*BOOOOOOOM*

An explosion within a black void expanded outward chaotically before rushing back inward at a terrifying speed. Energy filled with power began to rotate rapidly within this small space.

(Awareness, is this what this is, am I alive?)

Lowen's thoughts had just returned to him when suddenly he felt an intense shock. From the top of his crown to the tips of each one of his toes Lowen could feel Magical Earth Energy coursing through him. It's purity and power eclipsing the earth energy he had before by dozens of times.

Over in the Chief Hall a contemplating Roland jumped up in shock, he couldn't help but scream out loud.

"WHAT, HOW!!"

Roland's mind was racing, he was just about to rush over to Lowen when a thought came to mind.

(No wonder, no wonder, of course, he didn't want to be my apprentice, he's somehow found a way. Did I accidentally give it away with my words earlier.)

Roland began to pace back and forth in thought every now and then he would stomp or kick something over and other times he would stop and nod his head in understanding once more he sat back down in contemplation as he begrudgingly decided to ignore Lowen.

Back inside Nia's place both Nia and Ben were still fast asleep. It seems the two could feel and sense nothing as the powerful energy flowed around Lowen. As Lowen continued to sit there in a meditative state he could feel his power surging higher and higher using his mind he could look inside himself, sensing his Mage Core he could see his 1st circle was almost fully formed. As his 1st circle of magic finally connected, once again Lowen could feel another burst of energy go off inside himself.

*BOOOOM*

Like a black hole, Lowen's Mage core suddenly began to devour all of the surrounding magic energy, as it did, Lowen could feel every fiber of his being growing stronger at a rapid rate. His muscles began to grow tougher and stronger his bones became even sturdier and dense and every one of his senses grew sharper by a few degrees. Even Lowen's mind was going thru a change as to what change that was Lowen didn't currently know but he knew something was different. As the surrounding energy became thinner and thinner the progress of Lowen's body began to slow down considerably almost halting entirely. A small but interesting idea came to Lowen.

(My Mage Core seems to have devoured nearly all of the Magical energy around me. I wonder what would happen if I fed it something a little different.)

With that thought in mind, Lowen manipulated his ki, willing a small amount of it towards his Mage Core. As a small bit of ki energy flowed into Lowen's devouring Mage Core something strange happened. Lowens Mage core began to tremble ever so slightly, as it did Lowen began to feel his constitution increasing again but this time at a much quicker rate. In foolish excitement, Lowen then sent the rest of his ki into his Mage Core. The slightly trembling Mage Core suddenly started to shake violently. An intense pain hit Lowen like a tree, his muscles that were once toughening suddenly began to rip and tear, shredding themselves into tiny pieces before quickly reforming themselves, becoming stronger and thicker than before. His bones that had just finished hardening suddenly snapped and broke into fragments before fusing back together and hardening once again. The pain that Lowen felt was beyond agony every nerve in his body became taught with tension before they too began to snap and break away before reforming again tougher and stronger than ever. Inside this little shack, constant popping and cracking noises reverberated around this poor ugly room as Lowen's bones snapped and reformed over and over again. Had the noise been slightly louder then Nia and Ben would have awoken to a horrific scene as Lowen's body thrashed about with bones breaking and muscles tearing. In this terrible situation, Lowen wanted to do nothing more than scream in dying agony but he didn't want to scare Nia and Ben. If they were to see him in this state then it wouldn't be strange for them to cry out monster. All Lowen could do was pick up a piece of wood and bite down on it with full force to try and suppress his screams.

After who knows how long the pain became too overbearing causing Lowen to bite completely through the piece of wood he had in his mouth. Just as he was about to shout, both of his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fainted.

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Lowen groggily opened his eyes, looking around the room he could see both Nia and Ben still fast asleep. Standing up a ray of sunshine hit him in the eyes causing him to wince in pain, after wiping his eyes a few times they finally seemed to adjust to the light, something seemed different but as to what, Lowen couldn't quite tell. Lowen's nose twitched a bit in sourness, looking around he tried to find where the bad smell was coming from. Taking a stronger whiff he then looked down at himself, on his skin there was a strange sticky black tar-like substance, this was where the smell came from. Looking himself over Lowen was completely covered in this stinky gunk, he immediately went outside to wash.

As he came to the river flowing just a bit away from Nia's home Lowen jumped in like a big boulder, as the river wasn't that deep where he jumped in his bottom hit the rocks below causing him to jump up in surprise. However, he quickly realized that it didn't actually hurt at all, that wasn't all. As he was still partly asleep he didn't control his power when he leaped and ended up using his full force. Looking around Lowen was utterly shocked, he had ascended 50 feet at least. Landing back in the river, Lowen stood there still in confusion. Looking at his hand he gripped it making a fist. It was only now that he noticed the newly formed muscles on his arm that weren't huge or anything of that nature but were instead dense and lean each muscle was brimming with terrifying strength.

Lowen decided to test his strength a bit, reaching down in the river Lowen was going to grab a rock when he noticed his reflection Lowen saw his eyes and noticed his dark purple eyes seem to have become sharper the hair on his head had become longer and his fingernail had even grown out as well even Lowens height seemed to have grown by 2-3 inches his entire body seemed to have grown overnight.

(How is this possible. The only energy that can make the body grow is earth energy but that's only making bones and muscle stronger, it shouldn't make my hair nails and even my height grow.)

Lowen suddenly thought.

(It must have been when I fed my Mage Core some of my ki. Ki is not only power but its also filled with life energy. It must have infused some of its properties within my Mage Core causing these extra side effects.)

