Preparations(1)

Ah, the sweet embrace of Crystalis's air, a soothing balm for my weary soul. Inhaling the air of my hometown, I felt a deep sense of relaxation and happiness over what I had accomplished.

  Exiting the mana station, I was met with the familiar face of Henry, our trusty chauffeur. The sleek black car he ushered me into might appear ordinary, but as you approached, its luxury was undeniable.

"Hey, Henry! It's been a while,"

I smiled, as I waved my hand and greeted him

"Yes, sir,"

Henry replied, a deferential nod accompanying his response as he opened the car door for me.

To be fair, it had only been a mere three days since my departure, but I missed my newfound family profoundly. I couldn't wait to reunite with them.

As we cruised through the cityscape, I let my gaze wander, absorbing the scenery. Home. There's something magical about the familiar streets and buildings.

We arrived home, and my parents enveloped me in warm, welcoming hugs. I reciprocated their affection, sharing stories and showing off my trusty longsword.

Eventually, I retreated to my room, flopping onto the bed. It was still noon, and Ethan was off at school, so I decided to squeeze in a nap before our evening meet-up.

The next day, during my sword training with my instructor, Alex, he threw a curveball at me.

"Young master, your physique is now ready for true sword training. However, you'll need to acquire a sword art before we can proceed,"

he announced, gathering up his equipment.

You see, getting a sword art requires a basic level of physical fitness. Without it, it's like trying to fit an elephant into a phone booth

- The body's gonna burst.

With some unexpected free time on my hands, I turned my attention to subjects previously foreign to me: Mana principles and alchemy.

While the names sounded tantalizing, the content proved to be rather mundane. Alchemy involved identifying various herbs and their habitats, while mana principles delved into the intricacies of different mana elements and what one could achieve with them.

Mana was divided into six types as known by humanity

Fire 

Water

Wind

Earth

Light 

Darkness

Each person had their own element compatibility, some have compatibility with only one while some have various elements. the color of their mana depends upon their type of element control.

Light and darkness are exceptions because if a person possesses any one of these two elements they cannot possess any other element.

if a person possesses all four elements their mana's color will be white, until now there have only been two people in the history of awakeners possessing affinity to all four elements(fire, earth, water, wind).

At dinner, while I was having a pleasant chat with my parents, I told them what my Sword Instructor had told me in the morning, causing them to drop their jaws in surprise over the fast speed of my improvement.

Well, their surprise was justified as this body that I got was a bony body just a month ago,

If I hadn't gotten the mana art and it had not improved my body to make it suitable for practicing the art I wouldn't have gotten to this point this past.

After their first surprised reaction, my parents told me got excited and told me that they would find me a good sword art in the next few days.

After dinner, I sat in my room and started concentrating then I started moving my mana slowly rotating in the whole body. then I started moving the mana towards my heart,

to start gathering mana from nature one needs to make a body part the container or core for the mana, most people nowadays believe that making the core in the abdomen is the best way,

But five years from now a certain mana researcher found out that making a mana core in the heart is the most efficient way, as we can circulate mana along with blood flowing inside the body.

As I was moving the mana in my body towards the heart I started to feel a certain lack of strength inside my body, it was as if 1 to 2 liters of blood were lost in my body and I started to feel dizzy,

but I still persisted as making a mana core was a relatively easy first step with my mana control technique.

Post-First Apocalypse, humanity evolved, and an evolution took place inside humans, each human was born with a minimal amount of mana and mana also contributed to providing energy from the body,

while making the core in the body mana forcefully propelled towards a certain point hence, causing a dizzying situation due to lack of energy.

Two hours of sheer focus, panting, and sweating later, I had compressed all my mana to the heart region.

'now.....HUPP!!'

The next step was to apply extreme pressure and compress the mana as much as possible from all sides, 

*Haa* *Haa*

panting and sweating, I concentrated on applying force, 

*ding!*

===================

[ Mana Core ] has been established

===================

and finally, a mana core had been formed in my heart.

"Finally...."

I muttered as I collapsed, I had finally made a mana core, and now I could finally start focusing on increasing my mana.

but before that...

'I should get a sword art'

I thought, grabbing my throbbing forehead, creating a core had taken a lot of mental energy out of me and my brain was demanding rest,

'I should sleep'

I headed towards my bed and slid in between the sheets, ready for a long, relaxing sleep.