Chapter 1 part one

"Ugh."

"Where am I?"

"Huh? Why is everything dark?"

I tried to look everywhere, but all I see is darkness.

I tried to move my right hand but failed to move a single finger, and I felt an overbearing wave of pain coursing throughout my whole body.

A sudden terrible headache hit me and made me recall my last moments on earth.

"Oh! I remember now. My name is John Carlo Agustin, and I died trying to save a woman from getting robbed by an armed man and got shot in the chest. That's how I ended up here alone in the darkness."

I decided not to move my injured body and quietly waited for something to happen, but to no avail.

"It's been hours since I arrived here. Darn, this must be hell."

*Waaaahhhh* *Waaaaaahhhh*

"Where is that crying baby noise is coming from?"

I tried to investigate the origin of the sound but gave up after a few minutes.

Out of nowhere, a light flickered and grew brighter and brighter.

"Woah! I am about to enter heaven despite my laziness. "

I suddenly see three unfamiliar faces smiling at me.

The first one is a gorgeous female with long blond straight hair, brown eyes, and large breasts.

The second is a handsome man with a muscular body, short gray straight hair, and blue eyes.

I believe the two are in their early 20s and probably lived somewhere in Europe.

The third is an attractive female who has shoulder-length brown straight hair, brown eyes, large breasts and in her late 30s.

"What should we name our first baby?" The long blond woman asked.

"Felix," the man replied.

The woman agreed with his suggestion and I became Felix from now on.

"Damn! Reincarnation in another world was possible. I hope this one has magic so I can put my anime and game knowledge in my previous life to excellent use," I thought.

After one year I could crawl again, but because of the strict supervision of my family, I can't search the entire household on my own. The second problem is the extreme fatigue I feel almost every day and I end up sleeping for over 20 hours a day.

I tried my best to adjust to my new name and to my new family. I still miss my old family and friends.

The harsh reality is I could not go back, as revealed by my mother when she was comforting me because my soul has no living body to return to.

Based on my observation while being carried around and some self exploration, the house is made of wood and a bit of cement. It has two floors and a basement.

I could only explore the two floors because of grandma foiling my attempts to enter the basement. I once tried to follow her into the basement, but she told me I was too young and it is dangerous inside.

There are five rooms on each floor. The first floor comprises a living room, kitchen, library, dining room, grandma's room, and a peculiar black door leading to the basement.

While the second floor has two empty rooms, a storage room, my room, and my parent's bedroom. The bathroom and laundry room are located in the backyard.

We have a five hundred square metre front yard surrounded by a wooden fence where mom plant fruits, spices, vegetables and some crops to eat later and it is also the place where she makes fertilizer using fruit and vegetable scraps, sawdust, animal manure (cows, goats, sheep, chicken, pig etc.), eggshells and grass clippings in the compost pit.

The backyard size is 475 square metres, and it is where father practices his sword skills. It is also the place where we grow chickens and some pigs.

We also have an immortal banana tree in the front yard. It has a black trunk and red leaves. It emits an intense dark aura as if a demon lord is inhabiting it.

Despite its aura and appearance, the fruit it yields is safe and delicious. The fruit has a black peel, and the inside is bright red.

It produces banana no matter what the season is. We once tried to trade it for meat, but locals rejected it. When that did not work, we tried to sell it to a nearby village and got rejected again.

Grandmother introduced me to our neighbours who are very close friends to our household and got valuable information about my new family.

"Come inside to have tea and also introduce your grandson to my granddaughter," the middle-aged man said.

"Sure," granny replied.

Grandma and I entered the old man's house. She left me in a nearby room with the middle-aged man's granddaughter and we played with a small brown ball while they chat in the living room.

"You have a male heir to your ancient household and mine is a female," the middle-aged man said while pouring tea.

"Hmm, so you are suggesting that my grandson should marry your granddaughter?" my grandmother replied.

"Why not? I know how powerful and rich your family is since we have spent more than a decade adventuring in the same party. I am not even surprised your grandson is a marked reincarnated whose origins are from another world, since most of your ancestors are like him."

