.1 had, it was as if you need to sense specific gas molecule like oxygen or hydrogen contained in the air around you and absorbs it to your body, it was simply impossible unless with external aid.

as of why cripple no.1 could breathe in those motes of light yet the other people couldn't? no one knows, and he doesn't really care about it, perhaps he would unfold everything in the future and we'll be there as witness for him. for now cripple no.1 was immersed within his own world.

while engrossed in this wonderful feeling, all of sudden cripple no.1 stopped, he sensed something, he lay down pretending to sleep immediately as sounds of hurried footsteps approaching could be heard just from outside of the barn door.

Bam!!!

the sound of door forcefully opened coupled with heavy grunt could be heard from the door direction, there stood the burly Master Q with ugly countenance, his savage vision swept around dilapidated barn, squinting hard tries to find anything unusual.

his hoarse voice could be heard from there, "rat b*stard! if among of you try anything funny in this god d*amn place, then don't blame me for showing no f*cking mercy!!!" then with a swung he closed the barn door violently after found nothing unusual inside.

cripple no.1 whilst pretending to sleep could still heard what happened outside.

"you b*stard, did you drink too much? haa!!!"

thud! thud!

"...b, but Master Q, i, i...swear, there was realy something glowing inside just now..." hurtful moan of Master Q underling got beaten up from behind the door didn't escape cripple no.1 ears.

soon consecutive slapping sounds follows.

"huh!! b..b..but but? your head!!? break his d*amned dog legs for waking up me tonight, want to be funny with me ey? son of b*tch! ptooey..!"

after a while tranquility returned, cripple no.1 sat back while heaving sigh of relief.

'...dangerous, i lost focus, this won't do! next time i ought to be more careful! this mana ball was brighter then i expected, well, lets just tone down the practice....' he thought, he begins once more tried controlling his mana, this time it wasn't his palm but rather his finger, only one finger, but it didn't go as planned.

'...uh, it's hard to control, perhaps because it's tiny and i need to be more acurate? if using palm was like pouring water from bowl to a bottle using funnel, then using finger feels like the funnel itself was removed. the bar has been raised much higher, well, anyway lets continue....'

although it feels much harder than controlling with palm, with slight frown cripple no.1 still persist and soon steadily he could barely able to control it.

accompanied by the boisterous sounds of pleasures coming out from the brothel besides the barn, this exercise routine continues every night after him and pocket no.6 day to day routine was over, when everyone fell asleep he started his night mana training, at first he could only managed to do it by one finger and soon, after quite a length of practice he could control the mana with each of his fingers,

soon 6 days has passed in a blink of an eye, to date he only managed to do it by five fingers, but he believed that soon he would be able to do it on all of his fingers including his legs or any other body parts.

tomorrow he would gone with his buddy to the execution ground in the outer ring west square.

~~~