El woke up from the light knocking on his door. Ianna who had become his personal maid came every day at 8 to wake him. The drowsiness he felt was swept away by the thoughts and memories of last night. While the talk with his father was very informative it had drained him due to the many tests he went through. Though he now had more questions and a greater drive to learn magic. Nonetheless, he rolled out of bed, and with the help of Ianna, he got ready for the day. As he was getting dressed he remembered the spell his father wanted him to work on.
In the tower, he had to go through multiple tests so that his father could gain a better understanding of his abilities and future. His father had found that his level of mana control was way beyond normal for a child of his age. As well it was growing as he learned more magic theory. He was able to weave together complicated patterns with his mana without even trying but there was a problem, his mana capacity was low.
“I expected this but it could be troublesome later on down the road. It seems you got your mother’s talent, high control, low capacity. You might have to become a warrior.”
“No! I want to be like you dad!” I was always blown away by magic and wizardry would allow me to completely focus on it!
“Hmmm well we can try and increase your mana, but it’s not going to increase by much. I’ll talk with her about this but for now, try and learn this.” Handing me a thin journal I opened it, and in my dad’s writing was a training technique called Cycling.
“The amount of mana your body can withstand grows naturally as you use spells. This method of training is to constantly work the mana in the area around you move through and, slowly, into your body. It will be good for increasing your capacity. The difficulty of this technique comes from the fact that you have to use this every day, in every waking moment, for it to have an effect.”
Opening my eyes and looking into my mirror I started to focus. First I started by drawing a small but complicated circle on my forehead. It quickly started to gather the mana in the air and started to absorb it inside me. Then following the path written out in the book I took control of the mana, starting from my head I brought the mana down through my right arm and my stomach. Then by drawing it down into my feet then back up and through my left arm to my head, I complete a cycle. Carrying it all around my body constantly as fast as possible. It is a slow and arduous process now but as I get used to it I can do even more. As the energy goes through my body I feel invigorated, however, the side effect became clear as I felt a slight pain journey throughout my body like a shiver.
Ianna came over to my side as I was concentrating to escort me to my lessons. As I’m walking down the halls though I have some difficulty, as it’s hard to do anything else while Cycling. I need to practice until this becomes as easy as breathing, otherwise I won’t be able to concentrate on my classes. Master En greets me as I walk into the study.
“Ooo I see you learned something new from your father. I heard he was researching mixing spells and warrior techniques and now I know he succeeded. Seeing as how you are using it.”
“Y-yes but I can’t use it well I-i caan’t even talk w-well right now.”
“Just keep trying, I’ll help you with it today. However after this class, you have to join your mother, I heard that you’re going to start a new training today. For now, let’s just try to read while keeping the magic up.”
This technique is as hard as dad told me it was. The pain is one thing but continuously moving the mana throughout my body resulted in me not having much concentration left for other things. This is just the first stage of the technique… I can’t imagine what the next one feels like. Though I shouldn’t have to say it reading that day was… hard…
A few hours have passed, checking the clock it’s about 3 pm now and I hurriedly followed Ianna after putting away my books. Mom and dad are always busy and I know that it’s due to their work but I wish we could at least eat breakfast together. Although I see mom and dad every night it’s not enough in my opinion, so I’m glad to be able to spend time with mom. Though I wonder what the training is. I want to be a wizard and mom is a warrior… I have a bad feeling about this.
As we walked out of the castle and to the training area I confirmed what was about to happen. With a quick look at the area, I find mom in her training attire, a simple shirt with the sleeves cut off and easy to move in pants, folding a steel beam in half with a single attack. “Scary…”
“Ah! there you are En, you are almost late.” With a smile, mom walks over to us wielding a wooden dagger.
“Did you just break metal with a wooden weapon?”
“Strength training. That isn’t what you’re going to be doing though. Yesterday your father and I were talking about your test results. So we came to a conclusion, we’ll train you to be a magic swordsman-”
“Wha- But I want to be a Wizard!”
“Shush now. Let me explain, magic swordsmen have a very unique style of fighting. In which you can choose which side to focus on. You can rely on your sword while using magic to debilitate the enemy, or you can focus on magic and use your sword to defend yourself. With your mana constraints, even after using the Cycling technique, you won’t be able to use Wide-scale War magic. However, your mana control is really high so it should be easy for you to cast magic while using the sword.”
“Wait! You just said something important! I can’t use war magic even with the technique, how bad is my mana capacity!”
“Tch~ fitting of your father, he’s too nice. This is how it is for you, normal mages of the first stage have about 500 mana meaning they can cast the basic mana bullet 500 times. You on the other hand, only have 15, even worse than me…”
“WHAT! D-doesn’t that mean I can’t even use normal magic! What is the use of learning all this theory if I can’t use it!”
“HEY! Remember why you wanted to use magic! Don’t give up so easily!”
“That’s right. I want to be like father.” Every time I’ve seen dad use magic it was beautiful and interesting. Making it snow with the snap of his fingers, defeating monsters that appeared near the walls, everything. Even when I was a baby I have memories of him using his magic to tell stories. Those stories pushed me towards wanting to learn magic. They were filled with thrilling tales and heroic stories about the power of wizards.
“You want to use magic and we are here to help you! We are your parents and we will figure this out together! This is why we are training you much sooner than later. You still have a chance! You are ahead of most kids by miles. While most awaken their mana at 5 and become part of the first circle at 8! You are already in the 2nd circle, almost third! We have time to make your dream come true!”
“Thank you, mom.” With a stunned look on my face, I finally steel my heart about becoming a magic swordsman. It actually sounds quite cool, doesn’t it?
“Now let’s run a lap around the castle.”
“Huh- Mom I can’t do that! That’s an insane distance even without including the royal garden!”
“What do you mean? That’s pre-workout, after this we are going to do 1000 push-ups and sit-ups followed by light sparring and leg work out. Then after that, we are going to do pre-sword training and another lap around the castle. Don’t worry Ianna will join us to help you if you fall behind!”
With a shocked expression, Ianna looked at mom and started sweating. ” I’ve never agreed to that!”
“Let’s go! Hurry up, guys! Also during a training call me ma’am!”
“Moms insane!”
“THAT’S MA’AM” Hitting me on the top of the head mom started to run. Leaving me holding my head and Ianna trembling with tears in her eyes, “I thought I escaped from this hellish training.”.
