Monty stared at him with a look of shock on his face and shook his head. Jack felt mana rush in towards Monty and then the familiar feeling of a healing weave being connected to his pathways. When it settled he felt a rush of cool healing flow over his body, only then did he look down at his hand. His wrist was hanging limp, like a puppet with its string cut and the arm itself dangled uselessly at his side. He briefly felt an ache in his shoulder before the cold rush hit it, there was another cracking sound and his shoulder seemed to jump as the joint clicked back into place.

  Moments later the same thing happened with his wrist, the adrenaline and excitement of succeeding had obviously numbed any pain he might have been experiencing.

  “Thanks” Jack said quietly as he realised he might have overdone it a little bit. He was still proud of working it out on his own, but doubted that was the best way to do things going forward. He was already thinking of ways to try it that would be better and less painful.

  “Jack, that was an interesting approach… very unique. I don’t want to cloud your thought process with how things should be or the way others learn. So tell me, where do you think you went wrong?” Monty asked as he helped pull Jack to his feet, Jack felt Monty remove the healing weave at the same time.

  Jack took a moment to sort his thoughts out from his new ideas, this was one of the things he liked about Monty. They seemed to share a similar philosophy as far as learning, Jack always felt he retained more if it was something he worked out on his own rather than something he was told.

  His first mistake was obviously the amount of mana he pulsed into his system. Without knowing how to use it or maneuver it around, just hoping it would compress on itself because he wanted it to was silly. He wasn’t sure about what else went wrong, other than there being too much mana for his first attempt he felt that the process was probably close to being right. He made a shockwave right?

  “I probably used too much mana, one maybe two pulses was probably enough. I obviously messed up the timing of the movement as well. Maybe if I can get that part better I won't end up on my ass next time?” He smiled as he stood up and looked at Monty to see if his assessment was close.

  Monty stared, and his eyes told Jack that there was obviously a fair bit he had missed out. He shook his head but a smile played on his face.

  “I think it is going to be fun seeing how you approach things. All other things aside, your biggest mistake was not telling me you were going to attempt something potentially dangerous.” Monty held up a hand to stall Jack from retorting.

  “I don’t care that you were being dangerous, Our paired synergies mean you can afford to be a little more reckless than normal. But as we start using mana more, you have to remember that you are still at risk of overloading until you can manage this stuff yourself.” He reached out and pulled Jack back to the center of the room.

  “Just give me a heads-up when you are going to be a little stupid and I can be on hand to deal with the consequences.” He then stood facing Jack and took one step backwards. He looked towards the wall and held his palm out aiming.

  “The motions are nothing Jack. They are simply something I like to combine when I am fighting, I am not generally known for being a ranged fighter. Try to follow along.”

  Jack felt Monty start to draw in mana, he tried to extend his mana sense outward towards Monty to feel what he was doing. He felt it expand slightly but as it got closer he began to feel slight vibrations from Monty and then it passed as if Monty had let his senses observe.

  He felt mana collect into Monty's core and then it slowly started to move towards his palm. Unlike when Jack pulsed his heart, Monty's mana felt like it just moved entirely at his command. It moved all together and in exactly the direction he wanted it to. Jack noticed there was no speed to it, he expected it to move faster to explode but he knew this must just demonstrate Monty's control.

  As the mana reached the palm of Monty's hand, it stopped moving. It didn't vibrate around and collide with the walls of his pathways, it just stopped. Where Jack had tried to compress the mana and then simply let it go to exit his body any way it could. Monty compressed the mana and then as if he placed a wedge behind it, shaped the mana in such a way that when he let it release it all shot towards the wall his palm was facing.

  Smooth directed and explosive, the shockwave exploded out from his hand once again with a green glow that vibrated through the air. It impacted the wall and the blow back made his hair stand up for a moment.

  “Shape, Purpose and Strength.” Monty rattled off holding up one finger for each.

  “You had strength down, The only problem you will have with strength will be learning restraint. You don't really have to worry about running out of mana.” He pulled a finger down.

  “Purpose, you kind of, sort of, maybe, gave it a tiny bit at the end. When you absorb the mana into your body, it is yours. You decide what it does, where it moves, how you want it to act. You have a new sense that you need to learn to use, you don’t have to think about breathing but you do it.”

  He looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself and then went on.

  “Think of your mind like the muscle that will let you move your mana sense, that is how you give Mana a purpose. You will have to work the rest out on your own, it will be better if you have less to confuse you as you learn.” He put down another finger leaving one up.

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  “Shape, you had none, nothing at all. You are lucky your shockwave didn't do more damage to yourself. If you had one of the more physical frequencies and you did that you would be in much more pain. Shape and purpose are similar and both related to your mana sense but they are very different things. That is all I will say for now.”

  He put the final finger down. “Now are you ready to get back to training or do you have any more questions?”

  Jack shook his head, he had questions of course but with everything fresh in his mind he knew it was time to practise. Monty walked back out of the room and Jack moved to the center, opting to avoid the body movements for now and focus on the interior of his body and the mana flowing through it.

