"To begin refining I would usually prepare better ingredients than the ones used but in this case, it has been fused with better ingredients already. We can now move your mana into the golem to change its structure and reinforce it and mend any flaws or imperfections. You can also take the energies from the area around you from the tree of life or anywhere else. Why don't you give it a try?" Samson says to Steven. "I will try but how am I supposed to take mana from the area around me?" Steven asks Samson "It's the same as meditation take the energy and move it toward you but in this case bring it to your golem."

Steven takes his time moving the energies to Sven and while Steven is doing this Samson is making some kind of rune that is drawing the mana to their location although mana is already dense in the academy Samson wants Steven to have the most successful refinement to improve his strength and foundations with refinement. After hours of refining, Sven starts to glow and grow at a rapid rate until it becomes 55cm braking through the limit of ungraded into a low-grade common rank golem. Sven looks just like a humanoid but with a large-brimmed mushroom cap made of 3cm thick iron. Steven, on the other hand, has increased a minor realm to become the 3rd realm of Absorption. Samson has a face of pride for his student "Well done breaking through a minor realm on your first true refinement." Samson praises Steven for his hard work While Steven takes a minute to go through the process in his head to make sure he understands the process of refinement. "Thank you, Samson I have learned much while in an apprenticeship with you and I thank you for sharing your knowledge so freely and assisting me on my refinement," Steven says while his teacher blushes slightly "Oh you noticed my assistance while in meditation good to know you still have awareness while meditating. You might be one of the first people under your age under purple talent to reach the 3rd realm of Absorption. It is good to know that you are not a cocky talent like my last student who disrespected the headmaster and got banished from this academy only to become the genius of the heavenly sun academy. Never mind that though boy you shall become my new prodigy. Hear take this potion it will help you progress farther in your cultivation in a shorter time but only take half at a time if you take more it could be dangerous for your body is not yet ready for full dosages." Samson says as he gives two potions to Steven "thank you Teacher" Steven says before he heads to the food court for dinner then back to his dorm room to drink half a potion then meditate.

So he did and was minorly annoyed by Alex entering loudly into their room. Alex was still bad with the customs of magi to be calm and quiet while entering and be respectful as you would expect someone to be but for some reason, this kid couldn't get that through his thick head. After hours of meditation, Steven got a base understanding of life magic and their particles he still couldn't access them until he broke through to the 4th realm of Absorption to be able to move them. The potion helped with accessing life mana particles around the person that consumed it and helped them move them if they could.

The next day after hours of meditation Steven went back to Samson to learn spell runes and casting. "To begin, take energy from around and bring it towards your location you want the spell to be cast. This gets more complicated based on the size and area the spell is cast. Then you would write the runes of the spell for nature and life magics the runes will be smooth and flow well, but for death and fire magic, it would be wild and jagged runes. The rune we are using is 'grow' a basic rune that can merge with others to empower each other for example if I mix 'grow' and 'tangle' you can make vines grow fast and tangle up an enemy to restrict their movement. This is a more advanced spell that isn't commonly used amongst people in the Absorption realm." . Steven tried to use grow and it was simple enough to guide the mana into the shape of the rune and mad the grass around him grow at a rapid pace. "Woah, this is amazing I have never seen plants grow at such rapid rates," Steven said astonished by the growth. "It is quite entertaining to see plants grow in such a manner but it is much more fun to shape them into something more useful," Samson said while shaping a branch into a spear. Samson then made a target out of some grass then threw the sharpened branch at the target but missed slightly and just nicked the side of the target. "Well I did try but I am losing my strength in my old age," Samson stated before releasing the magic and letting the grass go back and the vines shink. While all this was happening Steven grabbed the spear and gave it to Sven to make him look more soldier-like only to realize Sven has no fingers so Steven made a hole with a little manipulation and put the spear in it. "There now you're a fully-fledged soldier now Sven." Steven was proud of his newly appointed golem soldier. The spear was the perfect size since it was just a branch that was sharpened. Also magic affects different substances differently like when Samson cancelled his magic the vines and grass retreated back to its original form but the branch was no longer attached to its organism and was not placed back so it maintained its form even after the magic was no longer present.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Steven was then excused from class and left for lunch. He then went to the library to learn more about runes and their exceptions. Steven learned that 'grow' could also affect things like fruits growth and after being picked they would not return to their trees but they would wither away and rot at a faster rate. You could not use the seeds that have been affected by 'grow' they might grow but would not grow trees correctly and have lots of mutations or diseases. Also, 'grow' might collapse if overused on the same plant too often and could turn that plant into a mana monster that will hunt beings for mana to sustain its self.

After learning this he found that it could be used to give Sven a boost to strength and size for a short time. But could also turn him into a mana monster but the chance is greatly reduced by the core because it controls the flow of mana. Steven found books on more complicated forms of 'grow' like 'enlarge' a more powerful version but more complicated and has a chance to lose control and continuously sap mana from the surrounding area until it is the only thing around. there are others like 'extend' that only make things longer like a sword to attack an opponent out of reach or make a bridge from a small board. Steven learns how to cast some basic runes that were available and one slightly advanced one called 'maturation' that is a spell made to advance the growth speed of all plants within the designated area and was made to for people to embed it into the bottom of pots to draw mana from the surrounding area.

Steven left the library and bought some rune making tools and basic potioneering station that cost most of his remaining crystals. He thought that at some point he might need to do some quests to earn some crystals for basic potion brewing because it was quite costly but as long as he could grow it in his dorm room he would be fine.

Steven arrived at his dorm after some time and began doing some drawing of runes of 'maturation' on the bottoms of pots and depositing mana in them. he did this with all his pots and set up the table for his basic potioneering equipment. he had the materials for basic speed enhancement potions from quick shroom and a stealth potion from shadow shroom which he left under his bed where it grew better.

Steven did not begin making potions yet because he was lacking knowledge of how to brew them which he was thinking he would ask Samson tomorrow. After a few hours of meditation, Steven went to bed excited for learning potioneering tomorrow.