《[OLD] The Magus of Imminent Oblivion》


 Prologue - Everybody Plays the Fool

    Kenshin Ueno had a good life. He woke up next to a beautiful wife, kissed his wonderful daughter goodbye, and drove to work. After spending eight hours in the office, he drove back home and regrouped with his family. His wife cooked him breakfast and dinner, and his daughter excitedly showed him the art she made at school.


    In his earliest memory, Kenshin was watching his mother¡¯s body being penetrated by thick rods as soldiers from a foreign country stood around the room and thrust their waist at her. The soldiers said things like, ¡°You mother¡¯s a pig! Look at the way she squeals when I ram my cock in her!¡± and Kenshin still remembered them in his nightmares. Whenever a vision from that horrible scene flashed in his mind, he walked through his home and looked at his wife and daughter, and peace returned to him.


    Then, Kenshin¡¯s company started making him work ten hours a day, then twelve hours a day, and finally he had to come in on weekends. Through downsizing and layoffs, Kenshin stayed with the company. They paid him well for his work, and Kenshin had big plans for his family. He wanted to send his daughter to the best school, and he was hoping for a few more kids.


    Even when his weekly hours exceeded seventy and his wife joked about him suffering karoshi, he simply laughed and continued on. He provided a great life for his wife and daughter, and that was enough to keep him going - at least, that was what he thought.


    ¡°I rove your cocks! You¡¯re hitting my womb!¡±


    That was what Kenshin heard when he arrived home early on a Friday. At first, he didn¡¯t believe his ears. Then, as the obscenities being yelled through the house continued, he slowly came to accept it. His wife, the woman he had loved for a decade, was being furiously pounded by multiple men on the floor above him.


    His first thought was to cry and run away, but he quickly stopped himself. Instead, he calmed walked through the house, keeping his shoes on, and went up the stairs that led to his wife¡¯s bedroom. The door was ajar, and Kenshin could see the figures of at least six men standing inside. When he stood inside the doorframe, he saw nearly twenty men surrounding his wife, all of them dicks-out. He took one looked at his wife¡¯s pig-like face, then turned around and swiftly walked away.


    That night, Kenshin and his daughter slept at a motel in a small village. The next day, he had all the necessary paperwork completed. A week later, he completely separated himself and his daughter from his whore ex-wife.


    Ten years later, Kenshin remotely worked for the same company, and he lived in an entirely different city. His daughter went to a new school, and he never heard a peep from his whore ex-wife. When he tried to find her on the internet, to see if she had changed her ways, he saw a photo of her attached to an AV titled, ¡®Cock-hungry pig-slave cumshot compilation #25.¡¯


    Disregarding the sexual habits of his whore ex-wife, Kenshin once again had a good life. He had plenty of money in the bank, his daughter went to an excellent school, and his seniority at the company meant he was working less hours and getting paid more. He supervised a group of six people, and everyone in his life respected him.


    Kenshin Ueno had managed to turn things around quite nicely. After running away from home as a child, he made himself a fake identity and worked his way up the social ladder. Even after discovering his whore ex-wife for what she truly was, he rebounded and climbed higher. From two muddy pits that would crush any other man, Kenshin Ueno crawled out and tore his own fate out of the world.


    Then, after spending Monday and Tuesday in another city, Kenshin arrived home to a house covered in graffiti.


    ¡®Slut! Sucks cock for free. Loves anal.¡¯


    Wretched phrased were scribbled all across the front of his house, and the inside was ransacked. A putrid stench permeated the air, one that Kenshin would never forget. He remembered it from when his whore mother invited droves of men to their house and from when he walked in on his whore ex-wife mid-gangbang.


    Semen had been shot out over every surface of Kenshin¡¯s house, and photos of the culprits laid on the ground. In the photos, he recognized his daughter, covered in sticky white liquid and showing peace signs with her fingers.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    A thousand images of his daughter flashed before his eyes, and he moved his head to look at one photo in particular. In it, his daughter and five boys stood in a familiar room - a classroom at the school his daughter went to.


    Kenshin walked into the dining room and pushed the table over, then kicked in the revealed floorboards. From under the floorboards, Kenshin produced a long, wooden box, which he opened. From inside the box, Kenshin pulled out an unpolished katana, which he had bought and hidden away many years ago.


    The blade had sat for nearly ten years, but it would serve fine as a weapon. Kenshin pushed the sheath through his belt, then went into his garage and hopped on his motorcycle. He made the engine roar, louder than he had ever done before, and zipped off in the direction of the school.


    The school wasn¡¯t very far from where Kenshin and his daughter lived, and his daughter usually walked to school. He arrived before his blood had the chance to cool down, and he parked the bike outside the main gate before climbing the locked gate and jumping inside the school¡¯s courtyard.


    Though school had been out for several hours, and all clubs had already gone home, one classroom had many people in it. Kenshin couldn¡¯t make out any details, but he still remembered the layout of the school from when he went with his daughter to the inauguration. His brain systematically calculated the quickest path to the occupied room, and his legs broke into a sprint.


    As he ran, his body began to heat up. His heart already beat fast enough to give weaker men heart attacks, but he merely gripped his katana¡¯s handle and ran faster. The school was deserted, but a faint noise became audible as he drew closer to the occupied room.


    ¡°Ueno, your pussy is so good!¡±


    Kenshin heard the words of an ikeman on the other side of a thin wall, and he kicked down the door nearest to him.


    The room had almost forty people standing around, drinking and smoking, and his daughter laid in the center of the room, supported on a desk and being spitroasted by boys.


    Kenshin yelled, ¡°Banzai!¡± and charged at the closest boy. He slashed downward, ignoring all kinds of form, and cut a long gash into the boy¡¯s shoulder and side. A second later, the boy fell to the ground, and his blood poured out onto Kenshin¡¯s shoes.


    ¡°Hory fuck¡­¡±


    The boys thought they could fight back against Kenshin, but they were no match for his sword. Though they had been raised to think they were God¡¯s gift to Earth, they were cut down like swine. No amount of touchdowns could protect them from a steel blade to the neck, and many of the boys were completely naked.


    Limbs flew and blood rained, but Kenshin didn¡¯t let up. He hacked his way through thirty-seven punks before he lowered his blade, and then he only turned to look at his daughter.


    She could barely move a muscle. When looking at her naked body, Kenshin could see numerous piercings and tattoos, along with a particularly prominent tattoo just above her cit that read ¡®Shou¡¯s Property¡¯ and two on her thighs that said ¡®Dicks here¡¯ with arrows pointing to her vagina and anus.


    Kenshin Ueno ignored the used body of his whore ex-daughter and stomped out of the classroom. He sheathed his sword and started sprinting, already with a destination in mind. He climbed back out of the school grounds, then hopped back on his motorcycle and rode it to the city he had left ten years ago.


    The city Kenshin left his whore ex-wife in took two hours to drive to, in which time the nation¡¯s authority and media discovered the massacre at the school. A boy who came late to the party found the chopped-up remains of his classmates along with the corpse of Kenshin¡¯s whore ex-daughter, who had killed herself shortly after Kenshin left. Within an hour, police were hot on Kenshin¡¯s tail.


    The police pursued Kenshin for over four hours, during which he took roundabout ways to arrive at the residence of his whore ex-wife. He faintly remembered the address on the divorce papers, and a few dozen minutes of searching yielded great results. While more than a dozen cop cars followed him through the city, Kenshin crashed his bike into the wall of a nightclub, and he entered the build on foot.


    The police followed him to the entrance, but Kenshin ignored them. He ran faster than they could chase him, and he pulled out his katana to make them keep a certain distance away. The building looked uninhabited, but Kenshin couldn¡¯t be fooled. Thankfully, the police held off on shooting him down right there, and he descended into the underground.


    On the first belowground level of the building, Kenshin found what he was looking for. There had been a sign advertising it, on the outside of the building, but Kenshin had purposefully crashed his bike into the sign. In the basement, nearly thirty men were running a train on Kenshin¡¯s whore ex-wife.


    Thirty men were killed in as many seconds, their deaths brought on by Kenshin¡¯s rampage. At thirty-one seconds, Kenshin stabbed his whore ex-wife through the heart.


    His enemies were dead, and the police were waiting for him. No matter how he looked at it, his life would never be peaceful again. If he made it out of that basement, he would undoubtedly go straight to a cell.


    Instead of letting himself be captured, Kenshin Ueno sat on his knees and impaled himself with his sword.

 Chapter 1 - Whatcha See is Whatcha You Get

    In a small town on the side of a short mountain, the sun¡¯s rays beat down at noon just like any other town. The morning had been cool due to the shade provided by the mountain, but the air quickly warmed up after the sun passed the peak of the mountain.


    Regardless of the outside temperature, occasional puffs of cold air kept the Avantus house comfortable. Inside a second-floor bedroom, Wolter Avantus continuously maintained the degree of cool air being directed at Lieve Avantus¡¯ upper body.


    A few feet away from him, standing at a table brought specially for the event, a midwife cleaned the newborn body of Andric Avantus, the latest addition to the Avantus family. Unlike Wolter, who freely used his magic to comfort his wife, the midwife manually cleaned the baby with damp cloths.


    Once the most basic confirmations of the baby¡¯s health were made, and it was clean, the midwife handed Andric over to Lieve. Wolter stopped his bursts of air, and he huddled with his wife, close to his child.


    Meanwhile, as Wolter and Lieve basked in the glory of their newest family member, the brain of the infant pulsed with rapid thoughts. He had no perception of his surroundings, but he could feel a special type of pain inside him. It wasn¡¯t the type of pain that a dose of medicine could cure, or that a warm hug could relieve.


    Every few seconds, Andric had a conscious thought. Then, as quickly as it came, he lost all sense of reality. No memories were formed, and he soon woke up to an identical pain. He repeated the cycle an endless amount of time, neither knowing when it began or when it would end.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Around him, though, Wolter and Lieve and no idea anything strange was happening inside the mind of their baby. They sat in chairs in their home, while Lieve held Andric and fed him.


    ¡°His hair is so bright, I wonder when it¡¯s going to get darker, like yours,¡± Lieve spoke and played with the thin hair on Andric¡¯s head. It waved in all directions and could hardly be seen.


    ¡°He already has my eyes; he should have your hair,¡± Wolter said, and Lieve looked up at his gray-blue eyes. She then looked down and saw Andric¡¯s eyes, which had a similar gray but light blue color in them.


    Her own eyes, hazel in color, were seen as plain and uninteresting. At least Wolter had enviable eyes, she thought when thinking about what traits their child would have. Her near-black hair hadn¡¯t even a single circle in it. She wanted Andric to be born with magnificent features, and neither her hair or eyes fit the bill.


    In Gallus Town, where the Avantus family lived, brown eyes and black hair were the most common features among the population. Wolter, on the other hand, with his gray-blue eyes and wavy, dark-blond hair, was a rarity. He didn¡¯t even use magic to adjust his appearance, which would certainly be possible for many magicians.


    Infinite possibilities existed with magic, but sometimes certain things just needed to be left to nature. Andric¡¯s hair would later darken to his mother¡¯s shade, and the painful radiations inside his head settled down. Eventually, the unique existence known as Andric Avantus gained consciousness in his new world.

 Chapter 2 - Could It Be Magic

    During one peaceful morning in Gallus Town, the mind of Andric Avantus stormed with chaotic thoughts. His life flashed before his eyes, but only the most painful moments were clear in his memories. The few happy experiences he could call his own were bogged down by the sheer weight of misfortune and malevolence he had to endure in his previous life.


    His consciousness faded in and out, and his anger grew exponentially larger with each second he remained conscious. His eyes remained open the entire time; though his physical body stayed awake, his mental body swayed through various degrees of alertness.


    Gradually, his mind stabilized, and he viewed his surroundings. The first things he realized was that - even though he had died - he was alive. Slowly but surely, he breathed in air and blew it out a second later. He heard the puffs of air exiting his body - or rather, he felt it through his mouth and nose.


    But, after only a few dozen seconds of making conscious observations, Andric lost his grasp on the world and plunged into a dark realm. By the time he woke up, he had forgotten everything he had just seen, and his world looked new.


    The excruciating, radiating pain had left Andric¡¯s body, but the deeper and more mental pain of terrible memories never faded. The perpetual anguish caused by having his mind flooded with negative emotions never went away.


    Eventually, Andric managed to find his bearings and grew to understand the world around him, even if only a little. Whenever he awoke, he was either with a woman or a man, the most frequent being the former. Their bodies were many times larger than Andric¡¯s, but he quickly realized that it was he who was small, not them who was large.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    His new body, weak and difficult to move in, was only the size of an infant. It didn¡¯t take him long to fully understand his circumstances, but the outlandish nature of his predicament was undeniable. In one world, he lived as a functioning adult. In the next world, he was newborn.


    Andric fully understood that he lived in a new world. If not, the magical feats his new parents performed would be impossible. They could raise their hands and summon light or water from nowhere, or they could move objects by gazing at them.


    Wolter and Lieve - not that Andric knew their names - were ordinary citizens of Andric¡¯s new world, and they used magic almost constantly. The Avantus house didn¡¯t have the luxuries of Andric¡¯s previous world, but the effects of magic were enough to make those luxuries unnecessary.


