But this can't be everything I am supposed to learn, it's way too easy. If his previous training was of any indication, he was supposed to overcome countless hurdles before reaching the actual destination, even if the witch pretended it was a simple matter with no hidden strings attached. Why didn't she give him any proper instructions anyway, wasn't that what a good teacher was supposed to do?

After doing some jumping jacks to get his trembling under control, he tackled the waterfall again, wanting to test if his increased control over aquatic mana would be of any help. He focused on channeling the surrounding water aura inside his core, happy to see that it was now significantly

to manipulate. It was hard to tell with the intensity of the water bombarding him, but he thought that by removing a fraction of the mana particles from the stream, he succeeded in making the temperature slightly rise. The difference was so miniscule however that it could just as well be his mind playing tricks on him. After the temperature became unbearable, he retreated, noticing from the hourglass that barely a minute had passed.

This appears to be another dead-end. I wonder if even Jo’Anne would be able to absorb enough particles to make a real difference.

If water mana wasn't the answer, then what was?

He was caring less and less about any eventual benefits that he was yet to see from freezing to near death by the minute, and quickly hopped outside, finding a patch of grass to sit down and meditate on his next course of action.

What is mana, anyway? he wondered. He remembered the witch telling him about all natural elements generating mana of their own type, but that underneath that, pure mana ruled across the universe.

That's it! He almost smacked himself on the head at his stupidity. The witch had not only told him that the path of pure mana was suitable for him, but also had previously mentioned that after the candle exercise he would need to get familiar with it before embarking on his journey in the Arcane version of Baignard Academy. So, the teen boy figured that the current training must be in some way related to pure mana, with it maybe even being the key to mastering the one-hour challenge.

According to what Jo'Anne had told him, most mages purified mana by sending their reserves from existing elemental channels into the nucleus of the mana core, using afterward this filtered mana to carve and fill fresh channels dedicated strictly to pure mana. Altair first tried to sense the nucleus, which he had previously overlooked due to its miniature dimensions compared to the rest of the core.

It's so small... is that the reason why only a small amount of mana can be purified at a time?

Not having anybody to guide him or even to answer basic questions, he decided through trial and error to attempt to purify aquatic mana. He focused on driving the light-blue particles towards the nucleus and found it surprisingly difficult to do so. It appeared a bottleneck had formed, with only a single particle or two being able to go through at a time, with the remaining ones hitting the outer edges of the nucleus wall and either dispersing or losing course.

Even at this very beginning, Alt could already imagine why most mages would give up the mana purification process. It was mind-numbing to deal with a single particle at a time, and after repeating the process over and over again, also exhausting. After getting a bunch of them inside the nucleus, he readied himself for the unknown next step. He focused his attention on the tiny nucleus where the particles were being restrained. At first, he didn't notice anything unusual about them, only that they appeared to be even more restless than when flowing in the rest of his core. Upon paying closer attention, he began seeing that they, for the lack of a better term appeared to be shedding, with their bluish color slowly disappearing.

So... this is pure mana? It makes sense, it seems that the elemental properties are being stripped away.

He brought the process to its logical conclusion, pushing the now translucent particles into the main body of his core, and attempting to condense them enough to form a new Origin Point. After using the last particle, only a small faint dot appeared, which to his chagrin promptly faded away.

What happened? Maybe there weren't enough particles to stabilize it.

Alt repeated the entire purification cycle, this time taking special care to fit in more particles inside his nucleus, which was proving to be more painful with each particle he sent inside.

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Is it supposed to hurt so much or am I doing something wrong?

Nevertheless, this time, it seemed he gathered enough particles for the fresh Origin Point to sustain itself.

At this pace, the school year will have started before I finish building a single pure mana channel.

Alt frowned, feeling that he had hit another dead-end. The root cause was obvious – sending a particle at a time into the nucleus for purification was taking too long and would probably be impractical in the future anyways. Was there possibly a way he could absorb pure mana directly from the environment? He recalled his teacher had explained that only a handful of locations on the planet would generate pure mana, but after scanning the surroundings with his mana sense, he could not detect any translucent particles, but then again it was possible his senses were getting overwhelmed by the strong elemental energy being generated nearby.