"We are old friends, but my grandson will decide for himself."

"Fair enough."

"When will your family return to the capital city? It's been decades since you last lived in Chester City."

"I got a letter from one of our ancestors and said it's time to return to the ancestral house in district two to avoid suspicion and attacks from hostile enemies in this remote region. It was also stated in the letter that his best friend got reincarnated in my family."

"Who signed the letter?"

"His signature was a drawing of ten stars, so it's easy to guess who it was."

"There will be finally someone who will inherit the ten stars sword and techniques."

"Not inherit, but returning to its rightful owner and my grandson was the creator of the ten stars swordsmanship style, so he already knew every single technique."

"Enough about your grandson. Let's change the subject to how you lived for the past decade since we parted ways after your husband died after battling a demon lord 10 years ago in a dungeon."

She told him everything about how they went under the radar, used false identities to avoid another attack and travelling city to city while finishing difficult lucrative quests in order to gain more power until they settled here.

"So that's what happened to your family after we couldn't contact you."

They continued to chat about the past until grandma noticed it was getting dark.

"It's been fun chatting with an old friend. I am going to leave now since it's getting dark, and I needed to help prepare dinner."

"Okay and help me if you have spare time to scare away those pesky slimes trying to take over some poor peasant's house."

"Sure."

Grandma picked me up, and we went home to eat dinner. She washed me before tucking me into bed and read a bedtime story titled "Crab God" to help me fall asleep.

After one year, I can walk again and my body still feels lethargic and tired most of the time. The annoying slimes have occupied 1/4 of the village despite the efforts of the adventurers.

My parents' full names are Xander Wood and Sophia Wood. Both of them are former adventurers.

My father's current occupation is a hunter while my mother is a housewife.

My grandmother's name is Scarlett Wood. According to my grandma, my grandfather succumbed to his injuries after battling a demon lord in a 1 on 1. Mother gave birth last month to my little sister, which they named Olivia.

Mapleminster is the name of the village we live in. It is surrounded by the Great Maple Forest. Most of the houses here are made of a mixture of mud, straw and manure with a thatched roof and wooden frame to support the structure.

Peasants here own a small plot of land for domesticated cattle to graze or to cultivate crops such as wheat, potato, vegetables, grain etc. Most of the technology found here resembles that of the medieval ages, with some modern and fantasy technology mixed in for convenience. There are a lot of water tanks with purification runes scattered around the village for safe drinking water and watering crops.

The villagers speak a common language similar to English. Places of worship found here are a church of crab, crab mosque, crab shrine, crab temple and crab synagogue, which are all maintained by slimes. According to peasants, the crab religion is the largest and most influential religion in the world.

My family speaks an unknown ancient dialect with a weird accent, which I have a hard time trying to read and write, but I can speak and understand the unknown ancient dialect as if it was my mother tongue. Most of the time, they use the common language to interact with others.

The village celebrates 5 festivals. We celebrate birth of the crab god in late summer. We celebrate return of the crab god and blessings of the crab god in spring. Awakening of the crab god in autumn. Transcendence of the crab god in winter.

I woke up early today to ask grandmother about my condition. I found grandmother resting in the living room and approached her.

"Why do I feel lethargic and tired most of the time?"

"Let's go inside my room and I will explain it to you there."

We went inside to her room and sat in her bed.

"Your condition is the result of your soul being damaged while being transported here and it will be healed when you reach 8."

"Can your soul be destroyed while being transported?"

"Yes, if that happens, you can not be reborn and, your soul can't be restored by any means. It happens to a lot of souls, so consider yourself lucky."

"Are there any advantages to it?"

"You have a lot of advantages compared to people who originated from here."

"What kind of advantages?"

"You can freely access the ethereal dimension, you keep your otherworldly knowledge intact, a larger mana capacity, better overall stats, higher social status, and longer life span."

"What is the ethereal dimension and does having full access to it give any advantages?"

"The ethereal dimension is where souls are located. There are two dimensions in this world: ethereal and physical. You are exceptional since your soul is conscious and aware of your surroundings. It grants you the ability to see spirits and allows you to use a special type of magic called astral."

