Torrin's nerves were on edge seeing the old lady staring at him as if he were a tasty morsel.

'She keeps avoiding my questions and now she's looking at me like that, I thought I was lucky to be saved from those beasts, but now I'm now so sure!'

He unconsciously scooted backwards away from the deranged old hag.

Her brows creased seeing his reaction. Her hair tilted to the side, as if she was watching a pet do a strange trick.

"Boy, what are you doing? Come here, I need to give you something." she finally said, beckoning him closer.

"Eh, Grams, I don't think I want it," Torrin replied nervously, cold sweat still dripping down his face.

"What are you going on about? Come here." She continued her beckoning gesture, but power emanated from her this time, he was pulled back to her.

She lifted his hand and placed a small circular object in his palm. Torrin wanted to throw the thing away, as soon as it touched his hand, he could feel it starting to pull at his meager mana supply straight from his core and he wasn't strong enough to resist it.

"Boy stop squirming! You need to put this ring on."

'Ring? Put it on? It's stealing my mana!' Torrin thought incredulously, but eventually did as she said, it was sized for an adult but slowly shrank to accommodate the small ring finger of his right hand.

The ring was styled like some kind of scaled serpent eating it's own tail. Two small black jewels sat in the eye sockets of the serpent, they were dark as midnight and no light reflected from them, they seemed to drink it in.

He brought his hand closer to his face and noticed the scales had small ancient looking writing etched onto them, the craftsmanship was beyond anything he'd ever seen. Not a single thing in the palace of his old world could come close to the intricate design on this ring.

"Are these runes, Grams? This ring is unlike anything I've ever seen before, but why is it stealing my mana?" He couldn't help praising the ring, but also wanted to know it's purpose. His reedy voice was tinged with nervousness.

His inert mana core was completely drained by this point; it had only taken a few short moments, not even two minutes, for the ring to drink in his entire mana supply he'd gathered since coming to this world. He'd worked hard.

Seeing his eyes light up at the craftsmanship of the ring, Grams had a cocky grin on her face, obviously proud of the respect and praise she was being shown and replied ignoring his nervous tone.

"It's a ring I made based on the designs we found in that ruin. It took me a very long time to complete it, I'll have you know. So don't go losing it anywhere." She explained, grin still plastered on her face.

A small smile played on Torrin's lips hearing her boastful comment.

"But what is it for?" Torrin sighed inwardly, not wanting to be disrespectful, but tired of Grams ignoring his questions.

"Alright, alright, boy. It's practically an artificial mana core. It can absorb mana and purify it. It also allows a high level of control over mana," Torrin's eyes nearly popped out of his skull as she continued, "I'm giving it to you because you are going to be my test subject!"

Torrin nearly coughed up blood as the old woman cackled madly.

'This old hag is definitely crazy! Sure, you saved my life! But that doesn't mean I can just be used as your guinea pig!'

Torrin's back was already to the far wall again, wishing the ring granted him the power to phase through it. He knew the ring was powerful, but being a test subject to this loony old lady did not sit well with him. He tried taking off the ring but was stopped with a gesture from Grams.

"Oh, stop being so dramatic and listen," She said, rolling her eyes at his antics, "This ring is going to act as your mana core as I train you. Instead of destroying that inert core, we're going to try something I've theorized over the last couple hundred years."

After the short explanation, Torrin finally calmed down slightly. He still slightly upset that she assumed he would go along with this, not even asking his opinion but returned to the old woman's side nonetheless. He sat on the comfortable bed and listened intently.

"Just as I've enchanted this ring... I want you to--in a way--enchant that inert core inside you. I'm not sure if it'll work, but the reason people destroy the core is to absorb it into their mana and use it as a base to make a gray core. Just as you noticed your inert core will absorb mana automatically, by absorbing it into your mana and forming that into an active gray core it allows one to absorb mana."

"But how would I even enchant my core? I know nothing about enchanting, and I surely don't have the kind of mana control necessary to do that, right?" Torrin questioned with curiosity.

"Of course not, boy! That's what the ring is for. The kind of mana people fuse their cores with initially is whatever quality they've absorbed when they begin mana gathering. That means it's usually low quality, ambient mana in the air. This doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing, but having such a shoddy base will limit a mage without having a vast amount of alchemical resources later on." She paused for a moment, ordering her thoughts in her head before continuing.

"What the ring is going to do is purify the mana you provide it to an insane degree, then we'll use that pure mana to enchant your core. If I'm right, your enchanted core should start you with the power of around a high-tier green core mage."

"But what is a green core? What are high-tier cores?" Torrin questioned, he'd only learned about gray and red mana cores at the orphanage.

She looked at him with squinted eyes as if he was stupid, but her expression soon turned thoughtful before chortling a bit.

"Oho, I forgot my boy... I forgot that you're an idiot." Grams' grin returned in full.

