Chapter 3: Three Years of @&$€ You!

It had been three since Luciel has been in the cave of the Dwarf, his life both got easier and harder with the presence of the caregiver that was called in. Now able to stand, and walk around he found the area which he could explore greatly increased to the front of the cave.

The caregiver was an older woman, who had as many wrinkles as one could count in a lifetime, and she would constantly tell him stories of her youth. Her name was Ramona, which surprised him as it was a normal name, he expected something completely foreign. This world seemed much more dangerous than Earth was if her stories were anything to go by though.

The plentiful mana in the air evolved beasts as they could naturally make cores just like humans, in fact many people believe we learned these methods through ancient beasts. Plants could create something called a network core with their roots as well which was another way to store mana which meant many plants could do amazing things as well.

Ramona's ears were pointy like those of elves in fairytales, but Luciel had learned this was the mark of those who had been kidnapped by fairies when they were young. The changes from being with the fey too long made their body better at manipulating the plants and dirt to their bidding. Sadly unlike elves they weren't immortal, many only living a few hundred years which was a normal lifespan here.

Luciel had also learned the dwarf's name, which was Heater, which was unique enough to make him still call the stout man dwarf. He took to it like glue since Luciel always said the name affectionately, and there were no real dwarves in this world.

In the past few years he had trained his body with his yoga and stretches, becoming very flexible almost to the point where he could form his body into any conceivable shape that didn't require him to be double jointed. His breathing exercises, and meditating had still not formed a core yet, which worried him since the mana was becoming denser every day. Fearing a black hole was going to appear in his stomach he redoubled his efforts in the past several months.

Trying to get rid of excess mana that he couldn't force into the condensing core, he had found out it benefitted his growth to place mana into his marrow forcing the blood to carry it throughout his whole body. This was the reason he was never sick since he's been in his new body.

Filth had come up with several ideas for the mana, in fact now it was using a good portion of it to enhance its own systems. Now it was able to record more information than it could before, and since it was part of his brain things like memory and perception of minor details were enhanced for Luciel.

After each lunch he would be taken by Romona to be shown various plants, telling him their medicinal properties as the front of the cave was filled with healing herbs. One of the plants drew his interest which was called a Firespitter, named rightly since its seeds when hit with enough force exploded in flames. This was eaten by a lot of fire based creatures which both nurtured their fire affinity, and gave the seeds nutrients to make a new plant when they were digested.

This was a special day, this would be his third birthday, and would be the day that he would be taught how to meditate. He wasn't that excited only because he already knew how to mediate, he just hoped that the dwarf would be able to explain to him where he had gone wrong over these years. It was frustrating, and he had to beg the dwarf to teach him two years early.

As he sat down for breakfast, he smelled it since it didn't have the same herbal smell it usually did. It was mostly meat this time, filled with mushrooms and a strange white sauce that reminded him of mayonnaise. When the dwarf came in, he noticed the confused look on the child's face and smiled.

"What I was feeding you before allowed you to constantly absorb mana into your body like one could with a core. It's a concoction I sell to nobles to make a bit of spending money. Since we're trying to make a core today you can't eat that." He grinned proud of himself.

Luciel looked at the dwarf and started putting two and two together, "Why shouldn't I eat that while forming a core?"

"Because the last step requires you to be completely out of free flowing mana or it'll be stuck in a continual refinement process."

"Fuck!" Luciel's head hit the table making it rattle a bit.

The dwarf looked confused, then shocked as Luciel realized his mistake, "Where did you learn the ancient language?"

Looking into the wide eyes of the dwarf he pulled out the secret weapon that always worked on the old man, "You say words like that in your sleep, you usually say that one when you're angry pop pop, so I figured that would be the proper use of it."

The dwarf waved his hand beaming, his cheeks red with the force of his smile as he chuckled, "That is a bad word my son, you shouldn't use it so nonchalantly." He was obviously giddy after being called pop pop that he dropped the matter.

Sitting there Luciel forced his mana to rotate and dive into the mana core, refining it at the table as he took a few bites of food. As he finished the food both of them heard a sound of something humming as if a great engine was coming online.

Wind started to slowly form in the small cave as they looked up at each other, one looking guilty as he knew his core had just finished building after all these years. He knew with that humming sound he couldn't hide the fact from the dwarf as suddenly the wind started to get annoyingly strong.

"What's happening?" Luciel asked worriedly as he noticed the wind was circling around him.

"How long have you been meditating while using the herbs?"

"About a year," Luciel lied, "Romona taught me the basics one day."

The dwarf shook his head a bit, "Then this is going to hurt."

Suddenly the wind turned blue as concentrated mana started to force itself into his body, a scream left his lips as the blue tendrils penetrated his skin and body. He felt like he was being ripped apart as his core greedily drank from the mana forcing itself on Luciel's body. Blackness swarmed his vision more than once, as he probably passed out those times from the pain.

When it all passed it was already dark, the cave in a somber glow as the dwarf sat beside him, wiping his head with a cloth. "What happened?"

"You just lead a core to water.. You've been starving it for a year so when you gave it food it ate everything greedily. The only good thing is you should be able to hold a lot more mana than a mage at your level should."

A series of windows appeared in his vision as his mind calmed down.

Skill Gained:

Meditation: By harnessing the power of mana and creating a core, you can now recover mana faster and easier through meditation.

Skill Evolved

Meditation -> Qi Breathing: By forcing the flow of mana through your body, and condensing it above your navel you enhance your body through meditation, and breathing.

Quest Complete!

Reward: A rank

Reward increased for performance, reward has been increased.

Affinity with the highest concentration of mana in your environment has increased by ten times, you are now considered as having an B class affinity with healing magic.

Fame Increased!

The God of Healing has taken notice of you.

The God of Death has taken notice of you.

The Goddess of Intersections has taken notice of you.

Luciel slowly looked at the messages with a half grin, he understood the first two gods, but not the goddess that took notice of him. In a daze, all the messages went away as he sighed slowly.