"What does astral magic do?"

"Astral magic is unique, since it could damage or destroy the soul. It can cut the link of the soul in the physical dimension, leaving them unable to access their physical body, restoring the severed link and, creating an artificial link allowing an inanimate object or dead person to move. It is one of the few ways you could hurt or kill a spiritual being like a demon, angel, spirits, and even a god."

I noticed something peculiar about her room. I couldn't hear the noise outside and got distracted from listening to her explanation as I tried to find the source of the problem.

"Is there something wrong with my explanation?"

"There is nothing wrong with it but, I couldn't hear mom cooking nearby and dad practicing with his sword."

"Oh! It's because I cast a noise absorption spell surrounding this room. It absorbs the noise from the inside and outside so no one can eavesdrop on our conversation and distract us."

"You could do that too?"

"Yes, and do you have anymore questions?"

"Who else can use it aside from me?"

"Spiritual beings have a natural affinity for it, marked reincarnation like you, and other rare talented individuals."

"When will I be able to use it?"

"It will take a lot of time since you need advanced mana control to cast it."

"Last question, grandma why do you call me marked reincarnation?"

"It's because you have a special mark hovering above your head."

"But I couldn't see anything."

"I can see it since I have advanced mana control and, I will teach you how to hide it once you have basic mana control."

"Why should I hide it?"

"It's because you are a valuable prey to demons, notably higher ranking demons and devils, because most of the time they consume souls to gain more power and marked reincarnation soul gives more power compared to other souls. There is also a spell called soul transfer. As the name suggest it allows the spell caster to transfer his soul to another body. Our family is naturally resistant to it, but you are vulnerable because you are far too weak to resist and your soul is still recovering."

"Thanks grandma for answering all of my questions."

"Let me know if you have more questions and I will try my best to answer them."

"I will."

"Your mother has finished cooking lunch. Let's help her prepare the table."

I nodded and helped them. It bothered me since I couldn't even hear the noise outside of the room while grandma noticed it.

For some odd reason, we always have potato soup, baked potato, potato stew, mashed potato, roasted potato and boiled potato every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The other dish that might be present are: roast chicken, roast deer, roast boar, roast fish or roasted bear, vegetable soup, potato noodle soup, different shapes of wheat bread, wheat cereal, bran cereal, corn soup, oatmeal and, pottage.

There will be sometimes fruits, berries, nuts, crabs and honey, depending on the season and my father's luck.

Mud crabs are available in the summer. Land crabs are available in spring. Sea crabs in autumn. Winged crabs in winter.

Mother cook grilled mud crab, the always present 6 potato dishes, and vegetable soup for lunch. She also baked different shapes of wheat bread.

I always play with Alice Spencer, Mark Jenkins, Jack Rodriguez, John Dupont and Josh Vogel after lunch when my condition is great. One of our favorite pastimes is playing football in the nearby dirt field.

We use the small brown ball owned by Alice and dig a small hole in the dirt field that serves as our makeshift goal area. The other pastime is watching peasants lose their homes to a slime invasion.

A single slime would scout the house or property they would invade and most of the time, they ignore the house or property.

The invasion begins when, for some goddamn reason, they return with a slime army. A medium slime or larger always leads the slime army.

The adventurers will help the peasant in defending the property until they are successfully relocated to a suitable location.

Slimes will usually retreat from the battle and return the next day with an even bigger army. The peasant or owner of the property will lose in the end because of the persistence and immortality of slimes.

It is weird that slimes target one property at a time. After capturing it, they will plant a red crab flag on the property to mark their territory. This behaviour of slime is mysterious, as if someone taught them this strategy and became deeply engrained that all slime inherited it. They seem to possess an unlimited amount of red crab flags hidden inside their bodies.

I have identified some spells that a regular slime uses they are: fusion, fission, mitosis, spell absorption, portable body storage and call for help.

Slimes would gather at the same location and then use fusion to create a bigger slime.

Fission is the opposite where the slimes would split to their original size.

