Not long passed until every one was finished eating and were satisfied.
Windy, Grayzer, and Rose put their hands together, "Thanks for the meal!"
Atlas followed what they did and they gave him a brief smile. Rose began to collect the dishes and put them in a large bucket filled with water while Windy and Grayzer stood up. Atlas got up when he saw they were standing up too.
"What happens now?" Atlas asked walking behind them as they walked in the direction to their respected rooms.
"I'm going to freshen up." Windy answered standing at the door to her room and Atlas nods his head in understanding turning to Grayzer who was at his room door.
"I was going to do the same but I'll meditate until she's finished." Grayzer said walking in and Atlas followed behind him.
"You stressed out or something?" Atlas asked sitting down and crossing his legs in front of Grayzer who did the same action to Atlas's first.
"No, why?" Grayzer responded and Atlas just shrugged
"You said you were going to meditate. In my world people tend to do that when they're stressed or overwhelmed."
"Strange, but understandable. Meditation is more than just a stress relief though."
"Hmmm, I see," Atlas said humming out his understanding.
"Well showing is easier than trying to explain. I guess you can watch what I do, but the key take away is to clear your mind and steady your breath." Grayzer said as he closed his eyes placing the back of his right hand on top of the palm of his left hand as his thumbs touched.
Grayzer relaxed to clear his head and took a deep breath in making sure to activate his diaphragm muscle and exhaled his breath. Each repetition Grayzer did put him into a deeper trance until a green aura started to form around his body.
Atlas watched with void vision in amazement as the green mana particles in the air started to gravitate towards Grayzer. Some of the wind mana was inhaled through Grayzer's nose and traveled down his body to his naval area and created a clockwise rotating vortex that enlarged slightly before shrinking down to the size of a golf ball when he exhaled.
The veins in his arms and body started to become more prominent. Each cycle of breathing didn't just cause the wind mana to stay centered around his navel but spread out throughout his body. It was an interesting sight to behold.
'Is all this happening because of meditation?'
Atlas wondered as he continued watching Grayzer.
[Yes.] Cel began answering Atlas's question.
[This technique is known as Mana Breathing. It allows an individual to absorb the surrounding mana of their elemental affinity. However, this individual, Grayzer, is using another technique known as Mana Control.
Mana control allows the user to control the mana in their body or part of their body so that an individual doesn't waste too much mana. Using these two techniques together can assist in absorbing the surrounding Mana into the Mana core and is slightly faster than just Mana Breathing.]
'This world just keeps getting better and better!'
Atlas thought to himself as a smile develops on his face. A familiar ding sounded and an interface pops in front of him, surprised that he was still able to see the interface with void vision. The only difference is that the colors were inverted.
When Atlas saw what was on his screen the smile on his face grew.
[ Quest: The Path of Mana Breathing
Description: Embark on the journey to master the technique of Mana Breathing, it allows you to draw mana from the environment, enhancing your mental capabilities and mana core.
Objective: Learn the Mana Breathing technique of any element
Difficulty: Medium
Parts Completed: 0/3
Rewards upon completion:
Intelligence: +2
Wisdom: +2
Will Power: +3
Focus: +3
⬜️ Part 1: Basic Techniques ➖
Objective: Learn and practice the basic techniques of mana breathing.
Steps:
1. Breathing Exercises: Focus on rhythmic breathing to align with the flow of mana.
2. Concentration drills: Practice concentrating on a single point to enhance focus.
3. Basic Mana Draw: Start drawing small amounts of mana from the environment.
Additional Info: Doing these steps daily for at least 30 minutes will result in a 1% increase as well as the rewards below daily.
Scenario: If you were to do a 2.5 hour Mana Breathing session then that would equal to about 5% increase in progression and 5x of rewards (5 points in Focus and Will Power).
Rewards:
Focus: +1
Will Power: +1
⬜️ Part 2: Intermediate Techniques ➕
⬜️ Part 3: Advanced Mastery ➕]
Atlas exhaled a breath after reading the 'Basic Techniques' section, and started to try and proceed with step 1. Assuming a similar posture as Grayzer, Atlas watched the breathing rate of Grayzer's rhythmic breathing and matched it. Taking in slow deep breaths and exhaling them.
Each breath he took relaxed him and his body started to feel warm. However, unlike Grayzer, the mana particles didn't gravitate towards him. But that didn't discourage him as he felt like he got step one down and decided to focus on step two.
The area he wanted to focus on was the rhythm of his heart pumping blood throughout his body. But then Atlas felt something to a second heartbeat originating from his navel area. He was able to perceive it as a sphere the size of a golf ball.
It wasn't rocket science for Atlas to know that it was his mana core, so he decided to focus on that pulsating feeling as he meditated.
The third step was 'Mana draw,' and the first element he would try and absorb from the environment was the fire element. It was a no brainer for him, since he was surrounded by the fire element. It was also a homage to his given last name to start off with this element.
But Atlas still didn't know how to absorb the element in the environment. Fortunately, it didn't seem like he had to worry about that. For the trance state allowed him to hone in on only the orange colored mana particles floating around him. Each time he inhaled the orange glowing orbs got closer.
