“Okay, Nikolai, first let’s start by working on your second-highest affinity—wind!”

I blinked, a little confused. "Wind? My parents used Fire and Water magic. Wind doesn’t exactly fit."

She cleared her throat, her eyes glinting with amusement. "Actually, it does fit! Affinity with an element is mostly genetic, but sometimes, the presence of certain mana particles in the air can affect a child’s affinity with an element. This can get passed down too—it’s in your genetic code to have an affinity with wind.”

Ah, makes sense.

"So, what exactly do you want me to do with wind?"

Alina grinned. “First, try to conjure a blast of air.”

I nodded and focused, visualizing a gust of wind swirling from my palm. I directed my mana through my pathways, letting the flow surge and push out from my hand.

A sharp burst of wind shot forward, rustling the grass around me.

"Wow! First try! You’re scary good at this kind of stuff—has anyone told you that?”

I smirked. "Well, my parents always called me a prodigy, so yeah, I’ve heard that before."

Alina raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Okay, now try a blade of wind.”

I repeated the motion, focusing on shaping the air into a slicing edge.

A thin, sharp gust of wind cut through the air. Alina clapped her hands, looking pleased.

“Perfect! Looks like you’ve got the basics down—now we’re gonna try something a bit different!”

I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”

“Now, try to form a barrier of air—almost skin-tight—around your whole body.”

Simple enough.

Instead of using the mana pathways in my hands, I directed the mana through the rest of my body. The wind swirled around me, but there were gaps, holes in the barrier. Around my hands, it was stronger, but nowhere near perfect.

“Ah, I stumped you! Don’t worry though, we’ll fix this in no time!” Alina’s voice was bright and teasing.

I nodded, a little frustrated but not discouraged.

“Come sit over here next to me. Cross your legs, let your arms relax on your legs, and then shut your eyes,” she instructed.

I did as she said, crossing my legs and letting my arms rest.

“Breathe slowly. Dig inward, feel for your mana core. Once you can sense it—every impurity, every ridge, every bump in your mana heart—I want you to let me know. This might take a while, so don’t worry about food and water. I’ve got you covered.”

I closed my eyes, trying to calm my racing thoughts. The search for my mana core felt like a mental excavation. I knew it was in my chest somewhere, at least that’s what the books in my village said.

I dug deeper and deeper, my mind threading through the winding paths of my consciousness. Two and a half days passed before I finally felt it—a small, lumpy blue core, pulsing faintly. Its surface was uneven, with tall peaks and deep valleys, a sign that I had a lot of work to do.

I had never attempted to willingly smooth it, though. The books I’d read back in the village all said I should meditate to do it, but honestly, I had no clue how that was supposed to work. Meditation? No one in the village had ever taught me that. It was one of those things that probably only made it into the hands of the elites—information that never reached the sticks, where we were just trying to scrape by with what we knew.

“I found it!” I exhaled in relief.

Alina yawned beside me, still half-asleep. “Ah, good! Faster than I thought for someone so clueless about their core. Anyway, now I want you to picture the mana pathways connecting your hand to your mana core. Imagine the mana flowing through them.”

Ignoring her jab, I focused, tracing the pathways from my mana core to my hand and back again. I could almost feel the connection.

“Now, imagine you’re digging a tunnel,” she continued, her voice a little more awake now. “Look for an exit. Dig from your core and try to reach your thigh—make the exit there.”

The mental task was grueling, requiring all of my concentration. For the next two hours, I stayed locked in place, trying not to lose focus or stray from the path. It felt like my mind was on the edge of breaking, but I pushed through.

“Look at you now!” Alina said, her tone impressed. “You’ll be able to channel mana to your leg slightly more efficiently. Now, just do the same for the rest of your body. Good luck with that!”

I blinked, opening my eyes. “Wait, what?”

Alina was already snoring softly beside me.

Damn cat.

I sighed and closed my eyes again, focusing on the pathways. I could feel Alina’s presence as she nourished me with mana while I meditated, and I wasn’t bothered by hunger or thirst. It helped me focus.

By the end of the third day of training with Alina, I had created four more pathways. This process was too time consuming, I needed a faster way to do this. But then, a thought struck me.

What if I imagined my body as sand? The mind ruled magic, and if I could picture myself as sand, I could carve out tiny ridges for mana to travel through. Those paths could deepen over time as mana flowed through them, just like erosion. It was an odd thought, but I couldn’t ignore it.

I set to work, visualizing my body as grains of sand, digging shallow ridges in the landscape of my flesh. Over the next three and a half days, I meticulously created thousands—no, tens of thousands—of these tiny, shallow paths. I could feel the mana stirring inside me as I worked, rushing toward these new ridges.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived.

“Nikolai,” Alina’s voice interrupted my focus. “I noticed you haven’t been forming any new pathways. Are you having trouble—”

“Watch,” I interrupted, focusing all my attention on the flow of mana.

I let it pour from my core, flooding through my body. It surged through the newly created ridges, twisting painfully through my frame. The sensation was almost unbearable, but I gritted my teeth, willing myself to hold on.

Two minutes passed before the pain began to subside. The mana had stabilized, coursing through the network of shallow pathways I’d carved. They were there—rough, but real. And with time, they’d only grow stronger.

Alina stared at me, her mouth slightly agape. “Holy shit, how did you pull that off?”

I smirked, my eyes flickering open. “Just some mental imaging.”

She blinked a few times, clearly processing what had just happened. “Seriously, what did you imagine to pull that off? The fastest method is the one I taught you, and yet you just did years of work in four days!”

I shrugged. “Instead of tunnels, I visualized my body as sand. Then I pictured myself digging small trenches to guide the mana. Repeated it tens of thousands of times. After that, I imagined a wave of mana flowing from my core, eroding the shallow trenches I’d created. It’s not perfect, but now those pathways are there. And with time, they’ll improve.”

She stared at me in disbelief. “Niko, you never cease to amaze me. The amount of mana pathways you have now is almost as many as I have!”

“Anyways,” I said, pushing myself to my feet, “now that you’ve helped me carve out these new mana pathways, I want to try that spell again.”

I focused on the wind, feeling it swirl around me as the magic took form. The wind surrounded me, and this time, it was nearly perfect. Though my control was a little shaky, I could feel the difference. It was so much better than before.

“Now, jump in the air and activate it before you hit the ground!” Alina commanded.

I didn’t hesitate. I leapt into the air, and as I did, the wind activated around me. I was shocked when I didn’t fall. Instead, I hovered.

Alina grinned, her eyes full of excitement. “You can now use my personally created spell! Windwalker!”