Supreme Magus

by Srtyi

Derek McCoy was a man who spent his entire life facing adversity and injustice. After being forced to settle with surviving rather than living, he had finally found his place in the world, until everything was taken from him one last time. After losing his life to avenge his murdered brother, he reincarnates until he finds a world worth living in, a world filled with magic and mons

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Read Supreme Magus - -2 Joke Chapter. Do not read before chap 57 online free - Novel Full

Author's Note: this is just a parody of all the tropes that I experienced by reading all kind of book and novels. I do not mean to belittle them or their readers, is just a joke about the most abused tropes and cookie cutter scenes that recur very often, no matter the author.

Let me know in the comments if you liked it. I will either keep it in the auxiliary chapters or delete it, based on your response.

That morning the classroom was already filled to the brim. Several teachers of the academy were gathered there for no reason at all. Powerful mages always had too much free time at their disposal.

Suddenly, a youth walked in. He was handsome and unrestrained, exuding an aura of confidence that made evident him being a peerless genius. His presence became more overbearing with every step.

"Dear heavens! Who is that youth of unparalleled manliness?" The female students were of course top tier beauties, wearing long chi-paos that revealed ample part of their generous bosom and let them show their long jade like legs from the side slit.

Soon blood rushed to the face and the most private parts of the young and pure maidens, making them bloom like red roses.

The handsome youth was of course Lith, our protagonist. His black, silky hair moved with each stride, his smile was filled with nothing but unrestrained power. He knew that in that small world he was peerless beyond reason.

Dazzled by his appearance, the professors decided to test his wits, so see if such overbearing talent really belonged to a true genius.

"What do you think about the Dao of magic, young master?" Said an old man whose beard almost reached the floor.

"Such an easy question." Lith's boundless self-confidence filled the whole room with admired gasps. He was the kind of man that every woman wanted, and every man wanted to be.

"He who strikes first, strikes twice. Buy low, sell high." His reply made the male audience turn green with envy.

"So young yet so wise and knowledgeable about Taoism and philosophy! He truly understands the Dao! Heavens don't have eyes! Why him? He is just commoner trash! Why it couldn't be me?

I come from the [insert pompous name here] family. We have hundreds of years of artifacts and legacies, yet I am nothing compared to him!" Everyone thought.

The female audience, instead, had already fallen head over heels for him. All that they could think about was how to capture his manly heart and how many children of him they wanted to bear in their wombs.

But Lith hadn't finished yet.

"The cat is on the table. It's a quarter from nine."

Those simple words revealed a profound and unfathomable wisdom. Soon the professors realized that it would take them years to understand the truth about the Dao that was hidden behind those words.

At the same time, the female audience raised the baby count by one, some even by three. They were healthy young ladies, after all.

Soon the evil envious prince from the powerful Envy family couldn't take it anymore.

"You are courting death!" He bellowed.

He moved with unbelievable speed, arriving in front of Lith in the blink of an eye. He was the most nondescript character one could imagine. The only defining trait he had was a T-shirt saying: "Hi, I'm the bad guy."

"You trash, how dare you taint this sacred halls with your presence? Kowtow to me nine times and call me your grandpa, and I promise I will not kill you."

The professors gasped. They were all archmages, hundreds of years old. But what was their pride, the school honour, not to mention nonsense like the rules of the kingdom in front of that youth?

He was Prince Bad Guy from the Envy family, whose power they didn't dare to offend. So, like the archmages they were, they squealed some pathetic excuse and hid in the background.

"Poor Lith, he is destined to die. No one can offend the Envy family and live to tell the tale." They thought as one.

Lith was unaffected by both his words and t-shirt.

"You are just a side character, scram!" With a wave of his hand, Lith sent Bad Guy crashing into the wall, keeping him alive for no reason other than to gloat at his misfortune.

Bad Guy coughed a mouthful of blood, his bones were crushed, his internal organs bleeding, his dantian almost crippled, but his ego was stronger than ever.

"Uncle! Please save me! This b*stard dared to hit me! So despicable! Why did you refuse to die when I politely asked you to?"

Lith wanted to reply to such senseless words, but another nondescript character appeared. He was older than Bad Guy, and his t-shirt recited: "I'm the Uncle."

The professors were so scared by his appearance that they hid in the previous page of this very same chapter, trying to escape his fury.

"That's the legendary Bad Guy's Uncle! Now Lith is really done for! He refused a toast only to drink a defeat."

"Who dares to hurt my nephew? I'm Uncle [insert boring wannabe threatening speech here] from the Envy family. Cripple your dantian and cut your own arms, and maybe I will let you live as a dog."

"Such a compelling offer." Lith sneered.

"But you are a side character as well. I have no time to waste, scram and make the final boss appear!" Lith sneezed, and the power of that simple move broke down Uncle's body and will, sending him crashing in the wall right beside Bad Guy.

"Oh Patriarch! Please avenge us!" He said coughing a mouthful of blood before passing out.

"Who dares defying the Envy family?"

A heaven-defying bellow shook the whole academy, while Patriarch Final Boss descended from the sky.

"Oh God! It's Patriarch Final Boss from the Envy family! We are here by accident, we don't belong in this novel!" The professors left the pages of the novel, running for their lives.

His nondescript character's t-shirt saying: "I'm the Final Boss" was all the proof of identity anyone could ever need.

"I admit you have some talent, young MC. But it's time that this story goes back to its rightfully tracks! It belongs to my Envy family!"

Lith laughed coldly.

"Did you even bother reading the title? It's Supreme Magus, not The Envy Chronicles! Enough wasting pages, do your worst!"

"How dare you correct me when I am so wrong even a blind, deaf and dumb man would notice? Take this hit if you dare!"

Final Boss unsheathed the Black Phoenix Evil God Cyber Monday Sword, a peerless artifact that the Envy family had passed on through the generations.

The sword light was filled with boundless power and knowledge, sword intent could be clearly seen piercing time, space and even the Author's patience that was growing short with so many filler words in the same sentence.

The audience felt like Mount Tai was falling down from the sky, the pressure of that strike was unbearable even for the spectators. No one could possibly imagine what Lith was feeling under such killing intent.

It was pure and unrestrained boredom!

Lith didn't move from his spot, simply ripping open his robe, he revealed what was hidden inside.

The world class beauties, imagining him to be stark naked underneath, experienced non-stop nosebleed, to the point that the most delicate ones fainted on the spot.

The simple idea of his dancing chiselled pecs, big enough to play chess over them, and a six-ab pack hard enough to act as a washboard was too much for a young maiden's mind to take.

But Lith wasn't naked, on the contrary.

Under his robe, lied the strongest weapon of all creation.

"Oh my God!" Said a professor that had tripped in the webpage address, and hence was still there.

"Shiny as silver, light as silk but durable without equals!"

"No! It cannot be!" Even Final Boss, despite still performing his strike was able to catch a glimpse of the true nature of his opponent.

"That's right!" Lith laughed a handsome, overbearing, manly, peerless, genius laughter.

"It's the legendary plotinum armour, better known as plot armour!"

"Hi there! I'm the Author!" The armour said. "Now scram! I'm not gonna change the title of my work for a nondescript cookie cut character like you!"

"Nooooo!" When the sword and the Plot Armour collided, Final Boss disappeared from existence, and so did Bad Guy and Uncle.

And so Lith lived happily ever after, never knowing exactly how many members his harem reached, despite having an intimate knowledge of every and each one of them.

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Author's Note: This isn't a chapter. It's just a list of the characters in the volume 2 in order of appearance, to help the readers remember who is who. Skip this if you have yet to read Volume 2 or if your memory doesn't need help.

White Griffon Academy staff:

Headmaster Linjos : The young headmaster of the White Griffon academy, tryin to reform the institution on behalf of the Queen.

Professor Jian Trasque: Holds the "Theory of Combat Magic" class, teaching the students the importance of first (chore) magic and how to use it to survive close encounters, when fake magic is not available.

Professor Valesa Nalear: Holds the "Principles of Advanced Magic" class, teaching the students a method exclusive to the six big academies on how to cast tier four spells and above.

Professor Vastor: Professor in charge of the Healer specialization class.

Professor Duke Marth: Head of the White Griffon Light Department. A brilliant mage and the only one capable to handling Manohar. Dittomarth's Cameo.

Professor Krishna Manohar: Nicknamed the "god of healing", is a genius mage with a wild and temperamental attitude. Eddicted's Cameo.

Professor Lyca Wanemyre: Professor in charge of the Forgemaster specialization class.

Professor Rugan Thorman: Professor in charge of the Mage Knight specialization class.

White Griffon Academy relevant students:

Yurial Deirus: Son of archmage Deirus, undertaking two specializations: Healer and Warden.

Friya Solivar: Daugher of Duchess Solivar, undertaking two specializations: Healer and Mage Knight

Quylla from Cerea: An orphan from a backwater village, aiming to become a Healer like Lith. Before coming to the academy, she suffered from a bad case of malnutrition.

Visen De Brae: Part of Lith's Group during the Mock Exam. He is studying to become a Warden.

Milna Kratic: Part of Lith's Group during the Mock Exam. She is studying to becomea War Mage.

Phloria Ernas: Part of Lith's Group during the Mock Exam. She is studying to becomea Mage Knight.

Belia Ulphar: Part of Lith's Group during the Mock Exam. She is studying to becomea Battle Mage.

Forest Creatures:

Scarlett: Boss of the forest, is a giant powerful Scorpicore that helps supervising the exams that take place in the wilderness. Scarlett's Cameo.