  Trying to absorb the info that was given to him, he tried to focus on his mana sense and his mind. He experimented and got caught up in the sensations, he pinched and pulled and traced along his mana sense.

  He eventually worked out how to guide mana down a path. He imagined that the mana was a thread and he grabbed the edge of it. He could slowly pull that thread through his pathways and create a flow that more mana followed.

  Unsure of how long had passed as he was engrossed in his explorations, his stomach grumbled and the call of hunger snapped him from his experiments. He felt he was close to being able to attempt it again, trying to be safer this time. He still didn't get the shaping bit, but a famous song reminded him that two out of three ain't bad so he decided to give it a try anyway.

  He looked over to Monty and motioned for him to come in, the man seemingly just sitting in the chair watching the whole time. Monty entered the training room and raised an eyebrow at him.

  “I am going to give it another try so in case I do something stupid I thought you should be on hand” Jack said with a smile before stepping back and holding a hand towards the wall.

  He took a deep breath and pushed a pulse of mana from the vortex in his body, noting that it was very full. Using his new thread method he pulled a segment towards his palm, half of the pulse followed immediately. He waited as the mana pooled in his palm, as it started to gather he used his mind to will it into a ball shape and squeezed.

  It worked and he felt a similar sense of compression he had when Monty demonstrated. He held his palm forward and thought of it moving forward towards the wall, picturing the path he wanted it to take in his mind. He let go of the compressed ball with his mind.

  The mana release raced to expand back outwards, a large portion of it heading the direction he wanted. It hit the end of his mana pathway and he felt a pushing sensation on his skin, followed by a slight burning sensation. Then the pressure released, Jack’s arm shot backwards but he managed to keep his balance this time. A wave of force rippled out from his palm, the wave was deformed slightly with most of it traveling towards the wall and a smaller part dispersing around him in a circle.

  Jack fist pumped the air and caught a slight smile from Monty as the big man patted him on the shoulder.

  “Good work, Jack. That was much better, you need to work on the shape part but the strength was better and the purpose was great.”

  “Thanks. I’m pretty pumped, that went way better than I had expected. The shape thing is hard but I didn't really practice it so soon, hopefully.” Jack was interrupted as his stomach rumbled loudly again “I’m a little hungry though, how long was I there for?”.

  “About three hours I think, using mana for as long as you did would build quite an appetite. Let's go get some food and take a break on a high note.” Monty said as he led Jack from the room, pressing a number of buttons on the control panel before leaving.

  “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to say anything because I don’t like people to compare themselves to others as everyone learns differently. But I have to say, you are picking up the internal mana movements much faster than I expected.” Monty shook his head as he trailed a hand on the corridor next to them as they walked.

  “It intrigues me, I will have to talk with Turrel later to find out more about this Prism trait. Your whole circumstance and how we got here could be having an impact as well. Honestly the amount of mana your body has handled already in the last few days is more than most new initiates use in months. That has to have had an effect on how your body is adapting and how quickly you are making these connections.”

  He looked at Jack for a second and laughed.

  “Or you could just be a genius, but from what I have seen so far that is probably not it.”

  Jack pursed his lips as they came to an abrupt stop. “That’s a bit rude Monty, I don’t know if you know me well enough to make a statement like that. I will have you know I got the highest score out of my class in year 5 maths. Also I’m not well versed at the whole spaceship room thing, this doesn't sound like somewhere we get food though?”

  They had stopped in front of a room which was making a very loud humming sound that could be heard even through the closed door. Monty stepped forward and touched a panel next to the doors. They opened and the sound increased. He walked inside and motioned for Jack to follow.

  As he entered the room, he saw a long hallway that Monty continued down. He followed as the hum grew louder. Monty approached another set of doors, and tapped away at a panel near the door again. This time a small part of the wall slid up and two devices that looked like headsets popped out. Monty put one on his head and handed one back to Jack.

  Once it was on the hum reduced and then Jack heard Monty's voice in his ear.

  “Yeah, we have one little pitstop before food. See I said I would give you some perspective right? And I pondered a bit while you were training. Do you know how much mana the training facility uses? How much three hours to run that room costs?” He stared at Jack for a moment, keeping a completely serious expression.

  “No idea, I mean that sounds like something you need to think about before letting me use the training room right?” Jack responded with a wink.

  “Haha, ohh of course. It’s fine, it's not that expensive. Well not in comparison to the cost to keep the whole vessel operational. But see I was trying to come up with a way we could get some training for your amplifier in before we go back to see Turrel. As I was thinking I came up with an amazing idea on how we could do that and you could help me at the same time.” Monty winked back at Jack, he turned around and clicked on the panel again. The doors next to him opened up and he motioned for Jack to step forward.

  Jack took a very tentative step forward as he peered into the room. What he saw inside confused him to begin with, but then as he stared what he was looking at synced to a recent memory and he turned to Monty with an incredulous look on his face.

  “There is no way you are going to use me like that!”