She flashed her pearly white teeth at me. “I wonder whether you have the same potential in creating.”

“Well, I’d like to try, but I don’t have any mana left.” I replied reluctantly.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.” She reached her hand out to me and I didn’t resist. If she wants to hurt me I won’t be able to retaliate anyway.

As soon as her hand touched my head I felt a steady stream of mana flowing into my core space. The mana channels weren’t being stressed at all.

I closed my eyes, enjoying the warm and comfortable feeling that spread out from my forehead.

“Snap out of it boy. I just refilled the mana you used so you can try the art of creation.

As you already know the basics I won’t waste my time with explaining them to you.” She explained.

“What do you mean? No one ever taught me how to create.” I asked her.

“Aren’t you able to will things into existence inside your core space? Don’t you feel your mana rapidly draining whenever you try to do so? Well, this is called creation.” She answered.

“I don’t see how this can be called an art. If you have enough mana you can will just about everything into existence, right?”

Her smile stayed unwavering. “Oh, don’t worry about that. Creating is a very profound art that has more to it than the name implies.

Let me explain it to you: Do you think that after creating an object you can’t do anything else to it? If you are able to will things into existence, then why shouldn’t you be able to strengthen them too?

This, boy, is called creating.

It is the art of creating objects that are far stronger than they should be. You can restructure their form, make them heavier, lighter, thinner, thicker, more resilient and so many other things.”

Well, this is surprising. It never occurred to me that I could manipulate the objects in my core space at will, but now that I think about it this does indeed sound logical. And to do so I will most likely need mana.

Mana is a really marvelous thing, capable of creating and manipulating matter at will. But I wonder why I am only able to do so in my core space?

How am I able to enter that kind of separate dimension anyway?

I put the pondering aside for the moment as I had better things to do right now than to speculate on questions which will most likely stay unanswered for a long time.

“I want you to create a weapon of your choice and modify it to become as dangerous as possible.” She instructed me.

As I entered my core space I thought about what weapon I should create.

I really like swords but this isn’t enough of a reason to make my first weapon take this shape. This is a test, so I have to consider that she will record my results. They will most likely include the first weapon I created and how powerful it was so I have to be careful.

I have to decide carefully, lest I let a once in a lifetime chance slip by.

It doesn’t matter if I can just change my weapon. This will be my very first weapon and I will stick to it. I can just restructure it anytime anyway so I can give it some upgrades anytime I want.

Why waste mana and a weapon if I don’t have to?

I am a warrior, as such I will have to fight beasts. Mature beasts are almost always taller than adult humans so if I were to choose a sword it will have to be huge.

Huge size means a lot of flesh obstructing my way and sharp weapons won’t really help if the hide is too thick. Blunt weapons on the other hand completely focus on raw power.

Of course the mastery of the weapon plays a big role in how much damage I can dish out but I am a complete beginner in using any kind of medieval weapon.

Wait, when did anyone say that my first weapon had to be a close ranged one? Maybe I could try to replicate the guns from my former universe. Since anything is possible here as long as I have enough mana and imagination it shouldn’t be impossible, right?

I immediately went to work, imagining a pistol. After using up nearly half of my mana it was completed: The gun I used to carry around when the war started.

Suppressing the bad memories which were starting to come up I commanded it to float into my direction. I stopped it half a meter in front of my face and inspected it. After some tests I was able to ascertain that it was indeed the weapon I wanted to create.

This is…strange. I don’t even know how it works but I am able to create a perfect replica of it? How is that logical?

Not completely believing it I created a bullet and loaded my gun. Using my powers to ensure that I was aiming correctly I shot at the human sized rock I had created a week ago.

Instead of a loud bang no sound came out and the gun remained still in my hands. I didn’t feel any recoil and the rock remained unchanged.

Well, I knew it was too good to be true.

I dissolved the gun into mana again and resumed my previous train of thought.

I don’t like being too close to beasts but I fear that I wouldn’t be able to hit them from afar due to their speed. A crossbow would be easy to aim with and the ammo shouldn’t be too expensive. Furthermore, the speed should be fast enough to hit them without problems.