M'Rook: A Ry (Lusername Cameo), a wolf type magical beast. Scarlett second in command and leader of an elite squad.

Sentar: A Cron,a hawk type magical beast. Member of the elite squad under M'Rook.

Termyn: A Cingy, a boar type magical beast. Member of the elite squad under M'Rook.

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No matter if you are a pessimist or an optimist, Derek Esposito's life wasn't a good one nor a bad one. It was just a mediocre insignificant existence.

His father was a bipolar abusive man, capable of disappearing is his bedroom for days during the depressive phase. He would wake up only to eat, use the bathroom and the occasional "let's make your life miserable" fit of rage.

During his euphoric phase, he would work like a madman, but not having any talent either as a businessman nor as social climber, he was unable to both being successful and establishing the right connections.

In his natural state, whenever he decided to actually take his medications, he was just a coach potato that would stand up and go to work just to avoid the blame and spite from neighbours and peers.

Whatever was his mental condition, he always was a perfect example of an abusive father.

His sons were always a disgrace in his eyes.

They never studied hard enough, never were disciplined enough, nor did show enough respect.

And he was always there to remember them how wrong they were.

He would yell at them for the slightest mistake, constantly reminding them that they were just parasites that leeched off his hard work.

And when words weren't enough or when they did fail to meet his expectation with school grades or chores, there was no teacher like his leather belt.

Hence, Derek and Carl had to quickly learn how to fend off for themselves, since their absent-minded mother practically forgot about them right after giving birth, dedicating her life in pursue of peace and quiet, staying as far as possible from her spouse tantrums.

Derek was two years older, and desperately tried to take care of his little brother, but to no avail.

They grew up watching and reading stories about heroes protecting the weak and upholding justice. But no hero ever appeared to save them.

Every week they would be forced to go to church to worship a nondescript benevolent god and his son, the saviour of all mankind. But no matter how much they prayed or how good they were, no miracle occurred.

So, they simply stopped believing in heroes and instead of wasting time with prayers they crammed.

School was their only oasis, but that lasted only until the sixth grade.

Once in middle school, it didn't even take a month before the bullying started.

Their cheap clothes and gloomy disposition made them the easiest targets. They were so used being tossed around and insulted that they didn't even bother trying to fight back.

For a long time, Derek had considered it the worst moment in his useless life. After a month, he knew he could not take any more of that, so he tried to make things better.

He reported his father's abuses to the social services with an anonymous email, but being overworked and understaffed the social work assistant made a brief visit and never came back.

Then he tried to end the bullying by reporting their aggressors to a teacher, which in turn washed her hands by reporting it to the principal. The principal did not want to meddle with what he deemed as childish pranks, so he called Derek's parents to inform them of the problem, hoping they would let it slide. And at least his wish came true.

Derek, instead, took and extra beating for not being man enough to face his own problems.

"Are you really that stupid to never learn anything from me? Never delegate, if you want something done right, do it yourself!"

Derek had never felt so helpless and desperate, so that night he bawled his eyes out, until he fell asleep. That had been the last straw.

The next day he felt different, clearheaded like never before. It was not the time for despair anymore, he needed a plan.

It would take him years to realize that something inside him had died. He was no longer able to trust, hope or develop any sense of kinship. He was surrounded by enemies, and to survive Derek needed to be able to fight back.

So, Derek asked his father to let him join a dojo and learn martial arts, and to his surprise he did not have to beg or even ask twice. His old man was glad that his wimpy and scrawny poor excuse of a child was finally interested in becoming a man. His only condition was that Derek was not allowed to quit for at least one year, otherwise he would have to pay for it.

Not only Derek started practicing aikido almost daily, he would also wake up two hours earlier every single day to build muscles doing push ups, squats, sit ups and running until he was out of breath.

In a few months he was finally able to do every day 100 push ups, sit ups and squats and run for at least 10 kilometres before going to school.

Aikido soon revealed to be a perfect choice for his situation. At low level was mainly focused on self defence but there plenty of space for attacking and fighting dirty.

By practicing martial arts, he finally discovered something he was good at. He was not particularly nimble, nor a fast learner. His hand to eye coordination was also average at best. His talent lied in the ability to spot the best time to hit a sensible spot during a block or a defensive manoeuvre.

Even when the sensei was teaching sword or tanto arts, Derek was always able to grasp the killing moves at his first try, sometimes even before the sensei completed the practical demonstration.

It was an exciting yet disappointing discovery since his only talent had no practical use. Even if aikido was a sport with tournaments instead of a discipline, hits to groin, eyes and trachea were universally forbidden.

For months Derek kept training hard while keeping a low profile at school, planning his next move.

At the end of the first semester, Derek stopped hiding from the bullies and started replying in kind to every single insult they threw at him, using the best quick-witted roast lines he had found online. Derek paid attention to never go to the bathroom or to remain alone for too long, always keeping and adult witness in line of sight.

It did not even take a full day before his enemies were fuming and outraged. Only when the veins almost popped out their necks, he threw his bait.

"I have enough of your sh*t, as*holes. Meet me in an hour behind the grocery shop between Lincoln and the 3rd. Or are you too scared?"

"Since you seek death, I will happily grant your wish, you fag*ot. It will only be you and the three of us, alright?"

Derek nodded without believing him in the least. And he was right.

When they entered the back alley, they had brought along two more people.

Derek was waiting for them, leaned against the wall at the end of the blind alley.

"There you are. I was starting to think you would stand me up."

They started laughing. "Sorry we were late. Hope you do not mind we taking some friends for the party."

Derek shrugged, while grinning from ear to ear.

"No problem. No matter how much, worthless trash is always trash. I chose this alley because it's fully equipped with enough dumpsters to accommodate all of your friends."

The last line hit a nerve so they charged at him blindly.

"Gang up on him, guys! Do not let him escape! Let's how him who is the trash."

And so, they fell into his trap. Derek had come here preparing the terrain, and choosing the best spot the fight. A blind alley to not make them escape, the end of the alley so they would not notice the trip wire due to the dim light.

The first two fell down hard on the concrete, and those behind them were so worried about not trampling on their friends that never saw the steel pipe coming.

They did come in numbers, Derek had come fully armed. Using the pipe as a sword he quickly hit them respectively on the head, the side of the knee, in the groin. Only then he started hitting the two that were trying to get back on their feet.

While they were moaning and sobbing on the ground, he used a small knife to cut the trip wire, then he started beating them again and again with the metal pipe giving a special attention to the nether regions.

Deeply inside he knew what he was doing was wrong, but he could not care less. If the world was built to be unfair, the only possible course of action was to make it unfair at his advantage.

So, he took out the taser that he borrowed from his father and tased them until unconscious. Then he stripped them completely and took multiple photos of each one of them and even filmed them after arranging them so that they would seem to be spooning to each other. Then he splashed them with a bucket of cold water and sealed the deal.

"Sorry to ruin your Brokeback Mountain moment girls, but I need your attention for a minute."

When the bullies woke up, they were still in so much pain they could barely notice that they were naked and embracing each other. Retorting to Derek while he had still a firm grip on the steel pipe was out of question, so they kept quiet and listened.

"I have made quite a scrapbook of you, even a short movie, uploaded it on my computer and even into the cloud. And it would be terrible if someone, I do not know, like me, for example would upload them on all the biggest image hosting sites. You know how they say, internet never forgets."

The bullies started crying and begging.

"Imagine how terrible would it be! Whenever someone would Boogle your names, be it your grandma, your girlfriends or even the colleges you were willing to apply to, the first thing to appear would be those photos!"

"Dude, no!" "Please, I do not even know you. I was just making a favour to a friend!" "It was only a joke, please forgive me!"

The choir of begging gave him the goose bumps. Derek wanted to puke at their hypocrisy.

"I do not care for your pathetic excuses! From this day onward, you will leave me alone. And you better pray that nothing happens to me, because the cloud is set so that if I do not enter the password every day, it will upload them everywhere."

Without waiting for their reply, he turned back and walked away.

"Almost forgetting, I randomly threw your clothes in the dumpsters, can't remember which is which. If you don't want to go home in your birthday suit, you better start digging. So long, suckers!"

Derek returned home euphoric, almost singing. He had never felt so proud of himself and had the completely undeserved confidence that he would never think about those b*stards ever again.

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The bullying ended, but his social life never stopped being miserable. How could he possibly make any friend with such a shameful private life?

He had to constantly hide the bruises with long sleeves and had run out of plausible excuses for his streak of black eyes months before. His classmates and professors simply pretended to not know and he just pretended to believe being that good of a liar.

It was painful, but manageable. He still had his little brother to share that pain with. Carl was all he had, his family, friend and confident. He was Derek's whole word.

But when that age came, he started having crushes toward girls in his school, and those feelings weren't as easily suppressed. Once again, he felt utterly helpless.

He could not tell anyone about his problems, could not allow people to get close to him, otherwise he would have to think of an explanation for not being allowed to bring any friend home. Let alone a girl he liked.

Derek was tormented by cruel thoughts, often demanding the heavens why what others took for granted was but an impossible dream for him.

Fueled by the hormonal storms Derek rage started growing relentlessly. He started having troubles sleeping at night, thinking about all those lovey-dovey couples out there.

Derek knew he was different from them. His crippling flaw wasn't being shy or having a bad case of acne. His problem couldn't be cured by any doctor, because it had a name and surname. Ezio Esposito, his trash bag of a father.

Derek started conceiving plan after plan to get rid of him, even if that meant killing him. At night he would device elaborate and meticulous plans that often involved prolonged torture, making Ezio suffer like Derek did for all those years.

