"Would you mind coming with me so that we can have a cup of tea or wine? Whatever takes your fancy," he said.

I only nodded as I still wasn't exactly sure how I should be addressing him. With my reply, he smiled and wrote some complicated runes and spoke in a language I didn't recognise at all, once he was done a black tear appeared in front of us. He invited me to walk through. Getting up I took a few steps and stood in front of it, looking inside. All I could see was darkness and a light at the end, it appeared if it was a kind of tunnel. Shrugging my shoulders as I didn't think he would hurt me, I stepped through.

It only took a second for me to pa.s.s through the dark tunnel, on the other side what I found was a small office, though it seemed more like a main room of a house where people would come to relax. This was due to the whole room emitting a cosy feeling, the smoldering fire in the fireplace helped with this alot.

At the Arch Mage's invitation I sat down on one of the chairs, a few minutes later he brought over two cups of tea for us both. Sitting down opposite me, he had a small sip and let out a long sigh. Placing the cup down onto the table, he then looked at me.

"I can almost guarantee that you are wondering why I have called you here? The main reason is simple, I know you are a shadow and now you are also a master mage's successor and the darkness element at that. I also know you will not just focus on the mage path, you will have to progress on all of the paths. Anyway what I wanted to tell you is that as long as you succeed in making your mana core which I would say will be some kind of flame, I will allow you to join in on the tower trials, so that means you have a month. If you are not ready by then, you will not be allowed in. Ever."

Once he had finished what he had to say, he waved his hands.

In the blink of an eye I had appeared in my house. I was frozen, this time he didn't even need to cast the spell, he just did it.

The next couple of weeks went by quickly with nothing major or even minor happening at all. I learned about varying types of magic languages which mages used when writing and also when enchanting. The major two available to us were dwarven runes, old draconic script as well as loads of minor languages though some were not finished or not available at our level as they were two complicated for us currently. At the sword spirits' advice I chose the old draconic script as he said it would help in my future. Apart from that I learned more about the fire element and chose to become a fire weaver but the darkness element I had chosen the shadows path.

Currently I am in the meditation hall, I am about to attempt the creation of my mana core, which once done I can truly call myself a mage.

I entered the focused state and then focused more onto the two elements that I wished to use. This is the easy part I had been told. Then I began to slowly mutter incarceration and write some words in the air. Once I had finished the fire mana began to slowly come towards me, using what I had learnt with body enhancement spells, I began to control the fire mana into a small ball. I took a breath once I had done that.

Then I did the same but this time with the darkness element. Now I could see two b.a.l.l.s in front of me, one red and the other black. Next I with a few more incarnations I formed what was called a core array, this would help stabilize the mana for the next stage. Carefully I manipulated the b.a.l.l.s of mana into the array. Once inside I could tell that I would not be able to hold them for much longer. I hurriedly began the process of merging the two elements. What happened next could only be described as anarchy.

The elements upon closing in on each other, were going berserk, if it wasn't for the array suppressing the energy they were releasing I would have been severely injured by now. After a long and tense period though the energy finally began to calm down. What I could see now was a red and black ball of mana in front of me.

Next a cast a long series of spells of which the mana from the ball was all used up, it then flowed around my body and began to force its way inside my body. The pain was the worst I had ever felt. This is mainly due to the fact that mana should not exist in my body. Using it I began to purify my elemental body as I had learned. This was what I apparently used to see the mana and was separated from my normal body but only just, so if I didn't do it right I would suffer from a severe backlash.

After around thirty minutes of extreme pain, it was done, I forced the remaining mana out of my body completely. My mana body as it was called I could now actively sense and feel. Inside of it I could feel a singular flame, though this flame was dark and cast a much bigger shadow than it normally should be able to. This was a shadow flame. My shadow flame.

Once I had made sure that I was safe and all of the mana had been expelled from my body I stood up and slowly stretched my arms. Then I began to slowly walk to my house which now had a few more furnis.h.i.+ngs for making it a much more cosy and relaxing place for me to be in.

Once I had got through the door, I tried to cast a simple spell of which I succeeded and a black flame appeared on my finger. I smiled when I succeeded. I had done it. I had become mage and a mage with a dual core at that. Although I could use other types of magic, the core would enable me to use that type with ease and I would require much less effort to cast spells of that type, so the uses of a dual element core went without saying.

Feeling exhausted after my day, I headed over to my bed and sat on the end first. I then before succ.u.mbing to my exhaustion, wrote a letter to my family back home, the first I had done. In the letter I told them about my travels and what had happened, leaving out the shadows as they were a secret force. Of which I was still confused on how the Arch Mage knew of their existence. Finis.h.i.+ng the letter, I then collapsed on my bed, falling asleep instantly.