Julia recalled the lessons Braden had given her on meditation. The first thing he taught her was to find the origin of her mana.

  “Cast your senses inward and feel the mana inside of you. It’s sourced from the food you eat, so start there. Imagine where your stomach is and start looking for your mana.”

  It was like a small cloud nestled between her heart and stomach. Braden had taught her to refer to that area as her core. The little, wispy cloud in her core pulsed regularly. It was not in sync with her heart, nor did it ‘beat’ per se—pulsing was the best way she could describe it. It felt as if it expanded and contracted ever so slightly in a steady rhythm, much like the gentle movement of clouds.

  From there, Braden had her guide small chunks of that cloud away from her core, sending them around her body.

  “Now, take just a small tendril from that cloud and move it through your body. Take it from your core all around your body. Introduce it to every part of your body so that both it and the mana can become familiar with each other.”

  He explained it was generally easier for people to imagine mana as traveling through “veins” similar to blood. Many theorized that there were, in fact, many tiny veins carrying mana around the body. Braden said that was nonsense, though, so she didn’t think too hard about it.

  As she passed mana through her body, she discovered that just its presence in her flesh made her skin tougher, her muscles stronger, and her bones denser. This was called mana reinforcement. Apparently, even the more strength-focused classes used mana reinforcement to strengthen their bodies further. Braden called it an essential skill to possess at levels above 50.

  Once she could reinforce her body, she was guided to sense the mana outside of it.

  “Now, take a thread of the mana in your core and push it to your extremities. Push it all the way out to your fingertips, and then keep going. Don’t push too hard—you’re trying to coax it out, not force it.

  Once it’s out, feel it in the air around you. Try to feel the mana surrounding the thread you just pushed out. It will probably be easiest to sense the mana that is actively trying to merge with your thread. Mana likes to merge. It likes to combine with itself regardless of the intent or alignment of individual mana sources. Feel the mana that’s trying to combine with yours right now.”

  This process had taken months of work. Braden said it was not an intuitive process by any means, and being able to do it at such a young age was nothing short of prodigious. The praise was nice, but Julia couldn’t help but think she must be slow when she thought about how long she had practiced every single day for months before she even felt a small breath of mana outside herself. Sure, it might not sound like much time—in the grand scheme of things—but she tried it every single day! For months!

  Apparently, being able to sense and manipulate the mana outside of your own body was one of the keys to powerful spell casting as well as a way to somewhat work around the limits of your own body. Using external mana to fuel a spell would obviously leave your own internal mana untouched, which could then be used for other things, like body reinforcement.

  Braden said there were many risks when manipulating external mana as well, but that was a more advanced topic than she was ready for right now.

  Returning to the present—as she channeled her own mana through her body in preparation to inject it into the ritual circle, she heard Braden advising her.

  “The key to this ritual is to connect with the mana outside your body, and then trace it to its source. We talked about this before, but the source of all mana is the sun. We don’t need to complicate things with additional information right now, so don’t think too hard about the implications of that. Just know that what you’re looking for right now can be found through the sun.”

  She could be imagining it, but Julia could swear she could feel a…connection, of some kind, from the mana to the sun. She felt she intuitively knew the sun’s position in the sky despite being underground—or perhaps it was just Braden’s words affecting her mind.

  Regardless, she focused on that connection, whether real or not, and began pumping her mana out through her finger and into the sapphire dust.

  The dust began to glow a vibrant blue as she started the incantation. It wasn’t complicated; she was simply saying the words that the runes spelled out. Also not a necessary component of rituals, but Braden claimed it, once again, helped focus the mind on the desired effect of the ritual. In magic, intent was king. If you don’t have a firm grasp on what you intend the magic to do, it can be…destructive.

  “Good, you’re doing great. Now, keep doing what you’re doing, but also think about what it is you’re seeking. What do you desire? A companion? A pet? A friend? A comrade-at-arms? Feed your want, your need, to the ritual, and it will handle the rest.”

  What did she want? That was easy. She wanted a friend—someone who would be there for her no matter what, someone who wouldn’t abandon her once they discovered that everyone in town hated her, someone to go on adventures with, to play with, and to stand by her through thick and thin. Someone who wouldn’t play mean pranks on her and would get mad at the people who did.

