Stage 1 - First Step to Become A Mage

Walking inside the living room, we sat down on a couch as I looked at my father and mother, who let out a sigh before speaking.

"The reason for our previous action was due to something we didn't expect." Something they didn't expect? Is it because I was able to use mana when I just awakened it?

"You know, in our youths, your mom and I experienced different kinds of treatment due to our power. I was the weak one while she was the, the-"

"I was the strong one while he was much, much, much weaker than me." She said with a smile, my dad looked defeated. Maybe it was due to his man pride? I hope I don't get those one day.

"While I was harassed by some bad people due to my weak mana, your mom was harassed by her fans due to her high mana." So my dad was bullied while my mom was chased by her fans? How did they even get together in the first place?

"So what you're saying is that, if I'm too weak, I'll get harass, and if I'm too strong, I'll also get harass," I asked as if it wasn't obvious enough. What am I supposed to do if I can't get too weak or strong?

"Yes."

They started to explain to me that they were shocked when they saw that I was already able to use mana to that length when I have just awakened, which was only achievable if I had a very high mana. They checked my body and discovered that I have a Mana Core inside my body.

Apparently, one can only form a Mana Core once your mana reaches 100, which is the highest one you can get from the awakening ceremony and was also very rare. Crap. So I'm one of those guys?

"Well, since you had already formed a Mana Core, I'll guess you're ready to get an Affinity Core." My dad stated.

So for the rest of the day, my dad taught me about how to increase my mana, which was something I was very excited about learning.

First, you have to feel the mana around you, which can be found anywhere. When you have felt it, you have to imagine that it's some kind of fish and reel it in, closer, and closer. Until it was caught.

Next, you would start and absorb the mana into your Mana Core while strengthening your Mana Circuits. It's like training your muscle, with Mana Core being your heart, and Mana Circuits being your muscle.

For the last part, all you have to do left is to release the mana to the surrounding and do the same thing again. It's kinda like breathing, you breathe in oxygen while exhaling carbon dioxide. Of course, there's a deeper meaning behind breathing, but this is just a simple explanation. You would improve both your Mana Core and Mana Circuits by doing this.

I'll guess I should continue explaining more about what Mana Core and Mana Circuits are.

Mana Core. It's like our hearts, it's something that would help to produce mana to our Mana Circuits. Its location is on the right side of our chest. Improving Mana Core would increase the production of our Mana, and would also increase the capacity of how much it could hold. One of the main ways to train it is to absorb mana into your Mana Core, expanding and strengthening it.

Next is Mana Circuits. Just as I've explained before, Mana Circuits is like a muscle. It works with Mana Core in order for us Mages to use Magic. Its location is all over our body, and if increased, it would enable you to use higher-cost spells. One of the main ways to train is to improve your muscle. Even if you're able to have very high mana, it would be useless if your body isn't strong enough to contain it.

So for the rest of the day, I trained myself to increase my mana and ate some high nutritious meals that my family gave me.

While I was training, I felt something odd. Actually, it was something very strange and bizarre. The mana around me seemed to be very friendly as I could feel that they were helping me in my training. I don't know why, but I didn't think too much of it as it seemed like they didn't intend to harm me.

***

While Arno was sleeping, he didn't notice that the mana around seemed to try and get inside him on their own, they started to communicate with other mana inside his body to switch their position.

All of the mana inside Arno's Mana Core agreed as they did this without his knowledge. Arno couldn't feel it due to him being a heavy sleeper, so he didn't notice anything.

***

"Eh?! Y-Your mana… How can your mana reach this far?"

I was shocked as well as my mother. Currently, we were testing how much mana I have inside my body since yesterday, and the results were shocking.

"109, have you already got 109 after one day? Normally a person would only be able to increase their mana by 3 points every day, yet you did it thrice?"

"It can't be help, honey. It seems like that our son here is totally a monster."

I looked both at my parent's while eating my pancakes while they started to discuss something. These pancakes are pretty good.

We ate our breakfast as we left our home and headed towards Mage Association HQ.