Altair closed his eyes, standing closely to the candle pillar on one of the edges. He wasn't confident about being to light it from afar and didn't want to waste any energy trying. Feeling the particles burning within him, he directed them to the tip of his fingers, brushing the wick to set it ablaze. Nothing happened.

Dammit, I can't even light it up quickly even once.

He realized that before another attempt he would need to take his time gathering energy. Finally, a miniscule fire ball appeared in front of his finger, and he carefully, at a glacial pace brought it to the wick again. This time the fire caught on, and he quickly withdrew his hand to not get burned.

That's a start. Maybe I can just leave it burning like that? he wondered, tempted to take the easy way out. No, I'd just be cheating myself...

Before moving to the next candle, Alt shut his eyes again and focused on extinguishing the first flame according to the witch's instructions. He was getting quicker at visualizing the particles, and focused to gather a bunch at a time, easily subduing them. To his surprise, the candle kept burning.

Huh? Why is it not working?

He re-checked his mana channel, confirming that fresh mana was flowing in. However, the physical flame had flickered at his efforts, but not terminated.

Looks like I am not pulling enough particles at a time to quench it for good.

He stopped the steady flow to re-gain his focus, and then with all his might attempted to pull all of the particles emanating from the flame at once. The flame fought briefly, but with Alt's persistent efforts was wiped out.

Good! To his surprise, he noticed his mana channel stretching in width. It seemed to be a malleable entity that he could influence with training. If I keep doing it, it should allow me to release more power at once.

He moved on to the second candle, this time succeeding quicker, and then to the third and fourth ones. By the time he completed the last one of the set, it was taking him about a minute per candle to go through the entire process. He compared the first candle to its initial state, realizing that it had only lowered by a quarter of an inch at the most. After doing some calculations, he figured that at this pace, he would need to repeat the process over two hundred times per candle, needing almost forty-eight hours of uninterrupted work to complete the entire set. He didn't let this discovery discourage him however, in fact, he was excited at making progress. By his second round, his average time had fallen to fifty-five seconds, by the fifth time, to fifty... but there was still a long way to go.

Alt decided to take a quick respite to analyze what he had learned so far rather than continuing blindly. He could just press on, trying to further cut down the time between each firing up and extinguishing cycles, but perhaps there was more to the exercise than just that. After all, why would the witch bother with conjuring ten different candles if he was supposed to work on only one at a time?

Testing his hunch, he split the particles between his two hands, immediately feeling a loss in intensity and failing to light up either of the two candles he was now touching.

Dammit, there really is no shortcut... Alright, here goes nothing.

He decided to try doing things asymmetrically, by focusing the majority of his power in one hand and leaving the remaining fraction in the other. As soon as the first candle lit, he funneled the mana going into his first hand into the second target, lighting it after a few seconds. A satisfied grin creeped on his face. He adopted the same strategy in reverse to exhaust the flames, first focusing on vacuuming the fire from the first wick with one hand, and then throwing all his remaining concentration on its counterpart with the other.

With each set of candles, he evened the distribution of power between the two hands more and more. As he began losing count of the attempts, he aimed once more to light both flames at once. At first, his efforts seemed insufficient to ignite them, but grinding his teeth he pushed forward, finally making them burn.

"Yeah!!!" he exclaimed, pumping his fists in the sky.

Maybe I can really do this.

With this new method, after another five rounds, his average time per candle had just reached the thirty second threshold, but they were still melting way too slowly for his taste. Time was passing, and the midday sun was leaving him drenched in sweat. He took a dip in the lake, drinking out of it to his heart's content.

Time to take things up a notch... but for that it looks like I need to take a step back first.

Alt realized that his current limitation was only being able to channel power through his two hands and needing to be in close proximity with his targets prevented him from affecting more candles.

First, I should try doing things from a distance.

He found the difficulty rising exponentially as soon as he stepped a few feet away. He could conjure the fire ball on his fingertip just fine but sending it in the correct direction and actually hitting the wick was a different story. In fact, before even beginning to work on his accuracy, he first had to learn how to keep the sphere from dispersing after he sent it flying away. After he reliably began igniting the wick from ten feet away, it was time to address the deficiency in his absorption process. Because the flames were small to begin with, he could barely feel the mana particles when he was standing right by them, much less from this distance. The long time they took to move towards him also provided them with plenty of opportunity to dissipate into nothingness. Theoretically, he was still meeting the goals of the exercise since the flames were getting wiped out, but he couldn't afford to lose these particles since depleting his energy reserves would mean game over.

