"Huh?" Feeling something run from his nose, Lin Yu wiped it with his hand and held it up to look.
Blood. His nose was bleeding. What was going on?
That was Lin Yu's first thought.
Then Lin Yu remembered trying the Breathing Technique in the game. The way he felt now was so similar to how he had felt then, except this attempt had not been as severe as the one in the game. When Lin Yu had tried it in the game, he had bled from all seven orifices, and his whole body had ached as if he had been run over by a truck.
This attempt in reality had only given him a slight nosebleed.
Perhaps his physical condition in reality did not meet the minimum requirements for practicing the Breathing Technique, or perhaps there was another reason. Lin Yu did not know why.
It seemed he could not practice the Breathing Technique.
After discovering that practicing the Breathing Technique gave him a nosebleed, Lin Yu gave up on continuing. After all, when he had tried it in the game, the system had warned him that his physical condition did not meet the requirements and that forcing himself to practice could be fatal. Lin Yu did not want to risk his life. If he died in reality, he would not come back to life.
"Forget it. I'll take a shower and go to bed." After discovering that he could not practice the Breathing Technique, Lin Yu decided to take a shower and go to bed.
At six in the morning, Lin Yu got up on time. After a quick wash, he checked the game forum.
There was no useful information today. The only thing Lin Yu found somewhat interesting was a post.
In the post, a group of players had used shovels to reshape a patch of terrain into a large, bowl-shaped pit and covered the ground with smooth stone slabs. As soon as creatures spawned on the terrain, they would slide into the pit. All the players had to do was wait for them at the bottom.
Seeing a patch of terrain turned into a mob farm by players, Lin Yu could not help marveling at how impressive they were. They had even managed to make a mob farm. Would there be mob towers later on?
The current mob farm did have a few problems, though. First, players had to keep watch over it at all times. As soon as there were no players nearby, the altered terrain would slowly return to its original state.
Second, the highest-level beasts that spawned in the mob farm were level four, so players above level four could not continue using it to gain experience quickly.
After reading the post and finding nothing else that seemed interesting, Lin Yu chose to enter the game.
After getting out of bed at the inn, washing up briefly, and eating and drinking his fill, Lin Yu headed to the library. Having discovered that his physical condition in reality did not support practicing the Breathing Technique, he had decided to devote most of his energy to learning all kinds of knowledge in the game and training his mana control.
When he arrived at the library, he spent seven silver coins for fourteen hours of borrowing time, then flew to the shelves and picked up the book he had not finished yesterday.
Just as Lin Yu was about to read, something suddenly occurred to him, and he stopped.
Come to think of it, Mana Protection is a mana technique. I wonder if I can use it in the library? It should be fine, right? Mana Protection is just a technique for using mana. The old man at the library only said magic wasn't allowed. He didn't say anything about mana techniques.
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that it would work. Lin Yu began channeling mana to form Mana Protection.
Feeling the Mana Protection covering his forearm and seeing that the old man at the entrance showed no reaction, Lin Yu smiled. Just as he had thought, mana techniques were allowed. Now he could read and study while devoting some of his attention to training his mana control.
For the rest of the time, Lin Yu read and learned about Era while devoting a thread of his attention to controlling his mana and maintaining Mana Protection, training his mana control.
Whenever he ran out of mana, Lin Yu would stop and meditate to restore it.
At first, Lin Yu was not very accustomed to multitasking like this. Mana Protection often dissipated when his attention suddenly shifted.
But after spending some time trying and familiarizing himself with it, Lin Yu gradually grew accustomed to multitasking.
And so Lin Yu read and studied while training his control over mana.
Time quietly passed, and before he knew it, four days had gone by.
During those four days, Lin Yu spent his days reading and practicing mana control on the side, and his nights meditating to strengthen his Magic Aperture.
By the end of the first day, Lin Yu could cover his entire body with Mana Protection.
During this time, as Lin Yu's control over mana improved, his manipulation of his Mental Power also became more refined. By the second day, he could read, practice Mana Protection to improve the precision of his mana control, and release Mental Power to refine the magic in the world around him and restore his mana, all at once.
After managing to do three things at once, Lin Yu clearly felt that the precision of his mana control had improved another notch.
Finally, on the afternoon of the fourth day, Lin Yu looked at the mana covering his whole body like a layer of rippling water and felt immensely satisfied. After practicing for so long, his mana control had reached the required standard. Now, Lin Yu was finally qualified to cast magic.
If he wanted to improve the precision of his mana control further, practicing Mana Protection would no longer be enough.
To continue improving its precision, he needed to practice the mana technique Mage Hand.
Mage Hand involved releasing mana and condensing it into a hand made of mana. Like a real hand, it could help a mage with everyday chores.
There was no limit to the number of Mage Hands he could form. As long as he could control them, he could form as many as he wanted.
At present, Lin Yu could control at most three Mage Hands when fully concentrating.
That evening, the moment Lin Yu left the library, he headed to the training ground.
He found an empty spot and began trying to cast spells.
On his first attempt at spellcasting, it took Lin Yu a full three seconds to finish casting Glimmer Illumination.
Looking at the ball of light in his hand, Lin Yu let out a long sigh. "Sigh! I'm still too inexperienced at spellcasting. Looks like I'll have to practice casting spells more from now on and try to cast them instantly as soon as possible."
Having settled on his next goal, Lin Yu began casting spells over and over.
While practicing magic, Lin Yu thought of something. His mana control was already good enough to cast spells, so he should be able to control his own flight as well, right? Lin Yu had made a point of learning about fairies' ability to fly.
Fairies relied on the innate talent runes in their bodies to fly. These runes gave them the ability to fly, and manipulating mana was an instinct they were born with. Thus, flying was like an inborn instinct to fairies.
Before this, Lin Yu's mana control had been too crude, so he could only rely on the system to control his flight.
Now that Lin Yu's mana control was good enough, it was time to learn how to control his flight.