Chapter 1: Chapter 1

"Ugh."

"Where am I?"

"Huh? Why is everything dark?"

I tried to look everywhere, but all I see is darkness.

I tried to move my right hand but failed to move a single finger, and I felt an overbearing wave of pain coursing throughout my whole body.

A sudden terrible headache hit me and made me recall my last moments on earth.

"Oh! I remember now. My name is John Carlo Agustin, and I died trying to save a woman from getting robbed by an armed man and got shot in the chest. That's how I ended up here alone in the darkness."

I decided not to move my injured body and quietly waited for something to happen, but to no avail.

"It's been hours since I arrived here. Darn, this must be hell."

*Waaaahhhh* *Waaaaaahhhh*

"Where is that crying baby noise is coming from?"

I tried to investigate the origin of the sound but gave up after a few minutes.

Out of nowhere, a light flickered and grew brighter and brighter.

"Woah! I am about to enter heaven despite my laziness. "

I suddenly see three unfamiliar faces smiling at me.

The first one is a gorgeous female with long blond straight hair, brown eyes, and large breasts.

The second is a handsome man with a muscular body, short gray straight hair, and blue eyes.

I believe the two are in their early 20s and probably lived somewhere in Europe.

The third is an attractive female who has shoulder-length brown straight hair, brown eyes, large breasts and in her late 30s.

"What should we name our first baby?" The long blond woman asked.

"Felix," the man replied.

The woman agreed with his suggestion and I became Felix from now on.

"Damn! Reincarnation in another world was possible. I hope this one has magic so I can put my anime and game knowledge in my previous life to excellent use," I thought.

After one year I could crawl again, but because of the strict supervision of my family, I can't search the entire household on my own. The second problem is the extreme fatigue I feel almost every day and I end up sleeping for over 20 hours a day.

I tried my best to adjust to my new name and to my new family. I still miss my old family and friends.

The harsh reality is I could not go back, as revealed by my mother when she was comforting me because my soul has no living body to return to.

Based on my observation while being carried around and some self exploration, the house is made of wood and a bit of cement. It has two floors and a basement.

I could only explore the two floors because of grandma foiling my attempts to enter the basement. I once tried to follow her into the basement, but she told me I was too young and it is dangerous inside.

There are five rooms on each floor. The first floor comprises a living room, kitchen, library, dining room, grandma's room, and a peculiar black door leading to the basement.

While the second floor has two empty rooms, a storage room, my room, and my parent's bedroom. The bathroom and laundry room are located in the backyard.

We have a five hundred square metre front yard surrounded by a wooden fence where mom plant fruits, spices, vegetables and some crops to eat later and it is also the place where she makes fertilizer using fruit and vegetable scraps, sawdust, animal manure (cows, goats, sheep, chicken, pig etc.), eggshells and grass clippings in the compost pit.

The backyard size is 475 square metres, and it is where father practices his sword skills. It is also the place where we grow chickens and some pigs.

We also have an immortal banana tree in the front yard. It has a black trunk and red leaves. It emits an intense dark aura as if a demon lord is inhabiting it.

Despite its aura and appearance, the fruit it yields is safe and delicious. The fruit has a black peel, and the inside is bright red.

It produces banana no matter what the season is. We once tried to trade it for meat, but locals rejected it. When that did not work, we tried to sell it to a nearby village and got rejected again.

Grandmother introduced me to our neighbours who are very close friends to our household and got valuable information about my new family.

"Come inside to have tea and also introduce your grandson to my granddaughter," the middle-aged man said.

"Sure," granny replied.

Grandma and I entered the old man's house. She left me in a nearby room with the middle-aged man's granddaughter and we played with a small brown ball while they chat in the living room.

"You have a male heir to your ancient household and mine is a female," the middle-aged man said while pouring tea.

"Hmm, so you are suggesting that my grandson should marry your granddaughter?" my grandmother replied.

"Why not? I know how powerful and rich your family is since we have spent more than a decade adventuring in the same party. I am not even surprised your grandson is a marked reincarnated whose origins are from another world, since most of your ancestors are like him."

"We are old friends, but my grandson will decide for himself."

"Fair enough."

"When will your family return to the capital city? It's been decades since you last lived in Chester City."

"I got a letter from one of our ancestors and said it's time to return to the ancestral house in district two to avoid suspicion and attacks from hostile enemies in this remote region. It was also stated in the letter that his best friend got reincarnated in my family."

"Who signed the letter?"

"His signature was a drawing of ten stars, so it's easy to guess who it was."

"There will be finally someone who will inherit the ten stars sword and techniques."

"Not inherit, but returning to its rightful owner and my grandson was the creator of the ten stars swordsmanship style, so he already knew every single technique."

"Enough about your grandson. Let's change the subject to how you lived for the past decade since we parted ways after your husband died after battling a demon lord 10 years ago in a dungeon."

She told him everything about how they went under the radar, used false identities to avoid another attack and travelling city to city while finishing difficult lucrative quests in order to gain more power until they settled here.

"So that's what happened to your family after we couldn't contact you."

They continued to chat about the past until grandma noticed it was getting dark.

"It's been fun chatting with an old friend. I am going to leave now since it's getting dark, and I needed to help prepare dinner."

"Okay and help me if you have spare time to scare away those pesky slimes trying to take over some poor peasant's house."

"Sure."

Grandma picked me up, and we went home to eat dinner. She washed me before tucking me into bed and read a bedtime story titled "Crab God" to help me fall asleep.

After one year, I can walk again and my body still feels lethargic and tired most of the time. The annoying slimes have occupied 1/4 of the village despite the efforts of the adventurers.

My parents' full names are Xander Wood and Sophia Wood. Both of them are former adventurers.

My father's current occupation is a hunter while my mother is a housewife.

My grandmother's name is Scarlett Wood. According to my grandma, my grandfather succumbed to his injuries after battling a demon lord in a 1 on 1. Mother gave birth last month to my little sister, which they named Olivia.

Mapleminster is the name of the village we live in. It is surrounded by the Great Maple Forest. Most of the houses here are made of a mixture of mud, straw and manure with a thatched roof and wooden frame to support the structure.

Peasants here own a small plot of land for domesticated cattle to graze or to cultivate crops such as wheat, potato, vegetables, grain etc. Most of the technology found here resembles that of the medieval ages, with some modern and fantasy technology mixed in for convenience. There are a lot of water tanks with purification runes scattered around the village for safe drinking water and watering crops.

The villagers speak a common language similar to English. Places of worship found here are a church of crab, crab mosque, crab shrine, crab temple and crab synagogue, which are all maintained by slimes. According to peasants, the crab religion is the largest and most influential religion in the world.

My family speaks an unknown ancient dialect with a weird accent, which I have a hard time trying to read and write, but I can speak and understand the unknown ancient dialect as if it was my mother tongue. Most of the time, they use the common language to interact with others.

The village celebrates 5 festivals. We celebrate birth of the crab god in late summer. We celebrate return of the crab god and blessings of the crab god in spring. Awakening of the crab god in autumn. Transcendence of the crab god in winter.

I woke up early today to ask grandmother about my condition. I found grandmother resting in the living room and approached her.

"Why do I feel lethargic and tired most of the time?"

"Let's go inside my room and I will explain it to you there."

We went inside to her room and sat in her bed.

"Your condition is the result of your soul being damaged while being transported here and it will be healed when you reach 8."

"Can your soul be destroyed while being transported?"

"Yes, if that happens, you can not be reborn and, your soul can't be restored by any means. It happens to a lot of souls, so consider yourself lucky."

"Are there any advantages to it?"

"You have a lot of advantages compared to people who originated from here."

"What kind of advantages?"

"You can freely access the ethereal dimension, you keep your otherworldly knowledge intact, a larger mana capacity, better overall stats, higher social status, and longer life span."

"What is the ethereal dimension and does having full access to it give any advantages?"

"The ethereal dimension is where souls are located. There are two dimensions in this world: ethereal and physical. You are exceptional since your soul is conscious and aware of your surroundings. It grants you the ability to see spirits and allows you to use a special type of magic called astral."

"What does astral magic do?"

"Astral magic is unique, since it could damage or destroy the soul. It can cut the link of the soul in the physical dimension, leaving them unable to access their physical body, restoring the severed link and, creating an artificial link allowing an inanimate object or dead person to move. It is one of the few ways you could hurt or kill a spiritual being like a demon, angel, spirits, and even a god."

I noticed something peculiar about her room. I couldn't hear the noise outside and got distracted from listening to her explanation as I tried to find the source of the problem.

"Is there something wrong with my explanation?"

"There is nothing wrong with it but, I couldn't hear mom cooking nearby and dad practicing with his sword."

"Oh! It's because I cast a noise absorption spell surrounding this room. It absorbs the noise from the inside and outside so no one can eavesdrop on our conversation and distract us."

"You could do that too?"

"Yes, and do you have anymore questions?"

"Who else can use it aside from me?"

"Spiritual beings have a natural affinity for it, marked reincarnation like you, and other rare talented individuals."

"When will I be able to use it?"

"It will take a lot of time since you need advanced mana control to cast it."

"Last question, grandma why do you call me marked reincarnation?"

"It's because you have a special mark hovering above your head."

"But I couldn't see anything."

"I can see it since I have advanced mana control and, I will teach you how to hide it once you have basic mana control."

"Why should I hide it?"

"It's because you are a valuable prey to demons, notably higher ranking demons and devils, because most of the time they consume souls to gain more power and marked reincarnation soul gives more power compared to other souls. There is also a spell called soul transfer. As the name suggest it allows the spell caster to transfer his soul to another body. Our family is naturally resistant to it, but you are vulnerable because you are far too weak to resist and your soul is still recovering."

"Thanks grandma for answering all of my questions."

"Let me know if you have more questions and I will try my best to answer them."

"I will."

"Your mother has finished cooking lunch. Let's help her prepare the table."

I nodded and helped them. It bothered me since I couldn't even hear the noise outside of the room while grandma noticed it.

For some odd reason, we always have potato soup, baked potato, potato stew, mashed potato, roasted potato and boiled potato every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The other dish that might be present are: roast chicken, roast deer, roast boar, roast fish or roasted bear, vegetable soup, potato noodle soup, different shapes of wheat bread, wheat cereal, bran cereal, corn soup, oatmeal and, pottage.

There will be sometimes fruits, berries, nuts, crabs and honey, depending on the season and my father's luck.

Mud crabs are available in the summer. Land crabs are available in spring. Sea crabs in autumn. Winged crabs in winter.

Mother cook grilled mud crab, the always present 6 potato dishes, and vegetable soup for lunch. She also baked different shapes of wheat bread.

I always play with Alice Spencer, Mark Jenkins, Jack Rodriguez, John Dupont and Josh Vogel after lunch when my condition is great. One of our favorite pastimes is playing football in the nearby dirt field.

We use the small brown ball owned by Alice and dig a small hole in the dirt field that serves as our makeshift goal area. The other pastime is watching peasants lose their homes to a slime invasion.

