It’s been a whole year since I started practicing magic under Doctor Jacobs. I am nearly five years old now. He managed to convince Alanis and Seana that I was some type of mage prodigy that needed to be nurtured as soon as possible. 

They apparently weren’t surprised when the old man said this as they just kept shouting, ‘We knew our little elf is special!’ How embarrassing. But it seems they are supporting me, at least.

The old man is a very hands-off kind of teacher. He often just sets me with a task, and I go head first until I succeed or fail. Of course, he helps me when I need it, but I do prefer his approach. He can only tell me how to read and say a particular word so many times before it becomes redundant.

In the meantime, I have finally learned to read and write in Elvish. There are a ton of languages in this world. But nearly everyone in this village spoke Elvish. Even the Humans and Beastmen. I had also been studying up on the Human language and the Beastmen, but it was just the absolute basics.

But on the flip side, I learned a lot about magic and mana. So far, I know that every living thing has mana. That included everything from a blade of grass, to a Human, all the way to giant sea monsters that lived in the ocean. Essentially, magic is just a living thing using its life force to create phenomena. And these phenomena are called magic. But not everything with mana could use magic. People with enough mana and skill to use magic are called mages. But, not every mage was capable of the feats.

More often than not, what kind of magic you could use and the size of your available mana is decided by your race, lineage, upbringing, and of course, sheer luck. For example, Elves are commonly known for being adept in the elemental schools of magic while having one of the largest pools of mana amongst the races. Therefore, it is commonplace for most Elves to be good at wind magic. However, outliers like me existed. I could not use wind magic to save my life.

On top of that, I learned that magic is broken up into schools. Most mages stuck to the four elemental schools of magic that comprise the four primary elements of earth, wind, fire, and water. However, there are many different schools ranging from plant or poison magic all the way to light magic. 

Outside of the four elemental schools, these more niche schools are very rare and challenging to use. Generally, for a mage to use one of these niche schools, they had to either have a large mana pool, an affinity for the school, and, more often than not, both.

Currently, the only schools of magic I can use are earth and fire. And I am absolutely terrible at wind and water. I also didn’t have the mana to try any of the other niche schools like light magic. For a single measly drop of magic water, I could make five little balls of fire in its place. I just simply have an aversion to water and wind magic for some reason. So instead of wasting my time casting spells that often left me drained and tired, I have been doing two things.

One. I wore this teal mana weave shirt Seana made for me. It’s getting a bit tight on me now, however. Apparently, Elves and many of the other races love this stuff as it is said to increase your mana pool slowly over time as you grow, depending on the quality of the weave of course. And Seana is very good at making this stuff.

Two. I have been focusing on controlling my mana better. Mana has a lot of uses if you could control it. Nearly everyone learned to control their mana at some point. It allowed an average person to run faster, lift things they wouldn’t usually be able to lift, and even heal slightly faster.

The simulation had deemed this a crucial factor for me, so I focused on it wholeheartedly. Before, I could only control a tiny drop of mana around my body. And it used to take an extreme amount of concentration.

Now I can control entire flows of mana without even thinking about it. It's like commanding a vast amount of running water in my body. Using my superior control over mana, I am now capable of casting more spells and strengthening my tiny weak body albeit not a considerable amount more but enough to make a notable difference. 

Compared to Dr. Jacobs, my available mana was a small glass of water, and his was a lake’s worth, maybe even more extensive. Not only that, casting spells seemed to help increase my available mana over time. I went from nearly dying from casting a finger-sized flame to being able to cast a few tiny balls of fire.

Of course, it really wasn’t much in the grand scheme of mana or magic. However, the old man is pretty adamant that my mana pool would increase as I got older, and that by following these steps, I am essentially paving the way for having an even larger mana pool in the future.

