"Grapms, wake up!" Joren was shaking the old man for a few minutes trying to get him out of his untimely slumber.
"Hmm? What?" Gramps slowly opened his eyes, gazing at his surroundings as if he were lost. He then focused on Joren and shock riddled his face once more as if he had woken up from a crazy dream only for that dream to be a reality.
"You okay Gramps? You just suddenly passed out. Did I do something wrong?" Jorens expression was very concerned. His mentor just passed out after hearing the way he absorbed mana. Either he did something amazing or something utterly stupid
"N-No, you didn't do anything wrong kid, it's just that I've never in my life heard of the way you absorbed mana before, and I've heard a lot of explanations. You truly are a good disciple, worthy of carrying my legacy" Gramps puffed out his chest as if he were the greatest man the Gods ever created.
'Also the fact that you can see the color of mana on your first try and not just the standard white. I would tell him what it means but I'll let him figure that out on his own.'
"Well, I did have a good teacher after all" Joren hugged Gramps. He was genuinely happy with what he was teaching him. For all he knew, he could have remained a slave for the rest of his life.
"Let me tell you a few things kid. First off, I know you are really interested in magic and I have no doubts that once you leave this place, the first thing you will do is try and learn magic, but don't do that."
Joren looked at Gramps with confusion plastered on his face. Wasn't he supposed to learn magic once he left? If not, then why would he be learning all this now? Could there be another reason? His strength? His lack of a core? Or maybe his knowledge.
"The reason why I'm telling you not to is not because of you not having a core or anything like that. It's because you might pass up the chance to fully understand how mana works. Most people think mana works in the form of the three magic categories, but in truth, you can do many more things with it, things that you would think are only available to you at a certain level of power." He continued
"Aura is the most fundamental level of magic. In fact, it's not really magic at all. Magic follows these simple steps, Absorption, transformation, projection, and casting. The absorption of mana, the transformation of mana into magic, the projection of the now magic, and finally the casting of magic. But aura only follows two steps. Absorption and Projection."
As Joren was listening, he was taking mental notes on everything Gramps was telling him. After all, once he's gone, Gramps won't be there to help him with any of this, so he has to make sure to remember everything perfectly.
"Aura is literally raw mana turned physical. You can shape this mana into certain things that you want like balls of mana, a sword, and things alike, that's why people decided to classify it as magic even though it doesn't follow the four steps. But also because of this, you can do many things that you normally wouldn't be able to do until later, like being able to grab objects from afar, or even make yourself fly."
"Fly? Wouldn't it take a lot of power to fly?" Although he didn't know how much mana is needed to fly, going off of his past life knowledge, he knew that it takes quite a bit of energy to lift a human off the ground and sustain that for periods of time to even classify as flight and not gliding.
"That's true, but let me tell you something. NEVER forget these words I'm about to say, do you understand? They can determine the fate of your future!" With a serious expression on his face, Gramps looked at Joren
Joren nodded his head and thought 'Important words? Never forget them? The fate of my future? I already know what he's going to say.' Joren smiled
"It's not about ho-"
"With great power, comes great responsibility! Huh?" Joren stood up, put his hands on his hips, and stuck his head out with pride while saying those words, only for him to be confused when that didn't come out of Gramp's mouth
"The fuck? Great power and responsibility? Where the hell did you hear that shitty phrase from?" As someone who lived their life with great power and no responsibility, that phrase really pissed him off. He wanted to smack the shit out of Joren when he said that.
"Sorry, I thought... never mind." 'Bro really just said "Fuck You" to Uncle Ben, that's crazy'
"I was going to say, It's not about how much mana you have, it's about how you use it. If you can use your mana perfectly, then even if someone has more mana than you, if you are in the same circle, you would the majority of the time if you were to have a confrontation." He then stood up and made his way over to the barn door but before opening it, he spoke.
"Since you need to get stronger, you can't rely on your mana alone, you also need physical strength as I said before. So once we return from lunch, you will start your training, and trust me when I say, I'm gonna break you down and build you back up to the point where you'll beg me to stay a slave. I don't care that you're only five. Now let's go eat, you'll need all the energy you can get.
Five Years Later...
*HUFF...HUFF* "998, 999!" *HUFF*
"COME ON! PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!! Don't tell me this is all you got. I'VE SEEN BABIES WORK TEN TIMES HARDER THAN YOU!"
"1000!" Joren said as he collapsed from doing push-ups while Gramps was sitting on his back.
For the past five years, Joren has been training diligently with Gramps. When he first heard of his training regimen, he almost collapsed. His workouts consisted of pushups, situps, squats, planks, and horse stance exercises. Occasionally, when there were heavy objects to life, Joren was forced to train with them as well. Gramps wanted to incorporate running into workouts, but since that would be difficult, they opted for him to run in place for a few hours.
Because he was absorbing mana, his body kept getting stronger and that allowed him to keep doing these intense workouts. For his mental training, Joren was forced to meditate for some hours without absorbing mana. It was simply to have him calm his mind and focus on himself. It also helped build his senses.
Gramps took it a step further by beating him mercilessly with a stick. "Pain tolerance," he said. At first, Joren couldn't handle it. It wasn't just some random stick from a random tree. The stick was originally a wooden sword. How Gramps managed to take it, Joren didn't know. Gramps used some tools to turn it into what Gramps called "Morning Wood". That perverted old man.
After Joren completed his physical, mental, and mana training, he would then train his current body in the martial arts he learned in his past life, without the notice of Gramps of course. He didn't want him to wonder why a 5-year-old at the time knew martial arts when he barely knew of the world.
And like that, Joren was now 10. His body was not that of a 10-year-old though. Because of his training, Joren grew to a height of 5 feet 5 inches, a bit over five inches taller than the average boy around his age. He had a four-pack and his muscles were very toned.
"Listen, Kid, the time for you to leave this place is approaching. My plan is to have you out of here in two weeks."
"What's happening in two weeks?" Joren asked. Initially, Gramps didn't give Joren a time when he would leave. He just told him to trust him and he did. He was so caught up in his training that he almost forgot he was a slave. Joren never had to do any of the hard laborious tasks thanks to his age. In fact, he was the youngest slave here. When he arrived he was 5 and the previous youngest was 15.
Joren actually wasn't even needed here to begin with. Later he learned from overhearing the guards that he was bought as a sex slave for Baroness Carla. But before she could use him, her mother got sick and she left to be with her for a while. When she came back, she didn't care to have him anymore so Joren was forced to become a labor slave and since he was young, they gave him the easiest tasks.
"In 2 weeks, the Baron's daughter's 16th birthday will take place. Her coming of age ceremony. Many guests will arrive but that's not important. What is important is that, although security will be tighter than normal, everyone will be more relaxed and have a good time. It's the perfect opportunity for you to escape. I'll go over the plan now."