For the next year all I did was weapons training and work on my mana pool.

Honestly I spent every waking moment possible absorbing mana and using it to dig my mana well. It was slow at first but picked up as I began to be able to absorb more and more mana. That an every time I did it could visibly see a difference. A sign that I was progressing. Each day I strove to push myself further and dig a bit deeper.

Only after six months was I able to create a mana well that was the size of a watermelon. It might not seem like much, but it was at least double the size of my original mana pool.

While I was doing this my body continued to cycle mana throughout my body. Strengthening my meridians and flesh. Soon I was able to see a difference in my strength when fighting and my body stop taking so much damage each day. By no means was my flesh strong enough to repel a blade, but I would at least reduce the damage.

After while though everything just became routine and went by in a blur. By the end of that year I carved out a three foot deep mana well. My body was well toned with muscles rippling with energy.

Only then did Alistar deem me fit to learn a set of basic spells. The first was a body enhancement spell that allowed me to channel mana into my arms or legs to give me a boost of strength for a short period. Normally this would cause extreme damage to the mages body after it wore off, but my body was now used to mana coursing through it. I would still end up sore and exhausted, but atleast I wouldn't sustain an injury.

It had a short casting time, that allowed for quick use and only used a extremely small amount of mana. I found this spell extremely useful in my physical training and I used it to get some revenge on my teacher.

The next spell I learned was a basic fireball spell that conquered up a fireball the size of my fist and launched it at my target. This one took a second or to to cast and I had to be standing still to do it. Its destructive power wasn't that great but it would still work in a pinch.

The last thing I learned wasn't really a spell. It was how to control the artifact bonded to me. All I had to do was move mana through my body to my palm and have something I want to will away into a dimensional storage. To bring it back out all I had to do was channel the mana back into my palm and will it back out. If there wasn't enough mana to bring it out it would destroy the object so I had to be careful. The larger the object the more mana I needed to warp it back and forth. In the beginning I started working with coins and began to work slowly towards larger objects. By the end of the year I was able to store objects the size of a large chest, but even then I had to be focused and careful.