I studied the wooden door in front of me. It had all sorts of magical symbols and arcane runes carved into it. Each one glowed with a faint blue light. This door led to a meditation chamber, a special room enchanted to gather and collect mana. Both martial artists and wizards used them for cultivation. It was also the ideal place for me to form my mana core. While I could form it anywhere, it was safer to do so in a place with abundant mana.

This particular meditation chamber was located in the Northern Annex’s cellar. The floors and the walls were all stone, while the ceiling was wood. It felt cool and dry down here. Glowstone lamps illuminated the area. It was rather dusty, since no one had lived in the Northern Annex for years. Every time I breathed through my nose, I felt the urge to sneeze. Breathing through my mouth was little better, since it meant tasting the dust. It was a mistake to wear a white training outfit, since just entering the cellar was enough to dirty it.

Leroy stood by my side. Like me, he wore a white training outfit.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, Lord Gabriel?” he asked. “It would be safer to ask Lord Sturm or Lady Sturm to watch over you, just in case.”

I glanced over at him. He made a fair point. When a martial artist first formed their mana core, or a wizard first formed their magic circle, it was best to have someone with more experience supervise them. That way, they could intervene if something went wrong. However, that wasn’t necessary for me.

“I’d rather get this over with,” I said, shaking my head. “I already waited an entire month. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

The past month had been a grueling one for me. After I received the box of Training Elixirs from my mother, I lived and breathed training. Every day, from sunup to sundown, I focused on nothing but training. I even stopped my evening learning sessions, just so I had more time to train.

Of course, I didn’t spend all of my time training. Every now and again, I followed my mother’s advice and visited my parents at Sturm Manor’s main building. However, these visits were the exception.

As my stamina increased, I pushed my body further and further. After a certain point, my days blurred together. I trained, I slept, I woke up and resumed training. The people around me grew worried when they saw how hard I pushed myself, but I reassured them that this was a temporary state of affairs. It would all be over soon.

In the end, all my effort paid off. With the help of the Training Elixirs, I condensed a year’s worth of training into a single month. My body went from frail and thin to lean and toned, which made me very happy. When I saw that I had abs again, I almost cried tears of joy.

“Besides,” I said, shrugging, “I see no reason to bother my parents over something trivial.”

Leroy gave me a flat look.

“You and I have different definitions of the word ‘trivial’, Lord Gabriel.”

I grinned at him. For most, forming a mana core/magic circle was a momentous event. It was a major milestone, when a martial artist/wizard took their first step towards becoming something more than human. In my case, I saw no reason to make a big fuss of it. After all, this wasn’t my first time forming a mana core.

“Just guard the door and make sure nothing interrupts me.” I said. “I’ll be out soon.”

Despite his reservations, Leroy nodded. With that, I opened the wooden door and entered the meditation chamber. The moment I crossed the threshold, I found it difficult to breathe. There was so much mana in this meditation chamber, that it was almost suffocating, literally. I could almost swim through the stuff.

The mediation chamber itself didn’t look special. It was a simple stone room, illuminated by a single glowstone lamp hanging from the ceiling. Unlike the rest of the cellar, it was pristine in here. There wasn’t a single speck of dust.

In the center of the meditation chamber, carved into the floor, was a runic circle. Wizards used them when they wanted to create enchantments and long-lasting spells. They could also be called magic circles. However, people called them runic circles, to avoid confusing them with the magic circles that wizards formed inside their bodies and cultivated.

I closed the door behind me, before I walked over to the runic circle and sat right in the middle of it. After getting myself into a comfortable position, I closed my eyes and focused my senses on the mana swirling throughout the meditation chamber.

For me, this was a form of meditation. Before I even attempted to form my mana core, I needed to focus my mind. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. A single stray thought could result in failure and injury. In the worst case scenario, failing to form a mana core resulted in death. I wasn’t worried, but a little caution never hurt.

Mana was formless and lacked physical substance. Despite this, it had a profound impact on the physical world. It was present in everything, living beings in particular. By controlling and manipulating mana, a person could achieve incredible feats. It was the means by which wizards cast their spells, and martial artists used their techniques. However, it wasn’t just power. Mana was the lifeblood of the universe. Without it, life as we know it wouldn’t exist.

Once I achieved the necessary mental state, I started taking in mana and began forming my mana core. To cultivate, martial artists used cultivation techniques while wizards used mana formulas. Despite the different terms, the two were the same thing. While the results and the end goals differed, martial artists and wizards used the same means and methods.

I used the Storm Dragon cultivation technique, which I developed with Teacher’s aid, to take in mana and circulate it through my mana veins. These were similar to veins and arteries but for mana instead of blood. This was a painful process, which was why it required my complete focus. Any distraction could prove lethal.

As I circulated the mana throughout my body, I felt a stirring in my soul, which I expected. That was the storm dragon part of me responding to the Storm Dragon cultivation technique. However, I also felt a stirring in my blood, which I didn’t expect. It burned, like lightning coursing through my body. This almost caused the mana to run wild, but I managed to catch it in time and keep it under control.

A small part of me wondered what was going on, before I realized the truth. Unlike in my previous life as Brandon Norwood, I now had both the soul of a storm dragon’s descendant and the blood of one. Of course this would affect the formation of my mana core. I felt annoyed at myself for not realizing this beforehand.

After regaining control of the mana flowing through my body, I continued forming my mana core. Once the mana made a full circuit, I directed it towards my heart before condensing it into a sphere. The mana bucked under my control, like a trapped animal seeking to break free, but my will held firm.

I continued to feed mana into my nascent core, condensing and compressing it. Pressure built up inside of me. Together with the burning in my blood, it felt like an explosion waiting to happen. Despite this, I remained calm and focused. Rather, instead of trying to relieve the pressure, I built it up instead.

The heat and the pressure continued to rise, until it felt like I was bursting at the seams. And then, just as when it seemed like my body wouldn’t be able to last much longer, my mana core ignited. The moment this happened, my core sucked in all the mana inside my body and demanded more. I could barely keep up with it using the Storm Dragon cultivation technique.

At the same time, I felt my mana core changing my body. It purified and refined my flesh, my bones, my blood, and my organs. My senses grew sharper, including my mana sense. I felt myself become more than human.

Time slipped away from me as I took in mana and fed it to my core. After a while, it settled down. Mana circulated through my body in a steady flow, with my now-formed core acting like a second heart. The center of my being no longer felt empty. Instead, a blazing white star burned inside of me.

I opened my eyes and let out a joyful laugh. Finally, I felt whole again.