As I placed my hands on the cracked orb i felt absolutely nothing from it, other than being smooth and cold. As my expectations weren't met i looked at Mark with a puzzled expression.

Mark>"Don't worry nothing supposed to happen yet. Now try to feel the magic inside the orb, you might not get it from the first try, but that why you came so early."

So I'm guessing magic is hard, if it takes you a whole day to feel the mana in the orb. Why an orb anyway? Maybe the mana is denser than in the air? maybe it feeds mana to the one who holds it or it might even channel mana between Mark and me. Speculations, mesmeration lets just try it, thinking will get me nowhere.

I closed my eyes and focused on my senses. Sound, touch and almost presence. The last one i can't explain it with logic, you just know someone or  something is there. I only know the general direction, so no x-ray stuff. Focusing my senses on the orb i tried to probe it, feeling around for anomalies, something i cant explain or put my finger on. No matter how hard i try i feel nothing, does the absence of anything count? I don't know nobody told me what to look for. As my focus increased i could feel a gentle hand on my shoulder and something warm came out of it. Spreading through my hole body, warm and caring. Reminds me of mom. This feeling moves like a flow, with purpose, yet it is slightly chaotic. Like it is given a purpose which it tries to fulfill better than it should. And beneath the warm feeling is...nothing absolutely nothing, a void of some sort, like it blocks out everything.

I got my attention back to the orb and tried to feel around for the void and soon enough it was there, same as before. I had no idea how to move it, so lets apply science. Everything i know moves from higher concentration to lower so if i can create a mana vacuum within myself i should b able to move it. I'm pretty sure there is a better way but i don't want to be stuck here all day with master Yoda.

The warm feeling wasn't here anymore, I'm guessing it was moms doing but hey i wont complain for tips. Spreading my senses all over my body i search for the feeling of the void. Head, Chest, Arms, Legs. I can't find it anywhere i search. Everything is normal? I get pissed so i search around myself with renewed vigor. "I aint letting some void piss me off, without getting it to play ball" are the thought that fueled it.

Not so surprisingly i could sense something very weak,but not inside me but in the air around, compared to the orb and spell. If i didn't know what i was looking for i would have missed it 10 out of 10. For some reason the void from the orb doesn't move toward the air, which has lower density of it. Mhmmmm....there must be a trick to it. I get back to the orb and try to feel deeper.

I don't know how much time has passed but my senses went deeper and deeper until i could feel something a bit different. Its like threads of the void are knitting it within the orb preventing it from spilling. 'You know what i give up. How the hell am i supposed to do that? I had a theory and it went caput due to my lack of the void...mana or whatever this is. And i cant even figure out how to move it. What are there threads made out of? How do you control them? Does it follow the basic laws of physics or does it follow ones of its own? Huuuh i guess one more go wont hurt.' I focus on the threads and try to will the mana in the air to do the same. Surprisingly it moves, though very slowly. I take my time and I try to compress and elongate it. It is tedious work. Like trying to make a wine glass from common dust particles. But I'm stubborn with my hobbies. And this one takes the top spot for now. The tendrils i made are....pathetic and slow compared to the ones i felt in the orb...i think..but hey its my first try.

I slowly poke the orb with them and the mana gets slowly attracted. It reminds me of how water moves on a wet thread, you know the whole H...OH connection. Moving the mana from the orb within myself prove to be.... futile. For some reason it doesn't stick it treats me like air, why? It wont even stay inside my body. It leaves it faster then i can put it in. Weird...Again!! SO i got pissed off and tried to make more tendrils.

I take mana from the orb and make it into more tendrils, when i make too much to control i weave them together to make bigger ones. Right about know I'm bored from the failures so ill play around . As the tendrils .... do i realy call them that? Mhmmm lets see mana rope? Nope! Mana tentacle? Nope, i wont be in the mood for hentai for about 10 years give or take. Mana string? M-string? G-string? This is getting ridiculous!!! Mana fiber? M-fiber!! I'll go with that, some one else might wanna call them something different. Fibers....strings....weaving...CLOTH!!! HAH I'll try making cloth from the M-fibers. I take the smaller fibers and make them into a square cloth, arranging them as close to each other as possible. Then i take the square and attach it to  the biggest fiber trying to imitate leaves on a plant or a solar array on a satellite. And it works better than the sum of its parts. The single fibers attract mana with their whole surface so time for an experiment....Again!

I modify the...mana cloth and increase the distance between each fiber. Enough for them to help each other and as far away as to be able to use the their whole surface. The result was disappointing the efficiency went down a notch. I'm guessing the the effect that attracts mana is accumulative so the more the merrier, but it also needs a bigger surface area. This i discovered on my next test. I took the same amount of fibers it takes to make a big one and woved them together making a cloth and the result was better than a big fiber. Happy with my result i probed the sphere again to compare to the fibers in it........mine were tiny as fu*k.Think a needle and radio tower. I think I need to compensate somehow or my pride wont allow it!!

