REYNOLDS LEYWIN
My baby boy!
I was so happy we'd had a son. I was eager to start training him—I couldn't
remember when I had started training, but I knew I'd been very young. I
couldn't wait to teach my baby boy all about magic! I hoped he would turn
out to be an augmenter, like his old pops. I knew the basics of conjuring, but
couldn't do anything practical with it, except use it as a form of mental exercise.
Alice, on the other hand, was one of the most talented people I'd ever seen.
Even as an emitter, she was exceptional. Back when we were just dating,
she'd joined my party and we'd gone on missions together. Her restorative
power was amazing in and of itself, but I could still remember how shocked I
was the day she used an area of effect spell that healed all allies within a five-
yard radius. Talk about one of a kind!
And she chose me for her husband.
I'll never get tired of saying that.
In the good old days, before we settled down, we often went into the Beast
Glades to hunt for mana beasts. Mana beasts were unique animals—creatures
born with the ability to absorb mana into their bodies and create their own
mana cores, which we called beast cores.
Beast cores had unlimited uses, making them highly sought after. Of course,the higher the class of the beast core, the more valuable it was. Mana beast
classifications ranged from the E-class, such as the domesticated fanged bull
used for meat and leather, to the SS-class monsters. I didn't know much
about those—I'd never seen one, nor known anyone who had—but I believed
they did exist.
As a rule of thumb, a mana beast was always assumed to be stronger than a
human of the same class. This was simply because, even taking mana out of
the picture, a beast's physical body was much stronger than a human's.
While the Beast Glades were dangerous, if you were cautious and didn't get
lost, it was pretty easy to keep yourself out of trouble. The stronger beasts
tended to be down in dungeon-like caves underground or farther away. The
first several miles of the Beast Glades were pretty well mapped, and as long
as you were at least a C-class adventurer, you could handle the creatures
there.
Once in a while, the Guild posted missions requiring multiple parties of
adventurers, usually for clearing and mapping the harder dungeons that
hadn't yet been fully explored. If a mana beast was strong enough to create
its own lair and have other mana beasts serving it, then you could bet there
would be treasures to be gained. Questing was exhilarating—the danger
added a thrill that you wouldn't find anywhere else. If it weren't for the... the
incident with Alice and Lensa, I was sure we wouldn't have settled down as
quickly as we did.
I told Art about the adventuring life—all those stories and many more. Alice
said I was brainwashing him, but I just wanted him to at least have some
experience as an adventurer when he got older.
I didn't know what I'd do if little Art never awakened as a mage. I didn't care
how long it took—if he could train to become any kind of mage, I knew I
would be a proud and happy father.
It was easy to tell what type of mage someone would be when they
awakened: While augmenters and conjurers both form a translucent barrier,the mana behaves differently around them during that time.
Augmenters, when they first awaken, form a sort of pushing force around the
barrier, signifying that they have dominant mana channels in their body.
Conjurers, on the other hand, form a vacuum of mana around them, which
means their mana veins are more dominant. Of course, the degree of the
pushing and vacuuming forces depends on their talent in either category.
Not to brag, but when I first awakened—at the early age of twelve, by the
way—I was sleeping, and the pushing force made me float for a good couple
of minutes. Enough force to lift a human body—imagine that!
I was with Alice in the front yard after dinner, making plans to train Art after
his awakening. If he ended up becoming a conjurer, I could get him a tutor
from Ashber, since neither Alice nor I were adept enough to be teaching him.
I had barely finished the thought when—
*BOOM!*
What happened?
Three-quarters of the house was gone. Art… Little Art was still in the house...
"Arthur!"
The blood drained from Alice's face and her eyes went wide with disbelief
and worry. I pushed her down, covering her with a temporary shield that
would last for a few minutes.
I rushed toward the explosion, shielding my body with a layer of mana over
my skin. The debris from my house came flying toward me as I drew nearer
to the source of the explosion. After fighting my way through the scraps of
what was left of my house and yard, I saw it.
An all but invisible barrier flickered around my son. It was clear that the
pushing force of his awakened powers had caused this explosion. He was
floating in the center of a crater that had demolished most of our house, as
well as our entire backyard.
My legs gave out. I fell to my knees as I gaped at the sight. My son was
almost three years old, and he had awakened. Only three…
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Reynolds! Honey!"
I glanced back at my wife, my mouth still hanging open from shock. The
debris had stopped flying and she was slowly making her way toward me,
taking half-steps and covering her face with her arms to shield herself from
the strong pushing force still emanating from Art.
"Reynolds! What happened? What's going on? Where's Art?"
Still unable to find the strength to speak, I simply pointed my finger in the
direction of our son.
Confused, she followed the line of my finger. All she could manage to
whisper was, "Oh my…"
ARTHUR
Wow. I feel great!
Feeling refreshed by my breakthrough, I closed my eyes to sense my newly
formed mana core. My sweet little mana core!
"Art! Oh, my baby! Are you okay?"
I jerked my head up to see my mother rushing toward me, while my father
knelt on the ground.
What misdeed was Mother punishing him for this time?
My mother lifted me up and hugged me tightly enough that my
underdeveloped ribs almost gave out.
I managed to squeal, "Mom, no cry. What's wrong?"
