Life in the Vanderbilt estate has changed drastically since Michael revealed his true magical aptitude to his parents.
His daily life now consisted of an early morning tutoring session in Earth magic, courtesy of his mother. She crammed all kinds of information into him in an effort to make his Earth mana the best out of the four elements.
She treated it as if it was a competition.
"Fufufufu… you're soaking up all the information! As expected of my little genius," Lylia cooed.
Despite being forced to wake up early in the morning, Michael didn't mind the tutoring sessions. He was learning a lot of new information about Earth magic and spells that he wouldn't have known otherwise.
"Earth mana is strongest early in the morning," Lylia explained. "That is when the flowers, plants, stones, and animals wake up to soak all the energy in their surroundings and convert it into Earth mana…"
It was interesting to learn that Earth mana wasn't an abstract force; rather, it came from the life around them.
The best way to explain it would be to compare it to the natural cycle of life. Plants soak up light from the sun and convert it into energy. Then, animals eat those plants and use them as their source of energy. Some of that energy would get used up while some of it is thrown away into waste… and also Earth mana.
Beyond just theory, Lylia also taught him how to meditate properly. The purer mana one could gather to fill their core, the higher the magic output they could achieve.
Mana gathering or meditating was a foundational practice that all mages needed to master first and foremost. And since Lylia was a genius at Earth magic, she was excellent at meditating Earth mana.
The best way to teach a kid the proper technique was to embrace them and gather mana for them, sort of like a proxy.
At first, she was so excited to teach him about mana gathering but was quickly saddened once she realized that he was already quite adept at meditating.
Earth mana, as well as the other three elemental manas, revolved around Michael's tiny body like a miniature tornado. It didn't take long before everything was sucked up into his cores, increasing its size by a tiny bit.
It was all thanks to ChatJK1, of course. His personal AI assistant was in charge of passively gathering mana for him, even while he was asleep.
With nothing left to teach him, his mother then moved to demonstrating a few spells for him.
"This is a 2-star spell called Stone Armor," Lylia said as she spread her hands, a brownish aura glowing around her body.
Michael watched as slabs of granite materialized in the air above his mother's skin and adhered themselves to her skin like a magnet. It formed a skin-tight armor on her body, protecting the torso, head, arms, and legs.
The granite armor made her look like a Norse goddess ready for battle.
[Analyzing magic…]
[Magic theory acquired.]
[Stone Armor]
— ★★
— Earth element
— This magic allows the user to create a protective armor made out of stone and coats the whole body in an invisible protective layer.
— The armor's aesthetic quality depends on the caster's imagination.
— The armor's defensive quality depends on the user's mana quality and quantity. Each hit will decrease the user's mana proportionally to the strength of the attack.
Before Lylia could even show off her armor to Michael, she saw his body emit Earth mana in a similar way she did before casting a Stone Armor.
Chunks of granite stone floated a few inches above his body before sinking to his skin, forming a full-body armor reminiscent of the fantasy heroes he saw in anime.
"Cool. Thanks, Mom," Michael said casually, feeling grateful to learn a useful spell.
Although she was proud of her son, she couldn't help but feel as if everything about Michael was absurd. It hadn't even taken him a few seconds before he was able to replicate a spell she had spent years of practicing to master it.
It was a good thing he was her son, or else she would have considered his talent was too unfair.
"Because this spell is made out of Earth mana, it provides strong defense against wind attacks," she explained. "However, it is weak against fire attacks."
It turned out that just like in a certain game back in his previous life, all elements followed a cycle of strengths and weaknesses against other elements.
Earth was strong against Air but weak against Fire.
"I understand Stone Armor, Mom, but I want something that will protect me against all attacks. I don't want any weaknesses in my defense."
Lylia shook her head. "All spells have their strengths and weaknesses."
That was not good enough for Michael.
For his life to be comfortable, he needed to be overly powerful in defense. So much so that no enemy could kill him, even if he let them attack him without trying to evade their moves.
Hmm…if there's [Stone Armor], then is there also a [Water Armor]? That would surely protect me from fire, unlike [Stone Armor].
He asked his mother this question, and the answer was yes.
"It has a different name, but the concept is the same. It just has different elements," she said, a hint of nostalgia in her voice as she recalled her adventurous life before she settled down.
If that's true, then maybe I can stack all kinds of elemental armor all over my body and protect myself from all harm! Michael thought excitedly.
ChatJK1, can you create a spell that is similar to [Stone Armor] but with different elements?
[Apologies. There is insufficient information for me to create spells at the moment.]
The solution to this problem was to simply learn more spells. Thankfully, he was going to visit the Magic Tower soon. Hopefully, he could get a handful of spells from that place.
"Hehe… can't wait to learn Water Armor," Michael muttered to himself.
Unfortunately, it seemed that his mother had the ears of a sensitive owl. Michael swore he saw her head turn a full 180 degrees while she stared daggers at him.
"You'll what now? I didn't just hear you say you want to learn Water spells while I'm here, did I? Surely not…"
Michael let out an awkward laugh and slowly backed away. He should have learned by now how possessive his mother was, even when it came to magic.
He tried to excuse himself by saying he was going to do something else, but his mother quickly caught him by the cuffs before he could make an escape.