The world around me stuttered. Sounds exploded into crity. Smells grew stronger. I could taste breakfast again. All while I could feel each muscle and how much power each could provide. My mind pushed all the random information to the side while focusing on the muscles.

  Starting from my feet, I built up force and power. Swinging my entire body with everything I could muster, I attacked Gregory. The moment before I hit, his sword vanished from his right side. Appearing at his left as he deftly deflected my strike.

  As much as the world slowed down, it sped back up. The world seemed to blur as I went flying. Even if I could have reacted to my sudden flight, my muscles were unable to do anything to help. They were on fire.

  I skid to a stop a good ways away on my back. As I y there, everything hurt. I wanted to scream but my body had a hard time pulling in air. Gregory stood over me shaking his head. “I know everyone has to learn this lesson, but it doesn’t make it any easier. While your body can use all that power, it doesn’t mean that it won't do damage.”

  Seeing that I wasn’t understanding him, he continued, “Your muscles tore themselves apart to do what you wanted. I know it hurts but keep flooding your body with mana. It doesn’t just help with increasing your speed and strength. It can also help with healing in a pinch. Though I will say spells that do so are so much better.” He grumbled the st part.

  Mentally I shoveled mana out of my core. Slowly everything felt better. Not perfect, but better. When I could breathe without pain I asked, “Is there any way to not do that again?”

  “You could learn the limits of what your muscles can handle but I wouldn’t.” He held out a hand to help me up. Taking it, he pulled me up as he continued. “By damaging your muscles and healing them over and over you can increase the power they can provide and the amount of damage they can take.”

  “So like an extreme version of exercise?” I asked as I recalled the number of times I had hurt the day after a hard workout.

  “Sure, but mana allows you to do this without worrying about how long it takes to heal. Just keep going until you have no mana left.” He stepped back from me. It was a couple of seconds ter that I realized what he meant. He wanted me to keep going until I was out of mana.

  Complying, I poured mana out and swung with all my strength. As soon as I swung I tried to keep pouring mana out so I could heal. Sometimes I managed it, other times I fell to the ground in agony. After the seventh time, my healing stopped midway.

  No matter how many times I tried to pull mana from my core, nothing came out. Pulling inside, I realized why. There was nothing there. I mean, I could see mana but I couldn’t access it. The entire surface was covered in a solid surface. No matter what I did, I could not break through.

  Finally, I gave up. Wincing, I tilted my head to look at Gregory. “Why can I not use the rest of my mana?”

  “Ah, good.” He walked over to me. Crouching down and putting a hand on my chest. “The mana you have been using is from our cores’ surface. It is excess that has been collected over time. It will replenish given more time. Everything inside your core is locked away. It is used to keep your body going.”

  His hand glowed faintly as my muscles started to heal again. “How do I increase how much mana I can store?”

  “In this case, it is like a muscle,” Gregory said as he helped me stand. “Keep using it and it will expand over time. In addition to access to more mana, it will also increase your life span.”

  “Wait, wha?” I looked at him, confused as hell about what he had just said.

  “Guess you wouldn’t know.” He sighed. “Your body uses the mana in your core to fix itself, including old age. The more mana that inner part has, the more it can fix and use...” Gregory scratched his head, “Arg…I suck at expining this kind of stuff. If you want to know the exact mechanism then go ask Marcy or research it.”

  “Maybe ter. What next?”

  “Well, we cannot do anything until your mana is refilled. So, lunch.” Gregory said, holding his hand out for my weapons. He made them vanish into thin air before starting for the house.

  “How are you doing that?”

  “Doing what?” He said over his shoulder.

  “Making things vanish and appear out of thin air.”

  “Just a simple trick. Maybe if you manage to hit me in our afternoon training session I will show you.” My mind started to go over various pns. Maybe going full out from the start and constantly shoveling mana into my body as I attacked him relentlessly. He shot the idea down though. “Though this time you need to only use your mana the instant it's needed. You wasted over ninety percent because your body didn’t need it.”