    Spells made the house a comfortable temperature, cooked food to perfection, healed injuries, washed bodies, and entertained idle minds. With Wolter and Lieve working together to combine their magical output, there wasn¡¯t anything they couldn¡¯t do.


    Andric, meanwhile, simply laid wherever he was placed and wondered how to control the magical energies for his own use. He saw his parents using magic almost constantly, and he had a few preconceptions that he brought from his old world, but he could not find out they activated the magic.


    He couldn¡¯t understand what Wolter or Lieve were saying, but that didn¡¯t seem to have any effect on the use of their spells. Whether it was summoning a ball of water to wash Andric¡¯s feet with or moving a book from a shelf into their hand, Lieve¡¯s spoken words never had any consistency with what she was doing.


    Because of the inconsistency, Andric could rule out chants being a necessary object in a spell¡¯s activation sequence. Hand signs were out of the question because of similar inconsistencies, and wands and charms were absolutely nonexistent.


    In the end, Andric resolved himself to learn the language of his new world as quickly as possible.

 Chapter 3 - Everybodys Talkin

    In only a few months, Andric had learned the basics of the language of his new world. As soon as he could move his arms and fingers enough to point, he began asking as many questions as there were waking minutes in the day. His repertoire of nouns and adjectives rapidly expanded.


    In addition to listening to Wolter and Lieve speak inside their home, Andric also heard many people speaking outside the house. Wolter stayed home for a month after Andric¡¯s birth, then returned to work. A few weeks later, Lieve began taking Andric outside. Throughout the entire hot summer, Lieve didn¡¯t need to spend a single day indoors because of the weather; with her magic, every day was comfortable.


    Even in the winter, when days were starting to get cold, Lieve didn¡¯t worry about Andric being too cold or catching the flu. She simply looked at him and cast a spell to keep the air around him at seventy degrees and a spell to keep diseases away from him. Those two spells, each having complex conditions for activation, success, and failure, were used as readily as Lieve deciding she wanted to use them.


    Thanks to all the time he spent outside, and the prime location of Wolter¡¯s work, Andric¡¯s knowledge around his new language quickly grew. He not only listened to his mother and father speaking, but also the talks of many people in Gallus Town. He saw many people from all walks of life - from lowly miners to elegant aristocrats.


    Gallus Town served as the only large town between two small cities, and anyone traveling between the two needed to spend the night in Gallus Town. In the center of town, among many of his competition, Wolter worked at a food cart. He worked with two others, and they served hundreds of customers every day. Almost everyone talked when they ate, and Andric eagerly listened in.


    But, no matter how much prime gossip Andric heard, his lack of comprehension of the language made him unable to understand most conversations. Instead of listening for information delivered by the speech, Andric listened for new words and phrases that he didn¡¯t understand. At the end of the day, when Lieve brought Andric home, he asked about his latest inquiries.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    In the beginning of winter, a traveler came to Gallus Town. That in itself wasn¡¯t strange - travelers came to Gallus Town every day - but the particular traveler set up a stand nearby Wolter¡¯s work and hung up a sign above the stand. From among the few written words that Andric understood - which Lieve had taught him at home - he read the word for ¡®magic¡¯ on the sign.


    The idea of magic had captivated Andric¡¯s imagination since he reincarnated, and seeing others perform what he could not continually stimulated his desire to understand more about it. Then, when a cart appeared and advertised something about magic, Andric knew he needed to investigate.


    Lieve carried Andric everywhere she went, and the few hours she spent hanging around Wolter¡¯s work were no different. Andric, while looking over Lieve¡¯s shoulder, pointed at the stand and asked, ¡°What that?¡±


    Hearing him speak, Lieve paused what she was doing and turned around, flipping Andric around at the same time. She looked at the stand for a second and replied, ¡°That¡¯s a scout for Varinius Magician School. He tells people if they¡¯re good at magic, then tries to get them to pay to go to his school.¡±


    From that short speech, Andric understood everything he needed to. Though some of the words had a confusing meaning, it could be guessed with his other knowledge. From what Andric understood, the man at the stall worked for a magic school in the neighboring city of Varinius, and he would test of Andric had a sufficient ability to use magic.


    Thus, Andric knew he needed to speak with the man. However, he couldn¡¯t just walk over and ask him ¡®hey, how do I use magic?¡¯ He needed to make Lieve walk over and steer the conversation in a direction that ended with Andric knowing how to use magic. Luckily, Andric had months of practice with getting his mother to do things for him.


    ¡°I want magic scout,¡± he said and furiously pointed with his five fingers on one hand.


    Lieve adjusted the way she held Andric and started walking forward, then said, ¡°Do you want to see what magic affinity you have? Alright, I¡¯ll let him test you, but I¡¯m not letting you go to the magician school until you¡¯re older!¡±


    Judging by Lieve¡¯s movements and her cheerful tone, along with some pieces of what she said, Andric knew he succeeded in making his mother get him tested at the stand.

 Chapter 4 - Strange Magic

    A short line had formed in front of the stand, mostly occupied by young children and one or both parents, but each person only stayed at the stand for a minute before leaving. Andric couldn¡¯t fully see what the children were doing once they had their turn with the scout from Varinius, but he didn¡¯t need to wait long for it to be his turn.


    ¡°Hi, good morning, reach out his hand and I will begin the test,¡± the man concisely spoke and held out his hand. He had done this many times, and he was ready to test Andric without any break between him and the previous child.


    Andric didn¡¯t need Lieve to move his hand for him, and he reached out on his own. The distance between him and the man was fairly significant - compared to the children that walked themselves to the stand - and Lieve held Andric closer to fill the gap.


    The man felt surprised, seeing Andric¡¯s calm demeanor and strict adherence to his request. Normally, children Andric¡¯s age were unruly or unwilling to immediately cooperate.


    Lieve gave a half-smile and said, ¡°He¡¯s a smart one,¡± and the man continued with the test.


    He moved a small packet of formless mana from his hand to Andric¡¯s hand, then recalled it. Though the mana had no form, it actually held the form of all spells, and thus could be used to perform any spell with.


    The process for testing a magician¡¯s affinity was simple; he injected formless mana and felt the returning mana for discrepancies. Any mana that Andric did not have an affinity for would be returned at one eighth the original power. If he had an affinity for it, it would return at full power.


    The man first checked for elemental affinities, but Andric had none. Wolter and Lieve had elemental affinities, but neither the man or Andric knew that. Next, the man checked physical affinities, which he quickly confirmed Andric to have.


    Elemental affinities were the most common and had to deal with elements like fire, water, rock, and even something as mundane as shoes. Physical affinities dealt with the human body, and were usually limited to body-fortifying and healing.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Over the course of a few dozen seconds, the man quickly tested the scopes of Andric¡¯s physical affinities. Body-fortifying and healing were easily confirmed, but the man was surprised to see that Andric also had an affinity for healing foreign bodies, which was much rarer than self-healing.


    Most magicians were limited to using their spells on themselves or on their immediate vicinity, but Andric had the affinity for long-ranged magic. Not only would he be able to heal any wound he sustained, but he would be able to heal deadly injuries across large distances.


    The man continued his testing, and he found that Andric could even use destructive physical magic. A magician could use destructive elemental magic to launch a projectile at their target, but those projectiles were often easy to block or dodge. In the case of destructive physical magic, though, no projectiles were used.


    Several seconds later, the man confirmed the rest of Andric¡¯s affinities, and he couldn¡¯t help but be mesmerized at the insane combination.


    Unintentionally, the man had spent over a minute grasping Andric¡¯s hand and analyzing his affinities. A regular test usually concluded within thirty seconds, but Andric¡¯s had taken twice the normal time. When the man finally came to his senses, he let go of Andric¡¯s hand and excitedly said to Lieve, ¡°You son has the affinity for mortal magic. As it pertains to human or animal tissue, he can create, destroy, and everything in between. He¡¯s ranged, which means he doesn¡¯t need to touch something to use his magic on it.¡±


    Lieve paused for a moment and mentally digested what the man told her, then said, ¡°That sounds really good,¡± and put Andric on the ground. He stood and held onto her leg with one hand while trying to listen to Lieve and the man.


    ¡°It would be an absolute shame if you didn¡¯t start his magical training as soon as possible,¡± the man said, and he opened a book that laid on the stand¡¯s countertop. He flipped to a certain page, then opened another book and tore a blank page from it. With a quill, he copied several lines from the book onto the blank page, then said, ¡°The affinity test is free, but they like us to charge 100 coins for the starter spell chant.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s fine,¡± Lieve spoke and took a small coin from her pocket. She handed it to the man, and the man handed her the sheet of paper he wrote on. Lieve rolled up the paper, placed it in a pocket on the inside of her shirt, said, ¡°Thank you,¡± and picked up Andric to leave.


    ¡°Thank you, and good luck!¡± the man said, and then turned to his next customer as Lieve walked away.

 Chapter 5 - Keep Your Head Up

    When Lieve brought Andric home, she took a slate tablet and a stick of chalk and copied the contents of the sheet of paper onto the slate. Though 100 coins wasn¡¯t a huge sum of money - and nobody cares how much Japanese yen it equals - paper wasn¡¯t something Lieve or Wolter could easily obtain. In the hands of Andric, who could do any number of things to a fragile sheet of paper, a solid slate tablet was much safer.


    The slate was entirely black, and the chalk was pure white. Though Wolter and Lieve could use magic to reuse paper and ink, reusing slate and chalk was much easier. With two thoughts, either of them could clear the slate and reform the stick of chalk. Even if Andric dropped the slate and it broke, they could easily fix it.


    Wolter and Lieve could fix the sheet of paper just as easily as fixing the slate, but they wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything if Andric ate the sheet of paper. Andric was pretty responsible and had a good sense about it, and neither of his parents worried about him purposefully eating the paper or chalk, but better safe than sorry. If he ate the chalk, they could use magic on him and heal any discomfort he felt.


    Lieve had begun teaching Andric how to read several months ago and only because he showed an unnatural interest in it. Nobody, not even Lieve or Wolter¡¯s friends, understood how or why Andric had such a fascination with written and spoken words. Andric, of course, wouldn¡¯t be telling them, since he didn¡¯t want his status as a reincarnated person to be known. Perhaps in the future, he thought.


    In the present, however, Andric¡¯s biggest concern was learning how to use magic. It obviously had something to do with reading the mantra that was given to Lieve by the man at the stall, but Andric couldn¡¯t comprehend how many of those chants Wolter or Lieve would need to have memorized if they mentally spoke it every time they used a spell.


    Andric needed to start by speaking the words written on the slate, but such a challenge would be more difficult than anything he had yet to face in his new life. Though he knew how to read the alphabet and several words in his new language, the slate had more than a dozen unknown words on it. Thanks to Lieve¡¯s clear handwriting, Andric could read it all, but sounding out a hundred characters would take some time.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡®G r o w t h f r o m l o n g e v i t y. E t e r n a l l y c a s t u p o n t h e v e i l o f a d v a n c e m e n t. W i t h b o u n d n a i l t o p r o d u c e i n f i n i t y.¡¯


    When going from simple, three-letter words to a three-sentence paragraph, Andric had his work cut out for him. He wanted to laugh at himself, being intimidated by a few sentences, but it was no time to jokes. He stood on the cusp of unimaginable power, and he only needed to read the words written in front of him.


    Naturally, completing his reading of the chant came above everything else in order of importance to Andric. Even if he didn¡¯t understand what it meant, he only needed to read it out. Whether or not he needed to say it fluently or really know what the words mean, that could only be learned at a later time.


    Andric started by sounding out the individual letters. Unfortunately, the letters in his new language were entirely different from the letters in his old language. In his past life, Andric learned a second language easily because the second language¡¯s letters sounded like his first language¡¯s letters. In his current life, Andric couldn¡¯t find any similarities between the new language and any of his previous languages.


    If Andric had to be thankful for anything, it was that the human mouth could only make a limited number of sounds. Even better, Lieve was there to help him with anything he didn¡¯t understand. When given enough time, he would surely be able to sound out any combination of letters.


    However, Andric¡¯s ability to read the words became inconsequential when Lieve simply read them to him. All he would need to do was repeat after her.


    ¡°Growth from longevity. Eternally cast upon the veil of advancement. With bound nail to produce infinity,¡± she spoke once and showed Andric her hands, and her fingernails on all of her fingers grew by almost an inch.


    Andric¡¯s first thought: could he obtain that same power simply by reciting the words on the slate?


    He desperately tried repeating the words exactly as Lieve had said them, but he eventually cursed his own body and lips. Though he tried, he just couldn¡¯t get the sounds to come out right. His fluency of the new language was too small; even though he knew what sound he should have made, what he actually produced was slightly different.


    In the end, Andric could only steel himself to keep trying.

 Chapter 6 - Hold Your Head Up

    In the sitting room of the Avantus home, several days after Lieve received the sheet of paper from the Varinius Magician School recruiter, Andric finally succeeded in orating the words Lieve had copied onto his slate.


    He spoke, clearly and fluently, ¡°Growth from longevity. Eternally cast upon the veil of advancement. With bound nail to produce infinity.¡±


    Earlier, just a moment before saying the chant, Andric had mentally prepared himself to see his fingernails grow, as they had done when Lieve said the chant, and he wasn¡¯t prepared for a blistering headache to assault his brain. Sure, his fingernails grew, but his head might have grown horns.