She didn't answer me, just continued sobbing while cradling me. My father
came to stand next to her, patting her back and stroking my head, giving me a
weak smile.
After a brief moment of confusion, I pulled myself away from my mother's
bosom and looked around to see that we were standing in the center of a giant crater. Most of our house was gone.
What the hell? Who did this? Who would have the audacity to destroy the
home of a king? The perpetrators will rue this day! I will hunt them down day
and night and not rest until—
"Congratulations, Art, honey," my mother said weakly, while my father
exclaimed, "You awakened, Champ."
I was speechless and didn't know what to think. We all looked at each other
for a moment as I let it sink in.
I did this?
In my old world, a similar phenomenon occurred when a youth awakened; a
clear barrier appeared around the awakened and a small pushing force would
surround the barrier. After some thought, I came to the conclusion that the
pushing force in this world was much stronger because of the mana in the atmosphere, something that wasn't present back on Earth.
As I had once been a king who prided himself on his integrity, I decided to
apologize for this situation.
"I'm sorry, Mom, Dad. Am I in trouble?"
As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I was so disoriented that I had
forgotten to talk like a three-year-old. Fortunately they didn't notice my slip
due to their shock.
"No, Art, honey, you're not in trouble. We were just worried about you. I'm
glad you're all right." There were tears in my mother's eyes, but she managed
to let out a soft chuckle.
My idiot father, on the other hand, was a lot more excited. "My boy is a
genius! Awakened before the age of three! This is unprecedented. I thought I
was fast, but this is on another level!"
That picture-perfect moment was broken when a neighbor rushed up,
shouting, "What in the world?"
"We'd better clean this mess up," my father said as he grinned, rubbing the
back of his head.
We decided to keep my awakening a secret. Within a few weeks, my father
had managed to contact members of his old adventuring party to help rebuild our decimated house while we stayed at the nearby inn. With conjurers razing
the ground for the foundation and augmenters doing the grunt work, the
house didn't take too long to finish. The beauty of magic!
Surprisingly, none of my father's former party members questioned why our
house had blown up. That seemed to say a lot about my father.
Spring came to an end midway through there construction of our house, and
along with it came my birthday. My parents woke me that morning with a
present, and my mother carried what seemed to be a loaf of bread in her
hands. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a cake. I opened the present
box to find a carefully carved wooden sword, and I hugged both my parents,
thanking them for the present and the cake.
The cake and the gift surprised me; my parents hadn't bothered to celebrate
my past two birthdays, so I had assumed this world didn't acknowledge them.
I later learned that birthdays are only celebrated beginning at the age of three.
It was a tradition from long ago, when babies frequently did not survive their
first three years.
How medieval.
Birthday celebrations weren't the only difference between this new world and
the world I was from, where children my age would have been getting ready
to start school. Seeing children as well as teens working on farms with their
family and in forges as apprentice blacksmiths made me realize there was no
mandatory, structured education system. Any sort of rudimentary education
the children received—the basics, like reading and writing—was provided by
their families.
As soon as I turned three, my mother began giving me regular lessons,
teaching me how to read and write. Playing the role of a prodigy, I pretended
to learn quickly, to her delight. This allowed me to read harder books in the
library without drawing suspicion.
These weeks after my awakening passed by in a blast.
My father taught me
the basics of mana, and how to start training in it, as best as he could. He tried to simplify as much as possible so a toddler could understand it. If my
cognitive abilities hadn't already been on the level of an adult, I don't think I
would've retained much, but I did manage to get the basics.
A mage's strength could be easily gauged by looking at the color of his or her
mana core. When a person first awakened, the mana core was black, due to
the body's blood and other impurities mixing with the mana particles as they
come together to form the core. As the mana inside the person's body became
purer and imperfections were filtered out, it changed to a dark red color. The
color continued to lighten as mana was distilled, going from black to red,
then orange, yellow, silver, and then white. The red, orange, and yellow stages each had three sub-stages, classified as 'dark,' 'solid,' and 'light.' As a
rule of thumb, the lighter the color of a person's mana core, the purer it was
and the more power they had access to.
While the lessons with my father proved useful, I was getting impatient with
the pace we were moving at. Within a few days of him beginning to teach
me, I asked my mother for books on magic.
My mother still had some connections in the Adventurers Guild, and she
managed to acquire a wide collection of books on basic mana manipulation
and on fighting with different weapons. Some of them were just picture
books with only simple words and illustrations of the basics of mana
condensation, but I ignored those. The books I'd been reading were a bit
more difficult, but it wasn't until I caught my mother giving me a strange
look that I'd realized just how advanced they were. She had brought in books
that she expected wouldn't be touched for at least a year and was perplexed
by my lack of interest in the simpler texts.
Most of my time was spent taking reading and writing lessons from Mother,
and augmenting training with my father. After he covered the basic theory
and application of augmenting, we started physical training. Since I was too
small to start sparring, we opted for running and body workouts. Seeing my three-year-old body trying to do a pushup must have been the funniest thing,but my father did a good job of holding back his laughter.
When I wasn't taking lessons from one of my parents, I usually stayed
cooped up in the newly remodeled library, reading and meditating to further
condense my mana core.
The year passed without much deviation from this routine. Then my father
spoke up one night while we were having dinner.
"Honey, I think it's time we get Art a proper mentor."