The sun's rays peeked through the clouds that littered the sky in this cold winter morning, bringing with it light but no warmth against the cold. This marked the start of the day in Blackreach city as most people needed to get on with their businesses.

Somewhere near the center of the third district, more than a hundred white armored guards were vigilantly blocking the roads that led to this specific area. If one was able to get past these guards, they would see numerous people that wore green robes looking around.

Amidst these green robed people, stood a similarly green robed middle aged man with salt and peppered hair, and eyes that showed his lack of sleep. Next to him stood a much younger man with similarly green robes only he was holding a file in his hand.

The middle aged man looked at the younger man and spoke with creased eyebrows and a tired voice:

"Have you found anything that tells us what happened here last night."

The younger man looked at the file in his hand and spoke with a respectful and professional voice:

"From what we can tell. A battle between two mages occurred here last night. There are a few Earth Spikes here and there, and those two houses were presumably crushed by an earth spell. We know one of the combatants was an Earth mage, as for the other, we have no hint. There is no sign of either of them."

The middle aged man's eyebrows creased even further and a frown appeared on his face. He looked forward towards on of the crushed houses and then spoke:

"What about the houses. Why were they crushed?"

"We don't know."

"Who do they belong to?"

The younger green robed man looked at his file and flipped a few pages before speaking:

"One house belongs to a family of four; the Hay Family. They are all presumed dead. The other house was bought by an Inn and there was no one living there."

"Hmm. An empty house? Send a few people to the Inn that bought the house and figure out why they did so. Also, get me everything we have on that Inn."

"Understood."

The middle aged man's face was emotionless, but seemed to be perpetually frowning. He immediately started walking away from the crushed houses, but no before saying one last thing to the younger man:

"And report this to the Academy. Magic related incidents are their jurisdiction."

The younger man jotted something in his file and spoke without looking up:

"Understood."

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Around noon, In a random alley past the outer edge of the perimeter around the blocked off area of the third district, two white armored guards were walking shoulder to shoulder while speaking.

"Jay. What do you think could have caused those two houses to become like that."

The other guard whose name was Jay simply shook his head with a slight look of sorrow on his face as he spoke:

"I don't know. I just feel sorry that there could have been people inside those houses."

The other guard just spoke apathetically, with a slightly cold voice:

"Yeah. I guess they were just unlucky...."

Before the guard could finish his sentence, he saw something move slightly in the corner of his eye. He immediately turned his head and as soon as he saw what it was that caught his attention, he spoke while patting the other guards shoulder:

"Hey Jay. Check this out."

Jay immediately turned his head. As soon as he did, he saw a dark clothed youth with a pale face sleeping on the floor motionlessly. The youth had many wounds around his body, such as two gaping holes on both his hands, and a bloody chest.

As soon as he saw this, Jay spoke:

"Hey Tom. What should we do. He seems injured."

Tom just looked at the body with disinterest and spoke:

"We don't need to do anything. These damn bums; ever since those damn Black Family emerged, these kinds of people have been appearing more often in the other districts."

"Tom. He seems on the verge of dying. Let's take him to the clinic."

Tom only looked at Jay with an odd look and spoke with some disdain:

"He's already on the verge of dying...."

Tom kicked the person lightly causing the figure to grunt lightly and then continue sleeping. Tom immediately continued speaking:

"No point wasting time on someone who'll die anyway. Also, it is way too much work. Let us leave."

Tom immediately walked forward while pulling Jay by the shoulder and prompting him forward. Jay looked back at the passed out figure before shaking his head and continuing his walking.

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Wesley felt like he was floating inside his mind. He felt the world around him, and yet he couldn’t feel it. It was as if he was in a state between sleep and wakefulness but he still couldn’t understand what was going. He only knew that it was comfortable.

"Ugh"

Something slammed against Wesley's body pulling him from his slumber. He slightly opened his eyes which were immediately assaulted by the sunlight causing him to close his eyes again. He wanted to go back to sleep.

Wesley had no idea where he was, but he still felt sleepy so he went back to sleep. However, regardless of how much he wanted to go back to sleep, his mind has already awakened.

His eyes abruptly burst open as he remembered everything that happened. Getting captured by the old expert of the Kader Family, getting tortured, escaping, hiding in the void, trying to escape and.....his core shattering.

All those images ran through Wesley's mind in sequence as he laid on his back staring blankly at the cloudy sky. Wesley almost didn’t believe what happened, he hoped, no, he believed that it was all a dream, or a nightmare, and that he was just waking up from it.

How did he escape from the void? Was his core truly shattered? Was his life as a mage truly over? Multiple questioned flooded Wesley's mind causing him to feel slightly overwhelmed. He simply couldn’t believe that any of those things happened.

Wesley's nature was always restrained and he never considered showing off or flaunting in front of others. However, this was not because Wesley was meek or weak person, rather his pride made him how he was.