    Ignoring his longer nails, Andric slapped his hands to his forehead and laid back. With his small frame, he could easily lay down on his family¡¯s large, cushioned chairs, and it allowed him to wholly experience the migraine that suddenly appeared at the end of his chant.


    Lieve walked into the room at a brisk pace, attracted by Andric¡¯s unintentional groans, but slowed down when she saw him holding his head. She said, ¡°I can¡¯t do anything about that, sorry,¡± and took the slate from where Andric dropped it.


    When Lieve picked up the slate, Andric reached one hand out for it, while keeping his other hand on his forehead. Lieve looked at Andric¡¯s pained face, then the slate, and then Andric¡¯s hand and said, ¡°Alright, but wait until that headache calms down.¡±


    Before Lieve left, she palmed her own forehead, which made Andric know that she knew that kind of pain he was in. He didn¡¯t understand the word ¡®headache¡¯ when she spoke, but he did know ¡®wait¡¯ and was intending to do that even without Lieve¡¯s advice. He placed the slate between him and the chair¡¯s backrest, then promptly fell asleep.


    Among the many complications that Andric¡¯s new body inherently carried, it seemed to have an uncanny about to sleep whenever and wherever. He only needed to close his eyes and focus for a few minutes, and sleep would naturally overtake him.


    Sometime later, Lieve woke Andric up for dinner. Judging by the light that came through the window, several hours had passed, but Andric¡¯s headache had not passed. It had calmed down some, though, so, after eating Lieve¡¯s soup, Andric returned to the sitting room and sat back up with his slate.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    He readied for mind for the next headache, then said ¡°Growth from longevity. Eternally cast upon the veil of advancement. With bound nail to produce infinity.¡±


    Andric hadn¡¯t noticed when his nails returned to their original size, but they quickly grew again, and the headache returned in full force. Like if having nails driven into his skull, Andric saw white and collapsed in pain.


    He had just slept for several hours; sleeping again, so soon after the first time, would be more difficult, but possible. He willed it to happen, and thus went to sleep.


    When he woke up, it was night, and someone had placed him in his bed on the second floor of the house. He had his own room, but it was mostly barren. Besides a mattress on the floor, he only had a few blankets and wood and stone toys. Moonlight shone through his bedroom window, and his headache still persisted. For the time being, Andric would need to hold off on learning how to use magic and let his headache settle down.


    Andric went back to sleep, and he didn¡¯t wake up again until morning. Wolter came home late at night and left for work shortly before early lunch, which meant he could spend most of the morning with Andric. Though Lieve took up most of the responsibility of teaching Andric, Wolter still liked to have his own contributions.


    ¡°Breath, Andric, Breath,¡± Wolter spoke and made exaggerated breathing movements. He raised his chest up, then lowered it down and blew air out his mouth. He then said, ¡°Growth from longevity. Eternally cast upon the veil of advancement. With bound nail to produce infinity,¡± while holding out the back of his hand to Andric.


    Andric sat in a chair in the sitting room, and Wolter stood a few feet in front of him. When Wolter finished the chant, his nails grew wildly and in my directions. They curved and twisted, which Wolter thought was hilarious, but Andric didn¡¯t laugh.


    His headache was gone, and he was ready to try again with a fresh mind. In his hands, he held his slate, and he read, ¡°Growth from longevity. Eternally cast upon the veil of advancement. With bound nail to produce infinity.¡±


    Exactly like the day before, Andric¡¯s nails grew and his skull radiated with mental pain. However, the new headache surged lesser than the day before, and Andric could feel a strange, uniquely mysterious, tingle in his brain. The tingling feeling quickly dissipated, but it was definitely there.


    That mysterious feeling in his brain, like rain pouring on him, had to be related to using magic, Andric was sure of it - hopeful beyond anything else. He had never felt anything like the sensation of a mystical substance flowing out from his brain.


    A lesser man would have thought something was wrong with him, as if his brain might be liquefying from the pain of the headaches, but Andric felt no such fear. In the wake of his experiences at the end of his previous life, Andric had no room for emotions such as terror or horror.


    If Andric had his brain melt due to his quest for power: such is life.

 Chapter 7 - Cant Fight This Feeling

    Andric¡¯s only path was forward. Every morning and evening, Andric spoke the chant for the fingernail-growing spell, and each time he felt less of a headache and more of the mysterious flowing.


    By luck or by design, Wolter and Lieve were there to help him understand the perplexing transfer that happened each time he said the chant. As soon as Andric could use the chant without feeling a headache, Wolter explained it to him, saying, ¡°Feel for the mana being generated inside your brain. When you say the chant, you¡¯re forcefully squeezing mana out of your brain. If you can get the mana to come out without saying the chant, then you can use magic.¡±


    Wolter said it rather simply for anyone who had begun their first year in magician school, but Andric wasn¡¯t even a year old. With the help of hand motions, Andric could understand slightly more of what Wolter said, but he still needed Wolter to repeat himself several times with different vernacular.


    Upon reaching full-comprehension of the instructions, Andric almost couldn¡¯t believe how simple it was. Suddenly, at all hours of the day, Andric found himself reciting the chant whenever possible. He still felt the characteristic headache return after using the chant several times within a few minutes, but he managed to repeat the chant hundreds of times per day while he attempted to grasp ahold of the mana flowing from his brain.


    When he finally did grab onto the internal energy, he accidentally pulled it out beyond what he was capable of, and he instantly lost consciousness.


    Wolter and Lieve, the relatively young parents they were, nearly died when they saw Andric passed out on their sitting room floor, face down on the run that laid across the wooden floor. Wolter was the first to rush to him and check his vital signs, but Lieve soon noticed the horrendously long nails Andric sported on both hands.


    Lieve shook Wolter¡¯s shoulder with one hand and said, ¡°Look at Andric¡¯s nails.¡±


    Wolter looked and, a second later, deeply exhaled. He said, ¡°He must have used the chant too much and used up all his mana,¡± and picked up Andric¡¯s limp body. He stood, then continued, ¡°I¡¯ll put him in bed.¡±


    He and Lieve walked upstairs, talking along the way, ¡°Quite frankly, I¡¯m surprised he hasn¡¯t done this to himself before now.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s so eager to learn how to use magic; I hope this doesn¡¯t scare him away from it,¡± Lieve said and followed behind Wolter.


    ¡°I remember, when I first passed out from mana exhaustion, I didn¡¯t use magic for a month,¡± Wolter said and slightly laughed.


    ¡°What a baby. Andric will be back to chanting within the week,¡± Lieve teased her husband and sighed. Though she too stayed away from using magic for almost a month after having her first mana exhaustion episode, she knew she couldn¡¯t hold Andric to those same standards.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Ordinary children would wait until they were at least two years old before learning their starter spell chant. They would then practice the chant for a few months and adjust to piercing headache that came with each repetition of the chant. Then, months or years later, they would find how to control their mana without using the chant. At that point, they could use magic just like adults.


    While having completed up to the mana-controlling stage within a single month wasn¡¯t unheard of, and it was thought to be impossible for a child Andric¡¯s age to have done it. Usually, at that age, they would be scared by their first headache and not attempt magic for several months or years.


    In the same way that one might abandon learning to ride a bike after falling on a gravel road, many children cast aside magic upon feeling a massive headache or experiencing a bout of mana exhaustion. However, in a feat that made him the envy of magic teachers around the world, Andric persisted through all the negative determinants of learning how to use magic.


    Andric fell unconscious in the morning, before Wolter left for work. Two days later, in the evening, he woke up. Wolter and Lieve, each having experienced mana exhaustion a dozen times in their lifetime, took care of Andric¡¯s resting body for the entire duration, and they weren¡¯t at all worried about him not waking up. After all, almost everyone suffered from mana exhaustion in their lifetime, and they didn¡¯t know anything who died from it.


    ¡°If you have a headache, you shouldn¡¯t continue,¡± Lieve warned Andric when she went to check on him and saw him awake. ¡°Headache? Wait.¡± Lieve didn¡¯t think that Andric had actually gotten to the point of controlling his mana, and thus thought he received mana exhaustion from overusing the chant. She didn¡¯t begin to expect that Andric had manually exhausted his mana - an incredibly foolish thing to do.


    After waking up, Andric felt a strong headache, which was perfectly normal. As Lieve suggested, he held off on using magic until his headache died down, which didn¡¯t happen until the next morning.


    The chant had already been imprinted in Andric¡¯s mind, and he didn¡¯t even need to fetch the slate before speaking aloud and readying himself to grasp his mana for the second time.


    ¡°Growth from longevity. Eternally cast upon the veil of advancement. With bound nail to produce infinity.¡±


    He felt the familiar sense of mana pouring out of his brain, but only a small amount came out compared to when he first started practicing with the chant. Using a mental method, Andric reached out for the dissipating mana and seized it, and his control over it was absolute.


    He followed the tendril of mana back to its source, like following a strand of hair to find the follicle, and was led inside his cerebrum. The magical energy inside Andric¡¯s skull swirled and twinkled, and he felt a deep connection with it. However, deeper inside, he felt a far more nefarious force. If his outer cerebrum mana was blue, the mana inside his amygdala was red.


    At the moment, Andric couldn¡¯t know if his mana harbored any abnormal qualities. As far as he knew, everyone had darker, inherently sinister, mana in their amygdala. Regardless of how his mana felt, Andric didn¡¯t have time to analyze the fundamental nature of his mana.


    His control over the mana had been established; utilizing its power came next.

 Chapter 8 - Magic

    Andric needed a target to use his magic on, and something easily-visible to produce. He looked up at the ceiling, laying in between during the hours between waking up and Wolter taking him downstairs, and saw the wooden boards that made up the second floor. Although they were a valid target, it wouldn¡¯t be wise to go affecting the structural integrity of the house he lived in.


    Instead of using his magic on the ceiling, Andric lifted his blanket off him and looked at it. If he used his magic to, say, rip the blanket in half, Wolter or Lieve could easily mend it. As such, Andric didn¡¯t have anything to lose by testing his first use of real magic on the blanket.


    He held the edge of the blanket above him, an arm¡¯s reach away from his face, and pulled on a tiny fragment of the mana in his cerebrum. The action felt a lot like squinting, and it quickly became second nature to him.


    In an instant, hundreds of threads that made up Andric¡¯s blanket split apart, and a large tear formed on the blanket. Andric stopped his mana from exiting his brain, and the formation of the tear halted.


    That action, though it only produced a tear of several inches, brought a small headache onto Andric. The same kind of headache would only happen if Andric used the nail-growing chant ten times. The result had been as Andric hoped it would be, but the resulting headache from using magic without the chant was intense.


    At the moment, Andric thought he received a strong headache simply because he used magic without a chant, not that he received said headache because he didn¡¯t have an affinity for thread magic. Of course, with no guidance beyond how to achieve initial mana controlling, Andric would have no knowledge of the intricacies of practical magic.


    In less than an hour, Wolter came to carry Andric downstairs and saw the ripped blanket. He said, ¡°Andric, it¡¯s bad to rip things,¡± and repaired it, but couldn¡¯t help but wonder how Andric¡¯s small arms would manage to tear the sturdy fabric. He brought Andric into the sitting room and placed him on a chair, then went into the kitchen to cook breakfast.


    In Wolter¡¯s mind, having good food was the most important thing in life, and having someone to share that food with came right after it. When he started steaming vegetables and frying eggs, he kept one ear listening to Andric, but he devoted all his other senses to cooking.


    In the kitchen, the Avantus family only had one pot, one pan, and three sets of eating utensils. With his magic, Wolter could shape the pot or pan however he needed, but he usually kept them a consistent size. As for the utensils, they could also be altered with magic. For all dishes and surfaces, magic worked better than any soap when it came to cleaning.


    The stove Wolter cooked at didn¡¯t have a burner. Instead, he supplied heat with magic. Water needed to be brought in from a nearby spigot if it would be drank or cooked with, but water for cleaning vegetables could be created with magic. The family didn¡¯t need any knives to cut their meats or vegetables; they used magic to split everything into uniform sizes.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    At Andric¡¯s magician level, just making a small tear in his blanket used up all his mana. Wolter - a much more experienced magician - diced several carrots, potatoes, and broccoli crowns without feeling a hint of exhaustion. Their levels were vastly different, but so were their ages.


    In the sitting room, only about a dozen feet away from Wolter, Andric thought up ways to test the proficiency of his magic. Classics such as fireball and wind blade were obvious, but Andric had seen so many more uses of magic in his short life in his new world; if he limited his understanding of magic to what he knew from his previous world, then he would be doing himself a disservice.


    Indeed, as far as Andric knew, anything was possible with his new world¡¯s magic. Telekinetic powers were ordinary for Wolter and Lieve, and Andric had seen countless people in the town eating food with the help of telekinesis.


    Not long after Wolter began cooking breakfast, Lieve wandered down the stairs from the second floor. She took longer than Wolter to get dressed because she prepared for the entire day all at once. Wolter, on the other hand, needed to go back up and change for work. In the morning, he wore a simple shirt and pants.


    Lieve joined Wolter in the kitchen and peeled fruit. Pears and oranges were common around Gallus Town, and their preparation was an art form. Though Andric ate the slices by hand, Lieve kept her fingers clean by cutting the fruit with magic, and she could carve fancy shapes into the pears. Because of their soft flesh, pears were very easy to work with, and they were a favorite for fruit decorations.


