Core Manifestation

*KABOOOOOOOM*

Energy exploded from my body as I felt myself floating above the ground. I could feel my body harboring overwhelming amounts of energy as I felt it flow through every part of my body.

Although my body was pushing energy out I also felt it pulling the energy back in. If I remember correctly a repulsive force meant I was an augmentor and an attractive force meant I was a conjurer. So am I both?

Well who cares. With enough training, I can be anything.

I opened my eyes as I started slowly going back to the ground. Immediately I ran towards my mother who was on the ground looking at me with wide eyes.

"Mom, are you okay?" I asked frantically. I didn't want to be the cause of her having 3rd degree burns of scars or any of the sort. She suddenly hugged me extremely tight.

"I-I'm fine Leo." She said in a shaking voice. I looked over my mothers shoulder and saw my dad and brother, who was now six years old, running over to us.

"Hey what happened!?" Dad yelled. My mom looked up at him with tears in her eyes as she spoke.

"Our baby manifested a mana core." She said with a smile. A smile grew on dad's face as he jumped up and laughed.

"Seems we have two geniuses in our family. Manifesting a mana core only one year before your brother. How amazing is that?!" He said with a smile.

"Does that mean I'll get to train Leonidas?" Oliver asked enthusiastically.

"No. I'll be training you both the same way I was. Some good father son bonding time huh. Your mother has been hoarding him all this time and I feel useless." He said in an over dramatic sad tone.

Mom pinched him in the stomach as he winced in pain.

"Stick. To. The. Basics. If I see my little Leo even touch a sword I'll break your beck." Mother said in a chilling voice, but had the most beautiful smile on her face.

'Such a nice family.' I thought.

"You have my word honey. No swords. Only light workouts and basic mana manipulation. Got it." He said with his right hand to his heart and left hand out.

"Good. Now let's get back in the house." Diana said as she stood up and dusted herself off.

My father tapped his foot on the ground and the crater I made in the ground was repaired.

…

After getting cleaned up my parents decided that they'd start teaching me immediately. Although we were high in social class, they didn't want me to be weak nor ride off my title as the honorable child of the Duke and Duchess.

Currently I'm sitting at the table in the living room with my mother who's teaching me the basics of mana manipulation.

"Before getting you a teacher, me and your father will be teaching you about mana manipulation and swordsmanship. After all, we were S-rank adventurers so we know a few things." My mother said with a smile.

'S-rank huh? I wonder what type of benefits they received.'

"First we'll start off by explaining what mana is. Mana is the energy in the atmosphere and is inside us. Along with that it's the energy essential for magic." She said as her hand held a blue ball of lightning. She closed it and continued.

"Now, do you remember how it felt when all of that energy burst from your body and went into the atmosphere?" She asked.

I nodded my head and she replied.

"Good, now close your eyes and try to visualize the energy going back inside you, but pull it towards your mana core." She instructed.

I did as she said and grasped this concept easily. After all, who watches anime, reads manga, etc without knowing things like this. Anyways, I felt the energy being pulled into my body and more specifically, my mana core.

The addictive feeling of strength seeping into my body took over as I sort of zoned out until my mother shook me a bit. I shook my head and looked at her in a questioning manner.

"The feeling you felt just now was amazing right? Even so you have to control that feeling. There have been multiple cases in the past where people completely stopped eating because they were drunk on absorbing mana and ended up dying." She reprimanded.

"Sorry." I said lowly.

"It's okay. Now let's go over mana levels…"

My mother then told me about the purification of my mana core and how it was the easiest way to measure my strength. She told me simple things like how I should augment my body, how to move mana around and the fun parts, how to change the properties of mana.

After some time with my mother, me and my big brother swapped out and I went with dad. I was a very irregular baby. At two years old I could read, write and understand the language and so they knew I was a genius, just as Oliver was.

My father deemed my body unfit to partake in sparse so we did normal exercises like running and regular body workouts. Nothing seriously intense, but I imagine seeing my 2 year old body trying to do push ups was incredibly cute.

I am me after all.

Anyway, When I'm not with mom or dad, I'm either meditating or eating. Sometimes Oliver and I would meditate together, but my natural mana absorbing speed was faster from what I can tell.

My brother, Oliver, was a solid stage red core. He was also an Earth and Water mage. Although he was a mage, he was a prodigy in mana manipulation so he grasped the concept of augmenting easily.

It was just pushing ambient mana around your body instead of outside of it. Regardless, everyone knew him as a genius. People don't know about my achievements yet, because the family wants to surprise the royal family.