"Grams, please explain," Torrin sighed audibly, pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes squeezed shut, thinking he really had begun sighing far too often in this new world.

"Each core, starting at red, is broken into stages, similar to worlds, they are the low, mid, and high tiers. Each time a core is condensed, it expels impurities in your mana, allowing it to raise a tier and granting it far better control over mana as well as making the mana it purifies, well, more pure."

Her hands were gesticulating wildly, as Torrin watched it was almost as if he could see an image of what she was trying to explain.

"After absorbing your inert core, you would form a gray core. Since it has absorbed your inert core, once it's condensed it immediately becomes a low-tier red core. After getting to high-tier red core, the pattern more or less follows what you can see in a rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. A person with a high-tier purple core is at the peak of power for this world... Usually."

The images faded and Torrin's eyes lifted slowly to Grams' face with a questioning look.

"Usually?"

A sly grin formed on the old hags face.

"That's why I want to enchant your inert core instead of you absorbing it... My theory is that we can make you stronger than anyone else. I'm an old lady on her last leg," She began waving in front of her face, as if she could wave away her own words.

"I can't beat that group of people by myself, so I plan to train you, boy." Her voice took on a solemn tone, her face turning serious for the first time, "I'm going to try to make you the most powerful person in this existence. I hope that you'll help me with my goal, and afterwards... Well, you can do whatever you choose with your power. But I must warn you, this will not be easy."

Days later, Torrin was wishing he'd taken her warning to heart, wishing he'd declined her proposal and ran as far as he could.

Sweat was pouring down his face as lava coursed through his arm. It wasn't actually lava, but that difference was lost on his addled mind, only a small vestige could be used by this point and he was trying to keep it completely focused on what he was doing.

It took everything he had to continue with the exercise. If he lost control now, he could permanently damage his body beyond repair.

Grams not only had a theory for his mana core, no-no-no... She also had a theory for his mana veins, his pathways as she called them. She wanted him to use the control provided by the ring and the purified mana to carve out a new mana system throughout his body.

"Everyone is born with a mana system, this includes your inert core and the mana pathways that lead throughout your body. The fact is... The system isn't great. But it's what we have, so we accept it. However... In the information we recovered was a book on energy pathways of a high-tier race known as the Dromo."

By that point in her explanation, Torrin just took what she said and accepted it. He hadn't known where she was going...

"The Dromo's pathways are far more complex, and their control over energy, if the texts can be believed, can only be described as god-like. This is partly due to their bodies being infused with a high-tier energy that comes from their world, but it is also in part due to their pathways."

Torrin could understand that much, better pathways, better control. Better energy, better body when it absorbs said energy.

"So what does this have to do with my training? You've begun teaching me runes that will be useful for enchanting my inert core and understanding various artifacts, so why are you going on about these domos?" Torrin questioned, arm waving to the side as if pointing to said "Domos". What she'd been teaching him was the runes she felt best for his core enchantment. It was a basic parchment, but the runes she had written seemed to have an unfathomable depth to them.

"So~, the Dromo," She mocked, heavily emphasized the r in "Dromo", "Have an amazing energy pathway and humans don't. I've theorized a mana pathway that may optimize mana flow and control. It will allow you to enhance your body far more thoroughly than a regular mana pathway, and help with generating spells."

This all sounded great to Torrin, he understood that mana could enhance one's body by infusing your muscles and bones with mana. It was the main use for Chi in his old world, so he understood how it would also apply to mana.

"That sounds great, Grams. It definitely sounds like an advantage." He praised, thinking Grams might be onto something.

"The thing is, you'll have to use the mana in the ring to burn these new pathways into your body. It will hurt a tad bit, boy. Now come along, that ring should have just about enough mana purified to start. And whatever you do, don't pass out or lose control of the mana." She warned ominously.

His mind returned to the present as he cursed all of Grams' ancestors and any descendants roaming around.

'A tad bit, Grams?! This is literal hellfire in my body!' Torrin screamed in his mind, his mouth was clenched down on a piece of leather as he shook violently in the puddle of sweat and blood he lay in.

"Okay, boy, that'll be enough for now. If you continue you'll black out sooner rather than later." Grams actually had a soft tone as she said this, she'd been impressed by the boy's determination.

Torrin slowly withdrew the mana through his raw mana pathways, trying his best to be gentle as to not flare up any more pain. Soon his mana was back in the ring and his body slowly stopped shaking, his breathing returning to normal instead of ragged gasps.

The process had lasted no longer than a few minutes, but to Torrin it had felt infinitely longer.

Grams reached towards Torrin's face, a vibrant blue glowing potion appearing in her hand, tipping it into Torrin's mouth gently.

