Black Onyx - Forgotten Magic

Gerald had no problems detecting Mana around him. It was similar to how a gentle warm wind would caress his body. It felt comfortable and invigorating.

During the meditation, Gerald started feeling a bit itchy. He felt like there were ants crawling on and under his skin. That's why he stopped the meditation and opened his eyes. What he saw really surprised him.

The skin on his hands had a light luster and it also appeared like he could see the veins under his skin more clearly. As if his skin became more transparent. But while he was observing this peculiar phenomenon, it slowly faded away.

His skin became normal again and the itchiness also disappeared. It left him with many unanswered questions that just made him confused.

Without any leads as to what happened, he decided to try again. This time, he paid special attention to what was happening to his body.

Once again, around five minutes later the itchiness returned and so did his lightly glowing skin. Gerald once again opened his eyes and observed his body. it appeared like his whole being was encased in a weak light membrane. It was a few millimeters thick and it appeared completely harmless.

Not long after, the weak light faded again. That gave Gerald an idea, "I wonder what would happen if I meditated for much longer? Would this effect also increase in length?" he wondered.

On his third try at meditation, he decided to ignore the itchiness and push through it. Unfortunately for Gerald, the feeling didn't go away or became weaker, in fact, I became much stronger the longer he went on with it.

After around an hour, he was just preparing to stop because of the uncomfortable feeling, when suddenly relief washed over him. It was an extreme sort of satisfaction that you get after scratching an annoying itch you had for weeks. His body and mind both felt completely refreshed.

Looking at his body once again, Gerald noticed that the weak glow actually originated from inside his body. It came from his veins to be exact. Paying closer attention to himself, he noticed that there were strands of light flowing through his blood. His skin became almost transparent and he could see the muscles and veins under it.

He was shining from the inside.

At the same time, looking around the room, he noticed it also had a similar glow. The strands of light slowly floated towards him and entered his body. At the same time, a few tiny dots of light left his blood vessels and exited through his skin.

It was fascinating to look at. Gerald especially noticed that this exchange was especially comfortable. He felt like this when he was recovering his energy in this world. Suddenly it hit him, "Hey, wait a minute! Is this Mana? Can I actually see Mana now?!"

Immediately he tried to gather Mana on his palm like when casting a magic spell.

His hypothesis proved to be correct, as the tiny strands of light started to flow and gather towards his palm. They bunched up and squirmed right under his skin, ready to burst out at a moment's notice.

Under the intent observation, Gerald ignited a small flame on his palm. The strands of light appeared to have found an exit in the light membrane that surrounded his body and quickly flew out. As soon as they left the light membrane, they produced the flame Gerald desired.

Curiously enough, they didn't burn up or transform into fire. They just produced the flame and then slowly floated away. They did appear much slower and dimmer though.

For his next test, Gerald took control over a piece of stone. As it left his hand, Gerald noticed a peculiar thing. The light membrane that covered his body stretched from his hand all the way to the stone and it was slowly feeding it strands of light.

Gerald opened the window and sent the stone out as far as he could. The membrane became thinner and thinner the further away it went. At one point it was the width of a human hair, that's where it stopped. Gerald felt that if he was going to push the stone just a centimeter further, he will lose the connection with it.

From his estimations, the limit was around twenty meters.

Next, he tried to extend the membrane and pick up stones from afar. It happened just as he imagined. A tentacle-like light extended from his body and wrapped around a pebble on the ground.

"Hmm, interesting, very interesting." Gerald mulled over his discoveries. His face was beaming with excitement.

Over the course of the next few hours, Gerald performed a plethora of experiments and tests, just to see what was possible.

To his surprise, he discovered that this ability to see Mana could be turned on and off. The meditation and itchiness seemed to be just a preparation process to allow him to be able to do this. Another thing he found out brought him much happiness. It was the ability to restore his Mana much faster.

During meditation, he could have better control over the light barrier that surrounded his body. He could decide to let many strands of light enter his body, but then keep them there and not let them leak out as they wished.

This increased his Mana recovery by five times. Now, combined with the Greater Mana Potion, he could restore his full Mana in just three minutes, if he meditated. That was a huge increase and it would allow Gerald to use magic almost constantly.

Even if he didn't meditate, his natural Mana recovery went up by a factor of two. Now he could passively restore his Mana in just five hours. That was almost five times faster than average people.

Still, the Greater Mana potions took some time to make and it's not like he could drink them like water. There were a few warnings about that in the books. There was something called Potion Sickness that some potions would induce.

Every potion had a different amount that could be safely consumed, without any harsh side effects. The Potion Sickness would manifest itself in different ways, depending on the potion.

For research purposes, Gerald closed himself in his room for the next few days. He only went out to take care of his bodily needs and nothing else. Sera even came looking for him, but Luna told her that he asked not to be disturbed.

There was another good effect of meditation Gerald noticed and that's why he isolated himself from the outside. With meditation came better control and understanding over Mana. He also already managed to cast the Unmoving Boulder on the first day.

Because of the many changes it received during its creation, it was very different from the original. The Stone Body it was based on, strengthening the whole body, while the Unmoving Boulder just focused on the first centimeter of skin and flesh under the surface.

Gerald figured that had something to do with the low capacity for Mana in humans, and they couldn't support the consumption of the whole body.

The spell already consumed 1 LIS every minute. If it strengthened the whole body it would likely consume ten times as much or even more. Even Elves could only sustain that spell for about ten minutes.

The other good effect of meditation was something Gerald was most happy about. Slowly but surely, after every meditation session, the speed of Mana's recovery increased. 'The big double at the beginning was probably just the beginning boost' he figured.

Now, the increase was much slower. He figured that he would need another week to lower his passive recovery time down to four hours.

The progress was slow, but it was way better than nothing. Now he had hope of being able to refill his Mana with just a few breaths. Mana was everywhere; in the air, in plants, in meat, in the dirt, and in water. No matter what he did, he would absorb some Mana. Now, the question was, how much of that could he keep inside his body and how much would escape and leak back out.

He was slowly getting better at keeping more Mana inside. The progress was sluggish and it also took a lot of time to practice.

After a few days, Gerald noticed that the progress slowed down a lot. Also, there was no increase in progress if he trained for more than an hour at once. It was like he reached the maximum amount of progress he could achieve at once. Meditating more just made him tired.