A flickering wisp of condensed Fire Mana collected around my outstretched finger, emitting a sweltering heat that threatened to singe the hairs on my arm or even scorch my flesh.


    It was the same amount of mana as the previous spell, but the potency was so, so different.


    Mother stood beside me and observed the change with a nod, before turning her gaze towards the boulder that I was to hit.


    Using that as the signal, I shot the bullet forwards and gasped in amazement as it shrieked through the air, the mana more potent than I realized as it arced around, though it still smacked against the boulder.


    The bullet itself sparked and popped as it moved, until it impacted the boulder, cracking off arge chunk of the rock face and scorching the rest in a thin sheen of ck.


    Tongues of mespped at the boulder before flickering out, while the chunk that dropped to the ground shattered some more, leaving behind a pile of broken and chipped rock.


    Blinking, I looked towards Mother, who was staring at the boulder in silence with a raised brow.


    "Well over double, perhaps triple the potency? That''s... frightening. I have around 1.5 to 2 times the potency with my own mana, which is already considered incredible."


    She looked towards me and chuckled, her lips pulled into a wry smile as she added "That''s insane, Leone. Triple the potency of your Fire Magic, which could be further enhanced by your Blood and Moon Magics, as well as any enchantments that you might get. If you were to begin shifting towards using a wand or staff to focus and channel your mana, well..."


    I grinned widely at her, and she chuckled again as she pat my shoulder, gesturing to the smaller boulder next.


    "Come on, let''s keep moving. Time is of the essence after all."


    My joy remained as I jogged over to the boulder, swiftly wrapping my arms around it and lifting it up with ease, like it weighed merely a few pounds instead of hundreds.


    "That''s to be expected. After all, your muscles are flooded with more mana, and they constrict and tighten and give you better control over yourself. I imagine the sprint will be the same; done in mere moments instead of seconds."


    "Well let''s see then!"


    I quickly made my way over towards the starting line and waited for the nod from Mother before flying off the line, finishing the hundred foot dash in 2.5 seconds.


    My grin widened as I felt exhrated at therge boost in my power from just this form, though I could feel it slowly draining my Core of mana as it circted everything through my body.


    The muscles and flesh that was now enhanced gluttonously devoured mana at a swift rate, and any additional spell usage would further drain me of mana.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Beckoning me over to the entrance of herpound, she led me inside and out of the sun, the both of us sighing in relief as we were free from the scorching rays of the ball of mes above us.


    It was an unconscious reaction from us both, as we were used to the cool embrace of the shade instead of the heat of the sun, but we were both slightly ustomed to that insufferable thing...


    Anyways, entering another of Mother''sboratories, she sat me down and handed me a tome, saying "We''ll use this time to look over your ability with Blood and Moon Magic further, so that I can get a n in ce on how to best tutor you going forwards regarding that. After all, your Core is draining at a considerable rate right now, and while mana potions are a thing, artificial restoration of all your mana too many times can do damage to your Core, so rest is still arge part of your recovery. That time can be spent studying, alright?"


    As I opened the tome I nodded, half listening to her words as I noticed that the runes and Ritual Circles inscribed on the books pages were entirely dedicated to Moon Magic, the runes that formted the ''element'' itself and some of the moremon, low requirement spells upying the first few pages.


    Illusory spells, cold spells, imbuing spells...


    This was more of a loose magic in terms of structuring, as instead of the various runicbinations that shaped our magics today, you only needed to cast the ''elemental'' rune of this new magic to start, before pushing out your mana and shaping it with your will instead.


    So, I raised my hand and gently expelled some mana from my pointer finger as I traced out the shape of the Moon Magic rune - an upturned crescent moon, unsurprisingly enough - and allowed some more of my mana to spill out as I began to attempt to cast spells.


    However, as I tried to cast a simple illusion - to form a Ritual Circle in my hand of the Water Element - the white crescent moon shattered in front of my hand, making me blink a few times.


    Retracing it out, I tried again only for it to shatter again, turning my grin into a frown.


    Mother just smirked at me from the side, before she opened up a book of her own and began to flip through the pages, saying "Enjoy~! If you want me to give you clues, I cou-"


    "No! I''ll get it myself!"


    Where was the fun in someone telling you the answer?


    So, even though I was annoyed that this magic refused to allow me to use it right off the bat, I looked down at the tome before trying again.


    I observed the mana inside myself, observed it when it moved out into the open, took the time to mentally review everything...


    I tried many things, but nothing I did allowed the magic to be cast.


    ring down at the tome, I began to decipher as much of the notes as I could before trying once more, opting for the brute force method to begin with.