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  Her need, combined with the incantation and mana, seemed to push the ritual over a tipping point. The sapphire dust began to shine so brightly she started considering closing her eyes. Before she could react, the active portion of the ritual ended. Her mana stopped being pulled from her, the circle stopped glowing, and the sapphire dust rose off the ground into a ring that began orbiting around…oh, curious. When did that get there?

  On the ground was…well, she could only describe it as a furry ball. She instinctively started to reach for it before Braden’s voice cut her off with insistence.

  “Don’t move! The ritual is not over. You’ve completed the summons, but until either a pact is made or the creature is returned from whence it came, the ritual is still ongoing. If you enter the circle, you forfeit the protections worked into the runes. Remember the wording of the runes? Only that which is without is protected from what is within. You’d be putting yourself in danger by placing any part of yourself into the circle.”

  Of course, she knew that. They had gone over this ritual many times, even practiced it a few times with chalk runes and without injecting any actual mana. Something was off. She knew better than to do something so risky for no reason. As the thought was occurring to her, she realized that she was sweating and breathing heavily. Somehow, the ritual had drained her almost completely of mana. She felt she had just a drop or two left. That would be why Braden wouldn’t let her attempt it until she reached certain Attribute thresholds, then.

  No wonder she wasn’t in her right mind. Mana had an intimate connection with the mind. In fact, one’s total mana pool was almost directly determined by a combination of the Intelligence and Wisdom Attributes.

  Just as she was wondering what to do next, the little ball of fur uncurled itself. Julia almost squealed from how cute it was, all sweating and exhaustion forgotten.

  In the center of the circle appeared a…tube-like creature that Julia hadn’t seen before. It reminded her somewhat of the squirrels she saw in the woods, but this creature was slightly longer. It had long whiskers and fur that was snow white except for its little feet, which were black like charcoal. It looked up at her and wrinkled its nose, as if sniffing in her direction.

  “Well done, Julia! That’s a Black-Footed Mirage Ferret. I’m familiar with ferrets, but this one seems to be magical. It has some affinity with illusion magic. What a wonderful companion you’ve summoned. The only thing left is to see if it wants a pact. This shouldn’t be a complicated affair with an animal, magical or not. Just speak the words while channeling your mana to your mouth.”

  Julia summoned the remaining dregs of her mana and moved it to her mouth as she spoke.

  “Would you make a pact with me? To stay in this plane and be my companion until death forces us apart?”

  Braden had told her very early in their mana training how important it was to speak carefully and precisely when intoning with mana. Apparently, words spoken with mana carried more weight than regular speech. He said it was less of a concern with an animal that lacked critical thinking, but even then, it was better to be safe than sorry.

  The ferret bobbed its head up and down and ran in a little circle. Julia didn’t know what that meant, but as soon as it finished running, she felt a rushing sensation as…something flooded into her. She drew a sharp breath, realizing that some of the mana stored in the sapphire dust was rushing back into her—but this was not the same mana she had poured in initially. It carried a different intent.

  As it rushed into her core, she heard a ping and a system window popped up in front of her.

  When she finished reading the pop-ups, Julia realized her mouth was wide open. She quickly closed it, hoping against hope that he hadn’t noticed. Braden was staring at her with a huge smile. Great—there would be teasing about her slack-jawed expression in the near future.

  Her attention was pulled back to the ritual circle, as the orbiting cloud of sapphire dust was beginning to sizzle and pop. As she watched, the dust seemed to just…pop out of existence. It made the noise and just…disappeared. Strange.

  Once it was gone, the ferret immediately ran up to her, climbed up her leg, and perched on her shoulder. It happened so fast that she couldn’t even react. This creature was quick!

  She started smiling and giggling while petting her new friend on her shoulder.

  “Seems like it was a success, then. The ferret accepted your pact. You should have a prompt to name it, correct?”

  She nodded without looking at him, still engrossed in petting her new friend.

  “Good. Think carefully about it. As far as I know, there’s no time limit, so you can take as long as you like. The name is permanent once given, though. So, once your choice is made, there’s no going back.”

  Julia only had to think for a second before she entered a name into the prompt.