'What the fuck. You had something like this the whole time Avery? What else can you do?' I said shocked.
'For your information, this system function only became available after you formed your Mana core, and even if it had been available to you before, it would've been useless.' That was the response I got.
That made sense, so what about the other functions of the system?
'As for other functions of the system, there is the store function that will open once complete your first quest. There is of course the quest system itself. Quests are issued to you every once in a while, in response to your situation. For example, if you came across a person the system deemed important, it would issue you a quest to try to get you involved with the person.
As for why you would go along with these quests, most of the time, they will be beneficial to you. Some examples are a quest to cultivate or get stronger that you would want to do anyway.
As for the rewards and punishments, the system can't interfere with the outside world, nor can it force the host into anything. Every quest will come with a reward of System Points depending on the importance of the quests. And for the punishments, there really aren't any.
As said before, the system can't force anything, but some quests will let you know of undesirable outcomes that could happen if you don't do it.' Explained Avery.
That was very helpful, but I hadn't gotten any quests yet, and what was that about the store? And what did system points do? I asked Avery about these questions.
'Well, I am delighted you asked that question. System Points are the currency of the System. It will allow you to purchase stuff at the store. The store consists of many things that are helpful to the host. The most common ones are passive skills.
These passive skills all help the host in one way or another. Some are pretty self-explanatory like (Cooking) or (Thought Acceleration), while others boost your stats like (Indomitable) and (Speedster). You should also know that there are no skills that work outside your body in the Store.'
This system was turning out to be pretty useful. Maybe I will unlock more features in the future. Now, turning my attention back to the topic of quests, I asked Avery,
'Are there any quests available right now?'
'I was just getting to that. With the formation of your Mana core, the System issued a quest, here are the details.'
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Normal Quest: Baby Steps
Details: You have finally entered the world of Magic and Cultivation, Congrats! Now form your core into a respectable entity and enter the second stage of Cultivation.
Requirements: Reach Dull-Red Realm
Rewards: Store Unlock, 10 S-Points(System Points)
Punishment upon failure: You remain a weak twig forever
Time-Limit: None
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So a self-explanatory quest. But what was (Dull-Red)? And not to mention, what was (Dark-Red)? I asked Avery to explain.
'In this world, your core has a color depending on its purity, size, and level. Each realm goes through Dark, Dull, Bright, and Perfect or Pristine(Depending on local diction) levels. The weakest core realm is Red, then it goes Scarlet, Orange, Sienna, Gold, Yellow, and above. I only have knowledge of Red to Yellow core. Most awakened people in this world are at the orange core.
You are currently at the Dark-Red core, the lowest core there is. You upgrade your core by filling it up and then gathering enough mana to break through to the next stage. In the beginning, it should be very easy. And every level the amount of mana your core can hold triples, and the time it takes to draw in 1 particle of mana halves.
At every stage, you need your core to be full of mana and then you gather even more mana into your core, half of what your core can hold, and merge that mana into your core to break through to the next stage.'
According to what Avery said, right now I would need 15 more mana points to break through to the (Dull-Red) stage. If I let my mana core do that independently, that would be 7 and a half hours! Obviously, I couldn't wait that long and filled up my mana core manually.
I drew in the mana around me again and this time did it in just one try, bringing all 15 into my core. 9 of the mana particles went in to fill my core as currently 1 was already stored in there from when I first formed my core and had one extra left over. I then brought five more mana particles into my core where they were rejected as my core was full.
Forcefully I brought the mana particles closer to my core and tried to fuse them, but my mana core was rejecting it. Sweat broke out on my skin as I strained hard to fuse my core, and just as Avery was reassuring me that this was how it normally went, the particles and core fused with a burst of effort. Energy shone out brightly as my core finally accepted the particles and became bigger and more like a sphere instead of a mishmash of particles fused together.
'You have completed the quest "Baby Steps", Congratulations! The Store function has been unlocked and 10 S-Points have been deposited into your account.' Rang out from Avery.
'Phew, that was hard. Now, what can I do with my mana Avery?'
I was getting super excited at being able to use magic for the first time in my life. I imagined all the cool things I could and couldn't wait!
'Sorry to ruin your parade Alex, but you can't do much right now. You don't even have enough magic for a basic (Air Blow) spell.
Most mages awaken with a Scarlet core at ages 5-8. Their bodies automatically draw in energy from the moment they are born and slowly build up their core until it reaches at least the (Dark-Scarlet) stage.
As you manually awakened yourself at such a young age with the lowest amount of mana possible, you are one of the few to ever have a (Dark-Red) core awakening.
The only other people to have awakened at (Dark-Red) have abysmal talent or have been forcefully awakened by a Mage who put the smallest effort possible into awakening them.
I forgot to mention that, people can also be awakened by Mages who will guide the mana into their bodies and form their core for them. This normally happens in a noble family when their children can't awaken on their own, and Mages are hired to awaken them.
When people are awakened by others forcefully, the one guiding the awakening usually uses enough mana to make at least a Scarlet core.
Not to worry though Alex. You can manually reach that level in no time and get to casting spells at the (Scarlet) core stage as you started at such a young age.'
