Looking up at the night sky I could see why dreamers and philosophers have always been drawn to it.  Thousands of tiny lights twinkling high above.  I could see beautiful colors and awe-inspiring constellations that stretched on as far as your eyes are able to follow.  For the moment I took a deep breath and enjoyed the view hoping that I could lay here forever.  Unfortunately, this moment of serenity was cut short.

“Get your ass back up slave” Griff shouted at me.

I groaned as I sat up.  Feeling a wave of pain course throughout my entire body, I shot Griff a spiteful glare.  We’d been training for the past nine hours straight.  And by training I meant that Griff had been relentlessly attacking while I desperately tried to defend myself.  So far, I’d been failing miserably, each time I messed up, Griff would slam me to the ground.  I would then pick myself up, and we’d start sparring again.  I’ve completely lost count of how many times I have been thrown into the sand.

“Glaring isn’t going to keep you alive in the arena, you only lasted six seconds last time” Griff spoke in response to my glare. 

“Maybe I would do better if I got some rest” I responded while struggling back to my feet.  “We’ve been at it for hours. I can barely lift my arms anymore” I complained. 

Griff looked me over before nodding and dropping out of his combat stance and crossing his arms.  “Very well, lets take a break from physical training” he said.  I exhaled in relief as I bent over to catch my breath for a second.  When I looked back towards Griff, I was surprised to see a small rock shooting towards me.

I tried to move out of the way, but I was far too tired and slow to make it.  The rock hit me square in my chest, knocking the wind out of me and making me fall flat to the ground again. 

“Pathetic” Griff said with disdain.  “Why didn’t you use mana to shield yourself?” He asked.

Struggling to catch my breath I sat up slowly and faced Griff.  The large demon was standing a short distance away scrutinizing my every movement.  “The attack came to fast. I wasn’t able to respond in time” I answered.

“Nonsense, you attempted to dodge.  What I’m asking is why? Why dodge when you should have been able to shield yourself with mana?” He asked again.

“Because I can’t use mana that quick, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit out of shape.” I responded, this time with slight anger in my tone.  I was sick of constantly getting hit by him, and I could tell my patience was running out.

Griff shook his head at my response.  “Being fat should only affect the amount of mana you can use, not the speed at which it flows through your body.”  He stepped forward and looked at me as though he was trying to figure out a puzzle.  After a couple of seconds his eyes lit up and he made a slight ‘aha’ sound as he hit his hands together.

“Hit me with a spell” he said suddenly.

“What??” I asked.  I looked at him as if he’d gone crazy.

“Oh, don’t be a baby” He responded.  “I can take anything you can throw at me, now hit me with a spell.” He said with a rather insistent tone.

Thinking back to his previous surprise attack as well as the countless times he’d hit me and thrown me to the ground I decided it could be nice to hit him for once.  I raised my hand so that my palm was facing him and focused on my core.  Pulling mana from my core and into my palm I could feel my heartrate start to increase as I fired a gust of wind at him.

He smirked as he slapped the gust away with his bare hand.  ‘Of course it wouldn’t hit’ I thought to myself as I clicked my tongue in annoyance.  Griff sat down in front of me and asked, “What stage core where you born with?”

“White” I answered.  I half expected him to make fun of me for never purifying my core to the next stage.  Instead, he simply nodded his head and said, “That explains why you didn’t shield yourself with mana.”

That statement caught my curiosity.  “What do you mean?” I asked.

He seemed to think for a second before explaining, “Are you aware that only short-lived races are born with higher stage cores?” he asked.

I nodded, what he asked was common knowledge.  While no one knows why, humans and beastmen have the innate ability to be born with cores above the brown stage.  The other, more long-lived races, elves, dwarves, demons, and orcs all were born with brown stage cores.  This isn’t to say that every human and beastman was born with a higher stage core.  After all, for the short-lived races, you were generally born with a core that was at a similar stage to your parents.

Griff continued, “As a result of being born with a white stage core, you never had to undergo the basics that most others have to.  You have been able to cast magic since birth.  As a result, your usage of mana is raw, and unrefined.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

Griff chuckled to himself as he lifted both his arms making both his palms face opposite directions.  “Try and guess which palm my spell will shoot from” he said.

I looked at him carefully.  I could see a thin layer of mana surrounding his body, but there was no noticeable difference between his two arms.  As I couldn’t see a difference I just guessed at random.  “Left” I said.  Immediately after I guessed, a small rock shot out of his right palm.

“Wrong.” He stated, “Now you do the same, and I’ll try and guess which palm your spell will come from.”

I mimicked his pose as I raised both of my arms and pointed my palms toward opposite directions.  I focused on my core and moved my mana into my left palm.  “Left” Griff said with certainty just before I fired off a gust of wind.

After I shot off the gust of wind, I lowered my hands back into my lap.  “How did you know?” I asked.

