Josh rushed to the garden, his eyes sparkling. He’s finally going to do something that might make this cursed world livable. Magic.

  Who didn’t dream at least once as a kid of going to Hogwarts, putting on the sorting hat, and getting into Gryffindor's house or any other house? Josh himself preferred the mix of Slytherin and Gryffindor. Or one of the many other fantasy stories that included magic? After all, fantasy stands for fantastic, and magic is double fantastic.

  Magic, I can’t believe I’ll be doing a freaking magic.

  Magic.

  MAAAAGIC!

  When he entered the garden, Elaria was already waiting for him. Holding a white silky pouch, and a book in her other hand.

  He rushed towards her, trying his best to hide his excitement, yet failing miserably at the task, as his hurried pace showed it all.

  Elaria sighed as Josh approached her. “There’s no rush, Baron, Josh.”

  Josh slightly bowed. “Forgive my impudence, Magus Elaria. Magic is something I dreamed of as a kid. And now it can become a reality.”

  Elaria nodded as she started to explain. “Firstly, the most important part of using magic is sensing magic, or more precisely, sensing mana. Mana is everywhere, yet it’s nowhere.”

  Everywhere and nowhere…

  Yep, that makes sense. Totally.

  Without letting Josh ask a question, she continued. “I said we shall learn to sense mana, but we have to start with baby steps. So, for now I want you to study this book and try to sense your mana or, even better, try to gather it. If you manage to do that, we can move on to the next step,” she said, handing him a book titled ‘Magic and Mana for Dummies’.

  B-but.

  But my m-magic?

  Josh was left flabbergasted, expecting to cast an [EXPLOSION!], yet left to read a book for dummies.

  That’s okay. Surely after this she will teach me magic.

  Right?

  Right???

  Knowing that until he’s done with the book, there are no grand spells or explosions for him to cast, he delved into the book with such intense enthusiasm that his high-school teachers wouldn’t be able to recognize.

  The book started pretty simply, it explained that there were four realms: the mortal realm, spirit realm, heaven realm, and hell realm.

  If the mortal realm existed by itself, it would have no mana or any feats of magic, and everyone would be exactly the same as people back on Earth. Relying on science to progress rather than magic and mana.

  But by some coincidence, thousands of years ago, in a war between heaven and hell realms. A huge dimensional hole opened between the spirit realm and the human realm, which made affinity-less mana that the spirit realm was made up of seep into the mortal realm.

  And that’s why Elaria said that there’s mana everywhere yet nowhere because mana by itself shouldn’t exist in the mortal realm.

  At least, I think so?

  After that, the book finally got into practical stuff. It explained how to sense mana, which was basically like a sixth sense. The method reminded him of the Shaolin monks who spent years meditating trying to find the zen.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  The concept was basically the same: you sit down, close yourself off from the outside world, and try to sense something that is there, yet you can’t see it.

  Having half of the book left to read, Josh decided he knew enough to give a shot at sensing mana.

  Yep, I’m just a practical learner rather than a studious one, you know?

  He sat down on the grass, doing his best to mimic the lotus position from all the cultivation manhuas he read before. His hands gently resting on his knees. He closed his eyed and slowed down his breath to slow and steady.

  However, his body didn’t oblige it felt restless, unused to sitting still, his thoughts racing as he never ever tried before to empty out his mind. But knowing that between his dreams and reality stands sensing mana, he persisted.

  A second turned into a dozen seconds, a dozen seconds turned into a minute, a minute turned into a dozen minutes, and a dozen minutes turned into an hour.

  Yet he persisted.

  For the first time in his short life of nineteen years, he found a deep peace inside of him, his thoughts clear.

  Did I reach my inner self? He asked himself.

  Knowing that, he had done the first step required to sense mana. Reaching his inner self, he got excited and frantically started to look around, searching for mana.

  Josh broke out of meditation with his frantic actions.

  Fuck, I got so close.

  I just needed to find the world that surrounds my inner self, and the mana that resides in it.

  He gave a couple more tries, trying to reach the inner self once more, each one lasting no longer than fifteen minutes and ending in failure.

  Josh sighed after his last attempt failed and picked up the book for dummies to try and finish it. Maybe it held the answer? Yet only one more disappointment reached him, as it seemed that the spell Elaria cast on him ran out, and the letters were made up of gibberish rather than his familiar English.

  He sighed as he stood up and brushed off the dirt off his pants.

  Oh well, I guess I have to go find Elaria.

  ***

  At least a half-dozen hours have passed since he found his first success in reaching his inner self, and by now he had more attempts than he can count with no success.

  Fuck what I’m doing wrong. I had it the first time.

  He realized that any further meditation would just be bashing his head into the wall, rather than produce results. He decided that maybe being outside was a factor, so he headed out once more towards the garden.

  He walked in circles in his garden while gazing upon one of the most beautiful sunsets that he had ever seen, and neither of they were possible back on his old home. Since this one had two suns rather than one.

  The first of the suns was similarly colored to the sun back on Earth, while the other sun half the size of the first one was in deep azure color, contradicting the larger yellow-orange sun.

  Josh was mesmerized as he looked at the orange sun descending and the azure one following right behind it, leaving a trail. It created a stark contrast between the warm and cool tones and a twilight that artists would kill for.

  Life is beautiful.

  He sat down in a lotus position, feeling at peace more than he ever had. And to confirm that, only minutes later of meditating he found himself back in his inner self.

  This time he knew that acting frantically would just kick him out, he pondered what he learned so far about mana. He remembered what the latter parts of the book his mentor handed over to him said about how mana exists in a world just outside his inner self.

  He tried to look past his inner self into the world, squinting his eyes trying to grasp at something invisible.

  Minutes later, various motes of red color surrounded him, they varied in their redness with most of them being dark crimson.

  Following that, another color mote appeared, black. And not the black we know but the true black, he remembered about how he learned on a podcast once about how we humans are used to shades of black rather than true black. Which reflected none of the lights or colors.

  Then another one started wheezing around freely, this one had no color as it was transparent. Josh doesn’t even know how to explain it he sees it, yet he doesn't as it’s transparent.

  How beautiful, that must be mana.

  He appreciated the sight of mana, for dozens of minutes before a splitting headache spit him out of his inner self. Making him tumble out of his lotus position into the ground.

  I did it, I sensed mana.

  Excited and relieved that he did the task, he wobbled back to his room out of tiredness. He even forgot to undress as he fell into his bed. Josh fell asleep only a dozen seconds later, ignoring the headache.