Everyone who had witnessed the fight between Alex and Watson was pretty impressed. While Watson was by no means the strongest one there, for a first year with no power to make Watson use his power was amazing in its own right. Most had thought that Alex’s speed could’ve been a power, but they quickly disregarded it. You can tell when a power has been used because of the mana fluctuations. Mana would get excited when a power was used, and for anyone who has touched in the realm of corporals, they could sense the excitement easily.

“Don’t get your hopes too high just yet. You must have at least one foot within the realm of corporals in order to use powers, as that's when you become able to sense the mana outside of yourself and can interact with it.” Instructor Yadao quickly shot down Alex’s high hopes.

A frown formed on Alex’s face when he heard this. He had just barely reached peak soldier status, so he was still at least a few months away from reaching corporal. When Instructor Yadao saw Alex’s frown, he smiled.

“If you were a normal student, that is.” Alex quickly looked back at Instructor Yadao with a confused expression.

“We have a way to help someone sense mana and awaken their own powers before reaching that level, but it depends greatly on you. Whether or not you will have results relies on your potential and current understanding of mana, and you could very well die trying.”

This made Alex excited again. Alex didn’t know about his potential, but he was proud of his understanding of mana. How else would he go from apprentice soldier to peak soldier within a few weeks? After that dream he had, he had finally broken past his bottleneck, and it was likely due to a new understanding of mana. He had been relying on the void powers as an enhancement to his mana, and this caused a bottleneck. He needed to start treating the void orb as a completely separate power, and instead of merging the void powers, he instead had the void energy follow the mana, creating two different streams. He had yet to try this technique on a mana shield due to not having sufficient mana control. He needed stronger runes so that the shield could hold the void powers.

By treating the two powers separately, his mana was now given more room to grow. This is what was holding Alex back, and was why no matter how hard he trained, there were no improvements.

“That actually happens to be one of the reasons I had you spar, it was to see if you were at the level to awaken. If you weren’t and you tried to awaken your power, you would probably explode.” Instructor Yadao said, “While you were fighting, I was watching your mana flow and I must say, your control is very impressive. To form two streams of mana and have them gather in equal proportions in your legs is something that even entry level corporals would struggle at.”

Two streams of mana? Did he see the void energy as mana? I guess I got lucky there. Alex shivered slightly when he heard that Instructor Yadao could read his mana flow.

“I believe that your control and understanding of mana is sufficient enough. If you want to go through with this, please follow me.” Instructor Yadao said.

“I’ll do it.” Alex said with much resolve.

“Good choice. Instructor Blake please come as well, I will need your help.”

“You’ve never asked for my help when doing this, why now?” Instructor Blake asked.

“Simple. Alex’s mana is incredibly potent and I will need your help controlling the surrounding mana.” Instructor Yadao said as he led the two to a separate room.

“Okay Alex, I want you to sit in the middle of the room and start gathering mana into your core. Once you fill your core, let me know and I will start.”

Alex did as he was told and started gathering mana to his core. It took around 30 seconds for his core to be filled and he told Instructor Yadao. Upon hearing that, Instructor Yadao started chanting in a different language and was doing hand motions too fast for Alex to make out. After nearly a minute of chanting, a big magic array formed beneath Alex. There were thousands of runes that formed this array, it was much bigger than any array Alex had seen before.

“Instructor Blake, please help me sustain the array.” Instructor Yadao said, sweating slightly. He had only done this one other time. It was incredibly rare to find someone with as much understanding and control over mana as Alex, so it was quite taxing.

Instructor Yadao and Instructor Blake began chanting again and Alex began feeling a tingly feeling in all his pores. The mana density around Alex began climbing higher and higher, to the point where the mana in his core started getting excited.

“Alex! Do not let the mana in your core out. We will continue raising the mana density in your body until it starts entering your pores. When that happens, you will release all the mana in your core and have it all travel to the external mana.”

Sweat began forming on both instructors, and they were becoming visibly tired. Maintaining a mana array as big and powerful as this one was extremely exhausting, and was only possible for those at the commander level.

As the mana density continued to rise, Alex had a harder and harder time controlling the mana in his core. It wanted to rush out his pores all at once, but if that happened, Alex would die from the external mana flooding his body. Alex was also getting really worried about the void core, but fortunately for him, the void powers seemed to have no interest in the external mana. Alex also started sweating, and it felt like his body was being crushed.

After what felt like an eternity, Alex felt a large amount of external mana enter his pores. The mana was running rampant in his body and it felt like he was being torn apart. Alex quickly released the mana and had it travel to the external mana. He didn’t know why he had to do this, and it seemed counter-productive to some extent.

“Good! Okay now we will start phase two. Do not let any mana leave your body now. I repeat, do not let any mana leave your body.” Instructor Yadao yelled to Alex.

Alex tried to keep the mana from leaving his body by having his own mana block his pores, and guiding the external mana deeper in his body. If the first part was difficult, this part was hellish. The rampant mana was beyond painful, and Alex was having a hard time staying conscious. Alex was able to feel that the mana density was rapidly decreasing, in fact, it felt as though the instructors were depleting the mana entirely. When Alex could no longer feel any mana, Instructor Yadao called out to him.

“Okay! Have all the mana in your body enter your core. All the mana in your body must enter your core or else this will fail! Once all the mana is in your core, have all the mana exit your body in a controlled manner.”

Alex spent a few minutes trying to bring all the mana to his core. He had no control over the rampant mana and could only lure it to his core, so it took patience. Alex was barely awake at this point, his entire body was burning and he just wanted to stop. Alex was just about to pass out when the void core started spinning again and Alex could feel himself being filled with energy. Alex, not wasting this opportunity, made a last ditch effort to bring all the mana to his core. When it was all there, he released it all at once.

When all the mana was released, a powerful aura appeared from Alex’s body as he started to glow red. The reason that the instructors had removed the mana from the surroundings was so that when Alex released all this mana, he could control it to some extent and the external mana wouldn’t flood into his body, killing him.

The mana released by Alex was so powerful that the entire floor began to shake, and the students outside who were still practicing felt an immense pressure.

“Start absorbing mana again! Fast!” Instructor Yadao yelled out, he was barely holding on and if Alex took any longer, he would likely faint.

Alex quickly started gathering mana again, and eventually the pressure faded and Alex was no longer glowing. Both instructors fell to the ground and started gasping for air. They barely managed to hold on. Meanwhile, Alex felt more alive than ever. All the tiredness he had accumulated before faded after absorbing the mana again.

The array broke and mana quickly began to fill the empty space once again, and Alex was able sense the outside mana much more clearly. Before, he could only tell the presence of the mana, but now he was able to feel it. He could slightly sense its direction and could sense its vibrations. More importantly, Alex’s mana core now had hints of red in it. The mana in his body also had a slight red tint, confusing Alex. From everything he had learned about mana cores, he had never heard about color in a core.

“Nobody mentions the color because it’s a secret to those strong enough to have it. It means you’ve awakened your power.” Instructor Blake said after seeing Alex’s confusion. Both instructors were able to stand now, and seemed a little less pale then before.

“It’ll take some time before you are able to manifest your power, so that’s what we will do next time. Go get some rest, you will start feeling tired soon.”