After leaving the Apprentice Horde and returning to his little hut, Karin quietly opened the Simple Meditation Insights.
The booklet was rather old. Its first three pages were an introduction detailing the author's life and assorted other nonsense.
Karin skimmed them casually, skipped ahead, and opened to the main text:
What is meditation?
Meditation is an important means by which we mages comprehend magical energy, as well as an important pathway for connecting to the Ley Line.
For Mage Apprentices, the most important thing during their early attempts at meditation is to be in a very quiet environment. A quiet environment helps them avoid all disturbances and concentrate, allowing them to enter a meditative state more easily...
"Utter nonsense!" A somewhat angry voice rang out in Karin's mind.
"Oh?" Karin immediately smiled. "Finally stopped pretending to be mute?"
The normally chatty All-Knowing Eye had remained completely silent ever since they left the Apprentice Horde, and Karin found it rather unsettling!
"Although the All-Knowing Eye is extremely displeased with the host's earlier, utterly foolish decision... the All-Knowing Eye believes it still has a responsibility to prevent the host from going astray in his magical studies!" the All-Knowing Eye said haughtily.
"You mean... there's something wrong with this book?" Karin asked quietly.
"Of course! Didn't you read the introduction just now? The author of this worthless book was merely a trashy fourth-circle mage. A dabbler like that probably barely understood meditation himself, yet he dared write a book to teach others?" Perhaps because of its anger, the All-Knowing Eye's voice carried a distinct note of disdain.
"Even a fourth-circle mage... is trash..." Karin shook his head helplessly. To him, the fourth circle was still an unattainable height.
He continued, "Then what's the correct way to meditate?"
"One should indeed remain undisturbed during meditation, because a mage in a meditative state is extremely vulnerable. Being abruptly startled out of that state can cause some damage to the brain!" the All-Knowing Eye answered. "But the claim that the surroundings must be absolutely silent is wrong!"
"Lord Kassas, the All-Knowing Eye's first host, explained this in his early research... in an absolutely silent environment, the brain can easily become fatigued during meditation, shortening the duration of each session!"
"So the ideal place to meditate should have a moderate amount of ambient sound, such as a forest with occasional birdsong or a riverbank with the constant sound of flowing water... these sounds subtly reduce mental fatigue, thereby improving the efficiency of each meditation session..."
"That makes sense!" Karin nodded. When memorizing texts at school in his previous life, he usually avoided the quiet study room. Instead, he chose places with a little ambient noise, such as the hill behind the school, where he actually found memorization easier.
The same principle probably applied here!
Karin stood up, ready to go outside and find a suitable place to meditate. As he did, he picked up the Simple Meditation Insights.
"You're still bringing that?" the All-Knowing Eye asked disapprovingly. "Isn't my guidance enough for you?"
"All right, all right!" Karin tossed the parchment booklet behind him and left the hut.
Before long, Karin found a small grove west of Fairbreeze Village.
It was a secluded little grove. The fallen leaves on the ground looked old, suggesting that Elves rarely came here. Faint birdsong drifted down from overhead. It was quite peaceful, but not completely silent.
"A fine place to meditate!" the All-Knowing Eye remarked.
Karin found an oak tree and sat on the ground beside it.
"Next, relax your body while concentrating your mind!" the All-Knowing Eye instructed. "Can you see a blue sphere of light inside your mind?"
Karin nodded silently. Just as the All-Knowing Eye had said, he found a blue sphere of light... it was tiny, barely the size of a soybean.
"That is your magic source!" the All-Knowing Eye continued. "Now, control the energy within that blue sphere and gather it in your hand..."
Trying to control the blue sphere as instructed, Karin focused his mental energy.
"Ah..." With a cry of pain, Karin clutched his head.
"How foolish!" the All-Knowing Eye commented bluntly. "I told you to use your mental energy to control the sphere, not clash with it!"
Karin did not answer. After taking a moment to recover, he focused his mind again.
A few minutes later, he cried out again and clutched his head once more.
After repeating this roughly three or four times, Karin finally managed to approach the sphere without clashing with it.
Wait... I've got it under control... All-Knowing Eye, I've got my magic source under control! Karin said excitedly in his mind after another attempt.
"Your aptitude is slightly better than expected! Now use your mental energy to direct the power within the sphere into your right hand!"
Karin did as the All-Knowing Eye instructed and felt his right hand gradually grow hot...
"Stop trying to contain that energy. Release it!" the All-Knowing Eye urged.
A yellow flame instantly appeared in Karin's right hand.
"This is..." Karin murmured.
"The zeroth-circle Evocation spell, Ignition Spell!" the All-Knowing Eye explained. "The simplest spell of all, and an essential one both at home and on the road!"
The yellow flame was tiny, about the size of his thumb. As it burned, Karin felt himself growing tired... after a mere twenty seconds, the flame went out!
"Your mana source is still very weak. All your mana was depleted in that short time!" the All-Knowing Eye remarked. "What you need to do now is refill your mana source!"
"I feel so sleepy!" Karin said wearily. "Like I could fall asleep at any moment!"
"You mustn't fall asleep! Your mana source will recover on its own while you sleep, but that would defeat the purpose of meditation!" the All-Knowing Eye said hastily. "Concentrate your mind and sense the Ley Line in the sky!"
Karin strained with all his might to concentrate. Then he sensed an incomparably magnificent radiance in the sky.
Streams of blue starlight formed a vast net across the heavens, converging at a node in nearby Silvermoon City.
"This is the Ley Line! You can only sense it when your mana is completely depleted and your mental energy is at its weakest!" the All-Knowing Eye explained again. "The Ley Line links the magical laws of an entire world. Meditation is the process by which a mage builds a channel between himself and the Ley Line, then strengthens his mana source by actively drawing from it!"
Karin began trying once more to build a channel to the Ley Line.
Beads of sweat rolled down Karin's face. At the same time, he felt energy from the Ley Line in the sky begin to trickle into the mana source within his mind...
He opened his eyes and discovered that it was already completely dark... before he knew it, three or four hours had passed.
"That concludes the full process of a meditation session!" The All-Knowing Eye's voice sounded beside his ear again. "According to the All-Knowing Eye's readings, the host's mana source expanded by 0.6% during his last meditation session!"