Chapter 32 – Mana Manipulation

I chuckled to myself, celebrating my success. I finally had the mana sense skill. This was what I had been striving for the entire time. I knew it had to be possible! It took me 22 days of straight meditation to acquire the skill. I had only slept a handful of hours during that time. A person without Fast Learning would easily take 5 times that amount of time. That was 110 days of limiting a person's mana in cuffs and practicing mana movement in the body while keeping all their senses running and barely sleeping. I didn't think I could even last that long in such an exercise.

I did not want to announce anything to my friends until I determined the use of my new skill. I activated my mana sense and immediately felt mana channels running through my body. Just as I had pictured, the flow of mana was like blood vessels running along to every extremity of my body. The flow was instantaneously fast. When I called upon the hiking skill, I watched as mana surged to my feet in a near instant. My mana sense allowed me to see where the mana was flowing. I tried to shift and move the mana with my mind, but nothing seemed to react. I tried forming a ball of mana. I couldn't move or change it. My mana sense slowly started to level up. Hiking was now at level 8 and Analyze Vision was at level 9. These three weeks, I actively leveled up my stats. Fast Mental Processing was also at level 9 since I never stopped using it. It was a few hours of mana sense at work when I received another few messages.

Skill Level Increase: Improved Perception Lv. 6

Level Up! You are now Level 9!

You have acquired a new Vision Master perk – acquired skill: Mana Manipulation Vision Lv. 1

Strength increased by 2!

Constitution increased by 2!

Mental increased by 2!

Dexterity increased by 2!

Intelligence increased by 2!

Wisdom increased by 2!

All my skill improvements and mana focus had given me enough experience to level up! Clearly, this new Vision Master perk was giving me exactly what I needed. Mana manipulation! Immediately, I activated the skill. Now with mana sense, I could feel the mana and move it as I pleased. Even though I could only accumulate 5 mana at a time, I funneled the mana behind my eyes. Mana Manipulation Vision needed only 1 mana to activate. The remaining 4 mana were kept in a ball behind my eyes. I repeated the process, as my mana core would fill up with 5 mana, 4 more were moved into the ball. Again and again, I repeated the process. At the point that I had over 30 mana collected, I tried using my Barrier Vision. This was a mana intensive skill, so I focused on a small barrier to isolate the mana crystal in my cuffs. The small barrier flickered in and out of existence. I hadn't given the skill enough mana! I restarted the process, filling my eyes with mana. Once I had over 50 mana, I tried the skill again. The crystal shattered and my mana was free. I then considered my options. I needed to free myself and my friends. Using my different sensing skills, I could feel them trying to resist the mana cuffs. I was glad that none of them had slave collars like last time. After spending many months in forced servitude, they would likely have some trauma from that experience. Nevertheless, captivity was still hard on them. Midnight seemed to be suffering from malnutrition. He could now sense that he hadn't been eating the bread he was given. He was sitting cross-legged, focusing his senses to the extreme. He was improving his skills quite a bit. Now that my Analyze Vision had leveled up, I wanted to look at my friend's skill list and try to help him in practical ways.

Using Flame Vision, I melted off my bindings. I had to wait a few minutes to recover my mana before proceeding. I considered melting the door but decided against it. That would just announce my escape to the guards. I piled some old burlap that was on the floor into a roll and even plucked a few hairs and left them sticking out of the sack. This would make it look like I was sleeping in the burlap. I used Teleport Vision and appeared in the hallway. I teleported again into Midnight's cell.

"Midnight, I can now get us out of here." I released Midnight's bonds in the same way that I released mine. I teleported us both to the hallway and handed him a plate of cooked bird meat and pasta that was stored in my Storage Vision.

"Eat up and get your strength back. I will release the others." Midnight silently nodded at me.

It had only been a few minutes but all 5 of us were now free. I had joined the others in eating some better food. I had no doubt about our ability to escape. I just wanted to make sure we wouldn't pass out halfway in our escape. We needed to determine what was going on in the royal palace before getting out of here. I collected everyone's plates and then led our group towards the only door to the dungeon. It was at that moment that I sensed a presence behind us. Further down the hall at the very end of all the cells I could feel one other person there. I decided to speak with the last prisoner before leaving.

"Who are you and why are you here?"

There was a long pause. A lean young woman raised her head. It was then that I could see the pointed ears. She was an elf. She seemed quite weak from her stay in the cell. She also had the same mana cuffs and bindings on her.

"My father sent me here to assist the new hero." The woman paused a moment or two to collect her voice. "I arrived just over three weeks ago. When I spoke with one of the city guards of my goal, they bound me and put me in this dungeon. It appears that there is some kind of political upheaval going on in the Dwarven Kingdom."

I nodded at the girl's comments. To me, it felt like she was telling the truth. I teleported into the cell and released the girl's bonds. I teleported her into the hallway with the others. Seeing her weak demeanor, I handed her a simple sandwich that was wrapped in paper.

"We can't stand around anymore, but I think you should eat something."

I then led our group towards the door again. The young elven woman bowed in appreciation.

"My name is Rhea. The elven nation thanks you for your kindness."

I nodded my head and introduced the group quickly.

"Airey, and here is Midnight, Lilly, Pepper, and Poppy. We were all victims of the royal attack as well. We suspect the crown prince as the cause of this event."

"I heard that the crown prince was very upright. I'm not certain he would have turned on a nation he would later take a hold of."

This was also the question that had been circling my mind. Perhaps it wasn't the crown prince, but then why was he always frowning at me? He also seemed to give an exceptional amount of attention on his younger sister, Danika. I was lost in this convoluted plot and needed more info. The door to the dungeon was locked. Again, I decided that it would be best to teleport everyone beyond the door rather than damaging it. I started with just Midnight and myself. We appeared and found a single guard sitting in front of the entrance. Midnight slugged him across the head before the guard could even open his mouth. What scary reflexes! We collected the keys from the guard's pocket and unlocked the door. The rest of the group followed. We walked up a long set of stairs. I was trying to picture the guards carrying us all the way down…that must have been an exhausting task. Then I saw what looked like a type of hand-pulled elevator. Perhaps that is how they lower food and water into the dungeon. This may have been the guard's way of transporting us down.

The stairs spiraled up along the wall of the dungeon. Railings ensured safety from the pit in the center of the walkway. It took over 25 minutes before we reached the top of the stairs. It was then that I sensed the presence of two guards. One was carrying food. They were opening the door just as we approached. Using Teleport Vision again, I appeared behind them both and knocked them out. I caught the spilled bread and water cups with a barrier and placed them gently next to the guards' limp bodies. No point in making a mess, right? Also, I wasn't sure who was innocent in this whole charade. It was likely that these guards were just doing their jobs. As we approached the open door, the group cheered to finally feel sunlight on their skin. It was so nice to be out of the dungeon!