Magic Cultivation

After reading some more, Qin discovered the foundation of magic cultivation. Magic cultivation was when one gathered mana from the earth and absorbed it through their meridians and into their mana ocean. Here, mana would be stored to be used at any time.

Once a magician would strengthen their mana core enough, breaking through into the next rank of magician was possible. The book held information about the first couple of magician ranks.

Going from weakest to strongest, the ranks that the book spoke of were Mage rank, Wizard rank, Sorcerer rank, and Warlock rank! Each rank would mean the ability to cast higher-tiered spells going from tier one to tier four as stated in the book. Because this was only a beginner's magic book, not much else information was presented, but that was fine with Qin, at least for now.

After reading the entire book, Qin reread the part where the book described how to absorb mana from the earth over and over again. Qin wanted to immediately start cultivating his mana core. He went back to his room while dragging the book along with him and sat down on the floor. He went in the most comfortable position possible.

Back on earth, many would meditate to cultivate their mind in peace, here, Qin would test the same theory. He closed his eyes and crossed his legs.

The problem was, there were no magic cultivation techniques in the library. According to the book, even the weakest of cultivation techniques were only held by the strongest and only given out to nobles or guild members.

Qin, from his mother, knew that he was the son of the King of The Kingdom of Loran, but it was an accidental pregnancy from an affair that the king had with his mother. The king did not even consider him to be a human, let alone a son, and Qin thought the same about him.

Since there was no way he was going to attain any cultivation techniques near in the future, he decided to create his own!

Cultivation techniques were great resources passed down from deities or great sages from ancient times. No one had ever thought about creating one themselves, it was like thinking of creating a new color, seemingly impossible.

And so, Qin thought of the words of the book intricately as he concentrated on the surroundings near him. Suddenly, Qin felt as though he was looking at himself in third person. As if he could see with his eyes closed. This was a weird state of mind, Qin could not see his surroundings near him, but it was almost as if he could feel it all.

In this state, Qin could also feel something else, mana! Colorful, beautifully flowing mana that surrounded the entirety of the earth could be sensed by Qin. Qin could hear nothing, see nothing, taste nothing, and smell nothing. All he could do was feel the world around him.

It felt like a transcendent state of the mind. Upon great concentration, mana all over Qin started to flow towards him as if his mana core was a black hole creating a vortex that was pulling everything into him. Flowing through his meridians, the mana eventually reached through his mana core and into his mana ocean.

Upon entering Qin's mana ocean, the mana settled and calmed down. The feeling of mana entering his mana ocean was extremely refreshing! Qin felt as though he had just drank a droplet of freezing cold water after walking through the desert for days. He could feel the cold droplet of water travel down his body and eventually reach its destination.

Just like this, Qin sat and cultivated for multiple hours. After doing so, Qin felt very energetic, he also felt as though his muscles had all gotten stronger and his mind-to-muscle connection was also greater. Qin finally opened his eyes, only to be greeted by the look of tens of surprised visitors inside of his room.

These people included servants, guards, family members, and even Qin's own mother. Of course, she was the first to notice that every last drop of mana in the entire castle had dissipated into thin air mysteriously. After this, hundreds of others started to notice the same thing. They could not cultivate any longer, and they came to see where it had all gone.

Everyone was led to Qin's room. Looking at everyone with their jaws on the floor, Qin was slightly dumbfounded, but quickly realized the situation he was in. The vortex of mana he had created was of course going to cause a big commotion! He didn't know what to do.

Now, everyone knew about his ability to cultivate.

After a bit of silence, a man spoke from out of the crowd of now hundreds lined up outside of Qin's room. "Wait! There's no way such a baby could cultivate so efficiently! This mana absorption speed is too great! He must have a mana stone of the extreme quality!" He shouted out to the crowd.

After hearing this, a smile appeared on Qin's face.

People started to agree with the man. "Yeah! That sounds impossible! He must have attained a very strong mana stone from somewhere!" Someone yelled out to the crowd.

As everyone started to believe that suspicion, Qin took full advantage of the situation. He quickly stood up, making sure to capture the attention of everyone in the room. He then turned around and ran towards the window, pretending to throw something like a stone outside it, after timing it perfectly, Qin also made the sound of a rock dropping on a stone floor.

"Click!"

Qin was quite talented in creating real-life sounds.

"He threw the stone!!" Someone said in the crowd. A moment of silence struck before everyone barged their way inside of the room. Everyone wanted that mana stone that had absorbed energy so fast!

Qin quickly climbed on the bed as he laughed his heart out. "Hahaha!"

After not being able to find the stone from the window, people started to run down the castle and down to where Qin had thrown the stone. After everyone left Qin's room, his mother sat down on the bed next to him.

"Qin, how did you do this. I know that you do not have an actually powerful mana stone." She said in a low but caring tone.

Qin simply looked at her. He couldn't answer her question, not until he knew how safe it was to do so. It might have been pointless to hide it, but it might also be paramount. Those were the thoughts in Qin's head.

Qin wrote on his mother's palm once again. "T R U S T, M E" His mother was quite surprised as to how Qin knew the meaning of things like trust, but she had no other choice but to trust her only son.

In the next coming days, Qin used his cultivation technique again and again, but couldn't achieve the same result as he did the first time. Although his mana absorption rate was quite high, he still couldn't absorb even a fraction of the mana from before.

Qin cultivated for another month or so before realizing that the progress he was making was far too slow. Not only that, but his body was also too small and weak to be able to explore the other things that may help him in this world.

Due to his mother's fears, Qin was kept inside of his room for most of the day instead of being allowed to go out and explore more knowledge.

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Qin walked down from the library. This day, he wanted to see if he could gain more knowledge about cultivation techniques. Although the one he had created was quite good, it was only amazing for the first day. After that day, it has only been decent.

After arriving in his room, Qin suddenly fell on his knees as a large burst of pain could be felt erupting from his head. It felt as though his brain was being ripped out of his. Qin gritted his teeth in agony, trying to keep himself together in the excruciating pain. It was pain like he had never felt before, pain that he didn't even think was possible.

Although Qin tried to hold on, his body was too young to withstand the pain. His vision started to blur and darkness quickly encompassed everything as he passed out.

When he woke up, he wasn't in the same place as before. As a matter of fact, he didn't seem to be in a "Place" at all. All he could see was darkness, and it felt as though he was not in a materialistic body, as if he was a ghost.

His mind was still slightly blurry and discombobulated. After a couple of seconds, Qin heard an androgynous voice coming from somewhere.

<You have reached the allowed time limit yet have not succeeded to mage rank yet. Your body is now going into metamorphosis until you reach the mage rank.> The voice spoke. Qin was still quite confused but realized what the voice was saying.

He managed to say something before finally blacking out again. "Wait-"

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Four years later...