I was a little bummed out that I couldn't make use of magic yet, but it gave me a goal to strive for. Here I come (Scarlet) core stage! After this nap though, I was still a baby, and breaking through had been a lot of effort.
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-Two Days later-
Today was the day I was going to break through to the (Scarlet) stage! The last two days I had broken through to the (Bright-Red) and (Pristine-Red) stages respectively. I had cultivated whenever possible but was only able to break through when no one was watching. I didn't want to shock my parents too much before I could even explain to them what happened.
This was also the perfect moment as once again I was left alone once again and had just filled up my core to the brink. I pulled up my stats once again.
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Name: Alexander Bellmont
Age: 3 weeks (23 years)
Race: Human
Affiliations: Heir of the Bellmont Family
Job/Class: None
Core: Pristine-Red
Stats: Strength: 0(0.3), Vitality: 1(0.5), Endurance: 0(0.4), Dexterity: 1(0.5), Agility: 0(0.5), Intelligence: 1(1.2), Focus: 1(0.7), Perception: 2(2.2), Luck: 10
Mana: 270/270
{A/N: Forget to put this in the previous chap, but better late than never right?}
Skills:
Active: Mindspace
Passive: Mana Sense
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I was surprised to find my stats had gone up by 0.2 points all across the board, except for luck. I figured it was probably due to my 2 increases in core levels, as compared to going from dull to bright, or bright to pristine, (Dark-Red) to (Dull-Red) had been negligible. I wondered if my stats would go up by another 0.1 with going to the (Scarlet) realm.
I quickly gathered 135 mana points with my will and went through the process of evolving my core once again. It never seemed to get any easier as I went along, but guess that was the price to pay for magic. Nothing is ever easy in life, especially for something as good as Magic.
By now my core was shining a bright red and had nearly become a perfect sphere instead of the lump when I made it. I quickly fused the mana to my core when I heard Avery say,
'You now have to compress your core, or your breakthrough will fail!'
After the mana was successfully fused, I began the compression. It was much harder to compress my core than to fuse mana to it. I struggled immensely and felt sweat come out of every pore in my body. I squished the core from all sides and just as I was about to give up, I gave one final push and then it happened.
If anyone was looking at the baby right now, their jaws would drop to the floor as light and energy came out from the baby's solar plexus. The more knowledgeable ones in this world would know that this only happened during a Mage's realm breakthrough.
{A/N: I forgot to explain this, but the colors(Red, Scarlet, Orange) are called "Realms" and the levels of the color(Dark, Dull, Bright, Perfect/Pristine) are called "Levels"}
My core suddenly became a lot smaller, but brighter and it seemed much stronger than my (Perfect-Red) core. It was now a dark scarlet color that resembled its name. More importantly, now I could do the long-awaited magic of this world. I immediately asked Avery for directions.
'To do magic, you use the mana in your core to influence the world around you. You do this by using your mana pathways or circuits as some people call them. You might not have felt it before, but this is also how the mana gets inside your body and to your mana core. You guide your mana out of your body as you think of what you want the Mana to do.
First I should explain the elements. In this world, there are eight elements, Fire, Earth, Water, and Air being the main and most common ones, but there are also Light, Dark, Lightning, and Neutral elements. When you are thinking of what you want to do, your body automatically uses the pathways that have that element. For example, if you want to do the spell (Wind Gust), your body would use your wind mana channels to alter and change the mana to suit your needs.
Your body takes in Mana indiscriminately through all pathways but uses only some of them to output your Mana. As for your affinity for elements, everybody has at least the tiniest bit of affinity towards all the elements, but their mana pathways aren't always of the same quality.
Some people's mana pathways are better at directing the fire element, while others are better at using water. Also if you are better at one element, the opposing element's pathways tend to be worse. The opposing elements are Fire and Water, and Light and Dark. To a lesser degree so are, Earth and Air, and finally Lightning and Neutral, have very slight opposition.
Take for example a person with a great affinity towards fire, their fire channels would be like a great highway, well built and can carry great amounts of mana, while their water channels would be like a mountain pass, treacherous, narrow, and poorly made allowing for mana to fall through and for very small amounts to make it through at one time.
People's affinities are decided by a variety of things, such as genetics, environment, age, sex, build, and health. As you get older and don't use your mana pathways, they become downtrodden and poorly maintained, or if you use them too much they also get broken and if we go back to the highway analogy, they crack and get potholes.
Your environment also decides your affinity as cold and dark environments increase Water, Air, Dark, and Lightning, while warm, bright places increase Fire, Earth, Light, and Neutral affinities. Females also tend to be better at Water, Air, Light, and Neutral, with males being the opposite.
Your physical health also impacts your mana pathways as they are directly intertwined with your body, but aren't physical constructs. Your core is physical, but your mana, and mana pathways aren't. You can think of your core as an atom, and mana as the energy stored in that atom.
And of course, there are also genetics. If your parents are good with one element chances are you are good with that element. If your parents have opposing affinities, you will get the one with the higher level. I will pull up your affinities now.'
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Affinities(Highest to Lowest): Neutral, Lightning, Light, Water, Dark, Fire, Air, and Earth
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