In the capital city of Tremond, Settex, Gabriel is walking down its streets. Gabriel is looking at any store he comes around, he came to the city today because he was thinking of buying a few things he needed for his school and also because he needed a little break of a week of training all day in physical and magical forms.
A week has passed by ever since Gabriel learned how to and learned the skill [Mana Control] from Professor Anderson. Throughout this whole week, Gabriel has learned about spells and even performed those spells.
The whole week that Professor Anderson taught the whole class about spells and how to use them, Gabriel has noticed something really important, that is that the spells that the whole academy or this kingdom considered strong or advanced are not that special.
Having come from a world that doesn't have any fantasy touch to it but an incredible imagination helps him see the truth about this aspect of magic in this world. Gabriel doesn't know if there is more advanced magic in somewhere else but for what he has seen it is a little disappointing for him.
The magic of this world is so basic that the only types of magic there exist or have been thought of are about four elements: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth. With their distinct types like defense types or attack types, and from small to medium attacks and defense.
There isn't even any buff magic or debuff magic in their category. The only reason that they are more or less strong is because they see more importance with the size of the Mana Core than the magic itself.
This made Gabriel disappointed, it wasn't as magical as he thought. The only fantasy touch he has seen since waking up in this new world has been Mana and Talents.
The thing about Talents is that although some people are born with talents, this is in fact a rare occurrence. Almost 23% of the population of the Tremond kingdom have a talent. The nature of the talent varies from person to person.
Some have the ability to give special effects to items or weapons like sharpness or durability, some have the ability to increase their healing speed, and some even have the ability to share part of their strength with someone.
Talents come in different forms, this has been a known fact ever since talents have been discovered, and that's why people with talents are coveted by big and small organizations; this depends on the type of talent.
As for Mana, although many are born with the capabilities of using Mana, not all have the chance of being able to control mana making the growth of Mana hard for them. This makes that part of the population resort to using Mana to grow their reserve by exhausting their Mana and then rest to increase the quantity.
But this has a downside that it kills most of the people that even try doing this, because some doesn't even know when their mana is exhausted and ends up using their life energy killing them instantly the moment they exhaust that.
That's what made Gabriel mostly disappointed, it still had its fantasy touch but it was still a normal world in its own way. But Gabriel decided to stop thinking about this and just focus on the now.
Gabriel sighed heavily, his disappointment palpable.
"I was completely fooled by the illusions of Magic." he muttered, he couldn't shake off the feeling of longing for a more fantastical reality.
Gabriel then started to have a flashback of the week prior. The flashback was in the classroom with Professor Anderson behind his Pod.
Professor Anderson grabbed the side of his pod and with a loud voice he greeted all his students that were eager to learn about magic.
"Good Morning, students! Who's ready to learn magic today?" Professor Anderson asked with a wide smile. The room filled with the sound of eager cheers from the students, excited to delve into the world of magic.
Some shouted loud and some raised their hands while also voicing their eagerness. To this Professor Anderson let it go for a while before he decided to finally quiet down the students before he could start his class.
"Silence, class! Your enthusiasm for magic is commendable." Professor Anderson expresses, gesturing the students to quiet down.
To this the students oblige, having the classroom quiet down, Professor Anderson decided to proceed with his class.
"Who among you can enlighten us on the practical applications of magic?" Professor Anderson inquired, his gaze sweeping across the whole classroom.
One of the students raised her hand, and when Professor Anderson saw it he pointed at her.
"Maria! What can you tell me about Magic?" Professor Anderson Asked after pointing at Maria.
"Magic is the construction of Magic circles which need mana to function," Maria explained confidently to Professor Anderson, effortlessly demonstrating her intellect to the whole class.
"Absolutely spot on, Maria! Well done!" Professor Anderson commended Maria enthusiastically for her answer regarding magic circles.