    Wolter and Lieve could make breakfast without using any magic, but they didn¡¯t need to. They had no reason to be stingy with their mana, so they used it without restraint.


    When Andric was brought to the dining table and given a plate of breakfast, he sat in his chair without touching his fork. Wolter and Lieve ate with forks to save mental and because they didn¡¯t want Andric to feel left out. A few bites into eating their food, Lieve stopped and looked at Andric, wondering what he was thinking.


    Andric simply stared at his food. Looking at the diced potatoes, he realized that he hadn¡¯t eaten mashed potatoes once since arriving in his new world. Though his headache from earlier in the day hadn¡¯t settled down, he was still willing to test his magic on the potatoes.


    He focused on the small pile of diced potatoes that laid on his plate, imagining them turning to mush, and activated the mana in his brain, like squeezing water from a damp sponge.


    This time, unlike when he directly pull the mana from his cerebrum, the required mana from the desired spell freely slowed out. Hundreds of particle streams of mana dissipated around Andric¡¯s skull, and the mass of potatoes softened. It lost its structure, and the pile of cubes melted into a single glob of potato.


    This change didn¡¯t go unnoticed by Lieve, and she quickly alerted Wolter. However, they both stayed silent as Andric used his fork to eat the mashed potatoes.


    Amidst a stinging headache, now much more painful than it had been a minute ago, Andric savored his accomplishment.

 Chapter 9 - Sister Golden Hair

    In the nation of Fridus, magicians were not considered geniuses based on how early they obtained their ability to use magic without the starter chant. In many cases, powerful families would spend fortunes raising a child who they thought had good talent, only to witness the child reach a point where no more progress could be made.


    Andric Avantus had unlocked his mana in less than a year since his birth, but no noble recruiter would seek him out and smother him with magic-related teachings.


    On the northern end of Gallus Town, where several mines entered the mountain upon which the town had been built, a young child ran near the giant ore smelters and swung a stick of iron through the air. No matter how dangerous the smelters were, or whatever temperature they heated the outside air to, the child carelessly dashed around molten metal.


    Sweat dripped down his forehead, but he paid little thought to his physical exhaustion. Instead, when he finished his imaginary obstacle course around the forge, he slashed his toy sword at a wooden pole covered in straw. The straw didn¡¯t break, but several loud taps could be heard among the clanking of metal hammers.


    His metal sword had no sheath or sharp edge, and it only had a handle made from wrapped leather scraps. Though its length barely exceeded one foot, the curved blade stood out at unique. In a world of magicians, nobody had a use for a sword, and thus the design that could be called exotic in his previous world gained an unprecedented level of rarity in his new world.


    ¡°Hey, boy, isn¡¯t it almost time to go home?¡± one of the forge workers asked, looking at the sky and then to the child with the curved sword.


    The child also looked to the sky, then replied, ¡°Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for letting me use his place to train, Mr. Boele,¡± and ran home.


    Boele, who had worked at the forge for years, snickered as he watched the child running through the crowded evening street. Almost a year ago, he could tell that the shameless child who appeared at his forge and asked for a curved sword with one blade would be just as shameless a year later.


    He had met young masters from rich families who acted as arrogant, but that child didn¡¯t even have a family history - much less riches. If not for the boy¡¯s genuine interest in forging, Boele would a mind to go seek out his parents.


    On the other side of Gallus Town, the child entered his home, and his sister immediately greeted him. She shouted, ¡°Andy!¡± and dropped the wooden blocks in her hands, but she quickly picked them back up and returned to stacking them.


    Andric, now eight years old, strolled into the sitting room and sat on a chair on the opposite side of the room from his sister and mother. In the chair behind her five-year-old daughter, Lieve worked on integrating yellow dye into a set of cushions. She extracted the previous, blue, dye into a bottle, and filled in the fabric with yellow dye from another bottle.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Andric placed his bladeless sword behind his chair, then said, ¡°That sure is a nice tower. Would you mind if I made a tower next to it?¡±


    His sister cheerfully replied, ¡°Nope!¡± and pushed several blocks closer to Andric. He smiled, then slid off his chair and sat on the floor in front of his sister, where he began making an upside-down tower.


    He said, ¡°Thanks Hedy, now I can make my reverse tower,¡± and rapidly stacked blocks. He used one vertical block as the base of his tower, then built upward from there. As his tower became higher, Hedy grew jealous of it, and Andric eventually had to topple his own tower just to avoid her wrath.


    ¡°Oh no!¡± Hedy exclaimed and scooted closer to Andric. ¡°Your town fell. Let me help you build it again,¡± she said, then began stacking blocks in the same manner of Andric¡¯s original tower.


    Suddenly, Lieve stood and announced, ¡°Who wants dinner?¡±


    Andric and Hedy both voiced their approval, and Lieve walked into the kitchen to begin cooking. For dinner, the family usually ate meat and vegetables, and Wolter rarely joined them. In the evening, business greatly picked up, and he couldn¡¯t afford to leave his work for an hour.


    Still, even without him, Lieve made a fine steak. Though Wolter made his living as a chef, Lieve¡¯s cooking ability could not be called any less than his. If not for Wolter having a vegetable magic affinity, he might not be working in a food cart.


    Andric glanced at a bookcase against the wall, then turned to his sister and said, ¡°I¡¯m going to read a book. Can I leave this to you?¡±


    She replied, ¡°Alright, Andy, leave it to me. I¡¯ll build the best tower ever.¡±


    Satisfied, Andric stood and used magical telekinesis to pull a dictionary from the bookcase. Andric and Hedy had many educational books, but Wolter and Lieve had a surprising amount of reference texts. As of yet, Andric spent most of his time reading dictionaries to expand his knowledge of the language, but he looked forward to perusing the historical, medical and botanical volumes that also stood on the shelves.


    Andric¡¯s new world, named Paega, had many similarities with Andric¡¯s previous world, but - at the same time - many differences. Though culinary and agricultural sciences had advanced rapidly for hundreds of years, other sciences were lacking. Water purification existed, but only as a form of magic. Steel could be easily made, but only with the use of magic. Many of the technologies Andric enjoyed in his previous world were emulated with magic in his new world.


    Even though the book Andric read wasn¡¯t made with a printing press or related technology, it was still made cheaply because of magic. Better yet, Andric could turn in the old books to a shop and receive updated versions for a small price. The paper and ink from the old books could then be reused.


    Though buying new books cost a large amount of money, they lasted a long time and could be exchanged. In a way, the main cost came from the physical paper and ink, not the contents of the book - similar to an ebook reader.


    Instead of developing new technology, most people sought to increase their magical power. Andric could easily see how a world that emphasized personal strength would stagnate.

 Chapter 10 - You Can Do Magic

    The next day, after breakfast, Lieve, Andric and Hedy walked to the Klerkse household. Wolter had met Heiko - the father of the Klerkse family - at work, when he bragged about his daughter to anyone who would listen. Since Wolter had a daughter the same age, the families met almost every day.


    Hedy and Cato - Heiko¡¯s daughter - were almost exact opposites: Hedy had long, blonde hair; Cato had short black, hair. Hedy had an ordinary water magic affinity; Cato had an exotic momentum magic affinity. Hedy loved her brother; Cato hated him.


    Lieve and Susanna - Heiko¡¯s wife - were immediate friends from the first time they met. Both of them liked decorating fruit and managing the house, and they couldn¡¯t get enough of the bickering between Cato and Andric - though, most of the bickering came one-sidedly from Cato.


    Although everyone in the Avantus and Klerse households knew Andric was an unmatched prodigy with magic, Cato¡¯s progress with magic wasn¡¯t far behind. She had only unlocked her mana control shortly after her fourth birthday, but she could already fling objects across a room and accurately hit Andric.


    Clunk, and a wooden cylinder bounced off of Andric¡¯s arm and rolled across the floor. He immediately glanced up from his book and saw Cato looking the other way. It was obviously her who hit Andric with the cylinder, but she would never admit it.


    Cato¡¯s magic had very special effects on objects she used it on. She could change the velocity an object moved at, but also the apparent mass. While she couldn¡¯t actually make objects bigger or smaller, she could change the way they interacted with the world around them.


    In the case of the wooden cylinder, she increased its velocity and decreased its apparent mass. That made the wooden cylinder hit Andric at a high speed and cause little to no damage. She couldn¡¯t use his magic at a range, and the effect wore off depending on how much mana she used. Unlike some magical affinities, momentum magic could not produce a permanent change in the object.


    At a glance, Cato¡¯s magical affinity had much higher combat potential than Andric. However, that was only true because Andric couldn¡¯t properly utilize his magical affinity in most situations. Regardless of how much damage Cato managed to inflict upon him with her blocks, he could simply heal himself, but he wouldn¡¯t be able to stop her assault.


    Even though he had three years lead over her, his ability to stop an object¡¯s movement was lesser than her ability to start an object¡¯s movement. If he really wanted to stop her, his magic would be far too debilitating to be socially acceptable. Wolter and Lieve had privately told him that boundaries he needed to never cross, and he wholeheartedly agreed.


    Cato accelerated a wooden cube in Andric¡¯s direction, and, before it hit, Andric covered his chest with bones - completely hidden by his shirt. This time, when the cube hit him, the clunking sound it produced was much more pronounced, and Andric didn¡¯t feel anything beyond a thud against his bone armor.


    He then let his bone armor dissolve into nothingness, since keeping it on him would require continuous expenditures of mana. He could make the bone armor a permanent change, but it would be incredibly difficult to move around it. Among Andric¡¯s defensive spells, the bone armor held the highest defensive value.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Cato attacked Andric for the third time, and Andric blocked it as easily as the block before it. Three of her attacks failed to inflict serious hard on Andric, and Cato stopped shooting blocks at him. She never went so far with her attacks that they became annoying, and she knew about Andric¡¯s ability to shield and heal himself.


    Andric didn¡¯t mind her childish antics, and he returned to his book. Sitting next to Cato, Hedy stifled a giggle, and the two girls resumed their playing.


    Later in the day, Andric left the Klerske house, alone, and went to visit Boele at his forge. The houses the Avantus family and Klerske family were on the south-east side of Gallus Town, and Boele¡¯s forge was on the north side, with the mines. It only took Andric a few minutes to run home and retrieve his sword, then a half hour to find his way to the forge.


    The forge seldomly had unknown people walking through it, but the four workers were always doing something. The smiths never had a moment of rest, since any delay on the smelting of iron or other minerals would cause many more delays. The forge ran all day long and only stopped when the supply of raw ore fell too low.


    At the forge, Andric observed Boele and the other smiths while they forged metal plates which would later be formed into whatever object the client needed. Thanks to Boele¡¯s rare metal magic affinity, he could make almost anything out of a plate of iron. With his magic, Andric¡¯s imitation katana only took a few minutes to form; any other magician would have needed days of time.


    ¡°Andric, it¡¯s good that you¡¯re here,¡± Boele said and continued hammering a bar of metal. ¡°Sven burned his leg and is laying in the house. Can you heal him?¡±


    Andric replied, ¡°Okay,¡± and changed his trajectory towards the large house on the side of Boele¡¯s forge. The house had three floors, and the first floor had a room where the smiths could recover from burns. Small burns happened every day, and they could be healed on the spot. Large burns - ones that affected more than a square foot of skin - were much harder to heal.


    Boele appreciated having Andric around the forge for a second reason: his healing magic affinity. Taking Sven to a healing magician could cost thousands of coins, but Andric would heal the wound for free.


    In the side room of Boele¡¯s home, Sven laid on a straw mattress and tried his best to ignore the pain coming from his leg. From his knee down, only about half of his skin remained, and the rest of his flesh had melted off. He could see bones in several locations - mostly around his foot. As long as Andric came by, he¡¯d be fine, but it still hurt in the meantime.


    Andric entered the room without knocking and immediately looked over at Sven, and his eyes shifted to Sven¡¯s ruined leg. Indeed, a doctor might have wanted tens of thousands of coins to heal the wound, which meant weeks of profit going down the drain.


    He spoke while looking at Sven¡¯s leg, ¡°Don¡¯t bite your tongue,¡± and activated ranged healing magic.


    The bones in Sven¡¯s leg and foot healed first, and cartilage, ligaments, muscles and skin wrapped around the exposed bone. Thirty seconds later, Sven¡¯s original, hairy leg had returned.


    Healing magic was a type of permanent magic. In order to create the permanent mass where the wound was located, Andric needed to take mass from other locations. Most humans had a great deal of mass inside them that could be used, and Andric took a section of Sven¡¯s belly fat to use as new tissue around his leg and foot.


    The magic took a lot of mana out of Andric, but he could potentially heal two more injuries of the same magnitude before feeling a headache brought on by mana exhaustion.


    But, if Andric frivolously used mana throughout the day, he might not have enough mana to save someone who desperately needed him. Luckily, there were no flagpoles situated around Boele¡¯s forge.

 Chapter 11 - Move Bitch Get Out Da Way

    A week later, Heiko¡¯s shift at work changed, and he stayed home from 6 AM until 10 PM. During the latest hours of the night and earliest hours of the morning, he worked the night shift with the Gallus Town guards. His shift rotated by eight hours every week, and the night shift was the most dreaded of them all.


    The town guard had very little work to do, but they couldn¡¯t rest. They patrolled inside and outside the town, and they sometimes had to deal with rowdy magicians. Because of that, Heiko and the other guards were called mages - because they had a bit of combat ability.


