Alexander and James sat in the forest, catching their breath.
During this time, Alexander once again tried to manually heal James with mana, but just like with what happened with Dante, James' body didn't respond to Alexander's mana like it was its own.
This solidified Alexander's hypothesis that everyone's mana had a unique frequency or signature.
'Likely whatever organ is now in my brain that purifies the mana doesn't exactly purify the mana because the seems to be relative. It is more like this organ tunes the mana to the frequency of the body. That is also why mana that is released from the body dissipates. The body can not accept the mana that has once again become tuned to the world. This is becoming more complicated than I thought,' thought Alexander. He was lost. Even though he had found his mana at last, he was still completely in the dark as to how it was used.
'Should he try to form a mana core? Should he compress his energy to form a dantian? Should he form rings of mana around his heart?' Alexander's mind spun as he tried to think about his next step in becoming stronger.
After that fight with the two dogs, Alexander was determined once again to become the greatest and most powerful being in the universe.
But first... he would start this great journey by tearing through the carcass of a dead dog.
"Wha-cha doo-in?" rang James' voice as he looked at his previously inspiring friend who was now busy ravaging the corpse of a dead dog.
"Looking for something," replied Alexander shortly.
"And that is...?" asked James, confused.
Looking up, Alexander sighed and began to explain. "Remember when I guided you through gaining control over your mana, and I said that an organ must first purify the mana from the world in our heads? Well, I am assuming that this beast has one too."
With a face of realization, James added, "You mean like monster cores?"
"Yeah, or something like it," said Alexander with a grin.
"The strange thing is," said Alexander with his hands dripping in animal blood, "that it doesn't seem to be located in its head."
Alexander kept digging until he suddenly saw a dull red light coming from a gem inside the dog's body.
"Hah," sighed James in exasperation. 'How the heck was Alexander right!? This isn't a fairy tale, right?'
"Interesting," said Alexander as he looked at the dull, glowing red gem in front of him. The stone was hardly the size of his pinky finger's finger nail, but it still helped Alexander to begin formulating more about this new world.
Standing up and putting the monster core in his pocket, Alexander said, "We need to get back to our car and make our way over to the university. We should also stop and get the monster core from the dog I defeated before."
"So we are just gonna go with monster core now?" said James, who was clearly making fun of him.
"Come on, you can't say that you don't like it, right?" responded Alexander with a mischievous smile.
"Yeah, yeah, let's go. I'm hungry," said James.
"Good point," added Alexander, who only now realized his hunger for food. 'I should actually be much more hungry than I am now. Must be because of the mana as well.' thought Alexander.
Neither of them had eaten in nearly a day, yet they still didn't need food that badly. Mana truly is wonderful.
The two boys began a slower yet still fast journey back to the road.
Alexander continued to think about how a person could grow stronger in their mana and came up with many theories that were a bit more solid than those from the many web novels he read.
For example, Alexander theorized that it was possible a person would just naturally get stronger the longer their body was saturated with mana, and how much mana was present in the person's body. This wouldn't be so much a method, but it was the most risk-free option in his mind.
Alexander, of course, didn't like this method because it was slow and lacked the satisfying breakthrough moments from cultivation stories that he craved.
The second and most realistic method in Alexander's mind was to refine and compress the organ in his brain that filters mana into his body. He remembered the dull red monster core he carried and wondered if the color corresponded to the grade of the monster. Possibly the core in his mind had a color, and by refining it, it would begin to change and would, in turn, transform his body accordingly.
You could tell how excited Alexander was by how he compiled his thoughts. He wanted to gain more power as fast as possible, but that seemed to need to take a backseat for the next few days.
He didn't even know if his parents and sisters were okay! He needed to get home. Who knows what would soon begin happening to the world. If animals all around the world had become savage and began hunting humans, then they would all be in danger.
Thinking more about the implications, Alexander started to get truly terrified. 'Food shortages will surely become a huge problem. If locusts could destroy a field of crops before the mana, then what would they be capable of now?'
Alexander continued to think about the terrible implications his actions may have caused, but stopped himself before he could dig himself into a hole of feeling sorry for himself.
'How did I even get to thinking about that?' thought Alexander with a smile. 'I guess my natural anxiety and ADHD led me off on a tangent again.'
Alexander abandoned his deep thoughts and focused back on the outside world. With his mind clear, he started admiring the forest and was struck with wonder at the beauty of nature. His senses were clear and heightened to greater levels than any man ever before.
Alexander began to feel a sense of falling in love. He was falling in love with nature! This had never happened before. Sure, he admired its beauty in the past, but now, with his nose picking up the detailed scents of the forest and his ears hearing the birds in the air, he was in bliss.
