Liam sat cross-legged on the smooth stone floor of Master Grey's chamber, his eyes half-lidded, breathing steady. He was supposed to be meditating, focusing on the pulse of mana within his body—the ebb and flow of golden motes in his cracked white mana core. But today, his mind was far from still.
There was a question that had been gnawing at him for days now. Not just a question—a contradiction. One so subtle that most wouldn't even recognize it, let alone ponder it. Not Master Grey, nor the books in his study, nor the theories handed down by generations of mages. But it stood out to Liam like a jagged stone beneath silk.
Why do humans form a mana core at birth?
And yet, mana beasts—creatures that are far more in tune with nature and mana from the moment they are born—do not?
By all logic, it should be the other way around. Mana beasts were born in mana-rich environments. Their instincts, their bodies, even their behaviors were governed by nature's rhythm. Meanwhile, humans were born in safe environments and softness, completely detached from mana unless they trained themselves.
And yet, every human child formed a mana core, even if cracked and weak.
Why?
Liam turned the thought over again and again, like a puzzle piece that didn't fit no matter how he twisted it. The mana core was formed from two things, as Master Grey had explained: life force and mana. These two elements came together and solidified into a core, with the navel as its anchor point due to the umbilical connection between mother and child.
That explanation made sense. It was poetic, even. But Liam knew better than to accept poetic answers as truth.
If mana and life force were the only two ingredients, then beasts—with plenty of both—should all have cores from birth.
But they didn't.
Which meant there was a third element involved. Something humans possessed that mana beasts either lacked or had in lesser degree.
After pondering for a while he got his answer.
Intelligence.
The one glaring difference between beasts and humans.
"But how does intelligence play a key role in forming mana core, there has to something by which intelligence has to be represented ,and accounted for, it couldn't directly interact with mana core itself right?" Liam pondered.
But he did not get the answer, he tried to ask Grey about the matter to which he scolded and replied-"Boy you are young and too curious about everything, if you trouble yourself with such unnecessary questions, how can you have time to become a mage?. You don't need to think too deeply about it, it is the way it is , humans who are the children of the god and are blessed by the world, while the savage beasts lack intelligence and had to go through hardship to form a core. The nature is such, you are just wasting your time, rather you should use this time to increase your skill."
Liam wasn't convinced Liam had come from modern Earth though lived as nearly a slave, the knowledge he has is more than what professors had at 21st century, so he had developed a scientific type of mindset, and wanted to get to the core of the matter, unlike Grey who was rigid in his thinking and attributed this glaring problem to a act of god.
Even if what Grey said was true, if there was a being like god in the magi world and blessed humans, as the explanation of god itself he was impartial to all beings and loved all life, so how could he only be impartial to humans , so this was not a valid explanation for that.
As days went on, a idea had struck him, maybe what if it was the soul? even if others had not seen it, and some people just disregarded such absurd explanation as soul which no one has seen, he as a reincarnator, was sure that soul existed, otherwise how could he live again.?
Liam thought-"The by taking soul as the base for true intelligence , then humans having a large soul can be attributed to their higher intelligence in contrast to animals, then his way of reasoning might be correct."
"If the soul is the root of intelligence," Liam whispered, "then it must also be the third component needed to form a mana core."
That made sense. More sense than anything Grey had told him.
Mana. Life force. And soul.
Together, these three forces combined to form the core at the time of birth. In beasts, who had less developed souls, the process wasn't guaranteed. It required special bloodlines or mana-dense environments to catalyze the reaction.
In humans, the presence of the soul ensured that the core formed by default.
But he has no methods of knowing the soul, even if he knows something as soul existed.
Knowing Grey Liam didn't dare to ask for his advice a second time, he knows the result, he would be scolded again.
At night, in Liam's bedroom- Liam sat in meditation, as a firm researcher with no clues , Liam tried a crude method, to first sense mana within his body and willed the golden motes to scour throughout his body.
It looked comical , like searching in the dark with some fireflies, but as expected it yielded nothing , if this was that easy then one should know that any mage would have easily discovered soul, but that was not the case.
Liam's days continued practicing spells of the fire, earth, wind, water and how to cast them faster etc and at night searching for his soul.
Everyday Liam tried his best - like a policeman searching for a thief in dark alleys with a dim torch in his hand.
Liam was getting frustrated and angered day by day- his efforts yielded nothing-"Agggh is it even possible for someone ordinary to know the soul? If it was this easy why would the previous predecessor of mages not detailed about it? It is too hard."
But he remembered his promise to himself that he will try his best in this life, so at the end he will not have any regrets, that he hasn't tried about it, on earth there were many scientists who had taken this first step to discovery and invention, so why not him? If no one had done it before, why doesn't he take that step? He will be the one who set the bar.
With newfound courage and enthusiasm Liam continued his days of monotonous schedule.
After few months of this daily routine , during his meditation a flash of inspiration came to him.
Why was he able to know the soul?.....