Learning

"No need to worry, learning magic isn't that hard, considering controlling Mana is as same as we breathed. Now, take a deep breath and try to feel your Mana." Bernard instructed in which Exia nodded his head before doing exactly as Bernard's order.

To be honest, Exia was a bit skeptical at Bernard's explanation. Not that he did not understand, but rather, he was perplexed on how to feel the so-called Mana. Bernard said it was like breathing, but breathing occurred at his body subconsciously ever since he was born as a part of his life, whereas Mana was a new external object belonging to this world's elements he had to learn in his midway life. Nonetheless, Exia still complies with Bernard's instruction and attempts to sense his Mana by focusing his mind.

As he keeps his breath steady and his mind in a tranquil state, Exia finally sensed the flow of Mana within his body. However, since Mana is shapeless in the first place, Exia couldn't describe their appearances and only able roughly deduce they indeed existed.

'Since they got no form, how can I control them?' Exia pondered confusedly.

"Remember, mana is a part of our body the moment mana entered us." Bernard's voice ringing inside his ears, making Exia jolted awake in realization.

'Oh!' Exia exclaimed inwardly and immediately try to control the mana's flow with a sheer thought as he did toward all his limbs. And it was a success! The mana which circulating within his body now moving according to his will. If he wished to accumulate them in his palm, they will follow his command and migrate to his palm.

"Awesome!" Exia joyfully cried, drawing a laugh from Bernard and curious look from Tybur.

"Not bad. Now I'm gonna explain how to release mana back to the outside, in other words, performing a spell."

...

After a thorough explanation from Bernard, Exia feels his head slightly hurting due to the amount of knowledge he had to contain. In short, the process of a spell cast essentially depended on Mana Core.

Mana Core' function itself was to store the absorbed Mana. In this case, Mana Core divided into two sections, which are, Applicable Pool and Accumulation Pool. Even without being explained, the way they named differently means they are separate entities. During the absorbing process, the mana would be led into those two pools equally.

Applicable Pool was the pool where sorcerers draw their mana to cast a spell. On the other hand, Accumulation Pool was the pool where mana would be stored for the sake of increasing Mana's Core' rank. These two pools had absolute rules, which is, they wouldn't intervene on each own works. Means, if the sorcerers were having their Applicable Pool depleted, they couldn't draw mana from Accumulation Pool as they pleased.

After learning how Mana Core's work, Exia was later lectured by Bernard on how to draw mana from Mana core and apply them. For Exia, drawing Mana from Mana Core was as simple as controlling it. Hence, he didn't place too much thought about it. What difficult was to shape the pure mana into something that could be used as a defensive or offensive.

That's why Bernard repeatedly mention that sorcerers were required to have great comprehension and imagination. Without having those two aspects as their foundation, it'd hard for them to learn spells since basically sorcerers had to visualize something whenever they cast a spell. For example, the fireball Bernard released yesterday could only occur due to him visualizing an enormous ball made of fire and shape his mana according to that image.

In this world where the internet hasn't even invented, people were bound to be clueless about many objects shape. But, for Exia, who had countless images from filled his head, that wasn't a trouble at all. Instead, it was a piece of cake for him. What restricts him was the Applicable Pool he currently has. Even if he could imagine a meteor, forming it would be an impossible feat for the current him.

However, Bernard's next words almost causing him to lose his composure, "A mere imagination wasn't enough to cast a spell. In order to produce a fireball like I did yesterday, an understanding of cause and effect of the spell you cast is crucially needed as well. If you only imagine a fireball, and not knowing what effect it will bring, it will be unleashed good-for-nothing."

'Your first sentence almost gave me a heart-attack dear Sir Bernard.' Exia patted his chest in relief before nodding his head understandingly at Bernard's reminder, "I'll try to cast a spell now, Sir Bernard."

"Go for it then," Bernard smiled and calmly watch at the sight of Exia whose eyes already went close once more.

"Do you think Ruri can also follow his path?" Tybur asked while staring at Exia admirably.

"Perhaps, but the chance is low if we look at his situation now where he hadn't even formed his Mana Core yet," Bernard replied uninterestedly.

"Oh...Is that so?" Tybur said in downcast.

Ignoring Tybur, Bernard fixed his gaze at Exia's figure.

Having officially learned how to cast a spell, Exia begins to shape his mana according to his imagination. Initially, he planned to cast an elemental spell, but he dismissed that idea out of hand as soon as he discovered that the process was complex. For now, he'll just stick to the normal procedure most sorcerers followed.

Or so he thought...

Exia didn't expect shaping his own mana based on his imagination would be so complicated. Not only does he need to keep his visualization intact, but he also had to guide his mana and mold them to be precisely same as his imagination display. Moreover, he needs to think about the cause and effect of the spell he was about to cast. Otherwise, the spell would be empty of power. He feels like being tasked to do multiple things simultaneously. As if it wasn't enough, if he failed in one task, a domino's effect would take place, resulting in his spell crumbled down in a few seconds.