Soon, evening befell in the forest, and a pleasant wind was brushing against his skin. It had been a nightmarish day, but he was pressing on like an obsessed man.

I can do it... I can become the strongest, he told himself. What was a childish fantasy just a few days ago, didn't seem so ridiculous anymore.

I can help her, I have to.

His gamble was beginning to pay off, as he was now able to light two candles at a time from fifteen feet away and extinguish them in just under twenty seconds. It was still not enough for him, and he embarked on the next step of his plan, hitting his biggest roadblock yet. He would target three candles at the same time. That would require him to conjure three separate fireballs, and he chose the two index fingers and the right middle finger for this purpose. It was more difficult than sticking to one hand only, but that was exactly the point. The coordination required to accomplish such a task made him dizzy, with it taking another hour just to consistently be able to conjure and not lose control of the three spheres. He promised to take a break after he mastered this stage, his stomach rumbling incessantly.

Hitting the wicks was another story entirely. At first, the spheres flew around haphazardly, even igniting a log nearby which he had to promptly extinguish to not risk having the fire spread to the forest. Occasionally, by sheer luck he would hit some a wick or two, but often it was on candles he wasn't even targeting to begin with.

Baby steps. He decided to slow things down, and first target a single candle pillar, while keeping the other two conjured spheres under his close control. This way, he was able to hit his aim, and as soon as a flame ignited, he projected the next sphere, and then the last one. He missed a few times, but his accuracy and speed were continuing to improve. Finally, he released two spheres at a time, while maintaining the third one intact. He was truly exhausted, and by this time was continuing the work in a seated position, attempting to not doze off.

"Time for a break. What did I say about beginner mages being a danger to themselves?" A distant voice reminded him of what he was doing, as his attempt at sending three fire balls simultaneously ran afoul, almost exploding in his face.

"How am I doing?" Alt weakly asked, not lifting his eyes up to look at her.

"Good enough to earn yourself some dinner. Come inside, but first clean yourself up, you stink!" she told him, throwing at him a soap and towel that suddenly appeared at a snap of her fingers.

The teen boy crawled to the lake again, taking a couple of minutes to float on his back, before attempting to wash himself. His chest was aching, and he wondered how the core, which to the best of his understanding wasn't a physical organ could be affecting his body, or if it was just psychological. He could see his single mana channel had expanded, becoming firmer and thicker at the same time.

I wonder what will happen when I build more of them.

Alt headed inside the hut, already sensing from outside an intoxicating smell of roasted potatoes. He rushed to the table, devouring his meal without taking time to ask any of the many new questions he had come up with. After he finished a refill, the witch handed him another dose of the potion that had been keeping him going throughout his interplanetary travels.

Seeing his surprise, she asked:

"You were not planning to go sleep, were you?"

Alt was ashamed to admit he had been tempted to, but instead just gulped the potion down, feeling the drowsiness disappear.

"This shouldn't have any side-effects long-term, should it?" he decided to ask, remembering that in his world amphetamines and stimulants could have devastating consequences.

"Anything can be dangerous if you rely on it too much, so you should still get some real sleep from time to time. The good news is that after you advance to the Quartz stage, you will need less sleep, so a potion every few days will suffice. Eventually, in the higher stages you can discontinue it entirely, only saving it up for special occasions."

"Quartz? What's the deal with the stages names anyways? Are they all named after crystals and stones?"

"Yes. You are in the Agate stage, but it's not like your core is actually full of Agates now. Mages came up with these names symbolically, after the qualities that are associated with such stones in folklore. In this case, Agate helps provide the courage and strength that cultivators will need to progress to higher stages, as well as enhanced concentration needed to invoke the basic spells."

At this point, a set of beeps, resembling a basic ringtone from a cellphone began ringing under the table. The witch reached to her pocket and took out a bronze amulet that was clearly the source, handing it over to the teen boy after pressing on the center stone that resembled a button.

"Son?" a worried, manly voice called out from the device.

Alt froze, totally confused.

"Are you there? Can you hear me?" the familiar tone kept calling him.

Father? But that's impossible! How would he be calling me here? Unless... the realization struck him as he saw the witch's mischievous smile.