If the old man is powering the orb i wonder if i can drain it. As far as i can tell mana avoids me like the plague but as long as it is outside it is fair game. I start to make more mana arrays and the more i have the more i can make. I combine the big fibers even the cloth to make it bigger and bigger and keep making more. Eventually i got bored of making it and now it feels kinda like a flower. So i plug it in the orb and start to siphon mana out.

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The flow was enormous, it was something i could barely keep up with and I haven't even used the petals and leaves yet, just the tip of stalk. As I pushed the flower deeper and deeper, the flow increased and I couldn't control it. So in the middle of slight panic attack, the memories of physics class came to save the day. What flashed was how an electric charge always stays on the surface of a hollow sphere. So i decided to give it a try. I rearranged the petals into a hollow sphere and the mana flowed over it, once it was saturated it started filling it up.'So mana follows similar laws huh? I guess it is a part of nature after all.'

My happy thoughts shattered once again, as my sphere begins to bloat from the mana. I begin to forcefully shrink the sphere in order to make it smaller, trying to compress it before i can expand it again...se la vi the fibers don't hold and and rip one after the other, after that i open my eyes and see a small glowing sphere in front of me that slowly loses light. After the glow subdues all thats left is a small transparent marble. I catch it before it falls, bring it to my eye level to take a look at it. I notice Mark with beads of sweat on his face and his eyes shut. So i bring my hands down and ask.

Salion>"Did i do something wrong?"

Mark>"No...no..you didn't do anything wrong. Phew that was a a tug of war. If i didn't resist you probably would have drained me right trough the orb. It will take me days to restore what you took. Usually the orb is used to condense mana in order to help kids to find it but you...you just sucked it all up. So how did the mana feel?"

Salion>"Like a void?"

Mark>"A void..huh...never herd of that one before mhhh"He got up and went back in to his house to look for something. He came back with a small book i couldn't read the title but he just opened it and started to flip the pages."Void..void.. can you tell me how the void felt?"

Salion>"It was like an abyss, endless. It wasn't cold dark or anything. It was just a big hole siting there"I was starting to get worried. Probably something is wrong with me?

Mark"Ahhh found it. Well i got good news and bad. Bad news you don't have any affinities" Before he can continue i tilt my head in question. "Affinities you know talent, some are strong other fast third are smart. Its the same with magic since you didn't feel anything it means you have no affinities. As for the good news you also don't have any weakness. What I'm saying is that you can control every single element with the same amount of difficulty. Well some better than others depending on your understanding of them but that will come later"

Mark>"So did you feel for mana inside of you?" I noded "And?"

Salion>"I didn't find anything and when i tried to put mana within me it didn't stay."

Mark>""Boy i got real bad news for you. You don't have internal mana. Don't worry it's not fatal. Most people barely use it even if they have above average. Unless you want to be a mage or a knight i don't see any problem with it." I look at him with a disappointed face "Now don't go crying the world wont end, even if i can fix your problem you still wont be able to get much mana, you will probably start with 1/20 of the normal capacity and with heavy training probably get slightly aboove average....for a peasant."

Salion>"I don't mind, as long as i can do some basic spells and have a bit of mana within me ill be happy."

Mark>"Well for that i will need to make a potion. I got most of the stuff but i don't have a mana core." He turned to look at dad"You can buy one from the city for a hefty sum, go and hunt it from a magical monster or pay a royal mage to make you one. No need to tell you that the last option is impossible. And the second too dangerous, as for the first it will probably take you a lot of time to gather for a basic one."

Dad just gave his goofy smile and nod towards me. It took me a while to make it click, but maybe what i just made by accident is what we need? I stretched my arm and show Mark the transparent marble.

Salion>"Is this a mana core?"

Mark>"Boy..where did you get this?"

I guess he was too focused to notice my small light show. So i cutely put my finger on my lips pretending to be in deep thought

Salion>"Hmmmm...found it" I said with a cheerful tone

Mark>"Do you know what you are holding?"

Salion>"No.Thats why i asked"I tried not to put on the are you and idiot expression. I still have my 2 year old facade i just sound smarter than most. Something i would gladly say mom and dad did. And my speaking sounds childish even though i use more words than most 2 year olds.

Mark>"This is a high grade monster core. At least that is what i can tell from the shape. The lower grade ones aren't in the shape of spheres they are irregular. Not to mention its quite small so I'm guessing its from a cub or something and its transparent which i have no idea what it means."

Salion>"No element?"

Mark>"You can say it like that, though remember the proper term is affinity. Now if you give me that ill be able to make the potion"

I took a look at mom and dad and they both slightly nod in agreement. I give him the core and the potions will be done around dinner, when i asked he said that it takes effect when the body start to digest it, the core will give the body mana and the other ingredients will help with it. Apparently some mages and knights use similar potions to increase in strength but the core used needs to be from a stronger monster each time. With me leaving smarter with promise for might we head to the general goods store boy what a surprise!

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I will change how i write the dialogs and thoughts from now so that why its difrent compared to the other chapters

P.S too lazy to edit all of them