'Wait! The birds!' thought Alexander excitedly. He looked up and saw birds chirping and resting on branches above him like they always did. This both confused and delighted him. 'So the birds aren't hostile, at least, it seems,' thought Alexander.
If the birds were fine, then maybe not every aspect of the world's agriculture and nature had become dangerous. 'Maybe the dogs were some sort of different species or mutated some way,' thought Alexander. He was trying to reason. Trying to understand the world he lived in. There seemed to be too many inconsistencies for anything to make sense.
'Well, the more information I can gather, the closer I will get to discovering the truth.'
Alexander was desperate to start changing the world and to become a leader of humanity, but it wouldn't be that easy. In a world of mana, knowledge was the ultimate power. So as long as he could figure out how to cultivate and understand the dangers and benefits of the world, he would be able to have a place at the top of humanity's authority.
Just the thought of such a future made Alexander almost giddy. He was, after all, a pretty simple person. He just wanted to look cool and have fame.
Of course, he wanted to have fun too and make things, but Alexander's overall desire could be summarized quite easily.
Alexander determined in his heart to pursue this second chapter in his life to its fullest. He would give and take from the world, and he would be, for lack of a better term, the king.
While Alexander diluted his genius mind with thoughts of grandeur, James trudged along through the forest at his side.
James had been taking into account the terrain of the forest that they traveled through, and couldn't help but feel like something was wrong. Not in the dangerous sense, but that something was happening that they could hardly comprehend.
Maybe it was the mana. The mana seemed to act strangely in this place.
James glanced at Alexander. He was confused about why he had detected the disturbance in the mana, and Alexander hadn't. Then again, maybe Alexander had but didn't say anything.
Though it was true that Alexander didn't sense the change in mana, it certainly wasn't due to a lack of talent, but rather due to his own occupied mind.
"Alex, hey, what are you thinking about?" asked James.
"Nothing much, just thinking about what I'm gonna do first back at the university," replied Alexander.
'Yeah, right, sure you are,' thought James as he struggled to keep his eyes from rolling.
"Hey. Do you feel that?" asked Alexander. "The mana is acting strange. It seems to be... Well, I don't know what it's doing, but I think we should find out," he added.
"Yeah, that sounds cool, but we really should be getting back to campus. Professor Grey is probably wondering what happened to us," said James.
Alexander somewhat agreed with James. After all they needed to get back to civilization soon. He and James couldn't just stay in the wild and cultivate like cavemen. They needed to return and enter this new era with the rest of their family and friends.
"Okay, fine. But we need to find a way to mark this area so that I can return. Whatever the mana is doing seems to be following the natural layout of the surrounding elements. You can tell from the way the trees, rocks, and rivers form a sort of pattern that keeps the mana flowing this way," Alexander said resolutely.
After all, if this formation had a certain special effect on mana that could be learned from, Alexander definitely wanted to grasp it.
The world needed knowledge, and a natural formation like this would be a great ticket to success.
"Okay, sure, sounds good," replied James.
He found it a bit weird that someone would want to come back here to the middle of nowhere, but then remembered that Alexander wasn't normal and would probably take this place for research. After all, Alexander spent the majority of his life as a researcher and a scientist. Even though something earth-shaking, like mana, had descended, James knew that wouldn't be enough to change his friend.
The two boys continued walking, making small talk here and there, and entertaining their imaginations with what the future had in store for them, until...
"What the..." said James breathlessly.
He and Alexander had been walking for such a long time, and now, as they were reaching a clearing, they didn't see the car or the road. Instead, they saw only more forest in front of them and the mutilated corpse of a mutated dog.
"So that's what it did," said Alexander with joy and wonder in his eyes. He was clearly enjoying this experience much more than James, who seemed about to start dry heaving with panic.
"How are we back?... We walked straight for so long! Alex, what do we do?!" asked James. He was much more accustomed to the wealth and comfort of wealthy parents than being covered in blood and having to go through multiple unique experiences one after another.
"Calm down, it's the formation. It either changed space to make us end up here again, or the mana confused our senses and led us in a circle without us realizing it," spoke Alexander calmly.
Calming down thanks to his friend's deduction skills, James asked, "So what should we do? How do we get out of here?"
"That depends. If this formation caused a spatial disturbance, then it might be very hard or even impossible to escape. But that is just a guess after all. However, if this formation clouded or directed our senses, then we may be able to escape by just learning a bit more about its flow," responded Alexander.
"Let's keep walking, but this time, focus on trying to feel the mana and notice if your mind is being made to turn around or change direction in any way," he added.