Ultimately, it is not the man that dictates his will, but the being that giveth his breath…

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The dark, moist ground, greedily absorbed all the water, making it so that no puddles formed, and the only sign left of struggle being the damaged bushes, severed grass, and mangled corpses. Some bodies twitched, expending the last of the flesh’s energy, while some beasts still had some breath in them.

Leaning on his sword, Kai didn’t dare repeat the same mistake as last time and slashed the necks off of all the corpses. Most of them were just that, corpses, so they offered no resistance. However, out of the six beasts, the life of two still lingered. One of them seemed young, smaller than the rest by a few centimeters, with the vigor of a youth still shining in its flooded eyes. Kai shut his own, unable to look, and slashed at its neck, ending its suffering.

Next, he walked to the last one. Its lungs still struggled, water leaking out of its mouth and paws still moving, grasping for life. It was the one Kai had first defeated, its scales even more damaged than before, and the opening on its severed paw almost completely healed. Its eyes snapped to Kai, empty, dark, and big. Giving its attacker a lost, unwilling look, it shifted its gaze toward a tree.

Kai sighed and lifted his sword.

The sound of crunching bone and squelching blood echoed in his ears, making him want to throw up, however, he held on strong and faced the animals he killed with dignity. Waving his wand one last time, the earth shook and swallowed the corpses. He then left, heading toward the Scarfying Bloom. Onyx followed suit, standing close by his companion, whose right arm all but screamed in pain.

Despite how much he ran, the patch of Scarfying Bloom nested close by, surrounded by the damage he had done to the environment. Walking to the pit he created, and looking inside, he grimaced, upon seeing two cubs, no bigger than a football, floating in the pool of despair he made, dead. Looking away, he waved his wand and closed the hole with a simple earth spell.

The process of gathering the Scarfying Bloom wasn’t difficult for Kai, not in the slightest, as he had experience picking up all manners of plants. Whether it was from Aina’s training or his own adventures. Soon, a small basket of them filled his ring, at which point he rose and left. Out of the entire batch, he only took out an insignificant amount, not nearly enough to deprive these unknown beasts of their nourishment.

He shook his head and knew that, if he dared to take his time picking them, he would be the one feeding the ground right now, and not the opposite.

The walk home didn’t take a long amount of time, even without using spells or body enchantments. The gates met his eyes before the moon was halfway through the sky.

After handing in a few of the tasks he managed to complete, Kai returned to Barhm’s place. As soon as he entered, the boy greeted him, albeit a weird expression plastered on his face. “You look like you went to war.” He commented but didn’t ask anything further. With a light sigh, Kai took off his cloak and stored it in his other ring, as well as his bloodied, white shirt and the black blouse underneath. The entire thing proved to be difficult, doing it with only one hand. Luckily Onyx quickly picked up and volunteered to help him undress.

His bare skin looked better than a few days, and even a couple of hours ago. It showed signs of healing and getting plumper, however not by much.

Kai’s stomach growled, prompting him to sit down at a table and pull out some rations he had stored.

“I’m guessing whatever you did went well?” Barhm sat down as well, glancing slightly at Kai’s dried meat, then at the jewelry on his fingers. “I didn’t reckon they make such devices here.”

Glancing at his hand, then swallowing whatever he was chewing and throwing the rest to Onyx, Kai smirked. “I’ve seen them around. This one,” he said, pointing at one of the rings, with a smaller dark crystal and a silver frame. “My dad made it and gifted it to me, and the other,” Kai referred to one of similar size to his dad’s but with a golden frame. “My teacher gifted it to me. They’re pretty big in size for daily needs.” He explained, then raised an eyebrow. “How come you’ve never asked until now?”

“I wasn’t interested,” Barhm said simply and leaned back on his sofa. “What, can’t I ask when I’m curious?”

“No, no, you can.” Kai, flustered, quickly uttered. “Just seemed weird.”

…

An awkward silence fell upon the two, though Kai didn’t allow it to last long as he pulled out a piece of the vine-like plant he fought tooth and bone for. “This is Scarfying Bloom,” Kai explained, and Barhm got closer, and cut him off before he could explain what it was.

“I know of it, I read what you said about it. I had a guess you’d go for it.” He smiled as he talked, then stood up and walked to his office. Soon returning with a piece of paper, he flicked it toward Kai, who grabbed it with trained dexterity and read it.

