Creating A Foundation

Sat in the middle of his room lit by a lone candle, Milo crossed his legs and lightly cupped his hands above his knees. He was currently in the process of attempting to understand more about his core, given he had shown signs of awakening during his talk with Renny.

"NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!".

His mother screamed from downstairs. Milo stood, grinding his teeth he slammed his door shut and slumped back to the floor.

'So loud! Renny better convince them otherwise that entire talk was pointless'.

Downstairs, the remainder of Milo's family sat across from Renny. Sheila's face was livid as she stood, pointing at Renny after he initially proposed the idea of taking Milo to the main residence.

In her view, it didn't make any sense. Milo was just a little boy so how could he have possibly awakened so early, and better yet display signs of his overwhelming talent. It was something that she couldn't see, the techniques that Milo used and the air he exuded when he spoke, all of it pointed towards him becoming someone great.

"Look Renny, we understand how you feel but we simply can't accept our son leaving at such a young age", Sion spoke, his voice lightly cracking.

Renny's features hardened as he leant forward, "Look, I'll give it to you straight".

"Milo possesses talents that far exceed anything this small village will be able to nurture. Sooner or later he will find himself fed up with this place and it will become more of a limiter to him than anything else", Renny said.

It was the truth in Renny's eyes, in fact he didn't think it would be long before his speech became a reality. Having seen Milo's awakening with his own eyes, he knew all too well that someone of that calibre needed to be nurtured with the very best material he could get his hands on.

This was why Renny was willing to move heaven and earth to ensure he was raised correctly.

Although, something else continued to tug at his heart strings.

'I'm not even sure who Milo even is, but it would appear that his intentions aren't to harm his family'.

His gaze flicked up towards Sheila, then back down at the table.

'It's for their own safety as well. Milo will soon explode bringing forth a torrent of change for the Van Belched name, this branch in the countryside won't be able to sustain the vast amount of attention that will undoubtedly follow such a talent'.

"I'm not planning to take away the role you two play as parents in his life. All I wish is to provide him the correct equipment to nurture him", Renny said, earning a confused look from Melissa.

"Uncle Renny", Melissa said.

"Is little brother really that talented?", she asked.

"Yes".

"Then will you make him the head of the Van Belched families if he proves his worth?", she questioned, a small smile creeping onto her lips.

This was going to be a problem. Melissa and Rebecca had both shown no talent for wielding mana. They both possessed the basic emblems on their backs, and it was estimated their cores wouldn't progress much either. Rebecca, who had shown no interest in the family nor power, was touted as a failure in fighting, only possessing the lowest water emblem.

Melissa was the real issue, to go along with her intellect she also had one of the higher tiers of the basic emblem of light magic. In other words, she was Milo's natural enemy. Possibly the only one besides Renny who could find out who, or what, Milo truly was.

When she received no response, she continued to press for answers, "It only makes sense, doesn't it? If little brother showcases enough talent to be touted as the next family head, wouldn't that mean mother and father also need to travel to the main residence?".

"Well that's …", Renny felt his head drop. Melissa made a valid point. After promising not to downplay Milo's parents role in his life, it only made sense for him to take them to the main residence too.

This brought a new issue to light, Milo becoming the next family head. Renny knew that Milo would have no intention of pursuing this path, he also knew why, but it was something that he couldn't just outwardly say.

Choosing to remain silent, Renny was left to ponder over Melissa's words whilst he waited for Milo to finish his breakthrough. He could feel it, the mana was slowly pulling upstairs towards Milo.

Milo remained poised, feeling for any changes in the fluctuations surrounding him. It had been a while since he had needed to meditate this way. Back in his previous life, his level was so high that the essences were naturally drawn into his body without him needing to lift a finger.

He had forgotten how arduous the task of manually awakening a power was.

Each time he felt he had built a small foundation surrounding his core, the mana would slowly seep out, undoing all of his hard work. It wasn't the same as Qi which circulated your body. Mana flowed endlessly with the core acting as a central hub, allowing it to infuse your muscles, bones, joints, organs and emblem with the amount of power required.

The biggest advantage he possessed however, was his body. It was something he hadn't expected thanks to his previous assumption that he would be lacking in talent, but for some reason unbeknownst to him, this new body of his seemed to have a natural inclination towards the mana.

Even without trying, it naturally flowed to him, as if welcoming him with open arms. The only issue he had to bypass was how to solidify his core. Naturally, this was slowly becoming better as time progressed, but after sitting completely still and with his eyes shut for nearly an entire day, Milo began to feel stiff, like if he didn't move soon his body might give out on him.

He had read about his core and its formation in books, and thanks to his late-night talk with Renny, when they returned home he passed along any vital information to Milo.

The only piece that he really deemed necessary was the core layers. As your core progressed it went through what people referred to as realms. Creation, Tempering, Ascent, King, Emperor, Divine and Transcendent, these were the current 7 realms. Each of these realms possessed stages, it looked a little something like this.