Lowen wondered if he fed his Mage Core ki every time he formed a new magic circle if he would continue to grow like this. By the time he reached the later circles in Magic would there be a being on the planet that could compete with him physically. A large grin formed on Lowen's face, these extra side effects would cause his body to become unmatched if he continued to develop like this.

Picking up a fist-sized rock, Lowen wanted to test his strength. At first, Lowen gave the rock a squeeze using all of his strength but sadly nothing happened. This time he used both hands using all of his strength once again nothing. With the third attempt, Lowen filled his hands with ki and squeezed as hard as he could at first nothing happened but then small cracks began to appear on the rock and soon they spread like a spiders web and with a bit more strength the rock finally crumbled in Lowen's hands.

*Phew*

Although he broke the rock, it took everything he had to do it. Still, a large grin was plastered on his face. Picking up another rock Lowen aimed at a tree branch almost two times thicker than his neck and with great precision and strength, Lowen threw the rock at a terrifying speed. As the rock struck the tree branch it instantly broke it, causing it to snap and hit the ground. The rock however continued on for a bit striking and breaking a few more branches before everything went quiet.

"Hahaha, this is great."

Lowen was simply too excited.

(If this is just a side effect, I can't wait to see what my magic can do.)

Lowen wanted to immediately test his Magic out but the smell of his body again hit his nose, filling it with a stink of rotting meat. Lowen sat down and the water covered just over the top of his head. As he held his breath he started to scrub his clothes and his body relentlessly.

(This tar-like substance must be the impurities that were once in me. When my body went through that metamorphosis it must have forced all this disgusting shit out.)

Although it was disgusting Lowen couldn't help but have a satisfied smile as he removed it, Lowen loved the feeling of being completely clean. Resurfacing from the water Lowen took in a deep refreshing breath of air and hung his simple fur cloth on a branch to dry. Standing at the riverside completely naked Lowen recalled the [Earth Elemental Basics.]. The book was split into three parts. The first part dealing with absorbing earth energy etc. The second part on Magical earth energy theory and the third part was about earth spells. As Lowen recalled the 3rd part, he remembered there were a few spells written down. One of the simplest written down was an earth ball spell. With this spell, one could create a simple ball of dirt, the more power you expend the larger you could make it and the further you advance your circle of magic the more different materials you can make this ball out of, such as stone or crystal or even at the higher circles of magic, metal. For now, though, Lowen wanted to try making a ball of dirt.

Holding out his hand Lowen remembered the Magic scribble looking symbol for creating a dirtball and willed his magic in his palm. As the earth energy collected in his hand Lowen could feel something small forming and after a second it happened but to Lowen's dismay, this was unacceptable. Looking down at the ball of dirt in his hand it was no bigger than half the size of Lowen's pinky nail.

(What went wrong, what did I do to mess up so badly.)

It was then that Lowen recalled what Roland had said a while ago about magic.

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"Lowen, in order to use magic you must have a magic tool, with it, you force your magic into the tool and the tool then amplifies your magic power creating the spell you cast."

"So you have to have a magic tool no matter what, why?"

Roland looked at Lowen like he were a fool. He then opened his palm and began to cast a spell, as he did his face began to pour with sweat and after about 10 seconds a small candle sized flame appeared to float in his palm, however, just a few seconds later it then went out.

*Phew*

Roland then lifted his cane and using the exact same spell, he created a flaming ball the size of a human head almost instantaneously. Looking at Lowen he said.

"I don't know why this happens but it does. When one uses a spell without a magic tool, even though I'm using the exact same amount of power its like there's some type of disconnect or something. Some believe it has something to do with the way our magic is used for the spell but no one really knows for sure."

"So then why does a magic tool work so well."

Roland pondered for a moment before he shook his head.

"I don't really know my self."

He then pointed at his cane, on it, there were several small inscriptions.

"If you look here you can see these little inscriptions, well each of these is a spell. All I know is that when I want to use a certain spell I channel my magic into this magic tool and into this magic inscription, it then summons the spell for me."

Lowen was curious about something though.

"But what if you need to use a spell and it's not inscribed on your cane what then?"

"Well, at that point I guess your just shit out of luck."

"What, well how many spells can you have inscribed on a magic tool?"

"10, if your tool is made from a master craftsman, much less if its made from someone of weak skill."

Lowen then looked at Roland's cane and Roland rubbed his nose in slight embarrassment.

"Mine only holds 4 spells."

"What, only 4 spells, why don't you have a magic tool made from a master craftsman, how cheap are you?"

Rolands expression twisted in anger.

"Bah, what the hell do you know, it cost me a small fortune just to get this. Let me tell you this boy, these magic tools don't just grow on trees, to get some of the higher tier stuff will cost you more than gold, that I can guarantee."

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Lowen had been so excited that he completely forgot about a magic tool but now that he remembered, it seemed it was time to once again crack open his other book. Reaching into the fur cloth that hung beside him, Lowen pulled out a small hand sized book, reading the cover it said [The Divine Blacksmith] Although this book had been in the water earlier it had no damage whatsoever. This book was special in that way, it had been around for seemingly thousands of years yet it was still in good condition. Flipping thru the book Lowen landed on a certain page.

[Magic Tool Inscription]

Going over this section Lowen couldn't help but lean his head back and laugh at the sky.

"HAHAHA, too easy, way too easy."

Had someone stumbled upon such a scene they would probably run away in fright. To see a little boy laughing so creepily while holding a book while naked. The witness to that scene might have thought the boy was summoning demons or sacrificing himself to the undead, thank the heavens no one saw this.