Terem's eyes cracked open before he regained consciousness. Blurrily, they wandered around the unfamiliar room, failing to bring any definition into the hazy world.
With some effort, he managed to focus on the room's central pillar. He squinted at it before rubbing his eyes. The pillar was swaying back and force as a massive tremor shook Terem's entire world.
Terem's mind spun into overdrive as the implications of the earthquake dawned upon his dazed self. The quake was going to bring the building down. And there was nothing Terem could do about it. Silently cursing his own rotten luck, Terem tried to wobble onto his feet.
Just as he sat his limp body up upon the sofa's soft surface, his whole view reversed; up became down, left became right, forward became an impossible direction of travel. Nothing seemed real anymore. His vision swam in a swift river's current, charging through every bend with the vigor of a migrating salmon searching for the open sea.
He fell. Hard. The hardwood ground rocketed towards his nose at a dizzying speed.
"Woah there, get a hold of yourself, kid. I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself by falling over. You really should take it easy on your body." While the man spoke, a strong and steady grip fastened around Terem's shoulders. Gently, it guided Terem's limp body towards the sofa and slowly coerced him into lying down again.
Terem's mouth voicelessly wagged open and closed. Words formed on Terem's lips and then washed away like water, never to be heard again.
It took a few minutes before Terem could properly voice his thoughts again, but by then, he didn't need to express his thoughts anymore.
After all, nobody was in danger to anybody except Terem. There was never an earthquake and, therefore, nothing to worry about. He felt like an idiot at that moment. Luckily, nobody knew what his thoughts were, presuming he was overcome with sudden dizziness as he stood up. At least, this would make the most sense considering Terem had been dead asleep for two full days.
Although his body wasn't as gaunt as before, it still desperately needed some flesh to fill it out.
"Food." Terem's demand croaked out from between his lips. He was clearly parched and as ravenous as a starving wolf.
"Right beside you." Tom's gruff but cordial voice brought sweet news to Terem's ears. Immediately, he reached out for whatever was beside him, but Tom restrained Terem's hand, gently placing it back on its owner's chest.
Eventually, Tom's steady hand returned, this time within Terem's vision and holding up a spoon. The smell wafting from it was nonexistent, but Terem couldn't help but salivate at the prospects of a meal. He didn't care if it was cold, hot, or tasteless. As long as it was food, Terem would vacuum it into the void of his stomach.
However, the soup didn't come in infinite supply. Or maybe Tom was purposely holding back some of the blessed broth, waiting for Terem's stomach to refamiliarize itself to food again. Terem didn't know, but he certainly cared.
His mouth opened in protest, but the heavy thud of a door echoed through the empty room. Sighing but satisfied, Terem fell back to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It took Terem an entire week, which was a logical ten-day cycle within this world, to recover from his frail state. But even then, his ghastly appearance lingered within his caved-in eyes and sunken cheeks. However, Terem was glad he risked death because the rewards absolutely trumped the risks.
Primarily and most importantly, Terem could feel his body producing its own mana. From where this mana came, he didn't know. Maybe it came from the atmosphere and was refined; maybe it was magically produced as a byproduct of his core's perpetual energy. Terem didn't care, at least not right now.
The other reward that he discovered was that his body felt lighter and more energetic. Even in its currently weakened state, it still felt as strong, if not stronger, than his body's peak condition with a black core.
Upon conducting a thorough self-examination, Terem discovered that his enhanced physique was thanks to his new deep crimson core. Much of the excess mana it produced or converted gently flowed into Terem's mana flow, passively strengthening the entire circuit and supporting his muscles without him having to manipulate the mana. Essentially, his entire body was interlaced with droplets of mana that both served to enhance and support him.
The final benefit that Terem experienced came in the form of information: vital information.
The week after Terem fully recovered, Tom brought Terem to his office. The two exchanged basic courtesies with each other before sitting on opposite sides of the large desk like usual.
Tom sipped at his tea, evidently delving into his thoughts and organizing them. Only once he finalized his thoughts would he open up the conversation.
"Once again, congratulations on your core advancement. You must have had a rough time. Now that you have a proper core, I can begin to teach you properly."
Terem sat up in his chair. When Tom says teaching, it could only mean one thing.
"So, let's start your first magic lesson. However, I will warn you that I won't be teaching you any of my spells or the other spells. I'll only teach you how to control your mana circuit with your mana core to properly cast a spell. Developing new spells will be entirely up to you. I'll also teach you the difference between Word Magic and Mind Magic. But, you'd have to go to some magic university to learn Word Magic. I don't have the time to teach you a new language."
The lesson had just started and a plethora of new terms and ideas were mentioned. However, when Terem thought about them, they made sense and he realized that he had already pieced together most of these on his own. For instance, he remembered that the lich used both word magic and mind magic back in the laboratory. He just never bothered to distinguish them and instead categorized them both as the same magic.
Tom gave Terem some time to think and ask questions, but none came his way, so he continued with the lesson.
"To be completely honest with you, you should have figured most of this out on your own. The only thing that kept you from materializing magic outside of your mana circuit was your core. Or lack of a core in your case. To do this, you just need to learn how to properly visualize the spell and control your core like it's another arm or something. It'll take time, but you will get the hang of it eventually. However, I will advise you to start with a basic element like the water element. Once you can cast spells from every basic element, I'll teach you the solar and lunar spells. You can go now."
Terem sat stock still for a moment. Ignoring the solar and lunar spells, how the hell was he expected to cast basic spells? To Terem, this wasn't a practical lesson. It was a history lesson.
"Wait, is that it? Can you teach me how to use my core? What about feeling it?"
Tom only smiled back and made a shooing motion with his hands. He looked like he was scolding a child, which wouldn't be wrong. But the fact remained, this was awfully similar to a self-taught course rather than a guided course. However, Terem knew that once Tom set his mind to something, his stance wouldn't change. He left the room like a lost pup, but at least he now had some direction, no matter how vague the instructions were.
Sighing, Terem left the guild and headed for the outskirts of town.