[Transcendent 1,2,3]

[Divine 1,2,3]

[Emperor 1,2,3]

[King 1,2,3]

[Ascent 1,2,3]

[Tempering 1,2,3]

[Creation 1,2,3]

Milo was going to begin his journey at the bottom, the same as everybody else, at Creation 3. He wasn't particularly worried about advancing as once he had the cusp of mana, he would be able to apply his previous knowledge and catapult his strength.

What did have him worried, was a small piece of information Renny had left with him. In all of the history of the world, only 4 people had managed to bypass the Emperor 1 realm. This was troubling for 2 main reasons to Milo that he was able to trace back to his previous life.

Reason 1 was that it was now feasible that this world didn't have enough resource to accommodate the growth of individuals. Meaning that mana as a power source wasn't even on par with the essences, it was beneath it. Reason 2 was that someone was preventing the advancement of the world. The only ones capable of such a feat were the 2 main courts, the Celestial court and the Demonic Court.

Milo felt the mana around him flare as his anger reached boiling point. They were the two courts who were partly responsible for his death and the most trusted groups by the Supreme Deity. If this new world was governed by one of those two groups, it wouldn't be long before he found himself dead … again.

'Maybe if I just …'.

A sudden surge of mana escaped from his body, then re-entered, filling his core to the brim.

'Yep … knew that would work'.

He looked inward at his core. He was left speechless noticing the thick black hue that was slowly reverberating around it. He knew he had an affinity for dark magic, but this likely meant it was far stronger than his other attributes.

All it took for him to stabilise his core was completely expelling all of the excess mana from his body, then allowing it to re-enter all at once. In essence, all it did was like him getting a fresh glass of cold water, whilst in the process getting rid of the water that was sat in the sun all day.

'I didn't expect it to be that easy though, this is batshit crazy compared to essence!'.

Now he had established himself the solid foundation and reached Creation 3, all he needed to do now was draw on the mana surrounding him. Thanks to his previous experiences, drawing on external power was as simple as breathing to him. He began by exhaling a breath of air, refilling his lungs and holding it for a few moments. After exhaling one more time, he forced the mana from his core and began to reinforce his muscles.

This may seem like a pointless exercise, but to him it was a vital step for his young body. As he had awakened much earlier than the average person, he needed to get this body used to how mana feels and how it interacts with everyday activities. With his newly strengthened muscles, he began to slowly pace his room, so he didn't disrupt the flow.

As he was undergoing this task, Renny stepped into his room and gently closed the door behind him.

"How was it?", Milo asked, not turning his head to look at his uncle.

Renny scratched at the back of his neck, taking a seat in the far corner of the room, "Not ideal. As you can imagine they are hesitant to let you leave so early. I think its partly to do with fears of how you'll be treated in the main residence".

"Because I'm from a branch family?", Milo asked, coming to a sudden stop and settling back down on the floor.

'He's gotten this far already. Incredible'.

Renny thought to himself, watching the young child take up the world-renowned meditating pose. It was still something he couldn't comprehend, someone like this being born into their weak family. Now was the time to use him though, he was afraid that if he left Milo alone, he may go and join another family.

'It's selfish of me but I really don't want to see the Van Belched family continue to slip until we are no longer nobility. If I can tame Milo, he gives us the best chance at reclaiming our glory'.

Milo exhaled another cold breath of air, "I know what you are thinking uncle. Don't worry, I won't ditch you. I need you and you need me, it's a give and take deal. As long as you are in my corner, I shall be in yours".

"That sounds strange coming from a child's body", Renny chuckled, letting out a sigh of relief.

Ignoring Renny's words, Milo continued to speak, "Although I don't think I need to remind you about what will happen if you expose my secret".

He shot a fierce glare towards Renny, who recoiled from the pressure he was exuding. It was worse than even some of the seasoned knights he had met in the capital, how could such a young child produce such an overwhelming bloodlust? How many people did he have to kill for his eyes to hold so much weight?

Renny anxiously cleared his throat, "Not at all, I won't speak about the matter at all".

Milo returned a shallow, knowing smile as he watched his uncle nervously twiddle with his fingers in the corner. It felt good to him, knowing that despite his childish appearance, he was still able to maintain his air of authority and terror that he once possessed at the Azure Dragon.

After speaking briefly with his uncle, Milo continued to look inward towards his core.

His next step was understanding more about his affinities. Particularly his power over darkness.

'It seems the world is lining me up to be a dark mage, which was something frowned upon in the courts'.

Despite taking on essentially everyone who displayed world breaking power, the courts still held their preferences, and nothing was able to change that. The only place that accepted these dark mages, was the demonic court.

'If I remember them correctly, they grew rapidly but were always quite troublesome'.

Coupled with his soul harvester emblem, his dark power was all but confirmed to be exponentially stronger than his other affinities. Now all he had to do was learn what attacks he could wield.

He did have some small ideas thanks to the demonic court, the first one he wanted to try was one that was fairly common. He forced the mana out of the palm of his hand and allowed it to carefully drip onto the floor beneath him. Almost immediately a pool of black opened up and a small fox-like creature formed.

"Shadow puppet works … but …".

He prodded at the small creature which was only the size of a normal puppy.

"I don't have enough mana to create anything threatening".

He relaxed his mind and released the fox.

"What a pain in the ass!".