    The lowest category of magic-enabled humans, called magicians, were just everyday run-of-the-mill people. They used their magic to assist themselves in their daily needs, but not much else. Mages, though, were trained to fight magicians or other mages with their magic. As such, they mostly had combat affinities and formal training.


    After working for eight hours and waiting for his relief to take over at his post, Heiko walked home, cleaned himself and slid into bed beside his wife. A few minutes later, Susanna crawled out of bed and began dressing, which usually took several minutes.


    A few minutes walk away from their home, Andric and the rest of the Avantus family were still asleep. They commonly stayed up much later than the Klerkse family, and they woke up an hour or two after.


    Morning in Gallus Town was quiet. Most businesses stopped at 8 PM, but some - like the food cart Wolter worked at - were open as late as 11 PM. In the morning, most businesses didn¡¯t open until an hour after dawn. The mining operation never stopped, but the mines were too far from the residential area to be relevant.


    Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the mountain from Gallus Town, a group of mages followed a large animal through the forest. They had tracked the animal for several days, waiting for a time when they all had full mana and the beast slowed its movements. Due to the animal¡¯s large wings, keeping up with it required magic, and the mages had little faith in being able to kill it without their full mana.


    Some animals were ordinary and harmless, and some were hostile and dangerous, but some were ferocious monsters warped by magic. Mana coursed through their veins, differently than how a human used magic, and their physical properties were greatly altered.


    This particular monster took the form of a chicken with a height and width of over ten feet. Its wings stretched fifteen feet in both directions, and it could eat a man¡¯s torso with a single peck from its beak. In addition to all that, flames roared across its body. The flames didn¡¯t burn the monster, and they made for a dangerous attack whenever the monster flapped its wings.


    In the forest, where trees were spaced less than ten feet apart, the monster had little room to move around on the forest floor. Instead, it hopped across the tree canopy and ignited the leaves in its path. It occasionally fell through, but a few gusts of wind from its wings was enough to propel it back up.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    At the same time, whenever the monster flew upward, fire spread out in the forest. However, the mages who followed the monster disregarded the damage it left in its wake. They no time to deal with the spreading fires, and they only cared about killing the agile beast as quickly as possible.


    Monsters were mysterious beings that appeared spontaneously. Even the beast that the group of mages followed for several days, which resembled a chicken, had no confirmed origin point. Monsters weren¡¯t known to appear in succession, but they could appear in large groups. Thankfully, this time, it looked like only one animal had mutated.


    Even so, with just one car-sized flaming chicken, six mages were completely occupied. Perhaps, if the monster hadn¡¯t such an incredible range of movement, the mage squad would have been able to deal with it earlier.


    The monster fell through the canopy, and everyone in the mage squad jumped away. For the most part, they followed directly under the monster, but they kept a suitable distance so that they would flee if it fell down. This time, instead of it flying back up and resuming its travel, the monster looked forward and saw a long expanse of forest it could travel through.


    It opened its wings and rapidly flapped, propelling itself through the forest. While moving at a speed the mages could only match with magic, the monster looked for food to eat. Even though its body had been made with magic, it still needed to eat to sustain itself. It could eat plants - to a certain extent - but larger prey were more efficient at supplying it energy - even better when that prey contained mana.


    Few large animals inhabited the mountain around Gallus Town. Excluding the livestock kept by farmers around Gallus Town, most of the large creatures around the mountain had already been hunted. Thus, the monster continued to travel for many miles.


    One mage, tired from having chased the monster for so many miles, threw several disks of mana at the tree in front of the monster, and they caused large chunks of wood to splinter off. The attack used a large amount of mana, but it also caused half a dozen large trees to fall in the monster¡¯s path.


    ¡°Attack!¡± another mage, seeing that the unannounced attack succeeded in halting the monster¡¯s movements, shouted. From behind where the monster stood against a mass of fallen trees, five mages gave their most powerful spells to the feathery backside of the monster.


    Fire magic would have little effect on creature shrouded in flames, and the mage squad resorted to other types of magic. Lightning magic held the title for being the most lethal, but aiming it proved challenging. However, when the target stood only thirty feet away from them and had the height and width of a storage shack, missing was almost impossible.


    All five attacking mages struck lightning upon the monster¡¯s body, and blackish feathers flew out like darts. For a moment, the mages were elated their strike had succeeded so well. But, a moment later, it was clear that the monster had simply shed a layer of crispy feathers while remaining unharmed underneath.


    The monster turned around and spotted one of the mages. With two fluid movements, it dashed forward and bit down on the mage¡¯s upper body. The monster¡¯s huge beak fit half the man inside it, then tore his head, arms, and chest from his body. It gulped the meat down, then flew upward and continued its southbound advance.


    The mage squad stopped and regrouped around the corpse of their fallen comrade. They knew hunting monsters came with its own risks, but they didn¡¯t expect one of their friends to be killed so easily. Heads turned to follow the direction the monster flew away in, and they spat curses from their mouth.


    While the monster drew ever closer to Gallus Town, the ordinary lives of the citizens continued, oblivious to the danger that approached them.

 10k Words Special

    From a dark cave on the side of a mountain, a misty figure emerged. Her silky hair rolled like waves, following down to her butt, and droplets of water occasionally fell off.


    She gave out a heavy sigh, then muttered, breaking the silence of the morning, ¡°This mutation¡­ what a bothersome thing,¡± and lept into the valley below.


    The snowy valley had no plants growing in it, but ferocious beasts were still common all around. In the area around the mountain range, thick jungles slowly gave way to desolate ranges of stone, where only carnivorous predators could survive. Human civilization had long since known to avoid the hostile region, but nothing stopped the Magus of Ocean Currents from going where she pleased.


    Suddenly, a monster taller than a house raised its body from rocky crevice. Much more suddenly, a jet of water erupted from the magus¡¯ hand and sliced through the monster¡¯s skull, instantly killing it. Less than half a second had passed between the monster showing itself and the magus killing it, and she continued on her way without pause.


    Those beasts, which could kill hundreds of mages or thousands of magicians, were little more than flies to the magus. For dozens of miles, the magus dashed through the valley and killed whatever creature foolishly intercepted her path. In her wake, hundreds of bodies fell and were consumed by lowly scavengers.


    Finally, after traveling for most of the morning, she arrived at a large pond in the center of the mountain range. The pond had a width of only about eight feet, but its depth exceeded measurable distances. As of yet, nobody had found the bottom of it, and some scholars speculated it traveled all the way to the other side of the planet.


    Legends talked about an all-powerful magus who struck the planet with a massive spell, which pierced all the way through the planet and created the rippling mountains that radiated out from the pond.


    The woman, being a magus herself, knew not to dismiss the legend as entirely fictional. She had seen many wondrous things in her lifetime, and the lack of imagination in a magus would eventually lead to their death.


    Indeed, when she investigated the depths of the pond the week before, she discovered things that only belonged in legends. She shuttered just thinking about it and took a look down at her palm.


    Even a week after having exited the pond, her skin still dripped with water. Something had happened to her when she swam in the pond, and her body mutated. Nothing had changed about her thoughts, but her physical body constantly excreted a pure, clear water.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    She worried that she would eventually transform into one of the many monsters she slaughtered along her journey to the pond. The rampant mana that existed inside the pond hand already seeped into her flesh, and it was only a matter of time before it penetrated into her skull, where her mana was stored. Once her mana was turned over to the mysterious force that infected her during the last dive, she feared she would lose control over her thoughts.


    But, before that happened, she needed to get to the bottom of the pond. She tried staying away from the pond for a week, but her proximity to the pond had no effect on the magic that controlled the exterior of her body. Before she died due to the influence of the foreign mana, she needed to investigate further into the pond.


    She took a breath of air, then dived into the pool. With her magus powers, she could sustain herself solely with mana, and she quickly transferred her oxygen needs over to mana. As she swam deeper, her magic also kept the water pressure at a bearable level, and she pushed herself downward without any issues.


    At five hundred feet underwater, the light from above dimmed to a point where the magus could no longer see, and she was forced to provide her own light. She flexed her brain, and eight spheres of light rotated around her body. They illuminated the walls, and she continued on her way.


    At five thousand feet underwater, the magus began to feel external mana acting upon her body. She had ignored the warnings the previous time she descended, and it was too late to turn back She couldn¡¯t roll back time, and thus she only had the open to continue.


    At fifty thousand feet underwater, nearly ten miles down, the external mana assault the magus¡¯ body with unrestrained vigor. She could feel her sanity being ripped away, yet she didn¡¯t stop traveling. Ever further into the abyss, she continued.


    Several miles later, when the magus felt she could no longer hold on, she fell through a gap in the water and landed on a hard, stone floor. The water around her shifted to air, but the sudden relief from the water¡¯s pressure didn¡¯t at all relieve the pain she felt. The hostile mana in the air only got worse, and her eyes began to lose sight.


    Not far from where she landed, two creatures stood up and approached her. They spoke among themselves for a few seconds, then sat on the stony ground and watched as the magus¡¯ body transformed into that of a monstrous creature.


    The two natives of the land inside the crust of the planet laughed at the woman¡¯s detested new form, then flicked their mind and turned her to dust. In an instant, the Magus of Ocean Currents died.


    One of the creatures spoke in their demonic language, ¡°The humans are getting more powerful.¡±


    The second creature replied, ¡°Let¡¯s tell the chief. Hopefully, we¡¯ll get to go on the next round of exterminations.¡±


    The first creature laughed, and the two of them flew off into the distance.

 Chapter 12 - Up On The Roof

    Andric left home with Wolter, and he went to Boele¡¯s forge by himself. The food cart Wolter worked at was placed almost halfway between his house and the forge, and it was easy for Andric to head there and get lunch instead of going all the way home.


    Not many people walked around Gallus Town when it wasn¡¯t lunch or dinner, but the town had enough of a population that a steady crowd of errand-runners constantly occupied the streets. A few wagons and carts pulled by animals dotted the streets, and they were only used for transporting cargo.


    Numerous shops could be seen from the street, but they hardly interested Andric. Besides the bookstore and the forge, Andric didn¡¯t regularly visit any of the businesses in Gallus Town. Not only did he not have any money, but he didn¡¯t need to buy anything. Most people lived simple lives, and the Avantus family wasn¡¯t an exception.


    The forge, which couldn¡¯t be considered large, had much work to do in the morning. The smelters needed to be heated back to full capacity from their idle, overnight state, and iron ore and coal supplies were restocked.


    On the street-side of the forge, Boele negotiated with an ore merchant, and they determined how much ore Boele would purchase for the following day. They calculated how much ore Boele still had from the previous day, how many smiths were working, how much coal he had, how much ore had been delivered that day, and what amount of ore the merchant had to offer.


    After coming to an agreement, Boele signed a paper and the merchant left. Boele and the merchant worked with credit so that they didn¡¯t need to count coins every day. At the end of the week, Boele would pay the merchant for the whole week¡¯s worth of ore and coal.


    Spying Andric approaching, Boele called out, ¡°You¡¯re in luck; we just finished taking a delivery of ore to the smelters, and you can help fill them.¡±


    Andric scoffed and walked past Boele, replying, ¡°Since when have I worked at your forge?¡±


    Boele followed him and said, ¡°Since when has my forge been a daycare?¡±


    They both walked into the forge, and Andric replied after a moment¡¯s pause, ¡°Point taken,¡± and walked over to the pile of ore resting beside the row of smelters.


    Metal products were made to last a lifetime, and their quality heavily rested on the quality of the iron used to make them. As such, smiths were valued for their ability to transform ore stones into sheets or rods. Boele and his three employees used raw, physical labor to smelt the ore, then used magic to shape the final product.


    Moving iron ore and coal into the smelters was done by hand, using shovels and stepladders. Each smith raised the temperature in their smelter, then began adding ore and additional coal. Gradually, as they took out red-hot ore that could be hammered into plates, they added more ore and coal. Eventually, hopefully before sundown, they would have processed all the ore Boele bought for the day.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    The smiths were all strong in their own right, but Andric had a magical advantage over them. He activated temporary body-modification magic inside his muscles, and his strength soared. Thanks to Andric¡¯s extensive knowledge of anatomy and his affinity for body-modification magic, he could supplement his muscles¡¯ natural strength for a long time - much longer than the smiths, who didn¡¯t have the affinity for that type of magic.


    ¡°Honestly, Mr. Boele, if your bones are getting so old that you need a child to take over your work, you should think about retiring,¡± Andric said as he took a shovel and started hauling coal into Boele¡¯s smelter.


    Boele scoffed back, ¡°I¡¯m not even thirty; I¡¯m not old,¡± and subconsciously reached for a few strands of his greying hair.


    Andric worked with an efficiency surpassing the three smiths beside him. Not only did he have enhanced strength due to his magic, but he didn¡¯t need to worry about saving mana for later. A working man needed to carefully plan how he was going to spend his mana, but a kid could use it however he liked.


    Boele would have been satisfied with any amount of work, as long as he got to see sweat dripping from Andric¡¯s forehead. When he was younger, Boele remembered playing in the forest that surrounded the northern side of Gallus Town, and he couldn¡¯t help but feel irrationally spiteful at the younger generation for not doing the same. However, to a certain extent, he enjoyed having Andric around the forge.


