Many hours later, Raiyan sat in a perfect lotus position, diligently meditating while cradling the rabbit's soul in his blood-stained hands.

Finding a cave to rest in was much easier than he anticipated, but the size of the one he'd found could barely be called a cave. It was more like a hole in the ground, its size only around 50 square feet. For a temporary shelter, though, it was more than enough.

He wasn't sure if looking for shelter was the correct move as far as survival was considered, but it didn't matter. His plan would hopefully solve his sustenance issues for a while.

"Ah, there it is," He murmured to himself, taking a deep breath as the familiar buzzing of energies flowed through his body. He opened his amber eyes to a screen, unsurprised at its appearance. 

The skill he'd been working on, Meditation, had improved.

=[Category: Skill]

=[Name: Meditation]

=[Grade: D]

-D: The user becomes sensitive to spiritually active energies.

-F: The user is now able to suppress the mental side effects of physiological needs not being met. (Caution: While the mind may be unaffected, the body still suffers.)

The first part of the skill, which he gained from simply meditating for a full hour, was the crux of his plan. With it, he could continue to meditate without being disturbed by exhaustion, hunger, or thirst.

It was rather useful in that regard, as he could now ignore sleep for days without a hit to his mental faculties. 

Though, he would admit, that meditating for ten hours straight was dreadfully boring. He was used to long periods though, so it wasn't a real problem. Spending ten days in the Time Chamber tended to desensitize a person to the passing of time.

And now, he had an open path to acquiring control over his Ki, an event that hadn't happened in past life until he'd been in Conton City for over a year.

But he hadn't chosen to meditate for that long just for a measly power boost; He had a five-step plan to follow.

Closing his eyes once more, Raiyan stilled his emotions and calmed his thoughts. If he messed up the next part even a little bit, all of his efforts would be for naught.

The world disappeared around him with each controlled breath, the passing of time getting harder to gauge. Minutes, hours, days? He wasn't sure.

It didn't matter.

With how unnervingly still he sat, he could feel his Ki starting to become restless with anticipation, flowing through his body at the slightest twitch of a muscle. This was a hidden facet of meditating that some fighters, like Tien for example, loved to use to prepare themselves for a fight.

But, once again, this wasn't about his ki. He ignored his buzzing energy, looking deeper within himself for a power he wasn't sure would even be there.

Slowly, he could feel it awaken in wisps of power, little by little. Like awakening a sleeping limb, he coaxed that unfamiliar part of himself to life, urging it to listen to his command.

In his past life, this power was unparalleled in its utility. He'd gotten permission to learn it from Fortuneteller Baba, but that was around the same time he'd finally unlocked his ki control. As a child with a one-track mind, he completely abandoned it for the sake of being like his heroes.

A power that while prominent in the world of Dragon Ball, wasn't often used in a directly offensive manner.

This nascent whirlpool of energy swirled in his heart, gradually gaining momentum as he summoned it forth. Fragments of light twinkled in this maelstrom, each one straining to reach the other, but unable to without a guiding hand. Bit by bit, he gathered these fragments together patiently, careful not to force them together if they didn't connect.

It was a tedious, strenuous process that required all of his focus. He could only liken it to a mental jigsaw puzzle, only there were thousands of pieces and each one looked exactly alike.

Finally though, after what felt like forever, it clicked. The delicate fragments of light shined as they made a sphere - absorbing all of the energy around them into the center.

A glass orb formed in his spiritual center, holding a supernatural pool of power within itself.

His mana.

=[Category: Skill]

=[Name: Mana Core]

=[Grade: F]

-F: Generates 1 Magic Point per 24 Earth hours.

Raiyan sighed, letting his body slump to the floor in his exhaustion. He didn't have an accurate way to tell how long he'd been sitting there, but when combined with his time meditating, he hadn't moved an inch in what felt like more than a day.

If there was one trait that he'd carried in both lives, it was his diligence. That diligence was the only reason he'd even survived this long, as his previous naivete would've killed him early on if he was lazy.

It was also this diligence that made the entire plan viable.

