In an over 2 kilometres white room with mysterious white lights that came from the room's very high ceiling, a boy that was approaching his last years of adolescence could be seen running along the side of the room, his body drenched in sweat.
Having changed into white shorts and a white shirt, Tion let out heavy but controlled breaths as he made his third lap around the room.
Though he kept his pace even, the truth was that within him, Tion's heart was pounding and seemed to be about signalling for a break.
"..."
"Really"
"...….'
Initially, Tion had planned to go two more laps, but hearing the good news from his avatar spirit, though Tion still stuck to completing his lap around the room he changed his plans on his number of laps while he upped his pace.
Minutes later, Tion stopped in front of his pitch-black gourd, the avatar spirit being a stark contrast to the whiteness of the room.
Coming to a stop, Tion couldn't help but use a few seconds to catch his breath and then when he was done, he looked at the gourd with a smile.
"Thankfully I was still on my third lap, if I had gone all five laps, I doubt I would be able to even move," Tion said letting out a chuckle.
"Alright get in me."
The second Tion finished talking, the black gourd rose into the air and flew into him, and then quickly Tion sat down cross-legged.
"Hmm, maybe I should have taken a bath" Tion thought as he waited for whatever side effect there was to hit him.
Aside from an avatar spirit, all mages had a mana core in them, and it was here that the avatar spirit resided.
In no time, Tion felt his avatar spirit return to his core and then to his excitement, he felt the mana in his core begin to increase.
"This is awesome" Tion thought his smile particularly becoming wide when he observed that so far, the process was completely harmless and seamless.
Becoming the most powerful being in the world was Tion's dream and now seeing himself getting stronger, Tion found himself unable to control his excitement.
Tion was just about to let out another exclamation he felt a change and his expression quickly tightened, the boy becoming calm and concentrated all of a sudden.
"Remember your avatar is very vital to your future, take good care of it, especially in its infancy stage."
These were words that Tion had heard several times despite the fact that he was just a level 1 avatar spirit with no one expecting anything of him.
Within Tion, his core had become filled with mana, and now in response to that, his mana core had begun expanding.
Though the expansion caused Tion some pain, it wasn't something he couldn't ignore, instead right now the boy was worried about his Avatar spirit being damaged if he failed to control himself and his emotions.
Tion stayed seated for close to 20 minutes and by the time the 20 minutes was over he was up on his feet and tentatively doing stretches.
"Are sure everything is alright, are you okay"
"..."
"Well, it's not that I don't trust your judgement, but that you are very vital, I can't afford to take any risk with you especially considering that we currently have no one to turn to if things go wrong."
"...."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you" Tion said with a roll of his eyes and then letting out a heavy breath he stood with his body to the side and then raised his hands.
Tion calmly breathed in and out for several seconds and then he slapped his palms together.
With intense concentration, Tion kept his hands together for about 3 seconds and then slowly he began taking his left hand forward.
There was a faint glow of blue from Tion's hand and then all of a sudden, a loud crackle of lightning filled the room as a bow made with powerful black and blue lightning bolts appeared in Tion's hand.
The bow was the length of Tion's arm, and a second later when Tion felt the bow was stable enough whole his mana core was doing just fine, he began pulling his right hand back, an arrow made of lightening forming and stretching as his right hand moved till it eventually stopped.
"Are we doing okay"
"...."
"Fine, sorry if I behave like a grandma, but you're one of my tickets to success and I am not playing with you buddy."
Smiling at his Avatar spirit's complaint, Tion narrowed his eyes and then without warning he released the lightning arrow in his right hand.
Travelling with speed that Tion couldn't observe the lightening collided with the gourd and let out a roaring explosion that had Tion grinning.
"And I still feel like I can do more" Tion muttered and unhesitatingly he pulled his right hand back and with a breath let another lightning arrow go sailing.
Grinning widely, Tion did these 2 more times before stopping to catch his breath.
"Damn the increase in my mana core wasn't that much, but the results are stunning." Tion chuckled as he proceeded to release two more lightning arrows.
"Alright I can feel that I don't have much mana left, so let's make one final banging attack."
Taking a deep breath, Tion pulled on more mana from his core and this time rather than use it to create a bow, he channelled the mana into his bow, watching as the bow rapidly expanded till it was half his body size.
"Alright, here goes nothing."
With the bow already upgraded, Tion pulled his right hand back once more, liking the thicker lightning arrow that was formed and then with bright eyes he let go of it.
"Booooom" an explosion far stronger than the previous one rang out and though Tion was breathing heavily he had a satisfied smile on his face.
"Man, I bet only a mage on Mom's level can cause any damage to this room" Tion thought as he noticed the still pristine nature of the place where his arrow had impacted.
The transformation of Konrad's avatar spirit to fertilizer for Tion's core had taken two days and immediately Tion confirmed his increase in mana reserves and had a feel for it, he turned and began moving to a wall in the room that was filled with weapons.
"Well now that I have a heavy damage technique somewhat down, I believe it's time I learnt a light attack whose activation won't drain my mana and stamina dry.