But when morning came, he would always realize it was a dumb plan. More wishful thinking than anything else.

Derek lacked the means and the ruthlessness necessary for getting rid of Ezio. No matter how much he hated him, Ezio was still his father and he was just an angry teenager.

Kill Ezio? Sure. And what about then? Live a whole life ridden with guilt? Running away from home to avoid being the arrested? And with what money?

Killing Ezio would have meant abandoning Carl forever, and destroying any possible chance of being happy in the future.

So, every morning Derek would swallow his plan along with the porridge and move on. His only real prospect was to cram as a madman, get a scholarship and get out of that hell as fast as possible.

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye is was the last summer before Derek's first year of high school. Despite the hot climate, his heart was cold as ice.

Derek had already hit his grow spurt. That combined with his martial arts and muscle training had given him a mean look.

Ezio was aware of that, and being a coward had started to avoid beating Derek as much as possible making Carl the new favourite target.

Derek had already tried standing up for his brother, but the only result had been Ezio buying a nightstick from the local Army Surplus and getting beaten with it instead that with Ezio's bare hands.

He saved Carl from that by begging and crying, and only because the ruckus had alarmed their neighbours.

So, whenever Ezio threw one of his tantrums, Derek could only watch his brother getting beaten, again and again.

Then, one morning Ezio received his first big commission in years. So, he wore his best suit despite the heat and had Derek preparing him the briefcase and the laptop.

Ezio was in a real hurry, he could not afford his competitors to snatch this whale. It could have been his career making commission!

Derek rushed to the door, where Ezio was already waiting, and helped him adjust the laptop's satchel.

Ezio ran to the elevator, pushing the button like a madman but the light remained red.

Cursing his damn condo, the building manager and his rotten luck Ezio made a rush to the stairs.

And that's when Derek noticed it. Turning his head to follow his father, Derek noticed that the light made odd reflections on the hallway's floor.

Ezio had just passed in front of him when he realized that the janitor had just washed the stairs but forgot to put the wet floor sign.

It happened all in an instant. Ezio made a long heavy stride, all his weight down and forward and then his foot slipped.

Derek could have warned him, could have even extended an arm and prevented the fall. But instead he chose to remain still.

Ezio tumbled down the stairs, bounced on the next alley and tumbled again crashing downstairs. His body was a broken mess, all his limbs bent in unnatural angles.

As any teenager, Derek had his smartphone at hand, so he started to make several photos to prove that the floor was wet and there was no warning sign.

His mind was already planning on hiring the best shark lawyer he could and sue the building managing firm responsible for his condo.

Only then he carefully walked down the stairs to confirm Ezio's death. He was there, incapable of making a moan or asking for help, but his eyes were fixated on Derek, begging for help.

Derek grinned to him and said: "Do you really think I am so stupid to never learn anything from you? As you more than once taught me, never delegate. If you want something done right, do it yourself. Your smartphone is in your pocket, take it out and call 911. I'm just a failure of a son, I do not want to mess this up for you, daddy."

Ezio's eyes were full of shock and hate, but that lasted only a moment. His head went limp, his gaze blank.

A laughter fought to came out, but Derek suppressed it. Instead he started shouting for help putting on his best terrorized son impression.

As always, Derek's mother was too obsessed with her problems, her grief, her feelings to bother looking for the lawyer, leaving everything in Derek's hand, since Ezio was no more.

Three birds with one stone. After a careful research he contacted and hired the best shark lawyer they could afford, so that Derek would be his client instead of his mother.

He told him everything about his father's incident, the abuse, and the need to make so that the money would be split between the three of them, mother and sons.

Both Derek and Carl were very firm on that point, they wanted the lawyer to start the process to get emancipation. With the money from the compensation and the inheritance, they had enough to be self sufficient until Derek could provide for them both.

What followed was the happiest period in their life. First, they obtained the inheritance, and shortly after they got emancipated and moved away from their mother's place.

Not even a month later, they received a very generous settling offer from the building manager. They used it to settle up and make proper plans for the future.

During the following years, bullies were not a problem. Derek and Carl were now both martial artists and had each other's back. Finally they could experience having friends and girlfriends, their domestic nightmare finally over.

They suffered many disappointments though, since too many of those so-called friends turned out to be people that wanted to use their parent-free house as a party house.

Also they had an hard time figuring what being a normal teen was supposed to be. While their peers seemed only interested in having fun and skipping classes, they were focused on studying and saving as much as possible.

Derek and Carl would spend holydays and vacations doing part time jobs to slow down the thinning of their bank account. They were not poor, but not rich either.

They knew they had to save as much as possible, in case rainy days would once more fall upon them. But all in all they had a good life.

Derek got a scholarship and obtained a bachelor degree in chemistry, soon followed by a master in biochemistry. Carl was doing well too, already got his engineering degree, ready to study for his master and already had a fiancé.

Despite being really happy for his little brother, that was really a painful thorn in Derek's side. He had always been the more socially inept between the two, and never managed to get into a stable relationship, not even in college.

Derek had no problem talking to girls, the problem always lied in him being picky and ended in his inability to trust. He had had many crushes, but never fell in love.

At the beginning he put the blame on his bad luck, always finding shallow or idiotic girls. After finding more than one good girl, he put the blame on his dark past.

But when confronted with Carl's happy relationship he could only blame himself. While Carl had suffered almost the same things, he got out much stronger and pure than Derek.

Derek was just too scared of being hurt again to let any relationship grow above a certain level, and that was an enemy that he could not just beat up.

Derek accepted the first decent paid job he got, working in the night shift of a big chemical company in the QA department.

Carl had shared with him, as a graduation present, that he was willing to propose to his fiancé as soon as he got his master. Hence Derek needed money because he had only two years to save enough to give his little brother a decent wedding.

Derek did not like his current job, but it was a way to start his working career and filling his curriculum. Also it was well paid, and he resolved to use the company insurance to seek for psychological counseling.

He knew he had problems and wanted to work them out. Derek consulted several doctors before finding someone he was able to work with, and after several months he felt he was finally starting to make some progress.

But alas, such happiness was not bound to last.

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It was a Friday evening, and Derek was getting prepared for work.

He was still stuck doing QA because the pay was too good and no matter how many times Carl said he wanted a small ceremony, Derek was sure that whatever they planned to spend, it would at least double in the end.

It was a goddamn wedding; hence things were supposed to blow off proportions at some point. That's just how they work.

Derek was adjusting his shirt when the smartphone rang on the notes of "Night on Bald Mountain", the pre-set ringtone for unknown numbers.

"Derek Esposito, who is it?"

"Mister Esposito, this is the Saint Joseph hospital." The female voice sounded worried. This together with the word "hospital" sent him a shiver down his spine.

"Is Carl Esposito your brother?" Derek could almost hear her biting her nails.

"Yes, what happened?"

"He was involved in a car accident and is in serious conditions. You should come here as soon as possible. The doctors need you since you are his healthcare proxy and the patient in unconscious."

"A car accident?!?" Derek yelled while rushing out of the door and looking for a cab.

"We don't have any fuc*ng car! What the hell happened?"

"I'm sorry, I am not at liberty to say. The doctors will explain it…" Derek hung up on her. He had no time for useless babbling, only for a goddamn cab.

Every second in the traffic was torture, and when he finally arrived it was too late.

The surgeon and a police officer explained to him that Carl had been run over by a drunk driver. The culprit had run off and the police was still looking for him.

A bystander had immediately called 911, but because of the traffic jam caused by the accident it took hours for the ambulance to arrive.

So, when Carl arrived at the hospital he was already in critical conditions. He had multiple fractures, ruptured spleen and internal bleeding, requiring immediate surgery.

Derek had been called while Carl was just entering the OR.

They had done their best to save him, but Carl had lost too much blood, so there was nothing they could do. They offered Derek their condolences, but all he could hear was white noise.

"Let me see my brother." He begged.

The body was covered by a sheet, only the head visible. Derek could still see traces of blood on the face of his little brother.

Derek left his number to the police officer to be kept updated about the investigations, and then returned home.

The culprit was quickly apprehended thanks to the traffic cameras. It turned out to be a kid, barely seventeen years old, that had stolen his old man's car and then got drunk and high with his friends.

Derek lived the months before the trial in anguish. The damned DA had decided to prosecute him as a minor, and the even more damned judge had granted him house arrests. All while his little brother, his Carl, was dead because of him.

"How could they do such a thing?" Derek would yell and argue with anyone willing to listen to him. "Why all this talking about the rights and the future of that little sh*t? What about my brother's rights? What about his future? Carl has none because of him! What kind of justice is that?"

Derek visited multiple times the DA office, expressing his outrage and demanding them to ask for the maximum sentence. They were always kind and accommodating, and promised him that they would not forget about Carl.

When the day of the trial finally come, Derek's world died one more time.

The DA and the defence attorney had come to a settlement.

Since Chris Wainright, this was the name of the murderer, was still a minor and that was also his first offense, he had accepted to go in rehab and do six hundred hours of community service. If Chris would complete his rehab program and did not commit crimes in the next three years, then he would be a free citizen with no criminal record.

Derek was too dumbfounded to even be angry. When the session was over, he just walked to the DA and asked a single question with muffled voice.

"Why?"

And then with their most kind and accommodating tone, the DA assistants explained to Derek that Chris was just a kid from a good family that had made a dumb mistake.

He had a brilliant future ahead, Chris had already been admitted at the Cal Tech and this was his first offense. Also, his parents had hired a great lawyer and the judge would likely be unwilling to destroy Chris' life.