I had come to respect the old man quite a bit at this point. He went from being a crazy old doctor to a knowledgeable teacher and mage. The man acted like he was all-knowing, but he had the skills and knowledge to back it up. He is capable of using the rare school of light magic. Light magic is a notoriously difficult school even to become a Novice in. But Humans had a disproportionate amount of mages capable of using it. And being able to use light magic to heal people the way he does showed Dr. Jacob's rank in his school.

A naming system ranks Mages who practiced a school of magic—starting at the lowest of Novice. Novices are mages that could use the school of magic without having adverse side effects, such as mana sickness. Then there are Intermediate mages. These mages have a decent grasp of their desired school and could cast spells from it sparsely and not for very long in their chosen school. Most Intermediate mages could use only a handful or so of spells before needing to stop.

Expert is the next rank, and this is where most of the capable mages sat at. They are experts with their chosen school and could use magic from it often and in large quantities for more extended periods of time. These mages also tended to have decent-sized mana pools to boot. 

Expert mages also have good control over their school of magic and their own mana. Essentially, it is impossible for an Intermediate mage to ever rise to an Expert if they didn’t have control over their mana at this point, even if they had extreme amounts of raw talent for that school.

Then there are the head honchos of a magic school—the Masters and Grandmasters. The old man didn’t tell me much about them other than they are far beyond that of Expert, they are few and far between, and they should be taken very seriously. For example, he guessed that one Master mage is worth thirty Expert mages.

As for me… well I am probably at the low end of being an Intermediate mage in both fire and earth magic. So with a lack of interest in anything else, I have now entirely devoted myself to learning more about mana and magic, with the occasional language lesson here and there to keep things fresh.

I recognized the familiar footsteps of Alanis moving towards my door and prepared myself. “And how is my brilliant son doing today?” he asked me while standing in the doorway to my room.

“Okay,” I responded simply.

I felt a tinge of regret as he narrowed his eyes at me. Perhaps that was too cold of me.

“Well, I have decided to begin your physical training. Starting today.” 

The way he said it left no room for negotiations. Besides, I suppose I had lost myself in stimulating my brain, and I may have left my body behind. But I am unsure what I was capable of with this small body.

“Now up you go. Since you don’t have your lessons till later in the day with Dr. Jacobs, you and I will start training in the mornings when I am not working.”

We walked outside to the back of the house, and he began to give me a rundown of just what I was going to do. It consisted of running, bodyweight exercises, and stretching. Sounds pretty easy to me.

—

It was not easy. I vastly overestimated my capabilities in this child's body. 

I am completely spent just running and doing a handful of push-ups for two hours. It seems neglecting my physical body for favoring my mind has backfired dramatically. I will have to readjust my goals and physically strengthen myself once again.

I felt something poking me in my ribs as I lay exhausted in the dirt. “Come now, use all that brainpower for sparring a little bit with your dad.”

Now, this was something I could do.

I might lack the physicality to keep up, but I have some experience in martial weapons to make up for it. Besides, Alanis had been showing off to me all day. Now it was my turn. Of course, I couldn't go all out. But I can give him a swift strike in the manhood once or twice.

He tossed me a carved wooden pole that was perfect for my body. Even the makeshift training staff felt very balanced.  “I just finished that last week just for you. I think I did a pretty good job if I say so myself,” he said proudly while scratching the back of his head.

“I like it, thank you.” 

I am a little conflicted over enjoying something so trivial from an entity that only existed in this simulation. But I knew a good weapon when I saw one. Even if that weapon was made for training, it obviously took Alanis a reasonable amount of time to make this for me. 

“Alright, let me show you how to—”

Oops. I had unconsciously dropped into the same stance that Alanis uses.

“Where did you learn that, Kal?” he said, bewildered, his mouth agape and eyes big.

“I learned it from watching you.” 

It was true. I had been observing Alanis for so long this just felt like the natural thing to do. I could tell by watching him that Alanis knew what he was doing. There was no wasted movement in his training. He was always precise and trained with a clear goal in mind day in and out. At least that’s what I understood from watching him.

