Game Transcendence

6: Meditation

6: Meditation
Date Written: June 24,2019

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Near the entrance of Gloomy Village, a small area of space warped and turned into a small black vortex. A few seconds later, a brown haired young man wearing black short robes and jeans came out. It was Kian who just logged in to the game.

After he stepped into the ground, he felt a little dizzy front the teleportation so he took his time to stabilize himself. Only after a few minutes did he proceeded to the Training Grounds. However, he passed by the Warrior's training grounds and reached an area where the trees were thicker and taller. It was the Magi Training Grounds.

Unlike the Warrior's Training Grounds, you can't hear bashes and metal clinking but merely the sounds of nature with the rare sounds of dummies being hit. That was because aside from the trees themselves, there were no other training equipments available on the training grounds.

There were only a few Magi that practiced their spells here. The others sat beside the trees and had their eyes closed.

"Meditation?" He recognized what they were doing.

Kian got a bit curious when he saw them. It was really like something that came out of a fantasy novel but it seems like they've been sitting here for hours. He wondered if their butts didn't got numb from all the sitting?

There was a small open hut near the entrance of the training grounds. Inside sat a beautiful woman. She had an auburn colored hair. Kian identified her as the manager of this place from the black cloud insignia on her robe which was the symbol of Gloomy Village.

Since he still didn't really know too much about the elusive Magi, he decided to approach and ask her. With slow footsteps, he reached the hut and stopped a few meters away from her. Still, she noticed him so she placed the book she had on her hand on a table before she ask with a small smile.

"What can I do for you?" She asked in a mellow tone, a complete contrast to what Kian imagined of a dark magus.

"I-I'm Kian. A new player. I don't know what to do here so..." His words trialed off since he didn't know how to continue them anymore.

The auburn haired woman was confused for a second before a look of realization came over her.

"Oh, you must be the Gloom Acolyte that trained in the Warrior's Training Ground yesterday. Nice to meet you,I'm Fhy." She stood up and offered a handshake.

Kian took her hands and they shook hands for a second before he quickly took them back. Such a mature woman made his chest feel a bit stuffed.

"Nice to meet you." He replied.

Her eyes then trailed off to his waist where the pistol was hanged.

"I see. No wonder you headed there yesterday. To think you chose the pistol as your weapon. It seems you need to do a lot of meditation or you'll never be able to shoot enough bullets." She smiled with a nod after she made a comment.

Kian scratched his head and smiled wryly, not knowing what to do in this situation.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Was all he could ask.

"Well, since your choice of weapon is a gun, you have to do a lot of meditation. I believe you know how to do it, right? The moment you close your eyes, you would automatically feel the mana enter your body. Before that, what's your current Magic and Spirit stats?" She asked.

Kian opened his status screen to check his stats.

"Six. For each of them." He replied.

"Good. These two stats are always the same. For example, your Magic stat has five points then your Spirit stat would have the same amount. But there are also cases where the two may differ in value. It's good if your Spirit Points are higher but having too much Magic Points can lead to difficult mana manipulation " She explained.

Kian remembered the Wisdom and Intelligence points in other games before but this time, it's more focused on mana manipulation and not only mana recovery and conservation.

"You can meditate at places high in mana like trees or forests. A cave is also good as long as the place is far away from mana absorbing creatures. After an hour, come see me again." She pointed to the Magi immersed in their own meditation.

"Y-yeah. Thanks!" He said and said goodbye to her.

He didn't greet the other players since it was obvious they didn't want to be disturbed so he headed straight into the forest. He chose a spot where the others weren't in sight.

In the mossy forest floor, a three feet tall herb that had five red leaves grew. It emitted a fragrance that was slightly intoxicating but at the same time had the smell of blood.

"Essence leaves?" He quickly recognized the plant. It was something sold in the market. It didn't sell for much but if used by a low level player like him, it would be a lifesaver in dangerous situations.

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Name:Essence Leaf
Restriction: Acolyte/Apprentice
Element:None
Effects: Recover 5% HP

Description:

A simple herb used to heal wounds and recover HP.

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The effect was minimal but since he was short in money, he decided to keep it in times of need.

Kian chose the spot where where the plant originally grew to meditate. Since he didn't exactly know how to meditate, he just sat down and leaned his back on a tree.

He did as what Fhy instructed and closed his eyes. At first, there wasn't any reaction. Fifteen seconds later however, a cold and refreshing feeling appeared and slowly spread throughout his body. When he tried to feel them, he discovered that he could see the internal area of his body. It was all black except for a small stream of blue blobs of light that slowly flowed from the outside.

This continued for a while until Kian discovered that he could actually could speed up the process of the absorption. Hoswever, it also mentally exhausted him so that after a ten minutes, he had no choice but to stop his meditation.

When Kian checked his Status Screen, he found out that there were no changes. However, he felt a bit clear minded despite being exhausted.

"Maybe at the next try." He guessed and took a rest.

When he felt he could do it again, he decided to meditate once again. The process was still the same and when ten minutes had passed, he once again broke out of that state. However, when he checked his Status Screen, he saw that his Magic and Spirit points had already risen by a point each.

"Twenty minutes per point. Is this really the only way to increase the stats?" He groaned and stood up to stretch his muscles.

Since there was still time before he has to meet Fhy again, he decided to spend it all on meditation.

An hour passed and after that long meditation, the total number of points he got per stat were four points each. This was a basically a boring session with little gains.

Since an hour already had passed, he decided to stop his meditation and head back to the hut to meet with Fhy.

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Edited...