Despite their expectations, Derek did not make a scene. Derek's fire was extinguished, he had no more tears to shed.

In the following days, Derek lived by going through the motions. He kept following his routine like nothing had happened, his brain still refusing everything that happened in the last half year.

The only thing that made him feel alive, was that constant headache that had started shortly after Carl's death. According to his doctor it was a stress related symptom so with all that had happened, Derek had just been swallowing aspirins and paracetamol like they were candies.

But the pain never did go away, instead it was getting worse. Derek finally found the strength to get a serious check-up, and once again bad news were waiting for him.

According to the full body scan and the follow-up biopsy, he had stage two pulmonary cancer.

"But I never smoked in my whole life!" Derek exclaimed more amused than scared.

"Indeed, it's odd." Doctor Monroe, his oncologist, was quite puzzled.

She was a good-looking Hispanic woman, maybe five years older than Derek. In another moment he would have probably asked her out.

"You told me you work for a chemical company, right?" Derek nodded.

"Such an aggressive cancer is too uncommon to be a coincidence. My personal opinion is that their ventilation system failed. You and God knows how many more people have been breathing poison from quite some time."

"But we wear masks the whole time we work with the chemicals, and speaking for myself, I follow the safety protocols to the letter. My colleagues always mock me for it!" Derek was still in disbelief.

"Then maybe the masks are cheap pieces of junk. Or maybe the lab or the storage, if not both have leaks. These corporate scumbags only seek profits.

It would not surprise me in the least if they cut from the safety budget to put more dividends in their pockets."

Doctor Monroe was too outraged, even in his catatonic state Derek could tell there was more to it.

"Doctor, what are you hiding from me?" He asked, looking her straight in the eyes for the first time.

She nibbled on her lower lip for a while before answering.

"Between you and me, you are not the first case from your company. I have already reported it to the Department of Health and to the federals. If I were in your shoes, I would get a good lawyer and sue the soul out of them. You'll need a lot of money for the treatments."

"I agree on the lawyer, but I refuse any treatment. I'll just take palliative care."

Doctor Monroe jumped from her chair.

"Do you realize that without the proper treatments you have six months, a year at best to live? Also, as I have already said, your cancer is really aggressive. We need to start as soon as possible if we want to a chance to beat it."

The situation was dramatic, but Derek found all those "we" words hilarious, so he could not refrain from chuckling.

"We barely know each other, doctor. So, we have nothing to do if not going separate ways." Derek said to her with an icy tone.

"What do I have to live for? I have no family, no loved ones. My little brother's ashes are all that is left to keep me company. I could die tomorrow and I would not give a s*t!"

They parted on bad terms, but she still gave him her number, in case he changed his mind or simply needed to talk. Derek called his old shark lawyer and explained everything.

Years had passed but they would still send each other Christmas cards.

Derek had kept tabs on him, just in case. He had now more grey hair than before but was still a first-class shark.

Derek stopped going to work and started spending his money without much care. He would go to all the fancy restaurants he had always wanted to try, bought the suits he always dreamed about and only ate his favourite foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Derek would spend most of his days playing games on his brand-new gaming PC and revisiting all the spots that held a significance for him and Carl.

Then, twenty-four days after the diagnosis he had an epiphany.

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It was a night like all the others since he had quit his job. Derek would wear one of his new suits and wander off the city, to see what would it kill him first, the cancer or a random crazy head. Once reached exhaustion or simply boredom he would then take a cab and get back home.

Derek was walking with quick strides, high on his medications when he saw him. Chris Wainright. He was holding a bottle of liquor, ill-hidden inside a paper bag, from which he would drink in big gulps.

Chris was talking and laughing loudly with a teen girl that was showing a lot of skin. She was holding a joint, taking big puffs, until they traded and got into a car.

It was a custom painted muscle car. Not the same Camaro that Chris had used to kill Carl, it was even bigger and more expensive.

In that moment, Derek wanted to puke blood. How could he possibly have forgotten about that little b*astard? Had his cancer really screwed up his brain so bad to be willing to let such a loose end slip?

The tires screeched and the car started suddenly, almost running over a woman that was crossing the road. The skimpily dressed girl rolled down the window, yelling insults at the woman that was still frozen in fear.

Derek could almost hear that couple of idiots laughing. Gritting his teeth, he called a cab and started to plan his final act.

First, he started to stalk Chris on all the social networks, learning all his routines and habits. Then Derek began to follow him, and planted a GPS tracker under the Camaro to always know his exact location.

Simply skimming through Chris' Chirper, he found at least fifty violations of the parole deal. While following him, Derek took many photos of Chris abusing alcohol and drugs.

But Derek had no intention to submit the evidence to the police. What could he possibly gain from that? Chris would just get another slap on the wrist and then start being more careful.

Derek had not the luxury of time, nor the willingness of doing what the so-called justice system was supposed to.

Less than a week later, by checking Chris' Bookface page, Derek learnt of a rave he would participate to. Derek double checked his equipment and jumped into his new car, a black 1967 Chevrolet Impala.

The best car to hunt monsters with. The rave was "secret", hence it would take place in some run-down abandoned location.

Derek followed Chris closely, and as soon they were away from traffic cams he run into the Camaro from the side, forcing Chris to halt.

As soon as Chris stepped down of the car, Derek took him down with a stun gun, and then quickly proceeded to check if the Camaro had more passengers.

It seemed to be his lucky night, Chris was driving alone. Derek searched him and crushed every electronic device he could find, bitfit, smartphone, even Chris' keychain.

Derek tied him hands and feet and ball gagged him. Then he destroyed his own smartphone and the GPS tracker, tossing everything outside the road.

Then he moved Chris in the trunk of the Impala, headed toward a party only for the two of them.

Derek drove to an abandoned warehouse in the old industrial area. He had already got rid of the lock and chain that kept the big metallic doors closed, replacing them with his own.

Inside the warehouse there were only two chairs, both bolted to the ground, a bucket and several water tanks.

Derek opened the trunk, discovering that Chris had regained his senses so he tased him again. Then he took Chris to a chair and started tightly binding his arms and legs to it.

Then Derek splashed him with a bucket of water forcing him to regain focus.

"Hello, Chris. My name is Derek Esposito, and you killed my brother. We need to talk."

Chris tried getting out of the restraints, and while commending his efforts, Derek violently hit him in the groin with a nightstick. The pain paralyzed him.

"Were was I? Oh, yes. The last time we saw each other was during your farce-trial. Do you remember me?" Chris' panting intensified.

"Good. Let's get straight to business." Derek took two digital timers out of the car, setting the first to thirty minutes and the second to two hours, forty-four minutes and sixteen seconds.

Then, he pulled out a gun and double tapped Chris' liver. His scream was muffled by the gag ball, but the shots echoed loudly in the empty warehouse.

Derek started both timers simultaneously and came in close, checking the blood. It was dense and black, a clear indicator of a crushed liver.

"Now before the real pain settles in, I need you to take a good look to the timers, they are really important." Chris was crying and screaming, so Derek had to splash him again and pull him by hair to get his attention.

"The first timer marks how much time you have left. After it rings, even if someone should miraculously break through that door and rescue you, you would be dead anyway. You have only so much time until your system gets flooded by toxins unfiltered by the liver, to the point that no transplant can save you. The second timer is a surprise. We'll get to it in time. For now, your only task is to stay awake and savour every moment of pain, like Carl did."

The time flew, Chris kept screaming through the gag ball, and soon the fist timer rang.

Chris started sobbing even stronger, sometimes stopping only because overwhelmed by the constantly rising pain.

Derek would speak to him no longer, he would just pace back and forth, occasionally checking the second timer.

Every time Chris fainted, Derek would splash him and force him to stay awake before refilling the bucket.

When the second timer rang, Derek finally spoke again.

"I have bad news and I have good news. The bad news is that I lied before. I thoroughly researched liver injuries, and with such crushed liver you had no hope to begin with. Even if I had shot you in front of the best hospital in the USA, unless they had a compatible liver at hand, you would have died. I wanted to give you false hope, as happened to my brother while waiting for help. The good news is that you just suffered as long as Carl did. I may be many things, unrelenting, vengeful, a liar, a murderer but I am also fair. So your suffering ends now."

Derek pointed the gun to Chris' head and double tapped him.

Then he pointed it to his own head.

"Little brother, I'm coming. Wait for me." And pulled the trigger one last time.

While Derek's body was still falling, his consciousness was basked in light and he felt pulled toward the sky.

After months of grieving, a whole lifetime of misery and pain, Derek felt that all his traumas and hatred were fading away.

Derek had never experienced such bliss. In this new form he felt no negative emotion, he was in peace with his past, unafraid of his future.

Derek was enjoying a present that he felt could lead to endless possibilities, and there was no right and wrong, success or failure. He would simply be, no strings attached.

That intoxicating feeling lasted until he suddenly woke up, alive and breathing.

All his negative emotions returned, plunging him back into despair. Derek cursed inwardly while trying to focus his eyes. Maybe it was because of the shot to the head, but his vision was blurry.

"So much for the perfect plan. Some idiot must have rescued me and somehow I survived the journey to the hospital. I am still alive. I still have cancer. I am still alone." But when his eyes finally cleared up, they strongly disagreed with his reasoning.

Derek was in some kind of huge metal corridor surrounded by dead bodies. Alien dead bodies to be precise. They were all wearing some kind of full body armour, that resembled some kind of sci-fi space suit.

"Where the f*k am I? What the hell does this mean?" He screamed while trying to get up, only to fall back on the floor.

