The next days were spent exploring the cave, preparing my new bedding, and continuing my exercises in sensing and manipulating mana.

  The cave turned out to be quite large and connected to three smaller chambers, all filled with strange, luminescent plant life. In the chamber I discovered and creatively named number two, a river once again disappeared into the rocks, which unfortunately meant that I could be trapped here. I can't say I was thrilled with that possibility, but I decided not to lose hope. And this time, I was rewarded when, in the last chamber, I saw massive steel gates covered with strange symbols carved into their surface.

  There was no way I could move them in my current state. I tried. The only solution was mana, or more precisely, the ability to gather and manipulate it. I deeply believed that, with it, I would be able to at least budge those gates. Another question was what awaited me on the other side, but I had no choice since it was clearly the only known exit from these underground caves.

  So, with a clear goal ahead, I returned to my new bedding, which I can only describe as an absolute makeshift arrangement. It was a bed made of moss and leaves I gathered from nearby vines, with a "leaf table" beside it, and a meditation mat made of—you guessed it—leaves from the same vines. And while it wasn’t luxurious, it was more than sufficient for my purposes.

  After a short walk and another confirmation that no danger was lurking nearby, I decided to eat before my next training session. The fruits of the surrounding vines turned out to be juicy and surprisingly nourishing, though it might have been due to the significant amount of mana they absorbed. I have to admit, I was cautious at first because you never know if such a fruit might be poisoned, but despite my reasonable caution, they turned out to be an excellent food source for me.

  The same went for the mushrooms.

  Though here, I was much more skeptical because you’d have to be pretty desperate to start eating raw, glowing mushrooms. However, after a few cautious attempts, I discovered they were not only edible but didn’t taste half bad. While they were far from the taste of the vine fruits, they were still an additional and much larger food source.

  So, content with having enough food and water, I focused on sensing and manipulating mana.

  And right from the start, I felt a difference. Previously, sensing mana had been incredibly difficult; it was a fleeting feeling requiring intense focus to briefly touch the flow of power that hid beneath the surface of reality. Or at least, that's how I felt it. Now, I not only felt it all around me, but I also had to be careful not to focus too much, as there was a risk that its presence might overwhelm my senses and extinguish my consciousness. It was such a foreign and simultaneously terrifying sensation that it could only be compared to waking up in the depths of the ocean's abyss and being squeezed by an unrelenting, massive, all-encompassing pressure of water.

  So, I practiced eagerly but cautiously, convinced that the limitations of my current body prevented me from focusing deeply or for extended periods, at least not in these conditions.

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  Nevertheless, after a few sessions, I instinctively started not only to sense mana around me but also to perceive its movements. It was a strange feeling that simultaneously filled me with childlike joy. It felt like discovering a sense I had never used before and, for the first time, perceiving the unknown world around me.

  I also began to slowly increase the intensity of my exercises, and while I couldn't meditate too deeply, I started walking, trying to maintain an awareness of the mana and its movements around me.

  I won’t say it was easy, and at first, even the smallest, fleeting sensations of mana shifting during my movement made me giggle like a schoolgirl. But there was no one here to cast accusatory glances at me, and I genuinely felt awe at the progress I was making.

  Thus, when I finally stabilized my ability to always sense mana and its movements around me, I began body training. I wasn’t planning to focus solely on magic; I also wanted to improve my physical abilities. My days were filled with endurance and strength training, reaction exercises, and sparring with an imaginary opponent, all while trying to maintain as much awareness of my surroundings and mana as possible.

  It was incredibly exhausting for both my body and mind, and by the end of each session, I collapsed, feeling my lungs burning, muscle aching, iron taste of blood in my mouth, and a heavy pressure in my head.

  Suffice it to say, I wasn’t planning to do anything halfway. That’s why I threw myself into the grueling training, torturing both my body and mind, making full use of the opportunity that fate had given me.

  During my training, I also gained a better understanding of how my [Alerted] skill and [Instinctive Fighter] trait worked. My skill, as the name suggested, enhanced my awareness and environmental perception. The change wasn’t drastic, but it was noticeable, especially since it seemed to help with my mana sensing exercises as well. I was curious whether it was my surroundings influencing this or if my perception and understanding were affecting my abilities, or perhaps both answers were correct, or maybe neither.

  Hmm.

  The trait, on the other hand, didn’t pose such difficulties. During combat training, I noticed significantly better ergonomics in my movements, sharper strikes, and easier combination of attacks. In other words, [Instinctive Fighter] did exactly what I expected: it passively improved my combat prowess.

  Simple and easy.

  Pleased with my progress, I finally decided to try manipulating mana. The beginning was tough. No matter what, I couldn’t make it move according to my will. So, I decided to cheat a little and used the natural flow of mana to gently, if only for a moment, change the direction of the smallest of the streams I could perceive. It was incredibly tedious and exhausting, and I had to set aside dedicated time for it, as there was no way I could focus on anything else at the same time. Not to mention that after finishing these exercises, I was utterly drained.

  But eventually, after I don’t know how many days, I managed to move one of the smallest streams, or at least that's what it seemed like to me. And I admit, for a moment, I wondered if I really had done it or if my exhausted mind was distorting reality.

  The uncertainty didn’t last long, as soon after, I repeated the achievement with another stream of mana. Slowly, step by step, with iron will, I moved the mana streams. Simple exercises eventually turned into more demanding changes in direction, and ultimately, I even managed to detach a tiny mana stream and, for a brief moment, manipulate it freely.

  I was almost drunk with happiness, having finally overcome this monumental step and, if only for a heartbeat, gained real control over the mana surrounding me, or at least a minuscule part of it.

  In any case, it was time for experiments.

  Long and painful experiments.