Wesley had a lot of pride. His pride as a prince, his pride as a mage, his pride as the disciple of the Keeper. All of these things made him develop a personal philosophy. He believed that if you have power and background, then you shouldn’t look down on others, rather you should be more humble and more considerate.

Wesley was always seen by everyone as a talent less person without a single redeeming characteristics. He was looked down by his father and his other relatives. The oldest child of the king and yet the second prince, seen as inferior by everyone around him and looked upon with contempt and disdain.

And yet, Wesley never paid their contempt any mind because he always knew that he was not talentless and no amount of contempt and disdain will ever change that. His core was now shattered, how can he accept such a thing? His mind simply disregarded the whole thing as an illusion; a construct of his dreams feeding on his greatest fears, nothing more.

Wesley dismissed everything as a bad dream and he immediately tried to sit up. As soon as he tried sitting up, a piercing pain shook his entire body. Wesley grimaced at the pain, but he ignored it mostly and sat himself up.

As soon as he sat up, Wesley surveyed his surroundings. He was sitting in some alleyway. He had no idea how he got here, but he knew that he was stuck in the void, and there is no way he could have left if he core shattered.

Wesley immediately looked at his two hands. There were two few inch wide circles in both of his hands. Seeing this, Wesley was startled and slight frown appeared on his face as he remembered how his hands were impaled and caught by two earth spikes from the old expert.

He next moved his right hand to his chest. He could feel three circular lacerations in the area near his heart. Once again, Wesley frowned as he remembered how the old expert used needless to injure his heart.

Wesley was feeling his heart beat faster as he realized that what he dismissed as a nightmare were proving to have truly happened. He started getting a bad premonition as the thing he dreaded most was appearing more and more true.

Wesley looked down at his shirt which was ripped in numerous places when he crashed through the window of the small house when the old expert tracked him down. He also noticed that his left shoulder is also broken from when he was almost impaled by a earth spike right before hiding in the void.

At this point, there was no longer any doubt that everything Wesley believed to be a nightmare truly happened. Wesley's heart dropped, and two tears uncontrollably streaked along his face. Wesley's stomach knotted and churned with fear and other things.

Wesley didn’t care about any of his other injuries, neither did he care about death, however, he simply couldn’t heart his core being shattered. His magic was his identity, his pride, and yet now he has being deprived of it.

Wesley instantly felt his mind grow numb and dizzy. He didn’t fight it or anything, rather he simply closed his eyes and embraced the blankness. He simply didn’t know what to do, rather he didn’t want to do anything.

Wesley's eyes turned dark as he instantly lost consciousness and fell on his side lifelessly.

..............................................................................................................................................

Sometime past sunset. Wesley who was lying unconscious on the floor of some alleyway was brought back to consciousness by the cold night wind. After coughing a few times, Wesley's eyes contained a dim light of confusion as he struggled to sit up.

A short while after waking up, Wesley's initial confusion seemed to have disappeared and replaced by a resolute look that contained no small amount of sadness. Wesley looked like a person who came into terms with something, but still felt some reservations.

At first, Wesley went through the same process of denial where he believed that everything was a nightmare and that none of it truly happened. However, this time, Wesley didn’t faint after realizing that it did truly happened.

He truly felt no small amount of unwillingness and pain at the fact that his core shattered, however, he simply couldn’t do anything about it.

Wesley immediately crossed his legs. He wanted to see the extent of his shattered core with his own two eyes. He has already resigned to his fate, but unwillingness was still present in his heart.

If his core was truly shattered, then mana would not be able to reside in his mana sea. The core not only attracts mana, it also holds it in place, and its shattering means that it simply can no longer hold the mana.

He immediately urged his core to vibrate. Wesley immediately felt some pain as his core vibrated, but he clenched his jaws and held on. Unfortunately, just as he though the mana seeped out of his body in massive quantities. But something was not right.

Wesley immediately noticed that his core was indeed shattered, but somehow still intact. There were thousands of cracks spreading from the center of his core like a shattered mirror. However, these cracks were filled by some dark matter that acted as glue and held the pieces of his core together.

Wesley had no idea what a shattered core was supposed to be like, but he felt that it really should not be like this. Shattered implied completely broken, but his core was intact to some extent, and although he had no idea what that dark matter is.

Wesley's brows furrowed somewhat, but his eyes held some hint of hope. If his core was not truly shattered, then Wesley would......He simply couldn’t think of what he would do if that was the case. Wesley has truly never wanted anything more.

Wesley immediately closed his eyes and started refining mana like his life depended on it. The pain in his core was ever present, but Wesley paid it no mind, he has finally seen a ray of hope, he'll be damned if he lets some pain stand in his way.

After almost an hour of constant refining, the amount of mana that entered Wesley's body was enough to fill him many times over, but almost all of it leaked out as soon as it entered his mana sea.

