《Reborn With a Magic System》 Chapter 1 - Reborn *Ding* *Smack* *Smack* ¡®What?¡¯ Damion tried to say, but all that came out of his mouth was a cry as he felt a slight pain in his backside. ¡°Shkar di khdai di jwandi lari,¡± Damion heard words, or at least he thought they were words, but he did not understand what was said. ¡°Da da khdayano barkat di,¡± another voice answered the first. Damion tried to look around to see who was speaking, but he could hardly open his eyes and all he could see was a bit of light and plain ceiling. *Ding* The chime in his ears brought Damion back from trying to look around to think about the words that he could actually understand. Something about a system and it being ready for use. The first of a series of things that came to Damion¡¯s mind were computer games. Damion loved RPGs and this sounded right up that alley. With that thought in mind, Damion began to try and interact with whatever this system was. ¡®Open.¡¯ Damion thought, but nothing happened. ¡®There has to be a way to interact with what ever this thing in my head is.¡¯ Thinking back to all the games he had played as a kid Damion tried another approach. ¡®Menu,¡¯ Damion tried, again with no luck. ¡®Status,¡¯ this time, Damion was rewarded with a monotone voice speaking before a screen appeared in his mind¡¯s eye. [Welcome user. You have been reborn after death and been granted access to the Magic System] [Magic System] [Full System unlock in 17:364:23:57:38] [System Level: 1] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 0] [Magic Talent: Locked] [Magic Affinity: Locked] [Mana: 0/5] [Magic Power: Locked] [Mana Recovery: Locked] [Strength: 0] [Dexterity: 0] [Vitality: 100] [Intelligence: 112] [Experience: 0/1,000] [Store Credits: 0] Damion read through the description on his status menu and could not help but be a little shocked as his new reality began to dawn on him. Until the chime in his head, he had been driving in his car on the highway at night, when suddenly a pair of headlights had blinded him then he felt a great deal of pain for an instant and then nothing. Stolen story; please report. ¡®I died,¡¯ Damion thought as he recalled the brief moment and read over the text from the system. ¡¯I didn¡¯t even make it to 30. What am I supposed to do now.¡¯ Damion¡¯s eyes drifted back to the system menu as he gave it a closer look. ¡®It¡¯s called the Magic System, so that must mean there is magic here. Since I died, I guess this means I¡¯ve reincarnated, but not on Earth. That language was not one that sounded familiar at all and there is no magic on Earth.¡¯ Damion was not entirely sure what the system was or how to interact with it, but at the bottom of the window in his mind he saw a few options and decided to focus on them to see what would happen. The options were [Quests], [Shop] and [Skills]. The first he focused on was [Shop], he hoped that it would perhaps have a how-to manual for sale. The same monotone voice rang in his head. Since the [Shop] was locked Damion changed his focus to the [Skills] icon. *Ding* [Yes/No] ¡®Yes,¡¯ Damion thought. Even though he was now an infant and he had no real clue what this world was like, skills were necessary in games and he was sure they would be essential in this new world. [Mana Absorption: Passively absorb mana. When mana is full excess mana will be bled off at a rate of 1 mana per second. Warning, absorbing more than twice your mana capacity can result in damage to magic core and mana pathways.] Damion was not sure what a magic core or mana pathways were, but he took the warning to heart. It meant he should not over absorb mana. He only had a capacity for 5 mana at the moment and Damion was not sure if that was considered good or bad, but he figured having mana would be better than not having it. [Activate Mana Absorption ¨C Passive Skill] [Yes/No] ¡®Yes.¡¯ The next moment Damion felt his body begin to feel good. It was almost as if he had just walked outside on a warm sunny day from a cold damp room. His entire being felt great. ¡°Valagha mena juzboy. Da da baor war naa daa,¡± one of the female voices he heard before exclaimed. Damion did not understand the woman, but he guessed her excitement was because his body was suddenly absorbing mana. ¡®Turn off the skill. Turn off the skill,¡¯ Damion shouted in his mind and from his mouth he began wailing as the warm feeling over his body had changed to a searing pain. ¡®How long until my mana pathways heal?¡¯ Damion asked the system, hoping that it could tell him more than expecting an answer. ¡®Full system activation?¡¯ Damion thought and then remembered the countdown. ¡®I have to wait 18 years! Wait, system you answered me, why didn¡¯t you warn me?¡¯ ¡®Great. So, this system can answer me, but doesn¡¯t think to give me more information then I ask for, even if that information would save me from myself.¡¯ ¡°Saa wakro, da meny lary yay kharabi dee,¡± the woman spoke, this time Damion thought she sounded quite worried. This time a man¡¯s voice answered her and Damion could not help but feel that this voice belonged to his father, ¡°Mog valagha warta porta koo. Valagha baa da khpal zvak laa lary qawi wee ya naa, naa yawazy jado.