He fell hand first, and only then he noticed that he was wearing a space suit too, and that his hands, all four of them, had three fingers each.

"WHAT! THE! ACTUAL! F*K!"

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After much screaming and freaking out, Derek finally regained his composure and started to analyse his current predicament.

The first thing that caught his eye was a huge hole in the space suit at the chest level. The contours of the hole had burn marks all over it and there was a lot of purple jelly on both his suit and the dead bodies.

That meant the purple jelly was coagulated alien blood. Derek turned his head to see the spot where he had woken up, noticing a lot of blood and even something that he found safe to assume were some kind of splattered viscera.

"This makes no sense." He thought. "All the evidence points to the fact that this body was dead as Julius Caesar until I somehow happened to inhabit it. And for whatever reason, it's also fully healed. Oh man, this means all religions are dead wrong! Luckyly I never believed in any mumbo jumbo, otherwise I would be really disappointed right now."

Derek then proceeded examining his new body. It had four arms, only two legs but all the limbs were long and skinny. The legs were reverse jointed, like those of a cat. Both hands and feet had only three fingers each.

Derek was really curious about his facial features but there was no reflective surface in sight. So, he tried feeling his face with the fingers, but the suit turned out to come with a helmet, which did not impede his senses though.

The only thing he could establish was the shape of the helmet, and based on it Derek's new head should have been something similar to a shark's dorsal fin.

Then he tried to speak. "Test, test. Derek Esposito. One, two, three." He could somehow do it, but it was still English. That meant that he did not inherit neither the muscle memory nor the intellect from the body's previous owner.

Derek tried getting up, but the centre of gravity was too different from his old body, so he had to give up and proceed crawling like a baby.

So, he started examining the corpses to make heads or tails of what was happening around him. Judging from the suits, there were two factions at war.

One had a red coloured space suit, and the other, which Derek was donning, was grey. He had no idea which side was winning, but it would not make any difference to him anyway.

Unless the suit was equipped with a universal translator, he was uncapable of communicating. Enemies would kill him on sight, allies would probably ditch him like garbage.

"Who would ever want a rambling idiot, incapable even of walking during a life or death situation? I'm not even here from a day and I am already as good as dead."

Refusing to give up, Derek managed to get up by leaning on the walls and started exploring.

The corridor had many doors, yet his choices were painfully limited, since he could only go through the open ones.

Derek had no idea how to open the doors nor how to operate the control panels that he found along the way. He tried pushing buttons at random but nothing happened.

And he was starting to get hungry.

"Will I die like this? Starving in a goddamned space ship, alien planet or whatever the f*k is this? I don't know what this useless pile of flesh eats! Even if I stumble on a mountain of food, I have no way to know what is what. And even if I did, I do not know how the heck to remove this helmet."

After walking for several hours, hunger and frustration drove him to hysteria. Derek screamed an kicked whatever was within reach, until exhaustion made him fell asleep.

When he woke up, his mind was clear again.

"This is a nightmare. I am all out of options, to the point that even if I wanted to kill myself, I would not know how." He banged the back of his head against the wall to keep frustration at bay.

"I never thought about this, but being reborn in a sci-fi environment is truly the worst-case scenario. Alien body, alien customs, complete lack of the new species common sense. And to make things worse everything here is so high tech that I cannot even operate a door. Heck, every god damn button could be tagged and it would still be useless to me since I don't know their language."

His hunger was rising and he was feeling weaker by the hour. Having no time to lose, he started wandering again, this time banging and screaming at every door he met, trying to draw some attention

Derek was on the verge of fainting again due to hunger and exhaustion when finally a door opened up.

The shock was great enough for him to lost his grip and fall to the ground. On the other side there were grey suited aliens in a wedge formation.

Every one of the was holding some kind of long metal staff as it was a rifle. Derek didn't even attempt to get up, he just waved a right hand, hoping it was a peace sign.

*"Captain! That's Xa'rk! His life signal getting back online wasn't a glitch in the system, he is still alive."* (from this point onward * means words that Derek does not understand)

The formation opened and a taller and bulkier alien closed in. The soldiers never lowered their weapons nor lost focus, waiting for the attack order.

*"What are you doing on the floor, soldier? And how in Thrak's name did you survive that ambush?"* The captain asked with a coarse voice.

"Dude, I have no idea what you did just said."

*"What is he rambling? Medic, any reading on that blaster wound?"*

A purple dressed alien walked forward while scanning Derek's body. *"None, sir. It's not any dialect in the empire. And the scanner confirms that the hole in his armour is definitely from a Corellan blaster. I have no idea how he survived it unscathed. It's a miracle."*

*"It's a liability."* The captain's tone was grim. He took a staff from a soldier's hands and by pushing a button it became a glaive, whose blade was made of pure energy.

"Well, seems that I'm going to die from a lightsabre. It's cool, one hit and I'll be turned into dandruff. Lucky me, another painless death incoming."

When the captain plunged the glaive into his chest, it did not make any burning sound. It pierced him from side to side, bleeding him to death.

The blade was not a laser-based weapon, but a hard-light construct, making it no different from an ordinary glaive.

*"Listen up, soldiers. Xa'rk was a good soldier and we will remember and mourn him as such. When and if we get out of this alive. But that thing, whatever that is, is a risk we cannot allow to take. Not with Prince Rek'hart in our care and those Corellan rebel scums still at large. Better some collateral damage than a spy among our ranks. Now shut that door and check the perimeter again."*

This time, death was far from painless for Derek. He felt like his chest was on fire, but what really hurt wasn't the wound as much the lungs.

Derek was struggling to breathe. Every breath was shallower and more difficult than the last. Blood started gurgling from his mouth, and he felt like slowly drowning.

His throat kept contacting trying to draw in air, but to no avail. It took Derek less than a minute to die, but for him it seemed to last forever.

Once again, he found himself basked by blinding light and pulled towards it. Just like the last time, he felt all his worries and rage fading, but instead of enjoying the feeling he was simply annoyed.

Derek had never believed in any god, hence he never believed in heaven or hell.

"Humankind has always been a terrible race" He thought. "It's impossible to define someone as truly bad. Most of the times the bad guys are simply people who never got a chance to be anything but criminals.

Then there are people, like me, whom life had pushed and pushed until they broke. Not to mention psycho and sociopaths. How could someone that is born bad be sent to hell simply because his head is malfunctioning?

Hence, I have always believed that either there was an afterlife for everyone, or no afterlife at all. Death is supposed the be final spirit level, good or bad, rich or poor the destination has to be the same.

Instead I got this cheap excuse of reincarnation screwing with me.

What purpose being reborn could possibly have if I retain all of my memories?

Whatever body or planet I would end up in, I would still carry my baggage, so once outside the light all my pain, rage and contempt toward humankind would prevent me to learn whatever lesson I am supposed to learn!"

Inside that otherworldly space, he had the clarity to see that his psychologist was only half right. He could only change if he wanted to, but because of all his past experiences he had no will to.

It was a perfect example of a catch-22 paradox.

Suddenly, he was pulled downwards and away from the light.

His vision was a blur, but he could still hear a lot of commotion around him.

Giant hands were holding him still while he was puking god knows what, and judging from the breeze on his buttcheeks he was naked.

"I don't know what the heck is going on" He thought "but I bet I am in deep sh*t again."

When Derek was finally able to see again, he discovered that the hands were not gigantic, the issue was him being very small. A baby, to be precise.

*"He is alive! I did it! I managed to save your boy's life."*

A further inspection revealed that said hands belonged to some gibberish rambling old hag. Derek was currently inside a wooden shack, surrounded by people dressed with rags that could be called clothes only if they were part of a 1000 AD themed renaissance fair.

"Man, I hate being always right!"

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*"He his alive! I did it! I managed to save your boy's life."* (please, remember that * means words that Derek is not capable of understanding.)

After the midwife triumphantly said those words, the room exploded in cheers and tears of joy. The people in the room were hugging each other and the mother in turns.

Meanwhile, Derek lied limp in the midwife's arms, looking left and right trying to determine how bad was his current situation.

"Well, well. What do we have here? The bedridden woman is clearly this body's mother. She definitely needs a bath." After delivery, the sheets were stained with blood, urine and feces.

"The crying, rough looking man should be the father. I wonder if he is crying for my sake or just because he was afraid of losing his wife. I bet the second one. Then I have a bigger brother and a sister. This is bad."

Suddenly another woman entered the bedroom bringing with her a little boy and a girl that raced to the bedridden woman.

"Oh dammit! This is even worse that I thought. So far I have only two possible choices. Option one, grow into this large family, fighting every day for the few available resources. Malnourishment is most definitely a given. Then, when I am old enough, starting to work with father and brothers, getting married, having children, etcetera. Option two, wait until I am tall enough to grab sharp objects, put me out of my misery and take another spin hoping for a better outcome. I think I'll go with option number two."

Meanwhile the room had become silent. The midwife had already finished cleaning the newborn, wrapped him up in a clean cloth. During all this time Derek neither moved or cried.

*"Nana, what's wrong with the baby? Why is he not crying? It never happened before!"* The mother was worried, and ignoring the pain was trying to get up.

*"Shush, child, and don't you dare to move. I still have to heal you."* The midwife tone did not leave space for reply. *"I delivered dozens of children, a silent one is rare but nothing special. Do you want to see how strong he is? There you go!"*

She unwrapped him from the cloth, and while holding him gently gave a little spanking, to force him to cry.

Derek grunted a little, while staring at her in dismay.

