Cores and Magic

[3 years have passed, and Fray has now turned 3 years old.]

[The Norman family's library]

Finally, I was able to enter this sacred place!

Why do I call it sacred? Well, you see, for someone who seeks knowledge about the world and someone who wishes to learn more about magic and its concepts, this is the best place.

[As Fray entered the Norman family library, he couldn't control his emotions; he was left speechless with how enormous the library was compared to the one he had in his village.]

So this is where my journey with magic starts. My parents already informed me about magic and cores, and how they were formed.

Basically, you get a core when you are nine, just a day before your tenth birthday. I find that quite strange, but nobody else seems to have the same interest in this as me. 

Okay, this aside, what is a core anyway? It's basically a mana bowl located right in the center of your body, which means you can only gather up your mana in that bowl and use it when you intend to cast a spell or strengthen your physical strength. 

I don't want to wait; the sooner I obtain the core, the sooner I can get my hands on power.

[Fray started roaming around the library in search of a book that could help him achieve his goals.]

[An hour later]

This book is just what I need.

All about Cores and Magic

– Page 1: Basic knowledge of cores and how we generate a core in our bodies A core is a sphere-shaped storage place for mana. A lot of scholars struggled as they were in search of answers to questions like, "Why do we randomly generate cores in our bodies and why don't we have them from birth? –

Well, it seems like I was wrong; I wasn't the only one curious about the reason behind the scheduled date for generating a core.

– Page 2: A century ago, one of the greatest magicians of all time, Merlin, found the answer to these questions, and the scholars confirmed that theory through research of their own. Basically, we gather mana in our bodies from birth, but since the amount is so mediocre, our body system doesn't feel the need for a storage where it could store the mana gathered. As time passes, the gathered amount increases, and slowly we start forming a core at the age of 8 and fully form it the day before we are 10 years old. –

Well, I also assumed something like that, and now my theory was confirmed.

With the information I acquired, I now understood what I had to do; I needed to simply gather mana, but there was a problem:

How?

I have instinctively collected mana till now due to mana being everyone; this whole world consists of it, but if I want to build up a core sooner,

I need to find a method for attracting particles of mana towards myself and gathering them.

– Page 3: Now that we have explained how cores are formed, we will now list them in order, from the smallest to the largest. Remember, the larger your core, the stronger the magic you cast will be. –

Now that I think about it, my father is a red-core battlemage, and my mother is a yellow-core healer.

– The white core resembles the birth of magic in your body; as soon as you get the white core, you will gain your affinity towards an element or divine magic, and there is "no" other way of obtaining an affinity towards an element; it's pure luck. The yellow and orange stages are when you build your base, and although almost the entire population of the continent is on this core stage, these stages are labeled as danger level 1. –

Danger levels?  That's something I have never heard of.

– At the stage of blue and red, you became a battle card in the hand of your kingdom; even your presence now had a pressure, labeled as danger level 2. Stages Green and Brown, you became a mana manipulator; you can wield it freely; you're an ACE in the hands of your kingdom; your aura is simply too intimidating for common folks, who weren't trained for battle, and they recline at danger level 3. –

Manipulation of mana? What is that supposed to mean? Is it connected to your elemental affinity, or... is it pure mana?

– Black core: once you reach it, you're basically invincible; you've become destruction itself; your weakest spell can destroy villages, landscapes, and fields; you obtain "mana field"; you can demolish all the mana coming towards yourself, or near you, making you basically unreachable unless your opponent is also at the black core; you're labeled as danger level 4, meagerly becoming a monster that is able to vaporize cities all alone –

That authority is what I need; if I could control that much power, I could accomplish my goal.

– Purple core stage Well, to be truthful, no one has reached this stage for centuries; even the grand mage "Merlin" stated that it was unattainable. So we don't really have much information on that, but one thing is doubtless: you would become transcendental, being at danger level 5, which means you could evaporate entire kingdoms and still be unscathed. –

Purple, like the color of the galaxy, having absolute power, being unmatched by anyone, and your sheer presence would make kingdoms surrender.

[Fray delved into his thoughts and lost track of time. After about an hour or so, Fray shoved down a book by accident and as he picked it up]

"Concept of gathering mana" — Was written on the cover of the book.

This is what I was searching for, finally.

Power, here I come.