Forming the Core

"Archer! Come on. It's time for training!" I could hear dad's annoying roar throughout the whole house, echoing from room to room.

"Coming!" 'Why now of all times. I was just about to get to the good part.' I quickly shut my book and started running through the house, boosting myself with basic wind manipulation. Getting to the front yard, I could already see his devilish smile. "Here." Gasping for air, I caught the wooden sword dad threw me.

"Alright, you know the drill. One hour of swordsmanship and sparring and 1 hour of mana manipulation with your mother afterward."

"Yeah, got it." Thinking back to my old days, I wanted to test an ancient technique of mine. 'Let's just hope this fragile body won't fall apart.'

"Dad. Can I try something on you? I've meant to try this for a while now."

"Sure. It won't change the outcome, though." He said with a hint of pride to his tone.

As irritating as he already is, this just struck a nerve. "We'll see about that," I replied.

"Same as usual, when the coin hits the ground." He replied, with his sword already imbued with fire magic.

"Mhm," I mumbled with all my attention to the coin spinning in the air.

As soon as the coin touched the ground, I sent my wooden training sword straight up in the air. I kicked it once with the bottom side of my foot, sending it higher and amplifying it with wind magic, sending it even higher and slightly altering its course. Once the sword reached its peak, I could see my dad covering his eyes as the ray of sun was reflecting off my blade.

"Aghhhh. How many dirty tricks do you need before you can beat me?!" He shouted.

"I'll use as many as I need to," I replied with a snide smirk on my face.

Thinking back to it, I had always been "cheap" and "dirty" in my past. Coming from the slumps, I had a habit of using every advantage I could, to come out victorious. Even the slightest speck of dust would be the most significant difference in the battles to me.

Using wind magic to propel me ahead at speeds I didn't think this five-year-old body could handle, I attempted to sweep his feet with my left leg. As I saw him sense mana form around my leg, he quickly evaded, stepping back away from me. 'As expected.' Following my plan precisely like I wanted him to, I placed my right hand on the ground, pushed off of it, sending myself straight to him. With a bit of help using wind magic, I flew through the air, knocking the sword out of his hand with my right leg and quickly grabbing it with my left hand. Landing on my feet, I swiftly spun around, kicking him, sending him even further back. Before he even noticed what had happened, I threw the sword at him, clipping his shoulder and piercing his shirt, sticking him to a stand-alone tree.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," I told him before pointing up.

"wh-" Before even being able to form words, my original sword, which I had sent up in the air beforehand, had landed on his other shoulder, pinning him altogether.

"Ok, ok. You win. How did you do that? You looked... almost inhumane." He asked with a stumbled and confusion.

'How am I supposed to tell him that I'm mentally older than him? Will he even believe me? I can't just tell him I was reborn.'

"Archer? Archer?! Archer, snap out of it!"

"Ah, what? Sorry." I quickly said, snapping out of my thoughts.

"Again, what was that?"

Scrambling to come up with an excuse, I quickly spoke, "I don't even know myself. It's like my body started to move on its own." 'That was considered inhumane? You could barely declare that continental. Just how dull is this world?'

"So... what do I get for winning again?"

"Well, you are turning six next year, aren't you? I could apply you to Arcadia. Although the qualifying age is eleven, you still have 7 more years. I can suggest you early through some acquaintances."

"I'd like to be ordinary, not underage compared to my acquaintances. Let me attend at eleven."

"Even though you have genius-level swordsmanship and magic control? You could probably beat some of the lower-ranked adventurers after accumulating a bit more years under your belt."

"Well, I have been under your and mom's tutelage. I'd expect to come out at least half-decent.'

"Of course, we were both adventurers for the prestigious Luminous Guild. Now, let's go. Your mother is waiting for you, and I have to get healed. Today is also a special day."

"Hmm?" I responded, "special"?

"It's a surprise."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Mom. I'm here. Let's begin our magic foundation training." 'Though I don't have a mana core yet, I have been training with my mom to gravitate towards my magic affinity or affinities, if I am lucky.'