"The shock on their faces will be amazing!!" They said.

"Their eyes might pop out of their head." They added.

It went on and on like we were in some contest. Putting that behind me, two year passed and I officially turned four and Oliver was eight. For Oliver's birthday he was given one high grade elixir which after drinking and meditating doubled his mana absorbing capabilities and he broke through into the dark orange stage.

For my birthday, I was given the same elixir and an artifact that allowed me to hide my core stage. This allowed me to break through to the light red stage and keep it hidden from other people. Now that I was four, my dad started giving me sword lessons and we increased my exercises.

Although my mother was surprised at the speed I was growing, she pressed onward and was teaching me how to use spells, starting with fire since I liked it a lot. And that was how my time passed.

Until today where we would be going to princess Kathlyn's birthday.

…

(Third POV)

"Aww, my two babies look so handsome." Diana said as she looked at Leonidas and Oliver in a big mirror. They were both dressed in black tuxedos.

[Image]

Diana was wearing a purple fitted dress and black hills. Fredrick was also wearing a black tuxedo with his hair neatly combed. They had already had their gifts sent over to the royal castle and now they were ready to go.

They gathered in the carriage that was waiting for them outside and rode silently to the castle. It didn't take them long to reach the palace which was starting to be filled with other nobles and famous houses.

Once they got up to the door, they were let in immediately and people made way for them as they were the second most influential family in this kingdom. Disrespect towards them was like disrespecting the king himself and would be taken as a high offense.

As they walked through the palace ballroom, Leonidas was looking around at everyone as he held his mothers hand.

'Wow, this is way too many people. It's almost annoying to just be here. I wish I stayed at the house.' He thought with a heavy sigh with his head down.

"Are you nervous?" Diana asked as she looked at him with a smile.

"No, just a little distracted." He replied. She nodded and they walked to the front of the room in front of the balcony that overlooked the ballroom.

"Your graces. My name is John Dawner. How have you been tonight?" Asked some random guy. He was like 5'5, chubby, and looked like the ultimate shady guy.

"We've been fine considering we've just got here. How about you?" Fredrick asked to be polite.

"I've been fantastic. There's something I'd like to talk to you about." The guy said. They nodded and told Oliver and Leonidas to go talk to other noble kids.

"I think I'll just wait around here." Leonidas said as he looked around and saw all the kids had already started talking to each other. It was also way too loud. He didn't like talking loudly over people and he saw yelling as just a waste of energy.

"Alright, don't get lost in the crowd. I'll go get introduced to people and handle you as well." He said with a smile as he ruffled Leonidas's hair.

"….great." Leonidas said as he tried to fix his hair. Oliver left and vanished into the crowd as Leonidas went to sit off to the side.

'After this I just want to go home and meditate. It's way too crowded here and people are loud, it's making my head hurt.' Leonidas thought as he started rubbing his temple.

Suddenly he heard someone sit next to him. He opened his eyes and looked next to him and saw a boy around his age with white hair, porcelain skin like his mother and bloor red eyes. He also had a rather annoyed expression on his face which was shown from his low eyebrows.

[Image]

"Rough night?" Leonidas asked. The boy looked over to him and sighed as he sat back in his chair.

"Very."

"My name's Leonidas Leonhart. Nice to meet you." Leonidas said as he put his hand out.

"Ashton Kuiper." He said, shaking my hand.

"You're the Duke and Duchess second born right?" He asked.

"Yup." I answered.

"I see. Is your brother really that much of a genius? I hear he manifested his core at 3." He asked with a tilted head.

"Yeah, he's a prodigy, but it looks like most of it is from hard work. We spend a lot of our time training and studying." Leonidas replied.

"We? Have you manifested a core as well?" He asked.

'Damn.'

"I just train in swordsmanship. I haven't manifested one yet, but I hope I do soon." Leonidas answered with a low laugh.

"I see. I've already manifested a core. I'm almost into the dark orange stage." He said.

"Woah. My brother's almost in the light orange stage. Are you an augmentor or mage?"

"I'm a mage, but my father said every man should know how to use a sword and hand to hand combat." He replied.

"I see. You don't look like an elf, so you must be Ice Folk. Is Ice your Water and Ice your only elements?" Leonidas asked.

"I can't give up too much information." He said with a grin.

"Hmph, I'm probably better anyway." He said arrogantly.

"I'm not some gullible noble brat. You can't get me with that hahah." He said laughing.

"Fiddlesticks." Leonidas said as he snapped. Hearing that, Ashton laughed even more. Some people looked over at them, but neither of them cared and continued to enjoy themselves.