The morning was silent, yet something stirred beneath the surface of that silence—Arin's resolve. His breath was calm, but his heart beat with a fire that had no name. The two books sat neatly on his desk, closed yet thunderous in their impact. He had read through them more than once now, but this time, he understood.
"To shed the skin of weakness, one must bleed strength into their bones."
That line kept echoing in his mind.
Arin stood in front of the mirror in his small room. His reflection was a boy—not a warrior, not a magician. But the boy staring back didn't flinch. There was determination in his eyes now. Determination and... anticipation.
Training Day 1 – Bone Meditation and Cold Resistance
Arin followed the instructions in the chapter titled "Forging the Frame", where it spoke of strengthening the skeletal system with a combination of meditation and extreme cold exposure.
He drew a bucket of water from the well behind his house, filled with natural mountain spring water. Before dawn, while the air was still sharp and the ground frosty, he poured it over himself.
His body shuddered as icy needles pricked his skin.
He clenched his jaw, breathing through his nose slowly. The goal wasn't to resist the pain—it was to feel it completely and still remain present. The book called it "nervous expansion."
"To hold your mind within your bones is to awaken their will. Each shiver is a whisper of life."
Arin sat in lotus position, drenched, letting the cold seep into his core. He focused his thoughts inward, imagining his bones glowing faintly, surrounded by a swirling silver-blue mist—his imaginary representation of mana. There was no real magic yet. Just visuals, belief, and discipline.
And it hurt.
His muscles spasmed. His skin burned with cold. His mind screamed to stop.
But Arin endured.
Training Day 4 – Nerve Calibration
This chapter involved walking barefoot across a path laid with uneven gravel while blindfolded. It wasn't about torture—it was to calibrate his nerves to extreme sensations, to learn control over flinches and reactive impulses.
At first, every step felt like knives.
"Do not reject pain. Observe it. Memorize its voice. Learn its rhythm. Mastery is not avoidance—it is acceptance."
He walked the path again. And again. And again.
Every day, he stumbled. Fell. Got up.
His feet bled. His body ached. But his spine never bent.
Training Day 10 – Inner Visualization
By now, Arin had developed an unusual clarity in his meditative state. His mind no longer darted like a rabbit. It was steady, like an owl watching its prey.
In this state, he visualized the mana pathways described in the books—streams running through the spine, up to the head, branching into limbs.
He had no magic core, but something was shifting inside him. He could feel something twitch faintly when he breathed in deeply and focused on his lower abdomen—the place the book referred to as the "root center."
"You are born human. But through will and wisdom, you may remake your humanity. Mana will find you when the vessel is ready."
Training Day 15 – Strengthening the Mind-Body Loop
Arin now combined strength exercises—pushups, planks, squats—with extreme focus. He trained without counting reps, timing, or watching others. Instead, he focused on each muscle, each tendon, listening to them move under his skin like instruments in an orchestra.
And after every set, he meditated.
The discipline became a rhythm. The rhythm became a habit. The habit became power.
One Night...
Arin was sitting atop his house under the stars, bandages wrapped around his palms. His breath formed clouds in the cold air. He looked at his hands and flexed his fingers.
They were not the same hands from a few weeks ago.
Something was awakening.
"I may not have a magic core... but I have a will that no storm can kill."
He placed his palm on his chest.
"I may not have a core now, but I will definitely join the magic academy and create the strongest core."
And at that moment, for a fraction of a heartbeat, a faint glimmer shimmered in his mind's eye.
It was neither light nor flame.
It was... potential.