Mental Training

With the help of his new sister, Shingi had finally finished his bizarre lunch. Shingi was not used to being fed by anyone and would not happen again if he had anything to say about it. Even as a baby, his parents never treated him like that. It had also surprised him how good the food tasted. It wasn't the best food he ever had, but the game had limits on how the food could taste. Most had almost no flavor, and only high quality, expensive ones had any at all. But now, he was savoring something that was close to what it should taste like in real life, even though it wasn't one of the expensive, high-quality foods.

After finishing the meal, he was brought back to his bed; this time, his sister was the one who helped him get there.

Annoue effortlessly 'princess carried' him, which was yet another awkward moment for the day. His body was small and had little weight, but it was still an impressive feat for a girl her age.

After he was back in his bed, Annoue sat down in the chair in front of the desk and started brushing her hair as she looked into the mirror he had noticed before.

Even though he wasn't alone as he hoped, Shingi started formulating a plan. First, however, he had to see what the current situation with his new body was first.

He couldn't do any physical training, for now, so his only option was a mental one. Shingi went down the road of magic this time, which would require his mental power.

Of course, a Magic User's weapon was their spells, and to use spells, they had to fulfill some requirements.

First of all, you have to use the correct components. Spells have three types of components, and a spell can have any combination of those types.

The first component is chanting. Depending on the spell's Grade, the chant could be longer, so it would take more time, but there were ways of getting around that. Casting the spell didn't always need Chant or Arcane words, but they helped the spell reach its full potential.

The second component is body movements. Most of the time, it was just making certain gestures with your hands. And just like with chanting, the higher grade spells have more complicated motions. But sometimes, there were shortcuts for those as well.

The third component needed for some spells was materials which would turn into energy that the spell required to power itself.

No matter the spell, it always needed mana. Mana, referred to as the Mage's stamina, because if one depleted it all, it was the same as losing all of their stamina. They would be tired enough that moving would be hard or even impossible and being in an incapacitated-like condition.

So the first thing he needed to do is to create his Mana Pool. But to do that, he needed to increase his INT stat. Even the worst magic practitioner had at least 12 INT, and as far as he understood, it was one of the requirements to unlock his Mana Pool.

Even if he had passed that amount of INT in the past, he had never tried to unlock it. It would have been impossible anyway since he was a Warrior back then. Even though he hadn't experienced himself opening a Mana Pool, he has heard about it from other NPCs.

Players don't need to unlock their Mana Pool since they start with it by choosing to play as a Mage. So the system takes care of it and gives them a basic one to start with. But for the NPCs, that wasn't the case. There are NPC and some Player in-game organizations, where players and NPCs are recruited and sometimes trained depending on their potential. Most NPCs that aren't ordinary people are usually part of one such organization or player's guild.

As far as Shingi remembered, depending on their potential as an NPC, the time needed to unlock their Mana Pool varied. An NPC with normal potential one required a month, one with great potential two weeks, and the rare ones unlocked it in a matter of hours.

Even though he couldn't see his own potential, he had more knowledge of it than any beginner. Shingi was part of the team that created the game, even if he was just a tester. He spent days discussing this kind of information with the game NPCs to understand the mechanics from both sides. So, in his eyes, they should consider him at least one with great potential.

He started focusing his mind on that information and tried to picture the NPC magic practitioner, with whom he discussed this kind of thing, explaining everything to him.

A ball of mist appeared and began taking on the shape of a face in the middle of the room, hovering in the air. Shingi seemed to be the only one who could see the mist, as there was no reaction from Annoue. The room wasn't so big that she wouldn't notice a ball of mist forming in the middle of it. When the mist finished taking on the rough form of a head, two notification windows appeared in front of Shingi.

================================

SKILL LEARNED

The skill VISUALIZATION has been learned at Low Rank.

================================

================================

INT increased by 1

================================

'Okay, I didn't think this would be that easy. I knew that VISUALIZATION was one of the easiest and most basic of skills, but this was fast. The extra INT point reward is a pleasant surprise.' [Shingi]

Since his new skill had a Rank Low, that meant his system worked the same as any NPC. If it worked the same as a player, a number would represent his Rank as it would be more of a skill level than a Rank.

Shingi knew that there were ways to raise his stats. He was aware of some of them, but he didn't think he would fulfill one so soon. And certainly not for INT, a stat he had the least amount of knowledge of how to increase, other than the new stat, which he was unfamiliar with.

Nevertheless, this kind of surprise was more than welcome since he needed his INT to increase either way.

So after closing the notification windows, he went back to focusing on his VISUALIZATION floating head. Since this was only a visual illusion, he couldn't make the head talk to say the information he needed, or most specifically, he couldn't yet. His VISUALIZATION was of Low Rank, so that it would only be a visual display for now. Still, as long as he increased its Rank and proficiency, he could change it to make multiple objects simultaneously. Also, he could eventually make sounds and be able to make others see and hear his VISUALIZATION. But that would require him to supply mana to the Illusion, which he currently couldn't do. The current VISUALIZATION was close to what would be considered a spell. However, it didn't need any mana as it was more like an illusion created by his imagination than an actual spell-created Illusion.

