The Place Where Everything Begins

Like that, another 20 days passed by...

Jeremy's body and mind were improved tremendously by doing meditation every day.

Today was also like the past 51 days for Jeremy. He was doing meditation like he always did.

However, something unbelievable was going to commence soon...

After 3 hours of continuous meditating, Jeremy suddenly felt an anomaly within the vicinity of his body.

That was...

He actually felt that there was a single particle of energy going past his body...

That thing, that single particle of energy, was something that shouldn't be presented here at all.

No... it shouldn't even exist at all in this world...

It was a microscopic particle of energy that had a size smaller than 1 nanometer.

Its size was several times smaller than the smallest size of a virus known to men in the present time. The size of which surprisingly was reaching the size of an atom. It was an energy particle that had the properties of a semi-living thing that had the capability of allowing a mortal to attain immortality.

It was in itself one of the most miraculous and phenomenal existence in the entire universe.

Even a god might not be called 'God' anymore if they lacked this energy particle.

It was a thing called by the majority of people on Ortus as... Mana.

This time, Jeremy almost lost his cool and nearly broke out of the meditation. Even a sage who had meditated for his entire life might lose his composure from the discovery of mana particles on Earth.

Thus, he tried his best to reel in that particle of mana into his body.

The process of attracting mana particles into one's body might be arduous for a newcomer wannabe mage but not for Jeremy. He was, after all, a former great sage who always played and lived with mana his entire life.

Just like that, the mana particle was being guided slowly into his body by using the meditation techniques method.

Even though it was only a single microscopic energy particle to even exist, which was most likely undetectable by most mages, and didn't even have to mention the process of pulling in that single particle into their bodies.

That was an impossible feat that was deemed unachievable by most people.

But for Jeremy...

It was only classified as a moderately challenging process. Jeremy only had to spend a little effort to successfully pull that energy particle into his body's pores.

Upon entering his body, Jeremy felt a shudder when his body came in close contact with that energy particle.

He felt that it was the finest and purest mana he had ever come into contact with in his entire life. Even when he was a sage, he had never seen such a pure mana particle before in his life.

If he had to rate or score between the mana, he could attract now and in his previous life. He would give it 9/10 ratings of when he was a sage, compared to this single mana particle which would definitely receive 10/10 ratings from him.

After guiding the mana within his body into his brain, he controlled and circulated it within his brain's Thalamus, which in modern science, had the responsibilities of relaying sensory and motor signals and regulating consciousness and alertness of the human body.

Right after around 3 minutes, the mana particle started to dissolve and began fusing into his brain thoroughly, leaving nothing behind, except for the aftertaste of coming into contact with mana.

"Haaaah..."

Jeremy exhaled a long breath.

'What a thrilling experience. And how is it even possible for mana to exist within this world...'

When he had finished all of the processes, Jeremy thought to himself and ensured that the mana particle had successfully merged with his brain.

'D*mn... everything happened so fast that I almost lost my cool and almost missed a chance to become a mage. If I had not reacted composedly in time, I might have regretted the incident for the rest of my life.'

'Like this, I've properly stepped into the path of a true mage.'

Jeremy thought while grinning satisfactorily.

That's right, the first thing for a person to step out from a Class 0 Scholar to tread a path leading to Class 1 Mage was to successfully merge with a single mana particle.

Right now, Jeremy had finally stepped into the first substage, 'Initiate Mage' of the 4 substages of a Class 1 Mage. Starting from Initiate Mage, Associate Mage, Apprentice Mage, and lastly, Journeyman Mage.

After the fourth substage, one could finally be qualified enough to become a Class 1 Mage, then Class 2 Adept Mage, Class 3 Grand Mage, and so on.

As for the class of the former great sage?

That was a topic for later discussion...

Upon becoming an Initiate Mage, Jeremy's body could now start gathering mana particles from the surroundings by using the same meditation method. And the mana gathering processes would become much smoother than when he was a Class 0 Scholar who only knew how to meditate.

From this point onwards, the next thing he had to do was do meditation to gather enough mana to form a small whirlpool within his body. In this case, the whirlpool could be created anywhere within one's body, but the most common and most used place was 'Dantian'.

Why?

Because Dantian was the most suitable place for external energy to exist within one's body. It included not only the human race, but every other race also used dantians as their energy gathering points.

For each race, they usually had a different amount of dantian points within their bodies. The number of dantian within their bodies ranged from 1 to 3 points, of which the human race had 3 dantians.

In a human body, 3 dantians existed, which were upper, middle, and lower dantian. They were situated between a person's eyebrows, the center of a person's chest, and a place a bit below a person's naval, respectively.

And suppose the mana particles within one's upper dantian could maintain themselves without having a person exert any more force into controlling them. In that case, that person could finally be called an Associate Mage.

'But the real tough part will be starting from here on. Sigh...' Jeremy thought.

The slight amount of the ambient mana within the Earth's atmosphere made it very hard for him to gather enough mana to form a whirlpool within his upper dantian.

If Jeremy was on Ortus, it would require him less than a minute to form a whirlpool and less than 4 minutes to form and connect all of the 3 whirlpools within the 3 dantians inside his body.

What did that mean?

It meant that he could become an Apprentice Mage which was the 3rd substage of a Class 1 Mage, in less than 5 minutes.

Sadly, this is not 'Ortus'.

Jeremy was still on a planet called 'Earth'.

That's why he was worry that he might not be able to become an Associate Mage that only had to form a whirlpool on his upper dantian.

So, he planned out a comprehensive plan to form a whirlpool that might require him to meditate to gather the super thinned mana particles flying among the ambient air.

First of all, he notified the 2 trainers that he wouldn't be going to the gym anymore.

After 50 or so days of training in the gym, he knew that he had already squeezed out most of the juicy parts. His body was more than enough to pass the upcoming tutorial.

Still, he knew that it was not enough to crush the tutorial completely with his current strength just yet.

Even though the 2 trainers had tried various methods to make him stay and become a professional boxer, as when the 3 of them had been spending together, the 2 trainers believed that Jeremy could be the very best boxer in the history of humankind.

However, Jeremy could only firmly refuse them outright.

Because right after seeing that, he had an opportunity to become a Class 1 Mage that could easily crush and topple over the tutorial upside down. He couldn't care less about other things anymore, as he couldn't miss this golden...

No... It actually was a diamond opportunity that was almost presented itself to him on a luxurious-looking plate.

The only thing that he had to do was to seize and grasp this chance firmly and never give up on it, no matter what.

Thus, he decided to eat and rest fully for the next couple of days to prepare for the most arduous and torturous meditation he had ever done in his 2 lives time.