"Want to play rough, old hag?" He thought. "Fine! You just triggered my trap card! Twin Flood, activate!" And out of the blue he relieved both his bowels and bladder.

The backdoor attackers splattered all over her feet, while the front door flood struck her on the face and chest.

Derek started giggling loudly.

*"Well, this wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but as you can hear for yourself, this little imp is breathing just fine."* The midwife handed the baby to another woman to clean him.

Derek kept giggling, proud of his work. After washing her face with warm water and a cloth, the old hag moved her left index finger drawing a circle in the air, striking it through in the middle from right to left. Then she pronounced a single word.

"Ekidu!"

A black energy manifested on her fingertip. She proceeded to point it over her wet dress and then over her shoes. The smell of feces and urine suddenly disappeared and so did their source.

With his mouth agape in shock, Derek watched as his poop would dry and crumble, turning into dust. It was akin to watching one of those fast-forwarded videos where in one minute you could see a seed becoming a flower.

"Heisenberg's beard! She is not just an old midwife! She is a real magician, in the flash! I have never been so happy in my whole three lives of being so dead wrong!"

Derek was ecstatic, and not only because that world had magic, but also because as soon as he heard the word Ekidu, he had felt something clicking inside of him.

Like if something deep inside of him had started taking root, and suddenly had become engrained in the very fabric of his new reality.

He started repeating obsessively the magic word in his mind, and trying to engrave in his memory every detail of the circular finger movement.

*"Now that I'm clean let me stop that bleeding, dear."* The healer approached the mother and placed her hands above her nether regions.

"Is it time for another magic? Show me, please!" Derek begged in his mind.

Nana first spreaded he fingers wide then started to move both arms in a circular motion, first up over her head, then opened her arms as much as she could before joining her hands, palm against backhand, at her navel's height.

"Vinire Lakhat!"

Derek, all wrapped up, tried to mimic all her movements, step after step, memorizing every single detail he could grasp, no matter how small.

A sphere of light enveloped Derek's mother lower body and she quickly recovered her complexion. The pale skin reverted to a healthy pink, while all the traces of pain and fatigue disappeared from her face.

Once again, something clicked inside him. After the dark magic, he could clearly feel that simply by hearing the power word, a connection had been established between him and light magic. Derek could not stop grinning.

"If, and I say if I have enough magical talent, it would mean there is actually a third hidden option." He thought. "I can become a magician and live free for the first time in my life! No shackles, no responsibilities! But it's better not get over enthusiast. With my luck I could just have a poor talent or…"

His reasoning was abruptly interrupted, the woman that had held him until that moment was handing him to his mother.

*"Nana, are you sure he is all right? He has yet to cry, and giggle or not he is too quiet. With all that happened, I am really afraid that something is wrong with him."*

After those words, the noisy room turned gloomy. Afraid that he was somewhat responsible, and quite eager to explore option number three, Derek did his best baby impression, giggling, smiling and doing raspberry sounds.

Nana felt her professional pride hurt by such allegations, but it wasn't her first time with an anxious mother.

She knew Elina since she was still a child, and had delivered all her babies. Nana could not deny that this delivery had been one of the most difficult of her career.

The labour had lasted hours and she had been forced to cast healing spells multiple times to stop the bleeding. When she finally could see the baby's head, she knew something was wrong.

Elina was fighting with all her strength but the baby was limp. So, she had rushed and used her hands to pull out the baby as fast as possible, only to discover that he was being strangled by his own umbilical cord.

After cutting and removing it, she had tried all her best spells, but to no avail. For a whole terrible minute, Nana had believed the child was lost.

But then the healing light had finally activated, forcing the baby to puke, clearing his airway. Then and only then Nana started affording the luxury of relaxing.

Healing magic was no miracle. It could enhance the life force of the patient making easier to recover from an illness or healing from an injury but it could not create life.

Nana was sensitive, so she understood that Elina didn't need a lesson about magic, just be reassured about her child's health.

*"Worry not, my child. I can prove it to you that all is well."*

With a warm smile, she caressed Elina's cheek and took Derek from her arms, removing the cloth like she was revealing a treasure.

Nana carefully adjusted Derek in the crook of her left arm, then she circled her open right hand all around him and said:

"Vinire Rad Tu!"

A small wisp of light came out of her palm, dancing around the baby before penetrating his chest.

The light spreaded from head to toe, making him emit a dim light.

*"See? If there was even a scratch on his body my injury detecting spell would leave that area bleak. Your little sun is fine."*

The energy flowing through his body was making Derek feel empowered. In his old life he had felt like that only few times.

When he got his degrees, when he finally abandoned his parent's home, when he beat up the bullies. But all those times it had been a fleeting emotion, lasting few seconds at best.

Now it was different, it wasn't just adrenaline. Real magic, real power was coursing through every fiber of his being, making him feel invincible.

So, when the spell started fading off, he could not accept that.

"No! Come back to me! Give me my power back!" Derek screamed inwardly.

He focused on the last strands of energy, willing for them to stay. He could not cast the spell on his own, but he could still feel the lingering power and started feeding it with his own.

Derek's light stopped dimming and instead grew stronger and stronger.

Nana was dumbfounded. She had never seen anything like that before. That was not how the spell was supposed to work.

Derek wanted it to last forever, but a second later he fell asleep due to mana exhaustion, and the light disappeared quickly.

Nana wrapped up the baby again and returned him to his mother's embrace.

"Nana, what was that?" Elina asked full of wonder.

The old healer had no idea how to answer. Many possibilities popped up in her head, and all of them would require long explanations that would needlessly make Elina worry and maybe even forcing Nana to repeat the spell.

Had been a long day, and she had no intention on prolonging it even a second more than necessary, so she borrowed a line from her childhood's favourite fairy tale.

*"My child, I think the new-born may be blessed by the light. There is no need to worry, only to rejoice."*

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Derek's first days as a baby were peaceful but far from boring. He had no responsibilities, all he to do was eat, sleep, poop and the occasional baby noise or finger grabbing routine.

That left him with all the time he needed to think about his future.

On Earth it was no mystery that kids had a greater potential for learning than adults, and since his family seemed human, or at least human-like he could hope for that to be true also in this dimension.

From what he could see, his body was no different from a baby from planet Earth. He could hear his heartbeat, his chest inflating and deflating while breathing.

Even the reproductive apparatus was the same.

The same could be said for his new family. If it wasn't for the existence of magic, he would have simply thought to have travelled through time, but things clearly weren't that simple.

Derek quickly dismissed all the "what race am I now?" hypothesis as overthinking.

One of the advantages of being a baby was that ignorance was perfectly fine, when the time came, someone would teach him.

He determined that he had two priorities: number one, learn their language. All babies are supposed to learn their native language, and he had only so much time before being considered a retard, so he could not slack off.

Number two, he had somehow to figure out magic, or at least its foundations. And that also had a deadline, since his learning potential was at its peak only until his brain stopped growing.

After that, he would not be different from anyone else with the same talent and disposition for magic.

So, he set magic as his first priority. Being considered a slow learner was much better than being weak for life and forced to take another spin at reincarnation.

Derek spent his first day in the new world in bed, together with his mother, while his father would sleep and rest in the boys' room.

Whenever someone talked to him, he paid close attention, trying to figure out common words or patterns.

The rest of the time he was not eating or the cloth diaper being changed, he would try to cast one of the three spells he knew: Ekidu, Vinire Lakhat and Vinire Rad Tu.

Every attempt was a failure, he could not feel even an iota of power inside himself. Comparing what he saw from what he knew from Earth's Dungeons Looting, those spells had clearly a verbal and somatic component.

But that couldn't be all, or at least he hoped so, otherwise until he was able to talk all his efforts would have been wasted.

Failure after failure, his anxiety grew stronger. Fear of the unknown and of tomorrow started to build up. Also getting used to poop and wet himself wasn't a pleasant feeling either.

Thankfully, his mother showered him up with nothing but love and affection, making his day not a total loss. Despite his bias about mothers due to his previous life, Elina managed to make him feel loved and protected. That wasn't half bad at all.

The final outcome of his first day was zero progress in magic, no progress with language. But his mother seemed to be a good parent, and he finally learned his new name: Lith.

The second day turned his world upside down.

Elina, showing the strength of a wild ox, decided she was sick of resting and got up to help doing the daily chores.

Lith had the opportunity to see her full figure. Despite giving birth the previous day, she was a good-looking woman, in her early twenties. She was definitely well endowed in all the right places, with a fit body honed through hard work. Her shoulder blades long hair was of a beautiful light-brown colour, with shades of red all over it

Just the light of the candle made it look like there were flames dancing within. "Seeing mother with her hair down in a sunny day must be quite a sight to behold." Derek thought

Maybe it was because Lith was still a baby, maybe because of the mother-son bonding, but Lith felt deeply proud of her.

He also discovered that she seemed to not use bra or underpants.

Once finished dressing, she wrapped up Lith, making impossible for him to move. Then Elina placed him into her sash, using it like a baby cradle so that she could easily hold him with only one arm with minimum exertion.

She walked out the small bedroom and found her older daughter, Eliza messing with the fireplace.

*"What in the Great Mother's name do you think you're doing, Lily? The sun is not even out, you should be sleeping. You know you are not allowed to mess with fire!"*

She said with a hiss, trying to not wake up the house.

*"I'm sorry, mom. I just wanted to make you all a surprise. Let you wake up in an already warm house and breakfast ready."* Eliza's face showed only sincere concern.

*"There is no need to worry, silly bee. Your mommy is a pro with kids."* Elina said while ruffling her hair.