'Okay, it will take some time to increase the Rank of VISUALIZATION to what I need, so I might as well start grinding it.' [Shingi]

Shingi focused once more on the head as it started expanding, and the rest of the body formed little by little. Over the next half hour or so, it took on the form of a humanoid creature and, more specifically, that of an Elf.

Although the general shape was enough to understand what it was, there were many details for the clothes and body that were far from what it should look like. He expected it to be the case because of his Low Rank and proficiency with VISUALIZATION.

As he finished shaping the mist, he took a short break from that and focused on making the Elf land on the floor and walk around the room.

At first, its movements were much like that of a broken robot. Sometimes he wasn't even moving it forward or just hovering it a little in the air. Still, as time passed, its movements became more lifelike. Shingi also began making some corrections on its general appearance. He continued practicing for the next few hours until it was dinner time. Then, once more, he was at the table to eat with his sister's help, who, much to his dismay, had to feed him again.

This time, it was only the two of them at the table. Their father was nowhere to be seen. Although he was curious about where he was, Shingi didn't ask, as he wanted to end this awkward meal and go back to focusing on his training. Even while eating, he gave mental commands to his VISUALIZATION Elf. Unfortunately, his sister was distracting him, so he couldn't focus entirely on his training during their meal.

Even though he couldn't raise the Rank of his VISUALIZATION, he received some notifications from the system.

================================

Restored 1 STR

================================

================================

Restored 1 AGI

================================

================================

Restored 1 END

================================

He could feel his stats changing slowly even when he was taking breaks, but it was at such a slow rate that the system hadn't registered them as full points until now. But there were two stats of his that he wasn't feeling any change for, and that was, of course, his currently highest stat, INT, and the unknown stat CHA.

He had played many years with the VR headsets and later in the capsule. His senses were fine-tuned to notice the slightest change of his avatar, which was great for finding possible bugs. Because of that, the subtle changes in his stats were clear as day to him.

After the system gave him those points, he could feel those three stats continually increasing, but now at a slightly slower rate. He didn't let this discourage him since he couldn't do anything about it right now. Shingi continued his VISUALIZATION training as he was brought back to his bed. When he was ready to take another break to clear his mind, he got another increase to his INT, bringing him to 12 INT. He now had enough INT to do what he needed.

It surprised him when he got 1 point on INT by learning VISUALIZATION. Getting one for training it was also unexpected.

'Could it be because of my low stats? Maybe the requirements to increase them are really low?' [Shingi]

He knew that any training methods weren't able to be used more than once and required the stat you trained on to be in a specific range.

For example, lifting stones or small boulders would increase the STR of someone with low STR, but for someone who had high STR, it would be a waste of time. In addition, some methods have other requirements which are exclusive to specific classes and useless to anyone else. Because of that, there were restrictions to max all stats, but there were also ways to push past it. However, not everyone had the resources, time, or even talent to surpass that.

Even Shingi, with all his knowledge of the game, couldn't max all of his stats, but he never tried to do so as he would have to take some unnecessary risks.

He pushed all of that to the back of his mind as he had now reached one of his goals to finish the first step of increasing his power.

Now that he had 12 INT, he had fulfilled the minimum requirement to unlock his Mana Pool.

Of course, that was easier said than done. His Mana Pool wasn't something that he needed to unlock. Instead, he needed to create it.

There were different types of mana, depending on their source. He could use specific types of mana on some spells only or, more specifically, certain Elements of mana.

In creating a Mana Pool, he would be able to store mana and begin to produce it.

Even if one could typically have only one Mana Pool, that didn't mean that he couldn't change the one he started with. However, once changed, changing it again would be even more challenging. Moreover, it was dangerous to change one's Mana Pool, as it could lead to death, which was one of the lighter punishments for failure.

One of the worst punishments for failing to change a Mana Pool that Shingi was aware of opened a portal for a High-Level Demon Lord. This has led to the destruction of villages and towns. But, of course, that was a rare occurrence. It only occurred to that one player he knew of because he tried to get a Blood Mana pool using Dragon blood. This action, if successful, would lead to creating the highest Mana Pool. Still, not even high Grand Masters Arcane users NPCs would consider themselves capable of controlling a Mana Pool like that.

Naturally, in his current state, Shingi didn't have access to anything that crazy. He wouldn't even consider trying something like that, as he was vaguely aware of his limits. So while thinking of the possible mana sources he could have access to, Shingi heard a voice.

"Look, little bro. It is a full moon today!" [Annoue]

As he turned his head toward his sister, who had opened the only window in the room, he could see the moon in the sky. It shone clear and bright in its full glory.

At that moment, a smile appeared on his face as he continued watching the night sky.

'Oh lady luck, you haven't forgotten me.' [Shingi]