Chapter 8: The Artefact

Picking up the artefact and sitting on my bed, I stared at it intensely. Feeling its weight, the ball sat heavily in the palm of my hand. It was around the size of a tennis ball. Quite dense for its size. I smoothed my fingers across its cool polished surface, feeling it glide across my tiny fingertips. Closing my eyes, I thought back to when I received the item on my first birthday, how I'd felt it connect with me in the months leading up to it, and how everything in my body changed so rapidly after I held it for that first time.

-

-

-

The day of my first birthday in this world had finally come, and along with it, the gift from Sangris. I  sat on the beige quilted rug on our living room floor, with a square brown box in front of me. Reaching out to it, I felt it beckoning me to open it. The eyes of my parents and my mentor bore into the back of my head, waiting to see what would happen. I couldn't help but feel a tremendous weight on my shoulders.

"Are you sure about this Sangris?" asked my father worriedly. "Of course not" came a whispered reply. "

-

-

"EHH?! What do you mean by 'It's not safe'" Hissed my mother in return. "Shut it Aria, let the boy get on with it."

"Mind your manners old man, don't speak to my wife like that."

"Arthur, you're not helping",

"For goodness sake."

"Silence. BOTH OF YOU" at last came a raised voice. "just watch."

-

With that, prying at the lid, the box was open.

-

-

You are reading story Around Two Worlds and Back at novel35.com

-

The feeling of opening the box had given me the same sensation of mana rushing into my body as I had just experienced in my training. I remember the first time the chilled sensation of it running into me as if it were yesterday, giving me newfound energy. The difference however was my lack of a core. The mana built up within my small fragile body with tremendous speed, causing a great deal of pain and discomfort. "Release It Boy" came a cry from Sangris as I felt my body begin to radiate waves of pure pulsating energy, bending the air like a mirage. My body began to lift into the air my head snapped back and everything started to go dark at the edges of my vision. 'Think Kharl, Think!' I said to myself as my consciousness wavered. By this time, the sofas, tables and contents of the shelves were all spiralling around me in a cacophony of noise and power screaming from my infant body. I willed all of my strength into expelling the mana from me, as I did this, I felt the pressure release slightly as it began to circulate away from my newly forming core. "This is incredible" Screamed the crazy fucking wizard Olsted was. My parents could do nothing other than drop their jaws as I willed myself to turn and face them, eyes glowing. "mana is exiting him from every outlet, not just his mana veins." he further explained. "The rate at which his body is absorbing and expelling it is unheard of! I can sense his veins branching into capillaries and widening, spreading to every cell in his body."

After this, I blacked out. I don't remember anything that happened after this. My parents later told me it looked like I stuttered and fizzled out, in my opinion, what was a magical short circuit. Since that day, from the words of my master, I'd been filling my core to the brim in the mornings, and depleting it all before going to sleep, making sure to fully imbue my body once a day to maintain and become used to the feeling of using magic. I'd been forbidden from using spells out of worry of my parents. But that hadn't stopped me. My core was now leaps and bounds ahead of most accomplished adolescents. Having repeated my routine every day religiously, my potential increased exponentially; in what they could only hope to achieve with years of hard work, assuming a year or two years was average for a core colour level increase. This growth must have been further accentuated by my widened mana veins and capillaries, now more like highways. The rate I can now absorb and expel mana is quite scary in honesty, it moves around my body faster than my nervous system can keep up, leading to quite strange sensations when I will it to circulate at its fastest. Looking down at my hands, I saw the scars, the slightly more pale patches where the mana had coursed most efficiently still remaining on my palms. I conjured a ball of water in my left hand, re-absorbing it. I then formed a swirling ball of wind, then fire, and finally earth. The four basic elemental Magic types. With these of course came the ability to manipulate atoms and change their kinetic energy, something I would have to practice at a later date.

Sighing, I got up and waddled over to the window, clambering up to look at the view above our front entrance. I saw the sea crashing onto the rocks sat below the headland a little way down the coastline. Using mana to imbue my retinas, I watched the tiny specs of salt water roll down their surfaces leaving dark trails of damp stone behind them. Suddenly something caught my eye. It was Dad. Approaching from town, he walked with purpose towards the house. Looking closer at him, I saw a large fish slung over his shoulder; it looked like a large tuna; however much much longer and with no mouth. I quickly ran downstairs, opened the front door, and sprinted down the path leading to him as fast as my legs could carry me, hoping to get a closer look at the aquatic creature he carried.

-

-

After walking and talking with him on our short distance back to the house, he explained how it had no mouth; it apparently fed on the ambient mana in the environment, never needing to rest or eat because of the magic that flowed as its very life force. "Would you like me to teach you how to fillet it later?"

"Yes please!" I said excitedly, having a look inside the remains of a 'mana lifeform I'm sure will be fascinating, 'how does it work? what does a mana crystal look like I wonder?'

Laying the beast down on the kitchen counter, my dad cast a barrier around it, to prevent any flies from getting to it, before we went back outside for our promised training. "I hope you're prepared to give it all you've got Kharl" he said to me. " in a serious tone. "Yes father. I won't disappoint you." Retrieving our wooden training swords and gear from the rack next to the front door, I imbued my muscles and bones to lug my fathers weapon along. "Catch!" I shouted, putting all of my energy into a toss, that gracefully took the wooden implement in a graceful arc ending in my fathers outstretched hand. "Pft, good arm boy!" came a surprised reaction. "come on, we haven't got all day."

I picked up my sword from where I left it, and rushed over to him, thus beginning my training.

We started with practice swings, then combined moves. Similar to a martial art, I repeated this process meticulously, engraining it into my muscle memory. Any time I made a mistake I was hit across the knuckles, spurring me to learn and adapt faster; this wasn't the most humane way of training. But after only a few rounds of swinging, the wasted movement I'd initially had was virtually gone; this was shown in how my blade now cut through the air making small swooshes, pushing the particles apart.

"I think it's time for a little spar Kharl" Dads voice sounded from my right shoulder.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one to turn down a challenge. But "really? how is this fair" I thought to myself as I turned to look at my six foot three father looming some three and a half feet above me,

-

-'I hardly even meet his waist height...'

You can find story with these keywords: Around Two Worlds and Back, Read Around Two Worlds and Back, Around Two Worlds and Back novel, Around Two Worlds and Back book, Around Two Worlds and Back story, Around Two Worlds and Back full, Around Two Worlds and Back Latest Chapter