After the entrance ceremony ended they split the boys and girls into two groups and walked into opposite ends of the of the building. They told us to do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day after we properly settled in.

The rooms were quite frugal, only having three wooden beds with no mattress and three drawers where people could store their clothes. In total there were three rooms: A bedroom where we would sleep, a lounge and a bathroom. A room was normally occupied by 3 people and fortunately Owen, Frank and I were in the same room. I don’t think this is a coincidence. Maybe three is a lucky number in these parts? We had just finished putting our clothes into the drawers when Owen proposed that we should find Greta as she would surely be quite lonely without us. Is Owen just that nice or does he feel some kind of puppy love for her?

We passed the entrance of the boys’ dorm which was guarded by a skinny man in white we arrived at the entrance of the female section. Unexpectedly it was guarded by a tall and muscular woman.

“Stop here. You are not allowed to go into this part of the dorms. What do you want to do there anyway?” she said in a bland tone. It was clearly visible that this was not the first time she had said that today.

“Well, we wanted to see our friend. I guess you can’t make an exception for us?” Owen said in a childish tone. He used the full might of his puppy eyes but it seems the woman was quite resistant to it. Well, it would have been too easy if she would have let us through with just this much.

The woman sighed. It seems that she understood Owens confusion but couldn’t allow him to pass. If she had let us in I would have been quite surprised. Well, I guess we had bad luck. Hopefully we will meet Greta tomorrow.

I quickly dragged Owen away before he could cause a commotion and whispered into his ear that I would explain everything later. I really will, but not now, or in the near future.

After that Frank and Owen went to play with the other kids while I went to sleep. I knew that I wouldn’t enjoy playing with those kids. Frank, Owen and Greta are different though. If they want to they could be far more mature than their age would suggest and because of that I get along with them quite well.

As I closed my eyes I thought about my future life in the Academy, the horrible training I would most likely be put through and also the power I would hopefully obtain once I became a full-fledged warrior.

Cold water splashed onto my face and I woke up with a scream. When I looked around I realized that my friends didn’t fare much better than me: All of us were completely drenched.

“HA! No better way to wake kids up than some cold water! Now quickly dry yourselves and go to the courtyard in front of the school. A lecturer is awaiting you there.” The skinny man who guarded the entrance to boys’ dorm said and walked out of the room. Strangely enough I didn’t see anything he could have used to carry the water he splashed onto us. Maybe he used something akin to magic. In this world ruled by insanely strong beasts I wouldn’t be surprised.

As I would most likely find out in the following days I put that thought aside and after we were completely dry again we headed out.

A big mass of children was standing in front of an elderly man with already white hair. As soon as he saw us he smiled a little but otherwise ignored us as we tried to find Greta. When we finally reunited I proposed that we should squeeze ourselves to the front as we could certainly hear that old man better than if we were at the back. We did so and a few angry glares, some rude comments and a lot of pushing later we arrived at the front. We patiently sat down and waited for the lecture to start.

It didn’t take long until the old man started to talk and I sucked his word up like a sponge.

“Silence.” He started with a single word. After the crowd was more or less silent he finally began:

“I am Greg, a teacher at the Academy. You will carefully listen to what I say, understood?” He said and looked around to be sure that everyone had heard him. I don’t think that would be a problem though. He used the same trick as the principal and everyone could hear him clearly. After seeing that everyone was listening attentively, he continued:

“I am going to teach you the principles of cultivation. I will teach you how to cultivate, how to manipulate mana and how to fight against both humans and beasts!

But we’ll first start with the basics: Mana, as we call it, is the power generated by everything. For example, you can use it to empower yourself and manipulate your environment. Let me show you what mana enhancement can do.” He walked to a thick pillar made of metal and punched it with a speed too fast for us to see. The sound of metal being ripped apart filled the air and we could see that the pillar was cleanly punched through with his hand sticking out on the other side of it. As soon as he removed his hand however the pillar started to repair itself.

“What I showed you is a mere fraction of the true power of mana enhancement. If you train hard enough, you will be able to lift mountains and kill hordes of beasts in a single punch! You will be immortal!

But in order to do these things you need mana. But where does the mana one uses for mana enhancement come from? There is a simple answer to that question but I think that it would be easier to understand if you looked into yourselves than if I were to explain it to you. After you enter the core I want you to enlarge the rock and create some wood next to it. Then imagine a spark flying onto that wood and let it burn. If you have some mana left create some crystal clear water that you should keep as far away from the fire as possible. When you are done just think about leaving the core space and you will exit it. You can start now.”

I followed his instructions and looked into myself again. Like last time I was sucked into the core and I could immediately feel that something was different.