Eliza, together with her twin brother, was the eldest child. She was eight years old, and her blonde hair with shades of black was the reason for her moniker.

Elina shooed her away from the fireplace and with a flick of a finger lighted the fire.

"Infiro!"

"Thanks heavens!" Lith rejoiced. "Once again I had that weird feeling when discovering a new type of magic. This proves I wasn't just imagining stuff!"

Elina sent Lily opening the windows' shutters to let the dawn light in while she prepared breakfast.

Elina took several vegetables out of a cabined and proceeded chopping them with a knife. Some had a familiar look to Lith, like some semi potatoes and odd coloured carrots. The others were all a mystery.

The idea of having such breakfast made Lith almost cry. In his past life he never liked vegetables, they were all bland tasting. No matter how much of them he ate, within half an hour he would be hungry again.

Elina shoved everything inside a small copper cauldron and with the help of a hook hanged it on a metal bar over the fire.

Then with a finger-snap she conjured water out of nowhere, filling the cauldron.

Both Lith and Eliza were ecstatic, even though for completely different reasons.

For Lith it meant hope. Spells could be casted without words or precise hand's movements, and that showed him that there was a real chance for him to practice magic while still being baby.

For Eliza was a reason for pride. Magic was common, but every time Elina casted a silent spell it was like watching a real magician at work.

*"You are so amazing, mom!"* Eliza's eyes were full of admiration. *"Will I ever be as good as you with magic?"*

*"Of course you will, silly bee."* Elina replied with a kind smile, while inwardly adding: "After ten plus years of chores, every single day."

After a while, everyone woke up to have breakfast together. The family consisted of Raaz (father), Elina, two daughters (Eliza and Tista) and two sons (Orpal and Trion).

Lith could then establish with depressing certainty that there was no such a thing as an indoor bathroom.

From what he could see the house consisted of a big room used as dining room, kitchen and pantry with three doors that lead to the various bedrooms and nothing else.

The breakfast was relatively quiet, so he had no problems learning the word for water magic when his father filled some jugs.

"Jorun!"

After everyone left for their daily routine, Elina moved along with Lith to a rocking chair. During the morning he had to pleasure to discover that in the new world the daily chores like washing the dishes or cleaning the floors were all performed using magic.

From her rocking chair, Elina would simply twirl her index and medium finger while reciting "Brezza!" to generate up to three small whirlwinds that she would move all around the house to collect and get rid of the dust.

Whenever someone would dirty the floor with earth or mud, a flick of the wrist and a "Magna!" would send them back through the same door they were brought in.

Lith was delighted discovering how common the use of magic was. Everyone in the family, even the younger ones, would use magic to make their life easier.

When bedtime arrived, Lith was dying to try some magic. He had waited so long for his hands and feet to be finally free.

Elina fell asleep almost instantly, yet Lith was impatient enough to have the impression of having waited for hours.

After a full day of thinking, he had decided to try only air magic first until he was confident enough in his magic control abilities.

Fire was just too dangerous for a novice, while water and light would easily wake up his mother. He could not spot any dirt to control in the dim light of the room, and was too afraid to mess up with darkness magic until he got a better understanding of it.

So, he twirled his little arm and said: "Eaa." Nothing happened.

Lith tried and failed countless times before giving up. He did not know how long his baby body would have lasted until falling asleep, so he stopped despairing and started thinking.

Magic was common, whenever he heard for the first time an elemental magic word, something inside him had clicked, like creating a connection with the elemental energy.

Those were all good news, but he still couldn't make head or tails why he was always failing. He never expected succeeding at the first try, but he had thought that something would have manifested.

A random tiny gust of wind, a magic spark, anything would do.

So, he started thinking back to when the healer had filled him with power. That feeling was not new to him, but he never experienced it so intense.

Lith searched his memory until he found the answer. It was the same sensation that he had when he started practicing aikido, while learning the basic breathing technique.

"Well, I have nothing to lose. Let's give it a try."

Lith breathed in through his diaphragm, the anus relaxed, to get the world energy in.

Then he would contract the anus, holding the breath for some seconds to let the energy settle in before breathing out relaxing his whole body.

Back on Earth, he had always thought that the intoxicating feeling he experienced during his first days of practice was just some kind of placebo effect.

His naïve young mind deluding itself that the weak could miraculously become strong just believing and practicing in all that Ki/internal energy nonsense.

But what if he later stopped experiencing that sensation only because his native world energy was just too thin?

After some time, Lith started to feel a tingle all around his body, and then the energy seemed to move and condense inside his solar plexus.

The more he performed the breathing technique, more clearly he could sense the energy getting more stable.

In his old videogames, mana was always blue. So, he visualized a blue sphere settling in inside his solar plexus.

After a while, Lith felt brimming with power. After holding his breath one last time, he twirled his little arm before commanding: "Eaaa!"

The wind generated barely tweaked his mother's hair, while he had aimed for the blanket.

Yet he could not stop grinning.

"This is really a great start!"

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In the following weeks, Lith's days consisted of a strict routine.

During the day, when he was all wrapped up, he would only focus on practicing the breathing technique and learning as much as he could about his family and their language.

At night he would practice magic until exhaustion made him fall asleep. Then as soon as he woke up, he would start again until Elina would get up for the day.

More than once he tried taking a break, but it would never last long. Living as a baby was not easy, on the contrary, was very stressful.

He could not speak, even the words he had already understood to not scare his family. He could not move, he could do nothing but watch, sleep, eat and relieve his bowels.

He was not used to be so helpless and dependant on someone else for every little thing. Too much free time would bring him to the verge of insanity.

So, he would practice and practice, trying to adjust to his new reality without overthinking about how absurd and irrational was his situation.

As Lith's powers increased, so did his control, and after a few weeks he felt confident enough to try earth magic and water magic.

He would always be careful, never conjuring more than a few droplets of water or manipulating a handful of dirt. He discovered that it was possible to make the elements float in mid-air, changing their shape and size by continuously spending mana.

After that, he shifted his night training on focus and control rather than power. His mana was very limited and he much preferred doing few elaborate tricks perfectly rather than a lot of stuff at the risk of blowing his cover.

No matter how common magic was, Lith doubted that a baby practicing it would be any less than shocking, or even terrifying.

Lith was afraid of being abandoned by his family, or even worse killed.

He was once again scared of death, since now he had too much to lose. What where the odds to find another world where magic existed, to be born as a baby in a loving family?

Zero, none, nada, squat.

He had to play his cards well, and play them as close to the vest as possible. Before revealing even a hint of his talent, he needed to know what the standards of that world where.

How much talent was considered good, how much divided being considered a genius from being labeled as a monster?

His mind was constantly filled with worries and only training would alleviate his anxiety.

After three months, he had become good enough at silent magic to try fire magic on the fireplace.

The fire was already lit, and when everyone was busy talking and eating during breakfast, he tried making the flames dance at will. It ended up in failure, since the flames were too strong and the distance too big for his mana to have any effect.

Yet he kept trying, since he could still sense the flow of magic going from himself to the fireplace, hence making it a good training to expand his mana sense and range.

The only downside of all that training was that Lith would get hungry faster. Luckily, he was not Elina's first glutton and she had no shortage of milk.

Another month passed, and Elina started weaning him.

This event was meaningful for two reasons. The first was Lith noticing that food wasn't abundant in his household, so even if he still had not a rich vocabulary, he could still read his parents worried expressions every time he needed to be fed.

Despite still being a cold hearted, cynical misanthrope at his core, Lith could not help but feel guilty about it.

They loved him like a child, while he would consider them nothing more than hosts, like a parasite. The only exceptions were Elina and Eliza, his big sister, the only one that along with his mother would take care of him.

With their constant love, affection and care had managed to crack his emotional defensive wall. The more time he spent with them, the more he would consider them part of his real family, not just people that he was leading by the nose.

So, he started limiting his training to not exceed the amount of food they could afford.

Even that required quite a few tries to find the right amount, since too little would cause even more worry than too much.

The second reason were world changing discoveries.

Being forced to stop training magic as much as possible, Lith now had free time that he used to dedicate that time by practicing the breathing technique, that he christened "Accumulation".

That way, his inner energy, that he had long dubbed as "mana core", grew faster to the point of hitting a bottleneck.

Apparently, his body wasn't big or strong enough or both, to hold and indefinite amount of mana. Lith never noticed before because his baby body was rapidly growing, and he had only so much time to expand the mana core.

So, without realizing it, his body and mana core had developed together.

But now the balance had been broken, and practicing Accumulation would make every fiber of his body ache, so he was forced to stop.

Luckyly he was still well fed and developing fast, so despite not being able doing any physical exercise, the bottlenecks would not last long.

The second discovery was the result of him being forced not to practice magic or use Accumulation.

While studying his bottleneck status, he found out that it was possible to modify the breathing technique by removing the breath holding step. That way, the world energy would just flow in and out his body, energizing him like a good night sleep.

Lith named this new technique "Invigoration."

After several tries, he discovered that the world's mana could allow him to stay awake for several days, but not indefinitely.

Each time he would use Invigoration, the energizing effect would last less and less, and only sleeping would reset its effectiveness.

But the most important discovery, as almost always happens, was made by chance.

After adjusting his food intake, Lith's greatest enemy had become the hunger. Not the slight appetite that can be fixed by a candy bar or the hankering after a busy morning.

It was the kind of hunger that never goes away, always lurking, even right after a meal. Even though Lith was not starving, it was something that he had never experienced.

Even among all the misfortunes of his first life, food had never been an issue. He had always been able to eat to his heart content, even allowing himself to be picky about food.