However, Wesley's face was plastered with a wide smile because, although almost all the mana leaked out, not all of it leaked out. His core acted as a sort of a sieve, allowing most of the mana to flow out unobstructed, but hanging onto a minute portion.

"Hahahaha...."

Wesley let out a hearty laugh filled with excitement. His core was not shattered, it was not shattered. He simply couldn’t control the joy in his mind and heart, if it were to be described in words, it was like being able to breath after not breathing.

After these five hours of refining, Wesley was able to fill about a tenth of his mana sea, this was simply too slow of a pace. Furthermore, his mana felt odd, however, Wesley was still excited beyond words.

His rate of refining could only be called pitiful, but Wesley didn’t mind. If given the choice between a shattered core and a pitiful core, Wesley would always choose the latter.

Wesley immediately calmed his pounding heart. He really hasn’t lost all hope, and the only thing he seems to have lost were the few more hours he would need to spend to completely fill his mana sea than he did in the past.

Wesley continued refining. He was no longer depressed, on the contrary, he was in an extremely good mood. Four more hours of refining, Wesley now had half of his mana sea filled. Although, this mana felt somewhat different than the usual, he didn’t pay any mind to that.

Wesley immediately got up briskly, although feeling some pain from numerous parts of his body, his mood was too good to be ruined by such trivial matters. He immediately picked up his dark sword and walked towards the seventh district.

He felt dome reservations against using Dark Warp, so he decided to walk. Wesley cut a miserable figure with his bloody and torn clothes and the painful expressions that flashed through his face every time he took a step.

However, soon enough, Wesley reached the seventh district. It was almost midnight, so the curfew was not yet in place. Wesley however, didn't directly go to the Manor, instead, he found a random alleyway and scurried into it.

Wesley was certain that his Manor was being watched, and walking in looking like he did now, was simply too dumb a decision. He was indeed tired, and his body was in a lot of pain, but Wesley has not forgotten to be cautious.

Considering how Wesley almost died at the hands of that old expert of the Kader Family. He was afraid that the Kader family might connect his current appearance with the things that happened, at which point Wesley would need to face that old man again. He truly was not willing to do that.

Wesley clenched his teeth and immediately started muttering.. He was reluctant to use Dark Warp after what happened, but he had no choice. And he would need to face his fears sooner or later, so he might as well do it sooner rather than later.

However, after Wesley was done with his mutterings, he simply stared at the wall in front of him slack jawed. Nothing happened, let alone a Warp tunnel being opened, his mana didn’t even react to his invoking.

Wesley simply couldn’t understand what was happening. He had mana without a doubt, but his mana didn’t even react to his invocation. Mages invoke their spells by guiding mana through specific channels; the mutterings simply open those specific channels.

There are hundreds upon hundreds of channels in the body, but not all channels could be used by everyone. A dark mage has specific channels that he can use, while a wind mage has different channels. If a wind mage opened the channels used by a dark mage, then nothing would happen.

However, at this moment, when Wesley opened the specific channels for Dark Warp, his mana which was supposed to pour through it, simply remained unmoving. He couldn’t help but feel apprehensive; could it be that his core has lost something essential.

Wesley immediately sat down on the ground and started thinking. He didn’t care that his core's efficiency declined, he didn’t care that he was almost killed and injured severely, however, he simply couldn’t resolve himself to losing his magic.

After a few minutes of thinking, Wesley came up with two conclusions. Either, his core truly shattered and he could no longer be a mage, or his core's changes caused him to be unable to use the methods that he used as a dark mage.

Out of these two possibilities, it was not hard for Wesley to decide which one was more probable. He convinced himself that his core's changes required him to use other channels instead of the original one he learnt. This also made sense since he is able to refine, which shouldn’t be possible with a shattered core.

"I guess I'll need to experiment with different channels and see which...."

Wesley's words were solely for his own benefit. He knew that each affinity had its own channels, and that by being unable to use the channels for a simple dark spell, he most likely wouldn’t be able to use the others as well. He also knew that it is absolutely impossible to change one's affinity.

At this point, Wesley's heart was once again depressed, but he still held onto a hint of hope. He was able to refine against all odds with a seemingly shattered core, he also escaped from an Elder and was able to break out from the void, it shouldn’t be impossible to find a way to invoke.

Having calmed his heart, Wesley started walking towards the Manor. Although he wasn’t able to warp directly to the Manor. He can still wait until past midnight and then his watchers would be forced to leave the seventh district because of the curfew; then he can simply walk into the Manor through the front door.

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Hi.

Do you guys feel like this chapter is too filler-ish and that nothing important happened?

I want you to blame a few smarty pants such as [Elocoman] and [qtjr168] who felt it necessary to see through my plot. I was going to give Wesley a simple generic dark core, but after seeing that some of you saw through it, i had to go to my BS machine and cook up some more things.

You're welcome and Enjoy.