Core

A burning light orange star was surrounded by a dozen small fragments whose light was almost drowned out by the sheer volume of the large star.

I heaved a sigh as a mixture of elation and frustration surged in my mind, this was an occasion to be happy about yet I simply couldn't. It had been six months since I believed myself to be on the cusp of forming my core, and yet only now I had a few moments of meditation left till I formed my core.

It should not have taken such a massive amount of time, I had put a minimum of six hours a day into meditation. Oftentimes I would have nothing else to do and would simply meditate, eat, train and sleep for days on end. It was a truly rigorous schedule yet it didn't seem to be rewarding, at least on the front of meditation. Arthur Leywin took approximately two years of relatively casual meditation in order to form his core. Why did it take me three and a half years of immense effort put into meditation for me to reach this?

I let out a small sigh and stood from where I was meditating, it was a small mat that I sat on in the middle of my living room. My flexibility had increased to the point that I could now easily hold the lotus position without strain for an entire day on end. So I no longer needed to sit criss-cross-applesauce, which was a welcome change. I stretched lightly to warm up my muscles. I had been meditating since early dawn and it was well past midday at this point, so my muscles were rather taut.

I walked down to the basement beneath my small abode and grabbed some smoked meat from my storage bin. I was running very low, but I knew very well that I wouldn't have trouble getting food anymore very soon. I would be awakening today, I simply needed to ensure that I was in peak condition for anything that could occur. I would finally be able to keep my promise with my teacher, Andreas, and beat the ever living shit out of soen adventurers. If only Adrian Wykes was still alive so I could kill him myself, that ought to have been a good way to follow through on my promise.

All the possibilities of the future opened up to my eyes now that I am finally on the cusp of my awakening. I would move to the floating island of Xyrus and join the academy at a young age, I would bring Andreas with me so he could continue guiding me on the path of being a mage. Having him as a mentor will truly be useful, and I must make sure my first teacher is treated lavishly in the future. I'll have him live in a mansion the size of the Helstias before you know it, and I'll make sure he can make it to a Djinn shelter to protect him during the war. I had a smile on my face thinking about the future for the first time since I had arrived in this world.

The future was truly bright.

Regardless of the oncoming war, as long as I had my teacher to guide me and was able to form a strong team around myself. I believed that I would thrive. To thrive, however, I need to form that pesky core today. I finished chewing on the last piece of jerky in my storage and glanced at the pile of coins I had stashed in the corner. I had lived off of what I could forage and even hadn't bought a new weapon solely to save that money. It was what would bring me up to the floating city very soon, so sacrifices needed to be made to accumulate it.

I walked up the stairs and out of my front door into the winding street of Xinia, I breathed in the fresh air that permeated from the forest surrounding the city and felt at peace. I calmly walked, observing the city that I would soon leave in my dust, it truly wasn't the greatest place. I had lived through horrors that I previously couldn't have imagined here, I glanced at the nub of my left hand as I said that. However, despite all the tragedy, it truly was a beautiful place, at least once you left the slums where I lived. The vibrancy of the trees firmly rooted next to the cobble paths that weaved through the city was eye catching. The smile of one of the many housewives in the city as they watched their children play brought a smile to my face and I felt a ball hit my foot. I passed it over to the child that had hit it in my direction on accident and smiled at him.

"Hey, do you want to play with us?"

Hm? Oh. I suppose I was their age so it wasn't such an outrageous request, it had simply never happened before. Ah, it was because I was always rushing to the next task, or simply had a brooding look on my face. This was a very rare occasion that I had a relaxed face, or even a smile. I thought of how to answer for a moment before coming to a conclusion.

"Sorry, I have something to do right now, ask me again the next time you see me."

I meant it. I needed to enjoy life more, that was the conclusion I drew from this experience. I had finally relaxed for a moment, because I knew I would form my mana core, and it was truly relieving to simply relax.

"Of course, see you again soon!"

I smiled at the kid again, waved and walked towards the exit of the city and spotted the guard who had always been kind to me, Mr Wawr.

"Hey kid, I haven't seen you in a while, I was hoping you had finally given up on hunting these beasts! It's not good for your health you know, there's so much risk and you've already gotten so injured! Haaa, I know this is just going in one ear and out the other so hurry on to your hunt then."

"I'm not hunting today, Mr Wawr, I'm just going for a stroll."

He rolled his eyes at me and waved me away. I was truly blessed to meet such kind people, well, not everyone I met was kind. Most of them were rather vile actually, but I still met quite a few kind sods that truly made life worth living. I quickly made a vow that I would repay these kind people in the future somehow.

I moved a few hundred meters into the forest so that my mana core formation wouldn't cause any damage to the city, and found a spot where a beast wouldn't find me. I sat down in the lotus position, and meditated. I saw the bright orange star in my sternum and slowly moved all the last fragments towards the main star. The last one moved into place and rather anticlimactically I had formed my mana core.

Then it happened.

The largest disaster I have ever witnessed.

[AN: Well, here it is, the formation of the core and the lead up to the climax of this arc. What are y'alls thoughts on this chapter and the story so far?

Side note, this is now the longest story I've ever written in terms of both chapter count and word count, so I'm currently in unknown territory :)]