    After loading the smelter with iron ore and coal, Andric stepped aside and allowed Boele to take over. Then over the course of a minute, the temporary modifications to Andric¡¯s muscles disappeared.


    He picked up his sword that he had laid against a wooden beam and looked it its metal. Being from a more technologically advanced world, Andric knew about much more metal types than just iron and steel, but he was at a loss on how to use that knowledge.


    Though Boele and other smiths knew about the carbon content of iron and how to produce steel, materials like tungsten, silicon, and titanium were unknown. They existed, for sure, but nobody knew how to work with them. Even Andric, who once lived in an age where almost all steel had a plethora of other minerals mixed in, didn¡¯t know how to make alloys.


    However, even without that knowledge, it didn¡¯t mean Andric couldn¡¯t create a tungsten alloy sword. With magic, he could change the atomic and molecular structure of the metal, resulting in iron atoms turning into tungsten atoms. The switch required enormous amounts of mana, though, and Andric made no discernable progress after several months of applying his magic to the imitation sword Boele had given him.


    Andric used a large amount of mana on his sword, then stopped, saving some mana in case he injured himself while dancing around the forge. He made sure to stay away from moving parts and the pathways of the smiths, but accidents could happen.


    When looking at his sword, Andric saw a shadow quickly pass in front of him, reminding him of the airplanes he knew from his previous world. He looked up and saw a giant, flaming chicken soaring across the sky.


    A moment later, the giant chicken descended onto Gallus Town, and Andric heard a building collapsing somewhere a few streets away.

 Chapter 13 - Help!

    Voices screamed, and hundreds of people ran in different directions. Some approached the landing of the monster, and some ran away. In the middle of them all, some people were too shocked or afraid to move.


    Then, a little further away, where they couldn¡¯t see where the monster descended, uninterested magicians chalked up the disturbance to a failed spell. They paid little mind to the destruction of a building on the other side of town, and they continued their work.


    At the forge, where Andric stood, very few people had seen the flaming creature that floated down from the sky, but everyone heard the crashing it made upon impact with a building.


    Boele walked out from the forge and stood behind Andric, and Andric said, ¡°It was a giant chicken,¡± and made an arch with his finger, tracing the path the monster fell in. A second later, he added, ¡°And it was on fire.¡±


    One of the smiths followed Boele out of the forge, then asked, ¡°What was it?¡± and looked from Andric to Boele.


    Andric answered him, ¡°A giant, flaming, falling chicken.¡±


    Neither Boele or the smith had ever seen a chicken fall from the sky, but they knew as well as anyone about the magical land they lived in. If it was anyone else, they might have scolded him for making things up. But, since it was Andric, they took his words as an observed fact.


    The group looked up, watching for more monsters that might fall onto the city, but nothing came. A few seconds later, they turned to view the ends of the street, which intersected with major town roads, and saw many people running away from the interior of the city.


    At a time like this, where panic quickly spread among the civilian population, Andric had largely different thoughts from Boele and the smiths. While the smiths were thinking about how to protect themselves and their business, Andric imagined what kind of possibilities could be happening beyond the few rows of buildings that separated him from the chicken¡¯s crash site.


    He spoke, ¡°I¡¯m going to investigate,¡± and dashed away, quickly disappearing in a tight alley between two buildings.


    ¡°Wait!¡± Boele called, but it was too late. Externally, he couldn¡¯t believe Andric would so readily run toward danger. Deeper inside, however, he knew it fit exactly with Andric¡¯s personality. He hoped for the best, then returned inside his forge.


    The forge couldn¡¯t run when a mysterious creature was wrecking the town. Boele and his workers closed the bottom hatches on the smelters, placed a cover on the bin of coal, and then hid in the basement of the house. With their small preparations, the forge would have less of a chance of burning down. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    When the monster itself harbored flames on its body, though, there wasn¡¯t much that could be done to prevent fires. In addition, if the mages who went to combat it used fire magic, the risk of buildings catching on fire further increased.


    A few hundred feet away from the forge, the monster that fell from the sky hopped out of the rubble of the building it landed in and gazed around. It purposefully landed near a large, open area, but it hadn¡¯t expected the building to instantly collapse when it landed on the roof.


    With the destruction of the building, wood scattered across the ground, and many splinters impacted bystanders and other buildings. Worse yet, the flames from the monster¡¯s back rapidly spread, and whoever inside the building might have survived the monster¡¯s impact quickly burned alive.


    The monster¡¯s head twisted back and forth, and its eyes darted around the opening. Suddenly, its long neck bent down. Only a few feet away, an injured man laid on the ground, and the monster at his entire body with just four pecks.


    Not satisfied with such a tiny meal, the monster flapped its wings once and appeared on the other side of the clearing, where he quickly gobbled up three torsos. With so much food around it, the monster disregarded tiny limbs and only went for large bodies it could swallow in one bite. With another flap of its wings, and arrived at a new location.


    Many of the citizens of Gallus Town knew about the monstrous creatures that could mutate from ordinary animals, but few had ever seen one. In some cases, when they were too scared to look behind them and see the devastation in the clearing, they died without even knowing what hit them.


    One magician had a sliver of bravery, and shouted, ¡°Die, beast!¡± upon seeing it ram into the side of a building, reducing it to rubble in only a second. He looked at a large wooden beam that stood beside the monster and, with one flex of his mind, activated his ranged wood magic affinity.


    From the wooden beam, a large spike protruded into the monster¡¯s side, penetrating flames and feathers. With one flat of its uninjured wing, the monster flew several feet away and spread flames across over a dozen feet of road. Then, with a flapping of both its wings, the monster flew over to the wood magician and effortlessly bit off his head.


    Seeing how the wooden spike injured the monster, more magicians came to fight it, but they were all blown back when it jumped onto the roof of a building and rapidly flapped its wings. A few feathers fell down, and the wing returned to its uninjured state.


    Flames roared where the monster initially landed, in three locations where it rammed into buildings, and in a fifty-foot radius around the roof where it healed its wing. Hundreds of magicians ran for their lives; they weren¡¯t strong enough to fight something with such a demonic power.


    In a few places, magicians with water magic affinities stepped up to control the flames, but most were scared of the monster returning and looked for shelter. However, the buildings in Gallus Town were made from wood, which would eventually catch fire if the flames spread by the monster were not contained.


    Whenever a particularly courageous magician attacked the monster and inflicted some damage upon it, it would fly up onto a roof and spread flames around the town while healing the injury. Fire magicians, who were commonly the strongest combat magicians, were powerless against the flaming chicken.


    Meanwhile, following it as fast as he could, Andric pursued the corrupted beast.

 Chapter 14 - Ring Of Fire

    Andric followed the giant flaming chicken, but his path varied widely. With the use of its large wings, the monster could fly across hundreds of feet of buildings in only a second, and Andric¡¯s movement couldn¡¯t keep up. Whenever he reached within a few dozen feet of it, the monster flapped its wings and increased the distance between itself and Andric by a large margin.


    Andric couldn¡¯t simply follow the monster; he also needed to stay hidden. At any moment, the monster could discover him and eat his whole body in one bite. To make sure that didn¡¯t happen, Andric ducked behind whatever cover he could find. If not for the sense of wonder Andric felt from looking at the uncontrolled beast, he would have fled long ago.


    As the monster flew across a greater area of the town, the flames that originated from its landing points spread into new territory. Wherever the monster traveled, lines of flames would appear, and they would become regions Andric couldn¡¯t travel through. In just thirty seconds, entire buildings caught on fire from the small flames dropped by the monster passing overhead.


    Over the course of the time he spent around Boele¡¯s forge, Andric developed a way to withstand intense heat, but he had never directly charged into a wall of flames. Eventually, while chasing the monster, he found himself surrounded by collapsed buildings and burning wood.


    In front of him, the only path that existed was over a pile of burning rubble. He looked behind himself and at the alleyway he just ran through, and a wall suddenly collapsed, leaving that exit blocked. His water magic wouldn¡¯t be potent enough to extinguish the flames, and no body-modification would allow him to bypass the flames.


    The only remaining option: to pass through the flames.


    ¡°Dammit, I should have just stayed at the forge,¡± he cursed and muttered, then looked down at his feet. His leather shoes were already black from soot, but they didn¡¯t show any signs of falling apart. Andric couldn¡¯t speak for the flame resistance of them, but he didn¡¯t expect them to catch on fire after only a few seconds of being in flames.


    Besides his shoes, Andric also had his pants and shirt to worry about. Both were made from cotton and undoubtedly flammable, but Andric didn¡¯t have a good way to preserve them. He could drench them with water, but he risked not having enough mana to heal any injured he later sustained.


    He thought of a second way to wet his clothes, but he shook his head and tried to forget about it. At the present time, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to use such drastic measures. Instead of thinking about it any longer, Andric faced the thin alleyway that led to the main road and ran forward.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    When three feet away from the flames and rubble, Andric scanned his eyes over the path and squinted as tightly as he could. He needed to have some vision available to him, but the bright flames hurt his eyes and face. With his arms, he covered his forehead, and he dashed into the tall fire ahead of him.


    Instantly, Andric knew he made a bad decision by entering the alleyway. The flames ripped at his clothes and flesh, and he tumbled out of the fire without any sense. Once he laid on the flat ground outside the alley, Andric knew things were even worse than a minute ago, because his clothes had indeed caught on fire.


    Andric tore at his clothes and rolled on the ground, but his skin quickly melted from the flames. In his heart, he swore at the daredevils that made running through flames look easy. Without any other options, Andric activated magic of his affinity, and the flames around him were instantly extinguished.


    Then, without holding back, Andric screamed from the pain caused by several gallons of blood rushing out of his body. The blood never ran through his veins, but the blood he created from magic skill belonged to him. With pain equivalent to a layer of skin being cut away from all around his body, Andric writhed on the ground for over half a minute. Slowly, the magically created blood vanished, and so did the intense pain.


    For a few minutes, Andric laid on the ground and breathed heavily, unwilling to stand up. He used a large amount of mana to heal his burns, and he eventually crawled toward an area where flames from the buildings around him were not blowing into. From the look of him, nobody would guess that kind of anguish he just felt.


    Temporarily creating blood, as opposed to permanently creating blood, required hardly any mana from Andric. If not for the intense pain that came with it, Andric would have covered his body in blood before he ran through the flames. However, now that his clothes were in tatters and he had no other viable options, Andric didn¡¯t hold back.


    Andric stood up and began running, intending to flee to safety, but he stopped at a fallen, burning building and looked inside. On the floor, a woman¡¯s burnt body only remained enough for Andric to see its facial features. There was no saving her, and she probably died from an impact rather than the fire that now consumed her.


    But, just because she couldn¡¯t be saved, it didn¡¯t mean there wasn¡¯t saving to be done. Andric looked around and thought about the things most precious to him in his new world.


    His own life came first. Then, closely behind it, came his magic. Then, behind that, came the people he cared about. He thought about Wolter, Lieve, and Hedy, and then Cato Susanna and Heiko. He liked some of them more than others, but they all had a large value. Certainly, compared to the little bit of pain he felt from extinguishing flames with blood, they were priceless.


    Again, perhaps thinking about his options less than he should have, Andric took off running, headed toward his home, where he had separated from Lieve and Hedy earlier in the morning.

 Chapter 15 - Its Too Late

    Since time immemorial, exhaustion has been the common foe of all existences. From the mightest of stars to the lowliest of insects, and exhaustion of fuel meant an exhaustion of life.


    In the time before magic, humans survived by utilizing persistence hunting, where they would chase their prey until the prey could no longer continue to flee. Because the prey was the first to reach exhaustion, it was the one who died. The humans, who could continue through fire and fury, survived.


    In the present time, where magic governed the world, the regeneration magic affinity existed on a tier of its own. No matter what happened to a magician, they could not die without their body being destroyed, and regeneration magic was the perfect counter to that. Unless they were instantly killed, it only took a few seconds for a regeneration magician to fully recover. In battles of attrition, regeneration magicians almost always won.


    Likewise, when faced with a sea of flames, a regeneration magician had nothing to fear but their own unwillingness. Any magic that dealt with living tissue needed an already-existing area of living tissue to branch their spell off from. Whether it was growing a new limb or excreting blood from skin, the magically created tissue originated from the body and automatically tried to integrate itself into the body.


    In situations where the created tissue could not integrate - for example, when Andric doused his body with blood - it released feedback through the mana that led to the magician¡¯s brain. A superior magician would be able to neutralize the backlash, but beginner magicians - like Andric - were unable to.


    Even when Andric covered his skin with bones, though there were no nerves between his skin and his bone armor, he would feel pain if he removed them. When his magically created blood fell from his body and burned up, Andric felt a huge wave of compounded pain from the hundreds of thousands of drops of blood that failed to integrate.


    Andric¡¯s affinities simply didn¡¯t allow him to efficiently create blood on the outside of his body and not feel pain from it. Creating blood that could be destroyed without causing painful feedback technically belonged to an elemental affinity. If he tried, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to create enough blood to stop the flames.


    The only benefit of temporary tissue created with healing or regeneration magic was that it automatically integrated with the body and required much less mana to keep existing. For the amount of mana that could keep an elemental gallon of blood existing for ten seconds, healing blood could exist for several minutes - at least, when it properly integrated.