"Welcome. Archer, today is special. It's time to build your mana core," My mother said with a pleasant smile.

"Finally! I've been all my life for this moment." I said, giddy and excited to finally be able to utilize mana properly.

Before, I had an affinity towards wind magic but no exclusive control over it. I would like to have more types of magic, but I'll be content with only wind.

"Today, we will meditate to locate your affinities. Discovering affinities for your core takes exceptional concentration. If your attention is destroyed, we will have to repeat the process repeatedly until it is complete. This is a rather tedious process. I expect you to break your concentration a couple of times until we build it."

"So, how do we begin?" I said.

"You need to enter a meditating position, similar to the monks in the books you have read about. After, you will need to concentrate on mana. Think of mana, like particles floating around in your body. Once you can grasp those particles, pull them together, little by little, eventually you will start to build your core. As this is going on, tell me all the particle colors you see and tell me how many of them. It doesn't have to be exact, just a vague measure. I can assess your affinities once you have told me the values."

At that point, I had been in a meditating state like the monks in the books.

Through my reading virtues, I concluded that the monks had died slowly as their habits were unhealthy and unsustainable. But, we, humans, elves, and dwarves, have been passed down the teachings of building a mana core to survive against the treacherous mana beasts.

By obtaining our mana core, we have evolved it from black to orange for most people. There have been very few individuals, such as my father, who have surpassed orange into yellow. Moreover, even fewer have broken into gold. And no one has seen past gold.

After meditating for a few minutes, I could finally see particles, several particles, a ton of particles. I noticed an abundant amount of green and blue particles floating around. Grasping after, I saw fewer red and brown particles but a significant amount. Shortly following, I spotted very sparse amounts of black and clear and a tiny purple.

"Archer? Can I know the colors you see?" My mother said, patiently waiting.

"Ah, sorry. I am concentrating. I see a lot of green, blue, red, and brown particles. I also see very little black, clear, and purple." I replied, excited for the outcome.

"Oliver! Our son's a genius. He's a quadra-elemental mage. There have only been twelve before him." My mom replied in a very high-pitched voice, completely disregarding the other colors.

"I understand. I am also excited. I always had the suspicion that Archer wasn't normal, but we must assemble Archer's core to put all of these elements to proper use."

"Ah, yes. I had almost forgotten the most vital step. Archer, try pulling those particles together. Think of those particles as puzzle pieces; put them together slowly."

Following my mother's instructions, I carefully pulled the pieces together, one by one. Building the core was a very tedious task, putting them together slowly, carefully, and precisely.

"Archer, I need you to tell me when you're close to finishing. I need to reinforce myself with mana before receiving the impact of the core-forming."

Not replying as I had all my attention on my core, piecing it little by little. After the first several green and blue pieces, the next few red and brown articles following started to move in swiftly. After all, the green particles had fully moved in, the red and blue encompassed afterward, and finally the brown.

"Mom, dad, get ready," I said as I noticed my core finishing up.

After all the pieces had formed, a part of my core had been empty. A full circle, with an indention at the top, appeared. What am I missing? A black-colored particle, filled a tiny portion of the indention. I had completely forgotten about the black, clear, and purple particles!

'Damn, these particles just won't budge.'

After concentrating even harder, the particles started to move on their own. Stream-lining in, black slowly filling closer to the center, the clear following after, and the purple closed up the hole in my core.

Sasha White POV:

My son is an inborn genius! He had always been different compared to the rest of his peers. Almost professional. Always composed, never let any emotion slip. He almost looked like he made up his expressions. I always thought of him to be unique but a quadra-elemental mage! There have only been twelve in the history of humankind. Another has just been born into this world.

"Mom, dad, get ready."

As soon as I heard those words, I sent channels of mana throughout my body, strengthening myself to take the impact of forming the core. I wonder how repercussive a quadra-elemental core is?

Boom!