[NR] Chapter 248 - Finding A Pool (Patreon)

Having notified Jenny of his first success, Jason settles back in for the more difficult step of moving his stamina. Energy was easy enough as

While it was spread through his body, most of the Energy was centered on his core. Stamina on the other hand is diffused through his entire body. To move it would be like trying to hold on to the air.

‘There should be a central location for the pool, even if stamina seems to be diffused through the entire body. Once I find the pool’s location, I should be able to do something with it. All I know though is that my stamina’s pool isn’t located where my heart was, if only because I’ve examined that area quite a lot.’

To start, Jason does a quick sweep of his body. He hadn’t done this to look for stamina before, but he found about what he expected. Stamina was spread through his body, keeping it working.

That confirmed Jason double checks his core area. Yes, he didn’t believe the pool was there, but that would be a stupid reason to miss it if it was. Though a few sweeps of the area later proves his assumption right. In fact, within the area of his core there is less stamina than anywhere else. The next least likely area is his head and so he does a quick scan, finding less stamina as well. His mental power enthroned in his head instead.

Unlikely areas finished, Jason settles in for the long haul. The rest of his body will require a much deeper observation to figure out. Starting at his fingers and toes, he observes his body using up stamina. Everything is draining away at it, yet since he is resting there seems to be a never ending supply replacing what I have used.

It takes Jason a good few minutes to notice a pattern in this movement of stamina. At first this seemed random. But the longer he observes, the more obvious the situation becomes. While each spark of power can move in any direction, they all seem to move away from one point. Not as helpful as it might seem, as that point is the center of mass. Learning this only removes his limbs as potential locations for the pool, and he had already figured out his head.

Now focused on his chest, waist, and hips, Jason hits another roadblock. While stamina appears to be moving outward from one location, it is much less obvious. In the limbs, because of the constricted space, the flow was obvious. With basically a large cylinder of space to wander around in this pattern has once again hidden itself within the random movements.

After more time passes, an idea comes to Jason. If he can’t tell where the stamina is coming from because the flow isn’t obvious enough, he just has to use some stamina. And not just use it anywhere but in one hand. That way there is a draw towards his arm.

Not wanting to cause too much of a commotion, Jason settles on opening and closing his hand repeatedly. At first not much seems to happen, but he perseveres and soon enough it rewards his efforts. As he continues to clench and open his hand, it pulls in more stamina until the flow within his body becomes much clearer.

This still isn’t enough to pinpoint the location, but Jason already has the solution. He stops clenching the one hand and switches to clenching the other. Once that gets going, the draw moves from one location to another, revealing new patterns in the flow. Back and forth he switches between hands until the location becomes clear enough to search for it manually.

And the area where Jason now believes his stamina pool to be is right near if slightly below his belly button. He really wants to facepalm at this. Of course his stamina pool would be located right where the lower dantian would be. Even with pure meditation based practices, they consider the area special. Beyond that, it just makes sense. That is the area around where all the intestines are located and most of the body’s energy comes from there.

Still, Jason needs to pinpoint the exact area of his stamina pool. Now looking at it closely he can see that stamina only ever seems to be used or leave the area so another factor confirming this location, but he needs more. This doesn’t hold him back long though, as soon enough he centers on an area about the size of a small egg. The pool isn’t quite centered in his body being more forward rather than back, but this is what he has been looking for.

As he watches, Jason clenches and unclenches both his hands. The stamina doesn’t move all that much more, not that he was expecting it. Instead, the movement let him observe what is happening.

Within that egg sized area, sparks of stamina just pop into existence. Now with that found Jason attempts to just grab stamina from that area. This is about as effective as trying to grab the air. So instead of that, Jason concentrates and tries to isolate the stamina pool.

At first, not much happened. With time, his attempts prove fruitful. While dribs and drabs of stamina can still escape, enough of it stays to become concentrated in the pool. Not enough to make the power easy to handle, but enough to try.

Cupping his stamina pool with his mental force, Jason pushes outward. Before the stamina can be pushed out, it all dissipates into the rest of his body. Close, but not quite enough. Still, he figures he is going in the correct direction, so he traps the stamina again. This time, he lets the power build up even more.

However, this proves to not do too much more. After the power gets denser than the previous attempt, the pressure stops building. Jason figures this must just be the limit and so focuses on making sure he traps it all with his mental force. If the previous attempt was like using his hands to hold the power. This time he focuses on it until his mental force is more like a balloon. Then he pushes outward once more.