A single slime would scout the house or property they would invade and most of the time, they ignore the house or property.

The invasion begins when, for some goddamn reason, they return with a slime army. A medium slime or larger always leads the slime army.

The adventurers will help the peasant in defending the property until they are successfully relocated to a suitable location.

Slimes will usually retreat from the battle and return the next day with an even bigger army. The peasant or owner of the property will lose in the end because of the persistence and immortality of slimes.

It is weird that slimes target one property at a time. After capturing it, they will plant a red crab flag on the property to mark their territory. This behaviour of slime is mysterious, as if someone taught them this strategy and became deeply engrained that all slime inherited it. They seem to possess an unlimited amount of red crab flags hidden inside their bodies.

I have identified some spells that a regular slime uses they are: fusion, fission, mitosis, spell absorption, portable body storage and call for help.

Slimes would gather at the same location and then use fusion to create a bigger slime.

Fission is the opposite where the slimes would split to their original size.

When slimes eat a lot, their body will also grow. If they reach a point where their body size is twice their original body size, the mitosis spell will trigger and the slime will split into two identical slimes reduced to the initial body size.

Slimes can use spell absorption when they are able to eat the spell thrown at them. Their bodies will absorb the spell and their color will change to the nature of the spell. For example, they will turn red and will gain an increased fire resistance if they have eaten a fire spell.

The slime uses the portable body storage to store an unknown number of objects inside their body. The process is simple: they eat the object and instead of dissolving the object; they store it inside their body using the spell. To retrieve objects inside their body, they spit it out.

Call for help, as the name suggests the slimes would call for reinforcements. The range and duration of this spell is unknown because even after the battle has ended months ago, slimes still arrive and ended up staying in our village.

Slimes are actually important to the village as they help repel dangerous magical beasts and monsters that roam the Great Maple Forest.

Slimes are generally docile and ignore humans most of the time. If you go near their territory, they would hop menacingly. According to grandmother, slimes are easy to tame as they require nothing to make a contract. They sign it with no hesitation and you can summon them without any time limitation. The problem is they rarely listen to their master's commands.

The smallest slime is called regular size slime. It has a translucent blue body and measures 20x20 cm. They are named after sizes, food they eat (buttermilk slime), job positions (e.g. grand priest slime), social status (e.g. lord slime) and sometimes evolve from wearing certain clothes (comrade slime). Evolved slimes are more powerful and have access to more spells.

2 years have passed, and grandmother allowed me to enter the library while under her supervision.

"Just stay here and don't touch anything while I search for 'The Basic Guide to Magic'."

I nodded.

We have a lot of books that are unpublished, and my ancestors wrote it using their own knowledge.

Most of the books here give off a sense of danger, like something powerful is trapped inside its pages.

It took a while for her to find it.

"Let's go to the living room and read this book there."

I nodded.

We sat in a brown chair and placed the book on a small round table. I flipped the book to page 1 to see the contents.

Chapter 1 - Mana Control, Replenishment, and Capacity

Mana control is one of the most important skills for a mage to learn.

There are two types of mana control: basic and advanced.

To practice it, the first thing you need to do is concentrate, close your eyes and feel the mana stored deep inside of your body.

The next step is gathering a bit of mana and sending it to your hands.

The last step is releasing the mana you gathered into your hands to the surrounding environment.

Here are the benefits when you master basic mana control:

1. You form your spells more stable. Since you can set the amount of mana that goes toward the spell, the mana flowing outside of your body to form the spell is also stable and it makes it harder for others to interrupt your spell casting.. This makes it powerful or weaker, depending on the amount of mana poured on to it.

2. You can accurately determine the amount of mana you currently have.

3. Access to more complicated spells.

4. It makes it harder for others to steal mana away from you.

5. You are able to gather more mana efficiently from your surroundings to use for your spells, or replenish your mana capacity.

6. Faster spell casting.

7. The ability to sense the strength of your opponent from their magical aura. This has limitations, as you can not determine the full strength of someone more powerful than you.

8. The ability to hide your magical aura from others. You will have a hard time hiding it from opponents who have sharp magic sense.

9. Enchanting items, weapons, armor, etc. to make it more powerful.

10. Engraving runes to items, weapons, armor, etc. to make it more powerful.

11. Using your mana as a shield to block spells and physical attacks.

12. Absorbing grimoires to boost your own strength and mana capacity permanently.

13. Modifying your spells, for example, making the spell pierce through magical defenses.

14. Creating scrolls.

15. Unlocks magic sense. This helps you sense magic aura from other people or nearby hidden spells. Anti-magic materials such as Tekrite can block magic sense.

16. Creating relics.

17. Creating artifacts.

18. Creating grimoires.

19. Coating your body and things with mana.

20. Creating contracts to tame monsters or beasts.

These are the ways to replenish your mana: breathing air, sleeping, absorbing mana from others, eating, and gathering mana from your surroundings.

The nerves linked to your mana capacity finish to develop at 3 years old.

Mana capacity develops at 4 years old and peaks at 25 years old.

It starts with random puddles around your body and gradually spreads all over your body equally.

The other ways to expand your mana capacity are absorbing grimoires and transcendence.

I didn't expect how important the role it plays in the world of fantasy and magic. This is completely different from what I learned from playing games, watching anime and reading manga. It makes sense that mana control is often overlooked because it is not exciting to learn, read and watch.

"Have you finished reading chapter 1?" grandma asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"We will start our basic mana control training after eating lunch. Make sure you follow the instructions."

We sat and prayed before eating lunch.

After lunch, grandma and I went to the front yard to start the training.

I followed the instructions and failed for the first three tries.

"Grandma, why am I failing?"

"This is because you are not used to controlling mana and, the amount of mana you can control right now is tiny, so just try again until you succeed."

I tried for the fourth time, and I was overcome by joy that I succeeded. I couldn't believe how hard it is compared to just imagining it and watching it in anime.

My body felt heavy, and I collapsed on the ground. After a few hours, I woke up in my mother's lap and she was smiling at me.

"I heard from your grandmother that you succeeded in practicing basic mana control for the first time," my mother said.

"Yes but, I lost consciousness after doing it," I replied.

She patted my head and said, "Don't be sad about it since it happened to all of us, even your grandmother experienced it."

"Even her?"

"Yes, because not everyone is born powerful and their mana capacity is already huge. Humans have a disadvantage at birth against most races, but we close the gap through training, hard work, talent and creativity."

I tried to stand up and failed since my body felt numb and weak.

"Don't try to move around since this is your first time suffering from mana exhaustion. Just lie down here and I will feed you dinner."

"What is mana exhaustion?"

"It is a condition where you exhausted your mana to the point your body is weakened. Its symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, numbness, headache, chest tightness, loss of consciousness and, in extreme cases, death. It can be cured by resting, eating, drinking mana potions, and absorbing mana from others or in nature. You can also alleviate some effects of mana exhaustion by strengthening your body through physical training."

We heard knocks from the door, and grandmother entered my room.

"Oh, you are finally awake," she said.

"You have a new training schedule for tomorrow. Your father will train you in swordsmanship and sword skills to strengthen your body. Your mother will train you in archery to enhance your accuracy and precision. I will continue to train you and I will add your friends to the training to motivate you," she added.

"What do we expect from your training?" I said.

"Once everybody has decent basic mana control, I will teach everyone how to create magic circles and how to cast spells. After that, we will practice combat against each other and for your ultimate test, you and your friends will hunt a golden brown bear in the nearby forest," she replied.

"When do we start the training?"

"We will start tomorrow. The sword and bow training will happen in the morning and will end before lunch. While mine will start after lunch and will end before dinner. Your friends will also join your morning training. So get some rest because you will start early in the morning and good night," she replied.

Grandmother closed the door and left me alone with mother.

This is one of the rare opportunities where I could bond with my mother.

"Mom, can you sleep with me and tell me a story?"

"Sure, I will sleep with you because you wanted me to. I will be back and feed you."

"Okay."

It took mom a few minutes to return.

"Your dinner is roasted duck, vegetable soup and your favorite potato dishes."

"I wanna hear about your adventures while eating."

"So what do you wanna hear?"

"I wanna know how you met father and some other details about our family."

She helped me sit upright and sat in a chair beside my bed.

She placed a napkin on my lap and tucked the other into my neckline before giving me a spoonful of potato soup.

"I met your father when I was twelve and at that time I was still living in Westminster. He was with your grandmother adventuring together and they were there to exorcise a greater demon."

*cough* *cough*

She handed me a glass of water to drink.

"She is not a priest, so why would she do it?"

"As far as I could remember, the governor of the city got possessed and the adventurer's guild put up an emergency quest to address the situation quickly. The archbishop and bishop were away, and the remaining priests at the church were not strong enough to defeat it. Your grandmother fit the requirements, and she used the spell 'judgement' to obliterate the greater demon from existence. It is also one of the reason why I joined their party after seeing her strength."

"Then how did you fall in love with dad?"

"The other reason for joining their party is because of him. He was my type, and I was thrilled when he professed his love and asked me on a date."

Her face turned bright red, and she smiled affectionately.

"I thought he saved you somewhere in a dungeon and fell in love after that."

"Your grandmother was always saving his life to make sure he produced children to continue the family bloodline before he die."

She gently wiped my face with a napkin to remove residue in my face.

"Did you guys became famous?"

"We are a famous party, but our faces are not well known except for a select few individuals who are close to our family. This is because of your grandmother insisting that we always use a mask whenever we accept a quest or collect a reward in the adventurer's guild. If we go out in the public, we change into simple clothes to avoid unnecessary attention and prevent them from discovering our true identities."

"Why did you choose to settle in this village?"

"This village is located in the most remote region of the empire and it is also the largest village on the entire continent. Despite its size, it never gets taxed due to how poor it is. The few instances they send someone important here are when they need to test 6-year-old children for their magic capability and grant them scholarship to enter the imperial magic academy."

"Are there any perks besides the scholarship?"

"They also grant you a house in the capital city and some gold coins every month."

"Is that the reason I need to undergo this training?"

"Yes, and it is already decided by your grandmother. Oh, the training starts early, so wake up early tomorrow. Let's continue our conversation next time."

I nodded.

She picked me up, entered the kitchen to wash the plates, and brushed my teeth. We went back to my room and changed my clothes into a simple brown t-shirt and pajamas.

She kissed my forehead and said, "Goodnight, Felix."

"Goodnight mom," I replied.

I hugged her tightly and slept.

I felt someone shaking my whole body and hear the voice of my mom shouting my name repeatedly.

"Felix!"

"Felix!"

"Five more minutes," I replied.

"Wake up now or else your grandmother will be the one who will force you out of bed," she said.

I forced myself out of bed and headed straight to the dining room. I ate my breakfast as fast as possible and went to the nearby dirt field that serves as our playground and training ground.

The weather is sunny and warm with almost no wind today.

