The Core Awakens

It had been more than Four years since that interaction between Taksh and Mr. Lonwell. Taksh had accepted the fact that he would never be able to use Mana the way Liam or Isha could. But one morning, suddenly, he was struck with an intense pain in his chest, just where his Solar Plexus should be.

The pain was unbearable. But instead of worrying, every adult seemed happy and they started celebrating and congratulating one another. The reason for the celebration was that most people go through this kind of pain in the same region for once in their lifetime.

A sudden severe pain around Solar Plexus means that the person is awakening his/her Mana Core. The pain remains there from somewhere about 5 minutes to sometimes about two or three hours. What happens during this time is that the body absorbs Mana from the atmosphere to complete the Mana Core and awaken it.

But the celebration didn't continue for too long, as everyone noticed that Taksh seemed to be in much more intense pain than they experienced. Their happy face became worried after watching him in pain. Priya even started crying after watching her brother for more than half an hour. Neru had to bring her out of the room to distract her.

Some ancient legends say that the more pain someone suffers, the bigger their Mana Pool will be. Even though there is no evidence to support this claim, general observation also seemed to be in favour of this.

It took nearly two hours for the pain to subdue. When the pain was fully gone, Taksh was drenched in sweat.

Milia helped him go to the bathroom and take a bath. The family decided that it would be best for Taksh to rest for the rest of the day so that he could recover. While Milia was helping Taksh in the bath, Lisley went to the kitchen to make Taksh's favourite dish, Sparkling Meat.

Arvind immediately went somewhere to get something. A wide smile was ever present on his face.

When Taksh got out of his bath, Priya came running and hugged him, squeezing him as tightly as she could, tears still falling from her eyes.

"It hurt a lot, right bwother? Are you okay? It won't hurt again, right bwother?"

Taksh smiled at this and embraced her before replying.

"I'm okay, stupid. I'm totally alright. It would never hurt again. And why are you crying? It is a time for celebration. Your brother will now be able to do magic, just like others."

But there was a slight sadness hidden within those last words of Taksh. He would be able to use Magic, but he would not be able to use affinities. After all, no one in his family was able to awaken any affinity. He can't be the sole exception to this rule, right?

Dhruv caught a glimpse of sadness in Taksh's voice and suggested "Son, don't be so sad. A well-trained Knight is no weaker than any Good mage.

Plus, it's not impossible for you to awaken any affinity. Who knows, you could awaken even more than two affinities. After all, I've never heard someone awakening their Mana Core at such a young age. Most people awaken theirs at about ten years of age. Two or three months here and there are no big deal. But you awakened it, when you were just eight and a half years old. You must be something special."

"You are right Father," Taksh said with a small smile, but from the inside, Taksh had no hope of awakening any affinity.

On the evening of that day, the family was gathered in the main hall of the mansion. The family members, the maids, everyone was there, except for Arvind. He still hasn't returned after he had left the mansion earlier.

"Why are we all gathered here? Are we here to celebrate my Core awakening or something?" Taksh asked.

"We are going to check your affinities." Dhruv replied to Taksh's question

"It's not necessary. I've not awakened any affinities. I didn't feel anything different after the Mana Core was formed. Let me go. I want to rest some more." Even though Taksh didn't show anything, he was pretty sad from the inside. That's why he wanted to be alone so that no one could see him cry.

"It doesn't feel any different, whether you awaken any affinity, or you don't. So, the chances are still there. And more importantly, we aren't going to just check your elemental affinity. Affinity towards Mana is also very important to measure." This time it was Isha who told this to Taksh.

If you already forgot, let me remind you, that Isha has the wind element. That's why she remembers how it felt before vs. after awakening the Mana Core, and the Wind affinity.

"What does measuring Mana affinity mean?" Taksh asked. He didn't know anything other than what his Grandpa told him that night, four years ago. That's why he didn't have a lot of knowledge regarding Magic-related stuff. Nobody went ahead to teach him anything either, afraid that it would bring back his old trauma. But now, the time has come for him to know more.

"Everybody has some different affinities towards Mana. The one who has more affinity towards mana would have an easier time recharging their Mana Core after complete exhaustion. It has other benefits, like cultivation becomes easier with more affinity towards mana or you could be able to hack into other's spell comparatively easily.

We can also roughly determine the size of your mana pool. You had to suffer much more pain compared to others. And more pain means that it was hard for you to keep up with the Mana your body demanded. This means two things; either you have a very poor affinity for Mana, because of which you struggled a lot to pull enough Mana from the atmosphere, which I don't think is possible, because our Arora family has produced some of the best Knights for our Kingdom.

The other possibility is that you have normal Mana Affinity, in which case your Mana Pool is way bigger than average humans.

And if your Mana core turns out to be big, we are going to have a very big celebration. After all, our son would turn out to be a one-in-a-million genius."

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