When slimes eat a lot, their body will also grow. If they reach a point where their body size is twice their original body size, the mitosis spell will trigger and the slime will split into two identical slimes reduced to the initial body size.

Slimes can use spell absorption when they are able to eat the spell thrown at them. Their bodies will absorb the spell and their color will change to the nature of the spell. For example, they will turn red and will gain an increased fire resistance if they have eaten a fire spell.

The slime uses the portable body storage to store an unknown number of objects inside their body. The process is simple: they eat the object and instead of dissolving the object; they store it inside their body using the spell. To retrieve objects inside their body, they spit it out.

Call for help, as the name suggests the slimes would call for reinforcements. The range and duration of this spell is unknown because even after the battle has ended months ago, slimes still arrive and ended up staying in our village.

Slimes are actually important to the village as they help repel dangerous magical beasts and monsters that roam the Great Maple Forest.

Slimes are generally docile and ignore humans most of the time. If you go near their territory, they would hop menacingly. According to grandmother, slimes are easy to tame as they require nothing to make a contract. They sign it with no hesitation and you can summon them without any time limitation. The problem is they rarely listen to their master's commands.

The smallest slime is called regular size slime. It has a translucent blue body and measures 20x20 cm. They are named after sizes, food they eat (buttermilk slime), job positions (e.g. grand priest slime), social status (e.g. lord slime) and sometimes evolve from wearing certain clothes (comrade slime). Evolved slimes are more powerful and have access to more spells.

2 years have passed, and grandmother allowed me to enter the library while under her supervision.

"Just stay here and don't touch anything while I search for 'The Basic Guide to Magic'."

I nodded.

We have a lot of books that are unpublished, and my ancestors wrote it using their own knowledge.

Most of the books here give off a sense of danger, like something powerful is trapped inside its pages.

It took a while for her to find it.

"Let's go to the living room and read this book there."

I nodded.

We sat in a brown chair and placed the book on a small round table. I flipped the book to page 1 to see the contents.

Chapter 1 - Mana Control, Replenishment, and Capacity

Mana control is one of the most important skills for a mage to learn.

There are two types of mana control: basic and advanced.

To practice it, the first thing you need to do is concentrate, close your eyes and feel the mana stored deep inside of your body.

The next step is gathering a bit of mana and sending it to your hands.

The last step is releasing the mana you gathered into your hands to the surrounding environment.

Here are the benefits when you master basic mana control:

1. You form your spells more stable. Since you can set the amount of mana that goes toward the spell, the mana flowing outside of your body to form the spell is also stable and it makes it harder for others to interrupt your spell casting.. This makes it powerful or weaker, depending on the amount of mana poured on to it.

2. You can accurately determine the amount of mana you currently have.

3. Access to more complicated spells.

4. It makes it harder for others to steal mana away from you.

5. You are able to gather more mana efficiently from your surroundings to use for your spells, or replenish your mana capacity.

6. Faster spell casting.

7. The ability to sense the strength of your opponent from their magical aura. This has limitations, as you can not determine the full strength of someone more powerful than you.

8. The ability to hide your magical aura from others. You will have a hard time hiding it from opponents who have sharp magic sense.

9. Enchanting items, weapons, armor, etc. to make it more powerful.

10. Engraving runes to items, weapons, armor, etc. to make it more powerful.

11. Using your mana as a shield to block spells and physical attacks.

12. Absorbing grimoires to boost your own strength and mana capacity permanently.

13. Modifying your spells, for example, making the spell pierce through magical defenses.

14. Creating scrolls.

15. Unlocks magic sense. This helps you sense magic aura from other people or nearby hidden spells. Anti-magic materials such as Tekrite can block magic sense.

16. Creating relics.

17. Creating artifacts.

18. Creating grimoires.

19. Coating your body and things with mana.

20. Creating contracts to tame monsters or beasts.

These are the ways to replenish your mana: breathing air, sleeping, absorbing mana from others, eating, and gathering mana from your surroundings.

The nerves linked to your mana capacity finish to develop at 3 years old.