My friends waved their hands as soon as they spot me running towards them.

"Felix, you are late," Mark said.

*pant* *pant*

I caught my breath before lining up.

"Everyone is now here. We will now start the warm up exercise before doing the actual training," Father said.

We did a warmup exercise for a few minutes.

"What kind of training are we going to do?" John asked.

He gave a small wooden sword to each one of us.

"You will be swinging this wooden sword for 5 minutes, then a break of 10 minutes. Push-ups for 5 minutes followed by another 10 minute break. The last one is running around the front yard for 5 minutes," Father replied.

"What is the purpose of this training?" Josh asked.

"This is to strengthen your body and improve stamina, endurance, speed and agility," Father replied.

"We don't need to do this training when we just need to use magic to defeat the enemy," Jack said.

"That is where you are wrong. You need this training so that your body can handle the strain of casting magic for long periods of time and be able to cast higher tier spells, since it places a massive toll on your body, specifically the tier 7 and above spells. You also need a backup weapon in case your magic can't help you defeat the enemy," Father replied.

My friends looked at me like they want me to object to this training.

"There's nothing I could do but follow it. Grandma has already decided that we will undergo this training," I said.

"Your grandma is scary and we don't want to make her mad. So let's start the training," Alice replied.

I barely completed training while my friends finished it with no problems.

Alice approached me, hugged me, and said, "Are you okay?"

Her body feels soft, and she smells good, even after sweating a lot. What kind of soap or perfume does she use?

"I am fine. It's just that my body feels heavy," I replied.

"If you are fine, then can you loosen your hug cause it's too tight, and it's also embarrassing to do it in front of others," she said.

I removed both of my hands from her back and she sat beside me. The rest of my friends also sat near us after a few minutes.

Why is she embarrassed about it when we often do it, or am I just too shameless?

We spent the next hour resting and waiting for the bow training.

"Get up now. The training is about to start," mom said.

We lined up in a single row and each of us got a wooden bow and a quiver full of arrows.

"What are we going to do with this?" Mark asked.

"You are going to hit that target using that bow," mom replied.

There are 5 targets about a meter away for us to hit.

"Why is there a small red circle in the middle?" Alice asked.

"That is the area where your arrows need to hit," she replied.

"How long are we going to do this training?" Josh asked.

"We will end before lunch, but you can take an early rest if you feel tired," she replied.

Mom drew a straight line.

"This distance should be good enough. Stand before this line," she said.

She showed us how to do it and she got a bullseye effortlessly.

We followed her instructions and started the training.

I picked up one arrow and placed it on the bow. I made sure my stance was proper, pulled the string, aimed at my target, and released.

The arrow flew and hit the target, but it was quite far from bullseye.

It still made me happy that it hit, considering it was my first time.

I continued to fire arrows at my target and I got tired twenty minutes later.

Almost all the arrows I fired were far from bullseye and the rest were near misses.

I watched my friends from the sidelines, and they were a lot better than me.

Josh got the most bullseye followed by Mark, Alice, Jack and John.

Mom approached me, looked at my target and said, "not bad for your first time considering you were struggling to keep your posture."

If this was a fps game, I would not miss the bullseye even with my eyes closed.

"Even in my previous life, I did not know how to use a bow," I replied.

"Sounds like you had a peaceful life," she said.

"It was peaceful, but it cost a lot of human lives to get it," I replied.

"I will not delve more into your previous life. So what do you think of Alice?" she asked.

"What do you mean by that, mom?" I replied.

"She hugs you, and you give her a lot of attention when playing together with your friends," she said.

"Oh, so that's what you meant. I like her," I replied.

I smiled and noticed Alice was looking at me. She blushed and turned around when we made eye contact.

It looks like she was listening to my conversation with mom.

"If that's the case, you should remember that having a relationship at a young age is normal here and polygamy is acceptable here," she said.

I didn't dare ask her why father has 1 wife.

The answer was quite obvious. It is acceptable, but it does not mean everyone practices it.

"Look mom, everyone has finished their training. What should we do next?" I asked.

"Everyone can take a rest and play while waiting for lunchtime," she replied.

My friends sat near me.

"I won our bet since I got the most bullseye," Josh said.

"You just got lucky and Felix wasn't feeling well. If he was in good condition, he would beat you effortlessly," Jack replied.

"What was your bet?" I asked.

"Whoever got the most bullseye decides where we eat lunch. Since I won, we will eat lunch at Felix's house until we finish our training," Josh replied.

"Why would you make that kind of bet?" I asked.

"You never invited us to eat lunch at your house. It also made us curious what food do you eat?" Mark replied.

"Prepare to be disappointed then," I said.

"How much time do we have before lunch?" John asked.

"About an hour," Alice replied.

We agreed to spend the remaining time we have by going to the nearby makeshift football field and play football. My mother called us to eat lunch and I can't wait for their disappointed faces.

The table was big enough to accommodate my five friends and my family.

They got disappointed when they saw that two-thirds of the dishes served are potato dishes. They are fortunate that we got roasted wild boar for lunch today because father got lucky to hunt one.

We went straight to the front yard after eating lunch to wait for the next training.

"What should we expect from your grandmother's training?" Alice asked.

"Difficult," I replied.

"Why do you think so?" Mark asked.

"The previous trainings we had was easy, and we were not pushed to our limits," I replied.

"I guess we should wait for your grandmother and rest here," Josh said.

"I agree with Josh," John replied.

We patiently waited for an hour for grandmother to start our training.

"Get up now and make sure to keep at least a one meter distance from each other," grandmother said.

We followed her instructions, and she then gave us a wooden staff.

"What is this wooden staff for?" I asked.

"It is called a novice staff. It makes it a lot easier to gather mana, control mana flow, and form magic circles a lot quicker, so your mana control progress will be a lot faster and help you cast spells swiftly. This has limitations though as staffs have a limited amount of mana it can regulate and the durability limits the amount of spell and the tier level you can cast with it," grandmother replied.

"What should we do if we run out of mana while practicing?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I will refill your mana to speed up progress and not wait for it to fill on its own as it takes one day or longer," grandmother replied.

"What are we going to do for our training?" Alice asked.

"Felix, demonstrate what you did last time in practicing mana control, but this time you release your mana with the help of the staff," grandmother said.

I remembered the instructions on the book and followed them, but this time I gathered it using the staff and released it.

The color of my mana is dark blue with some black mix in it.

"What did you just do?' Mark asked.

"I followed the instructions on a book about how to practice mana control," I replied.

"What are the instructions you read?" Josh asked.

"The instructions were: Concentrate, close your eyes, and feel the mana stored deep inside your body. Then you gather a bit of your mana to the staff and release it into the environment," I replied.

My friends followed my instructions and succeeded in their first try.

I am a bit jealous that they did not struggle.

"Felix, can you tell me what the color of their mana is?" grandmother asked.

"Alice got a red color, Jack got green, Josh got blue, Mark got brown and John got white," I replied.

"That is right. Can you describe their magical auras while practicing mana control?" grandmother asked.

"Their auras were calm then, it made multiple waves and returned to normal," I replied.

"What else did you notice about magical auras?" grandmother asked.

"Magical auras are unique to each individual and the color of their magical auras depends on the color of their mana. They differ in size, shape, and concentration," I replied.

"That is correct. I will now explain what is a magical aura, so listen carefully," grandmother said.

We nodded.

"Magical aura is a small portion of the user's total mana that is constantly emitted from the body. The more mana you have, the stronger it is. It contains information like how strong they are, age, race, mana control, etc. There are two types of magical aura: flowing river and Stillwater," grandmother said.

"What is it like to have a flowing river aura?" I asked.

"Flowing river auras are affected by emotions, the volume of mana the individual owns, amount of mana flowing outside the body, and it creates waves that an opponent with good magic sense or someone like Felix can detect. The stronger they are, the more powerful auras they emit, and the bigger the wave they produce," grandmother replied.

"How about the Stillwater aura?" Alice asked.

"Stillwater auras are rare. It can be inherited or obtained through mastering advanced mana control. Individuals with this type of aura are mistaken for humans with no talent in magic, since they emit extremely weak auras that are hard to see or sense. Unlike the flowing river aura, the aura it produces does not get stronger over time compared to the strength of the user. It will also remain calm even if the user feels intense emotions and whether or not the individual is casting spells," grandmother replied.

"What does magical aura do besides that?" I asked.

"If you become powerful, the pressure of your magical aura will also rise. You can concentrate it on an individual or area to immobilize or crush them similar to gravity manipulation spell. Some very powerful and highly skilled aura manipulators can shape their auras to tiger, lion, bear etc. to intimidate others or even change the temperature of the environment," grandmother replied.

My friends turned their attention to me.

"You can see mana and the magical aura of others?" Alice asked.

"Yes," I replied.

They stared at my eyes for quite some time and gave up.

"Even if you stared at his eyes for a long time, you won't see it because you are not born with that talent and it is a hereditary talent passed down generation to generation," grandmother said.

"Then how are you able to see when there is mana everywhere?" John asked.

"I could turn it on and off whenever I want. You will notice that my eye color changes from blue to silver," I replied.

I showed them how it's done and they got impressed.

There are a lot of difference from what I see when I switch to my silver eye. I don't see any shadows with it and even if I stare at the sun, I don't get blinded by the bright light. I could also see the ethereal dimension and the spirits living inside it, and horrifying monsters that the naked human eye can't see.

"Why not spend time practicing mana control instead of wasting it on talking with each other?" grandmother said.

We went back to our positions and practiced mana control. We only stopped to eat snacks and wait for grandmother to refill our mana.

"Let's stop the training for now as it is getting dark already," grandmother said.

"Did we improve a lot?" Josh asked.

"Everyone improved leaps and bounds," grandmother replied.

"How long will it take for us to learn spells?" John asked.

"At your current progress, I would say 6 or 7 months," grandmother replied.

Everyone went their separate ways as we returned home to eat dinner.

One year later

Father slowly intensified our training from 5 minutes to 8 minutes until we reached 15 minutes. He taught us the imperial sword style after we completed 15 minutes of each training course, which took around 7 months.

Father trained me with a sword technique used by my family for generations called 'River Secret style' while my friends used their own family sword style after mastering the imperial sword style in 4 months. I can use the first three techniques which are splash, ripple and stream. Splash is a vertical slash. Ripple is a multiple chain attack. Stream is a combo attack comprised of one or more Ripple and Splash attacks.

I was ambidextrous in my past life and naturally I am born ambidextrous again, so it was easy to use the sword and execute sword techniques with my left hand. I also practiced ten stars swordsmanship: Constellation which is the first technique in ten stars swordsmanship style, but struggled since the first technique requires you to stab the opponent ten times in different locations in one second but I could do it two times in one second. So I changed it to slashing the opponent 10 times in one second since the original is designed for the MMORPG and was able to do it 4 times in one second.

The techniques' name are odd because of the habits of swordsmen shouting the names of the attacks, which leads to the enemy getting a clue and react accordingly. Even if we shout our attacks, the enemy would be left confused.