Professor Anderson then turned towards the Blackboard and grabbed a chalk. In the board he started to draw a magic circle, and while doing so he started to explain about magic circles.
"Magic Circles are the essence of magic itself. Every line, every curve, conveys a specific meaning, determining the type of magic at work and its potential effects." Professor Anderson exclaimed as his chalk glided expertly across the blackboard as he drew a magic circle.
After drawing the magic circle, he set down the chalk and then turned to his students. Pointing his hand to the magic circle behind his back, he asked his students what type of spell this was.
"Who among you can distinguish the meaning behind this Magic circle?" Professor Anderson's voice echoed in the classroom while stepping away from his position behind the pod, he strode purposefully to the front of the room, closing in on the first row of desks where his students were seated.
The same student as before raised her hand, and to this Professor Anderson waited for a while before he let her answer. He waited for someone else to raise their hands, that way all his students could engage.
Seeing that nobody else raised their hand, Professor Anderson didn't have any other choice but to let Maria answer again, so he pointed at her.
"What type of spell is this magic circle, Maria?" inquired Professor Anderson, expecting a correct answer from her given her eagerness to answer any question he asked.
"That magical circle is actually a spell called Breeze." explained Maria confidently, meeting Professor Anderson's gaze as he pointed at her while at the same time letting out a sigh of relief.
"Correct!" Professor Anderson exclaimed after hearing Maria's answer. He then turned around and on the black board wrote the words Breez, indication that this was the name of the spell.
"This spell's name is Breeze and this is its Magic Circle. This Magic Circle creates wind, in which depending on the amount of mana injected on it can blow really hard. " Professor Aderson added after writing the name of the spell.
"Alright! Now I want every single one of you to practice this spell." Professor Anderson then gave all the students a task after having explained about the magic circle.
"The way to perform a spell is by visualizing the magic circle in your mind. The rest depends on the amount of mana you inject." Added Professor Anderson to his task, making clear to all his students the way one can perform the spell using the learn magic circle.
To this all the students obliged and started to follow the orders of Professor Anderson. So in Gabriel's classroom one could see a bunch of students with flashing lights in which magic circles appeared and disappeared.
This was how the whole week went for Gabriel, although not entirely because besides learning and practicing Magic Circles and spells with Professor Anderson, he also practiced in his free time the Drummers method.
It didn't take much longer before he finally acquired the skill [Parallel Processing], this completed one of his goals. Now he has the chance of performing two different actions at the same time.
Of course before Gabriel became overjoyed because of this skill he first gave it a try if it was possible to perform the skill [Magic Control] while using [Parallel Processing] to divide his consciousness into two.
This week Gabriel notices how Magically undeveloped this kingdom is. The amount of spell that Professor Anderson taught them is incredibly low and for what he has seen in the library it is a pitiful amount of book about spells on their shelves.
{ Name: Gabriel Malling
Age: 15
Level: 1
Talents: [Level up] [Magic Seed]
Skills: [Appraisal Lv 3] [Poison resistance Lv 1] [Martial Arts Lv 4(7)]
[Aura Control Lv 2][Mana Control Lv 2][Parallel Processing Lv 1]
[Martial Spirit Lv 2] [Library Lv 1]
Stats:
STR:C+ END:A-
SPD:B+ INT:F+(D)
Equipment: [Simulation Necklace] }
After taking a look at his status that has changed, Gabriel proceeds by closing it. A lot has changed since a week ago, the most obvious change is his stats. They have increased tremendously since he came back from the simulation.
This is due to one interesting fact he discovered by trying out skills outside their normal usage, like [Aura Control]. In this week Gabriel has learned that the enhancement of the aura doesn't only apply to the strength or endurance of the body or a specific body part but it also includes the healing speed of it.
So what Gabriel did after finding out was workout more with his body, and then practice all martial arts and weapon arts he knew and use the aura to enhance the healing speed of his body. This made an increase in his overall stats.