As for modifying it with increasing power: I could make certain mechanisms more durable and the string far harder to span. The only problem is the mana needed to make a crossbow out of modern materials.

The more advanced a material is the more mana it needs. This is something I noticed when creating the gun. On the other hand, the complexity doesn’t seem to matter as evidenced by the relatively low mana consumption of the gun.

If complexity were to play a role I wouldn’t even have been able to create a quarter of a gun.

Following this train of thought a modern crossbow which is mostly composed of carbon should currently be impossible to create. Maybe I should start out with a primitive version used in the middle ages and slowly upgrade it.

Wait, how would they react if I suddenly created a weapon they had never seen before?

I think my talent has already caught their interest but if I really did so they would be suspicious. Hell, if they weren’t they would have to be brain dead!

Then maybe I could create it at a later date. Yeah, let’s do that.

Well, it seems there really is no way around it. I have to create a close ranged weapon in the end. But which kind is most effective against beasts? Against a scaled beast a mace or a war hammer could be useful but if it only has skin a sword would suffice too.

Then couldn’t I just create different weapons for different situations? A longsword for furred ones and a war hammer against ones with natural armor.

As creating them from metal is impossible for now I should just make them out of wood.

I concentrated on it and my mana evenly split in half to create two wooden weapons.

One was a war hammer as big as me and the other a longsword of similar height. as I could easily make them bigger if I wanted to I didn’t need to make them unnecessarily big.

Seeing that I still had a lot of mana left I did my best to enhance their hardness. Again I fell into that trance like state and only woke up once my mana ran out.

I opened my eyes when I exited the core but I wasn’t bothered by it. If I had left my eyes open for such a long time they would have dried up.

I felt my mana veins bulging as I brought my weapons out and laid them on the table, various objects being crushed as they came into contact with them. The sound of wood snapping was awfully loud and seemed to echo endlessly in my eyes.

Well, fuck. I didn’t expect them to be so frail.

I saw she had a surprised expression on her face. I just hope it is due to me bringing out two weapons at once.

“I think I told you to create a single weapon.” She stated. Phew, that was close.

“Well, I realized that one weapon wouldn’t be effective against all beasts so I created two separate ones I should be able to use in most situations.” I said calmly.

“It doesn’t change the fact that you couldn’t even fulfill a simple assignment. Furthermore, I don’t see anything particularly dangerous about them. I smell strong mana fluctuations coming from them though so I am sure you modified them in some way.

If they are more destructive than they would normally be then you would have fulfilled at least part of your assignment.” She told me.

“Uhm, well, I suppose they are harder than they would normally be?” I stuttered. I can’t believe I forgot her instructions!

She sighed, picked up my longsword and smelled it. Is this her method of testing how hard it is?

After whiffing for some time she smiled up at me.

“Can I assume that both weapons are of the same quality?” She inquired.

“Yes, I split my mana evenly when creating and enhancing them.” I replied.

“Good, you pass the test. From now on you should always carry your weapons around. Who knows when you could need them?” She told me.

The barrier vanished as I heard the loud noise of hundreds of children talking at the same time. Why didn’t I notice this before?

I stepped down from the platform and signaled Owen that it was his turn.

He gave me a nervous smile. “Is the test hard?” He asked me when I passed him.

I returned a beaming smile. “No. Don’t worry Owen, you can do this!” I reassured him.

He didn’t seem convinced.

Ignoring that I walked to the place Frank and Greta were already waiting and we exchanged our results. Surprisingly they were both incredibly talented and constantly praised by their examiners.

Owen joined us after a half an hour with a skipping gait. I didn’t even need to ask him how the test went to know the results.

The rest of the day was free so we went towards the training field to play some games with the others.

I didn’t really like playing games with children in the past but today changed my mind. The games we played were more of a competition than anything else and, like any other sane human, I loved winning.

Thanks to our talent we dominated the field. Although some came close no one was able to beat any of us either individually or in a team fight.

Sure, my pride took a hit or two when I realized that I was happy to be superior to some children but it didn’t matter too much.

Because for the first time in a long while I experienced being on the bright side of life.