Restart Again: Volume 1 by Adam Scott (pocket ebook reader TXT) 📕

against my hand, deepening the scalp massage. After muttering something too quiet for me to hear her breathing slowed to a steady rhythm as she fell asleep.

Scratching her head absentmindedly, I took stock of my surroundings. Regardless of how well hidden this clearing is, I should keep watch for the night. Without knowing the immediate area, it would be careless to assume we’re safe here. There could be unsavory characters traveling the road, not to mention the local wildlife...hmm. I should ask Lia about the types of wild animals they have in this world. The idea that there could be monstrous beasts lurking in the darkness sharpened my focus and helped to keep me awake.

Although the sun had been fully set for nearly an hour, the grove was still well lit by the light of the moon and stars above us in a cloudless sky. A cool breeze blew across the meadow, causing the leaves on the thick trees around us to dance and shift in the shadows. I carefully pulled off my cloak and draped it over Lia. The cold evening air was a pleasant feeling across my uncovered head and back.

With a long night of keeping watch ahead I shifted as best I could under Lia’s sleeping form to find a comfortable meditative stance. Staying alert for any signs of danger was drilled so far into my subconscious that I didn’t have to actively patrol the campsite to feel secure, and I was confident I could move my focus to other topics without sacrificing our safety. I had been percolating some new ideas to test my magical abilities over the past few days, but until the present moment I had never found the time to explore them.

I took a deep breath and tapped into my mana supply. It was deeply satisfying to feel the energy back at full strength after my incident in the prison. After particularly strenuous use my mana reserves always rebounded back to more than they had been before, which over the decades had helped me to amass a massive, powerful pool to draw from. I let the energy flow where it wanted throughout my body as I thought about my plan of attack.

Of the two major ideas I wanted to pursue, one stood out as far more interesting. After I had helped to unlock Lia’s mana, I had been constantly thinking about the sensation of feeling another person’s latent energy. If everybody has such a unique mana signature, it might be possible to detect it at range. I felt the idea had merit, but it would require a different approach to mana manipulation than what I was used to.

I lowered a hand down to the ground, working my fingers through the soft grass and down to the topsoil. In theory, it should be possible to channel mana across the surface of an object, instead of trying to completely suffuse it. If I keep the energy along the surface thin enough...I closed my eyes and diverted my internal energy through my arm and down to the ground. The mana moved slowly, almost cautiously, spreading out in a circle from where my hand was planted firmly in the dirt.

A jolt of foreign energy up my arm caused me to jump, but I was able to maintain focus long enough to realize that my mana had encountered Lia’s leg sprawled out in the grass next to me. The feeling of her energy was familiar; it was warm and soft, slowly churning just under the surface of her skin. As my own mana spread out further, it flowed up and around her sleeping form, tracing its way up her body until she was completely encompassed by it.

Even with my eyes closed, I felt as though I could still see Lia sleeping in my lap. Against the empty black backdrop of my mind, my probing energy field traced everything it touched with sharp white lines. They shifted and blurred together as the individual blades of grass bent in the breeze, filling my tiny world with a constant fluid movement. Lia’s outline stood out in stark contrast to the phasing white grass as a consistent amber figure that glowed against the darkness. I could see the minute details of her clothing and gear displayed with perfect clarity before me, but there were also distinct traces underneath where I could clearly see the mana flowing inside her.

This is amazing! Is this what mana really looks like? Scanning down over my own body, the effect was entirely different than what I saw on Lia. A blinding electric blue light raced all along the surface of my skin, hard and distinct as opposed to Lia’s soft yellow aura. To think, I’ve been walking around all this time completely blind to an entire world of information. It’s incredible.

Excitedly I redoubled my efforts and continued to expand my mana along the ground, widening the area I could picture in my head at a rapid pace. My mind was racing as it tried to keep up with the new form of sensory input as best it could, but I was quickly overwhelmed by the raw data. The mana came rushing back all at once in a powerful surge, and I gasped audibly as my eyes snapped open and brought the world back to its usual focus. Although I hadn’t actually expended any of the mana, I was still panting from the effort. It seems as though I’ve found a new muscle to flex.

A dumb grin spread across my face as I marveled at the new possibilities this ability could unlock. Being able to see things in the dark, or outside of my line of sight...getting an estimate of a potential foe’s magical ability...could this allow me to cast magic from distant locations? The ideas continued to stack up faster than I could process them, and I had to take a conscious moment to breathe and take back control of my own thoughts. One thing at a