Mana Cores

"Aghh..."

I groaned in pain, pushing myself to run forward. Sweat dribbled down my back and face, slightly obstructing my vision. The sandbags tied around my limbs weighed me down, but I kept moving, trying to finish the lap.

"Come on! Don't you dare stop!" Robbin shouted behind me.

I gnashed my teeth, forcing my tired legs to move faster. Since I wasn't allowed to use Mana during the training, I had to rely on my physical strength, which was my lowest attribute.

The weight of the sandbags had already been increased, and I didn't dare to fail again after falling over and letting Robbin catch up to me.

I was barely able to move, which was surprising considering we had only started training an hour ago. Awakeners usually had a lot of endurance.

This only served to highlight how rough the training with Robbin was and even then I considered myself lucky, because I hadn't sparred with him yet.

"Okay, that's it for today!"

I fell to the ground, gasping for breath while Robbin fiddled with his handwatch.

"Good job, kid. Also, try to wear the sandbags everywhere you go!"

He said and disappeared with the wind, leaving me alone and making me sigh. Sooner or later, I expected that he would make me wear the weights to make me comfortable with them. Honestly, I didn't have anything against it, because it was all to make me stronger.

Sitting in a Lotus position, I began absorbing the Mana surrounding me and sighed, feeling the soreness in my muscles lessen with every minute. Of course, it didn't disappear completely, but it was good enough.

Rising from the ground, I groaned as I walked towards my dorm. I received a few glares in my direction, since I was literally drowning in my sweat, but nobody gave me a second glance. It was either because I was too ugly or just too irrelevant to pay attention to.

Not going to lie, I liked both of those things, since they meant that I wasn't an eye magnet.

"..."

Standing under the cold water flowing from the shower, I felt the coldness seeping into my bones, but my attention was directed elsewhere. I was currently thinking about the G-Rank cores I had bought yesterday.

As Oscar had mentioned, they were used to power Mana Devices, but there was another unknown function that humanity didn't know yet. One could absorb the Mana within them!

Simply trying to force the Mana out of the core would make it crack and cause the Mana within to scatter, but I knew the way to absorb it all. It was to swallow it!

Of course, this method had already been tried, but all the humans who tried to swallow the cores died from the sudden amount of Mana that overfilled their capacity, making them literally explode.

A High Rank awakener could try to swallow a G-Rank core, but it wouldn't even make a difference. On the other hand an F- Rank awakener couldn't swallow these cores without consequences.

Before I could consume these cores safely, I had to prepare myself for the immense power they contained. If I just swallowed them whole, I would explode into parts from the excess Mana.

There were different methods to avoid this fate, but one of the simplest ones was to drain all the Mana from my body and enter a state of Mana Depletion. In that state, I could take in a core without overflowing my capacity, and then cultivate it slowly, absorbing the mana within.

"Cold..."

I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off. I threw on some clothes and headed to the wooden table where I had kept the box of cores. I opened the box and picked out one of the white spheres. It felt cold and smooth in my hand.

I brought it close to my face and examined it. Inside the glassy shell, a white mist swirled and danced. I could sense the Mana trapped inside, pulsing and pushing against its prison.

I held the core gently in my palm and began to release my own Mana into the air. It flowed out of my pores like a stream of water, creating ripples around the room.

After a few minutes, I felt dizzy and confused. My mind was foggy and my body was weak. This was how Mana Depletion felt like.

I lifted the core and held it up to my mouth. I slightly parted my lips and pushed the sphere into my throat. Instantly, I felt my body heating up uncontrollably. It was uncomfortable and soon I felt pain in my chest area.

"Focus," I told myself.

I started quickly absorbing Mana, trying to cultivate it. But the amount of it and its strange properties that made it swirl around wildly made it difficult to handle. In the game, I could just press a few buttons and the process would be completed. But since it was now my reality, I had to endure the pain and slowly, but surely, control the Mana that was thrashing inside my body.

Minutes passed and I could feel the Mana that was previously rampant in my body slowly calming down, becoming my own.

"Huh…"

I clenched the chair's arms and sighed, feeling the pain in my chest disappearing. I allowed the Mana to envelop my body, but I felt no noticeable change. I wasn't dissatisfied though. If anything, I was kind of happy it worked.

Looking at the thin golden hue covering my hands, I inspected my skin which was covered in a thin layer of Mana. Even though I felt nothing different, I could see that the density of Mana was thicker than previously. It meant that my Mana capacity had increased.

"It worked…"

I looked towards the box full of cores and smirked. If I was able to consume all of these, I was sure that my Mana would raise to a higher rank.

It was crucial that I raise my Mana storage because this weekend I was planning to visit a dungeon. Running out of Mana within it would be a literal death sentence, and I didn't want to risk it.