Elemental Cats

Toz continued pushing his consciousness out of his body to the point where he feared it might break. He spent the time his mind was recovering, either reflecting on his use of magic or on what he experienced when he sent out his consciousness.

Before he knew it, Toz had already done it several times, with each try allowing him to spend more time outside his body. He also began recovering quicker each time he did it. Soon enough, Toz spent more time with his mind outside his body than he did recovering.

The resistance blocking his mind from leaving his body was practically nonexistent in front of Toz's consciousness. And since Toz didn't feel discomfort while exposing his mind anymore, he guessed it was because his mind had gotten stronger. Repeatedly exhausting and wearing down his mind and then letting it recover had strengthened it, allowing him to tolerate the outside world's pressure better.

Toz tried breaking through the invisible layer covering his mana pool, but it only ended the same way it did before. After recovering from the headache, Toz decided it was finally time to try to accomplish what he had initially wanted to do by sending his consciousness outside his body.

The previous times, when Toz only wanted to train and get his mind accustomed to the outside world, he had mainly looked around at the nuggets and swirls of mana moving around and interacting to deepen his understanding of mana at the same time. He tried moving further away from his body a couple of times, quickly realizing it increased the strain on his mind exponentially the further away he got.

Since he had been keeping most of his focus on checking on the state of his mind, Toz hadn't been able to really do anything else except look around. But now that he was going to try and manipulate the mana around him, Toz had to change his focus. He wouldn't be able to control the mana of the outside world if he tried to do it half-heartedly.

Ignoring the state of his mind to focus solely on the mana would be risky, but Toz had already confirmed that he needed to take risks if he wanted to become stronger and break out of his cell.

Once again firming his resolve, Toz prepared for another outing with his mind.

Toz dove out of his body with the fist-sized wisp of consciousness. He created an imaginary hand and tried to grasp some of the mana around him as soon as he left his body.

The mana was spread out, mixed with the air, and only separated by different elements. No matter where Toz's imaginary hand reached, it brushed through the mana, so he hoped he would be able to grasp some and bring it back with him into his body. Toz closed his imaginary hand, not knowing whether his attempt had been successful or not, and he rushed back into his body.

A splitting headache greeted him upon his return. Toz had realized it as soon as he created the imaginary hand, but doing that put an extreme toll on his mind. Far more than simply leaving his body had done. When he realized it, Toz wanted to retreat back to his body at once. But he also didn't want to give up without even trying to get some mana.

Unfortunately, his attempt was in vain. His imaginary hand had been unsuccessful in grabbing any mana.

The headache Toz got from his attempt was so bad that after confirming his attempt failed, Toz passed out. More because of the injury to his mind than the actual pain.

Toz woke up again with a groan. The headache wasn't completely gone, but it was enough for him to ponder on why he hadn't been able to grab any mana. But no matter how much he thought about it, Toz couldn't reach a conclusion or even a solid guess.

With nothing else to do, Toz decided to try again as soon as he recovered.

However, the results of his second attempt weren't any different, aside from how Toz felt like he wasn't unconscious for quite as long.

Toz was a little discouraged at the lack of success in breaking free from the restriction on his mana pool. But the constant improvement of his mind and not knowing what was happening with the cats forced Toz to continue following the only path that seemed to lead to some kind of a solution.

After some time, Toz was already able to create an imaginary hand without having to rush back inside his body at once. He couldn't maintain it for long, but it was enough for him to notice how the mana slipped through his fingers and refused to be grabbed by him.

The imaginary hand managed to touch and almost move the mana around, but it was unpleasantly useless. Toz wondered if he should try a different method or if he should stick to using his hand.

His consciousness was capable of touching and interacting with the outside mana as long as he condensed it to a certain degree. But condensing his consciousness into the shape of a hand was already stretching his limits.

Toz decided to continue practicing with the hand method until his mind was strong enough to try something else.

As he continued practicing, his mind became stronger, and it was easier for him to condense the hand. The mana also reacted more to his hand the denser it became. But as soon as Toz tried to move the mana, his imaginary hand became practically useless.

Toz was a little discouraged a gain, but since he saw some hope in his idea showing some success, he didn't give up.

After some time, Toz's mind was strong enough to create two imaginary hands to try and catch some mana. They were smaller than when he only created one. It also strained his mind a lot more to create and control the two hands at the same time. But when he used both hands to try and scoop through the mana, it almost looked like the mana was about to follow along.