The boy’s eyes lit up as his eyes scanned the words, written in Common, then widened before staring at Barhm. “You deduced all this… so quickly?”

Barhm scoffed and walked toward the fireplace, “Even a fool in my world could figure that out. Especially based on what you gave me. It seems complex at first, but once you understand it replicating it is not that hard. You figured out a way to use both at the same time, and something tells me you did something else that allowed your core to survive. Based on the damage you took, it should have collapsed and you should have died along with your parents. So unless you’re a ghost, you too, figured something out.”

Kai gulped and picked up the piece of Scarfying Bloom, then joined the boy next to the fireplace. This guy is too smart! A thought passed his head as a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

“Alright, I’m sure you figured out how it works already, so come here and sit,” Barhm commanded with a tone that would not allow disobedience. Like a puppy with big eyes, Kai sat down crosslegged before the fireplace and pulled out a couple of Scarfying Blooms. “First time we’re going to be testing, so don’t expect any grand results.”

Taking in a deep breath, Kai quickly recalled how the technique Barhm conjured up worked.

«Create a revolving mana field around the plant, that will make it so there is no leakage or waste during the following steps.

Call upon your Mana Core and create a siphoning force that will then extract all the mana from the plant inside the Mana Sphere.

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Use your Body Core to filter out the large impurities, and store them inside a smaller bubble inside the first bubble.

Then using both cores, slowly draw in the purified, filtered mana.»

Simple… in theory. Kai thought, initiating the first step. Mana Bubble… whatever that is.

First, he used the mana present in his body and tried to make it take shape. Such a task required immense levels of control and focus, something that a Medium Size One Star Core normally wouldn’t be able to exert. However, with beads of sweat running down his forehead, falling into his mouth or lap, Kai managed to create a Mana… shape. It resembled a sphere as much as a cylinder did, however for the first attempt it would do.

Rolling his eyes, Barhm placed the small part of the Scarfying Bloom, cutting it to size, within the shape. A low grunt escaped Kai’s body almost immediately, as his mana, and control faltered for a second. He quickly regained it, but a shiver ran down his spine at the same moment as Barhm’s cold hands landed on his skin.

“I need to know what’s happening so I can analyze and aid.” He explained, then invaded Kai’s body with his mana, who had no choice but to accept it. Being put in such a vulnerable situation made Kai’s hair stand on edge, however he knew it was necessary.

After the shape stabilized, along with the plant inside, Kai called upon his Mana Core. At first, it felt weird, and it remained unresponsive. However, as he insisted, its red color began to shine with a soft light, until it eventually agreed to cooperate, and sent a siphoning force toward the Mana Shape.

Initially, it started out slow, barely extracting any mana from the plant. However, Kai split his concentration more, and in turn, his control over the shape. It faltered, and eventually, broke, releasing all the mana it had sucked out, and destroying the plant in the process.

At the same time, Barhm recoiled, as Kai’s Mana Core had nowhere to point its suction force at, besides Barhm himself.

He stood up with a grunt and looked at the small pieces of herb littering his floor. “I hope you brought enough, and cleaned that up, I don’t want my house to be dirty.”

Kai bowed his head, half with shame, half with annoyance, and picked up the wasted plant, storing the remains in a small corner in his ring. They’d be good for tea at least… He sighed and grabbed the piece Barhm had cut up. Maybe a smaller shape, just to fit the plant.

He repeated the first process and created a shape only big enough to fit the plant, along with whatever impurities he may extract from the mana. Barhm once again took the role of guard, however got ready to stop his mana flow at a moment’s notice.

Exhaling sharply, Kai called upon his Mana Core, which responded instantly this time around and began extracting the mana within the plant. Without getting greedy, Kai slowly increased the speed until he felt it enough, then waited for the plant to dry up of all mana.

The process showed itself to be slow, and meticulous. Each time Kai’s focus faded, even if for a second, the bubble would threaten to explode, destroying any progress he made. Eventually, however, there was nothing left to extract from the mana plant. The concentrated amount of mana became visible to the naked eye. It had a light blue tinge and behaved like smoke, or vapor, shapeless and without mass, or very little of it. After all the mana had been exhausted, it dried up and crumbled to ashes of its own volition, disappearing without a trace. What the he-

However, he had no time or attention to divert toward that, as the next step required him to focus even more than before. With a deep breath, he steadied his control of the Mana Shape and called upon his Body Core to filter out the impurities from the extracted mana. Just like with the Mana Core, it refused to budge and listen, almost as if it had sentience. Damn you, listen to me! Kai cried internally, the Mana Shape trembling slightly as he diverted more control to wake up his core.

