"Today was a long day," thought Flynn, as he submerged himself in scalding water. The whole bathroom was full of steam, turning the whole place into a sauna. Flynn could hear the notification sounds from his phone, but the water was too alluring. Ignoring it, he relaxed his tense muscles. "I'm getting weaker," thought Flynn, as he recalled today's fights. Although he could outpower the majority of amateurs, he still struggled when it comes to trained mages. He still had to chant when he wanted to cast Scalpel, and he still need to improve on his body's strength.
Mages could improve their body's overall power and durability by slowly refining it with mana. It was a painful process, and it takes a lot of time. Sitting in the bathtub, Flynn began to circulate mana all across his body. After a while, Flynn could feel a tingling sensation, followed by a burning pain that was getting more and more unbearable by the second. Gritting his teeth, he persisted through the process. The water in the tub was dyed red, not from blood but from myoglobin and hemoglobin. The process forcefully runs a high voltage of mana through the muscles, forcefully destroying them, and then replacing them with cells that were enhanced. The process was painful, since you were basically renovating your own body.
Flynn was in the bathtub for about an hour or so, and when he got out, his skin was bright red from all the mana circulation. Wiping of the condensation on the mirror, Flynn stared into his own eyes. Relaxing his pupils, he could forcefully make a perfect poker face. Looking at his perfect acting skills, Flynn grinned, then went on to practicing his provocative expressions. From a smug grin to mocking stares, Flynn was so good at it that he wanted to punch his own reflection.
Wiping his hair dry, he casually put on some clothes. Grabbing his holophone that he left on the dressing table, he checked his unread messages. It was his father, who'd finally replied after a couple of hours. "Protect your brother. Don't die. Take them down," his father only texted three simple sentences. Sighing, Flynn replied, "Got it." His father was always a weird man. He would sometimes be so caring of his family, but would often times turn into a cold-blooded monster. For a man who came from nothing, it was definitely impressive that his father managed to climb the ranks so quickly. Unlike Yen, his father wasn't someone who focused on his medical skills, he rather battle for authority, slowly clawing through the barricades that blocked him from climbing the social economic ladder. His father was attentive and smart, dodging schemes while simultaneously taking out his competitors. Within two decades, he was practically one of the most influential people in the Doctor's Union.
However, that came with its consequences. Yen could return home everyday, although sometimes not until midnight. His father could only return once every month if they were lucky, sometimes he would even leave for more than three months. This lead to the worsening of the already ramshackle foundation of the relationship between Flynn's parents. However, this wasn't important for Flynn since Rick was his main focus. He would graduate from the school in about a year, so he had to prepare Rick for the worst. Flynn was really worried that if their parents one day divorced, Rick would be unable to accept it. With that in mind, Flynn began to spend about an hour everyday with Rick. They would do lots of things, from playing video games to studying for upcoming tests. Flynn would always slip in a couple of magic lessons, trying to teach Rick the basics so he could defend himself.
In the "training room" in the basement, which was actually just an oversized garage, Flynn was trying to cast Scalpel without chanting. First time he tried, the spell instantly became unstable, almost slicing of his own finger. With his sliver ring on his finger, he tried again and again, cuts slowly covering his hand. Yen was sitting in the corner of the room, instructing Flynn. "It is really not that hard, you just have to imagine a knife that could cut through almost all organic matter," Yen said, after Flynn failed again. Lying on the ground, Flynn was almost out of mana since he'd already tried casting Scalpel for at least twenty times.
"I bet you couldn't do it when you were my age," Flynn said, panting. "You are just to lazy," replied Yen, typing something into her holophone. "What's this?" Flynn asked, receiving a message from his mother. "Open it up," Yen said, looking at Flynn with a little bit of mockery. Downloading the picture Yen sent him, he opened it up. It was his mother's grades for her Element Registration. "A perfect score for the written exam?" Flynn was only a bit shocked since he already knew that his mother was a test machine, crushing every exam she took. "There's more," Yen said, prompting Flynn to scroll down. Looking at the other part of the report card, Flynn's jaws almost dropped. 75 points? He thought that the maximum was only 60, which he obtained by healing the rabbit without using any catalysts.
Looking at Flynn's dumbfounded expression, Yen grinned. "See, I told you that you are too lazy," she said, shrugging. "75 points, that's impossible!" Flynn said, convincing himself that his mother probably edited the document. "Not only did I heal the rabbit with Invigorate, I also found the hidden bonus points," Yen said, proud of herself. "What bonus points?" Flynn asked, confused. "There was a tumor that was manually grown on the rabbit's brain, about a millimeter wide, I removed it with Scalpel," his mother replied. "A millimeter wide, how could you remove that with Scalpel?" Flynn asked. With a snap of her fingers, the spell formed between her fingers, thinner than a piece of paper. "This is your biggest problem with this spell, you already have a predetermined form of the Scalpel in your mind, which greatly limits the spell," Yen said, showcasing her skills. Casually conjuring some mana, a two foot mana blade appeared in her hand. Looking at the blue, glass like blade, Flynn was in awe of his mother's skills.
"Try again tomorrow, your mana reserves are almost empty," Yen said, sensing that her son was almost devoid of all mana. Dragging his exhausted body back to his room, he fell face first into the soft bed, the cozy blanket welcoming his arrival. His eyes slowly shut.
But just before he fell asleep, his holophone suddenly rang. Accepting the call, Flynn asked in a sleepy voice, "What's wrong?" Sherry's familiar voice came through, "Nothing much, I just want to tell you that I've signed up for the Joint Sports Day event. Are you sleeping?" "Of course I'm sleeping, it's already midnight!" Flynn thought. "Be careful, something is fishy about the event. And no, I was just preparing to go to bed," he replied. The boy's and girl's schools were separated, so Flynn might run into Sherry at the event. "Don't be silly, how could anything happen during the event if it's held by Eternity?" Sherry said, not really taking in Flynn's advice. Knowing that there was no use trying to convince Sherry, Flynn and Sherry talked about some random stuff, mostly about things that happened during school.
After about twenty minutes, Sherry was already fast asleep since Flynn could clearly hear her snoring. Flynn sat on his bed, trying to prepare his mind for the things to come. He knew that today's incident was just the start of a brewing storm, and he will definitely be prepared. He was kind of rusty since it had been a while since he gone through the hellish training phase. Although he still practiced, and his magic was definitely improving, he could feel his mind slowly losing his edge since he didn't really use it as much as he did. "I guess I should be prepare for the worst," thought Flynn, getting out of bed. Inputting some mana into a locked box, the runes lit up as the whole box disintegrated into wood chips. It was a birthday gift he received from his father, inside the box was a new catalyst, one much better than the silver one he was currently using. The new catalyst was also in the shape of a ring, and although it had the same color as his original ring, Flynn knew that this new ring was crafted with Mithril and Platinum. It was about sixty times more expensive than his old ring, but was still a lot cheaper than the pearl Yen was using.
Trying on the new ring, Flynn could feel his control over his own mana elevate, being able to circulate it more easily and at higher amounts. "I'm not someone who sits still and waits for his own demise, prepare to tackle my wrath," Flynn said.