He also allowed us to do mock one-on-one battles with each other to sharpen our close combat skills.

Mother slowly adjusted the distance of our targets till we could hit a bullseye 40 meters away. After approximately 9 months of hitting dummies, she switched our targets from dummies to live animals such as birds, rabbit, deer and boar which are all summoned by her. It's hard because we are used to targets that aren't moving and our new targets would run away, burrow, hide beneath objects and sometimes the boar would mock charge you.

We exceeded grandmother's expectation in six months in basic mana control, then she focused our training to master creating magic circles. She showed us a perfect magic circle, then she ordered us to replicate it. We were bad at it on our first try, so she told us to make large magic circles first so we could spot and fix the flaws in it by comparing it with her magic circle then make the standard size after perfecting a large magic circle. It took around one and a half month for me to perfect it while my friends took two months.

After completing the magic circle training, she tested my friends' magic affinity with 7 different colored magic stones before teaching us how to cast spells.

She handed 7 different colored magic stones which consists of red, blue, brown, green, yellow, black and white to Alice.

"What is this for?" Alice asked.

"This is to test your affinity with the basic elements of magic. Red is for fire, blue is for water, brown is for earth, yellow for lightning, green is for wind, white for light, and black for dark," grandmother replied.

"How do you test your affinity using that stone?" John asked.

"You pour some mana to the stone, and if it lights up, it means you have an affinity towards that element. If it does not light up, it means you have no affinity with that element. If all the stones light up halfway, this means the person is a generalist," grandmother replied.

"What happens if you have an affinity towards a certain element?" Josh asked.

"You gain bonuses such as faster spell mastery, quicker casting, heightened magic resistance, stronger and more stable spells and if you have two or more affinity, you will be able to cast advanced elements," grandmother replied.

"How about if you don't have an affinity for the element you want to cast?" Jack asked.

"You will be penalized, but you will still be able to cast it. The penalties are slower casting speed, slower spell mastery, lowered magic resistance, and weaker spell power," grandmother replied.

"How about generalists? What advantages and disadvantages do they have?" I asked.

"Generalists can cast all basic elemental spells. The problem is they can't access advanced elements, since it needs you to have a strong affinity with two compatible elements to access it. They learn at a normal speed and cast at a normal speed. What sets them apart from each other is their talent, intelligence, hard work, and effort," grandmother replied.

"What is more common generalist, or someone who has a strong affinity towards one or more basic elements?" I asked.

"Generalists are more common because humans developed strong affinities toward an element after the gods have blessed them and gained additional powers. This happened during the Age of Gods around millions of years ago and they helped the gods win the war against the demon god and the alliance of demons and devils," grandmother replied.

"Can humans use magic before being blessed by the gods?" I asked.

"Yes, but they developed and used magic spells that can be used for everyday life, such as food creation and fertilizer," grandmother replied.

"Those are spells are very advanced, so that means ancient humans are remarkable?" I asked.

"On paper, yes, the reality is they can create raw meat and vegetables that are tasteless and contained fewer nutrients compared to the original, not cooked meals and the fertilizer they create is bone meal and dead leaves," grandmother replied.

"Why would the gods need the help of humans if they are that weak?" Alice asked.

"Gods and Angels needed to materialize physically on this planet since they are always in their spiritual form in heaven, so half of their power is used to maintain their physical. Their enemies, the Demons and Devils possessed humans and other races forcefully and fight until said body can't longer host them while they believed it should not be forced so a handful of them have a host. They solved this problem by blessing the other races with additional powers and knowledge to be able to fight the demons and devils. Some gods lost influence and their followers were killed because of infighting and power struggle. Coincidentally, the humans are one of the few races left that the other gods did not bless and were even ignored, so there really isn't an established religion. Some gods who lost were Onos, the god of light, Ibris, the god of afterlife and Amis, the god of death, to name a few. These gods saw an opportunity to establish their own religion with the help of humans and blessed them. Eventually, the humans who were blessed became heroes and spread the name of the god and the ones they rescued became devoted followers, which then established a religion. Some heroes and devotees established a kingdom, built places of worship and conquered other countries to expand their territory, gain more resources and, most importantly, broaden the influence of their religion through religious conversion," grandmother replied.

"What happened to those religions? How did the crab religion become the largest and most influential?" I asked.

"The gods won the war and sealed off the demon god but, they were severely weakened after the war and got stuck in heaven unable to generate their physical form. Gradually, their influence became weaker due to corruption, greed, and scandals that plagued their religion. It also did not help that there were no common enemy for other religions to unite and set aside their differences in teachings and beliefs which lead to power struggles around the world and eventually a holy war that lead to the destruction of some religions. The rise of Maple was the sole reason the crab religion became the largest and most influential religion in the world," grandmother replied.

"Who are the Maple? Are they powerful?" I asked.

"For now, they are one of the four major powers in the world alongside the gods who rule the heavens, demons who rule the demon continent, and devils who rule the 9 levels of hell. I will explain their history when you are powerful enough. Alice, you can now start the magic affinity test," grandmother replied.

Alice nodded.

She poured mana into the stones one by one. Five stones lighted which are red, blue, yellow, brown and green.

Josh did the same process. Three stones lighted which are yellow, blue, and green.

Jack repeated the same process. Four stones lighted which are brown, red, green, and blue.

John carried out the same process. All the stones lighted up halfway.

Mark replicated the same process. Three stones lighted which are green, blue, and yellow.

"Everyone's finished the magic affinity test. We will now move on to Spell casting test," grandmother said.

"How about Felix? He hasn't completed the magic affinity test," Mark replied.

"I already knew his magic affinity because it is inherited from your parents, but since everyone wanted to know. Felix, go test your magic affinity," grandmother said.

I duplicated the same process. All the stones lighted up.

My friends kinda look upset.

"Today I am going to teach you how to cast some simple elemental spells and a non-elemental reconnaissance spell," grandmother said.

She showed us how to cast tier 1 spells: fireball, waterball, scan, spark, earth wall, windcutter and sand golem.

Waterball is a slow long-range spell, blue color, and low mana cost. It is often used to create safe drinking water or water crops.

Spark is an extremely fast short-range spell, the shape is a bolt of white small lightning, and low mana cost.

Fireball is a fast long-range spell, red-orange color, and low mana cost.

Windcutter is a fast long-range spell, its shape is a small green crescent, and low mana cost.

Earth wall is a defensive spell with a length of 3 meters, a width of 1 meter, a height of 1 meter, brown color, and a low mana cost.

Scan is a wide area reconnaissance spell where the user scans the surrounding area. The area of the spell depends on the abilities of the user.

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Sand golem is a summoning spell where the user creates a golem out of hardened sand. The mana capacity of the user limits the size of the golem they could make.

"Did everyone understand how to cast the spells I just showed?" grandmother asked.

We nodded.

Grandmother smiled and created dummies 5 meters away from us.

"Use these dummies to practice casting the spells I just showed to improve your casting speed and spell mastery," grandmother said.

We followed her instructions and began casting spells.

At first, I can summon a 1 meter golem in one minute that would last an hour before crumbling away and takes half of my mana capacity, scan 15 meters away and cast the other spells in 15 seconds. After four and a half months, I sped up the summoning to 30 seconds, cast the other spells in 7 seconds, and scan 100 meters away. The sand golem I could summon is now 2 meters tall, lasts 4 hours and takes one-third of my mana capacity.

According to my grandmother, the more you use a certain spell, the faster you can cast it and the more powerful it becomes. Also, if you have mastered a certain spell, you can cast it instantaneously, giving your opponents no time to react or counter it.

Grandmother would teach me how to read and write the ancient language my family speaks and the modern alphabet they use here whenever we couldn't train outside because the weather was poor.

6 months have passed.

Our overall close combat skills have drastically improved. Father also taught us how to coat swords and our body with mana, map reading, basic survival skills, camping, fishing, making traps, pick locking, hide and use hidden daggers and climbing.

Coating swords with mana boosts its durability, avoids chipping the blade, produces more powerful and destructive attacks, and wound or kill beings that are normally impervious to physical attacks.

Coating your body with mana boosts your body's capabilities by multiple times, overall magic resistance and physical resistance. It stacks with other spells that also enhance your physical prowess.

Hunting live animals with the bow immensely improved our stamina, speed, agility, dexterity, endurance, balance, and strength. We learned how to aim with unstable positions, hit fast moving targets, track targets in unfamiliar terrain, shooting while moving around and use the wind to our advantage. She also taught us how to coat arrows with mana to enhance its penetration power and lessen the effects of rain, gravity, wind resistance and drag, allowing it to travel much greater speeds.

My friends can now comfortably access their full mana capacity whenever they want, and they still need to practice mana control daily, because their mana capacity is still growing every day. I can control half of my mana capacity as it is a lot larger than my friends and it is also one of the side effects of my soul getting damaged from being transported and reincarnated in this world. Grandmother taught us new tier one and two spells: bubble bomb, frostbite, wind bullet, quicksand, electric shock, ice shards, pyroblast, paralyze, and water cannonball.

Water cannonball is a fast medium-range spell that shoots a high pressure ball of water at the opponent and has a medium mana cost.

Paralyze is a tier 2 extremely fast medium-range spell, its shape is a small jagged yellow lightning, and low mana cost. Enemies hit by this spell will become paralyzed, and those with high enough resistance can resist its effects.

Pyroblast is a tier 2 spell, and it is the better version of fireball with more destructive potential, and has a medium mana cost.

Ice shards is a tier 1 fast medium-range spell that shoots multiple ice shards at the opponent and has a low-high mana cost (depending on the number of shards you create).

Quicksand is a tier 1 trap spell that restricts the movement of your opponent by sucking them in deeper and has a low mana cost.

Electric shock is a tier 2 spell, low mana cost, and it is the improved version of spark.

Frostbite is a tier 2 spell that freezes your enemy's skin and has a low mana cost. It works better in low temperature environments and wet enemies.

Wind bullet is a tier 2 spell that shoots high-speed, high pressure air bullets and has a low mana cost.

Bubble bomb is a tier 1 spell that creates hundreds of small bubbles that explode when popped, which causes a chain explosion that covers a small area and it has a low mana cost.

The tier two spells take me 18 seconds to cast while my friends take longer than that. The new tier one spells take 10 seconds.

I experimented with my sand golem by adding multiple layers onto it. First, I create the standard sand golem, add four inches of hardened mud and add two inches of stone to create the last layer. I call the process multi layering. It solves the lack of durability and firepower of the sand golem while remaining nimble and flexible. The entire process and summoning takes one minute to finish, and it needs to be defended because it is vulnerable to attacks. It takes almost all of my mana to create it.

I got stuck and can't improve my three seconds casting time for tier 1 spells any further, and sand golem is stuck at 15 seconds. The maximum area I could scan is 200 meters. So I decided to ask grandmother for some advice.