15 minutes had passed until the orange orbs surrounded his body. All it took was one more inhale before an unknown blissful feeling filled him up with warmth as the orange orbs entered his body through his nose. Time seemed to slow as his body was invigorated with each breath.
The fire element mana particles spread within his body turning it hotter. Sweat started to pile up on his skin as it turned a reddish color due to how hot his body was getting. It was to the point that steam started flowing from Atlas's body.
Another 15 minutes passed before Atlas was taken out of his meditation when he felt a hand tap his shoulder. He was so in a trance that he didn't realize Grayzer getting up and tapping him on the shoulder. Even with void vision active.
Atlas looked slightly up towards Grayzer, "What's up?"
"It's been 30 minutes already. Windy is all done." Grayzer said nodding his head towards his room door where Windy was standing with arms crossed and back to the door frame.
"30 minutes? It only felt like 5." Atlas said with disbelief turning to look at Windy behind him at the door.
"Yup, times goes by slower with meditation." Grayzer nods crossing his arms. "Come on, let's go."
"Go where?" Atlas asked watching Grayzer walk towards Windy.
Grayzer turned back to face Atlas with an eyebrow raised. "To shower, you don't expect to go out in sweaty clothes do you?"
"Oh, true." Atlas said getting up from his sitting position.
"But it's kind of fascinating. You look and sound like a girl. If that incident didn't happen with Mom and Windy I wouldn't believe you were a guy."
"Incident?" Atlas wondered tilting his head
"Pfft, it was hilarious. Mom was changing you in Windy's room thinking you were a girl, and Windy ran out screaming because she saw your dic—," Grayzer didn't get a chance to finish his sentence as Windy's fist connected with his face.
A red faced Windy looked at Atlas who turned away and scratched his cheek pretending as if he didn't hear the embarrassing incident.
Windy walks away with a 'hmph' while Grayzer twitched on the floor a bit before getting up and rubbing his cheek. Meanwhile, all Atlas could think about with a twitching eyebrow was.
'They saw it!'
"Well that hurt." Grayzer said under his breath as he picked out a red top and black pants martial robe. Once he had his clothes he walked to the bathroom with an embarrassed Atlas right behind him.
By the bathroom door was a set of clothes, the top was gray while pants were black. There was even a black cloth like belt.
"That's probably clothes for you to wear picked out by Windy." Grayzer said and Atlas nodding his head picking it up.
They both headed inside, by the wall was a tub already filled with water with steam emitting from it. To their left were two buckets with faucets with mini stools to be sat on.
Grayzer undressed first with a slight red face not paying attention to Atlas.
Grayzer turned on the faucet and filled both buckets. He took one bucket and poured it over his head. Doing this two more times he grabbed a bar of soap and started washing his body. Once he was done he filled a bucket to wash away the soap and then got in the warm water tub.
Atlas got undressed as Grayzer sat in the tub. He grabbed the bucket that was filled with water already and poured it on himself.
Splash!
Cold!!!
Atlas shivered as the water touched his head and skin but continued filling the bucket up and pouring it over himself three more times. He grabbed the bar which he was pretty sure was soap. To the touch it felt a bit slimy and smelled of animal fat and ash. He quickly washed his body and rinsed off with the cold water before hopping in the warm water next to Grayzer sighing in relief of the warm water.
'Now that's the life!'
After soaking in the water for a bit Grayzer and Atlas got out.
Atlas shook his dreads about and made sure to squeeze out the excess water as he and Grayzer wiped off as much water as possible. To dry themselves off Grayzer called up warm wind that swirled around them to dry them before they put on their clothes.
"That's refreshing!" Atlas voiced aloud as he walked with Grayzer meeting up with Windy and Rose in the kitchen area.
Atlas raised an eyebrow as he saw all three of them staring at him.
"What is it?" He asked
"Did you not clean yourself?" Windy wondered looking Atlas up and down.
"Yeah?" Atlas answered confused
"Why is your skin still...brown?" Windy asked
"Uhhh...that's the natural color of my skin."
"And your hair is natural tangled like that?" Grayzer wondered this time.
"Well, yeah," Atlas replied grabbing a dread holding it in front of his sight "it's a natural style called dreads in my world. It's most common with my hair type."
Rose walked up to Atlas and grabbing a dread and squeezing it causing a little water to come out.
"Oh my, it's soft to the touch and is like a sponge." Rose said before letting the dread go and fixing up his clothes.
Then she took out a bandage like wrap and took one of Atlas's hands to wrap it around his tattoo bands on each wrist.
"What's this for?" Atlas asked Rose as she wrapped them up.
"You don't want anyone finding out about you like I did don't you. Others won't be as kind as us and most likely try to kill you." Rose answered looking at Atlas who gulped.
"No, definitely don't want that."
"Here!" Windy came up to him giving him a pair of black tabi boots. "Wouldn't want to be barefoot outside."
"Thanks!" Atlas gratefully said slipping them on. They were a bit tight on his feet but they still fit nice.
"Well it's time we get going." Grayzer said as he slipped on his own pair of tabi boots and walked to the front door of the hut.