Mana capacity develops at 4 years old and peaks at 25 years old.

It starts with random puddles around your body and gradually spreads all over your body equally.

The other ways to expand your mana capacity are absorbing grimoires and transcendence.

I didn't expect how important the role it plays in the world of fantasy and magic. This is completely different from what I learned from playing games, watching anime and reading manga. It makes sense that mana control is often overlooked because it is not exciting to learn, read and watch.

"Have you finished reading chapter 1?" grandma asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"We will start our basic mana control training after eating lunch. Make sure you follow the instructions."

We sat and prayed before eating lunch.

After lunch, grandma and I went to the front yard to start the training.

I followed the instructions and failed for the first three tries.

"Grandma, why am I failing?"

"This is because you are not used to controlling mana and, the amount of mana you can control right now is tiny, so just try again until you succeed."

I tried for the fourth time, and I was overcome by joy that I succeeded. I couldn't believe how hard it is compared to just imagining it and watching it in anime.

My body felt heavy, and I collapsed on the ground. After a few hours, I woke up in my mother's lap and she was smiling at me.

"I heard from your grandmother that you succeeded in practicing basic mana control for the first time," my mother said.

"Yes but, I lost consciousness after doing it," I replied.

She patted my head and said, "Don't be sad about it since it happened to all of us, even your grandmother experienced it."

"Even her?"

"Yes, because not everyone is born powerful and their mana capacity is already huge. Humans have a disadvantage at birth against most races, but we close the gap through training, hard work, talent and creativity."

I tried to stand up and failed since my body felt numb and weak.

"Don't try to move around since this is your first time suffering from mana exhaustion. Just lie down here and I will feed you dinner."

"What is mana exhaustion?"

"It is a condition where you exhausted your mana to the point your body is weakened. Its symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, numbness, headache, chest tightness, loss of consciousness and, in extreme cases, death. It can be cured by resting, eating, drinking mana potions, and absorbing mana from others or in nature. You can also alleviate some effects of mana exhaustion by strengthening your body through physical training."

We heard knocks from the door, and grandmother entered my room.

"Oh, you are finally awake," she said.

"You have a new training schedule for tomorrow. Your father will train you in swordsmanship and sword skills to strengthen your body. Your mother will train you in archery to enhance your accuracy and precision. I will continue to train you and I will add your friends to the training to motivate you," she added.

"What do we expect from your training?" I said.

"Once everybody has decent basic mana control, I will teach everyone how to create magic circles and how to cast spells. After that, we will practice combat against each other and for your ultimate test, you and your friends will hunt a golden brown bear in the nearby forest," she replied.

"When do we start the training?"

"We will start tomorrow. The sword and bow training will happen in the morning and will end before lunch. While mine will start after lunch and will end before dinner. Your friends will also join your morning training. So get some rest because you will start early in the morning and good night," she replied.

Grandmother closed the door and left me alone with mother.

This is one of the rare opportunities where I could bond with my mother.

"Mom, can you sleep with me and tell me a story?"

"Sure, I will sleep with you because you wanted me to. I will be back and feed you."

"Okay."

It took mom a few minutes to return.

"Your dinner is roasted duck, vegetable soup and your favorite potato dishes."

"I wanna hear about your adventures while eating."

"So what do you wanna hear?"

"I wanna know how you met father and some other details about our family."

She helped me sit upright and sat in a chair beside my bed.

She placed a napkin on my lap and tucked the other into my neckline before giving me a spoonful of potato soup.

"I met your father when I was twelve and at that time I was still living in Westminster. He was with your grandmother adventuring together and they were there to exorcise a greater demon."

*cough* *cough*

She handed me a glass of water to drink.

"She is not a priest, so why would she do it?"

"As far as I could remember, the governor of the city got possessed and the adventurer's guild put up an emergency quest to address the situation quickly. The archbishop and bishop were away, and the remaining priests at the church were not strong enough to defeat it. Your grandmother fit the requirements, and she used the spell 'judgement' to obliterate the greater demon from existence. It is also one of the reason why I joined their party after seeing her strength."