"Grandmother, I can't improve my casting time and my scan area has also reached its limitations. Can you give me some advice?" I asked.

"You already reached the limitation of the casting speed and the area you can scan with the staff. Your soul hasn't finished healing while you might not feel fatigue anymore. It still affects your mana control. I am impressed. I thought you would reach three second casting time with the help of a staff in casting tier one spells at eight years old. You should remember this: no matter how good your equipment is, it still has its own limitations on how fast it can create a spell. Even the best equipment you can find in this world can't help you cast tier 10 spells instantaneously," she replied.

"What should I do next?" I asked.

"Improve your casting time on tier 2 spells to 10 seconds and then we will start the last phase of your training, which is sharpening the magical aura of your spells," she replied.

"Why are my friends taking so long to improve their casting times?" I asked.

"It all comes down to family lineage. Our ancestors are mostly marked reincarnation like you, and we gain a lot more bonuses from having a strong affinity for all elements. I already know that you have questions regarding our race, since our shadows can move independently from us and even exist with no source of light. Let's say for now that we are related to the abyss, and this is just our physical form, while our shadow is our abyssal form," she replied.

"I see. Thanks grandma," I said.

I returned to my position to continue training.

It took five months to reach the 10 second casting time for tier 2 spells. My friends also improved in that time span, albeit not as fast as I did. They could rival my casting speed in certain elements they specialize except for John, who is above average in casting speed and mana control.

Grandmother also shortened our sword and bow training to an hour each as we already passed her standards, then lengthened the time we spent in our magic training.

We were practicing as normal and hurling spells at dummies made by grandmother.

"Can I get your attention, please?" She asked.

We stopped and noticed a new set of dummies.

"Is that the same dummies we routinely destroy?" Alice asked.

"See for yourself," grandmother replied.

I threw a pyroblast at it and, as expected, it was a direct hit. After the smoke and dust have settled, the dummy was not scratched or blown to pieces.

I investigated with my silver eye and saw that this dummy emits a magical aura.

"Grandma, I thought magical auras aren't useful in protecting you?" I asked.

"It depends if you are a living thing or non-living thing," she replied.

"How are they different?" Alice asked.

"Humans and other races can store mana inside their body, and the magical aura they emit from their body is a small portion of the total mana they possess. Animals and plants can't store mana internally, so when they develop a magical aura out of nowhere, their bodies will undergo massive changes, and after a few generations of evolution, they will become a magical beast or magical plant. Most of the animals you see are either domesticated or reproduce rapidly that it makes it hard for magical beasts to outcompete them and drive them to extinction. It's also the same with plants. Then there are some species of animals and plants that can't develop a magical aura and evolve, despite living in places with high concentrations of mana for a very long time," she replied.

"How about the effects of magical aura on inanimate objects?" I asked.

"For inanimate objects, they get heavily altered when they get formed in areas with high mana concentration. It will get magical properties that are normally not present. There are two types of magical property, which are primary and secondary. Primary is the one the material gained while being formed, while secondary is gained by refining it by a crafter with sufficient skill. The quality of material will determine how many primary and secondary effects it will gain. For example, the silver short sword that Mark and Josh are using is made from a silver magical alloy. Normally silver is too soft and brittle to be made into a weapon, but since it got formed in an area with high mana concentration, it transformed into a magical alloy and became a thousand times stronger than the original. The silver magical alloy has 3 primary magical properties, which are regeneration negation, true strike and holy touch. Both the silver short swords have 2 secondary effects," she replied.

"What does regeneration negation, true strike, and holy touch do?" Alice asked.

"As the name suggests, regeneration negation inflicts wounds that do not heal. True strike allows you to hit and touch the enemy even if they are not in their physical form, which means whatever form your enemy is, your attacks will not miss unless they physically dodge your attack. Holy touch applies light elemental damage to each attack," she replied.

"I remember you said to me that the last phase of our training would be sharpening the magical aura of our spells. How do we do that?" I asked.

"Follow my instructions," she replied.

I nodded

"Create the spell you used and not fire it. Then Create another magic circle and instead of creating another spell, let it focus on making the magical aura surrounding your spell bigger and more pronounced," she said.

II followed her instructions and once I felt my spell, got a stronger aura than the dummy. I fired it and it got blown to pieces.

My friends were amazed by what I did.

"Everybody listen to my explanation," grandmother said.

We nodded.

"Sharpening auras of your spells is one of the quickest ways to counter magic resistance as it enhances magic penetration of your spell. Even if a magic armor can block tier 1 spells, tier 1 spells can penetrate it when it has a stronger aura than the magic armor. The biggest problem of magic armors is durability, as it can shield you from a limited amount of spells, and even with the best magic armor you can find in the world can't help you survive a direct hit from a tier 10 spell. This is also true with magic weapons, as you can launch an attack once before it breaks and requires a huge amount of mana to use it. Its advantage is you can launch a powerful spell stored inside the weapon without casting it," she said.

"How do you make magic equipments?" I asked.

"It's the same with making an armor or weapon. You find a magical alloy, heat it and hammer it to shape. The problem is magical alloys emit weak auras to strengthen it, you need to refine it and it requires advanced mana control to do it. To forge magic equipments, you need to have top tier blacksmith skills and can cast tier 7 or higher spells. I believe there are around 100 individuals in the world can make it and 5 of them can make the highest grade," she replied.

"My sword is made up of a Silver magical alloy. Does that mean it can store a spell inside it?" Mark asked.

"No, because it is not the type of magical alloy that is used for a magic weapon and it does not have a spell crystal embedded in it. The magical alloy used is typically made up of two or more elements, like lithium-iron etc.," grandmother replied.

"Isn't lithium-iron used to make batteries and what is a spell crystal?" I asked.

"Spell crystals can store spells inside them. The higher the quality, the higher the tier of spell it can store inside it. The problem is, it needs to have a supplier of mana, and the spell inside it can be used once. That is also the reason magic weapons can be used once. Lithium-iron is indeed a battery because it can store huge amounts of mana inside it, which makes it compatible to be used as a magic weapon," she replied.

"How long will we do this training?" Alice asked.

"We have six months left before the magic capability test. The first five months will be spent doing this magical aura sharpening training for five months and the rest will be spent to prepare for the ultimate test," she replied.

"What goal do we set this time?" John asked.

"After five months of training, you need to reach at least 10 seconds or faster for tier 1 and 20 seconds for tier 2," she replied.

We nodded.

Grandmother replaced the old regular dummies with the dummies I destroyed earlier.

Five months have passed.

We failed to reach our goal of reducing the time to sharpen the magical aura of tier 1 and 2 spells. It takes me 14 seconds for the tier 1 and 25 seconds for the tier 2 while my friends take even longer than that. Everyone expected my grandmother will be disappointed with the results, but the opposite happened. She was happy and proud.

"Why is everyone sad? Everyone should be proud of themselves because not a lot of people know this, and even high-level mages and adventurers struggle or don't know that they can modify their spell's magical aura," she said.

"You said that we are going to hunt a golden brown bear, right?" Alice asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"What do we need to do to be able to hunt it?" Mark asked.

"Everyone has the skills and physical requirements. The problems everyone needs to solve are teamwork, strategy, communication and actual combat experience. Spend the next five weeks devising a plan, making a formation and choosing a leader. The test will start in the sixth week of the month," she replied.

She left us alone and went inside the house while we stayed here to discuss.

"What should we do first?" Jack asked.

"We should choose our leader first," Alice replied.

"I agree," John said.

"How should we choose our leader?" Josh asked.

"Voting," Alice replied.

"There are six of us and Felix is quiet," Mark said with a smirk face.

"Raise your hand to vote," Alice said.

Everyone nodded.

"Who votes for Felix?" Alice asked.

My friends raised their hands while I didn't bother to do it.

"Everybody voted for Felix. He will be our leader for this test," Alice said.

"Since you voted for me to become the leader, I will try my best to accomplish this task and complete our test. Before we discuss about our formation and strategy, Alice will be the vice leader of our group," I said.

"What is a vice leader? What are its role?" Alice asked.

"Vice leader is essentially the second in command. In case I am absent or late in our meeting, you will be the one who will start it and once I have arrived, you will report to me what everyone discussed in that meeting. In combat, you will report to me about the location of our members and enemy, condition of the members, whether they are engaged in combat or casting spells and relay my decisions to other members," I replied.

"Understood," Alice said.

"Next is our formation. Mark and Josh will be on the front lines. John and Jack will be in the middle providing support to the frontline. Me and Alice will be at the rear," I said.

"What do the front lines do and why are we positioned there?" Mark asked.

"Front lines are located closest to the enemy. Since you are located there, you will be equipped with armor, sword, and shield. Your primary job will be to distract the enemy, tank the enemy damage and buy time for us to cast our spells. Both of you are selected because of your decent mana coating of sword and incredible stamina, strength and durability," I replied.

"How about the middle line? How are we going to support the front line? Why are you and Alice at the rear?" John asked.

"You will be equipped with a bow and a staff. You are free to switch between these two weapons. Your primary job is to provide extra damage to the enemy and use spells that can protect allies, immobilize enemies, and slow down the enemy. Me and Alice are at the rear because we have the strongest magic firepower, great mana control and better magical aura sharpening than the rest of the group. My golem is useful, but it takes one minute to materialize since it has multiple layers and I am also responsible for protecting the rear in case someone attacked us from behind," I replied.

They nodded at my explanation.

I can't blame them if they did not understand what I said.

"What will we do if it doesn't work against our enemy?" Alice asked.

"We will use formation B. Formation B is where Mark and Josh will act as decoys to lure away the enemy and buy time for us to cast our strongest offensive spell. After we finish casting, I will give a signal, then both of you will lure the enemy to our position so we won't miss our target," I replied.

"What kind of signal will you use?" Josh asked.

"I will whistle loudly," I replied.

"Can you try doing it here?" Mark asked.

"Sure," I replied.

I whistled as loudly as I could.

"How do you produce that sound with your mouth?" Alice asked.

"I don't know. All I know is I could do it," I replied.

"Do we have any information about our enemy?" John asked.

"I will ask grandmother to lend us a book that contains information about golden brown bears," I replied.

"Felix! It's time for lunch," Mom shouted.

"Let's eat lunch first, then wait for me for an hour here while I search it in the library," I said.

My friends nodded, and we went inside to eat lunch.

After eating lunch, I followed grandmother to the library and waited for her to find the book I need. It took her 45 minutes to find it. The book is called "Bear Encyclopedia".

"Grandma, can you create a table and chairs for us outside?" I asked.

"Sure," she replied.

We went to the front yard together. With a snap of her finger, six wooden chairs and a rectangular wooden table appeared, then she went inside the house.

Everyone sat on the chair, and I placed the book in the middle of the table.

"I never expected that your family has this kind of book," Alice said.

"What kind of books do you expect from my family?" I asked.

"Slimes, potatoes and crabs," Mark said. Mark said.

"Murder and war," John said.