    Without any other options, Andric willfully repeated to douse himself with blood while running through the rubble-filled streets of Gallus Town. After a minute of running, he stripped off his blood-soaked shirt and tied it around his head, then continued running.


    His shirt, made from the most flammable material of all his clothes, has the most holes burnt through it. With it on his head, he thoroughly soaked it in blood and allowed the blood to drip on his shoulders and down his torso. Needless to say, all of Andric¡¯s body was dyed red.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    In the streets he had run through countless times, Andric passed familiar burning buildings and briefly remembered scenes from when he and various members of his family visited the establishment. In a few places, water magicians were successfully holding off the advancing flames, and they protected groups of people behind them.


    Andric slowed down and carefully observed the groups of survivors, looking for Lieve and Hedy, but he didn¡¯t see any sign of them. Both of them were water magicians, which meant they had a good chance of surviving the flames, especially when they were together. Nonetheless, Andric couldn¡¯t help but worry about them.


    Whether or not it was Wolter or Lieve and Hedy who were in the most danger was unknown to Andric. While Lieve and Hedy had water magic, Wolter did not, but he was around more people. With the monster¡¯s habit of eating one or two people and flying away, Wolter had a higher chance of not being eaten.


    Andric hoped for the best and continued running. He couldn¡¯t feel any headache coming from a lack of mana, but he had used a large amount of mana when at Boele¡¯s forge and didn¡¯t know how much he had left. As long as Lieve and Hedy weren¡¯t dead, and his mana wasn¡¯t exhausted, he could save them.


    A few minutes later, after constantly running to find ways around rubble, Andric arrived on the street where he and his family lived. The street had - like almost every street in Gallus Town - been visited by the flaming monster, and all the houses in Andric¡¯s sight were ablaze.


    In his heart, Andric had hoped that Lieve and Hedy would have been able to control the flames would have spread to their house, but he immediately saw that no such thing had happened.


    As he approached closer to his home of the last eight years, Andric slowed his speed and prepared himself for what he might see. His legs brushed past low flames, but he ignored them as he walked closer to his house.


    The house was drenched in a roaring fire, but a stream of water flowed out from under the closed doorway, indicating that someone inside was using water magic.


    Andric shouted, thankful for the sign of Lieve and Hedy fighting against the fire in their home, ¡°Mom, Hedy, -¡±


    Before he finished, a massive creature fell from the sky and toppled the building, collapsing Andric¡¯s home and spreading flames all around.


    There was no reaction from Andric. Like a piece inside him broke, he simply stared at the fiery monster with an open mouth.


    Slowly, his expression changed, and his mouth closed. His eyebrows fell inward, and he thought about his next action for a split second. The monster looked directly at him, and Andric¡¯s only options were to fight or hope the monster ignored him. If the monster turned away and ignored Andric, he would have a chance to go inside his home and attempt to save someone. But, if it did not, and he tried to save his mana for a healing spell, he would be dead.


    Andric¡¯s reaction came a second faster than the monster, and he flexed his mind, activating all of his mana. He forgot all about the healing capabilities of his magic and, in that instance, only knew how to destroy.


    The monster¡¯s head and half of its neck instantly vaporized, then floated away as dust. Its flaming body quickly lost energy and slumped in the rubble of Andric¡¯s home, and the end of its beak fell to the ground.


    At the same time, Andric suffered from total mana exhaustion, and he collapsed on the pavement.

 Chapter 16 - Small Town

    Andric awoke laying in a bed, staring up at a wooden ceiling. His head pulsed, and he shut his eyes as soon as he opened them. Then, a few seconds later, he remembered what happened before he passed out.


    He felt anger unlike anything he had felt since his reincarnation, and he pulled mana from his skulls and wielded it like a gun. He was ready to lash out with his mana at any moment, but he eventually remembered how he killed the monster in his last second of consciousness, and he let his mana slowly retreat back into his skull.


    While he manipulated his mana, Andric glanced at the speck of malevolent red mana that floated along with the passive blue mana, and he sighed. It had grown large since the last time he saw it, but the blue mana kept it at bay, overpowering whatever manipulative nature it contained.


    He slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room he laid in, and he wasn¡¯t alone. One both sides of him, injured people were laying in beds like his own and holding their wounds. On his left side, a child around his age had nearly his entire body covered in melted flesh. His face was mostly unharmed, but the rest of his body suffered tremendously. On his right side, another child sported the same sort of wounds.


    Andric lifted his upper body off his bed and took a better look around. He laid in a long, shoddily constructed, wooden type of structure, where light could be seen from gaps in the walls and the roof, and support beams were needed in the center. The building had a much larger length than its width, and it had rows of beds against both walls with a row of chairs in the center.


    Sitting in a chair, Wolter slept with his head hanging down. Though it was daytime and people occasionally walked past him, Wolter never moved in his sleep. Andric didn¡¯t know how long he had been sleeping, but he knew it had to have been a while.


    The blood that Andric covered himself with had already been washed off, and his ragged clothes were switched with a white tunic. All the people laying in beds had similar tunics, and Andric noticed a pattern stitched to the right sleeve of the person next to him.


    Andric checked his own right sleeve, and he saw a different pattern from the child next to him. They weren¡¯t words or letters, and he didn¡¯t know what either of them meant. He had many questions, and thus he jumped off the bed that he laid on and walked next to Wolter. His legs ached, but he ignored them long enough to sit down on the chair next to Wolter and shake his arm.Stolen novel; please report.


    Wolter gradually awoke from his heavy sleep, and Andric asked him, ¡°Where are mom and Hedy?¡±


    ¡°Hey, um, ah, they, eh, you¡¯re safe,¡± Wolter said many things, repeatedly thinking of new ways to begin talking, and finally chose to ignore the question. He looked at Andric and took a deep breath, then picked up Andric¡¯s wrist with his hand and said, ¡°They didn¡¯t make it.¡±


    For a moment, the ferocious mana in Andric¡¯s brain surged, but the calm mana restrained it. He said to his father, ¡°I killed it,¡± and went back to his designated bed to sleep.


    Throughout Gallus Town, huge changes took place. Reinforcements arrived from the two cities closest to Gallus Town, and magicians flocked by the thousand. The number of wounded in Gallus Town was over a thousand, and healing magicians worked day and night to heal all the injuries that were sustained. Within five days, everyone who survived the monster and flames was fully healed.


    Temporary shelter was constructed for those who had their home burn down, but the majority of Gallus Town¡¯s previous population either died or decided to move away. Of the thousands who inhabited Gallus Town before the monster came, only a few hundred stayed.


    The town guards were not held responsible for the destruction, but a small group of mages were shackled and walked through the rubble of the town. Citizens were allowed to throw stones at the mages as they liked, and news eventually spread that those mages had unknowingly chased the monster toward their town.


    Within a day, the economy shifted almost entirely to bartering and donating. Because of the large stores of food that were burnt down, food became a precious commodity. Suddenly, it was the farmers who lived outside of Gallus Town that were the richest.


    There was no shortage of people who came to exploit the tragedy. Thieves and robbers were quick to take whatever they could from the ashes, and merchants set outrageous prices for the families who had just lost their jobs and possessions. If not for the unceasing charity of many generous souls, riots would have broken out.


    However, among those who selflessly helped, Andric stood alongside them. His magic healed dozens of people who lost skin or limbs, and he could even transmute organic mass into meat. Though it required much more mana, Andric could change water and wood into edible beef, which chefs would then cook in soups and distribute for free.


    Susanna and Cato were given priority housing after the death of Heiko, who died trying to save a family from a burning building, and they moved into a new home in less than a month. Shortly after, they invite Wolter and Andric, and they all started living together under the same roof.


    Slowly, things in Gallus Town gained a semblance of normal. Lieve, Hedy, and Heiko were gone, but life went on.

 Prologue V2

    In a brightly lit chamber, surrounding a large, circular table, seven of the most powerful magi in Paege sat to discuss the status of their world. Their group, named The Council of the Magi, had the backing of almost all the world¡¯s nations. Each magus had the power of a hundred mages, which had the power of a hundred magicians. They were each an unstoppable force, and they worked together to ensure the safety of the realm.


    The leader of the group, The Immortal Magus, took the lead in the yearly meeting, and he announced its beginning, ¡°The seven magi have met in the room of truth. Let this year¡¯s meeting begin.¡±


    Rays of light shot through a stained glass window that stretched all the way around the room. Brilliant shades of all the rainbow¡¯s colors were cast into the chamber, and a skylight directly above the table provided white light to the entire area. No matter what time of day, the light from the sky always shone directly downward, and the light from the windows always passed overhead of the people sitting at the meeting table.


    The Immortal Magus paused for a moment, then continued, ¡°I propose the appearance of the bottomless pond as a topic of discussion. Members who agree?¡±


    Following the magus¡¯ words, three hands raised into the air. The circumstances surrounding the mysterious pond were enough to warrant The Immortal Magus bringing attention to it at the meeting of The Council of the Magi. Due to the very nature of the council¡¯s objective, it meant that The Immortal Magus suspected the pond might have the ability to influence the world.


    Of the three hands that were raised, two belonged to men who had lived for centuries, and one belonged to a relatively young woman. However, no matter what their actual age was, each of them looked no older than thirty. Even The Immortal Magus, who had lived for over a millennium, appeared only a few years older than his fellow council members.


    He continued, and the three hands lowered, ¡°Proposal passed. Within the last few months, an immensely deep body of water has appeared in one of the southern mountain ranges. I made a brief investigation, but I could not reach any conclusion regarding the depth of the water. It is approximately ten feet wide at the surface, and - I suspect - maintains that diameter the entire way down.¡±


    One of the old men who raised his hand, The Magus of Reversed Death, spoke, adding his own knowledge after The Immortal Magus finished, ¡°There have been reports of increased monster activity around the pond. In the last month, there have been over a hundred confirmed sightings of monsters.¡±


    The other old man, The Magus of Time, slowly said, ¡°This reminds me of the last invasion from Hellworld. I can remember at least three places where the demons used vertical water passages to move troops out of their fortresses, but I don¡¯t remember any of their fortresses being around those mountains.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I remember the same thing, and I also don¡¯t remember any demonic fortresses in the region,¡± The Immortal Magus said.


    The young woman, The Magus of Ocean Currents, spoke, ¡°I can investigate the interior of the pond regardless of how deep it is. If I do investigate, I request a follow-up meeting in one month.¡±


    The Magus of Ocean Currents, as a relatively young and relatively new member of the council, wanted to show off her ability, and thus she volunteered to conduct the in-depth investigation of the pond. That, and she was the only one among them who had the water magic affinity.


    ¡°If it really is related to the demons, we can¡¯t rely on only one magus investigating,¡± The Magus of Time said and looked around the table, quickly making a decision. ¡°In addition to The Magus of Ocean Currents, The Multi-Magus should go.¡±


    The Multi-Magus, a woman only slightly older than The Magus of Ocean Currents, immediately spoke back, ¡°I can¡¯t; I¡¯m already defending Mildiva from The Magus of Thunderous Flames. Just coming to this meeting has put Mildiva¡¯s army in jeopardy; I can¡¯t spend a month checking out some hole in the ground.¡±


    ¡°If I go to Mildiva, can you go with The Magus of Ocean Currents?¡± the only magus who looked his age, The Anti-Magus, said. Though he could not use any of the spells that made someone classify as a magician, he earned his honorary magus title, and sat as equals with the magi around him.


    ¡°I don¡¯t need any assistance with the investigation,¡± The Magus of Ocean Currents said, and she tactfully hid her frustration with The Magus of Time. She didn¡¯t like to be underestimated, especially by a magician without a combat affinity.


    The Immortal Magus leaned forward in his chair, causing the surrounding magi to pause whatever thoughts they were about to voice, and he said, ¡°If The Magus of Ocean Currents believes she doesn¡¯t need assistance, then she doesn¡¯t need assistance. I am satisfied with the current state of this topic. Propose the next topic?¡±


    Five hands rose, and the topic changed. Over the course of almost five hours, the members of The Council of the Magi talked about events happening inside every nation on the planet, and then some that happened in the unclaimed wilderness.


    At the conclusion of the meeting, the seven magi ate a meal that consisted of fine foods from all around the world, and then departed.


    In a room near the room of truths, three magi stood at one teleportation gate, which would teleport whoever walked through it to a certain city near where the bottomless pond had been spotted.


    The Magus of Spatial Flux, who rarely spoke at the meetings, stood to the side while The Immortal Magus and The Magus of Ocean Currents prepared for to leave. The Immortal Magus made a crude map for The Magus of Ocean Currents to follow, which would lead her to the pond, but he didn¡¯t doubt that she would be able to find it. She carried a spatial container, which held more items than its volume permitted, and she stepped into the portal.


    The teleportation gates and spatial containers were made by The Magus of Spatial Flux, and they were the tools that allowed the magi of The Council of the Magi to conduct investigations across the world. Even though she would be trekking through a mountain range for almost a month of time, The Magus of Ocean Currents didn¡¯t need to worry about a lack of supplies; she had everything she might need inside her spatial container.


    A film of light covered the teleportation gate, and it allowed The Magus of Ocean Currents to see the other side before stepping through. The portal was located in an emperor¡¯s palace near where the pond had been seen, and dozens of servants were waiting for a magus to arrive through the portal.