When Chronoa sealed away his Harvest ability, he wasn't the unfortunate exception. Every summoned chosen one who had an ability that was deemed too powerful had their abilities sealed. So, to make up for it, Fortuneteller Baba began to teach a class to learn magic.

While he wasn't very interested in magic, he was still as diligent even as a child, so he listened intently to every word. For him, magic felt like another boring subject like math or history. He'd learn every bit of it, but he didn't care for the subjects themselves at all.

So when Baba announced that those who passed the magic ritual to form their mana core would be going on to her second class, he purposely failed. If one wasn't born with it, then they had one shot to create a magic core. And in that life, he'd wasted it.

To him, back then, it was a turning point. A declaration that he'd be strong even without the helping hand the old witch had given him.

Raiyan raised his hand, crackles of blue lightning flickering off his palm. "How idiotic…" He mumbled to himself.

But while he'd wasted his only opportunity for magic in the past, he still remembered all of the theory. It was ingrained into him the same way he still knew calculus even after decades of not using it.

"Thank you, Master Baba," He quietly muttered to her, focusing his mana as he did so, "You've made my life so much easier."

Unlike Ki, which one could learn through experience and talent, magic was akin to science. As long as one understood the theory, it was easy. But if they didn't, they'd be akin to a bumbling fool wandering in the night.

And so, this was the second to final part of his plan. To use the power that Baba had taught him and–

He squeezed his hand, forcing the mana to work in a certain motion, circulating into the effect he desired. It was only a singular magic point to use the novice spell, but it was a bit difficult to form as he'd never used magic before.

–A distortion of space ripped open in the air. Barely visible, it rippled like the water of a quiet pond, expanding from a single point.

It was his 'Inventory'. The standard spell of the conjuration school of magic.

A skill screen popped up in front of him, showcasing his achievement in learning this magic, but he only graced it with a nod. There was still the final part of his five-step plan. 

First, I learned Meditation to stave off any feelings of hunger or thirst.

Then, I pushed Meditation to D-Grade for a natural sensitivity to mystical energies.

Following that, I simply had to form my Magic Core properly, as I was taught.

And with Magic Core, I'm able to utilize Conjuration Magic, the school of magic said to be practiced religiously by the Kaioshin– The Gods of Creation.

And so, I've come to the final step. A reckless plan relying on an all-or-nothing gamble. 

Thinking this, he picked up the soul of the horned rabbit lying in his lap. There was no skill for observation like in The Gamer webtoon, at least to his knowledge. Despite this, he had a bit of information on how souls functioned.

Well, he knew how they functioned to his benefit, at least.

Each soul had a color to it, indicating how powerful the soul was. The only two important colors he'd seen in his past life were red and orange, but he was sure there had to be more. The orange had come from a common Saibaman, after all.

For red, he deemed it a Lesser Soul. It wasn't the lowest version of a soul, as he'd once gotten a dull gray from a random animal, but it was second to last.

And since the horned rabbit's soul was red, it meant he could shove the soul inside his skill screen and–

=[Would you like to directly upgrade the Skill 'Conjuration Magic'?] 

=[Caution: The soul utilized will be discarded.]

–Yes.

–No.

–Then he could, without a single moment of hesitation, do something as outrageous as this. 

Of course, he clicked yes.

Raiyan hissed as he held his head in his hands, writhing on the ground. The process of directly upgrading a skill was indeed painful, as he had to forcefully absorb and convert the soul into the information he required.

Sadly, this wouldn't work again, as Lesser Souls only upgraded from F to D-Grade, but it was more than enough for now.

This process couldn't be repeated for the same skill if the soul was too weak, though, so it wasn't as powerful as it seemed. To go from D-Grade to C-Grade would require an orange– a Common Soul.

Finally, after a few minutes of suffering, it was done.

=[Category: Skill]

=[Name: Conjuration Magic]

=[Grade: D]

-D: Spell - Mundane Materialization. The user expends Magic Points to create items that do not have magical properties. (Cost: Varies)

-F: Spell - Inventory. The user expends Magic Points to materialize a dimensional fold, designed to be used as a storage device. (Cost: 1 MP)

Raiyan almost laughed despite the pain coursing through his nerves. Jackpot.