Scarlet

Hearing Exia's answer, Bernard burst out laughing. Wiping the tears on the corner of his eyes, Bernard then said, "You better not regret it, boy. Okay, now go sit down and follow my instructions."

Looking at Exia, who had positioned himself in a sitting position comfortably, Bernard instructed, "Now close your eyes and take a deep breath to calm your state. You may think of one item to discard all the distractions. If you succeed, you'll arrive in the centre of your body, which is none other than where mana gathered. But don't worry, you'll not reach that point soon. Hence, no need to be agitated and consider this as a practice only."

Following Bernard's instruction, Exia breathes gently and steadily. His chest rose up and down in result.

To disregard all things and focused on nothing was hard for humans. People were bound to have a lot of thinking, which is probably why some people might take years to meditate properly. This was also the case Exia had to face since he had a lot of thought, distracting him from attaining inner peace.

Unless you're a newborn baby, Exia had no idea how people could attain inner piece instantly.

Since he got no way to clear his mind, Exia focused his mind on just one item, as Bernard advised.

'What object should I focus on?' Exia contemplated for a second before a scarlet-orb image surfaced on his mind.

Using that idea, Exia focused his mind on the scarlet-orb which currently resides in his body. Visualizing an image of a scarlet ball, Exia gathered his thought while perceiving his inner body at the same time.

As his thought gathered, the view within Exia's vision suddenly changed. In front of him was a vast empty universe with many comet-like objects flying in rapid, heading into the same direction. Following their movements, Exia noticed they were advancing into a tiny cyan diamond floating in the middle of the universe. Just as Exia thought the comets would crash against the diamond, Exia sees the comets breach the diamond effortlessly. Astonishingly, no hole was produced from their collision. It's as if the comets were absorbed into a limitless pool.

Driven in curiosity, Exia starts to float to the diamond. Arriving in front of the diamond, Exia forward one of his hands, trying to touch the object directly.

Instantly, his body shakes a little because of the vibration he received from the diamond. The weird thing is, the frequency of the vibrates seemed to be in synchrony with his breath. Then a thing crossed in his mind, "Could it be this object is the so-called Mana Core?"

He couldn't fathom any idea about what object may stay at this place except his own Mana Core. But how could it exist this fast? Isn't Sir Bernard said we could only create a Mana Core after our body gets enough Mana supply? Then, what's the meaning of this?

In the middle of thinking, Exia suddenly catch a glimpse of red-light is emitted from another part of the universe, "What's that?"

Feeling somewhat doubtful, Exia decides to check the thing out by approaching it. As their distance slowly closened due to Exia's advancement, Exia realized the red-light didn't come from a tiny object like his little Mana Core. Instead of finding another tiny object, he sees a scarlet-sun! Yeah, without a doubt, the thing ahead of him was a Sun!

Strangely enough, he feels familiar vibes at the thing in front of him. Scrutinizing its appearance once again, Exia's eyes gradually widened in realization.

"It's the scarlet-orb!" Exia exclaimed in surprise.

"How can it grow so big like this?" Exia blurted out in shock. Just a moment ago, the scarlet-orb size was the same as a soccer ball. Now, it expanded until Exia's range of view filled with nothing but the scarlet-sun.

However, despite the familiar vibes emitted by the scarlet-sun, Exia didn't dare venture deeper after looking at its giant size. If he somehow swallowed by the scarlet-sun, what would happen to his body? Not wanting to take unnecessary risks, Exia quickly retreated. Yet, the moment Exia choose to back away, a scarlet-arrow shot out from the scarlet-sun.

The arrow was moving speedily that Exia couldn't follow its motion at all. In the end, he had to receive the direct blow by the arrow and froze for a while as information began to pour out into his head.

"Enchantment"

"Basic Spells"

"Strengthening Rune"

"Acceleration Rune"

"Amplify Rune"

...

"Do you think he succeeds in attaining inner peace? Exia hasn't moved from his original position for half an hour already." Ardelt said in a whisper tone, afraid to disturb Exia meditation.

"Nah, it can't be. Only talented disciplines from Claudia Arcane Academy has ever achieved that feat." Bernard refuted casually. However, he couldn't help but get worried inside.

'Don't tell me he really succeed in meditation for the first time?' Bernard mused inwardly.

When both men fall into their own thought, they suddenly see Exia's hairs changed from its original colour black into striking scarlet. This scene makes them dumbfounded as they didn't expect the first thing Exia perform through meditating was changing his hair colour.

"What the fuck?" Bernard burst out after recovering from his stupefaction.

He wants to check Exia's condition, only to get stopped by Ardelt, "Wait. He currently must be in a crucial moment, don't disturb him."

Although Bernard was really curious about Exia's development, he nevertheless abides by Ardelt's command and continues his observation on Exia from afar. The reason he was shocked was obviously because he never encounters something like this. A person gets his hairs colour changed from meditation? He never hears a story like that.

They waited for a few minutes before they see Exia's eyelashes tremble gently. With both of his eyes open, Exia's sight returns shortly after. Shifting his golden-eyes to the direction of Bernard and Ardelt, Exia beamed a smile, "I've succeeded in creating my own Mana Core!"