“Because as you prepared your spell, I could see mana ripple across your left arm leading to your palm.” He responded.

“What does that have to do with me being born with a white stage core?” I asked.

Griff leaned forward and drew a small person in the sand.  In the center of the persons’ abdomen, he drew a small circle representing a core.  He started to explain while using the small person as a visual aid.  “People with a brown stage core can’t control mana, they can only visualize the mana that is located in their core.” He said while pointing to the core on the figure.

“As their core starts to purify to a red stage, they gain the ability to utilize their mana and spread it over their body as a shield.  When their core reaches the yellow stage two things happen simultaneously.  First their core is able to hold enough mana that a person is able to realize what elemental attribute their mana has.  Secondly their mana starts to carve pathways throughout their body known as mana veins.”  As he said this, he drew small lines throughout the figures body.  I already knew about all of this, but I continued to listen patiently waiting for him to make his point.

“By the time a persons’ core purifies to the gold stage, their mana has finished making mana veins, and that person is able to now use mana to increase their own speed and power through what we call mana enhancement.  When their core reaches the silver stage people have enough mana that they can form mana into an external spell that they can use for a variety of purposes.  On top of being able to cast magic, their core also gains the ability to manifest itself externally as a summoned weapon that we call a spark.” He drew a small sword in the figures hand as he continued speaking.

“The last few stages of a core simply help indicate the amount of mana that a person should be able to use.  Allowing for more powerful spells the higher their core is.”  He finished his explanation and looked at me.

“I’m aware of all of this already” I said, “but what exactly does this have to do with me being born at white stage.” 

He smiled as he answered me “By the time they make it through gold stage, most people’s mana flows as freely through their body as blood does.  As a result, they are able to naturally move their mana throughout their body.  They only end up exhausting themselves when they try to utilize their mana as a shield or through mana enhancement.”

“But you are different, you never had to go through the gold stage, as such your mana doesn’t flow naturally throughout your body.  Instead, when you use a spell, you have to exert yourself to make the mana flow where you need it to go.  As such your ability to use magic is considerably slower than others who had to go through the gold stage.”

I finally realized the point that he was making and thought back to my past mana usage.  Whenever I cast a spell in the past, I had to first pull the mana from my core to where I wished the spell to come from.  But if what Griff was saying was true, then all he had to do you pull him mana to the outside as it was already constantly flowing through his body.

“So, what you’re saying, is that I need to work on improving the mana flow throughout my body?” I asked.

“Exactly” He answered. “And what better time than the present” he said as he leapt to his feet.

“Wait” I called out, “Can’t we start this tomorrow, it’s only the first day and I’m already exhausted from the training.”

“Quit being a pansy, this is one of the easier parts of using magic.” He said as he pulled me to my feet.  “Now visualize your mana flowing through your entire body.”

I groaned in annoyance but did as he asked.  I focused on my core and tried to have mana flow out of in in all directions.  Immediately I felt my heart start to pound in my chest and my breathing became ragged, but I kept my focus.  It was more difficult than I thought it would be, but I felt the mana start to spread around my body.

“Great!” Griff exclaimed.  He then raised his right arm so that his palm faced me. “Now keep it flowing but bring some to the surface as a shield to protect yourself.” He said with a grin on his face.

“Wait, I don’t think I’m ready-” I tried to call out.  But he had already fired a decent sized rock at me.  I lost focus and felt my mana disperse back into my core as the rock slammed into my chest.  I went flying backwards and blacked out before I hit the ground.

…

I felt pain in my chest as I sat up.  Looking around me I saw that I was in a building likely located somewhere near the main house.  I looked down at what I had been laying on and saw it was some kind of wooden operating table.  Suddenly I heard a grunt as I looked around and saw an orc sitting off to the side watching me.

I gulped in surprise before asking “Who are you?”

The orc responded, “Jesh is your doctor, now don’t move around too much. Or you’ll hurt yourself.”  The orc called Jesh started to move towards me and channeled some kind of mana into his hand.  I’d never heard of an orc healer before, but I guessed it was feasible.  After all it’s not like the orc race wouldn’t have healers.

However, when I looked at his hand, I noticed that he was channeling water magic, rather than the light magic that every healer was known for using.  I jumped off the operating table and moved towards the door, figuring that this orc was crazy and had snuck in here somehow.  I quickly jerked open the door and gasped.

Standing in front of the door opening was a large beast with black and white fur.  It made eye contact as I realized what kind of creature it was.  “A panda, it’s a panda” I said in surprise.  I went to try and move past it, but it let out a small roar, and I backstepped into the doorway.  The next thing I knew I felt something smash into the back of my head.

I felt my vision fading as I staggered and turned towards my attacker.  Behind me the orc called Jesh was standing with a large wooden club in his hands.  I staggered again as I tried to back away from him, but he just casually swung his club at me again.  And for the second time today, I blacked out.