"Then how did you fall in love with dad?"

"The other reason for joining their party is because of him. He was my type, and I was thrilled when he professed his love and asked me on a date."

Her face turned bright red, and she smiled affectionately.

"I thought he saved you somewhere in a dungeon and fell in love after that."

"Your grandmother was always saving his life to make sure he produced children to continue the family bloodline before he die."

She gently wiped my face with a napkin to remove residue in my face.

"Did you guys became famous?"

"We are a famous party, but our faces are not well known except for a select few individuals who are close to our family. This is because of your grandmother insisting that we always use a mask whenever we accept a quest or collect a reward in the adventurer's guild. If we go out in the public, we change into simple clothes to avoid unnecessary attention and prevent them from discovering our true identities."

"Why did you choose to settle in this village?"

"This village is located in the most remote region of the empire and it is also the largest village on the entire continent. Despite its size, it never gets taxed due to how poor it is. The few instances they send someone important here are when they need to test 6-year-old children for their magic capability and grant them scholarship to enter the imperial magic academy."

"Are there any perks besides the scholarship?"

"They also grant you a house in the capital city and some gold coins every month."

"Is that the reason I need to undergo this training?"

"Yes, and it is already decided by your grandmother. Oh, the training starts early, so wake up early tomorrow. Let's continue our conversation next time."

I nodded.

She picked me up, entered the kitchen to wash the plates, and brushed my teeth. We went back to my room and changed my clothes into a simple brown t-shirt and pajamas.

She kissed my forehead and said, "Goodnight, Felix."

"Goodnight mom," I replied.

I hugged her tightly and slept.

I felt someone shaking my whole body and hear the voice of my mom shouting my name repeatedly.

"Felix!"

"Felix!"

"Five more minutes," I replied.

"Wake up now or else your grandmother will be the one who will force you out of bed," she said.

I forced myself out of bed and headed straight to the dining room. I ate my breakfast as fast as possible and went to the nearby dirt field that serves as our playground and training ground.

The weather is sunny and warm with almost no wind today.

My friends waved their hands as soon as they spot me running towards them.

"Felix, you are late," Mark said.

*pant* *pant*

I caught my breath before lining up.

"Everyone is now here. We will now start the warm up exercise before doing the actual training," Father said.

We did a warmup exercise for a few minutes.

"What kind of training are we going to do?" John asked.

He gave a small wooden sword to each one of us.

"You will be swinging this wooden sword for 5 minutes, then a break of 10 minutes. Push-ups for 5 minutes followed by another 10 minute break. The last one is running around the front yard for 5 minutes," Father replied.

"What is the purpose of this training?" Josh asked.

"This is to strengthen your body and improve stamina, endurance, speed and agility," Father replied.

"We don't need to do this training when we just need to use magic to defeat the enemy," Jack said.

"That is where you are wrong. You need this training so that your body can handle the strain of casting magic for long periods of time and be able to cast higher tier spells, since it places a massive toll on your body, specifically the tier 7 and above spells. You also need a backup weapon in case your magic can't help you defeat the enemy," Father replied.

My friends looked at me like they want me to object to this training.

"There's nothing I could do but follow it. Grandma has already decided that we will undergo this training," I said.

"Your grandma is scary and we don't want to make her mad. So let's start the training," Alice replied.

I barely completed training while my friends finished it with no problems.

Alice approached me, hugged me, and said, "Are you okay?"

Her body feels soft, and she smells good, even after sweating a lot. What kind of soap or perfume does she use?

"I am fine. It's just that my body feels heavy," I replied.

"If you are fine, then can you loosen your hug cause it's too tight, and it's also embarrassing to do it in front of others," she said.

I removed both of my hands from her back and she sat beside me. The rest of my friends also sat near us after a few minutes.

Why is she embarrassed about it when we often do it, or am I just too shameless?

We spent the next hour resting and waiting for the bow training.

"Get up now. The training is about to start," mom said.

We lined up in a single row and each of us got a wooden bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"What are we going to do with this?" Mark asked.

