The first rays of Thursday morning filtered through the curtains, spilling a soft glow across the room. Trafalgar stirred awake, his bare skin brushing against the sheets. As usual, he had slept without clothes, finding the sensation of mana flowing more natural that way.
He sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, before bringing his hands together. Closing his eyes, he drew a deep breath. Thin streams of residual mana clung to him from the night, faint wisps of energy that shimmered like dust motes. With steady focus, he pulled them inward, guiding the flow into his mana core.
'Closer to the next rank,' he thought, feeling the core within his chest pulse with faint heat. 'I'll soon catch up to those without support. Still… Alfons, Zafira… they're miles ahead. Doesn't matter. Even if nothing's hunting me right now, I can't slack off. If I want to survive in this world, I have to keep moving forward.'