"Demonic rituals, sacrifice and summoning," Josh said.

"Powerful spells, relics, grimoires, and artifacts," Jack said.

"History of Magic," Alice said.

"We got a lot of books and what you just said is just a small portion of our book collection," I replied.

I flipped the book open, and the first page contained the table of contents. There were a lot of species of bears listed alphabetically.

"Did you guys find the golden brown bear?" I asked.

"Yes, it's page 550," Alice replied.

I turned the book to page 550.

It had a drawing of the bear and contained a lot of information.

The golden brown bear or commonly known as fried bear. It is a large powerful magical beast that reaches a length of 10 meters and can weigh up to 4000kg in adult size. You might see a golden brown bear bigger than 70 meters in a dungeon, since magical beasts don't die of old age and will continue to grow after reaching its adult size. The female is slightly smaller and lighter than the male.

Its diet comprises large fish, berries, grass, plants, and meat. They reach sexual maturity at 100 years and it can produce cubs throughout its life. They live in dens and females give birth to 2-3 cubs per litter, with an average interval of 8 years between each pregnancy. Cubs will stay with their mothers for 50 years before leaving.

Cubs that left their mothers are called juveniles. More than half of the juvenile population die before reaching the adult age because of starvation, hunting, lack of survival skills and competition with other golden brown bears. The ones that survive had the best survival skills, instincts, magic skills, and physique.

They are active in spring, summer and autumn. In autumn, where golden brown bear activity is at its peak, they would try to gain as much weight as they can before they hibearnate in winter. Some golden brown bears might hunt even in winter, especially the juvenile ones, as they frequently lose to the bigger adults.

Here are the spells used by the golden brown bear.

Fury swipes. It is an offensive spell where it would stand with its two hind legs and use both of its claws to attack the target.

Flying swipes. This is the same attack, but this time, the bear would charge its claw before attacking and the spell can travel up to 10 meters away, destroying everything in its path.

Beartress. This is a defensive spell where the bear would stand its ground, harden its body and remain immobilize during the entire duration of the spell. The spell lasts for 30 seconds and can be cancelled by the bear anytime it wants or it gets dispelled. It can resist tier three spells, but it is weak against spells that have sharpened magical auras.

Hibearnate. This is a powerful healing spell where the bear sleeps for a long time and it can even heal even mortal wounds. The drawback is the bear will fall asleep for three months or longer depending on the severity of the damage to the body.

Enrage. When the bear is badly wounded, it will use this skill as a last ditch effort to preserve its own life. Under this spell, the bear will gain tremendous boost to its overall physical and magical abilities but will lose all its decision-making skills and senses. This skill lasts 30 minutes and it can not be cancelled or dispelled.

"Is everyone done reading?" I asked.

"Yes," they replied.

"I will ask mother to summon a bear for us to practice with," I said.

"Aren't bears weak because peasants can kill them?" Mark asked.

"Yes, they are weak, but they are a useful target to practice with to improve our teamwork, communication, execution of our plan and maintaining our formation," I replied.

"Makes sense," Alice replied.

I entered the house and found mother resting in her room.

She noticed me and said, "What are you doing here?"

"I want you to help us by summoning a bear to practice with," I replied.

"You could have asked your grandmother to do it," she said.

"Her summon is too powerful for us and she does not hold back. We just want to practice our teamwork and see if we can execute our plan," I replied.

"I see. Where are you going to practice?" She asked.

"In the nearby dirt field where we always play," I replied.

We exited the house and everyone went to the nearby dirt field.

"I can help you with your practice for 3 hours today since I need to prepare and cook dinner," she said.

We nodded.

She summoned a forest black bear, and we moved to our positions to formation A.

She ordered the bear to attack us, but Mark and Josh attacked it to attract its attention and prevent it from attacking the rear. Both of them were making a lot of unnecessary and unpredictable movements that made it hard for us to support them.

Jack cast quicksand to restrict the bear's movement, but the front lines were also caught in it. Fortunately, John's casting speed was quick enough, and he was able to cast paralyze to prevent the bear from attacking Mark. Alice killed the bear with fireball while Mark and Josh suffered minor injuries from the explosion.

"That was quite remarkable," Mother said.

"It was, but we still have a lot to improve regarding our teamwork," I replied.

"Can you elaborate?" Mother asked.

"For starters, the front lines were making a lot of unnecessary movements that made it hard for the middle line and the rear to hit the spells, like the fireball that almost hit Mark. I understand that both of you are engaged in close combat, but remember that you are not alone in this fight and always be aware of your surroundings and teammates' position," I replied.

"Your attacks were not well coordinated and the attacks were not timed properly is that what you meant?" Mother asked.

I nodded.

"It was hard to fight in close combat because we were using a wooden sword," Mark said.

"Enemies don't care about how well equipped you are, and it highlighted our weaknesses," I replied.

"Is that the reason you insisted we equip what we got from our previous trainings?" Mark asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"When will we use better equipment?" Alice asked.

"Third week because we will practice against a golden brown bear summoned by my mother," I replied.

"You sounded like a combat veteran, Felix," Josh said.

This was nothing compared to coordinating attacks from hundreds of players to finish a raid boss when I was a guild leader of United Weeb Alliance in Happy Quest Online: Global which is an open world MMORPG. I played as an assassin, so it was important for me to have quick reflexes, a great sense of timing and excellent observation skills to monitor the status of the enemy, cooldowns of spells, and equipment used by the enemy.

"I learned it from reading books in the library," I replied.

"How do I coordinate my attacks with Mark?" Josh asked.

"Develop a signal or sign to know when to switch positions of attacking and defending," I replied.

Mark and Josh spent the next 15 minutes developing a sign together while I gave advice to the rest of the group.

"Are you finished developing a signal?" I asked.

"Yes," Josh replied.

"Can you show it to us?" I asked.

"So I will turn my sword to this side to signal Mark to prepare to switch positions with me and vice versa," Josh replied.

"That is a simple yet effective signal. Great job," I said.

"Since everyone is ready, I will summon another bear for you to practice with," Mother said.

It went smoothly this time as I micromanaged the team. Mark and Josh became more confident with their attacks and made a lesser amount of unnecessary movements because of my instructions. The middle line was a lot faster to support the front lines as I advised them to predict the movements of the enemy and allies. Alice threw a well-timed fireball at the bear and this time, the explosion did not affect the front line.

We spent the next two hours killing forest black bears summoned by mom. After the practice, we helped butcher the bears, and we collected some bear meat, then gave the rest to the peasants.

We devoted the next two weeks to improving our teamwork, coordination, timing, building confidence and experience before facing off our primary target, which is the golden brown bear in the third week.

We assembled early in the morning in the nearby dirt field. I wear a black shirt, grey pants, a black belt with a brown buckle, brown leather boots and armed with a green wooden staff as my main weapon and a silver short sword as my backup weapon. Mark and Josh wear brown leather armor and they were armed with a silver short sword and silver round shield. John wear a red cloth armor, brown shorts and was armed with an orange wooden staff and a wooden bow. Jack wear a grey cloth armor, white shorts and was armed with a red wooden staff and a wooden bow. Alice wear a black cloth armor, red skirt and was armed with a white wooden staff and a wooden bow.

Mom summoned a golden brown bear that has a length of 100 meters.

"Is it just me or is the bear a lot larger than the book describes it?" I asked.

My friends nodded.

"Consider yourself lucky if you managed to scratch it," Mom replied.

"Mom, can you order the bear not to retaliate when we attack it?" I asked.

"Why?" Mom asked.

"I wanted to see how much damage we can deal to it," I replied.

"You wanted to see how tough it is?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Feel free to attack it," she replied.

Mark, Josh and I attacked the bear with our sword without coating it with mana and we managed to scratch it. When we coated it with mana, we dealt minor injuries to it. Alice and I threw a pyroblast to the bear, and it didn't even flinch.

"Alice, did you sharpen the aura of your spell?" I asked.

"Yes, because your grandmother said to always sharpen it. Why did you ask?" she replied.

"Well, it barely damaged the bear," I said.

"I think we are too weak to challenge the golden brown bear since it is a magical beast," Alice replied.

"The ones I summon are worlds apart from the naturally occurring ones because I am a Cherub ranked adventurer," mother said.

"What is a Cherub and is it a high rank?" I asked.

"Cherub is the second highest rank available when you become an adventurer, and Seraph is the highest rank. Your grandmother is a Seraph so don't piss her off no matter what and your father is also a Cherub," Mother replied.

"Can you order the bear to attack?" I asked.

"Sure," Mother replied.

The bear charged its claws and delivered a devastating attack that travelled 50 meters away.

"Then how powerful is the golden brown bear?" I asked.

"It is classified as a level 1 magical beast, meaning a platoon of highly organized steel adventurers or a squad of bronze adventurers can kill it. Against the average peasant adventurer, your group will be at least bronze with Felix as your highest rank and John with the lowest rank," Mother replied.

"Can you estimate what rank would we get if we registered?" Alice asked.

"Felix would be at least Silver, Alice, Mark, Jack, Josh and John would be bronze," she replied.

"You just told us that John would be in the lowest rank and yet there are five of us in the same rank," Alice replied.

"You might be in the same rank but there are different tiers, for example bronze 1,2, 3 and 4," she replied.

"I heard from my parents that bronze adventurers are mostly adults who have at least 6 years of experience, and yet why are we at the same rank as them?" Mark asked.

"The first five ranks which are: Aluminum, Copper, Iron, Steel and Bronze are classified as low-class adventurers due to them focusing on strength, survival skills, and basic magic and combat skills. They regularly do this type of quests which is harvesting, killing low level magical beasts and monsters and escorting merchants in low-risk areas. You are in the same rank as them because of what you learned from your training and your magic skills far surpass them, but lack experience," she replied.

"Can you tell us about adventurer ranks that are higher than bronze?" Josh asked.

"Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum are classified as mid-class adventurers. Diamond, Mythril, Orichalcum, Adamantite are classified as high-class adventurers. Dominion, Cherub and Seraph are classified as celestial-class adventurers," she replied.

"Can you tell us how to achieve those ranks?" I asked.

"You need to meet the skill requirements, finish the promotion quest needed to rank up, and gather enough quest points," she replied.

"What are the skill requirements and how do you earn quest points?" I asked.

"To meet the skill requirements, you need to survive or beat someone who has a higher rank than you for at least five minutes. To give an example, let's say Alice wants to achieve silver rank she has already gathered enough quest ponts. She needs to beat Felix or at least survive the battle for at least five minutes. The minimum five minutes does not change, even if you want to rank up to Seraph. Quest points are obtained through completing quests in the adventurer's guild. Depending on the difficulty of the quest, you might get low or high quest points. Some quests like emergency or special quest rewards more than every other quest and do not have any rank limitations," she replied.

"Can you spend quest points?" I asked.

"Yes, you can exchange your quest points for rare quality and above items in the guild shop. Don't worry, it will be deducted from your total accumulated quest points and will not affect your quest points required to rank up," she replied.

