The First Layer

With closed eyes, Kai was taking in deep, rough breaths while sweat was profusely pouring down his body. He was frowning all the while his whole body was trembling from the excessive strain of absorbing Mana.

It was as if Kai was reaching a breaking point, a threshold of forming his Mana Core. Clenching his fists he gritted his teeth, feeling every fiber of his body aching in pain.

'Endure!'

The seconds seemed to last much longer, as Kai was constantly assailed by the waves of pain.

Suddenly, as if something in his body broke, Kai felt all the Lunar Energy inside him go wild, circulating in his abdomen.

A thin, transparent layer began to form around the circling Lunar energy, covering it like a barrier.

Click...

Kai's body shuddered as all the Lunar energy was suddenly absorbed into the thin barrier, strengthening it.

Opening his eyes Kai fell on his back gasping for air, the process was very physically and mentally demanding.

"Let's see..."

In between the breaths, Kai stuttered, closing his ocean-blue eyes, and dived deep into his consciousness, trying to sense his Lunar Core.

Soon he found himself before a golden, transparent sphere that built itself up by consuming all the Lunar Energy Kai had accumulated over the past month.

"Finally!"

Kai rejoiced seeing the golden sphere floating where he'd gathered Lunar Energy previously. Warily inspecting its appearance he saw nothing unusual and sighed in relief. Just yesterday, Kai was feeling uneasy because he didn't know if Lunar Energy would function the same way as Mana. He spent a whole day experimenting only to reach no conclusion and take the risk.

Kai had just completed the first step in forming his core, he created the Outer Layer.

The Outer Layer was the first one the Conjurer could create starting to form his core. This Layer would be the one helping the conjurer to gather Mana inside it and circulate it with much less effort.

Smiling Kai raised his eyelids and stood up from the cold pavement of the cavern. Stretching his muscles he smirked, feeling newfound strength pulsating through his body.

With no hesitation Kai took a bone spear, propped against the nearby wall, and started performing some simple movements with sharp precision and utmost concentration. After a few minutes of warming up he took a stance and squinted his eyes.

Thrusting his spear forwards Kai allowed it to slip out of his grip and gather momentum only to be caught a second later.

Whoosh...

The weapon tore through the air creating a loud sound. It was the skill Kai had learnt from his past life, he called it the 'Prime Thrust'.

By thrusting his spear forward Kai would let go of his weapon and catch it in the next second making the strike seem devastating and unexpected. Countless monsters and even some humans have fallen to this move and Kai wasn't planning to abandon such a masterpiece.

'If only it wouldn't hurt so much...'

Looking at the bleeding bruises on his palm he used to catch the bone spear Kai sighed. In his past life, he could perform such movements repeatedly, because he was an awakener and also had thick calluses on his hands.

Putting the weapon back in its original place, Kai looked at the sun, high in the sky. It was already midday, but the weather was cloudy, and Kai was sure that it'd rain.

He made sure to collect enough branches and moss beforehand, Kai had also prepared enough food and water to last him for a few days. The only thing he hoped for was that it wouldn't rain for a whole week and his shelter wouldn't be flooded.

"That'd be bad..."

Looking outside, Kai recalled the beast that gave him a chase a few hours beforehand. It was the reason why he couldn't test his body's improved capabilities. Kai didn't know if the monster was still lurking outside the cavern, waiting for him to show himself.

Leaning against the wall, he started thinking about the academy. In the past month, when his body was utterly exhausted, Kai usually spent most of his time thinking about the girl with red eyes or the academy test he'll have to complete with a perfect score.

Every time Kai had to slap his cheeks to humble himself. He was not even close to completing the test with a perfect score.

Raising his aching body, Kai growled but still stood up and held a spear with both hands.

Whoosh... Whoosh...

The air was torn through as Kai started performing various movements, or rather, shadow fighting. One couldn't see the imaginary opponent Kai was fighting, but only by looking at the spearman's movements the image of his opponent could become visible.

Huff... Huff...

With rough breaths, Kai stared at the space before him, he had defeated his enemy.

He imagined his opponent to be the same height and frame as he was, his enemy also wielded a steel sword able to cut through his bone weapon. Kai's attacker also wore reinforced leather armor that covered most of its body.

Kai defeated the imaginary silhouette only by striking it with the Prime Thrust directly at its wide open chest, but in exchange he had to suffer from a deep cut on his shoulder.

Luckily the fight occurred only in his mind, and he wasn't in any way hurt, but the mental strain was there. Kai had to take a break if he wanted to continue fighting against imaginary enemies.

Thud...

Somewhere far in the forest, Kai heard the loud sound of something hitting the ground. Even though Kai knew he was far away from the collision, he felt the vibrations pass through the ground below his feet.

"What is happening?"

Warily looking towards the direction of the noise, Kai noticed a single trail of smoke visible in the sky.

'A plane crash?'