¡± *Ding* [Quest: Learn a new language] [Description: You have heard this strange tongue a number of times now. It is time to learn the Otash language so you don¡¯t go through life unable to communicate.] [Reward: 100 Experience, 1 Store Credits] Damion was not sure what to think about the system giving him a quest, but he figured it would be a step forward. The system was right, if he wanted to make his way in this new world, he would have to learn the language. The problem was, Damion had never been good with learning languages, he was not even that good with English. In high school he managed to fail both his English class and his Spanish class. All he could hope for now was some extra help from this Magic System. This new world, whatever it was called, was a new chance for Damion and he was determined that this time around he would not be a college dropout computer nerd that couldn¡¯t hold down a steady job. He was given a second chance at life and Damion was not going to let it pass him by. Even if he had just crippled himself. Chapter 2 – Learning The Language Despite Damion¡¯s determination to live his new life to the fullest, his new life was mostly out of his control. He was just a newborn. He could not eat, speak, walk, crawl or even rollover on his own yet. Luckily, he could see and he could hear. What the singing his mother did as she cradled him in her arms and fed him meant, Damion had no idea, but he paid careful attention to all the words everyone said looking for clues in their actions and demeanors for what the words they spoke meant. The day after Damion was born an older woman came and looked at him. Examining Damion all over and using strange instruments to do some type of tests on Damion. There was no way for Damion to know for sure if this was just a normal thing for this world, checking to make sure a newborn is healthy. Or if this doctor, as Damion suspected, was there examining his damaged mana pathways. The worried looks on his parents¡¯ faces told Damion it was the later. Since Damion had an abundance of free time, he spent most of it asking the Magic System questions, trying to piece together as much about his new world as he could. The first thing he learned was that the Magic System was not really at fault for his damaged pathways. Looking at the full description of the skill instead of the summary told Damion where he had gone wrong. Even if he did not fully understand all the parts of the description, he would have been a lot more cautious. [Mana Absorption - Passive - (F Rank Absorbs 5 Mana P/S) Absorbs mana from ambient mana in the atmosphere. Can absorb a greater amount of mana by touch, depending on mana in object touched] The skill absorbed 5 Mana a second, which meant that after just two seconds his magic core was full, and the excess mana was stuck in his mana pathways while more was being pulled in. The result of course was damaging his mana pathways. There was a slight silver lining, Since he had over saturated his body with mana, his magic core had managed to grow. He now had a mana capacity of 25. Damion had also learned that he had been extremely lucky to have shut off the skill as fast as he had. If he had not shut it off his core would most certainly have been destroyed. From the Magic System he learned that if a person¡¯s magic core was damaged or destroyed, there was no repairing it, they would go the rest of their lives without being able to properly use mana, if they even survived. The Magic System also explained the different attributes, even though they were mostly self-explanatory, it was good to know for sure what they meant. Strength, was of course how strong a person was, the system equated 1 point of strength to being able to lift 1 pound with one arm. Dexterity was how agile and flexible his body was, but also a measure of his hand to eye coordination. Vitality was essentially his life expectancy, each point equating to one year. While Intelligence was his IQ. The most important thing Damion learned from the system was that unlike his video games from Earth, he could not just level up and put points in the different attributes to increase them. They would increase and decrease based on his condition. If he lifted weights and grew stronger, his Strength would increase. If he broke an arm or a leg, his Dexterity would drop. And since he nearly killed himself by over absorbing mana, his Vitality had dropped to 85, burning away some of his life force. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As he grew older and his body naturally grew, his body would naturally heal and recover the Vitality he had lost, unless he injured himself further, according the Magic System. The system also told him the 5% chance to heal on full system activation was only if his condition did not naturally improve. This meant to Damion, that since he was a baby and his mana pathways had not properly formed yet, there was a chance that as he grew the damaged he caused just after being born would be repaired in time. What surprised Damion the most was that he was not the one that would level up. It was the Magic System. As the Magic System leveled up, it would apparently grant him more quests and skills and even shop items, though he still had to wait for the system to unlock when he turned 18. Damion was not thrilled with having to wait that long, but he figured he did already have one quest, and he hoped he would be able to get more as he grew up. Secretly, Damion was hoping he would be able to even gain a few levels for the Magic System before he turned 18 and have a massive amount of things unlocked in the system as his eighteenth birthday present. As the days began to pass, Damion learned a great deal about the new world he was living in. Nerotath was the name of this planet, but what truly surprised Damion, was that this was not just some world somewhere out in the cosmos. When he was reborn, he was reborn in a completely different reality. The system, being the Magic System, could not exist in a universe without magic, so it brought Damion¡¯s soul to a suitable universe to be reborn in. Damion¡¯s original universe and this one were not all that different. From what Damion could tell from when his mother took him out for walks, the worlds were very similar, even sharing the same hours in a day and calendar from what the system told him, though they just numbered the months, not bothering to name them individually. Despite Nerotath having magic, the world was not some medieval or fantasy themed world like he had first imagined. The architecture was similar, there were even cars driving around. If Damion did not know better, he would have thought he was still on Earth. Although, the first time he went outside and saw the night sky he would have known he was not on Earth. Nerotath has three moons. One thing that Damion had not learned from the Magic System, though he