Back in the apartment, Jason and Rosha are on the roof as Courtney prepares dinner.
Jason, “So, I don’t know Mana. Seems obvious enough, I use Energy after all, but it needs to be said. However, I do know power. I know the body and not only the human body. Better yet, while these avatars have all the normal internals you’d expect? The System allows for some wiggle room. I took that quite far. Maybe too far. Now we make it work for you.”
Rosha, “So what? Combat meditation, dancing cultivation?”
Jason, “Okay, you’re just stringing words together.”
Rosha shrugs, “But am I wrong?”
Jason, “Actually, you are. This isn’t for combat and I wouldn’t call it dancing. Though some would call it a form of meditation and in theory, will cultivate your Mana. Though much to my frustration, I haven’t had the most success with increasing my Energy.”
Rosha, “I figure that would be something you’d have well in hand? Isn’t cultivation usually a matter of accumulation?”
Jason shrugs, “Energy isn’t a pool I can grow. Rather, it seems to be more about access to the innate life force of the world. I could make the hole into the Energy realm bigger, but at best it would simply go nowhere. How much Energy I have available to use is a delicate balance of draw, access, control, body, mind, likely soul, and I’m sure some things I’m missing. So the fact that in theory the System can just add more is kind of insane.”
Rosha, hands on her hips, huffs, “And you think Mana isn’t as special?”
Jason shakes his head, “No, but the way you accumulate Mana is a lot closer to what I’m familiar with. It is a pool of power kept within the body.
“And if it wasn’t for the fact that a core can form anywhere in the body? I would connect the three powers to the concepts of lower, middle, and upper dantian. Well, except for the fact that you’re limited to only one power and I’ve never heard of opening a second core, let alone a third.”
Rosha raises an eyebrow, “You going to try for it?”
Jason shakes his head, “I won’t claim to know the entirety of this reality’s laws, but I’ve meditated on my powers. A being gets one core. It might be possible to create temporary pools of power, but those will at best be dams. Anything that has more than a single core?
“Well, you want to kill it or run. Because there are two possibilities, I can see. Either that’s some amalgamation and you don’t want to chance it looking for an extra pool of power. Or you’re looking at a being who has broken a core rule of this reality. In which case? Well, irl there is enough fiction about ‘Outsiders’, ‘Aberrations’, and Elder Mythos entities.”
Rosha laughs, “What? Are we going to find Cthulhu out in the ocean?”
Jason shakes his head, “You’re getting the details of that story wrong. It wasn’t ever in the underwater city. That Being existed many layers outside of mortal reality as defined by that setting.
“The reason hitting It with a boat worked? What was hit wasn’t It, but a projection slowly taking on elements of that reality until it was real enough. The Being’s power is such that creating a mortal realm is negligible.
“Also, while I doubt throwing Its name around does anything. Would it surprise you to learn that ‘Cthulhu’ was a known entity not only in my original life, but, from eavesdropping, at least in a few other dimensions?”
Rosha shivers, “Well, that’s a thing. What about all the other entities?”
Jason shrugs, “Meh, some yes, some no. Really seemed to depend on how ‘local’ they were. Nyarlathotep wasn’t a thing, though I suspect that is simply because they took some other form. Kind of hard to have a Pharaoh when such a position doesn’t exist in a world. Though being known for having a thousand forms also means that who knows how they might present themselves to fit in?”
Rosha shakes her head, “Welp, that’s a memetic hazard if I ever heard one. Glad I can’t say their names properly.”
Jason smiles, “Who knows! Maybe a rabbitkin has the right mouth for it?”
Rosha crosses her arms in an ‘X’, “Nope! Nope, nope! I’ll leave that for the squidfolk or what have you. Let’s get back to training. We are in a world where there is likely someone at this very moment, who is crafting a tome bound in the skin of a sapient being they killed and tanned expressly for the purpose. We do not need to delve into those dark corners before we personally run into them!
“Like, we already know of an undead kingdom out in the Deep Wilds. There is no reason to roll more dice on that kind of mess!”
Jason, “We know of an undead kingdom?”
Rosha shrugs, “Well, yes and no? Those undead we faced while claiming the stead were likely from a known undead kingdom. I looked it up at one point? Though it doesn’t really matter because they’re deep in the Deep Wilds.
“The powers they use are a little too out of step with NeoRealm. Though something calls them, which means they show up for events like that all the time.”
Jason waves that off, “I wouldn’t count that. We don’t actually know that for sure. Undead tend to get a bit samey after a while. Because the powers that animate them are inherently about endings, they don’t easily grow, instead of either stagnating or even regressing.
“They gain new powers by giving up old ones, and generally at a bad ratio. Plus, the new powers tend to be type-specific. So a mummy isn’t going to suddenly develop a mesmerizing gaze, but vampires practically stumble upon it.”
Rosha, “But we saw some pretty unique undead during the claiming?”
Jason shakes his head, “We saw types of undead we aren’t familiar with. Yet if they were truly unique, how would your sources so easily identify them? The most unique an undead will be in power and personality is right at the start and if they ever manage to reach the top end of power. A top end that I don’t think matches NeoRealm’s level cap.
“Anyway, let’s run you through a simple moving meditation so I can watch how it affects your Mana flow.”
Rosha pauses, “Wait, what? That’s a sudden change of subject.”
Jason shrugs, “I thought you wanted to get on with it?”
Rosha nods, “Well, yes, but that was sudden.”
Jason, “Doesn’t matter. We’ve wasted enough time and I want to run you through this at least once before dinner. Now do as I do.” And Jason begins a simple Kata.