What if I try to skip a step?

Alt wondered why mages would send the mana from existing channels for purification purposes, which needed to be recharged afterwards, rather than pulling it in straight away from the outside environment. As he tried to do just that, the answer arrived in the form of a piercing pain right where the particle had entered the nucleus. It was an even stronger adverse reaction than when he had filled the nucleus to its brink with elemental energy.

Ouch, Alt recomposed himself, satisfied that at least the particle was now stuck inside his core. It hadn't been a complete waste of time then, and he had cut a few seconds in the process. He braced himself for another round of pain and pulled in a water mana particle straight into the nucleus, again twitching from the shock.

It's like an allergic reaction or something.

He wasn't sure whether what he was doing had potential for a breakthrough or if it was even counter-productive to his growth, but at this point, it was his best shot, and the teen boy was no stranger to pain.

Alt removed the belt from his gi, and folded it together, putting it between his teeth to not bite his tongue. This time, he tried to bring a batch of three particles in, and instantly regretted his decision, crouching from the spasm. Still, the particles were stuck inside, unlike his previous conventional attempts when just a single one had gone through.

Huh, Alt was not expecting this development. It really was a big deal. After trying a few more times with batches of similar size, he concluded that indeed, for some reason that escaped him he was now able to continue bringing several particles at the same time, although the price he was paying was heavy, with his face straining and in sweat. As the nucleus reached near-full capacity, he readied himself for things to get even more difficult, and his assumption was right. He had endured so much already that he was getting numb to pain. He was determined to see if it was possible to push the nucleus to expand its capacity.

Finally, when he was already seeing stars, he unleashed the purified mana into the new Origin Point, and with his last presence of mind carved a puny, translucent vein. It was about half the size of the aquatic one, but pure mana was still circulating inside, so it was just a matter of repetition until it caught up.

Altair fell on his back, breathing heavily and taking a moment to relax.

She wasn't kidding when she said this journey wouldn't be easy, he remembered the witch's warnings. And I have barely started.

Before continuing further, he had to test the pure mana's effects, although it was quite hard to settle on what he would use it for, especially since he likely only had one shot before needing to go through the hellish recharging process. Other than conjuring objects out of thin air, he had never seen the witch use any type of magic outside of fire and healing. His eyes fell on the deep cut in his hand, which had been throbbing.

If I can learn to reduce pain, it's bound to come in handy.

He gathered the transparent mana particles, and sent them towards his palm, visualizing that the hand was healing at the same time. He had no idea if he needed to start the process with any special incantations or if there were any complicated requirements – for all he knew, he could be completely on the wrong track. From previous experience, rather than spreading his efforts thin, he concentrated on a single point at one of the edges of the wound. To his delight, the broken skin began coming together, just as if nanobots had started to stitch it. He was only able to close a small portion of the cut before running out of mana, but still the unexpected success brought him to cloud nine.

Whoa, awesome! I wonder if it worked because it's a surface wound, or I could heal more serious problems too? His thoughts immediately went to his limping leg, which had been the source of constant embarrassment and target of ridicule since his childhood.

Vowing to test it out once his skills expanded, he put the belt, which now had teeth marks deeply embedded back in his mouth and worked on recharging the emptied channel.

This time around the experience was not a single bit more pleasant, but since he knew what to expect, he found it a bit easier to endure. Next, he wanted to test something very basic out, but that could be a critical piece of the puzzle. He tried to replicate the Inferno spell, using the accumulated pure mana as a power source. Alt suspected it would work, but still, seeing a dancing fire ball emerge atop his fingertips still brough him shivers every time.

Alright, this will be super useful. If most other people were stuck with only being able to use spells from the areas that they cultivated mana in, then he would have a big advantage. Alas, there was one big difference; he found that using pure mana as a source required considerably more energy to conjure a flame than actual fire mana, and it was also significantly more difficult to give it the desired shape, so it didn't come without a downside.