Adion stood at the ready, gripping his sword tightly, focusing his entire mind on reading the movements and the flow of mana on his older cousin. His eyes were fixed on Alex's every move.

A slash from the left, Adion thought, but then he saw something else. Alex was gathering fire mana in his left hand. It was a feint. Adion quickly swatted away the sword strike that lacked any considerable power and focused on his opponent's now-conjured ball of fire. He jumped back and ducked, causing the fire to fly past him. Adion quickly shortened the distance between the two. Due to his opponent momentarily having his empty hand up and no sword to block with, Adion managed to get his sword to his cousin's neck.

“Victory, Adion!” Olden yelled out. He looked at Adion with a strict face but with kind and proud eyes.

“Well done, Adion.” Olden continued, “You read Alex well. To use your opponent’s use of mana to your advantage is a sign of a great swordsman. It will serve you well throughout your life. To be able to do so when you are only 12 years old in the consistent way you are doing is nothing short of remarkable.”

Adion showed no change of expression on his face but was very happy inside. He had, in fact, never been more talented with the sword than anyone else his age in the family clan. It was his consistent practice of sensing mana his whole life that had turned to an advantage now that he started fighting other kids who already had their cores formed.

“And you, Alex.” Olden turned to the 14-year-old whom Adion had been fighting, “You also fought well. But remember this fight and strive to improve your use of mana. There was no need to use mana in that way, you could have just strengthened your body and would have won easily without it. Continue to practice and remember not to grow too reliant on spells in fights. Mana should only work as a supplement in your sword fighting.”

“Yes, teacher.” Alex held his mood under control, but his eyes showed he was not pleased at all with the fight's outcome.

“Alright, that's the end of today's practice, boys and girls! You all stink, so go and take a bath.” Olden dismissed the group and walked off. There were seven kids between the ages of 8-14 gathered at the morning practice. Alex’s three younger siblings gathered by his side while the twins Ari and Ara scurried off to take their baths. Adion was also about to take his leave when Alex looked at him with a sneer.

“Tch! Nice trick there, Adion. Let’s see how much use it will be against a Silver core in the future. Heck, even an Iron off the street could take out a sparkless like you any day of the week.”

Adion ignored him. He had heard it all before. He felt good about today’s training and wasn’t about to let Alex ruin it. He had a full day ahead of him and wanted to be in a good state of mind. But Alex continued to call after him.

“Got nothing to say?” Alex continued, “Well, continue to live in your fantasy for a while longer, but everyone else already knows there is no way a sparkless will have any place in the clan.”

As he continued walking to his bath, Adion tried not to let Alex's words get to him, but it was hard. Everything he said was true. A sparkless was practically useless. No matter how hard he trained, there was no way that someone like him could stand toe to toe against someone with a mana core in the later stages. But Adion wasn’t planning on giving up.

I just need a little more practice. Then, I will be able to form a core even without a spark. I will. Grandpa always says, ‘In this Age, we know very little, and what we do know is probably wrong.’

Adion agreed with his grandfather. The current Age had only just begun, and he couldn’t imagine that a sparkless forming a mana core was anything special back during the Age of Wonder. He just had to rediscover how that was possible. It was what the current Age was all about, after all.

His parents had spent tremendous effort trying to solve Adion’s problem. They would buy every natural treasure they could get their hands on, hoping it could impart a spark.

Much to the displeasure of his uncle, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Adion’s father was the older brother and would be the clan's patriarch in the future.

Adion could somewhat understand his uncle, though. To try making a mage out of a sparkless seemed like a fool’s errand. Even his grandfather, who seemed to know everything, had never heard of anyone managing that, or even anyone trying, for that matter. There was simply no interest. There were plenty of sparkless people in the Valis Kingdom, but they were all commoners, and if a clan of mages needed to boost their numbers, there were plenty of people with sparks among the common man to choose from.

So why spend money on research that, to many, seemed like a lost cause? And it wasn’t like the mages who held power were affected. Perhaps a weak first-generation mage could birth a sparkless, but even that was rare. And a sparkless being born in a 2nd-tier family like the Remori clan? Unheard of.

Adion arrived in his room in the main mansion and walked into the bathroom, where he saw the hot bath that some servants had prepared. He undressed and slowly lowered himself into the almost scalding hot water. With his eyes closed, he tried to focus on the mana that surrounded him.

Ever since he found out he was sparkless and what that entails, he had focused almost entirely on his mana sense. He could practice it just as well as someone with a spark, if not better. He had even begun to be able to manipulate mana for about three years now, but he kept that to himself.

Well, his grandfather knew. But Adion asked him not to tell his parents anything as he didn’t want to give them any false hope in case it never led to anything.

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As he focused on the mana around him, he could feel a lot of water mana from the bathwater. It wasn’t surprising, considering his mother had a water core, and he guessed that he had inherited some of that affinity from her.

Even people with sparks had affinities to different elements; their spark showed their greatest affinity, of course, but with enough practice, you could manipulate other elements to a lesser degree as well.

It wasn’t much use in a fight, though. Adion's grandfather, with his fire core, stood no chance against his mother if he had to stick to water magic, even if his mother was a Silver mage while his grandfather was a Diamond mage.

