Upon opening the book Claude, was greeted by a plethora of words, scattered in various directions with small crude illustrations which presented themselves upon the page from time to time.

It all looked rather confusing, as well as daunting.

'This is going to take a while.'

With a face full of resolute determination that would put even the greatest warrior to shame, he started reading.

<<<Beginners Guide to Magecraft by Liele Clavenheart.>>>

"While the history of magic is long and rich, the origin of the mysterious entity of mana that produces the phenomena has still not been uncovered to this day..."

"...Despite, the progression in technology and the advancement of civilisation it's secrets are still mysteriously wrapped up. This book will provide basic knowledge of the collective endeavours and efforts by countless mages from the ministry of magic and countless lands..."

Skimming through the text at a breakneck speed Claude flipped through the pages until he arrived to where he was interested.

"...Originally it was thought that the power to perceive and manipulate mana was purely genetic with only 1 in 1000 children possessing the ability to do so. It was thought that only children of magi had the ability to use magic. This was known as the old era. A few decades later a certain clocktower mage disproved this longstanding theory...."

"...He concluded that all humans contained what was known as a magic core. The magic core being where the mana manifested itself in, meaning that all humans had the capability to manipulate magic to some extent..."

"flip"

"...The reason why only the children of magi seemed to be able to apply magic was because the core of magi belonged to a lineage making it more pronounced and refined allowing them to show off their powers. However, for a regular person that was simply not the case..."

"flip"

"They had what was known as a weak core. With a core that was feeble and brittle, they couldn't use magic at all. However now thanks to the dedication of many mages, magic can be learnt by all..."

"flip"

"...Despite, this ground-breaking advancement the most successful mages still tend to be those who are of a powerful lineage. But don't be discouraged as there have been instances of great mages being birthed by non-lineage families. With hard work and determination even, you can become a great mage."

'ARGHHHHHH, how is this useful in the slightest! Why does it seem like this is a promotional advert for the mages association’?

Resisting the urge to slam the book on the ground, Claude took a breath of fresh air before reading again.

Over the next 2 hours he skimmed from page to page, reading anything that caught his eye or seemed even the remotest bit helpful.

After, the two hours had finished a tremendous smile plastered his face. He had done it, he had conquered and tamed the fiendish book, gaining an insight to the knowledge that he was looking for.

'I think that I finally get it. To develop my core then I first need my body to get used to the idea of sensing mana. I can do that by meditating and trying to absorb the mana around me. To use magic you must have mana, and conversely as long as you have mana you can use magic. Yes! As long as I start from an early age, my mana core should strengthen itself accordingly.

In a small amount of time, Claude had managed to understand and learn the concept of how to learn magic as well as unintentionally find out something that even the great mage society hadn't figured out themselves. 

He had discovered, the fact that through meditation at an infantile age, the user could greatly accelerate the development of their mana core.

Since mana cores tended to have their full potential the earlier, they were used, mages thought that by pouring a small amount of mana into a child or feeding them mana pills, which tended to be quite expensive depending on the quality, that they could nurture children into becoming mages.

However, this wasn't the correct way of doing things; or rather it wasn't the most efficient. Through meditation at an infantile age the mana core could develop with 1.5 times the efficiency of the strongest mana pill if done properly. And, although the power of meditation seemed rather obvious and overpowered, its caveat was that the older the user became the much less efficient it became.

To the point that, by the age of 5 its effectiveness would drop by over 75%. 

After obtaining the much-desired knowledge Claude's line of sight was beginning to become hazy. His eyelids drooped ever so slightly, as if they were indecisive on whether to close or not, his body becoming as heavy as lead as his arms and legs swayed from left to right lethargically.

It was clear as day that he had overexerted himself, after all he was only a little over 1 yrs of age. The long and enduring task of reading and formulating ideas, had seemed to have taken a toll on his young body, as a lazy yawn escaped from his mouth.

"Looks like someone is tired."

Claude slowly turned his head to face towards his father, Peter, who had seemed to have just finished his work.

"Dada, I'm tiyad. I whanna gwo to shweep."

"Has little Claude been spending too much time trying to read them big boy books. Why doesn't he try this prince and dragon book next time.”

Claude looked at his father, who was holding a children’s picture book, with a set of pointed dagger eyes that could kill. A bloodcurdling aura consumed the room reminded Peter of a somewhat familiar atmosphere created when his wife became extremely pissed off.

Trying to remedy the situation Peter changed the subject.

"Haha, ignore your father's silly suggestion how about I take this book and help you read it next time. Now let's go we don't want to be later for your mothers cooking. Who knows what she'll do to us if we are late!"

'You mean who knows what she'd do to you, not me. You're on your own for this one dad.'

And just like that Peter picked up the little boy and his book, carrying him back home. 

'Today wasn't too bad.'

It had been a long and taxing day for Claude, but he hadn't regretted it. Today he had gained some insightful knowledge, something that would surely help him down his adventures down the line.