It's been almost a year since Kalm reincarnated back to his early life. A lot of things has happen since.
The chubby kid who bullied Terra, who's name is Ted, keep harassing Kalm and his friends. It wasn't a big deal because it's rarely happen. They played where the adults are present and where people would notice if something happen. The only time they mess with Kalm is when they're away from the adults, like near the river which is Kalm favourite place. Recently tho, they stopped their shenanigans and left Kalm and his friends alone, it's finally sets in to them that it's just not worth the trouble.
Aside from that, Kalm is still continuing his training. Around this time, he finally able to do mana skin, mana spike and mana recovery decently. So right now he's focusing on improving the amount of mana his body could hold. This is a crucial part since it's stop improving once he turned 18 or so. So for the last 2 weeks, he's constantly training his mana core, changing between mana spike and mana recovery. It takes a lot out of him, sometime almost passing out even though he's not physically tired. Kalm know when to stop so it never becoms a big problem.
Currently, he got small, 30 minutes hourglass working as he using mana spike. The hourglass is almost done but Kalm is shaking and sweating, trying so hard to not lose focus. If someone saw him in this state, they will think that he's taking a massive shit.
After all the sand is finally at the bottom, Kalm collapse to the ground, couldn't even raise his hand to calibrate his achievement.
"Finally, it's time"
After resting, Kalm went back home to rest and comes back the day after. This time, trying to figure out his element. He already prepared for this in advance, he's near a stream of water from the beginning of his training so it's became easier for him to visualize it in his head.
He sat down, and begin to imagining. Rain and river is all in his head. After awhile, he felt it, this watery sensation on his palm, he looked at it, and it's just a wet hand... Hm?
"Huh?"
Well, he definitely manifest a bit of water but...this is not it. This mean his affinity with water is weak. It's present, but weak.
Kalm is thinking if he's just that untalented. He shakes his head and continue, perhaps it's just isn't long enough. He does it again for 10 minutes, opened his eyes, and only a really tiny puddle of water is in his hand.
His face became pale.
"M- maybe water just isn't! I will try something else"
He knows what's happening, but ignores for the sake of his focus.
He tried imagining the the wind and the air while aiming his hand at a pile of leafs. He opened his eyes, nothing.
"Fuck"
He tried again, this time he imagined the ground and mountain,while aiming his hand to the ground, hoping it will rise. He opened his eyes, nothing...
"... I might cry"
He shouldn't just yet, there's still one element he could try which is fire. It's near impossible tho, so he got no hope for this. If this fail, he either had to stick with his watery hand or entirely focus on his fighting spirit. The hope of being an adventurer just crumble to dust.
With his last shred of hope, he closed his eyes and imagine a fire. This time, he thinks that he isn't trying hard enough, so he even imagine the warmth of the fire, the size and the damage it could do.
He felt something hot in his palm, surely not right? He opened his eyes, and get startled by what he manifest.
A large amount of blue fire, seemingly overflowing out of his hand and fall to the ground like liquid, is burning the ground and the grass near it.
Kalm started to panicked, he takes some water with his water bag he carries and pour it to the fire,but it's no use, it didn't put out the fire.
He took off his shirt, drench it in water and cover the fire while stomping on it. Finally, the fire is put out.
Kalm is shocked, did he really do that? No way right? To confirm that he is capable of using fire, he tried it again, this time near the water so nothing catches on fire. He recalled the filling of it, and sure enough, a blue fire appears in his palm.
It's almost like liquid, or a burning alcohol. Kalm is puzzled by this until he's starting to lose his balance. Looks like he ran out of mana.
"So quick? Well, it's fire so i guess it's fine"
Fire magic is the most mana consuming element there is, so it's natural.
He sits down and recollect everything. He can use fire magic and water magic, even though it's weak. The blue fire got him concerned, he never heard of it.
Plus, it doesn't look like the traditional fire magic he saw. This one is heavy and didn't float like he remembers a vice captain show him. He wonders if he could cast a spell normally with it.
After a quick mana recovery, he stands up and do it again. He decided to count how long he can use it this time. It is said that in order to cast a spell, the raw magic (just making the elements present in your hand without any incantations) needs to stay for at least 5 to 10 minutes.
He tried it with his eyes open, and observe as the fire manifest on his palm.
1... 2...3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9...
And he's on his knees.
"9 seconds, huh... Shit"
This means, he needs a lot, and I mean a lot, of work before that he can cast a spell. Can he even show this to his parents? Who knows. He will cross the bridge when he have to cross it, as they say it.
Another training montage it is.