would find out eventually, was that Nerotath was considerably larger than Earth and that the smallest of the moons in the sky was the size of his former world. Damion spent a considerable amount of time interacting with the Magic System in his first few days, not just because he was eager to learn about his new world, but also because he could understand it. Despite having the quest to learn the language of his parents, Damion had not made any progress. Unfortunately, Damion¡¯s focus on the Magic System had led his mother to believe he was a very odd baby. He rarely cried or did anything remotely baby-like. Mostly Damion just lay there with a vacant look on his face as he interacted with the Magic System in his mind. This led his mother to fear that the mana that invaded her baby¡¯s body right after birth had done damage to his brain as well as his body. This fear led his mother to begin to fuss over Damion even more, hardly ever setting him down, as if she was afraid that as soon as she left baby Damion alone something terrible would happen. After about a week of learning from the Magic System, not that he had learned a great deal since even though he had the soul of a man, his body was still that of an infant, so he slept a lot, Damion began to realize that his mother was acting overly protective of him. With that thought in mind, Damion began to try to act more like a baby, though he was not sure what that really entailed. A few days after Damion began acting like a baby, his mother began to relax, happy that her baby was now behaving normally. With Damion now paying attention to his parents, he began to get subtle hints at what they were trying to say. Especially during feedings or when they were showing him off to people. When Damion was about a month old he got an unexpected notification from the Magic System and he could suddenly understand his mother. *Ding* [Quest: Learn a new language ¨C Status: Complete ¨C Reward: 100 Experience, 1 Store Credits] Chapter 3 – Being A Baby Damion was quite happy he had managed to complete the quest, but what really made him happy was that he could now understand his parents. He was not entirely sure, but he felt that the magic of the Magic System had someone granted him full understanding of the Otash language. Before the notification, he had only figured out a few words, and he certainly was not fluent. After the notification though, he could understand his mother fine, even if she was using baby talk. ¡®Status,¡¯ Damion thought, bringing up his system status. [Magic System] [Full System unlock in 17:337:15:30:49] [System Level: 1] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 0] [Magic Talent: Locked] [Magic Affinity: Locked] [Mana: 25/25] [Magic Power: Locked] [Mana Recovery: Locked] [Strength: 0] [Dexterity: 2] [Vitality: 85] [Intelligence: 114] [Experience: 100/1,000] [Store Credits: 1] After taking a look at the changes to his status, Damion was beginning to understand more about how the system worked. After learning all he did about his new world and his new language, Damion had gained 2 points to Intelligence. He was beginning to get control over his body, as evidenced by his 2 points in Dexterity. From everything Damion learned from the system, he knew that as he grew, in mind and body, his attributes would grow. With this knowledge, Damion planned to make full use of his growing body to reach as high of attributes as he could before the Magic System fully unlocked when he turned eighteen. Damion was not sure of all the features he would unlock when the system was ready, but he was sure the features would be amazing. Knowing the native language of his new world allowed Damion to learn his parent¡¯s names and more about them. His mother was named Sharon Wells and his father was Caleb Wells. They were ordinary people and live ordinary lives. Sharon, before Damion¡¯s birth, worked as an accountant. Caleb worked as an architect, designing houses and apartments for their town¡¯s government. Neither of his parents could use magic, in fact, Damion was the first in either of their lines that was able to use magic, which made his injury at birth even sadder for his parents. Over the next few months Damion continued to grow stronger and learn more about his new world. Two things he learned surprised him. The first thing that surprised him was that despite magic existing in this world, only one in ten thousand people were able to become a mage. The second thing he learned was that even with magic and all the wonders it could bring, this new world was far more dangerous than his old. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. On Earth there were wild animals and if you wandered into their territory they could be quite dangerous. On Nerotath the wild animals were not just dangerous, they ruled most of the world. Beasts fell into three categories, common beasts, which were very much like those on Earth, but could grow often to two or three times the size of their Earth counterparts. Ferocious Beasts which were deadly monsters that had magic powers of their own. And finally, Demonic Beasts, which were monsters that were actually formed by magic. From what Damion¡¯s mother told him, though Damion had to piece it all together as she was not trying to teach him, just talking to him about random things in a soothing voice to get him to fall asleep, there were different rankings for the beasts depending on their powers. Just like the rankings for mages based on their power, but she had yet explain the rankings to him. When Damion inquired about it to the Magic System, it merely responded that this world¡¯s ranking system was separate from its own and that it would adapt as more information was gathered. The beasts were so dangerous that even cities in places that were considered safe had thick magically strengthened walls to keep out the Ferocious and Demonic Beasts that would from time-to-time wander into the areas humans considered safe. Damion had yet to see a beast of this world, unless you counted the normal