Chapter 2: Have a Heart

A few weeks had past and my lessons consisted of human and animal anatomy classes which I understood perfectly as I was a mortician in my last life, surprising my father in the process, as for my mana-controlling lessons, I eventually mastered the basic mana breathing technique that my mother taught me while she also taught me how to form a spell. I couldn't form a spell on my own yet so my mother made me use wands which were enchanted objects used as training tools for mages, storing magic inside of them and allowing a non-mage to cast simple spells and get the hang of using magic. Today was the day I developed my 'Mana core' under the direction of my mother which is a space inside my body to hold mana and create spells.

There are 3 places where a mana core can be formed, the stomach, the heart, and the brain. You can have all 3 at once but it's very dangerous and makes you much more susceptible to mental and magical attacks, even 2 cores can leave you more vulnerable to Mana burn so people normally have one and advance that through training. The heart core is the most common for mages and has a nice balance between dangerous and powerful, heart core lets you have up to 10 circles and can cast a variety of complex spells without side effects unless you make an improper circle. The heart core isn't suitable for physical strain and that's why it's more of a favorite for mages instead of more physically oriented magic users like magic swordsmen.

The stomach core is the biggest mana core and can hold a lot more mana than the other two options and doesn't have any side effects if you mess up a circle, so why don't people use this more? While it only allows up to 3 circles to be added to it allowing you to cast less complex spells but allowing you to empower them more making it a favorite of mage knights or magic swordsmen. The reason circles are so important is that the higher amount of circles you have on your mana core, the more complex spells your body can handle and how much strain you can put on your spells before they break

The brain core is the most dangerous mana core and leads to many symptoms with use like dementia, blindness, loss of certain body functions, and even paralysis from the neck down. This also leaves you susceptible to stuff like mind control and attacks from spirits and other non-corporeal beings. So you must be asking, why would anyone want to make a brain mana core? Well, it's because it's used by seers and diviners to see into the future or into places not protected with magic, it also allows you to use 1st tier magic without incantation or any kind of hand waving which makes them very powerful because you have no idea what they are going to do. Of course, this also makes their body wither faster but makes their mind sharper than most making most of them wise beyond their years.

With these 3 options given to me, I started training to prepare my body for a mana core in my heart, the process of which is strengthening my heart with certain foods and circling magic through my heart via mana breathing, and starting to trace my veins through my body with mana allowing my blood to get used to the magic it's going to be taking in. It only takes a few days for me to be ready. Once Im ready I went to my lessons with my father and mother, I learned that after I form my mana heart I will be given my first Grimoire with only the basic necromancy spells after they find out if I have an affinity for Death magic, Blood magic, or Soul magic. Death magic was classic Necromancy and allows you to raise the dead, everyone can do this, but not many can use its subtypes: Blood magic and Soul magic.

Blood magic is the ability to control blood in your body or from around you, you can still raise the dead but you have more affinity with creating creatures that are parasitic like a Vampire. You can do anything if you're advanced and creative enough; you can steal the blood from someone else, create weapons and armor, turn it into a whip, or use blood in the way a water mage would. Soul magic on the other hand is complicated, a person who has an affinity for Soul magic cannot raise the dead but summon ghosts from beyond the grave to suck the life from their opponents or just have them do tasks like pick something up from a high shelf. The Spirits you summon advance with you and you can strengthen them as you are strengthened, they are hurt by silver weapons or magic but anything else will pass right through them and they cause it to age and rust, they also gain strength when they steal the life force from living beings and give half to you as mana. Having only death affinity allows you to raise any kind of physical undead as well as cast curses and as well as raise a lot more than the other subtypes, because while the things they have an affinity with are a bit stronger, a true necromancer may build an army that only follows their command… which of course is illegal because only the crown may have an army and that's why some necromancers become outlaws and necromancers like my father may have hid them away somewhere in a private laboratory.

Back to reality I went to my mother after my lesson with my father and sat down with her. "Are you ready to take the first step in becoming a real mage?" she asked with an excited gleam in her eye "of course mother" I say, giving her as much as I can in my lotus position "very well then!" she beams "Take the mana crystal and we will begin the process" she held out a perfectly spherical light blue orb that was the size of my 6-year-old head, I was amazed cause I remember in one of my lessons that the lighter color the mana crystal was the purer the mana within was, this must've been a 7th tier Mana crystal which was really expensive and to have one that size! I carefully take it and place it on my lap before placing my hands on top of it and closing my eyes before starting the process to bind the mana to my heart to create a mana heart.

It was warm and gentle, It was like the mana was welcoming me and I felt it traveling through the mana veins I made through the last few days, the mana had no obstruction to my heart as it slowly reaches there and soon I took control of it and put the runes had to memorize for the circle creation over, around, and on my heart. At this point, I felt a tinge of pain and soon a whole surge of it! It was nearly unbearable as the mana got forced into my heart but I couldn't stop because it would fail otherwise. I forced the mana to keep going and it felt like I was going to die with how much it hurt but eventually, the last bits of mana was carved into my heart and my first circle was made; my heart was officially a mana core.

When I opened my eyes I was covered in sweat and I noticed that my father and mother were there as well as Percy and Alice. I was wondering why they were here "Father? Mother? Why are Percy and Alice here?" I asked before Percy spoke up "you little brat- talk to your brother directly if you wanna know the answer" he teased "It was intense, there was mana flying everywhere and the mana crystal was pitch black like some sort of back hole! You could have died!" he laughed as if it was funny which earned him a slap on the back of his head from father and he spoke "Yes you could have died but you've done well… it seems that you have a pure affinity for death magic. You need to rest now and eat something that will help your mana core grow." he paused for a moment "for your information as well its nearly midnight" he says before walking off.

I was surprised, to say the least, my sister and brother bickered as they walked off so I couldn't even ask them. I didn't think that it would take the entire day! It was morning when I started so that was really something. I decided to do as my father said and went to get something to eat, I could barely walk so my mother helped me to my room and some servants got me dinner: It was mana grass and wraith heart, it stunk like all hell but I reluctantly ate it, I hated it of course but the mana grass which actually didn't taste that bad (it tastes like lettuce with dressing on it to anyone wondering) and was to stabilize my mana core and the wraith heart which was the horrid part (which tastes like rotten beef) would help my magic stabilize as well as reinforce my affinity for death magic. This made me wonder though as I had my mother at my side slowly drifting off to sleep; what is a pure elemental affinity?