The path of the mage is not the easiest one—that much I've learned quickly.
"Huff… huff… huff… Ah, damn it, I was so close!" I muttered for the tenth time today. I was in a training room designed specifically for practicing mana manipulation and fine control. Wiping the sweat from my brow, I noticed how long my hair had grown. I was now six years old, and the last three years had been a whirlwind of learning more advanced subjects, including what this world considers its equivalent of a 10th-grade exam. It wasn't too hard—just a matter of memorizing some stuff... okay, a lot of stuff. Studying isn't my strength, but for magic, I'll endure anything.
Now, as for what I was doing, I was trying to awaken my mana core. After mastering fine mana control in just a year, I thought awakening my core would be simple. I was wrong. Usually, once someone learns to manipulate mana, it's just a matter of sending it to their core to activate it. For me, however, that hadn't worked. When I talked to my parents about it, they brought me an Aether Core, a rare artifact created by our family to help awaken difficult or dormant cores. It even works for those who otherwise can't use mana.
With a mix of hope and nerves, I activated it. All I had to do was send a strand of mana into the Aether Core for it to handle the rest. A single strand of pure blue mana flowed from my hand and into the core.
It lit up, and for a moment, I held my breath. Suddenly, a radiant aura surged from the core and merged with my body. I felt it touch the deepest part of me—my core. Then, it happened. My core awakened, and I could feel the change immediately. It was overwhelming, but before I could even process it, the aura found something else. To my shock, it discovered an entire sea of ethereal cores floating within my body. Guided by will, the radiant aura began activating each one.
"Ah, f**k," I cursed. I knew what this meant. Awakening a core triggers a total physical evolution, purging the body of impurities and enhancing mana manipulation abilities. The process is grueling, but what I was experiencing was far beyond normal. If I didn't handle this right, I might lose my second life before it even begins.
"Come on! Think, Arax, think! What can you do… wait—I could try that!" An idea struck me. I didn't have time to weigh the risks; I had to act fast. Preparing myself, I commanded the room to assist.
"Room 567, activate auto mana compression. Use the excess mana to heal and prioritize revitalizing my cells before repairing my body. Focus on keeping the most crucial organs functional for survival."
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted around me, like I was caught in some kind of mana overload. The room's auto-repair and cleaning functions were the only reason I wasn't overwhelmed by the gunk purged from my body.
"Ah, shit," I groaned through gritted teeth. The pain was unbearable, but it came in waves, alternating with brief moments of relief. Normally, this evolution cycle only happens once during a person's life. For me, it was repeating endlessly because of the sheer number of cores.
Time dragged on—12 hours passed, then more. I glanced at the clock. Thankfully, my parents knew this process would take time. With my life bracelet indicating I was still alive, I didn't have to worry about interruptions.
My body continued evolving—thousands of times, then tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions… I lost count somewhere along the way.
When I finally regained consciousness, I was greeted by a pounding headache. "Time?" I croaked.
«It has been exactly 32 hours,» a mechanical voice replied.
Ugh. Thirty-two hours of hell. Taking a deep breath, I noticed something new. I could see trillions of particles—mana particles—floating all around me. My body felt different, stronger in every way. Evolution must stop at some point, but I'd clearly gone far beyond any normal threshold.
I headed to one of the state-of-the-art check-up rooms nearby. There, I could get a detailed reading of my stats using a Stat Tracker artifact. It worked like a system, showing both physical and metaphysical stats in real time. For someone like me, the high-grade trackers here were the only ones accurate enough.
«Scanning full physical and metaphysical stats. Please stand by for the full procedure.»
«10%... 30%... 50%... 70%... 90%... 95%... 100%.»
Finally. The results appeared.
«Stats are as follows»
Body: 108,000,888,999 / 1.8T (Avg = 100)
Cores: 1,000,000,000 / 1B (Avg = 1)
Mana: Incalculable / «Theoretically Infinite» (Avg = 1,000)
Comments: Divine
Staring at the data, I couldn't believe my eyes. The tracker wasn't broken—this thing was powered by ancient supercores from billion-year-old veins and had processing power equivalent to a thousand quantum computers.
If this data was accurate, I had surpassed every living being on this planet—perhaps in its entire history. The body stat, for instance—100 was superhuman, yet mine was beyond comprehension. Body stats covered everything: nerves, bones, organs, and brainpower. My mental capacity alone might allow me to master all magical arts and spells effortlessly.
But why follow others' paths? With my newfound power, I could forge my own magic, shaping mana itself into anything I desired.
For now, though, I needed to suppress my natural aura. The facility was containing it, but I didn't want to freak out my parents. I had to play it cool.
I somehow managed it. I was going towards the main house. Our state was roughly the size of a small town, Very big it has basically everything one can imagine. Extremely powerful automatic mana defensive turrets a powerful mana barrier covering it. It can fully operate self-sufficiently from the resources available in our estate. Their are even Automatons that look like a combination between Gundam and Armored Core. Seriously it was quite cool.
I could easily see extremely clear like micro level and my vision seemed to cover the entire state. I feel like i have omnivision. From the walking maids and caretakers i could easily feel how much mana they have and how strong each and every cell of their body is if i concentrayed hard enough i could even X-ray through their body but i dont wanna do that that would be a violation of privacy. Nevertheless This was an amazing feeling. I felt if i tried i could most likely finish the elite knights and battle masters guarding the territory with just raw mana implosion alone. Its basically controlling mana and detonating it near a persons mana core a surefire way to kill. To do this one would require immense control over mana which i now possess. Come to think of it i prolly posses enough might to battle my father too. But he beats me in pure combat experience. I am not So arrogant enough to believe that a man who climbed to the peak would be that easy he Most likely has many trump cards stored.
"Hey mom what are you doing?" i greeted my mother.
"Well nothing too important son, but how did your awakening go and listen no matter what you will always be my son and i will always love you okay." My mother said with soothing tone. God i love the kindness she shows.
So i didnt disappoint her. I quickly created a small ball made with pure mana in my hands. It appeared quickly withing shower of blue sparks perfectly round.
"Oh Congratulations Son! I have to tell your father about this." My mother said with apparent excitement. Oh well they deserve it though. I went to another hall one meant for the sole purpose of shaping mana and creating/using spells.
Ohh This is gonna be fun.