household pets, but the way people spoke about them, told Damion that the beasts of this world were no joke. Where Damion and his new family lived was a Green Zone city called Saung. From what Damion had seen of the city, he estimated it to have around 50 to 75 thousand residents. Green Zone referred to the safety of the area. A Green Zone only had a beast wave, as they called a massive stampede of beasts that could flatten a city, once every ten years. There were the occasional wandering beasts, but they were quite rare, and the city walls kept them out and protected the city from the beast waves as well. In addition to the Green Zones, there were White Zones, the safest areas of the human domains. They only ever encountered a beast wave once every thousand years. Then there were the Yellow Zones, which had to deal with beast waves every five years. Most of the communities in the Yellow Zones were small towns or military outposts. The outposts would fare well through the beast waves, as that is what they were designed for, to disrupt and minimize the beast waves¡¯ effects on communities. But the towns in the Yellow Zones usually did not have strong enough walls and so people either fought, evacuated or died. The final zones are those considered the wilds by most people. The Red Zones, areas unsafe for humans to live in, but there are frequent patrols and operations through them to keep the large beast populations down as this helps to limit the frequency and severity of beast waves. Black Zones are areas where only the strongest of humans dare to venture or even have a chance to survive passing through. The Black Zones are completely controlled by the beasts and any human entering is not only risking death, but also could cause a beast wave into other areas as once most Ferocious and Demonic Beasts tasted human flesh, it would drive them to find more. Damion was unsure why his mother treated knowledge about beasts something to tell her child like a bedtime story. The knowledge was certainly important to know, but ordinarily a person would not remember anything from when they were a few years old, let alone a few weeks. This left Damion wondering if this information was more important than he thought, or if his mother simply did not know any bedtime stories to tell him. While Damion was thankful he had been reborn, being trapped in a baby¡¯s body was rather frustrating to him. Luckily, he knew he was going to grow up, Damion just had to make sure he did not do anything too unusual for a baby. At six months old, Damion started trying to walk, which was not as easy as he thought it would be. Balance, strength, even his perception had to be changed from a grown man to a child and to make it more complicated, he was constantly growing, so each day his new body was a little different keeping him off balance. When Damion reached a year old he started his baby talk, carefully making sure he would speak as a baby would. His parents were quite happy as they watched him grow and behave as an ordinary child. The scare of his mana pathways being crippled after birth seemed to be willfully forgotten. Chapter 4 – Starting School As fast as Damion was learning about his new world, he was growing even faster. When Damion hit six years old his parents decided it was time to send him to school. He had already read all the books in their house and the two of them were at their wits end trying to keep up with him and his endless questions about how everything worked. The school year for Nerotath started at the beginning of the year and ran to the end, with a break of two weeks at the end of each quarter of the year. Ordinarily, children on Nerotath started school the year they would turn eight. Given the level of intelligence Damion displayed, his parents insisted to the teacher that he was ready to start at the beginning of the new term and she relented. Damion was happy with the decision, after reading all the books his parents owned, he had been getting bored. Nerotath was similar to Earth in so many ways, that Damion came close to forgetting he was in a different world. What always snapped him back to his new reality was magic. Here everything ran on magic. From phones to computers and even the cars that people drove around, were all powered by magic, making Damion want to be able to use magic even more. On his first day of school Damion¡¯s mother walked him to his classroom. Even though she wanted him to go to school, she was quite nervous now that the time had actually come. Damion looked at the students who were all several years older than him and chose a desk in the first row while his mother went and greeted the teacher. Damion¡¯s mother left, wishing him a good day. As more students began filing in Damion saw some accompanied by a parent, some not. At the top of the hour the teacher called the class to attention. ¡°Good morning everyone. My name is Mrs. Colman.¡± The teacher introduced herself while Damion gave her an appraising look. She was a tall skinny woman, in her mid-thirties with long straight brown hair. Damion could not help but think she was a rather plain looking woman, but he did not care, as long as he was able to learn. Since neither of his parents were mages, Damion¡¯s knowledge of magic and all its various uses was quite lacking. He knew most items in the world made use of magic to run, magic was essentially this world¡¯s electricity, but more. Lights, cars, communication, entertainment systems. It all ran on magic, but Damion had no idea how, and he wanted to find out. ¡°Today we are going to learn about the history of magic,¡± Mrs. Colman said. ¡°Now, can anyone tell me when magic was first discovered?¡± ¡°At the start of the Second Age,¡± a girl in the back of the class said. ¡°That is right, Noel. When magic was discovered, it was such a world changing discovery that we changed our calendar system to commemorate it. Does anyone know how long an age last?