“To think you could pick up my stance just by watching me. I didn’t know you were paying so much attention to me.” His look of surprise was replaced with a proud smile as he said, “Now then, your feet and hands are off a bit. Let me show you.”

Alanis continued on for a bit and explained his stance in depth. I was surprised to learn I was unfamiliar with it. I had trained in spear stances from not only Humanity but even some Xeno races. 

Spears are simple weapons, pretty much just meant for stabbing enemies. But on occasion, you could use them as a quarterstaff to maybe knock somebody’s feet from under them.

After his explanation, Alanis walked a few paces away and began to warm up. But it was much more than a simple warm-up. The way he was moving was incredible. I had seen my fair share of choreographed moves with a spear, some with actual combat use, and some just for show. 

But comparing that to what Alanis was doing would be a sin. He is like a painter, and the practice spear was his brush while the battlefield was his canvas. I sat there slack-jawed as he continued for a few more moments before he stopped and looked over at me. 

His face reddened with embarrassment and he managed to cough out a few words, “Let’s begin. Come at me, son.”

I decided to use my small stature and get in close to get a blow in from underneath him. As I ran towards him, I dodged one of his thrusts and tried to move in. Only to faceplant into the dirt as I tripped over myself. Damn this small body. 

I had made that move as if I was in my original body and paid for it by tripping over my own feet. Of course, Alanis couldn’t keep his laughter in as I got up and dusted myself off. 

“That was a good try! But you gotta stay on your feet if you want it to work, son, hahaha!” I could feel my face heat up from embarrassment as he laughed at me. Since when did I get embarrassed?

I rushed at him once again in a flurry of stabs. Of course, this was a futile attempt as Alanis simply blocked or evaded every single one of my thrusts. I then tried a full sweep of his legs only to get a swift bonk on my head from up top. I was just that much slower than him.

“Nice try going for my legs, but you are gonna have to be a bit faster than that!”

It just wasn’t fair. He has more reach, was way faster and stronger than me, and he probably has double my experience with a staff. Then I realized that I was trying to fight an uphill fight fairly. 

What was the point of spending a better part of a year on controlling my mana if I didn’t even use it? So I allowed my mana to flow into every inch of my limbs as I felt my strength swirl up.

This time I would let Alanis come to me. He sent a simple thrust straight into my body, and I exploded with double my usual speed and strength. I weaved around the thrust and closed the distance almost instantly. I could see his purple eyes get bigger as I thrust at his chest. 

Gotcha now.

I blinked for only a moment, and suddenly I was staring straight up as I felt the weightlessness of my body crash into the ground. I slammed hard enough into the ground to bounce a bit as the wind got knocked out of me. 

What the hell just happened? I didn’t even see him move.

“Ah, crap! Sorry, Kal. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard,” Alanis said as he crouched down next to me. I took a few deep breaths, and nothing was broken, thankfully. 

“I am so sorry. I didn’t know you could move so fast! I just kind of reacted without thinking, I’m sorry,” Alanis kept apologizing profusely till I reassured him I was okay.

“Umm, I think that’s enough training for today, Kal. And maybe don’t tell your Mom, please?” He said, practically pleading with me.

“I’m gonna tell her,” that was all I said. 

I could see the color drain from his face as he began to panic. “Listen, Kal… if you don’t tell Mom about this, I will… uh… I WILL GET YOU A ROLL OF THAT SWEETBREAD YOU LIKE SO MUCH!”

Mmmm, I did enjoy that bread. It was so soft and sweet. But that wasn’t going to cover my humiliation today.

“I want two rolls,” I demanded.

“Of course… two rolls. I can do that...” Alanis mumbled while nodding his head.

Well, today wasn’t a complete wash. At least I got some sweetbread out of getting my ass handed to me. I did stand no chance against him in the end. And he was holding back the entire time. I’m still not sure what happened, though. I blinked, and I was already looking up at the blue sky. 

How the heck did he move so fast? I wonder if I could move that fast one day.