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As Peter opened his eyes slowly, a wave of hunger plundered his body. The lack of energy and extreme hunger was driving him wild.

He gradually got out of bed and examined his body, feeling his muscles. The pill didn't give him sight like he hoped but it did boost his senses. He could now smell different odours much more vividly from each other and feel slight changes in the ground when the maids walked around the mansion.

It was a good thing his room was sound proof, the maids didn't hear his hellish screams before, he might not have had an answer for the loud screams. As for the black sticky tar-like substance that secreted from his body there was no trace of it left in his room, only a faint lingering smell. God knows how he would explain that strange phenomenon.

Feeling around with his hands, he could feel some muscles beginning to form around his skinny frame. Not only did his body become much stronger, it felt much lighter too. He felt like a new person.

'What about mana? Can I feel mana too? I need to quickly read the mana books as soon as possible and learn how to cultivate, but not now. I'm starving!' Peter felt a growing excitement building up inside him.

He was finally going to be normal like the other kids but he would have to do things one at a time. First he'd have to eat!

Mana was an abundant natural energy that existed since the prehistoric times on Planet Earth.

People had learnt to wield it to cast spells, augment and strengthen their bodies and even fly. In this era of growing technology, magic still plays a big role in the world and new studies about magic circles and unique spells are released all the time.

Around 5000 years ago, the concept of cultivation arised and the first cultivator came into existence. The first ever human being to create a mana core.

Mana core Ranks consisted of different stages and would rank the ability of the mage.

The Mana core ranks are as follow:

Novice

Proficient

Expert

Lord

King

Magus

The first 2 ranks were known as the gaseous stage. The mana particles inside the mana core would be in a gaseous state.

The Expert and Lord stage were known as the liquid stage. The mana inside the mana cores would begin to condense and become more compressed into a liquid state.

Lastly the King and Magus ranks were the hardest to achieve as one would need to compress the liquidated mana in their mana core until it was solid.

Each Rank had 9 sub stages and most kids around Peter's age had already awakened their mana cores and began absorbing mana.

When Peter finished showering and ate a large meal, he decided to head to the large garden behind the house.

The fresh smell of grass and the gentle summer breeze lifted Peter's mood and allowed him to feel at ease. This was the first time anything good was happening in his life and he thanked the old man for giving him such an opportunity.

Peter did some light stretching and sat down on the ground, leaning against a large Tree, and opening up the 'First Year Mana Basics' book from his dimensional storage space.

Peter's comprehension speed was unrivalled, even his prodigious brother fell behind academically. This was Peter's sole gift, he was intelligent.

He didn't have an amazing aptitude to magic and combat like his brother but he outshined most with his wits.

Peter sighed after comprehending the basic meditation and absorbing of mana technique in a couple hours.

He closed the book and excitedly sat down, getting into a lotus position.

He closed his eyes and relaxed his breathing. After a couple seconds, he could finally feel a distinct change in the atmosphere, a new sensation.

The presence of mana…

A smile curled up on Peter's face and patted himself mentally as there was no one to do it to him. He then focused again on the task at hand and tried to command the invisible particles towards him.

Slowly, ever so slowly, after a couple minutes, the particles began moving towards his body. For some reason, the mana particles hated his body, they would get close then disperse again like he was some sort of plague but most were still being absorbed into his body.

Normally, mana absorbed would circulate around the body in the meridians until it would enter the mana core and build up but this wasn't happening in Peter's body.

Peter couldn't feel any change in his body but the black mark on his neck was absorbing all the mana, emitting a golden glow as it did. None of it was being collected in his mana core.

As hours passed, more and more mana was being absorbed by the black mark selfishly. Peter managed to increase the rate at which he absorbed mana but he would still be classed as below average. After many hours of cultivation, he couldn't even break into the first Novice rank.

This result brought a bad taste to Peter's mouth, who didn't know why his mana core was empty even after hours of meditation, unbeknownst to the mischief the black mark was causing.

Peter gave up on meditating for the day and commanded Friday to play the Combat manual's first lesson.

He wanted to see if he could follow the manuals and execute the moves.

"...Ju-Moobong is a standard self defense art, constructed for the use of students. It's mostly an offensive martial art that focuses on overthrowing your opponent by barraging your opponent with countless fierce strikes and thus forcing them to stay defensive. The primary focus lies on both grapples and blunt strikes and it often relies on the quick thinking and speed of yourself.

"The biggest strength of Ju-Moobong is wielding great power without wielding any actual weapons, just you and your body. By taking advantage of the shifts in the centres of gravity of yourself your opponent may become infuriated or just frustrated, which puts them right where you want them to be.

"On the other hand the biggest weakness of Ju-Moobung is that multiple opponents can become overwhelming very quickly. If you ever face 3 or more opponents you're no longer the one in control of the fight.

"However, since the routines are basic, anyone can change the routines and make the martial art their own by adding in their own inputs…" Friday read out the introduction to the Combat book.

After a couple minutes of listening to the instructions of the routine several times, Peter decided to give it a go himself.

'Okay, so… Step forward with the left and block with the left forearm. Then step with the other leg and punch…' Peter went over the moves in his head and after a couple seconds began the first routine.

His punches were extremely sloppy and his footwork was poor and disco-ordinated so he kept making mistakes. During each attempt he would trip over his own feet and fall. Even an inexperienced person could tell Peter was hopeless, utterly hopeless when it came to combat.

The sound of footsteps getting closer to him made Peter raise his alertness. 2 distinct heartbeat rhythms and the force distributions on the ground as the 2 people walked. Peter knew straight away who was approaching him: Marcus and Alex.

"We've been looking all over for you. Step brother." Marcus spoke in a mocking tone.

"Give it a rest. What do you guys earn from doing this?" Peter sighed, knowing he was going to receive another beating for no reason. He had no combat experience and could only close up in a shell as the 2 older kids beat down on him.

"Oh shut up! You spoiled rich imbecile. Do you know how much we get looked down at school for being non - noble bloods?!" Alex shouted in fury, rushing towards him and punching Peter's forearms, that Peter had erected to defend himself.

"Damn. Your arms have gotten tougher. Did you condition them?" Alex laughed, with smoke appearing from his fist.

He charged in and front kicked Peter making him fall back from the impact. He grimaced and coughed out blood.

It seemed they were augmenting their fists with mana. Although his body was much tougher due to the legendary pill's purification effects, he could do nothing against mana amplified fights.

Blood spilled everywhere as Alex jumped on him and punched down on the blind boy underneath him. His onslaught continued until he was breathing heavily and out of energy. He was taken aback by Peter's endurance. He thought that it would have already been over by now.

"Tsk. I guess we'll continue this later." Alex got up from on top of the bruised boy and kicked him one last time, before walking away with his older brother trailing behind him.

The truth was they were too tired to continue beating Peter to a pulp. The vigorous training they were going through to become powerful mages was already straining. Whilst Marcus had reached the 5th stage of the Novice rank, the 11 year old Alex had managed to reach the 4th stage of the Novice rank.

Light sobs broke out from Peter and warm tears ran down his bloodied cheeks. He laid on the ground weeping. His body trembled with every sob and frustration filled his mind.

'Why am I so weak?! Why did I have to be cursed like this?!' Peter thought, roaring in anger and sorrow, grabbing some grass in his hand and clenching it tightly.