With all the violent mana raging and swirling around him, Liam was like a straggler lost in the stormy sea.
It was definitely foolish to push himself this far. However, he was not a fool. Unlike what others assumed, he did not do it without a way for him to come back.
Liam sat in the middle of the storm with a resolute look on his face, bearing the torturous pain that was thrown at him, and just when his body was about to be completely ripped apart…
He grinned.
It was time to bring it home!
For a second, he completely ignored all the mind-numbing pain that had plagued him and only thought about one thing.
And this thing was not something complicated, not some ancient text, instead, this thing was… the sun!
He imagined the sun on a clear sky and thought about the warmth that spread throughout his body.
He then visualized this warmth moving from all over his body to the very center of his body. This was going to be his Sun, the thing that was going to provide him warmth for the rest of his life.
It was a very simple visualization technique that worked.
Moreover, this was also not Liam's first time using it. In his previous life as well he did the same.
In his previous life, forming a mana core was a huge thing at least for a certain period of time. Several top players boasted that their method was superior and so on.
However, in the end, after wasting several days on this, it slowly came to light that it really did not matter what technique one used.
What mattered was the body's condition and the amount of mana one planned to condense within themselves.
How they preferred to visualize this was up to the individual. This particular factor did not make any difference in the final result.
Liam personally preferred to visualize his mana core in this way because when everything else became a complete mess, the sun that rose in the morning and disappeared in the night was the only constant thing in his life.
No matter what happened, that was the only thing he knew will happen that day, the next day, and the day after. Even the presence of mana on the planet did not change that fact.
The Sun was high up in the sky completely untouched by all the madness and chaos happening everywhere else. For countless days, he had wished that he could be like that as well.
It was a small thread of light to which he had clung to during several difficult days and it held a strong emotional significance for him.
And the stronger this visualization, the easier it was to form the mana core. Only because of this and the fact that he had already done this once before Liam was confident.
He pictured a miniature Sun forming at the center of his body.
To power up this Sun, he condensed every single wisp of mana that he could sense around him and sent it all to this miniature Sun.
To the best that he could, he visualized everything. He imagined the mana coursing through his veins, rampaging through his body to get absorbed by this Sun.
In the beginning, it was difficult but the more he pictured it, the process became easier and easier. This was it.
Liam started shoving more and more mana into his Sun and the mana core should be formed anytime now.
"Come on. Come on. Come on." He gritted his teeth and his body trembled in anticipation. He was almost there now.
His mana core should stabilize any time now.
Liam continued feeding the Sun and soon the mana raging in his body started disappearing. After that, it was time for the mana that formed a tornado around him to get in.
"Come on!" He shouted as he shoved every last bit of mana that he could.
It took him an entire minute but he held his visualization with determination and condensed everything inside him, within that miniature Sun.
NOW!
After sending in that last wisp, he felt something change and something settle and stabilize. This was the mana core.
Liam flashed his eyes open as he no longer needed to do anything. It was over.
He tried to sense the new ball of energy inside his body but suddenly something felt off. He did not quite get the feeling of completion.
Wait, his eyes widened as he closed them again and tried to sense his mana core.
Unexpectedly, his mana core was still not formed?
Liam frowned. He sensed the center of his body and saw that his miniature Sun had now become more of a black hole.
All the mana entering his body was still being continuously absorbed by it. It was insatiable.
Contrary to before when the mana he had gathered had been too much, now it felt like the mana he had gathered was not nearly enough.
"Hmmm?"
He could tell that he could condense a lot more mana into the same center. It was not full yet. It did not lock and become a core.
While this was not necessarily a bad thing, it could also be very troublesome if it was not stable. Then Liam would basically be a ticking time bomb.
He took a deep breath and tried to see what exactly was the verdict.
1 second passed. 2 seconds passed.
Soon several minutes passed.
His partially formed mana core still held on strong and was stable enough. It was just that it was not full.
So he would have to keep adding more and more and condense everything until the thing was finally full.
But wouldn't that mean his core was going to be…
Interrupting the deadly silence in the room, Liam fell back onto the pond and burst into laughter.
This was completely different from what had happened in his past life so he didn't catch it soon enough. Back then, he only needed a few minutes to form his mana core.
It was very straightforward, locked, and loaded.
Now he still couldn't even fill the core, but this was nothing to worry about. Rather it was good news! It was because he was hungrier, his capacity right now was that much bigger!
After the two rounds of cleansing, it looked like his body was capable of holding even more mana than he had ever imagined.
Liam licked his lips and immediately went back to sitting in a meditative pose. This was going to take time but he was ready for it.
He then took a deep breath and started inhaling all the mana that he could.
