After finishing that tedious process, Aleric and I started our trek back to our house.
It's kind of funny how fate can change so quickly.
I went from living in the housing in the mines to living in what can only be described as a mansion in a matter of days. Of course, it's been a year now, so I'm getting used to it. Well, as used as I can get to this gigantic home.
I was separated from my family when I was young, so I don't remember much about them. I continued to walk with Alaric while thinking about my past.
It was so weird to me that I'm here. Becoming a famed magi, with a powerful teacher.
It felt wrong. My past still felt present, never ending.
I remember first arriving in Alva, after the incident.
I rubbed my right shoulder, feeling the giant X-shaped scar.
I looked around for jobs before finding out that the mines were hiring; they were even offering places to live.
After spending a long period getting rid of "it", I applied for the job.
And I got accepted.
My first real stable job.
From there, I started attending public school and slowly melded back into civilization. I worked for most of my life in the mana stone mines, until, of course, I started to beg Alaric to teach me magic.
I knew opportunity didn't come often, and I wanted to grasp it, so I begged him to at least test me until he gave in.
I was already acquainted with him at this point, so it wasn't too hard to strike up conversation.
I was so tired of being weak.
It was easier than I thought it'd be. Since I saw him often in the mines carrying out his research while I worked, it was easy to come up with excuses to ask.
And he eventually caved.
And it's been a little over a year since then. I'm now sixteen years old.
And I'm ready to progress on the thing I've been studying for what feels like an eternity.
Anyways, enough with my ranting. My brain is going to explode from information.
Walking through the enormous doors, I instantly turned towards Alaric and with absolutely no shame, I dropped to my knees and started to beg.
"Can we start right now, pleaseeeeeeee, pleaseeeeee old man pleaseee".
Alaric scoffed.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, get into your meditative pose."
I plopped down instantly, crossing my legs and pulling them towards my body while letting my arms rest on my legs as comfortably as I could.
"I'm sure you know the process. After all, we went through the steps only about ten thousand times, but you must prepare yourself."
He adjusted himself.
"What you're about to attempt is extremely painful. The procedure itself takes only a couple of minutes, but the pain will last five, ten if you're unlucky."
I smiled and said.
"I know we've gone over this plenty of times. Let's get this going."
Alaric signed and then put his hand on my back directly in line with the solar plexus.
There are many ways to "open" up your mana channels; many can even be done alone.
But the easiest method, with the most productive results, is a circled mage simply sending a blast of mana into your body. From there, it's your job to guide it down the mana channels and clear them of residue.
It's forceful and painful, but efficient.
Once cleared, your job is to guide the mana to a place of your choice and form a "mana heart".
A mana heart functions pretty much the same as your real heart, but instead of pumping blood into your veins, it pumps mana into your mana channels. Mana will constantly circulate through your channels with the help of your mana heart.
Alaric let out a breath and then started to count down. I was still in my stance, breathing in and out rhythmically.
"3"
"2"
"1"
Pain
A burning feeling started to rip my body to shreds from the inside.
A raging untamable fire.
Channel to channel, the fire spread, burning me alive.
My eyelids started to flicker. I was going to pass out.
"Focus, Sylas."
Alaric said.
Gritting my teeth, I reminded myself that I have to guide the mana and forget the pain.
The mana continued to pour in, seeping into me like an ocean. I started forcefully clearing out my mana channels.
It hurt.
A lot.
I may have gotten a little graphic during the process.
"FUCKKKK"
"FUCK FUCK FUCK"
Still focused, even though my mouth was never endingly sending out curse words, I started the process.
I started by going up through my chest and down my arms, then carefully treading path after path into each leg.
It took a minute, but I didn't rush myself. These steps are the most important after all.
With a fizzling sensation like my body was numb, the burning gradually faded.
The entire process only took me a couple of minutes, but it felt like a goddamn lifetime.
Now that my mana channels are broken through, I have to continue the momentum and utilize the free mana from Alaric and the atmosphere to form a mana heart.
So without any hesitation, I guided the mana into the right side of my chest on the opposite side of my actual heart.
It formed a sphere of sorts, made out of mana. After enlarging it to around the size of my actual heart, I stopped pushing mana towards it and let it stabilize.
And with a resounding wave, that shot through my body, I knew the process was over.
It went very smoothly, and after a couple of minutes of not-so-pleasant tingling coursing through my entire body, it finally seemed to settle.
"Wow."
That's all I could muster.
Reality felt different; it felt vibrant and colourful like never before.
I stood up and went over to the mirror. If you ignore the black sticky shit coming out of my entire body, my looks even changed.
I was never bad-looking, but this is a new level.
I was kind of handsome.
Looking back at me through the mirror was a youth about five feet ten, with a cute nose and porcelain skin.
I pulled my hair into a ponytail, using one of Alaric's fancy hair things.
I could see my raven black hair in the mirror, and black piercing eyes to go along with it.
I was average build, okay, maybe a little bulky in size, but I was only bulky because of my muscles that looked unnatural for a sixteen-year-old.
If you ignore the scars all over my body, then I look like a striking young man. My hair has grown a bit in the last year, and it now runs down my back in a simple ponytail.
Finally getting over my shockingly handsome looks, I started looking for Alaric.
Quickly finding him in the same spot, still sitting down, all I could muster was..
"Thank you."
Alaric smiled, then stated
"Congrats retard! You're now a mystical being who can go fight dragons! Well, maybe after you take a bath, you reek…."
End of chapter 2