I quickly got up from the position I learned to use when circulating the cultivation technique passed down to me with ease, before Silas had a chance to leave the room I quickly shouted, “Un…. Silas! Thank you for all the help!”

Silas simply gave me an awkward smile, even though he is the younger brother of my father he doesn’t like it when I call him uncle. Recently turning 22 he was at the peak of the crystallization stage of his cultivation which was right on the border of becoming an official mage whereas I have only reached the first stage of working towards being a mage. I had heard from the maids in the manor that Silas returned from the capital to look for inspiration in breaking through as he had reached a bottleneck he could not overcome. I learned from him that there are five stages to becoming a mage which has been my family's intention for me since they took me in.

One must first control the ambient mana and take it into their body like I did to form their core which is akin to an organ that stores and attracts mana into one's body, during this process one is known to be in the “Formation” stage. The core allows for the acolyte to have a small reserve of mana which they could utilize in basic mana manipulation and spell casting.

Next would be the “Saturation” stage where the acolyte continually absorbs mana and saturates his core to increase his mana reserve and the amount of mana they can use. Upon an acolyte saturating their core enough they can attempt to break through the “Expansion” stage.

The “Expansion” stage requires an acolyte to forcefully expand their core by layering mana and expanding the size of one's core to further increase their mana reserve at a much faster rate than one does at the saturation stage.

Upon expanding the core an acolyte’s core will start to manifest the acolyte's natural affinity to an element, in the case of Silas his natural affinity reaches over to the darkness element and therefore his core is shrouded in darkness and has an eerie pressure when he uses his mana. Upon reaching this one is considered to be in the “Manifestation” stage of cultivation.

Next, over time the core will start to crystalize when there is enough mana stored in it. Upon reaching the “Crystallization” stage one must overcome a great bottleneck of transferring the mana from their crystal core to their blood veins to form mana conduits throughout their body. Only about 70% of the nobility with access to resources and mentors can reach the “Integration” stage which is when your mana conduits have formed compared to only 30% of commoners who can reach this stage.

Upon Silas leaving for the first time I noticed the frenzy of mana particles that were attracted to his body and the power which was radiating out from his abdomen. At first, it seemed like he was a divine being to me. Comparably the amount of mana I had to gather to form my core was just a droplet of water in a bucket when compared to Silas. If this was the power of someone at the peak of the crystallization stage then how powerful would an ‘Integration’ mage be?

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After quickly stabilizing my thoughts I ran out of the study with haste towards my bedroom which was only a few doors away while getting used to the sensations of mana all around me, on the way I quickly got the attention of one of the maids to prepare the bath for me in my room.

While the bath was being drawn I sat in my room where I could now sense the energy in the forest clearly, I could sense some fruits on trees not far from my window, and some flowers which were planted around the manor. My perception was greatly improved and I felt someone right outside my door just seconds before I heard a knock.

“Young Lord, the bath is ready with fresh clothes.” One of the maids let me know and quickly I could feel her leaving and going back to her duties.

In the bath, I wiped off the sweat that I accumulated during my breakthrough process. Even here I could feel how the warm water influenced the mana particles by making them more energetic and they slightly resembled heat. No matter where I looked I could see the mana being influenced by its surroundings.

Over the past year, my body had gotten more toned over time from the training with Uncle Darius which I would do each morning. From my understanding, Uncle was an integration stage mage who had been diligently cultivating for over thirty-five years since he formed his core. His aptitude had not been great and he was stuck in the integration stage since he turned twenty years old. Once or twice he had shown me his abilities by infusing mana into his body which would exceed any amount of training a normal knight might ever achieve.

I had heard prior from Silas that he hadn’t always been so diligent and disciplined in his training, this coupled with subpar aptitude led to him being bottlenecked at the crystallization stage. If not for magical elixirs or having a sudden epiphany, he may never advance.

I couldn’t wait for tomorrow's training with Uncle Darius, I hoped to be able to try and perceive his skills now having advanced unlike before when I would only be able to vaguely guess what was happening. With my enhanced perception I should be able to directly see what is happening in the ambient mana and the degree to how much it’ll enhance Uncle. I might even get to see him casting one of his spells. All the fights so far had only been him augmenting his body with mana, enough to best my non-augmented body. Though I didn’t put much faith in beating him even without his augmenting, his wealth of combat experience was enormous.

“Ah!” I quickly jumped out of the bath as I remembered that Silas was waiting for me with my father in his office. I quickly grabbed the towel and dried myself before focusing on making myself look presentable, the maids already prepared some semi-formal clothing which consisted of fitting black pants and a white button-up shirt. My dark chestnut hair was slicked back, however, by the time I got to the office it would have started to naturally form into split bangs due to its length. I quickly looked into my scarlet-colored eyes and saw my smirk which still hadn’t disappeared. I was ready to see my father.

I walked out of the bathroom with confidence straight to my father's office, I stood outside the door as quickly before knocking on the door I closed my eyes to try and sense into the office. I controlled the small amount of mana I could try and sense what was on the opposite side of the door, however, I sensed nothing. “Come inside.” The mana I could control simply disappeared upon entering the chamber.