¡± ¡°10,000 years,¡± the boy next to Damion answered. The answer caused Damion to stop and do math in his head. His birthday was the twelve day of the twelve month in the year 1592 of the Eighteenth Age. If each age was 10,000 years, that meant this world had over 180,000 years of recorded history. This made all of Earth¡¯s recorded history nothing more than a footnote to the people of Nerotath. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°That is right. Before the discovery of magic, we humans had very little territory and could not fight against the Ferocious Beasts let alone the Demonic Beasts. We were forced to eke out a living in caves nearly always on the brink of being wiped out. Is there anyone who would like to tell the class about the first magic users?¡± Several people in the class raised their hands leaving Damion wondering if he was as smart as he thought he was, because he had never learned any of this from the books in his parents¡¯ house. ¡°Go ahead Michael,¡± Mrs. Colman said pointing to someone behind Damion. ¡°The first magic users were the knights. They learned to channel magic into their weapons to enhance the damage they could deal.¡± ¡®Knights!¡¯ Exclaimed Damion in his mind. ¡®Perhaps if I can¡¯t heal my mana pathways I could be a knight instead of a mage.¡¯ ¡°Very good. In the early days of magic, no magic seals had been invented to cast spells, so there were no mages.¡± Mrs. Colman elaborated. ¡°The first magic seal for a spell was not created until the Fourth Age. For those tens of thousands of years knights pushed through and cut out from the wilds the first human kingdom. From the start of the Second Age to now, knights have been on the frontlines of humanity against the beasts.¡± ¡°What was the first spell created?¡± Damion blurted out. ¡°Good question Damion. The first spell was Minor Heal,¡± Mrs. Colman said. ¡°If you all open your books to 223, you can see the magic seal for Minor Heal.¡± ¡°Does this mean we can learn the spell?¡± a boy asked causing several snickers from other students. ¡°You can try Sean. To learn a spell, you have to fully memorize its magic seal, but you also have to have the right element. If you do manage to learn the spell, you will have quite the future ahead of you as a healer.¡± Damion quickly opened his book to page 223 and looked at the magic seal. The seal was a serious of interconnected circles and lines with a number of runes written around the circles that Damion could not make sense of. However, just as Damion was about to close the book he heard a surprise chime. *Ding* [Minor Heal - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana) Channels your mana to treat minor wounds.] [Error. Unable to use spell due to host does not have necessary affinity.] The Magic System giving him a notification surprised Damion, especially since he had not received any since he was a few months old. He had hoped he would be given a few random quests, but other than when he asked the system questions, he had not heard anything from the system. Not being able to use the spell was within Damion¡¯s expectations, but how the system was able to record the magic seal when Damion did not have the correct affinity was a mystery. The biggest question Damion had at the moment was, what was his affinity? That was one of the parts of the Magic System that was locked. Damion was not sure if it was locked to keep it a secret from him, or if once the Magic System unlocked the system would give him one, or perhaps let him choose one. Either way, he would have to wait another twelve years before he would get his answer. ¡®System. Why could I learn the magic seal but not use the spell?¡¯ ¡®Does that mean I can use any spell?¡¯ ¡®How can I use Mana Absorption when I don¡¯t have an affinity?¡¯ ¡®Does that mean there are other unaligned spells?¡¯ Damion spent so much time inside his own mind talking to the system that he missed Mrs. Colman calling on him. To her and the rest of the class he was staring at the magic seal with a vacant expression. ¡°Damion, where you able to memorize the magic seal?¡± Mrs. Colman asked, snapping Damion back to reality. Of course he had memorized the seal, but if he said yes and then could not do the spell, everyone would think he was lying. This left Damion with no choice but to lie to his teacher. ¡°No ma¡¯am,¡± Damion answered sheepishly. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find the right affinity of magic one day. Now, everyone, take out your workbook and start with page one.¡± Chapter 5 – To The Library Class continued until midafternoon and when it was time to go home, Damion asked if he could take his book home to read, but the teacher did not allow it. He had hoped to go through the book and let the system record all the magic seals. What Damion did not realize was that taking the book home would not have resulted in him learning more magic seals. The only magic seal in the entire book was Minor Heal. For the first few weeks of school, Damion was quite excited. He was able to learn quite a few new things, especially about magic and knights. One of the most surprising things he learned was that magic seals were not as simple as he first thought. A spell like Minor Heal was a tier one spell and it was the only type of magic seal that could be recorded on paper. Tier one spells¡¯ magic seals were one dimensional, meaning all their runes and circles could be laid flat and recorded in a book. For higher tier spells this was not possible. Each tier of spell increased the complexity of their magic seals. Damion had yet to see a tier two or higher magic seal, so he was not sure what it meant to be too complex to be copied down to paper, but the question of how these magic seals were passed down when they could not be recorded in a book greatly intrigued him. After the initial excitement of learning new things began to wear off, Damion started to get bored in class. He would do his best to pay attention, but much of what Mrs. Colman was teaching were things that Damion already knew or had already learned from reading the books his parents had. As the school days continued to