A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 206: Core Formation

Chapter 206: Core Formation

"It’s simple, but as I said, painful. All you need to do is concentrate on crystalizing and compacting all the man that you have into on point in the place that you chose and focus, lead all your mana there constantly, making sure to keep all the mana of the same element constantly."

I took a deep breath and did as she instructed, and directed all the mana that was attuned to [Fire] and [Space] directly into my heart. That was where I was going to put it. I didn’t care if it killed me, but that was where I was going to put it because... Power, I guess...

Either way, I directed the attuned mana to the middle of my heart and began the process of turning it into a Mana Core.

I started small as Kronia instructed, and would go bigger the further I progressed. At first, I could feel a mild stinging, which, when it came from my heart, really hurt, and my face visibly scrunched up as the stinging slowly got worse the more mana I added.

And the worst part was that I hadn’t even managed to form the core yet, or even crystalize the mana, I was just gathering it there and it hurt this bad already. What kind of pain would I have to go through when I actually start the process for real?

’Well... I’ve gathered enough mana to start... So here goes nothing’

I started the crystallization process and the first speck of mana that crystalized nearly made me spit blood.

"Ah! Take your time, don’t be too hasty!" Kronia yelled in worry as I keeled over slightly as blood did start dripping from my mouth.

I nodded my head shakily as my mana basically vibrated throughout my entire body, making it feel like it was going to tear itself apart with the way the elementally attuned mana was going berserk inside of me.

I slowed the process down almost to a standstill, but I kept on adding a little bit of mana to the tiny crystal within my heart. I’m starting to regret my choice now, but I can’t stop now or else it’ll just explode inside of me. At least that’s what Kronia said, and I don’t want to find out if it’s true or not.

My body was sweating and breathing heavily and Kronia grabbed my body and heaved me over to a nearby fence so that I could rest on it.

The crystallization of my mana was coming along slowly and poorly depending on how you viewed it. It was taking a crude shape, and it felt like I was being stabbed from directly in my heart. Maybe I should try and refine what I have into a smoother shape, that way it won’t feel as bad? It’s worth a shot.

With Kronia holding me and even injecting some of her own mana to sooth my body, I started to refine the crystalized mana within my body with the still ethereal mana and shaped the crystal into an orb, which went well.

I no longer felt like I was being stabbed by a needle and now it just felt like someone was trying to make my heart explode from the inside out...

I know that doesn’t sound better, but trust me, it is a lot less painful.

After shaping the orb, I then started to add more layers onto it, like an onion. The more I added, the bigger it grew. And the bigger it grew, the more it pushed against the insides of my heart, which again, was less painful than before.

After a while, the orb had reached about half a centimetre in width, so now it was time to compress it, turning the crystalized mana, into an actual Mana Core.

This process was actually quite refreshing since it actually alleviated some of the pain that I was feeling, but it was a lot harder than just crystalizing my mana, since I had to use said mana to compress what is just solid mana.

It took several minutes, but I managed to complete that step, reducing the size of the marble by five times. Now, I had to repeat all of those steps multiple times over. But I had already used up twenty five percent of my mana doing just that. How was I supposed to do it more than three more times?

Whatever, I just have to do it and not ask any questions.

_

_

_

After another few hours? I couldn’t tell in this time stopped landscape, but I did learn a few things during that time.

One, the creation of this Mana Core helped speed up my mana regeneration even if it wasn’t complete. Two, I got better at this process the more I did it. And last but not least, the pain. That also got much, MUCH worse the more I did it.

I was now lying on the floor, my body trembling incessantly and creating a puddle out of my sweat alone. Kronia was doing her best to sooth my body with her own magic, but it had lost its effect by now.

Thankfully, I was on the last cycle of this process if you will. I barely had five percent of my mana left, and even with the botched mana regeneration, with the sheer amount of mana that I had to put into the Core, it just couldn’t keep up.

This was the thirteenth, and final time that I would be doing this.

I added the last layers of my mana that I could, leaving just enough to compress it one final time. I started to compress the orb within me down to the size of a marble at around just under two centimetres.

When I finished, I nearly fainted from sheer exhaustion. That took literally every ounce of willpower that I had out of me. I even checked my Soul Scroll and my [SP] had gone down to less than ten percent as well while my [MP] was at a flat zero.

My breathing was incredibly heavy and laboured and my vision was immensely blurry and unfocused. I could barely register that Kronia was saying something, but I couldn’t make out what it was. I knew she would be worried, but that’s only because I know she only wants the best for me. I still don’t know why she wants that, but I won’t take her kindness for granted.

As I was laying on the ground trembling and trying to recover, I felt something happening within my heart.

The Mana Core that I had just made, something was wrong with it.

My mind sharpened for a single second before the Core exploded in my heart.

And in that single second, I looked at Kronia with a desperate look that told her to run before I spat out a huge amount of blood and burst into flames.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.