"What kind of items can you redeem at the guild shop?" I asked.

"There are a lot of items that can be redeemed, such as swords, armors, shields, bows, lances, axes, special potions that boost your strength for a limited amount of time, low to mid-level scrolls, low-level grimoires, and space-time storage ring. The higher the quality, the more expensive it is," she replied.

"What is space-time storage ring and what does it do?" I asked.

"As the name suggests, it is a ring with runes carved into it that gives it the power of space-time. It can store an unlimited amount of items, but because of its poor security features, it is not recommended to store high value items. The biggest advantage it has over similar storage equipment is its ease of access to the stored items, so most of the time it contains essential items like food, medicine and water. It costs 10 million quest points," she replied.

I looked at her hand and saw her wearing multiple rings on each finger.

"Why do you bother wearing them if they can steal the items stored inside it?" I asked.

"It is because I am powerful enough that no one would dare try to steal from me. Our family has special spells that make it harder for them to access the items stored inside it. Your grandmother will teach it to you when you bought one from the guild," she replied.

"It's getting late, so we would go home now," Alice said.

"Tomorrow we will switch back to the forest black bear and we will still use armor so we can get used to it," I replied.

They nodded and went back to their homes.

We went inside to eat dinner.

"How is the progress of your training?" grandmother asked.

"Its fine. We can kill a forest black bear but we can scratch a golden brown bear summoned by mother," I replied.

"I see," grandmother said.

"Is it fine to wear a t-shirt in battle?" I asked.

"Yes, because it is not made from cotton. The clothes we use every day are made from the silk of a blood demon spider. The silk of that spider is as tough as adamantite, fire resistant, water resistant, high magic resistance, flexible and lightweight," mother replied.

"It does not cover a lot of areas in my body, and when will I get one that could provide protection to my whole body?" I asked.

"After the test, you will get a shadow assassin armor set for kids, a black magician silk hat and a black short sword. The armor set consists of a black assassin cloak with a hood, black assassin mask, black long sleeve t-shirt, black gloves, black pants, black utility belt, and black boots. It is also made from the same material as your t-shirt," grandmother replied.

"Where did you get that from?" I asked.

"We got it from your ancestor. It was approximately 600 years ago. According to one of our records that he personally wrote, he got the idea from a MMORPG game called Happy Quest Online: Global," grandmother replied.

"Was he called Hentai_Master69?" I asked.

"You seem to know him. Where did you meet him?" grandmother asked.

It feels like grandma knew about my connection with him.

"From the same game 6 years ago. He abruptly left the game, and I was made the guild leader. Never knew he died and ended up here," I replied.

"Do you want to meet him?" grandmother asked.

"Is he still alive?" I asked.

"Yes, because our family has an unnaturally long life span," grandmother replied.

"Since he is still alive, then I would like to meet him someday and ask some personal details," I replied.

"It seems like you are quite close to him," grandmother said.

"He was our former guild leader, and I was his vice guild leader. Then he abruptly vanished 6 years ago. It looks like 1 year from my world is equal to 100 years here," I replied.

"Are you familiar with 10 stars swordsmanship?" grandmother asked.

"That name is nostalgic since I created that technique with him," I replied.

"Then you are the one called WeebMaster420 in the records?" grandmother asked.

"Yes, but please do not call me that. It's embarrassing," I replied.

"Can you show us the first step?" mother asked.

"I can't because 10 stars swordsmanship: Constellation requires you to stab the enemy 10 times in different locations in one second, which is impossible to do. I tried to practice it for one and a half year and I can stab two times in one second. So I changed it to a more realistic one, which is slashing the opponent 10 times in one second and the results are a lot better since I could slash 4 times in one second," I replied.

"It looks like you have the other half of the techniques since he listed 5. He also wrote that when you appeared, you will list the techniques that you invented and inherit the 10 stars sword after finishing the training," grandmother said.

"I will still stick to the River Secret style as I am not confident enough that I could kill a strong opponent with the 10 stars swordsmanship despite training it for almost two years now. I will list it once I have mastered it," I replied.

"Understood, then I look forward to your future growth and development. Eat up a lot and sleep early tonight so you can rest," grandmother said.

I nodded.

We spent the next three weeks fighting the forest black bear while wearing the same armor and equipment we used when we fought the golden brown bear so we can get comfortable using it in battle.

It's the day of the test and we assembled early in the morning today.

"Is everyone excited?" grandmother asked.

We all nodded.

We entered the nearby forest and started searching for a golden brown bear. In the first hour we found one but, it was a female and was accompanied by two cubs so we decided not to hunt it. We found a suitable target after searching for 3 hours. It was a lone adult male.

Grandmother used a barrier spell to prevent the bear from escaping.

"I will remove this barrier once you killed the bear, and don't worry, this barrier can trap a demon lord for months. So don't expect the bear to be able to escape or other magical beasts destroying it," she said.

"How big is this barrier?" I asked.

"One kilometer," she replied.

Grandmother jumped into a nearby tree branch and sat to observe our battle from a distance.

We moved to our positions according to Formation A.

The golden brown bear tried to run away, but Mark coated his sword and unleashed a flying sword slash which resulted in the bear's left hind leg getting cut off from its body.

It stumbled and howled in agony. Alice killed it using pyroblast and half of its body got blown to pieces. Some of the scattered flesh landed on us and we got soaked with a bit of blood.

"Alice, you shouldn't have sharpened the aura so we could at least get some meat for dinner," I said.

"Well, I didn't expect it to be so weak. Your grandmother always said that you should not underestimate your opponent and always make sure you killed your opponent," Alice replied.

"Dont blame her Felix. This is the result of our two-year training," Mark said.

Grandma jumped down from the tree branch and landed on her feet.

"Not bad. I guess everyone can fight against a golden brown bear solo and win, but that does not mean you should slack off, especially you, Felix. There are a lot of powerful creatures on this planet that can wipe off you from existence with a mere thought," she said.

We all nodded.

"It's time to return to the village, since the smell of blood and a dead body will attract even stronger magical beasts from deep inside the forest. After taking a bath and eating lunch, return to our house because I will give rewards to everyone for finishing the training and the test," she said.

It took us nearly three hours to return in front of my house and my friends returned to their home while grandmother and I entered the front yard. I took this chance to start my rock collection and found 10 cool looking rocks I liked. I also somehow convinced grandmother to store the nice round boulder and the 10 rocks inside her space-time storage ring.

Mother greeted us with a warm smile and said, "Based on your appearance, the hunt went successful."

"They passed it with flying colors," grandmother replied.

Grandmother placed the 10 rocks and boulder near the banana tree and went inside the house while mother grabbed my hand and lead me to the bathroom.

Mother helped me undress and rinse my whole body with water. She produced a soapy substance that smells like fresh bananas and rubbed it on my whole body, then rinsed again. She forgot to bring a towel, so created one out of thin air and pat dry me with it, then briefly left to bring me a t-shirt and short to wear.

We went inside the house to eat lunch, then I went to the front garden and waited together with my friends to get our rewards.

It took a while for grandmother to arrive with our rewards.

"Felix, some of your rewards are already inside your closet, so be sure to check it later," grandmother said.

I nodded.

"Here are your long-awaited rewards, starting with Alice. Come here Alice," she said.

Alice nodded and followed her instructions. Grandma tapped her space-time storage ring twice and multiple items came out, which she handed to Alice.

The items that I could identify are the magic robe made from an unknown material, a red staff with a red orb on top of it, and multiple magic books.

"What is this?" Alice asked while pointing to the items she received.

"The items you received are magic robe made from azure wooly mammoth that gives you 50% magic resistance, a red orb staff that is made from a corrupted red oak, a short sword made of mythril, a bow made from a white ash oak, grimoires, artifacts and a rule book," grandmother replied.

"Why is there an orb on top of the staff when you can cast magic spells normally with the orb and staff separately? What is the difference between grimoires and artifacts? Why did you give me a rule book?" Alice asked.

"Yes, you can cast a magic spell with the help of an orb or staff but, the magical properties is lower than the combined one. For example, a staff without an orb made from a corrupted red oak has these magical properties: 35% mana control, 30% increased spell penetration, 50% reduced mana consumption, 40% faster spell casting, 50% faster mana regeneration, 10% increased spell power, and 20% increased spell cast range. The red orb has these magical properties: 70% increased spell penetration, 30% increased spell cast range, 40% increased spell power, magic spell lifesteal and 60% faster spell casting. The combined one has these magical properties: 35% mana control, 100% increased spell penetration, 50% reduced mana consumption, 100% faster spell casting, 50% increased spell power, 50% faster mana regeneration, 50% increased spell cast range and magic spell lifesteal. Most people don't have the combined one because it is expensive and risky. There is a high chance that when combining the two will result in either one or both of them getting severely damaged or destroyed in the process or the magical properties of the staff or orb not getting added. It took our ancestors millions of years to perfect this process and there may be hundreds of billions of staff that failed this process, while only hundreds of thousands of staff have been successfully combined with an orb along with its magical properties. When you absorb grimoires, you get a magic spell, boosts your magic power and mana capacity while equipping an artifact gives you more power. I gave you the rule book to let you know what Felix can and cannot do," grandmother replied.

"What will happen if I absorbed the grimoires you gave me?" Alice asked.

"You will learn some tier 1 and tier 2 spells that are compatible with your magic element affinity. It will also double your mana capacity but only 6-year-old and below can absorb it ," grandmother replied.

"What would happen if I equipped the artifact?" Alice asked.

"It will immensely boost your strength, agility, endurance, dexterity and speed," she replied.

Alice nodded.

She gave similar items to Jack and John. Mark and Josh also got the same items and got an extra leather armor made from azure woolly mammoth that has some runes carved on it to lessen the weight by 80% and make it more water resistant.

I also received similar items except it is obviously made from a different material.

"The items that you received are green magic robe made from the silk of a blood demon spider king, a black orb staff made from the branch of a cursed devil maple tree, a short sword made from Abyssnium, a bow made from a white ash maple tree, grimoires, artifacts, eyeglass, and the rule book," she said.

"What is the purpose of giving me an eyeglass?" I asked.

"By now, your two visions are starting to merge together, which makes it difficult to focus and see in long distances. This eyeglass has the magical property of allowing you to regulate what you see. For example, you want to see through your human eye only, you need to send a signal to your eyeglass to do it and vice versa," she replied.

I immediately wear the eyeglass, and she was right. It fixed my vision problem, and it also made it easier to switch between my two different eyesights without changing my eye color.

"How strong is my magic robe compared to my t-shirt?" I asked.

"Don't even bother comparing it, as it is worlds apart from each other. The silk produced by a blood demon spider king is 100 times stronger than the one used on your t-shirt while having the same weight. It should be almost as tough as your sword and give you a 100% magic resistance," she replied.

"What is abyssnium?" I asked.