pass, Damion took it upon himself to begin reading ahead in his schoolbook after he had finished the day¡¯s assignments. Mrs. Colman at first wanted Damion to pay attention in class and not set a bad example for the other students. The day she got on to him for reading ahead and not paying attention, Damion turned in all the workbook assignments for the week. After checking his answers, Mrs. Colman found Damion had answered all of the questions correctly. Not wanting to risk further embarrassment, she simply asked Damion to make sure he kept up with his classwork. By the third month of school, Damion was feeling his mental age and was becoming frustrated with his schooling. He understood the other students in his class were still learning and mastering things like written grammar and arithmetic, but for him such lessons were mind numbing. One morning as all the students were arriving for class, Damion asked Mrs. Colman a question. ¡°As I have already finished my work for this week, may I go read in the library?¡± ¡°Do you know the way?¡± Mrs. Colman asked in return, secretly thankful this bright little troublemaker would be out of sight and out of mind, at least for the day. ¡°I just follow the signs past the cafeteria,¡± Damion answered. ¡°Alright, here is a hall pass for you,¡± Mrs. Colman said hastily scribbling a note. ¡°As long as your assignments for the week are done, you may read in the library whenever you like.¡± The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. When Damion heard Mrs. Colman, he wanted to shout for joy, but he restrained himself to a simple ¡®thank you,¡¯ and headed to the library. His main goal in the library was to see if he could find a book with magic seals covering a wide variety of magic affinities. The hope was that one of the magic seals would allow him to figure out his magic affinity. On arriving at the library Damion handed Mrs. Colman¡¯s note to the librarian, an elderly woman with grey hair and light blue eyes whose nameplate read ¡®Ms. Helga Teft ¨C Head Librarian,¡¯ at the front desk who looked up from a large book she was ready to scrutinize the note and Damion for a moment before finally handing the note back to him. ¡°Are there any books in particular you would like to read?¡± the elderly librarian asked. ¡°Is there a book that has a lot of magic seals with different affinities in it?¡± Damion asked. If he could find a book that had magic seals with a variety of affinities it would save him a lot of time. Otherwise, he would have to leaf through a large number of books, which would undoubtedly be suspicious. ¡°This is not a school of magic,¡± Ms. Teft answered. ¡°Students here are all too young to learn or control magic, so we don¡¯t stock magic books.¡± ¡°Then how are we supposed to figure out what our magic affinity is?¡± ¡°Every few years the magic schools in the White Zones send their teachers out to test kids in the Green and Yellow Zones. They have a tool that can read a person¡¯s affinity and their magic aptitude.¡± ¡°Really!¡± Damion exclaimed. If such a tool existed, it would surely help him figure out his affinity and then he could work on figuring out how to get ahold of the right magic seals to learn spells. ¡°Shush¡± Ms. Teft said upset with Damion¡¯s outburst. ¡°Sorry,¡± Damion sulked. ¡°Do you know when the next time those magic teachers will be coming to our town?¡± ¡°Really want to be a mage hmm? Well, I haven¡¯t heard anything, but it has been a couple of years, so more than likely they¡¯ll come by in the near future. Six months, a year at most I would guess from their past schedules.¡± This news was both exciting and disappointing for Damion. He could get tested and find out his affinity, but he had to wait a few months, perhaps even a year, before he could get tested. ¡°Since you don¡¯t have any books on magic seals, can you perhaps suggest a book for me. I¡¯ve already read all my class books.¡± ¡°How old are you?¡± ¡°Six,¡± Damion answered. ¡°Hmmm. Six years old is far too young to try and memorize a magic seal. But I do happen to have a book here that you might be interested in.¡± The librarian closed the hefty book in front of her and placed it on the counter causing Damion¡¯s eyes to widen when he saw how thick it was. ¡°This isn¡¯t exactly a book with a list of magic seals, though it does have quite a few in it. This book actually is all about the theory of magic and the making of magic seals.¡± Damion reached up and pulled the book off the counter. Its weight nearly knocked him over when it slid off the counter into his arms. The book was nearly as large as he was, but thankfully, he had been diligently exercising every day since he learned to walk, making him fairly strong for his age and he was able to handle the book. Damion awkwardly carried the book over to a table and slid it up before climbing into a chair and got to work. The title of the book, ¡®Hermetics Study of Magic Seals¡¯ was emblazed in gold on the cover. The first thing he checked and was happy to find was a table of contents. The book was broken up into sections for various magic affinities. Judging from the chapter titles in each section, the book was a study of magic theories for different affinities and how they interacted together. Damion was not sure if he was ready for such an in-depth study of magic, but he supposed now was as good a time as any to start. Chapter 6 – Reading The Book The first thing Damion did was flip through the chapters that had basic magic seals for an affinity. As Damion flipped, he paused only for about ten seconds at each magic seal. Once he heard the system¡¯s chime, he moved on to the next one, not even bothering to check the system messages. Not even ten minutes passed before Damion reached the last magic seal. He had not counted how many magic seals there were, he had simply flipped through the book to look at each one to let the system record them. Now that he was done, Damion briefly wondered if he should go to the beginning of the book and start reading. If he were to return the book