After spending the last two hours training the black orb, he was exhausted and his lungs were burning. He decided that it was time to take a break and laid down to go to sleep. Due to his exhaustion, he quickly fell asleep. While sleeping, the spinning black orb at his lungs began pulsating once again. But unlike the previously aggressive and painful pulsations that occurred, these were cathartic and gentle. It followed a slow rhythm and was similar to that of a beating heart. Very small streams of black mana began flowing from the orb to his shattered arm.

Alex woke up nearly 14 hours later, filled to the brim with energy. The nurse was sitting down in a chair in front of Alex’s bed and looked up at him when he woke up.

“You’re awake.” She said with a smile. “While you were asleep, the doctor did a quick check and determined that you were safe to go home. Remember, be here once a week and don’t use your arm at all.”

Alex thanked the nurse and grabbed his stuff as he left to go home. The slight breeze moved his silky auburn hair, exposing a handsome face with gray eyes that had a smile never seen on this young man's face. He was ecstatic. He was overjoyed at the offer he received from Blake. I have been given this opportunity, I will not let it go to waste. I will work harder than before and become stronger than everyone else. Alexs’ determination was strengthened once again. His memory of killing the shadow wolf came back to him, and when he returned home he sat down and began thinking about his fight with the shadow wolf.

In order to keep the black mana hidden and get stronger fast, he would reflect on every fight deeply. He would go through all the different scenarios and work on his weaknesses. This method wasn’t perfect due to bias, but it had worked wonders for him already. He was unsure why, but ever since the black orb showed up, his comprehension speeds skyrocketed. It was due to this improvement that he was even able to employ a tactic like this one, and he would take full advantage of it.

After reflecting on the fight for a while, Alex came to the conclusion that he could have gone unscathed had he been faster and more efficient at circulating mana through his legs. His punches were strong, but his kicks were not the same. By improving mana circulation in his legs, not only would he have a wider variety of attacks, but he would also become faster. Alex was never the fastest, and comparing his fight to Brodins further proved this. This worked well for him anyways as he couldn't use his right arm to begin with.

Alex began quickly gathering mana in his legs and then releasing the mana. This served a few purposes. One, to improve his mana gathering speeds. And secondly, it trained his mana core. Mana naturally cleanses impurities when gathered in proper amounts. The reason his mana core was gray was due to the impurities, and as his core got stronger, it would become whiter.

The time spent gathering mana in his legs lowered more and more, but he was similarly becoming more and more exhausted. There were no visible changes to his mana core, but that much is expected. Your Harbinger score also served to show someone's mana core, as the whiter one's core was, the stronger you were. Half-Gods had nearly perfect white mana cores, and it was assumed that true Gods had pure white mana cores.

Alex decided to take a break and went to grab something to eat. I feel as if I'm approaching the peak of intermediate soldier and will need a breakthrough soon. After eating, Alex got in the shower and began meditating. While continuously using his mana core would strengthen it, it wouldn't raise his mana capacity and understanding of his own mana. That’s what meditation was for. He would gather mana from the environment and slowly but methodically circulate it across his whole body before gathering it at his mana core. He would do this until he filled the core as much as possible before stopping.

After Alex finished showering, he relaxed on the couch and watched TV. After a few hours, Alex received a phone call from an unknown number.

“Hello, is this Alex?” the caller asked.

“That’s me. Who is this?”

“My name is Aubry and I work at Xanthos First High. I am calling you to confirm your information as well as explain to you the processes at Xanthos First High.”