Sam sat beside his house meditating, forming his first mana circle and aura core. Kathy was on another side of the house doing the laundry. It has been three years since Sam started this long and arguest journey, and he was now nearly at the point where his efforts were about to bear fruit. Both his circle and core were nearly complete.

Three years ago Kathy said that she considered the first time Sam had managed to get ahold of his mothers magic book a fluke. In actuality it was a learning experience. After that Sam climbed up the dresser several more times in his efforts to gain knowledge. However after the first attempt, the plan became to bring the book down and hide it somewhere where he could read it whenever he had more time. Of course he was discovered several times and the book was taken away, however as his mobility improved so did his efforts to keep the book hidden, until his mother just let him keep the book for himself.

‘Through my readings it looks like a person doesn’t have enough mana inside their body to form a circle until ten years old at the earliest, and it only takes a day to form. I’m a little annoyed that it took me three years, but seeing as I didn’t have enough mana in my body it kind of makes sense.’

To speed up the process he had to absorb the ambient mana around him. His initial thought was to take it slow to avoid his mother from potentially noticing a decrease in the mana, however that wasn’t necessary. The Qi method he had learned to cultivate his internal energy in his past life also worked well with mana also. However, like the Qi method, progress was slow in the beginning. Without his first circle it took more effort to move the mana outside his body. He eventually established a system, during the day he would absorb ambient mana, and at night he would gather it as a ring around his heart. It took a long time, but at his age he had plenty of time on his hands.

‘And since my parents don’t have any books about aura I have no idea how long this is supposed to take, or if I’m even doing this right. All I know is where my core is supposed to be. Are there just no books about aura? Or did my parents not expect me to be able to use aura?”

Sam continued moving mana particles one by one towards his heart, while also maintaining the ring shape until he needed just one last particle. Carefully he moved it into place until finally…his eyes widened as he hunched over and coughed up blood.

“It’s ok, I read this is normal. It’s just the body expelling impurities after the circle is formed,” He reminded himself before sitting back up to examine his work. “Ah yes, a single circle, the first of many. Now time for…what the f***?!” 

Sam began to panic as he saw his incomplete aura core was breaking up and being forced from his body.

“Like hell I’m losing this after all the hard work I put in!”

Through the power of his own will he pulled his core back together, and redirected other stray particles that were being forced out towards his core. This was of course no small task. If he lost focus on his core it would start to fall apart again, and the task of maintaining it didn’t come without extreme pain. Tears poured from his eyes, blood from his nose, a pain so excruciating that he couldn’t even cry out. Yet he endured. Thankfully the particles that he redirected were moving on their own, so all he had to do was set their course and catch them. But with each particle the pain grew and grew. He was having trouble breathing, but he held on, his core was almost complete. 

As the last particle collided with his core it sent a surge of energy out. Sam felt as though he had been electrocuted and fell over as he clung to his consciousness. Thankfully the pain left quickly. He just laid there catching his breath for a minute before rolling to his back. When he was ready he went back to his meditative state to check on his core and circle. As he did so he felt another shock, this time rendering him unconscious. When he came to, he was still laying in the grass where he was before, with quite a bit of blood covering the grass. 

“Fock, dat hurt,” he said as he sat himself back up. 

His mind was foggy as he just sat there for a moment before he remembered what was happening and returned to a meditative state, and sighed in relief.

“I did it,” he thought to himself as he saw both a mana circle around his heart, and also an aura core in his abdomen. “From what I just saw, it looks like a normal person can’t have both. It looks like without an established core the energies repel each other, but can I use them?”

First he focused on his circle and created a small ball of mana in his hand. He then looked at a tree about twenty feet away. The book he had been secretly reading was pretty informative, and even included a few basic generic spells. 

“Let’s try out my first spell.”

He extended middle and index fingers as he turned his hand so his thumb was pointed up. He then gathered mana to the tip of his fingers. Using a combination of what he learned in his previous life and what he learned from the book, a small sphere of mana shot out and blew off half of a branch. His eyes lit up with excitement, he had just done something he never could in his previous life, he was able to use his energy as a projectile.

“So that’s Magic Missile. Considering how thick that branch was, that definitely wasn’t a small caliber shot. I can feel the drain of mana, I could probably do that one more time at most. Maybe I should work on making a smaller caliber shot as well.”

He then focused on his aura core. He didn’t have any instruction as to how to use aura, so he used his knowledge from his past life to move the aura for some basic body strengthening. 

“I definitely feel stronger, but how much stronger have I really gotten?” 

He looked around and saw the tree stump his father chopped wood at, with a few good sized pieces of wood beside it waiting to be cut. Starting with something simple he picked up a piece as big as him.

“Ok, not bad. This is a lot lighter.” He then started lifting it up with just one hand easily. “Hmm, I wonder.” 

He then set the log down at an angle against the stump. Since his magic was already superior to what he could do in his past life, he decided to test his aura out in a similar way. In his previous life some people had trained their body’s and energy to a point that they could cut wood, so he wanted to try that here. Focusing more aura to his right hand so that it glowed faintly blue he raised his hand up, then brought it down in a chopping manner. 

“Mpf!” He grunted in pain as he grabbed his hand and did his best to keep quiet. Yes he did cut a little into the log, but it also hurt like hell.

“Damn it. I hope nothing is broken,” he thought to himself, then remembered he had been bleeding earlier. He wiped his nose, there was still a little blood. He looked down at his shirt, there was a lot of blood. “Oh fuck,” he mentally groaned. “What should I do?” He began to panic. He looked around and stopped at the tree he shot the branch down from earlier. “Bury the truth, or reveal I did something that even if it is possible, shouldn’t have happened at my age?… This is going to hurt.”

He then proceeded to climb the tree, getting as high as he could without using aura, then making sure to align himself with the broken branch. “I am not a masochist, I am not a masochist,” he told himself before allowing himself to fall forward off the branch as he cried out. 

He hit the ground with a thud, landing on his back. He broke several more branches on his way down, but thankfully no bones were broken. That was of course due to strengthening his body with aura to dull the pain and withstand the hits. He just laid there quietly for a minute as he let it sink in what he just did.

“SAM!” Kathy cried out as she ran towards him after hearing his cry. “Sam! Sam!” She called out in a panic as she arrived and fell to her knees beside him.

“Ouch,” he said, revealing his bloody teeth. 

“Oh goddess. Thank goodness you're still alive! Can you move?”

Shakily he raised his right hand.

“Good. Now where does it hurt?”

“Everywhere,” he replied, sounding like he was struggling to talk.

“Believe it or not, but that’s a good thing. Don’t move, I’ll get help,” Kathy said then ran off.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”