It had been a while since he grew accustomed to the living habits of the Imeni village he now called home, but Klein could now say that he was free from all burdens in life.
Yes. It was finally time for him to begin consuming solid foods and rid himself of the embarrassment that was breastfeeding.
Not only that, but his training with external manipulation had more gains than he had first recognized.
If one who used the traditional method of mofei manipulation on Mamon was something like controlling their own body to perform an action, then what he was doing was something akin to allowing his surroundings to react to each other in a controlled manner.
When a traditional manipulator wanted to cast their magic, they would draw in their respective mofei and conjure it to the best of their comprehension.
However, when he did it, it was more like he would direct the ambient mofei according to a natural occurrence until it was properly shaped into his desired form.
While there were some disadvantages to the way he had to go about conjuring say a spark of fire like the difficulty retaining the fire mofei in one spot until it finally combusted, the advantage was that he was capable of using the natural mofei in any way he wanted as long as he could properly concentrate on what he was visualizing.
He could bypass the need for attuning to the mofei his mei veins were suited towards and create his own direct method of casting.
So, for the time being, Klein was prioritizing familiarizing himself with the mofei as much as possible before he was even able to walk. The process itself was arduous as he would practically always fail at any attempt that wasn't the most basic and minute possible.
At present, he could form small drafts of air, a couple drops of liquid, a flicker of a spark, and a bit of dust from his practices.
'Nothing special for sure, but the implications of this are too absurd! I wonder if I'll be able to summon massive tsunamis, or even an entire mountain someday?'
Accompanied by his massive ambition, the small child was paired with an equally gifted mind thanks to his prior life's experiences. It seemed as if before this one, he was a brilliant young man that would immerse himself in countless studies in his lonesome hours and develop a myriad of techniques that Klein himself couldn't believe were possible in his current position.
'I mean seriously! What kind of level would he be at to be able to fine tune his control to a microscopic level of manipulation!'
The blanks in his memories had caused him to forget that those feats were made true even without the need for something as ludicrous as mofei. What would he think if he recalled such a thing then?
No, to him, he was convinced that with enough time, he could regain his former glory and then some with his current blessing. It was just a matter of time before he was meddling with even the most molecular substances to rival the destructive magic of his past self.
His memories contained deadly forces in the forms of explosions that threatened to break even the skies themselves. Not to mention the seemingly harmless liquids that could melt even the most durable of metals.
Klein could not wait to witness the marvels of his kind in plain view; it made him impatient to the point where he would continue exercising his pitiful body by rolling around and hanging on to the railing of his crib for prolonged periods of time before diving in to even more fascinating discoveries as he fell unconscious.
Until finally, just a year and a half after his rebirth, Klein was able to walk on his own with relative ease.
His mother and father were joyous as their baby seemed to be just as hardworking as the rest of the villages people. It wouldn't be long before their baby boy was running around causing mischief wherever he went like some of the other children.
But how could they have known that all that time, the little Klein was propelling himself to become a force to be reckoned with despite having no teachings of his own and underdeveloped mei veins.
And it wasn't just the walking he was working tirelessly towards, but now he could understand the common words and phrases used by those around him and even speak some of them.
"Mommy! School!" The eighteen-month-old spoke excitedly.
"Yes, yes. I promised I would let you see one of the lessons today, didn't I? Now come here and let us be off before I have to tend to my duties today." His mother picked him up and walked them to the relatively small building not too far from the nursery.
On the way, Klein was flabbergasted at the sight that greeted him; it wasn't as if he was expecting a massive, fortified kingdom, but the dainty earthen houses and crude fences surrounding the place held no sense of majesty at all.
Where was the one responsible for this farce! He should be ashamed of his terrible craftsmanship.
Of course, the spoiled mind of Klein's was used to seeing pristine glass beakers and accurately measured everything around him. Hell, even the toilets he used were more refined than what he was seeing.
'No doubt we use holes in the floor to do our business around here,' he sniffled miserably.
He had already figured by the simple clothing he saw both his parents and the caretaker wearing that this place was not nearly as advanced as his old world, but a boy could dream dammit!
'It seems like I'm not going to be able to learn much from the lessons of a place like this,' he thought.
And just as he guessed it, inside the schoolhouse, the appointed instructor there was mainly just going over the different agricultural techniques used to ensure the crops' survival and the basics off defending yourself against whatever it was that those fences were supposed to keep out.
The children inside spanned across all ages from a couple years older than he was until about the looks of a young teenager.
They sat on the bare ground staring towards a single adult wearing somewhat different clothes than he was used to seeing.
There was no surprise about there not being a higher education as what more could they learn about besides the necessities of survival.
The most noteworthy thing he had witnessed happen during the lesson was when the instructor moved on to explaining the topic of mei veins to which his focus was aimed towards.
"Alright children, who here is ready to learn more about the wonders of the mofei." He spoke dramatically as a small plume of flame burst forth from his palm, threatening to burn the scruffy beard attached to his chin, to which the class roared with anticipation.
"Ahem. As you know, we Imeni typically develop our mei veins towards the end of childhood, meaning that the oldest of you here will soon be ready to practice manipulating the mofei on your own with the older youngins."
He turned to the fidgeting teens and smiled while continuing, "The type of mofei you'll be able to work with is based solely on chance, so don't be too disappointed to find out you can't use the one you wanted."
"Work hard to keep the village safe and thriving! That's all for now, let's all welcome your soon-to-be classmate before having some lunch, shall we?"
Suddenly faced with a room full of blurry faces turned towards him, Klein could feel a headache coming on, 'Right, well hopefully I can make some glasses in this place.'