Hehe, hey system, I think I get a rough idea of what's goin' on... hehehe.
Ali's mental voice was a mix of giddy triumph and furious self-recrimination. The pieces, obvious in hindsight, were clicking into a terrifying, logical picture.
So my guess is: the normal world works like a normal fantasy world. People use magic, become adventurers, guilds, nobles, royals. The Kaelen family chose not to, got isolated, built up superstitions and fear around it. So magic is probably everyday out there. Which means we cannot take Kaelen's knowledge as common!
The System processed this, adjusting its societal model.
[Social Model Updated: Blackridge is a cultural outlier, not the baseline. Magical prevalence in settled areas is likely significantly higher than observed here. Assumption of non-magical threats in future encounters is statistically dangerous.]
EXACTLY! If I go to a town and get into shit with thugs, thinking they can't use magic, and then—BAM—some motherfucker throws a fireball and burns my dick off? I only have one of those, System!
A pause. Then, the epiphany hit him like a lightning bolt made of pure, stupid clarity.
OH MY FUCK! SYSTEM! GOD, HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SUCH A DUMBASS! FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!!!
He nearly shouted it aloud in the quiet yard, barely clamping down.
System! You said my core was dry! A dry riverbed! Remember our sessions? We tried to sense something in it and got nil! WHY?
He didn't wait for an answer, the theory tumbling out.
BECAUSE WE DON'T FUCKING GENERATE MANA FROM INSIDE US! WE GATHER IT FROM OUR SURROUNDINGS! That's what makes sense! Usually, if your mana is fully depleted, you die, right? I think? But some random motherfucker yanked me from my bedroom, from a world with NO ambient mana. I never had any to begin with. So when whatever 'awakening' happened to give me the potential, it gave me the core, the empty vessel. But since I've been here, I've never tried to draw any in. The core isn't asleep because it's broken. It's asleep because it's EMPTY! It's never been filled!
His mind raced, completing the circuit.
I think if I draw mana in, the core might activate. And once it's active, I think it'll maintain the supply autonomically, just to keep me alive. Because that's what every other living thing here must do, peasant or royal. Breathing mana is as natural as breathing air. The difference in talent is what you can do with it after you breathe it in. But the baseline process—the intake—has to be unconscious, automatic, and universal.
[USER HYPOTHESIS: LOGICAL. PARADIGM-SHIFTING.]
[Re-evaluating all prior metaphysical scans...]
Error Found: Previous scans focused on detecting active or stagnant energy within the biological matrix. The assumption was a closed system. The new model suggests an open system with continuous environmental exchange.
Re-analysis of Lyra's Condition: The 'knot' is not a generator of energy. It is a dam in the pathway of this environmental exchange. Her body tries to draw in mana, it hits the blockage, pools stagnantly, and causes systemic failure. Her core is likely active but starved downstream, causing the 'cold' and fatigue.
Re-analysis of User's State: The 'dormant riverbed' is not a dry river. It is a closed canal lock. The gates are shut. No flow in or out. The mechanism to open the gates is likely a conscious or traumatic first intake of external mana.
Implication: You are not mana-deficient. You are mana-isolated. You have been surviving on pure biology in a world where biology is intrinsically mana-augmented. This explains your extreme weakness, poor recovery, and skill acquisition speed. You are operating with a critical subsystem disabled.
The validation was exhilarating and terrifying. He had been trying to find a spark in a sealed room, not realizing he needed to open a window.
So... how do I open the gates? he thought, the excitement cooling into practical dread. If it's supposed to be unconscious, but mine never started... how do I jumpstart it? And is it safe? What if opening the gate floods the canal and blows out my 'lock'? What if the mana here is... different, and my alien body rejects it?
[Proposed Experiment: Controlled Environmental Mana Intake.]
Method: Attempt to consciously mimic the hypothesized autonomic process. Meditate, focus on the concept of 'drawing in' or 'breathing' the ambient energy of the world. Use my biofeedback to monitor for any physiological change, resonance, or stress.
Safety Protocols:
Minimal Exposure: Attempt for no more than 30 seconds initially.
Full System Monitoring: Cardiac, neural, and cellular integrity will be prioritized. Any sign of rejection or overload will trigger an immediate abort.
Location: Isolated, within the steading walls (minimal ambient mana fluctuation compared to deep forest, potentially safer).
Risks: Unknown. Possible outcomes include: successful activation, no effect, psychic feedback, allergic reaction, cellular degradation, or attraction of unwanted attention from mana-sensitive entities.
Conclusion: The user's theory is the most coherent model developed. Testing it is the next logical step in understanding your place in this world's physics. The risk is high, but the risk of remaining a mana-blind cripple in a mana-suffused world is arguably higher.
Ali looked around the yard. It was empty. Kaelen and Bryn were checking the west tree-line. Elara was inside. Lyra rested by the hearth. The grey sky promised a quiet afternoon.
It was as safe a time as any to try the most dangerous thing he'd ever done.
He retreated to the wood-shed, not to hide, but because its dank, earthy smell felt like the opposite of what he was trying to do—connect to the energy of life. He sat on the straw, closed his eyes, and tried to quiet the frantic hammering of his heart.
Okay, he told himself. Don't try to make anything. Don't look inside. Look... outside. Feel the air. Not the air. The... stuff in the air. The breath of the world.
He inhaled slowly, imagining not just oxygen filling his lungs, but a faint, shimmering something being pulled in with it. He imagined it flowing down, not to his lungs, but to the center of his being, to that hollow, locked space the System had mapped.
Nothing.
He tried again. He thought of sunlight on leaves, of the slow, deep power in the earth, of the distant call of a bird. He tried to want that energy, to invite it in.
[Monitoring... No change in bio-energy matrix. Ambient mana field detection: inconclusive. Sensory apparatus insufficient.]
Frustration bubbled up. Was he wrong? Was the gate not just closed, but welded shut?
Then, a different thought. Not an invitation. A need.
He thought of Lyra's hand, cold as stone. He thought of the knot, a pool of her own life choking her. He thought of his own helplessness. The sheer, desperate need to not be powerless.
I need it, he thought, the desire a sharp, painful point in his mind. Not for power. To help. Give me the key. LET ME IN.
He didn't just imagine breathing. He reached.
A jolt went through him. Not pain. A vibration. A deep, sub-audible hum that seemed to come from his bones and the earth simultaneously.
In the darkness behind his eyelids, a pinprick of light appeared in the void of his core. Not a spark. A stain. A faint, greyish smear of light, seeping in as if through a cracked seal.
[ALERT!]
[Metaphysical Activity Detected!]
[User's Core Matrix is registering exogenous energy ingress!]
[Quantity: Negligible (0.0001% of estimated capacity).]
[Quality: Stable. No immediate host rejection.]
[Physiological Response: Adrenaline spike. Minor neural synaptic flare. No damage.]
[The Gateway is breached. Repeat: The Gateway is breached.]
Ali gasped, his eyes flying open. The world looked the same—the rough wood of the shed, the dust motes in the dim light. But it felt different. Not richer, but... present. As if a sound he'd been deaf to had just become a faint, constant pressure in his ears. A new sense, vague and unformed, was flickering to life.
He looked at his own hand. It was just his hand, callused and dirty. But for the first time, he could almost... feel the space around it. Not air temperature. The fullness of the space.
He had done it. He had taken the first, terrifying breath of a new atmosphere. He was no longer a sealed unit. He was connected.
And somewhere deep inside, the first, infinitesimal trickle of the world's breath began to pool in the empty lock, waiting to see if it would become a river, or a poison.