Thought Integration and a New 'Perspective'

Time passed. When Blade Tusk had gradually grown to the height of an adult Troll's chest, his research into the Meditation Method finally advanced another step. A complete meditation target, constructed from the inside out—from internal organs to internal circulation, then to external manifestations—appeared in his mind.

In other words, of the six steps he had originally envisioned, the first four had now been completed.

First, imagine a roughly equivalent Troll body;

Second, refine the organ structure of the imagined body;

Third, reconstruct that body from cells;

Fourth, integrate the "operation" of the body, organ structure, and cellular structure.

Among these, the "cellular reconstruction" portion had major flaws, for two reasons:

First, the lack of knowledge about cellular internal structures.

Second, failure to reorganize things at the cellular level.

The first problem couldn't be solved for now. Unless he could one day observe things at the cellular level, it would always remain; as for the second, it was a matter of insufficient "brainpower"—not enough processing capacity. Whenever he tried to further deconstruct the body down to the cellular level, it inevitably collapsed.

Still, these problems weren't without alternatives. After repeated attempts, he discovered that both could be bypassed through I Think So.

At its core, the purpose of this research wasn't to perfectly recreate the body's microscopic structure, but to cultivate Mental Power through visualization. Thus, the key was belief. As long as, during visualization, he made himself believe in the concepts that "the body is made of cells" and "every cell possesses a Mental Power attribute," then the visualization could work.

In other words, filling in the blanks with his imagination was the key shortcut.

Moreover, this I Think So approach also conveniently solved the envisioned fifth step—the stage of assigning Mental Power attributes from the body down to the cells. Or rather, through imagined supplementation, it merged steps three, four, and five to a certain extent.

In practice, based on his "visualized body," Blade Tusk imagined a Meditation Space that was two sides of the same coin with it.

This "space" possessed the following properties:

1. The coexistence of nothingness and reality;

Mental Power was, in effect, "nothingness"—it couldn't be observed or proven. Yet it also possessed an experiential "reality," influencing the real world through "imagination."

A space constructed from Mental Power was the same.

2. It had boundaries;

Formed collectively from all cells, the body and its extensions were both its vessel and its boundary.

This finally satisfied his current needs (Note 1) while leaving some room for future modifications (Note 2).

Next came the sixth step: grafting his own consciousness onto the body within meditation.

So-called "thought grafting" wasn't nearly as mystical as it sounded. It basically relied on deception and self-hypnosis, making himself believe on every level of consciousness that the visualized body was the starting point of his own awareness. For his current self, this wasn't especially difficult. After deep meditation blocked out most external disturbances, he could relatively easily meet this requirement in the depths of his self-awareness.

And that was indeed the case. Over the next not-too-long period, Blade Tusk used painstaking effort to easily achieve "consciousness grafting."

The instant it was completed, the Meditation Space appeared in full before him for the first time.

In terms of its "appearance," it manifested as a "Troll body." But once he ignored that "appearance" and delved into its "interior," an enclosed "space" appeared before his "eyes."

The outermost layer of the "space" was a spherical "membrane," representing its "boundary." Inside, thin mist filled the area, representing "Mental Power." Beyond that, there was nothing else—at least not at this stage.

Of course, whether its "appearance" or its "interior," neither truly existed in reality in the strict sense. They were merely an Imaginary Dimension established through "meditation."

Having completed all this, Blade Tusk picked up the low-grade Magic Crystal beside him. As he poured power into it, he sensed the changes occurring in both reality and the "imaginary" dimension.

In reality, his body felt exhausted. It was roughly comparable to how dead tired he had felt after a fitness test back when he had been human in his previous life.

Within the Imaginary Dimension, aside from the mist churning for a while, there were no other changes.

"Hmm, it still doesn't feel complete enough. Let me think... what's missing?"

After a moment of thought, Blade Tusk came up with a way to improve it.

Once again entering a meditative state, he controlled the mist, gathering it together to form an azure lake that settled quietly at the bottom of the space. Then, another layer of mist—far thinner than before—gradually took shape over the lake's surface. Compared to the lake's tranquility, this layer of mist was much livelier. It churned about, lending the illusory space a hint of reality.

Setting aside a bit of focus, he tried casting again.

First, nearly half of the newly formed mist vanished into thin air.

Blade Tusk changed the initial mist from the simple concept of "Mental Power" into "vitality" that carried "thought," then gathered it into a lake. The new mist represented expendable "stamina." Once vitality and stamina had been strictly separated, new changes followed.

As everyone knew, "stamina" could be replenished. From then on, at least when casting spells with low-grade Magic Crystals, as long as he was careful, he wouldn't lose lifespan. Though a mage who cast spells using "stamina" did feel somewhat unconventional.

But the second change made him reveal an excited smile despite the waves of fatigue brought on by continuous spellcasting.

During the casting process, as he fed stamina into the Magic Crystal, a new "viewpoint" appeared.

Perhaps because, during his previous meditation, he had established the concept that "the body and its extensions are vessels for Mental Power," his "perception" now gained a new dimension of observation.

In other words, Blade Tusk had finally gained a way to "observe" the inside of a Magic Crystal.

Note 1: His current needs referred to the need for a meditative structure capable of simultaneously containing the body, organs, cells, and Mental Power.

Note 2: The room for the future meant that, on one hand, Blade Tusk wasn't certain whether Mental Power truly existed, so he retained its "experiential reality." On the other hand, he wasn't certain whether "Mental Power" could exist apart from the body, so he described it as "the body and its extensions are both its vessel." If Mental Power were proven to truly exist in the future, then the two concepts he had assigned now—"experiential reality" and "the body and its extensions"—would become that so-called "room."