Chapter One

I was running on Mrs Potts terrace, and running is an understatement I was basically sprinting at this point, behind me was Mike, Alvin and Sam, chasing me, yeah I think I should give out a little more information on what's happening. Let me take you back a bit My name is Raiden Ragnar I live with my mom, my father died when I was really small like five years old, my mother said he died of something called mana poison, this is a disease in which your body is invaded with mana that it cannot synthesize, I don't really remember much about him just his name and some details of his face like his blonde hair and grey eyes.

My mother Lilith Ragnar is a maid at Lord Windsor's manor, my mother has emerald green eyes, long luscious white hair and sharp features, you know the basic chiseled cheekbones and a defined jawline, I inherited my mother's hair but everything else belongs to my father from his eyes to his face.

Now on the issue of why am being chased well it's a funny story Mike and his buddies had set up a stand in the middle of the market and they were selling mana enlightment potions (spoiler alert there's no such thing as a mana enlightment potion) of course I knew that the people of Lizon, well let's just say they are as dumb as a bag of rocks but its not there fault having mana in a place like this was the same as finding a chest full of gold we were peasants so we were considered trash by the rich morons but a peasant with mana was less revolting to them and it also opened a door of opportunities.

Mike had red hair, tanned skin tone, and brown eye while Sam had blonde hair, grey eyes and he's skin was as white as snow and Alvin had curly hair, light brown eyes and a dark skin tone.

"come one come all just for the price of three copper coins you too will be able to manipulate mana like Sam here," Mike said as he pointed to Sam standing on his right, Sam let out a mana burst from his mana core a dim white light covered his body before it sizzled out.

At first they had five people who were interested but after Sam's show a group of people showed up and his mana enlightment potions was now selling like hotcakes, I assume that hotcakes sell I've never really seen one before. I was leaning at a tree which was facing Mike's mana crap potions and I don't know something about him getting free money hurt so I did what any normal jealous person would do I walked over and exposed his business.

"excuse me Mike, I have a question about those potions," I said and Mike caught on to what I was about to do based on the grin I had, he was now glaring at me but he had no choice chasing a customer with a question is bad for business.

"so what's your question?" He said trying to fake a smile.

"well those mana enlightment stuff must be really sensitive to mana right,"

"of course it is," he said.

"then how about a demonstration then, Sam run some of your mana through the vial," I said I moved over to their stand picked up the vial of green sludge and tossed it to Sam. Sam was hesitant at first and so was Mike, but as the saying goes the show must go on, Sam tried to pump mana through the vial but nothing happened. Time went by as nothing happened seconds turned into minutes and the minutes turned into an hour.

"nothing's happening," one of the customers said

"yeah what the hell give me back my money!" He said as he smashed the vials he bought to the ground.

With his remark a chain reaction started, the customers were now hurling insults and demanding their money back. Some were even getting physical and in ten minutes Mike's once glorious stand was reduced to a pile of log and a bunch of broken glass. I was just standing on the sidelines with a huge smile on my face, did I do it out of spite and jealousy, yes, but some people might call me the hero in this situation well not Mike the minute everyone left he charged at me with his crew or posse.

Now that we are all caught up let's focus on the task at hand. These bastards have been chasing me for the past twenty minutes from the market all around the town, right now I was a sweaty and panting mess. Of the three the only person who was a problem was Sam he was constantly reinforcing his legs with mana it was a miracle that he didn't catch me yet but we've been doing this for a really long time that now am on par with a mana user in terms of running, well just Sam not all mana users. Finally I reached my escape the sewer close to crackpot Henry's shop, before I spoiled Mike's business I had opened the manhole cover and kept a rod there to keep it open for emergencies just like this.

I managed to slide down and my feet managed to knock the rod over as I fell in. The manhole shut after me, even with Sam and his mana filled limbs it would probably take him a minute before he could open it so I used this brief moment to run. I didn't use mana I still don't know how to use it, I used the second best thing physics, the use of levers, but physics did not help with the crap stench of this place, I managed to find my way out of the sewers although it was out of town.

My clothes had soaked up the stenches of the sewer and as I was walking home I noticed that people held their noses when I passed close to them, yeah I was going to throw these clothes the minute I get home and I did just right after a nice cold bath. Now that I was back home I quickly did the chores that mom left me because it was now getting late and that meant she would come home and find the house in a mess, contrary to that woman's innocent looking face, she is a ninja when it comes to whooping me.

The gods must have been in my favor because mom was still not in, our house was the same as almost everyone here, a roof made of grass, the wall made of mana infused wood for durability and the sitting room, fireplace, kitchen, dining room and the bedroom were all in one room. There was a wooden table with two chairs in the middle of the room and on the far side of the wall away from the door was two beds.

It was getting dark and by the look of thing mom wasn't going to come soon so I took it upon myself to make dinner for the both of us and as I was stirring the stew mom finally walked in.

"Ray stop what you are doing and come here," mom said, she hadn't even changed from her work outfit let alone that her bag was still on her shoulder.

Yup am getting whooped today, I placed the ladle in the pot as I walked over to her thinking of what I may have done wrong, I folded our clothes so not that, I chopped the firewood so not that either, I swept our house, the front and backyard so not that and am also cooking so what? Oh crap she knows about the incident with Mike. I said it before but our house wasn't really big, I was basically dragging myself before I reached my mom.

"oh calm down you didn't do anything wrong," mom said as she reached for something inside her bag. After I heard 'you didn't do anything wrong' I took a big step making me stand inches close to her.

She pulled out a brown book from her bag, the book's cover was made from an animal's hide judging from the color of the fur and the texture I'd say it was a wolf's hide, the book seemed to be a little worn out but compared to the books she brought me before, this book seemed brand new. Oh yes I forgot to mention before but since mom works at Windsor manor she would occasionally 'borrow' some books that the Windsor's never read, she'd return them as soon as I was done with them though, thanks to her I've known everything that I could know from basic reading to math to the theories of mana to the structure of mana, the history of Alvaria and the biology of almost every living creature that has ever been recorded. Mom's hair signifies affinity with lightning mana but she was never able to explore it but she vowed that I wouldn't end up like her.

I took the book from her, the book was light like really really light, it must have been forty to sixty pages max. I'd probably finish this in thirty minutes give or take. As I read the title I couldn't believe my eyes. "How to Form your Mana Core' I raised my eyes up to see mom's face practically lighting up.

"so Raiden you finally getting a mana core too," she said breaking the brief silence we were having.