so soon after borrowing it Ms. Teft would surely find it suspicious. Damion flipped the book back to the first chapter and then mentally brought up the system to look over his gains. [Magic System] [Full System unlock in 12:251:12:19:47] [System Level: 1] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 6] [Magic Talent: Locked] [Magic Affinity: Locked] [Mana: 25/25] [Magic Power: Locked] [Mana Recovery: Locked] [Strength: 12] [Dexterity: 25] [Vitality: 85] [Intelligence: 122] [Experience: 100/1,000] [Store Credits: 1] When Damion saw that his magic affinity was still locked he frowned, but quickly moved on to the skills section. After looking at the skills menu Damion was shocked. He now had two options, Usable Skills and Unusable Skills. Crossing his fingers Damion opened the Usable Skills portion first and was instantly disappointed. The page in his mind showed only one skill, Mana Absorption. This meant all the magic seals he had just reviewed were useless to him. After letting out a resigned sigh, Damion opened the Unusable Skill page to look at what affinities he most likely did not have. [Minor Heal - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana) Channels your mana to treat minor wounds.] [Darkness - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana P/S) Summon a cloud of darkness over an area blocking out all light.] [Fireball - Active - (F Rank 20 Mana) Conjure and launch a ball of explosive fire at your target.] [Flame Breath - Active - (F Rank 5 Mana P/S) Breathe fire up to 1 meter away.] If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. [Firewall - Active - (F Rank 40 Mana) Conjure a wall of fire.] [Firey Grasp - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana P/S) Burn your target on touch.] [Clean Water - Active - (F Rank 5 Mana) Conjure clean water.] [Rock Shield Active - (F Rank 20 Mana) Conjure a shield to block physical and magic attacks.] [Earth Shard - Active - (F Rank 20 Mana) Shoots a rock shard at your target.] [Wind Slash - Active - (F Rank 20 Mana) Send out a razor sharp blast of wind to slice your target.] [Shocking Grasp - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana P/S) Electrocute your target on touch. Can temporarily incapacitate your target.] [Lightning Breath - Active - (F Rank 5 Mana P/S) Breathe lightning up to 1 meter away. Can temporarily incapacitate your target.] [Ice Shard - Active - (F Rank 20 Mana) Shoots an ice shard at your target.] [Ice Breath - Active - (F Rank 5 Mana P/S) Breathe freezing air up to 1 meter away.] [Ice Shield - Active - (F Rank 20 Mana) Conjure a shield to block physical and magic attacks.] [Icy Grasp - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana P/S) Chill your target on touch. Can completely freeze a target if held long enough.] Telekinesis - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana P/S) Manipulate space to control distance objects. [Nurture Growth - Active - (F Rank 20 Mana P/S) Channel your magic into a plant to help it grow faster. Also stimulates a plant''s natural regeneration.] [Poison Breath - Active - (F Rank 5 Mana P/S) Breathe poison air up to 1 meter away. Has a chance to poison target.] [Poison Grasp - Active - (F Rank 15 Mana P/S) Poison your target on touch. Has a chance to poison target.] Damion was quite disappointed when he saw spells like Fireball and Shocking Grasp on the list of spells he would not be able to use. The book had quite a variety of affinities in it, but none of them resonated with Damion. This left Damion with the same two possibilities, either he would not get an affinity until the system unlocked, or he simply had not found the right affinity yet. Given the variety of affinities in the book and that the library had no other books with magic seals, Damion had to admit defeat. His only realistic options to find out his affinity was to wait for the White Zone teachers to come and test everyone or wait until he turned eighteen. Flipping back to the beginning of the book Damion began reading the introduction. Even if he could not gain access to magic until he was eighteen, he figured this was a good chance for him to learn. With more knowledge he would be able to make better use of magic once he had it. The book, as it turned out, was a comparative study of magic seals and how certain spells were very similar to each other even though they had different affinities. The idea of spells being similar caught Damion¡¯s attention and he thought back to the list of spells he had just learned. Quote a few were very similar, Ice Shard and Earth Shard for example and Damion wondered if Fireball was also similar to them and only named differently. As Damion read on, it seemed the author had the same thought. Not only were such spells named similarly, they also had very similar magic seals. Continuing to read Damion quickly learned a great deal about magical theory and how magic seals were created. Of course, Damion was a long way from being able to truly grasp the theories outlined in the book. And even further away from being able to create his own magic seal and thus create a spell. The bit he did understand though, fascinated Damion and he continued to read on, completely lost in thought. By the time Damion finished reading the first few chapters, which were entirely dedicated to theories, Damion had been reading straight through lunch. His stomach growled at him, but Damion ignored it and moved on to the next chapter which was titled, ¡®Limitations of Magical Learning.¡¯ What Damion read in this chapter shocked and greatly worried him. ¡®In regard to the limited number of magic seals a person may learn in their lifetime, a person need not overly worry. While a person may be limited to learning twenty magic seals in their life, the fact that a tier 1 spell, when properly mastered can have power greater than a tier 5 spell, if the tier 5 spell is not properly mastered, shows that hard work and dedication are more important than raw power. The shear difficulty and time required to learn higher tier spells should be taken into account and compared with the same time and effort spent on mastery a lower tier spell. In the end which mage¡¯s spell would be stronger? As to the reason a person cannot learn more than twenty magic seals and if it is simply the limitation of their magical talent or the power of their mind, further research is not warranted, as even if one could fully master more than twenty spells, who truly has the time to do so.