The alarm clock once again ripped Nick from that other world, it was the last day of his suspension today. The first day of his suspension was mundane to say the least. At least as mundane as it can be when at night you travel to a different world to practice magic. However, the realization that Nick could use that magic in the real world was surprising. It made him wonder just how much of what happened in the other world affected him in the real world.
Nick sat up and rubbed his eyes, turning off his alarm. "God, that's so annoying..." He mumbled as he got up and began to start his day. He took a shower, got dressed, exercised, and ate breakfast just like any other day. If it weren't for technology, he was not sure what he would do all day. It's not like he had friends he could go and hang out with even if they weren't currently in school. He didn't know Mark's number or anything yet so they couldn't contact each other.
Nick washed his plate and went up to his room, he decided to listen to some music and work on his mana control. He had made a lot of progress in his mana control, he was told he could harness his mana at about the same level of the average ten year old. Not bad for just one day of training to go from an infant to a ten year old in terms of mana control. He could maintain a steady field of mana around his arms for around thirty minutes until running out of steam, which he didn't think was that bad. However, most in the other world can have a field of mana around them for most of the day if not all day without much trouble, though that's only if it's a minimal coating and not what they would actually use in combat.
He was told that once he could maintain a coating of mana around his whole body that Kane would start to teach him how to use shock magic until there was a proper trainer available. Nick imagined most of his day would be completely filled up with training until he was at a comfortable strength level. In terms of physical strength he was about as strong as a physically fit adult male, so he could always cut back on physical training a little bit if he needed to. It's not like he currently had much better to do in that world besides train, and right now he didn't exactly have anything better to do either. However, there was no healing magic so he couldn't do any more physical training today.
Nick zoned out and listened to music for a while until he gradually ran out of steam, he was working on coating his torso too which knocked down the time he could maintain it from thirty minutes to ten. It would be an hour or two before he regained his mana again, he decided to do what most kids his age do to waste time, which was watching YouTube. He was watching YouTube on his laptop, he was twenty minutes into a gaming video when his door shot open. Nick looked towards his door with a confused look, his eyes growing wide when he realized who was at the door.
"My boy!" The man shouted, running towards Nick with his arms stretched outwards.
"Dad?" His dad ran over to him and hugged him tightly, Nick was too stunned to move for a few seconds. Once his mind had finally processed what had just happened he hugged his father back. "You're back?"
"Yes, sorry it took so long. I hit a couple snags while trying to get some time off and also while trying to travel back from where I was in China." His father, whose name was Steven, released his hug and looked over Nick. "God, look at you... You can move, you can walk... It's like a dream." Nick could see tears starting to form in his father's eyes.
"Yeah, my deformity seems to have fixed itself and I slowly regained use of my limbs." Nick informed his father, though he assumed he probably already knew that much.
"I wish I could have been here to see it, but who would have guessed while I was half way around the world my son would be suddenly healed?" Steven took another look at his son, a look of slight confusion coming over his face. "You been working out?"
Nick couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, I figured that since I'm going to school now I should work on my appearance a bit."
"But... man, you were able to get this much muscle in such a short time? What in the world is your mother feeding you?" He asked, only half joking. It took him a second to realize something. "Wait, school? If you are in enrolled in an actual school how come you are home right now?"
"Ah... I may have gotten suspended after a bit of a fight..." Nick nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.
"A fight?" Steven nearly shouted, quickly standing up straight. "Are you hurt? What happened?"
"I'm fine... You should see the other guy..." Nick was trying to lighten the mood with some joking. His father looked like a balloon deflating as he sat down on the desk that Nick had his laptop on.
"Well, how long are you suspended?"
"I only got suspended for two days because it's my first offence and it was self defense. Today is the last day of my suspension."
"Alright, okay..." Steven began to calm down. "It was self defense, so it's fine. I'm just glad you are okay. What happened to the other kid?"
"Ah... After he punched me I kinda saw red for a couple seconds and punched him in the nose. It broke his nose and he got a concussion and had to go to the hospital." His father went wide eyed at the news.
"Jesus, how many times did you punch the poor kid to give him a concussion?"
"Ah, I only hit him once..."
Steven got a confused look on his face once again. "Once? How did he get a concussion." He sighed and ran a hand through his shoulder length brown hair before looking at his son with his emerald green eyes. "Well, none of that matters, as long as it doesn't happen again." Steven reached out and ruffled Nick's hair before standing up.
"I doubt anyone will try to mess with me after what happened."
