'How am I going to use my mana now?' Tanaka furrowed his brows as he thought deeply. 'Hmm, didn't Sargon mention principles. What were they again? Oh, yeah. They were Turbulence, Fluidity and Rigidity.
'Ok, then first let me start with Turbulence. As far as I know, turbulence is what happens when planes shake uncontrollably, although I don't know quite what the actual word means.' Tanaka then cocked his head to the side as he tried racking his brain for something more. 'Sigh, darnit. Maybe I should have taken my teacher's advice to read more. Oh well, I can't change that now. Maybe I should try the other two then. It might give me a clue.
'Fluidity. Well, I know what that is. It has to do with flow, like water or air. Hmm... Wait!' Tanaka's eyes widened in realisation. 'Doens't mana flow too. It definitely felt like it was flowing out of me when I touched that crystal yesterday.' Tanaka chuckled in satisfaction.
Tanaka sat down with his legs crossed and then closed his eyes. 'I see, so that's the Fluidity principle. Well, at least part of it.' Tanaka then focused on his mana and did as he did when he had first gone to Veilora. The difference, however, was that he made sure to only focus on his mana alone. He wouldn't risk going there, not yet. Not when he was still weak.
Tanaka could now feel his mana inside him, but was surprised. To him, the mana seemed to be completely still, not moving at all. He then tried to move it. He tried for several minutes as beads of sweat started to form on his forehead. What the heck! Why won't it budge?' Tanaka huffed in annoyance. He then stood up and dusted himself off.
'Looks like I'll have to get a sense for how to get my mana to flow.' Tanaka then looked at the stalactite and gulped. 'Guess I could use that the same way I used the glowing crystals.'
Tanaka walked up to the stalactite and slowly placed his hand on it. 'Nice and easy, now. Just a little bit. Not too much.' His finger touched the finger, and then he quickly pulled back his hand as he let out a yelp.
'Jeez, these stones are quite gluttonous.' Tanaka then looked down at his and smirked. 'Ha! It's fine. I was careful this time round, plus I now have a feel for how my mana flows.
Although he smiled, internally, he was lamenting his situation even more. 'Now that I've felt the flow of mana, I've realised that I'm not going to be able to move it on my own. This stuff is far too viscous, like magma or something. I'm not gonna be able to move this stuff. Goshdarnit! Tanaka facepalmed. 'How am I gonna use mana now?'
Tanaka shook his head. 'Maybe, the Rigidity principle will be able to help me, though I'm not expecting much at this point.
'Rigidity probably has to do with how hard something is, right? Hmm.' Tanaka thought for some time, trying to find a connection. 'Maybe I've been approaching this from the wrong angle. It's been hard for me to move all of my mana all at once, but what if I move a tiny amount of it?'
He then proceeded to sit back down and focus on his mana again. Instead of getting all of it to move, he focused on separating a tiny bit of mana away from the rest.
Surprisingly, it worked. It was still incredibly difficult for him to do, though. 'It seems that when I keep it as a tinier piece, I can move around more freely.'
An idea then struck Tanaka. 'Aha! I think I'm starting to understand it now. They're just like the states of matter. When the mana is all gathered together in one spot, it becomes rigid, like a solid. That's probably why when I touched the stalactite, it didn't just take everything. It had to break it down into something more manageable, like crushing a boulder into sand.' Although he knew that his analogy didn't quite work, he figured that it was better than nothing.
'Ok, let me try to see how many of these mana droplets I can manage.' He then separated another drop, then another. And another, and so on, until he had 7 droplets separated from the rest of his mana. Tanaka was now completely drenched in sweat. His breathing was now more ragged as he got up from where he sat.
'Phew. I'm gonna need to bathe myself before I continue with my journey.'
Tanaka then went towards the pool of water nearby and took a bath.
...
'I feel fresh. Tanaka thought as he now fastened his vest onto his wound. The wound had healed well and hurt a lot less now. He knew that he wouldn't have to limp around everywhere now. 'It's time for me to get going now. That massive mana from before keeps getting stronger and stronger.' Tanaka then set off further into the darkness of the cave.
As he walked, he subconsciously maintained the 7 mana droplets. Tanaka wasn't sure how else to train himself to handle more mana, but he knew from his experience with the stalactite that he had a long way to go.
When he had let the stalactite absorb some of his mana, it had taken what Tanaka estimated was at least a thousand times more mana than he could currently handle. Even with it taking that much mana, the stone didn't even flicker. It really put into perspective how impressive the gonlins were.
'The crazy thing is I survived a tackle from one of them, and although they were fast, they still were only a bit faster than I was. So what were they using all that mana for? Cool fire hair? No, that might not be it. I should make sure to be more cautious around here.'
Tanaka continued his journey through the cave system, but he slowly realised something terrible. 'Why is it that my elevation is decreasing more and more? Shouldn't I be going up? Tanaka groaned. 'I might just end up stuck here forever, huh?' He rubbed his temples in frustration.
Click! Clack!
Tanaka quickly turned around when he heard the footsteps. He stood ready for a confrontation, but the footsteps slowly faded away. 'What the heck. Was that a ghost? This place has ghosts!? A shiver went down Tanaka's spine.
Tanaka completely forgot about his previous worries and rushed forward quickly. 'There's no way I'm fighting ghosts yet. Nope. Never.'
Unbeknownst to Tanaka, however, two golden eyes appeared behind him and then vanished just as quickly.
...
'Phew. Hopefully, whatever that was doesn't happen again. That nearly gave me a heart attack.'
Tanaka then looked around himself, and was surprised to find shrubbery all around him. 'Are these actual plants? How are they even growing down here?'
Tanaka got excited. If there were plants, that might mean there were vegetables or fruits. He might finally be able to eat.
Tanaka then danced. He spun and jumped, in both spirit and body. He'd never been so happy in his life.
'Haha! Now it's time for me to find some grub!'