"Where is everyone? I didn’t wake up late...", There’s no one at the table where we usually have breakfast. Normally, my family would already be here, waiting to eat together.
"Good morning, young Maki. Everyone left very early today. Lady Rita is waiting for you in a room near the ritual site. When you finish eating, you should go see her.", The person in charge of meals told me this after hearing me speak.
"Thank you, Tommy. I’ll go right after breakfast.", Tommy has a real talent for cooking—his meal plans never disappoint.
I finished eating and headed to where Tommy had indicated. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. It’s not quite like learning magic, but training skills still brings a great sense of satisfaction.
"You’ve made me wait, little boy.", As I entered the room, my grandmother greeted me with a soft smile. She was seated on the right side of the room.
The room is medium-sized, a square roughly fifteen meters on each side. I could see different kinds of wooden planks fixed to the floor, each shaped differently.
"Good morning, Grandma. Sorry for the delay.", Her words were a joke, I know that—I just wanted to play along.
She chuckled lightly and stood up from the chair at the same time.
"Little boy, as you know, we’ve been very busy lately. I won’t be able to dedicate much time to your training—I’m sorry. We must make the most of the time we do have."
"I completely understand, Grandma. Don’t worry. If I can learn the basics, I’ll be able to train on my own.", I’d say I’m smart enough to understand things quickly. I also enjoy training until I’m exhausted—if I get the fundamentals down, I can handle the rest.
"Don’t rush things, little boy. Don’t try to fly before you can walk. Let me explain what your new training will involve."
"All these pieces of wood are different for a reason. If you look closely at the floor, you’ll see small circuits. If you press this button, the wood will react and reposition themselves in different places. The goal is to try moving through this space while blindfolded. This is essential for pushing your senses to the limit and improving your skill."
"I see...", I more or less understood the whole point. Since I can’t use my sight, my other senses have to find a way to map the non-living objects around me. And that button will move the obstacles unpredictably to make the practice more dynamic.
"This is only to help you develop a skill similar to your grandfather’s. Unfortunately, improving your mana-related ability requires another person.", I could hear a bit of sadness in her voice. If it weren’t for all the current issues, she would help me in her free time—I’m sure of it.
"Why do we need someone else? Can’t just anyone help with that, Grandma?"
"Because someone has to start by creating mana shapes around you. You begin with one, then increase. The shapes also need to change, and once you get used to that, you need to be attacked with that mana. Someone else could help with the first two stages, yes—but the third is the issue. You need very good mana control to give the spell enough density, but not too much or you'll get hurt.". She paused for a moment to look at me.
"Little boy, I don’t know if you understand just how special your ability is. I’ve met many people with this skill, but you’re the first to have it at the Amethyst rank. That’s where the real problem lies. Your parents also want to hide this ability from as many people as possible. That’s why I personally offered to train you."
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Now I understood her reasoning—she doesn’t want to reveal my skills to outsiders, for fear of leaks. Even though large-scale wars are rare, it's still common for talented children in small noble houses to be targeted. Other houses often send people in secret to kill those kids.
"From now on, we’ll meet in this room every day at 4:30 in the morning. Since it’s so early, fewer people will see us, and we’ll have about two hours of training."
"Thank you so much, Grandma." It makes me happy to feel how much my family cares for me.
"After the magic training, you’ll need to train alone with these wooden pieces. It’s also a good space to practice your magic—take all the time you need."
Grandma had me sit on the floor and put on a very thick blindfold. After confirming I couldn’t see anything, she started casting spells around me.
I couldn’t feel the magic at all—I only noticed it when it touched my body briefly before disappearing.
The practice lasted almost two hours, and Grandma left—not without reminding me to practice both with the wood and my magic as long as I needed.
Blindfold training was just as hard—I kept tripping every few steps, hitting my head and limbs. I’ve fallen more times than I’d like to admit.
I feel like I’m in hell. I’ve never felt so useless in my life. Yet, oddly enough, I’m still excited thinking about the day I’ll master both abilities.
Two hours flew by. I’m taking a short break before starting my magic practice.
"Why is this so hard? I haven’t even gained a single level in the skill...", I felt a little disappointed. Yesterday, I managed to gain a few levels by the end of training.
"Let’s get rid of this sadness and keep training—TRAINING NEVER DISAPPOINTS!", The training wasn’t going any better than yesterday, until...
"Do you want to learn the skill: Mana Control?", A flat voice echoed in my mind, sounding like a robotic woman.
I let out a sigh of relief. According to my brother, once you acquire the Mana Control skill, it becomes less complicated to shape things in your mind.
I mentally accepted the offer, and felt the knowledge settle into my mind and body.
"Let’s start over!". With renewed spirit, it’s time to get back to training—it’s time to see the difference.
After practicing for thirty minutes with the new skill, I noticed a clear difference. The mana followed my ideas better and it took less time to shape what I wanted. The control and quality were still poor—but it was already an improvement.
"Time to practice until lunch and then grab something to eat.", A full stomach makes for a happy body and a healthy mind.
Improvements started appearing little by little. After hours of practice, I managed to level up the skill. My poor control and quality became just low.
During lunch, I asked Tommy if he could prepare some snacks—and he happily agreed.
I’m heading back to the training room, snacks in hand, ready to dedicate more time to improving my skills.
I spent another three hours moving through this wooden jungle, and my efforts paid off. I leveled up my Heightened Senses skill—at the cost of hundreds of falls and bruises.
The skill leveled up, but I didn’t notice even the slightest change. Totally different from Mana Control and Sword Skill—I always noticed a small difference after a level up in those.
I don’t know why that is—and I have no way to figure it out. I’ll just bury that thought deep in the back of my mind.
"Magic time—TRAINING NEVER DISAPPOINTS!"
Forming a person is hard. I spent two hours trying to create the shape of a human with magic and it’s impossible. It still looks like a ball with five sticks. The only good thing about it is I gained a level after all that effort.
Time to move my body a bit. Maybe I should shake up my routine...
Training with twin swords and Quick Step began and ended without issues. I gained one level in Quick Step and two levels in Sword Skill after nearly five hours of training.
Today was a productive day—I gained a new skill and leveled up several others.
When I returned, my whole family had already gone to their rooms. I finished my dinner and headed straight to bed. Tomorrow, I have to wake up early to continue training.
Before sleeping, time to check my status:
Maki – 8 years old – Basic Amethyst
SKILLS:
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Sword Skill – Level 5
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Heightened Senses – Level 2
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Quick Step – Level 4
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Mana Control – Level 3
"I want to compare, but I don’t know what other kids’ statuses look like… Wait—maybe it’s better to compare with newly awakened kids."
"I need to find trustworthy newly awakened people to try comparing my progress. That’s a problem for future Maki—time to sleep.". I curled up in bed and slowly drifted into the hands of the god of sleep.