"You are going to hit that target using that bow," mom replied.

There are 5 targets about a meter away for us to hit.

"Why is there a small red circle in the middle?" Alice asked.

"That is the area where your arrows need to hit," she replied.

"How long are we going to do this training?" Josh asked.

"We will end before lunch, but you can take an early rest if you feel tired," she replied.

Mom drew a straight line.

"This distance should be good enough. Stand before this line," she said.

She showed us how to do it and she got a bullseye effortlessly.

We followed her instructions and started the training.

I picked up one arrow and placed it on the bow. I made sure my stance was proper, pulled the string, aimed at my target, and released.

The arrow flew and hit the target, but it was quite far from bullseye.

It still made me happy that it hit, considering it was my first time.

I continued to fire arrows at my target and I got tired twenty minutes later.

Almost all the arrows I fired were far from bullseye and the rest were near misses.

I watched my friends from the sidelines, and they were a lot better than me.

Josh got the most bullseye followed by Mark, Alice, Jack and John.

Mom approached me, looked at my target and said, "not bad for your first time considering you were struggling to keep your posture."

If this was a fps game, I would not miss the bullseye even with my eyes closed.

"Even in my previous life, I did not know how to use a bow," I replied.

"Sounds like you had a peaceful life," she said.

"It was peaceful, but it cost a lot of human lives to get it," I replied.

"I will not delve more into your previous life. So what do you think of Alice?" she asked.

"What do you mean by that, mom?" I replied.

"She hugs you, and you give her a lot of attention when playing together with your friends," she said.

"Oh, so that's what you meant. I like her," I replied.

I smiled and noticed Alice was looking at me. She blushed and turned around when we made eye contact.

It looks like she was listening to my conversation with mom.

"If that's the case, you should remember that having a relationship at a young age is normal here and polygamy is acceptable here," she said.

I didn't dare ask her why father has 1 wife.

The answer was quite obvious. It is acceptable, but it does not mean everyone practices it.

"Look mom, everyone has finished their training. What should we do next?" I asked.

"Everyone can take a rest and play while waiting for lunchtime," she replied.

My friends sat near me.

"I won our bet since I got the most bullseye," Josh said.

"You just got lucky and Felix wasn't feeling well. If he was in good condition, he would beat you effortlessly," Jack replied.

"What was your bet?" I asked.

"Whoever got the most bullseye decides where we eat lunch. Since I won, we will eat lunch at Felix's house until we finish our training," Josh replied.

"Why would you make that kind of bet?" I asked.

"You never invited us to eat lunch at your house. It also made us curious what food do you eat?" Mark replied.

"Prepare to be disappointed then," I said.

"How much time do we have before lunch?" John asked.

"About an hour," Alice replied.

We agreed to spend the remaining time we have by going to the nearby makeshift football field and play football. My mother called us to eat lunch and I can't wait for their disappointed faces.

The table was big enough to accommodate my five friends and my family.

They got disappointed when they saw that two-thirds of the dishes served are potato dishes. They are fortunate that we got roasted wild boar for lunch today because father got lucky to hunt one.

We went straight to the front yard after eating lunch to wait for the next training.

"What should we expect from your grandmother's training?" Alice asked.

"Difficult," I replied.

"Why do you think so?" Mark asked.

"The previous trainings we had was easy, and we were not pushed to our limits," I replied.

"I guess we should wait for your grandmother and rest here," Josh said.

"I agree with Josh," John replied.

We patiently waited for an hour for grandmother to start our training.

"Get up now and make sure to keep at least a one meter distance from each other," grandmother said.

We followed her instructions, and she then gave us a wooden staff.

"What is this wooden staff for?" I asked.

"It is called a novice staff. It makes it a lot easier to gather mana, control mana flow, and form magic circles a lot quicker, so your mana control progress will be a lot faster and help you cast spells swiftly. This has limitations though as staffs have a limited amount of mana it can regulate and the durability limits the amount of spell and the tier level you can cast with it," grandmother replied.

