Liano stood up slowly, leaning against the walls of his hut. Now he stood facing a tree located five meters away. He placed both palms forward, aiming at the tree, and focused on both the tree and his core. It was the first time he attempted this, but to him, it shouldn't be complicated if even the drunken adepts could manage it while barely standing.
He visualized his core again and tried to extract mana from it to make it flow through his body to his arms. At first, nothing happened. He remained focused, staring at the tree, his mind fixated on the image of his core and the mana. After several minutes, he finally felt a movement. The mana began to move, slowly, heading toward his hands. It took him twenty minutes for the mana to reach his palms. At that moment, a smile lit up Liano's face, though he was already sweating profusely.
He knew that although the mana was gathered in his hands, it wasn't coming out. The more he drained his core of mana, the more his physical condition declined. Already injured, he now felt that he had extracted at least half of his mana reserve, gathering a large amount of energy in his hands. Yet, his physical state was alarming. He trembled from head to toe, on the verge of collapsing. His left palm, initially open, now supported his right arm as it trembled. He struggled to breathe, and his vision became blurry. Sometimes he saw two trees in front of him when there was only one.
Liano knew that using magic was not without consequences. The price to pay was both the mana contained in the core and physical endurance. In his head, he thought, "The darn adepts weren't wrong. To become a mage, you need to be robust and follow a rigorous physical training." Since learning this, he had trained with whatever he could find, but apparently, it wasn't enough. Feeling that he was about to pass out once again, he let out a loud cry with the strength he had left and imagined a lake, projecting all his mana like a fluid. His vision became completely blurry. He only saw black shadows coming out of him and projecting onto the tree. Then it was black-out. He fell face-first to the ground, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
A few meters away, a person was perched on a tree, ten meters high, observing Liano. It was a guard, and like everyone on this island, he was part of the Arcanix clan. The guards were all at least adepts and they secured the island for the children. Their mission was to intervene in case of mortal danger for the initiates. Most of the time, they were hidden in dangerous zones, but there were also some in zone 1. This guard had detected Liano long ago. Usually, the guards were undetectable by the initiates, unless they appeared clearly before them. Since there wasn't much action around and the guard had nothing to do, he was currently watching Liano, a child he knew well. All the times the kid called him a "pathetic adept" for staying at the tavern drinking...
In the guard's mind: "If only he knew I often visit his famous hideout that no one can find, he would probably challenge me to a duel again..."
He liked the kid. Unlike other children, he never stayed inactive, always doing something, even if it gave him more work to keep an eye on him...
He was curious and quite impressed. He had always kind of known: this kid was really different. Awakening his core at 11 years old was rare, but understanding mana in less than an hour without an artifact or external help, he knew no one of that caliber. So, when he saw him come out and start channeling a spell without an artifact, he was amused.
"Using a spell without an artifact for a new initiate is reckless. At best, nothing will happen, and at worst, he will mishandle the mana and exhaust himself."
"You can try whatever you want, Liano, but this isn't just about climbing trees or hiding. It's a whole different ball game becoming a mage without an artifact..."
Minutes passed, and after a few more, the guard was shocked: "His control is clumsy, but his hands are indeed imbued with mana. There's some loss, but it's already a miracle he's managing it on his first try..."
Another ten minutes passed, and by then, the guard was starting to worry. Liano's physical condition was becoming critical, but his life wasn't in danger yet. "In any case, if he fails, he'll just pass out. I'll just have to bring him back to the village and the healer should be able to close his wounds."
Indeed, Liano, in his full concentration, hadn't noticed his wounds reopening.
A moment later, he saw Liano scream and try to give one last push before collapsing to the ground, unconscious. The guard was preparing to catch him in his fall before seeing black lines coming out of Liano's left hand and heading toward the tree in front of him. Shocked, he stopped and forgot to catch Liano.
"What is that..." murmured the guard, completely destabilized. "A monster, a monster with talent has just been born..."
In front of him, the black lines wrapped around the tree like shadows before spreading about two meters. Then, the portion of the trunk that was wrapped disappeared. The tree, with a two-meter section of its base gone, began to topple toward the guard and unconscious Liano. The guard rushed toward Liano, picking him up as fast as lightning before the fifteen-meter tree flattened them.
Lifting unconscious Liano, he saw his face, full of sweat, vomit, but still with that characteristic smile. "Darn kid, I don't know if it's your talent or your recklessness that prevails in you," he said, smiling. The guard quickly disappeared with Liano's body over his shoulder, heading to the village. In less than five minutes, they were in the village. On the way, the guard inspected Liano's open wounds a bit. Besides the numerous scars on his body already at his age, he really wondered how this boy could still be alive with such injuries.
"He's more scarred than some clan adepts..., I need to report to the chief about the village events and also about this black mark..."
Indeed, after making a portion of the tree disappear, a mark had appeared on Liano's right hand.