"So how will I be able to awaken?" Lilly asked.
"It goes like this: Of all the humans around the world, 0.01% have had a thing called a magic core since they were born. Since there is no way to practice magic without it, only those people can awaken. Luckily, I already sensed your magic core since we first met.
Normally, to test if a person has a magic core, you would need to take an aptitude test, which is no longer needed since I already sensed your core and your talent for the element of ice is already confirmed. Since you are talented in the element of ice, it is most likely that you can be a water mage as well, since ice is just a form of water," G explained.
"Anyways, to awaken, you need to hold something that represents your element and integrate it into your mana core. Don't worry, I won't need to cut you up. I will infuse this object with neutral/pure mana until the mana and the object become one. Then I will use the infused mana to inject it through your mana veins into your mana core. Once the icy mana is next to your mana core, you will need to take control of the mana and try to infuse it into your body. I will help you with this process until the "first layer" breaks.
The first layer is basically what prevents people with a mana core to absorb mana; it cuts off the connection between your core and your body. Once the layer breaks, the connection is established, and you will be able to absorb the natural mana within the air.
The reason that the mana needs to be in the form of ice is that it has a better connection to your dormant core, making it easier to connect and destroy the first layer. Now let's start."
While Lilly understood the essence of this process, Trash had no idea what G just said.
G didn't wait for any answers and directly inserted mana into the ice Lilly was holding. The ice slowly faded away into nothingness, but after some time Lilly could feel something cold entering her body. It felt cold yet not uncomfortable. It felt like Lilly had a deep connection with the icy mana.
Soon G assembeled the mana next to the mana core and broke the first layer. Suddenly Lilly's eyes widened as she could feel the cold energy entering her core in her stomach. She felt like her whole world just changed as the connection between the core and her body was established. She could suddenly feel all the mana around her. Mana that naturally existed in every fiber of nature. She could now pull it towards her, let it throw through her magic veins, and let it end up inside of her core, strengthening it.
G saw what was happening and smiled. "Congratulations on awakening; how does it feel to be a mage?"
"It feels like this is an entirely different world. I never knew that Mana was all around us. How am I able to see and feel it so clearly now?"
"Well, you were always supposed to feel and see mana. The core within you was always there, and once the connection to your body was established, the mana core influenced how your entire body works. Mana veins are functionally the same as your normal veins. They transport what your body needs to function. Before awakening, the mana was missing, but now mana flows through your entire body, changing how you perceive things."
"Wow, it feels amazing," Lilly exclaimed before looking at Trash. "My element is ice, so I needed ice to awaken; his element is what exactly? Why does he need a trashcan to awaken?"
"Well, I'm not sure what exactly he needs. His element is trash, but what is trash exactly? The trashcan itself is not trash. The trash bags are also not trash. The trash is what is inside, but how do we define what exactly is trash? Isn't it just the stuff that people throw away? Well, I think I will just try to burry him in trash and hope that it will work. Trash, are you ready?"
"Trash? Your element is trash? What kind of element is that?" Lilly said, but G just shrugged her shoulders and waited for Trahs to respond to her question.
"Burry me in trash? Sure, I don't mind; let's start it."
Trash stood in the middle of the room. He was standing on a few emptied trash bags, and G and Lilly started to empty trash bags over him. After around 50 full trash bags, they stopped and looked at the barely visible trash.
"Well, let's hope it works. I've never seen trash mana, but I guess it's time now."
G sent pure mana into the pile of trash, hoping that an element that she had never seen would manifest. She infused the trash with mana and waited for the results.
1 minute,
5 minutes,
10 minutes,
30 minutes
1 hour. Nothing had changed. As she thought, there seemed to be no trash element. But the aptitude test was never wrong. I thought for a bit before taking a risk. She injected the neutral mana into Trash's mana veins to see what would happen. Normaly, pure mana would harm the mana veins of unawakened mages since the mana veins did not possess an element yet. The element of the mana veins would later be decided by the element of the mana core. Every type of mana that would enter the body would be transformed into the set element. But if no mana type was set, pure mana was like poison to the body.
But she just needed to risk it. Trash was such a weird human; she didn't know how his body really worked to survive 18 years inside of a trashcan, so she just tried it out.
The mana entered the mana veins, and something weird happened. The mana transformed; it transformed into another element. An element G had never seen before.