"What should we do if we run out of mana while practicing?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I will refill your mana to speed up progress and not wait for it to fill on its own as it takes one day or longer," grandmother replied.

"What are we going to do for our training?" Alice asked.

"Felix, demonstrate what you did last time in practicing mana control, but this time you release your mana with the help of the staff," grandmother said.

I remembered the instructions on the book and followed them, but this time I gathered it using the staff and released it.

The color of my mana is dark blue with some black mix in it.

"What did you just do?' Mark asked.

"I followed the instructions on a book about how to practice mana control," I replied.

"What are the instructions you read?" Josh asked.

"The instructions were: Concentrate, close your eyes, and feel the mana stored deep inside your body. Then you gather a bit of your mana to the staff and release it into the environment," I replied.

My friends followed my instructions and succeeded in their first try.

I am a bit jealous that they did not struggle.

"Felix, can you tell me what the color of their mana is?" grandmother asked.

"Alice got a red color, Jack got green, Josh got blue, Mark got brown and John got white," I replied.

"That is right. Can you describe their magical auras while practicing mana control?" grandmother asked.

"Their auras were calm then, it made multiple waves and returned to normal," I replied.

"What else did you notice about magical auras?" grandmother asked.

"Magical auras are unique to each individual and the color of their magical auras depends on the color of their mana. They differ in size, shape, and concentration," I replied.

"That is correct. I will now explain what is a magical aura, so listen carefully," grandmother said.

We nodded.

"Magical aura is a small portion of the user's total mana that is constantly emitted from the body. The more mana you have, the stronger it is. It contains information like how strong they are, age, race, mana control, etc. There are two types of magical aura: flowing river and Stillwater," grandmother said.

"What is it like to have a flowing river aura?" I asked.

"Flowing river auras are affected by emotions, the volume of mana the individual owns, amount of mana flowing outside the body, and it creates waves that an opponent with good magic sense or someone like Felix can detect. The stronger they are, the more powerful auras they emit, and the bigger the wave they produce," grandmother replied.

"How about the Stillwater aura?" Alice asked.

"Stillwater auras are rare. It can be inherited or obtained through mastering advanced mana control. Individuals with this type of aura are mistaken for humans with no talent in magic, since they emit extremely weak auras that are hard to see or sense. Unlike the flowing river aura, the aura it produces does not get stronger over time compared to the strength of the user. It will also remain calm even if the user feels intense emotions and whether or not the individual is casting spells," grandmother replied.

"What does magical aura do besides that?" I asked.

"If you become powerful, the pressure of your magical aura will also rise. You can concentrate it on an individual or area to immobilize or crush them similar to gravity manipulation spell. Some very powerful and highly skilled aura manipulators can shape their auras to tiger, lion, bear etc. to intimidate others or even change the temperature of the environment," grandmother replied.

My friends turned their attention to me.

"You can see mana and the magical aura of others?" Alice asked.

"Yes," I replied.

They stared at my eyes for quite some time and gave up.

"Even if you stared at his eyes for a long time, you won't see it because you are not born with that talent and it is a hereditary talent passed down generation to generation," grandmother said.

"Then how are you able to see when there is mana everywhere?" John asked.

"I could turn it on and off whenever I want. You will notice that my eye color changes from blue to silver," I replied.

I showed them how it's done and they got impressed.

There are a lot of difference from what I see when I switch to my silver eye. I don't see any shadows with it and even if I stare at the sun, I don't get blinded by the bright light. I could also see the ethereal dimension and the spirits living inside it, and horrifying monsters that the naked human eye can't see.

"Why not spend time practicing mana control instead of wasting it on talking with each other?" grandmother said.

We went back to our positions and practiced mana control. We only stopped to eat snacks and wait for grandmother to refill our mana.

"Let's stop the training for now as it is getting dark already," grandmother said.

"Did we improve a lot?" Josh asked.

"Everyone improved leaps and bounds," grandmother replied.

"How long will it take for us to learn spells?" John asked.

"At your current progress, I would say 6 or 7 months," grandmother replied.

Everyone went their separate ways as we returned home to eat dinner.