A week later, Afternoon.
Today was my birthday. I was very excited. Not because of my birthday but because today was the day I would initiate mana.
Mana is the magical energy that flows throughout this world and is the foundation of all things. It's a ubiquitous energy that can be found in everything, including living beings, objects, and even the air itself.
It's important to note that the amount of mana present in any given object or location can vary greatly, with some areas being richer in mana than others.
The mana in living beings is connected to their soul, which is why the initiation ceremony focuses on the soul's ability to sense, gather, and compress mana.
Mana initiation ceremony could be carried out virtually anywhere, but it was good to do so in a mana rich environment. It consisted of three steps.
First, being able to sense mana was the quickest of the three. Because if you had an affinity with mana, you would instantly be able to perceive it. I was already able to sense mana since I could think. It appeared as tiny specks of different coloured light when you closed your eyes and concentrated on your surroundings.
The second step was to gather as much mana in your body as possible and hold it. This step was slightly more complex as it would depend entirely on your soul power to keep the elements inside your body.
You could gather mana in your body by willing the surrounding mana to enter your body through your soul. You had to spread your intent evenly around you through your soul.
You had to gather as much mana from the surroundings as possible because once you started forming your core, your body would cut off its connection with the atmospheric mana.
The third and final step involved collecting the gathered mana to your heart and slowly compressing the scattered mana.
You weren't able to add new mana from the environment as it would lead to your core being burst and damaging your heart if you had started to compress your mana to a large extent or losing all mana in your body and starting all over again if you hadn't started forming a core.
The colours of your core decide your affinities with the elements. The brighter the colour, the more affinity you had with it.
Orange Red represented an affinity with Fire,
Deep Blue with Water,
Dark Green with Nature,
Light Green with Wind,
Brown with Earth,
Yellow with Lightning,
Light Blue with Ice and so on.
The were a lot of elements in this world, including but not limited to Metal, Light, Dark, Space, Time, etc. A person's affinities were often related to each other.
For example, Someone with Water affinity may have a little affinity for Ice and Nature, Someone with Fire affinity may have a little affinity for Lightning and Metal, etc.
The affinities provided a massive dynamic to all people that only their two significant affinities were considered primary affinities, as an average person could have as many as five affinities.
A person's talent was measured by how he accomplished all three steps.
If a person completed the first step very quickly, it meant that he had a powerful soul and would be able to gather more mana for the initial core formation to give him more enormous reserves of mana than his peers.
If one completed the third step very quickly, his body had a very strong affinity for mana. Therefore, if he became a Mage, then he would be able to cast spells faster, or he could become a Knight specialising in any combat style and training his body.
So, those who excelled in the first two steps generally chose the path of a Mage, and those who excelled in the last step generally chose the path of a Knight.
At last, those who excelled in all three steps could become excellent Mages, Knights or both.
There were also other sub professions like Spiritist, Runesmith, Seer, Alchemist, Blacksmith, etc.
There was a high demand for sub professionals because they could support people with their skills. It was also the reason why they were rich.
I was ready for my Mana Initiation ceremony. I made my way to the dining room for lunch.