Mage Kings Rise

******

After what the principal had told Darvin he was ecstatic.

Later in the evening he was released and would now be able to meet Aldin and share the good news with him.

Aldin Randell

When we got back to class it was as if nothing had happened and now it was my turn to try out forging.

I took a bone from the desk and drew mana from my core but when I let it out into the air it would go haywire and force me to lose control of it. I tried it several times but immediately it left my body I would always lose control of it. After numerous failures, I tried using mana in the air but it required a lot of focus and with the slightest mistake it would destroy all my progress.

I got tired after several tries and that's when Professor Bloom decided to lend a hand.

"The reason you are struggling is because your mind is not fully capable of this." She said.

"And how do I fix that." She asked.

"You've not been having any problem when learning magic and that's the problem, you never have trouble controlling your spells but that's not the same for mana, you are able to move it easily in the most conventional way but forging requires one to force it into a certain state and you will face hindrances because it resists the forced movement. And for you to overcome this hurdle you must work hard to strengthen your mana control."

"And what do I need to be able to do that?" I asked and a smirk appeared on her face.

"Simple, just practice till you can control pure mana while it is still in the air." She said as she began walking out. "Call me when you're done."

I did as she had ordered and got to work, and even ended up skipping lunch for the sake of practice, I was only able to control it for a few seconds before it was able to dissipate in the end I ran out of mana before I was even able to do so, which was a first for me. In the evening she came back to find me accumulating mana since I was out of it.

"I thought if anybody could do it, you would but even you aren't able to." She said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's actually been proven to be nigh impossible for those below tier three."

"So you had me do something impossible!" I said louder than I had intended.

"Yes it is impossible but it helps in increasing mastery over mana." She said.

I took a few deep breaths to calm down. "Then how am I supposed to practice forging?"

"You just need to pour in mana through contact with the material." She said. "And speaking of which, how long were you able to control it in the air."

"Barely a couple of seconds," I said getting exhausted at the thought of all the needless work I had done which made the professor sigh.

"Let's just get back to forging." The professor said.

I picked up a bone and using the contact with my fingers sent mana to it, till it was filled to the brim and I could add no more. As I was about to try and reshape the bone, the world around me became blurry and in that very instant I blacked out.

When I woke up I was back in my dorm and the moon was already high in the sky I went back to sleep until the following morning.

The next day when I woke up Darvin shared the good news with me and the benefits he had gotten as well. Initially, I had chosen not to move into a new place by myself but since now I would be with Darvin I had no reason to turn it down. I later went to my class but this time instead of finding Professor Bloom it was my master waiting for me instead.

"Professor Bloom will not be able to teach you today and I will be taking over the lesson." He said. "Now try the process again."

And to which I did, I picked up a bone and filled it with mana, once it was filled to the brim, I began altering the shape but suddenly it broke and broke down into dust.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Your attempted control over it has led to a failure because you used way too much pressure on it. Materials are delicate to mana and since you filled it with mana, moving it abruptly will disrupt its normal structure and break it down, to properly reshape it one has to use delicate movements, now try it again."

I filled another bone with mana and began reshaping it, I almost succeeded in doing so but at the last moment, it broke down due to unevenly distributed pressure.

"Ensure you are fully focused on it, the pressure must be applied equally on all points, otherwise it will break down and you'll lose your material. Start over." He said and I grabbed another bone.

I started all over again and after filling it with mana I applied pressure to it equally on all sides and this resulted in simply shrinking the bone.

"Good now that you've managed to shrink it, why don't you try to enlarge it." He said.

Using the same bone, I tried filling it with mana but it was already full, "Master, why does it still have mana in it even after I let go?" I asked.

"Because once mana is poured in, it will be retained there until its encasement is broken."

Since I didn't have to refill it with mana, I could directly go to altering its shape.

Since I would be expanding it, I used the reverse of what I did when reducing its size. Slowly it began to expand but the shape would come out weird at some places where it seemed to have depressions.

"You have mastered expansion and contraction well but you have to make them more even." He said, "Take a break so that you don't wear out."