"I wouldn't bet on it, some unsavory people might take an interest in you." Steven turned and began to make his way to the door of his son's room. "I'm gonna go put my stuff away, we can talk more later."
Nick nodded, watching his father leave his room. The sudden appearance of his father really surprised him, usually his father called before he got home to tell them. Nick just assumed he was in such a hurry to get home he forgot, or maybe he wanted to surprise them. Nick went back to watching YouTube until he could once again train his mana. He couldn't wait until he was able to coat his entire body in a protective layer of mana.
Over the course of the rest of the day he was able to get his mana control to a point where he could keep his entire upper body coated for twenty minutes. At dinner he ate pizza and cake as he talked with his parents, apparently his father wanted to celebrate even though he was a bit late coming home. Nick had no objections, he loved both cake and pizza. They talked about a lot of different things, everything besides the fight at school. His father didn't want to bring down the mood by talking about it.
After a quick hug and kiss goodnight from his father Nick went to bed at the same time he does every night, waking up once again in the fantasy world that awaited him. He was sitting on top of his bed where he was practicing his mana control the night before. After his morning routine of bathing, healing, and eating he went to the gym to train. He was hoping at some point he could break out of this routine and do something exciting outside of the walls of the castle. He hoped once he learned how to use his magic he could check out the adventurers guild and maybe look into going on a quest.
When he entered the gym he noticed something strange, none of the workout equipment besides the punching bag and a few rubber mats were out. Strange, I'm not early... He looked around and saw Kane coming out of the back room, he had a couple of rolled up balls of black cloth in his hands. "What's going on? Where is the equipment?"
"Ah, this is all we will need today. Today we are going to alternate between hand to hand combat training and mana control." Kane said, tossing the rolled up pieces of cloth to Nick.
Nick caught them and looked at them. "I really think we should practice with swords instead of fists... What do I do with these?"
"You have to learn to walk before you learn to run, boy. And you wrap those around your hand and forearm, like I got mine." He pointed to the worn out white wraps he always wore.
"Ah, okay." Nick began to wrap them around his hands and arms as he continued to talk. "Why do I need to learn hand to hand combat before using a sword?"
"Hand to hand combat training helps your coordination while also giving you practical skills to use if you are ever disarmed or get into some kind of brawl."
"I see." Nick continued to put on the wraps in silence as Kane watched. "Alright... Done."
"Sloppy, but it will do. I will teach you how to properly put them on tomorrow."
Nick began training, Kane had him practice mana control until he became exhausted and then he began to teach Nick the basics of hand to hand combat, whether it be striking, dodging, blocking, or footwork. It seemed extremely complicated to Nick, but so had the exercises Kane had him doing for a while. He assumed he would get the hang of it eventually, though he wasn't that motivated to learn much about hand to hand combat. This went on for many hours, every time he ran out of mana he would learn about combat until it came back. Eventually Nick was able to keep a coating of mana around his body for around five minutes.
"It looks like you've got basic mana control down, now you just need to hone that and learn how to sustain it while moving and focusing on other things. You want maintaining a field of mana around your body to become second nature. You are getting close to your age group when it comes to mana control and capacity. However, you may start to plateau soon unless you keep training hard and consistently."
"Why is this average for my age group if I've only been doing this for a couple days?"
"Honestly, I expected it to take about a week or two. I guess you have some talent. Not to mention most kids don't really practice magic a lot until they become a bit older. It's rare for a kid your age to train their magic, most just use it for everyday tasks and are content with that." Kane shrugged.
"Huh, that's so weird. Magic is such an incredible thing and they don't even use it that much." Nick had a hard time understanding why someone who could use magic wouldn't use it all the time. He knew he would use shock magic all the time if he learned how to control it.
"Magic is new for you, but for these people it is just part of everyday life. It's usually just the military that focuses on magic training."
"Huh, I guess I can understand that in a way. If you are exposed to something your whole life you will become desensitized."
"Indeed. That about wraps up our training for today then, until we meet next you should work on maintaining a mana coating while doing tasks whenever possible. I think I have found a person willing to teach you the ways of shock magic, if he agrees he will be here tomorrow as well."
Nick nodded and stood up, leaving the gym after thanking Kane for doing all of this for him. For the rest of the day he continued to work on his mana control while doing tasks like walking, eating, and reading. It was hard at first, but he got the hang of it. He also noticed the time he could maintain it steadily increasing every time. The rest of the day passed by quickly, his alarm clock eventually waking him up for his first day back at school since the fight.