Last time there was a small amount of mana that was sparsely spread through the area. Now however the mana was so condensed that it was impossible to ignore it. The previously dark area was now colored in a milky white and I felt powerful, as if I were a god.

Shaking my head at this stupid thought I willed the rock to become larger, about the same size as me. When I checked the remaining mana there was still a lot of it left so I created a big pile of dry wood which I then set ablaze. After observing it I realized that the wood was burning at an incredibly slow pace even though there was no oxygen in the air. How is that even possible? Wait, I don’t even breathe in this space so are there any gaseous substances that are not mana present in this space?

Though I was curious I first created a blob of water that was about as big as the rock to make sure that I would be able to experiment without having failed the assignment.

After that I willed oxygen into existence right in front of the fire. Doing so was really difficult as oxygen is an abstract atom. You can’t see it, smell it or perceive it with any other of your senses. The fire greedily consumed it and burned at a far higher temperature than before. The pile of wood however was still burning slowly though and the fire continued to burn as bright as before even after some time passed. The oxygen should have run out so why has the fire still the fire the same? Maybe this is some peculiarity of the core space.

I continued to observe the fire when I realized that all of the things I had created emitted a monstrous amount of mana. But if more mana is produced as I create things here wouldn’t that mean the growth of mana production is exponential? That would be truly terrifying as even a few days could make a monstrous difference. Since the core space is limited however that would stop at a certain point. Maybe I can enlarge it if I use mana.

I willed the core space to expand a little and I felt the mana rapidly vanishing. The amount that was consumed was monstrous! It took more than a third of the mana I had to expand this space a meter in all directions! If the expansion costs are tied to the increased volume, then I guess that days of generated mana wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

Tearing my attention away from this I inspected the fire again and thought about how the fire continued burning at the same temperature even after consuming the oxygen.

Maybe mana is the cause? I closely looked at the fire which consumed about as much mana as the other objects to create and dispersed the wood which then turned into mana. After there was none left the fire continued to burn but the mana it emitted was smaller than before. So if I take the burning material away it just uses mana to sustain itself? Most interesting.

But what exactly is mana? The teacher said that it is generated everything, so I guess matter generates it, especially living beings if I am right. Why does it have the power to create things? How is the mana in the core able to make the body do inhuman things? Why do living beings emanate so much of it?

Maybe I should ask the teacher. He hopefully has the answers to my questions.

Before I left my core I inspected the amount of mana I still had left. Surprisingly I still had a fifth of the initial amount left even after the expansion and experimentation. I this normal? The teacher implied in his instructions that not every person has the same amount of mana in his core. Is this due to the time difference of our awakenings as I like to call the test of the inspectors or simply talent?

As I opened my eyes I saw that the rest of recruits were already finished and most were staring at me. I tried to ignore them but ended up blushing slightly.

“Now that everyone is finished” he looked at me with a strange expression on his face “I hope you understand where the mana comes from. If not, then you are clearly either extremely untalented or just plain stupid! Oh, and don’t think I will answer any questions you have. My job is to teach you the basics, if you want to know things I don’t teach you then figure them out yourself! Someone who can’t even answer his own questions isn’t fit to be a warrior!”

Well, it seems that I will have to rely on myself to answer those unanswered questions I have.

“Now that you know how mana is generated I will teach you how to strengthen yourself with mana: First you have to concentrate on your body. Observe your muscles as they make miniscule movements and strongly think about mana flowing into them. They will flow into your mana veins and you have to slowly expand that flow until all of your veins are filled to the brim with mana. Then you have to will the circulating mana into your whole body. It will slowly seep out of them and the lost mana will be replenished by the core. Do that until there is no mana coming from the core anymore. I will reward the ones who hold out the longest with some merit points. What merit points are will be explained to you at a later date, just know that they are something valuable.”

I did as he said and could feel a stream of mana emerging from my head. It flowed into my previously empty mana veins and left a comfortable sensation wherever it passed through. I could feel it going around my whole body where it was absorbed until a miniscule amount of the initial stream returned to the core. Gaining confidence, I expanded the stream until the channels felt bloated and let it seep into my body.

The result was me feeling as if I were in a HeavenCapsule. Though they were horribly expensive the feeling they gave me was worth every credit. It felt nearly as good as drugs but not addicting. I remember that I used to relax in one whenever I felt like it and only now did I realize how much I missed that feeling.

After some time passed I realized that my mana veins were slowly drying up until only a trickle was left. I realized that no matter how much time passed there would always be some mana present in my mana veins.

I opened my eyes at the same time as my friends and saw the teacher staring at us as if we were monsters.