Thanks to this his body is stronger than before and now he can last longer while training, and due to the constant use of the skill [Mana Control] his mana amount increases although not by a lot but this manages to raise the level of the skill making it less harder to increase his mana.
Having checked his progress, Gabriel closed his Status Window and proceeded to keep walking down the streets of Settex. In an intersection Gabriel felt that it would take him longer to reach his actual destination, so he took a shortcut.
In one of the empty alleys Gabriel took a shortcut, because it was getting late almost night, the alleys were a little dark. But Gabriel didn't mind that he just kept going, he could see from afar the exit of the alley.
But ever since Gabriel entered the dark alley he started to feel a presence, although faint he could still feel something. But that's what made Grabriel weird. No matter how much he tried to look at his surroundings he couldn't find anyone else.
"Am I too sensitive today?" Mutter Gabriel, he felt that this may all be his imagination.
But he still couldn't shake the feeling, so Gabriel decided to use Aura on his eyes and enhance them. A red faint Aura appear around Gabriel's eyes, this made his eyes better. He now could see in the dark, farther away and even his eyesight got way better, he could notice even the smallest dust particle in the air.
While looking around he ended up looking behind him, and then he caught something. In his shadow he saw a Magic Circuit, there was someone hiding on the shadow at his feet.
"How could there be someone hiding in my Shadow? Is it a Talent?" Gabriel thought in shock, he couldn't make any sense as to why someone was hiding in his shadow.
To determine his purpose Gabriel decided to see that he couldn't notice anything, so he kept just walking and just waited for something to happen. When Gabriel almost reached the end of the dark alley he couldn't hold on any more and had to call out towards the person hiding in his shadow.
"This has been bothering me for a while. Why are you hiding in my shadow? What's your purpose?" Asked aloud Gabriel after turning back towards his shadow.
At first, nobody answered and this added to Gabriel's unease, so he used Aura again on his eyes to check and the moment he did so the shadowy figure lunged at him.
At that moment, thanks to Gabriel's enhancement using Aura his dynamic vision improved making him able to deflect the assailant's dagger.
A sudden realization dawned on Gabriel, this person was an Assassin that was after his life. Gabriel redirected the Aura on his eyes towards his whole body wrapping him in a thin membrane of Aura which increased his strength, speed and durability of his body.
Although Gabriel acted with swiftness it wasn't enough to deflect the incoming attack entirely resulting in a grazed cut on his face.
Seizing the Assassin's wrist with his left hand, Gabriel struck with force towards the Assassin's writs with his right palm, disarming him momentarily. However, the Assassin wasted no time in launching another assault with even greater speed and strength towards Gabriel.
Gabriel was forced into a defensive stance against the barrage of attack by the Assassin. This sudden change made Gabriel overwhelmed, the only thing on his mind was finding a way to break through.
"I just need a breaking point!" The panic Gabriel thought, while fending off the Assassins' flurry of attacks.
Gabriel was racking through his brain in ways that could lead him into a fighting chance, but the intense clashes against the assassin was too much for him that Gabriel didn't have any choice but to use [Parallel Processing] to increase his chances of defeating the assassin.
It took a considerate amount of effort before Gabriel finally thought of something. A strategy in which he had a fifty percent chance in winning and a fifty percent chance of dying.
"The only way to win right now is to risk it!" A determined thought appeared on Gabriel and even his face showed such determination. He hardened his resolve as he braced for the next onslaught of slashes from the Assassin's weapons.
Their clash intensified as each move was met with a countermove in a dance of deadly precision. Until an unexpected move from Gabriel broke the pace of this fight.
With a big and swift stride, Gabriel closed the distance between himself and the assassin. This move startled the Assassin, but this wasn't for long as the Assassin counter-attack.
This was the decisive move as Gabriel struck the Assassin's Hearth with his right fist combined with Aura, meanwhile the Assassin's dagger trusted Gabriel side with ruthlessness.