"It is a magical alloy that is found in the deepest layers of the abyss. It is ten times tougher than the celestial ore found in heaven and used by the gods and their angels to create their weapons and armor, or the devil ore found in hell that is used by the devils to create their weapons and armor," she replied.

"What are the magical properties of my staff?" I asked.

"It has 100% mana control, 200% faster mana regeneration, 200% increased spell penetration, 200% reduced mana consumption, 200% faster spell casting, 200% increased spell range, 200% increased spell power and magic spell lifesteal," she replied.

Damn! This is what you call theoretical end game stats lmao. Not even my in-game equipment that I grinded for years and spent some money on can come close to this.

"Can you multicast spells with it?" I asked.

"Yes, you can multicast spells with the help of your staff," she replied.

"What is my current limit of spell that I can multicast at once?" I asked.

"At your age, hmmmm, your current limit is 10 spells," she replied.

"What are the magical properties of my sword?" I asked.

"I don't know. Only the user of the sword or the abyss knows its secrets. By the way, you are the only user of this sword because it has never been used before. The only thing I know is that it is covered by some ancient runes to reduce its weight by 99.99% and it is extremely sharp and powerful," she replied.

"How does the abyss knows the secret of my sword?" I asked.

"The abyss is the one who forged your sword. Whenever a Maple is born, the abyss creates a weapon that individual can only use. Anyone who dare touch your sword will die immediately from the curse of the abyss and not even tenth tier dispelling magic can save you," she replied.

"Can we absorb the grimoire here?" John asked.

"Yes, but only absorb the white grimoire because the other four grimoires contains tier 7 and above spells that you can't use and right now you don't have the strength to pass the test to inherit the spell and power inside it," she replied.

"What happens if you failed the test?" Mark asked.

"It depends on what tier the spell is inside it. Tier 1 to 3 will only kick out your consciousness and you can try again. The Tier 4 to 6 will cause mild to severe injuries. Tier 7 and above will result in death," she replied.

I opened the white grimoire and it transported my mind to another location. I was on top of a mountain and there was another book in front of me. There is a sign reading open this book and find the word 'blank'. There is nothing for me to lose, so I followed it and after flipping the first page, there is a giant 'blank' written on it. My mind returned to my body after finding it and I could feel my mana capacity doubled.

I guess they were still experimenting on how to make an artifact with restrictions as it was too easy to solve and I am going back to grinding my mana control to 50% again as it just dropped to 25%.

I looked at my friends, and they were still unconscious.

"Oh right, I forgot to give you a familiar," grandmother said.

"What kind of familiar will I get?" I asked.

She smiled and gave me a silver whistle necklace.

I wore it and she said, "Try blowing the whistle. It will call your familiar."

I nodded and blew the whistle. A giant red circle showed up on the ground near me and a giant jet black wolf with ghastly white eyes appeared on it.

"What kind of wolf is this?" I asked.

"It is a shadow wolf. It can travel in the shadows, cast shadow spells while hiding, and it is also immensely powerful in combat," she replied.

The shadow wolf hid inside my independently moving shadow.

"Do I need to sign a contract with it so it would recognize me as its master?" I asked.

"Yes, but for now that whistle is good enough for you to summon it and give orders. You are nowhere near the required amount of mana to sign a contract with it," she replied.

A few minutes passed my friends are conscious again and also doubled their mana capacity. We spent the next few hours practicing mana control before going home to eat dinner. After eating dinner, I checked my closet and wore the magician silk hat and black utility belt. I went downstairs and asked my grandmother to check what properties does the magician silk hat and black utility belt has.

"What properties does the magician silk hat have?" I asked.

"It has 100% increased spell penetration, 100% faster spell casting, 100% increased spell range, and 100% increased spell power," she replied.

"How about the black utility belt?" I asked.

"It can store unlimited items inside it. You need to tap it twice to activate its storage system. If you want to retrieve an item, you need to think of the specific item you want to retrieve and tap it twice," she replied.

"Thanks grandma," I replied.

I went upstairs again and decided to wear the magician silk hat and black utility belt every day.

We continued to practice mana control for 6 days and got interrupted on the seventh day when the village chief visited us early in the morning and told us to go to the outside of the village hall.

Grandma teleported me and my friends outside the village hall to save time. There were many adult people and kids gathered here. At a distance, I could see an old man accompanied by two young men all dressed with the traditional mage clothes and beside them is a medium size orb.

"It looks like everyone eligible has now arrived. Please form one line and, one by one, the kids will touch this orb. If it lights up, it means that you have passed the test and will receive rewards. If it does not light up, it means you have failed the magic capability test," the old man said.

It seems the old man must have used some kind of magic spell to amplify the sound of his voice or else I wouldn't be able to hear it. He must be also capable of advanced mana control to pinpoint the age of the kids in the entire village without even travelling to every house and asking them their age.

It took several hours before it was my turn to take the test and touch the damn orb. Almost all the peasants failed while the rest passed. My friends passed and produced intense light on that orb, which shocked the mages.

I walked towards the orb and was about to touch it when one of the young mages said, "Are you sure you want to embarrass yourself?"

"Why would I embarrass myself?" I replied.

"I don't feel anything from you that shows you have an affinity for magic, like your magical aura is absent, which means you are incapable of using magic," he replied.

The old man chastised him and said, "Forgive him for his rude remarks as he does not know that there is someone like you who has almost undetectable magical aura and still be able to use magic."

I nodded and touched the orb. Instead of producing a light, it shattered into many pieces. I got confused and looked at them to get an answer to whether I passed or failed the test. The two young mages were overcome by shock and confusion on what happened while the old man was shaking his head and said, "I told them to get a larger and more powerful orb to use for this test in case a hidden Maple is living here since it is literally named Mapleminster. I should have pressured them more even though there has been no Maple sighting for almost a decade now."

"Aren't they a stuff of legend and is only used to scare peasants?" One of the young mages asked.

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? You are already looking at one and peasants are naturally afraid of them," the old mage replied.

"Umm, err, did I pass?" I asked.

"Yes, and don't worry about the broken orb. That is our fault for not providing adequate testing equipment," the old mage replied.

I nodded, and it took me around a minute to locate grandma and my friends and go there. Grandma was giggling while my friends are standing there cluelessly on why the orb shattered.

"Err, there is some minor incident with the testing equipment, but ultimately we managed to test everyone with no delay. Congratulations to everyone who passed. Here are your rewards: All those who passed are granted a house to move into the capital city Chester, scholarship in the Imperial Magic Academy, and 50 gold coins. We will give you 1 week of preparation to pack your belongings and everything you might need. We will also escort your whole family and provide the transportation vehicle while traveling to the capital city to guarantee your safety," the old mage said.

The crowd dispersed.

"We need to go somewhere before going home," grandma said.

We nodded.

After 15 minutes of walking, we are in front of a modern-looking two-storey building which is out of place in this kind of age and setting. It looks like some kind of bank and it is solely operated by slimes.

My friends entered the first floor, and when I tried to enter it, the slimes blocked me.

"We are not allowed to enter the first floor but, we are free to enter the second floor," grandmother said.

We climbed the stairs and entered the second floor. A smartly dressed slime greeted us.

Based on the slime encyclopedia, this must be the bank manager slime.

It gave grandmother some kind of paperwork and hopped away.

Grandma filled out the paperwork in a few minutes and the bank manager slime took it.

It returned shortly thereafter and brought back one smaller slime with it.

"What is the purpose of the smaller slime?" I asked.

"That is a credit/debit slime. Its main purpose is to allow a Maple to spend the family fortune with no risks and you can also deposit gems and money inside it. You will receive a daily allowance of 20 gold when we reach Chester city and it will grow bigger when you grow up. When you overspend for some reason, it will be deducted in your daily allowance. It also follows you everywhere," she replied.

We exited the building and waited for my friends to return. It took around 10 minutes for my friends to exit the building and grandma teleported everyone in front of the house.

"Why do most peasants fail when they clearly could use some form of magic?" I asked.

"That orb you touched filters out your potential at using non-elemental magic and can only detect your potential in using elemental magic. To light it up, it needs to detect that you can potentially use tier 5 or higher spells. The brighter the light, the greater your potential is," grandma replied.

"Will there be another opportunity for those who failed?" Jack asked.

"Yes, this is not the only test available for 6-year-olds. There are other private magic academies who accept students who can only potentially use Tier 3 and 4 spells. The Imperial Knight Academy, Imperial Military Academy, Imperial Navy Academy, and countless other martial arts school compete for those who specialized in strengthening their body by using spells or through coating their body with mana and have some level of expertise in using a weapon," she replied.

"What if you still failed that?" Mark asked.

"You can go to a town or city to get a decent job or apprenticeship. If all else fails, you can always join the adventurer's guild, doing odd jobs from time to time, or go back to your village and inherit the ancestral farmland your family owns," she replied.

"I didn't know the average peasant has a lot of options to choose from," Alice said.

"Instead of worrying about others' future. Everyone should go back to practicing mana control," she said.

We nodded and started practicing mana control.

"It's getting dark. We are going to head home now," Alice said.

"Invite your family to our house to celebrate the achievement of everyone passing the test," grandmother said.

My friends nodded.

My friends' family arrived at our house congratulating the kids for passing the magic capability test. There was a lot of food on the table. There is roast wild boar, baked chicken cordon bleu, spaghetti with meatballs, vegetable stew, chili mud crab, potato ramen, different shapes of wheat bread and the ever present 6 potato dishes. For dessert, there is pudding, banana cake and apple pie. For drinks, there is buttermilk, milk, orange juice, tea, beer, whiskey and wine.

The adults and kids have their own table. It's their first time seeing my little sister, Olivia. Jack and Mark are only child while Alice has a little sister named Abigail while John has a little brother named Peter.

The adults are loud and seemed to talk about their reunion or something while we only talked about our training, how excited we are in attending school and going to the capital city. We must have fallen asleep while in the middle of a conversation because I woke up in my bed with my little sister beside me.

I ate some of the leftover food from last night for breakfast and went outside to do mana control training. After an hour or two, my friends joined me.

After six days, it's finally time to go to the village entrance located in the north, where the carriages and the old mage are waiting. Grandma teleported us and my friends' family to save time.

The old mage performed a final check to make sure everyone has arrived.

"So everyone has finally arrived. We can start our trip to the capital city now. I expect we will arrive there in a month," the old mage said.

We started our trip to the capital city.

*Meanwhile at the Royal Palace in Chester*

*knock* *knock*

Emperor: You may enter.

*door creaks*

Head butler: Your imperial majesty, I have something important to report to you.

Emperor: Make it quick! I have important matters I need to attend to this morning.

Head butler: According to this letter, sent by the Head Imperial Court mage, the magic capability test for six-year-olds is finally finished and everyone is expected to arrive within two months.

Emperor: Start The preparations for the Newbie Magic Contest, as I want to personally see who is the strongest among them.

Head Butler: As you wish, your imperial majesty.

End of Chapter 1.

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