Generally, people didn’t focus much on elements outside their main one. It wasn’t of much use after all. But it was good practice for manipulating mana, and being able to conjure fire and water, even just a small amount, could save your life in the Outskirts.

I have been able to conjure a small amount of fire for a while now. Should I focus on trying to conjure water?

Adion thought about it for a while but ultimately decided that fire was too cool not to give his full attention.

I will practice water mana control when I form my core. Until then, fire!

After practicing for a while, Adion stepped out of the slightly cold bath and dried himself off. He got dressed in a white silk shirt and some brown casual pants. He took a look in the mirror and thought he looked clean and energetic. He was somewhat exhausted from manipulating mana for so long but didn’t have time for naps. He always made sure to sleep a lot during the night instead. He combed through his short, wavy black hair. He didn’t really need to but saw no reason to give something else for people to mock about him.

He stepped out of his room and made his way to the library. He usually had his lessons there together with his cousins. Fortunately, his cousin Alex didn’t come to those anymore since he formed his core.

Adion didn’t always show up, either. Since many of his cousins were younger than him, some lessons only covered what Adion already knew. During those times, Adion usually learned Shiorin from his mother. It was the language spoken on Shiora before the Age of Darkness. She was from the Saba desert, and unlike most other people on Shiora, the Sabamin had always been on the continent. Adion’s mother was delighted when Adion showed an interest in learning his mother’s native language, so he decided to stick to it. Besides, his grandpa always said that knowledge strengthens the soul, so it couldn’t be a bad thing.

Maybe I should check if Mom is available and study with her instead of going to class. I wonder if she-

“Good day, young master Adion. Are you on your way to the library?”

Adion was suddenly interrupted in his thoughts by a tall and handsome man in his early twenties.

“Sami! I am. Is my mother still meditating?” Adion asked.

“She is, but she should be out later today,” Sami answered him.

“Alright,” Adion nodded, “I guess I will see her for dinner then.”

“I would think so, young master. Good luck in your studies.” Sami said with a smile.

“Thanks, see you later, Sami,” Adion said and gave a small wave.

Sami bade farewell too, and continued walking down the hall. He was one of Adion’s parents’ closest aides. His father had rescued him from a group of beasts that attacked his village when Sami was young. He was brought to the family clan as his family had died in the attack, and Adion’s father helped him form his mana core.

As it turns out, Sami was incredibly gifted as a mage and has already reached Silver at his age. That was even faster than his mother had reached Silver, and she came from a family of mages, unlike Sami, who was just one of many commoners who happened to have a spark.

Sami has always treated Adion kindly and with respect despite him being sparkless. Something that wasn’t the case with all the people in the clan.

I will remember your kindness when I form my core, Sami. Adion thought to himself.

When Adion arrived at the library, he noticed he was the last one there, and the teacher had already begun his lesson.

”Ah! Adion, I wasn’t sure if you were coming today.” Francis said as he turned toward Adion. He was an old man with white hair who had been teaching his father, aunt, and uncle when they were kids and had readily agreed to teach the next generation Remori as well. He continued to talk as Adion took his seat, ”We just got started, and you might have already heard much of it before, but it can always be good to hear again.

”As I was saying, sapi has always been in contention against the beasts, even in past Ages, as far as we can tell. Sapi, of course, being enlightened races such as us humans. Do you know of any other races of us sapi?”

”Elves!” Ari yelled out.

”Mm, the elves of Iitha are the most common here on Shiora besides us humans. What else?” Francis asked the rest of the children.

It was quiet for a while before Alexa, Alex’s younger sister of the same mother, raised her hand and answered, ”Faelin and dwarfs.”

”Yes, that’s correct. Unfortunately, I know little of them since they don’t generally live on Shiora. I have never even heard of a dwarf on this continent.

“The dwarfs have a few kingdoms in the mountains of southern Quemer. The faelin have a big kingdom not far from the Fire Phoenix Empire, just across the Warm Waves. The faelin are also rarely seen here, but I have met a few through my years. They have all been fascinating individuals that make you think of life in new ways.” Francis explained with a slight smile on his lips.

”Anyway, I won’t get into that today. Back to what I was saying, the sapi and beasts are fundamentally different. While sapi can achieve intelligence even without being mages, that is not true for beasts. Even a Diamond beast will have trouble matching an adult non-mage in terms of intelligence.

”Sapi also has the upper hand in mana control. In contrast, beasts have better control of their aura...” Francis continued his lesson, talking about beasts, much of which Adion had already heard.

Finally, Francis concluded his lesson by saying, “That’s it for today. Thanks for listening, children. Tomorrow, we will talk about Will. As you know, we use our Will to control mana and need a lot of it to advance through the stages. But how do you increase your Will? We will discuss that tomorrow, as there are many theories, some confirmed and others less so. I hope to see you all then.”

Adion got up along with the rest of his cousins as his thoughts were still on the different beasts on Shiora.

I want to fight beasts on the Outskirts someday. Grandpa promised to take me when I form my core. I’ll make sure to remind him of that later.