The potion washed through his mouth, healing his bleeding tongue and soothing his raw throat. It slowly spread through his body, healing and nourishing his scorched flesh of his right, solidifying his new pathways.

Grams was a Master Artificer and Alchemist. Just like her ring, the potion she'd made was a Master level creation. It could heal almost any injury and would increase mana generation and absorption for a short time.

Grams softly mumbled something under her breath, waving her hand over Torrin's body. The potion bottle was nowhere to be seen. Everywhere her hand went blood and sweat, saliva and tears, all the detritus of his tempering was whisked away, like so much smoke on the wind.

After the potion and spell that Grams used, Torrin was feeling refreshed. The pain was completely gone. The only evidence of his trial were his new pathways burned down his entire right arm up to his shoulder and his shattered mind that was slowly piecing itself back together.

If his old pathways were like the roads of a small village, his new pathways were akin to the largest city's roadways. They were bigger and far more extensive, trailing through much of his small arm.

"Grams... Why does this have to be done, again?"

Torrin's body was healed, but his mind was in tatters. His soul was strong, as well as his will. But the pain he had gone through was almost too much for him.

She tutted, "Boy, even you can tell the difference between your old pathways and the new ones. It should more than triple the efficiency of your mana flow. We are terribly lucky that you are young, as there is less body to adapt. Since you're young, your body shouldn't reject the changes, especially since you don't have an active core yet."

Torrin's teeth clicked together. He didn't want to imagine how much he would have to endure if his body were already fully grown. Torrin's body was only 6 years old, he hardly came up to an adult's waistline.

"What do you mean reject the changes?" Torrin was a little confused by that.

"If an adult with an active mana core tried what you just did, their body would most likely take it as damage, since the normal pathways would be ingrained into the body so thoroughly. It would try to heal the damage instead of accept it as a part of the body."

He pondered her reply as he lay on the wooden floor. He stared at a ceiling high above, his thoughts wandering as they tried to become more cohesive.

'How is this hut so big? Why does she even call it a hut?' He hadn't left the hut since he arrived three days ago, but during his time there he'd been able to explore it a little bit more.

It could comfortably fit three Velin orphanages if it wanted to. It had many bedrooms, a workshop for Alchemy, an office area, even a small library with hundreds of books on tightly packed shelves lining every wall of the room with a small table in the center of the room, topped with blank parchment and some type of writing instrument.

The bathroom in the hut was amazing, it had hot water that flowed from the ceiling at the press of a button, like a miniature water fall. There was a steaming hot bath as well.

He even found toilets, which greatly comforted him.

The main room of the house was spacious, with two couches surrounding a glass table that contained some type of board game on it. The table stood on a rug made from some beast's hide, it shone silver in the light of the room. A fire burned in a hearth that was decorated by extravagantly carved stones.

He saw lights floating near the ceiling, they weren't attached to anything and provided the perfect amount of illumination. A few shelves lined the walls with artifacts laying on them. He noticed the wood walls of the cabin were lined with intricate runes as well, they flowed across the entire expanse.

He'd been curious and asked Grams about it, but she didn't explain for than to say, "It's enchanted, of course, boy."

After Torrin had calmed down and taken a bath, his mind was more at peace. The pain wasn't completely forgotten, but with his body having been so thoroughly restored by the potion, it felt almost like a bad dream.

They ate a dinner of fried Mana Beast meat and potatoes, he drank a glass of containing kind of Mana Fruit juice. As usual, he circulated the mana through his pathways as Grams had taught him, trying to train his mana control. He was able to move mana throughout his body now, he'd realized that he didn't need to resist the ring's pull, but utilize the ring itself to help move the mana.

He tested his new pathways in his arm and felt they were much more responsive than the rest of his body, the mana flowed in his arm almost without him having to guide it, as if it was the most natural thing.

Finally, he stored the mana from the meal within his ring for it to be purified. He'd become much faster at the process, so instead of three hours like the first day, this barely took two. Each day he was becoming more proficient with his internal mana control.

As he left his meditative state, he saw Grams staring at him from the middle of the main room. Seeing him open his eyes, she waved him over, saying, "Boy, tonight instead of studying runes, we're going to test your control with your new pathways outside, take this."

She tossed him a wooden stick that'd appeared in her hands from nowhere, it was about the same size as her black cane she always leaned on.

He caught the stick and followed her outside. They stood on a flat plain that stretched for miles with no trees in sight. The moon had long arisen over the horizon and shone brightly in the sky, illuminating the plain in soft pale moonlight. He was thoroughly confused, not knowing where in the world they were.

He looked back at the "hut" and was even more dumbfounded. Standing behind him was a basic hut, it didn't even look big enough to fit the bed that he knew was inside, much less the rest of the house.

'What the-?'

His thoughts were interrupted by Grams calling out, "Come on boy, let me see what kind of sword training you've had, High Warrior Torrin!"