=====One week later=====

James was chilling on a plane. A few days ago, his friend Jack had updated him that vacation trip that his dad planned. They were planning to go to Oregon to camp out for the better part of the week, during their spring break. James and Mo had gotten permission from their parents, and thus were accompanying Jack on this trip.

Currently, Jack, James, and Mo were sitting side by side on a plane. The three of them lived in Phoenix, Arizona, one of the driest places in the entire United States. They decided to spare some time and fly to Oregon instead of driving.

“I can’t wait to see green trees. I’ve never seen them before,” said James.

“Yeah,” said Mo. “And a lake. Water. Fishies. I’ll finally be able to lay my eyes upon these beautiful things.”

“Have you guys ever gone fishing?” asked Jack.

“No.” “Nah.”

“Jeez. Well, prepare yourselves, I guess. I kinda suck at it, but I’ll try and teach you guys.”

Jack then started watching a movie on the seat’s screen. It was some action flick about a man killing people because they hurt his dog. The main character used everything he could find to send his enemies to the underworld. If he had a pencil, that pencil would be driven into the enemies’ eyeball. If he had a wrench, he’d brain them or use the adjusting feature to crush their left testicle. James winced as he watched that scene. Jack, on the other hand, wasn’t affected at all. He sipped his complementary drink and munched his pretzels with the air of a king.

“Personally, I believe the pretzels are better than the biscuits,” he said sagely. “The delicate crunch of the pretzels, with the dusting of salt, creates a balance that does harmonizes perfectly.”

“No, the biscuits are supreme,” said Mo as he was rummaging through his bag.

Jack was sitting to James’ right. Mo, on his left side, pulled out his phone and ear buds, and started listening to music while reading a webtoon he had downloaded the day before.

James closed his eyes. He didn’t go into the dungeon, and he didn’t go to sleep either. Instead, he was focusing. One could call this action meditation. What was James trying to mediate for? He wasn’t a monk; he still had hair. Did James have a sudden interest in yoga, calisthenics, and meditation?

That wasn’t it. James had started working out, but wasn’t doing yoga. Instead, he was trying to find the feeling of mana within his body. Or, more specifically, his mana core.

The mana core was the core in the body of a human or monster, where all of its mana flowed through. Monsters and humans alike used this mana core to direct the flow of both internal and external mana. In other words, this mana core was the centerpiece of all magic. Before he could even attempt to use magic, he had to find this mana core and be able to manipulate it, even if only by a little. Even if he were to find a magic book in the dungeon, he wouldn’t be able to utilize it unless he did this step.

But, James hadn’t been able to feel the presence of the mana core within himself. He was able to detect external mana: for example, when he faced the goblins, there was a certain pressure he felt. That pressure occurred due to the mana the goblin was emitting. But, he couldn’t feel mana within himself well.

James concentrated and attempted once again to detect the mana. He felt the slight presence of mana within his own body. However, this presence was very faint, and was spread all across his body. This was probably just the mana in his body, as a result of his dungeon exploring. However, this was not his core.

James attempted to feel his mana core for a bit more, when all of a sudden, he felt a mana presence near him. James gritted his teeth.

“Damn it! I want to sense mana inside my body, not outside! Stop making fun of me!”

He attempted to concentrate again, but then he realized something: he wasn’t in the dungeon! He was on a plane. Where could the flow of mana have come from? James’ eyes flew open and he attempted to locate the source of the mana.

The pulse appeared to originate from the left. After concentrating a bit more, James came to the conclusion that the pulse was coming from around the vicinity of his friend, Mo. James looked at Mo. He was still reading his novel, nodding his head to the beat of his music. There was nothing out of the ordinary. James pretended to go to the bathroom in order to confirm this from another angle, but the results were the same. The mana presence seemed to be coming from his friend.

James sat back down in his seat and eyed Mo. There was a chance that his friend was dungeon explorer. However, that wasn’t likely. They would’ve gone to sleep at the same time, and thus it would’ve been very likely that they would’ve met in the dungeon shop. So what was going on?

As James sank into his thoughts, Mo continued his gentle head banging. James eventually got curious and asked:

“Mo, what are you listening to?”

“Eh? Oh, my music?” Mo pulled an ear bud out of his ear and offered it to James. James took the ear bud and put it in place. Then, Mo pressed the play button on his phone.

Immediately, James keeled over. The pain in his ears was stronger than anything he’d ever felt before. He felt as if his eardrums were bursting, and wished he could destroy them so he wouldn’t have to be subjected to this torture. He’d rather be deaf for his entire life. The buzzing in his ears wouldn’t stop. The pain kept on increasing. Then, as James finally felt as if he had the strength to pull the ear bud out, the beat dropped. The force of the kick drum reverberated throughout James’ entire being. The waves of pain were much worse than before, and it took all of James’ effort to not pass out. His mouth began frothing a little bit.

After another minute of this torture, James mustered all of his mental might and pulled the ear bud out, handing it back to Mo.

“How was it?” asked Mo.

“It was okay,” James replied listlessly.

“Alright. I mean, everybody had different tastes in music.” Mo put the ear bud back in and continued reading.

James couldn’t even remember the music at all. He couldn’t have told another person what genre it was, or the gender of the singer. All he remembered was the terrible sensation it brought to him. James was sure of one thing: this was the source of the mana pulse he had felt earlier. The music coming from his friend’s ear buds was so bad that it was comparable to a sonic attack. For some reason, Mo wasn’t affected. It might’ve been because he wasn’t an explorer, and wasn’t exposed to mana.

James spent the rest of the flight in a daze. As the plane landed, he was still listless.