¡¯ Chapter 7 – Screwing Up Again The words on the page told Damion something he had never considered. A person was limited to learning twenty magic seals in their life. In a panic, Damion opened up the Magic System and checked the skills page. To his disbelief he had twenty skills recorded under unusable. Realizing he had just used up every magic seal learning opportunity in his life, Damion wanted to cry. Tears began to well up and as Damion began to try to stop himself, he saw the system menu still open in his mind¡¯s eye. He had only counted the unusable skills, he still had the usable section which contained one spell. This meant his total magic seals was twenty-one. What this meant Damion was not sure, but it was somewhat clear that the rule of only twenty magic seals did not entirely apply to him. There was a possibility that the limit only applied to spells he could use, but Damion wanted to believe the Magic System would not be limited by this sort of rule. After all the Magic system let him learn magic seals that were not related to his affinity. ¡®System, what is my limit for learning magic seals¡¯ The answer did not help Damion that much, as he was not sure what it meant at all. ¡®System, provide an example of the previous question and answer.¡¯ ¡®System, what is the maximum rank a mage can achieve?¡¯ ¡®Well, I guess that answers some of my questions.¡¯ Damion thought to himself. ¡®If its five spells per mage rank, then I will have to get to C Rank to reach the twenty spell limit, that is really going restrict my magic, especially since I already know one spell. Wait!¡¯ Damion suddenly realized his spell restriction and his learned magic seals still did not match. ¡®System, if I can only learn five spells per mage rank, why do I know more than twenty spells already?¡¯ ¡®So that¡¯s it.¡¯ Damion finally understood. All the magic seals he learned did not count against him since they were not usable. This was a huge weight off his shoulders as Damion had briefly thought he had once again crippled his ability to do magic by having the system record all the seals in the book. Now that he knew he had a hard limit that he needed to respect, Damion would be more careful, especially once he found out his magic affinity. It would really cripple him if he learned weak or useless spells and couldn¡¯t learn more because of his limit. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡®Wait a minute!¡¯ Damion screamed mentally. The words of the system finally sinking in. The system had specified a limit to active spells and that passive spells were not counted towards the magic seal limit. His Mana Absorption spell was a passive spell, so that should mean he still had five free magic seal slots. Now he needed to understand the difference between an active and a passive skill. ¡®System, what is the difference between active and passive spells, please provide examples.¡¯ The idea of exploding from absorbing too much mana sent shivers down Damion¡¯s spine. He had already come far too close to that happening for comfort. ¡®System, Fire Breath is an active skill, but requires mana to keep active, why is it not a passive spell?¡¯ Once again Damion was happy to learn something new. While Mana Absorption was not a spell he would like to keep active all the time, except maybe if he was casting a lot of spells and needed to recover, that might not be the case with other passive spells. Damion did not know what other passive spells were out there, but he hoped there existed passive spells like game buffs from Earth that he could keep up all the time and basically become invincible. ¡°Alright young man, time to go home,¡± Ms. Teft said to Damion snapping him out of his thoughts about spells. ¡°Already,¡± Damion whined in complaint. He had completely lost track of time in his reading and interacting with the Magic System. ¡°Yes. It won¡¯t do for you to skip lunch and be late getting home. Your mother will worry. Don¡¯t worry, you can come back and read my book tomorrow as long as you are finished with your classwork.¡± Damion perked up when he heard what the librarian said. After scooting off the chair he left the book to its owner and headed out of the library to meet his mother so they could walk home together. At the entrance to the school, Damion saw his mother waiting for him. He walked to class everyday by himself, but she insisted on walking him to and from the schoolyard, after all, he was only six years old. ¡°So, what did you learn in school today,¡± Sharon Wells asked Damion as they walked home. ¡°We worked on mathematics today,¡± Damion answered his mother while mentally wondering if he should continue his search for magic seals or just wait until he turned eighteen. "That is nice. I know school can be hard and it is important to study well so you can get a good job in the future, but don¡¯t forget to have fun. You only get to be a kid once you know.¡± His mother¡¯s words hit Damion hard. He was actually granted a second childhood because of his rebirth into this new world. However, he had spent the majority of his childhood studying and learning as much about this world as he could. The thought of just enjoying himself had not occurred to him before. Any other child born would slowly learn about the world as they grew, the idea that he had to know everything as soon as possible was driving him to neglect his all-important childhood lack of responsibilities. ¡°I understand mother,¡± Damion said as he hugged his mother from the side to reassure her. ¡°I will try and have more fun and make friends. You don¡¯t have to worry about me.¡±