Eventually, it shone with a dark, ambient light, and sent its power toward the Mana Shape, using Kai as a catalyst. However, despite Kai’s understanding of his body, the Fusioned Core was still a new, weird invention he didn’t quite fully grasp. He knew that both cores could filter mana, but the Body Core was superior in that regard. For a Body Mage, a cultivator, to be able to use constantly circulate mana within their body, it has to be pure, as to avoid self-inflicted internal damage. Whereas for a Mage, such a requirement wasn’t so strict, because all mana eventually left their body, without lingering.

Likewise, a Mana Core was much stronger in terms of raw magic output and control than a Body Core, without factoring in the individual user.

So, as Kai called upon the Body Core’s ability to filter mana, he began understanding it better as well. Through his left hand, it sent a suction force, similar to the Mana Core. The difference between the two was that the latter suction force was gentle and indiscriminating, the former only attracted impurities. Of course, it wasn’t to a perfect degree, due to the core low’s level, and Kai’s lack of power. However, it was plenty enough to avoid Mana Poisoning right away.

Kai had a feeling that things were going too well, and, just as he thought that, Barhm jumped to his feet and kicked Kai, making him lose focus and control over the Mana Shape, which then exploded into nothingness.

“What gives?” He said with a grunt.

“Your Body Core started to absorb the impurities, you didn’t control it well enough. Start over.”

Kai’s pupils constricted, and he pulled out another piece Scarfying Bloom after turning around. Redoing the first two steps proved easy enough, and even the Mana Shape started to resemble a bubble, though not by much.

Finally, the piece of Scarfying Bloom disintegrated once again, marking the start of the third step, whereupon he called on his Body Core, which responded almost immediately, rushing toward the mana with a greedy hunger. This time Kai used most of his control on keeping its instinct to absorb at bay, and made sure that it kept the impurities in a second Mana Shape.

The mana cloud visibly decreased in size as its impurities got extracted, and even they started to become visible. Unlike the blue-ish mana cloud, these impurities were heavy, and dark, with a hint of purple. They didn’t float or move about but fell and gathered inside the smaller bubble-like metal powder.

Kai exhaled heavily and stopped the Body Core’s suction force, then carefully removed the bubble filled with impurities from the purer mana. He gulped, and got his hands closer to the Mana Shape, almost touching it, then called upon both his cores, and let them absorb without restraint.

Almost instantly, the mana veins running through his arms flooded with mana, flowing so fast and smooth that Kai thought he dreamt. A euphoric feeling rushed through his body, which only increased as both cores greedily absorbed the mana. It feels like… the mana pills, no! Even better! So much purified mana… this is… amazing! He relished the feeling, his face flushing red and pupils trembling, as the crimson iris shone with a soft light.

Kai wanted to jump to his feet, to kick and scream and howl, however, he restrained himself, and, the feeling soon faded away, leaving him wanting for more. All the mana within the bubble faded, leaving behind a small bubble of impurities.

With a sigh, he glanced at Barhm, who had already begun taking notes, not caring whether or not Kai was hurt. He then reached for the small bubble, grabbing it with mana, and staring at the dark-purple flakes inside.

They were small, like grains of sand on a beach, however, somehow, Kai felt an intense, familiar maline emanating from them. Instinctively, he reached toward them with a finger, wanting to touch them, feel them, absorb them…

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, that’s pure poison.” Barhm woke Kai up from his fever with a simple sentence, then went back to writing on his papers.

Clearing his throat, Kai took out a small glass vial he had from Barhm’s experiments, on both Darky and himself. As he did, he remembered the couple of diluted blood vials Barhm gave him and bit his lower lip.

Rising the glass vial up to the level of the impurity-filled mana bubble, Kai created a small vacuum that sucked them all to the bottom, then promptly sealed it. “Plan on doing something with that?” Barhm asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well…” Kai said without turning. “You never know when you may need something, plus it’d be interesting to see how raw impurities work.”

Barhm didn’t pay Kai any more mind, and went back to scribbling on his paper, as Kai put the vial of impurities away inside his storage ring.

For a good fifteen minutes, nothing happened, and only the crackling fire and inking resounded in the air. Then, Barhm handed Kai another piece of paper, and the boy’s eyes widened even more than before as he scanned it.