    All around the world, the teleportation gates made by The Magus of Spatial Flux were placed in heavily defended areas, and they were often close to royalty or extremely elite people. The portal which The Magus of Ocean Currents teleported through was situated on the edge of an emperor¡¯s grand hall, and whatever important meetings he conducted would be unceremoniously interrupted whenever the portal opened.


    When The Magus of Ocean Currents stepped through, there was no meeting going on, but there were still many servants, royals, and the emperor himself who greeted her.


    The servants softy spoke in unison, ¡°Welcome, great magus of the council.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Then, after them, the emperor said, ¡°Welcome, it¡¯s an honor to have The Magus of Ocean Currents visit my empire.¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± the magus half-smiled and waved to the crowd in front of her, then said, ¡°I¡¯m only here to investigate the bottomless pond that appeared near your southern border.


    ¡°Yes, yes, we understand,¡± the emperor said, and the many servants dispersed around the hall. He then asked, ¡°Is there anything we can provide for you on your journey?¡±


    The Magus of Ocean Currents replied, ¡°No, I¡¯ll be fine with what I¡¯ve brought with me.¡±


    After a small exchange between the magus and the emperor - who shared almost equal status inside the empire - she exited the palace.


    The doors of the palace opened up to a city built between two mountains, where all the citizens were housed beyond a thousand steps leading up to the palace. On her left and right, The Magus of Ocean Currents saw the magnificent city walls that were built upon the tops of the two adjacent mountains. In the center of the path of stairs that led to the city below, a marble statue of an ancient magus was erected. That magus had cleared the wilderness of monsters, and that newly hospitable land became the basis for the empire that stood today. He was, in many eyes, a magus to live up to.


    The Magus of Ocean Currents didn¡¯t stay long, and she activated her signature spell when she reached the opening of the stairs. Suddenly, directly in the path where she would have walked if she wanted to descend the steps, a rushing stream of water seemed to erupt from the ground and flow into the sky. The Magus of Ocean Currents stepped onto the stream, and it carried her high above the city.


    The mystical water made a path for The Magus of Ocean Currents to soar through the open sky. Very few magicians could enable themselves to fly without using a movement type spell, but The Magus of Ocean Currents could not be restained by common sense among magicians. Her river in the sky moved with her, and it brought her across several hundred of miles of land in less than a week.


    People on the ground stopped and looked up when they saw The Magus of Ocean Currents flying by. When small children questioned the sight, they were told stories about the fantastic deeds of The Magus of Ocean Currents, and how she defended freedom and liberty across the entire world.


    The reputations of magi were not any less than the heroes and villains told in bedtime stories. There existed magi who worked to better the world, and then there existed magi who only brought selfish destruction. Among those who were revered by the people, the members of The Council of the Magi were the most famous.


    After her week of traveling, The Magus of Ocean Currents descended into the valley in the center of a desolate mountain range. She repeatedly checked the map The Immortal Magus had given her, and it wasn¡¯t hard for her to find her destination with her aerial view of the landscape.


    Around the pond, no less than five enormous monsters were drinking from the blue water. On their own, each of those monsters could decimate an army of ordinary magicians, or they could obliterate a small city. However, when The Magus of Ocean Currents fell in their midst, she only required a few short seconds to kill them all.


    She used her magic to sweep the bodies into a pile, then laughed, ¡°I don¡¯t need The Multi-Magus to deal with a few mutated animals.¡±


    After briefly scouting the area around the pond, The Magus of Ocean Currents took her spatial container from her side and placed it on the ground. From within it, which only had a depth of half an inch, she took out a cloth-wrapped meal and sat on the edge of the pond to eat it, with her feet dangling inside the water.


    She carefully observed the feeling of the water through her skin. Indeed, just as The Immortal Magus said, she couldn¡¯t find the bottom of the pond from her initial observations. Apparently, if she wanted to find out more about the pond, she would need to dive inside.


    After eating her fill, The Magus of Ocean Currents picked her spatial container up and tied it to her body. She then checked her clothes for loose attachments which might fall off in the water. If she couldn¡¯t get to the bottom - however unlikely that was - she didn¡¯t want to lose anything to the mysterious pond.


    A few minutes later, entirely satisfied with her diving preparations, The Magus of Ocean Currents slipped her body into the pond and quickly disappeared below the surface.


    She didn¡¯t swim using conventional means, but instead used her magic to manipulate the water around her. She pushed herself deeper while constantly pushing against the pressure caused by the water above her. When she passed a depth of five hundred feet, she created a ring of light around her to illuminate the dark water.


    As The Magus of Ocean Currents pushed deeper into the pond, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what kind of force created the pond. Indeed, even up till a thousand feet down, the width never exceeded that of the surface. The walls were, however, not flat, and seemed to have been made by spherical forces pressing against them. Small indents lined the entire surface, and The Magus of Ocean Currents could not easily guess what caused them.


    She continued for a long time, but the involuntarily paused when she reached twenty thousand feet underwater. At that point, a wave of malicious mana swept past her and invaded her body, and she had to quickly activate her internal mana to block out the external influence.


    Though she had never felt foreign mana seeping into her body, she understood the theory. It was foreign mana that made ordinary animals turn into monsters, and many magicians believed that humans were susceptible to the same kind of mutations. If either The Immortal Magus or The Magus of Time were there, they would be able to confirm the extremely dangerous situation she unknowingly entered.


    The Magus of Ocean Currents hastily reversed her direction and pushed upward. A thin layer of mana already permeated into her body, but she managed to block all of the mana that attempted to enter her skull, where she kept her native mana. If the external mana were to mix with her internal mana, she would quickly lose control over her body and become nothing more than a mutated human without a consciousness.


    Less than an hour later, The Magus of Ocean Currents rocketed out of the pond and fell onto the snowy ground beside it. In the time she had been underwater, two new monsters arrived to drink from the pond and eat the corpses of the monsters she killed, and it only took her a second to kill the new arrivals.


    Then, when she was more or less in a safe location, she focused her mana on expelling the foreign influence. Her mana surged forth at a rate which would quickly leave her exhausted, but she knew she needed to get rid of the hostile mana inside her body no matter what. If she didn¡¯t, it would mean eventual death.


    For a solid week, The Magus of Ocean Currents fought with the forces inside her body, resting only to recuperate mana, but came out with no success against them. In the end, her body mutated to secrete a fine mist, which made her body drip water at all times.


    During her week of fighting the invading mana, she received no breaks to sleep, and she also had to deal with random monsters approaching the pond. On several occasions, her mana reached dangerous levels, and the foreign mana approached slightly closer to her cerebrum.


    The week passed, and she stood above the pond, staring angrily into it. Then, after having stared into the pond for several minutes, she stepped away and opened her spatial container. From it, she took out a small book, and she proceeded to write down her last grievances.


    She placed her finished journal - to be posthumously named The Last Writings of The Magus of Ocean Currents - inside the spatial container, and she jumped back into the bottomless pond. She came to terms with her inevitable death, but she wouldn¡¯t be able to live out her last days peacefully without knowing what laid at the bottom of the pond. Even if it killed her, she needed to see it with her own eyes.


    A few hours later, two creatures were resting on the ground and looking up, waiting for something to happen. Neither had any intention of doing something useful with their time and instead continuously stayed in a near-sleep state for several days.


    Then, something interrupted their rest, and they lazily stood up to check out what had fallen into their abode. Less than twenty feet away from them, a humanoid shape fell from the ceiling, and it instantly succumbed to the violent mana that flowed rampant in the underground cavern.


    ¡°That¡¯s a human,¡± one of the creatures said and pointed at the writhing form.


    ¡°Ey, I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d actually see one,¡± the other creature said, and they both stared for several seconds as mana mutated the human into a monster.


    ¡°We better report this to the chief,¡± the first creature turned away and said.


    ¡°Yeah, I hope we can go on the next round of exterminations,¡± the second creature said.


    He flexed his mind, and the body of the former human exploded into a cloud of dust. A second later, both of the creatures were flying away, headed to a fortress of their comrades.

 Chapter 17 - Up On The Roof

    Cato woke up with the rising of the sun, and she laid in bed until she heard a light passing of footsteps outside her door. From them, she knew that Andric had walked past and gone to the stairs leading to the first floor of the house, and she slowly exited her bed.


    It had already been five years since Andic and his father moved in with her and Susanna, but she couldn¡¯t stop the strange palpitations that came whenever he walked by and she let her imagination run wild. He was so close, and yet they were so far apart.


    A few minutes later, after getting dressed and meticulously combing her hair, Cato left her room and also went downstairs. Like most days, Andric left the house before she came downstairs, and she had purposefully until he was gone before she came out of her room.


    Their relationship wasn¡¯t bad; it just wasn¡¯t good, and Cato didn¡¯t want to risk it deteriorating. In the morning, Andric went to work at Boele¡¯s forge on the northern side of town, and he usually wouldn¡¯t return home until after dark. The job didn¡¯t even play Andric very much money; he just didn¡¯t want to stay home all day.


    During the day, Cato studied textbooks with the help of Susanna, and she theorized new ways to apply her magical affinity. She hoped to eventually attend a magician school, where she could further advance as a magician.


    Her magical affinity - momentum magic - was very special. Her mother had an affinity for speed magic, which could already be considered useful, and she obtained an extremely advanced root affinity. Momentum magic could alter an object¡¯s speed, and it could also alter the direction it traveled and how much relative mass it contained. Her magical affinity was equally useful as it was difficult to understand.


    Susanna¡¯s speed magic affinity allowed her to either increase or decrease the speed of an object. However, because she needed to touch the object, her magic didn¡¯t have many practical applications. Cato, on the other hand, could use her magic at a range, which allowed her to use her spells on anything she could see. Thus, when she wanted to hit Andric with a random toy, she only needed to look at it.


    Although Cato¡¯s magic wasn¡¯t impressive at the moment, she worked tirelessly to create something she could show to Andric. Most recently, she began dabbling in personal flight, and she could already float her body a few feet off the floor. She occasionally dropped herself or smashed into a wall, but the series of spells needed was a work in progress.


    Very few magicians could claim themselves proficient in magic that allowed them to soar through the sky, and even fewer were able to realize a method to allow it to happen. Once Cato developedher magic into a spell that allowed her to fly, she would surely be able to impress Andric with it.


    At noon and in the evening, Cato left home with her mother to pick up ingredients, and they returned home to cook. Once a week, Andric and Wolter stayed home all day and ate with them, but most days were just Cato and Susanna.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Wolter and Susanna would occasionally laugh when they talked about Andric¡¯s crazy work ethic, which had him leaving the house at sunrise and returning hours after dusk, but Cato didn¡¯t think it was a laughing matter. He was only two years older than her, and she didn¡¯t believe he had any reason to be hanging around an iron forge for sixteen hours a day.


    One morning, after spending two weeks working up the courage, Cato followed Andric when he left in the morning. She had spent much too long knowing about his job and never seeing it, but sneaking around would be the only way she could get past Andric¡¯s obsessive need for secrecy.


    She told her mother the night before she began operation follow-Andric, and Susanna and Wolter had a good laugh over it - in private, after Cato had gone to sleep. Susanna and Wolter enjoyed having a morning to themselves, and they encouraged Cato in their heart. They understood how roughly Andric handled the death of Lieve and Hedy, and even Wolter didn¡¯t know what Andric did at night, after the forge cooled down.


    After leaving the house, Andric walked south and exited the town¡¯s boundary. Cato carefully followed him by usingher floating ability to hop across rooftops, and she stayed out of sight all the way until Andric arrived at the edge of the town.


    Once outside of Gallus Town, Cato followed Andric by laying on the ground and hiding behind bushes. Most of the land had been cleared of large trees, but there were still a few patches of flora left behind. Further away from the town, the grass turned into fields of crops, and Cato hid behind them.


    Andric walked for almost an hour and arrived at a chicken farm. The farm had several workers checking on the roaming chickens in a fenced area, and Andric greeted several of them by name, and he waited outside the fence for a couple minutes while one of the workers went inside the chicken coop to get something, then handed a bowl to Andric.


    After receiving the bowl - which Cato easily guessed and later confirmed the contents of: eggs - Andric walked back to Gallus Town and headed to the forge. Once again, Cato followed him from rooftops. He walked slowly, almost irritatingly so, and Cato had to pause her stalking at several locations where she couldn¡¯t find somewhere to hide.


    Almost two hours later, Andric arrived at the forge where Cato had thought he was immediately going every morning. She had no idea he visited one of the farms that bordered Gallus Town, and it surprised her. He must have befriended the farmers by using his magic, she thought.


    Once at the forge, Andric walked around the open-air area at the front of the smelters, where four blacksmiths were preparing for the day¡¯s work. Cato watched from a rooftop on the other side of the street, and she couldn¡¯t follow Andric when he entered the building attached to the forge area.


    A minute later, Andric walked out of the building while carrying a pan and a spatula, and he no longer had the bowl. The eggs were rolling around inside the pan, and Andric brought them to the front of a smelter, where heat bellowed out of a hatch on its side.


    With his magic, Andric changed the eggs into a single mass of yolks and whites, and they fluidly mixed under his gaze. Then, a few minutes later, Andric distributed portions of the scrambled eggs to the blacksmiths, who brought out plates from inside the building.


    Suddenly, Cato¡¯s stomach rumbled, but she could only lay flat against the roof while she watched Andric eat breakfast.