But now he was so hungry that he ate until the last bite, and if his body had allowed him to, he would not hesitate licking the plate clean.

In the good days, when the portions were larger, it was like white noise, annoying but easily ignored. But during the bad days, either because the rations were smaller or because he had lost himself in the practice of magic consuming too much mana, it would become a thorn in his head. He would be so hungry to have a headache all day long, often feeling light headed and incapable of focusing. Food would be the only thing he would think or dream about.

Of course, he was not the only hungry one in the family. Aside from Elina, only his siblings Orpal and Eliza would be tasked to feed him.

And while Eliza had a big heart and strived to be like her mother, Orpal was angrier and hungrier by the day. He would often daydream about the days when he and his twin were the only children in the house.

Now not only he had to fight each day for his parents' attention, but also for the food, clothes and so on.

Once he had a room only for himself, then he had to share it with Trion. It was just a matter of time before Lith would come to take away what little personal space he still had.

Orpal could not understand why a family as poor as his own would keep making kids.

It was winter, so there was not much work to do. Hence there weren't many occasions to restock their food supplies, and they had to last until spring.

It was the toughest time of the year for all the farmers' families, since the food was meant not only for men but also for the animals.

Orpal was sick of seeing Lith gobbling all the food, to the point of dubbing him "Leech".

So, whenever it was his turn to feed the little vermin, he would take some spoonful for himself. But Lith was not easily bullied.

As soon as he noticed the spoon was not aimed to him, he would start to cry madly, and Elina would run to his side, foiling Orpal's plan.

Lith never cried, unless he needed to be fed or changed, and that made their parents both really happy and paranoid about him. Since he would never cry wolf, they took every wail very seriously.

That day was a really bad day for Lith, starving because of his growth spurt, and was Orpal's turn to take care of him.

Both their parents were out, one of the cows seemed to suffer from frostbite.

So Orpal took the plate full of creamy soup for the baby, and gulped down a full spoonful.

Lith immediately started to cry, but there was no one to hear him.

"Cry all you want, *Leech*." Lith was now able to understand most of the common words, included Orpal's mockery. "Today is just you and I. No mom in a shining armour to come to your rescue." After saying that he gulped down another one.

Lith felt like he was going crazy. Once again, he was helpless, his so called magic useless in time of need. What could he possibly do, aside from blowing his cover?

Ventilate him? Wet him? Using fire was too dangerous, a single meal was not worthy burning down a house.

Lith's hunger was eating him, and his rage went above and beyond what he would have ever thought possible.

"You fu*er!" He yelled inwardly. "Feeling so tough robbing a child?"

Then he saw the third spoonful, making a good half of his meal gone, moving toward Orpal's smug face.

Lith's anger reached a new peak, his hatred burning like a fire.

"You are not my brother!" He yelled inwardly. "You are nothing but a filthy thief, trash!" And then, more than clicking, he felt something breaking inside like a dam that could not hold the raging waters anymore.

"I HOPE YOU CHOKE ON THAT SPOON, YOU SH*T!" Lith waved his arm against Orpal in a final struggle, and then it happened.

Lith felt the mana going out to his body, reaching the spoon already in Orpal's mouth, and pushing it down, hard.

Orpal started to choke, and after removing the spoon from his throat he started puking.

Lith was so astonished to almost forget about both his rage and hunger.

He had discovered something wonderful, a power that no one else in his family seemed to have.

Lith had discovered spirit magic!

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At that time, Elina and Raaz (father) were coming back to the house Upon hearing Lith's desperate cries they ran back to check on him.

When they found Orpal on the ground, puking, they understood what had happened. They already had suspicions, since whenever Orpal fed Lith, he was always hungrier than usual.

But now they had proof. Inside the pool of vomit, the undigested creamy soup was as clear as the day.

Raaz became red with anger. *"You little…!"* But had to stop, his other children had returned as well. "I am very *disappointed* in you, Orpal." Said Elina, seeing that her hubby was too angry to speak.

*"From now on, Elina will be the one feeding Lith. You can take all her shifts in the stable, since I don't think that even you could eat hay."*

"But mom…" Orpal said trying to defend himself. He hated cows and their smell.

*"No buts, young man!"* Raaz yelled. *"And that is not punishment enough! Elina, feel free to prepare one more bowl for Lith, and take the food from Orpal's share! He must learn that bad actions have consequences!"*

They were speaking too fast for Lith, and there were too many unknown words. But Orpal had just turned pale, so it had to be good news.

Orpal started crying and apologizing, but Lith made sure to cry louder, so Raaz and Elina both ignored his pleas and sent him to take care of the animals.

After being fed with a generous serving of soup and milk, Lith could finally focus on what had happened. After days of trial and error experiments, he had grasped the basics of his newfound ability and gained a much deeper understanding of magic.

Lith had discovered that when he casted an elemental spell, it actually consisted in a three-step process. First, he would emit the mana, then he had to mix it with the world energy that he was trying to manipulate. The last step was the hardest one, controlling the spell and its effects.

Spirit magic skipped the second step, it used only his own power, without borrowing elemental energy. That made it more difficult that any magic he had practiced so far and more mana consuming.

It also required much more focus compared to normal magic. Pure mana had no physical form, so he could not rely on his eyes for manipulating its effects.

All depended on his willpower and imagination. The clearer was the mental image of the action he wanted the mana to make, the better the result.

The range was also very limited, barely reaching a meter (3,28 feet) radius.

Despite all it's strict limitations, Lith started to practice anything but spirit magic. The ultimate discovery about it, was that every improvement he did in spirit magic was also passed on all other kinds of magic.

He didn't need to switch practicing between them anymore, and so he progressed in leap and bounds compared to before.

From time to time, he would use a random elemental magic to check on his progress, reaching a new understanding of the profoundness of that element.

The progress Lith made allowed him to also improve his breathing techniques.

Through Accumulation, he could now not only perceive how his mana core changed in size with practice, but also have a rough understanding of the amount of mana contained in his body.

Using Accumulation he would feed the world energy to his mana core, allowing it to expand from the size of a pinhead to that of a glass marble.

Once the mana core grew to marble size, further progress could only be made when the physical body forcefully compressed the mana core back to pinhead.

Lith had no idea how the phenomenon worked, and had found no way around it. Mana core and body development had to go hand in hand, there was no shortcut.

Bottlenecks happened when Lith tried to use Accumulation when the mana core was still at its peak size. The world energy would be rejected by the mana core, going wild through his body and damaging it.

By continuously undergoing expansion and compression cycles, his mana capacity was already incomparable to when he was just a new born.

After discovering and practicing spirit magic, Lith had a much finer control of his mana, inside and outside his body.

He managed to modify the Invigoration technique, so that when he breathed in the world mana, he would combine it with his own, temporarily exceeding his limits

Then he would expand the resulting energy, moving it from the solar plexus outwards, until even his body hair would be overflowing with mana.

Ever since he invented Invigoration, he had noticed qualitative changes to his body. Lith was now better at withstanding cold and head, and he would hardly ever get sick.

When his whole family would catch a cold, he would either get over it before the symptoms manifested or recover in a few days.

"Unless it's all a crazy coincidence, improving Invigoration is the only mean at my disposal to temper my body. If I am right, this means that I can use it as a crutch until I get big enough to do physical activity." He thought.

"Hopefully, it should also help me overcome my bottleneck periods faster. It's a gamble, but it shouldn't do any harm. Also, between hunger and bottlenecks, there isn't much I can do as a seven months old baby."

As for his family life, it also experienced some changes during the following months.

After the soup incident with Orpal, a divide opened between the brothers. Lith was vengeful by nature, and so was his brother.

Sometimes, when Orpal was angry, would call him Leech instead of Lith, since he always called him like that in his mind.

Every slip of the tongue would cost him a serious scolding, and when he did it while harshly arguing with his parents, even a good spanking.

Orpal blamed Lith for all of his misfortunes, the little runt always giggled when he was having a hard time.

The relationship between Lith and his parents, instead, kept getting better and better.

He had already started saying babble words, making sure to say "Mama" when Elina embraced him and "Dada" whenever Raaz came near him.

"If this world is even a bit similar to Earth's middle age, is better to stay in my old man's good book until I am self-sufficient." This was Lith's reasoning.

He was still very afraid of father figures, and the two of them didn't had much a relationship anyway. Raaz would always be busy with something, letting his wife and eldest daughter spend the most time with the baby.

To his defence, he had just wrongly assumed that Lith was too little to notice, and that they would have time catch up later in the future, like he did with his other sons.

Raaz really loved him, and Lith never ceased to amaze him. He couldn't remember him crying for no reason, not even when teething.

If someone bumped into his cradle or raised his voice while Lith was asleep, or at least pretending to, he would not make a sound, just look around before going back to sleep.

Lith increasingly grew fond of Eliza, it was more like a loving aunt than a sister to him. He could see himself in her, taking care of her little brother like he did with Carl.

He would have loved to express this love, but all he could do was smile and laugh as soon as he saw her, and call her "Lala". She was in fact the only one, beside his parents, to have a babble name.

It wasn't much, but it meant the world to her.

And so, time went by. After six months from his arrival, Lith was put on the ground for the fist time and started to crawl under strict supervision. At the ninth month he started to walk and graduated himself from babble words to real ones.

On the day of his birthday, after discovering they had birthdays in that world too, he allowed himself to use simple phrases and started to make questions to complete his vocabulary.

Knowing nothing about babies, it was very stressful finding the right timing for every little thing. Luckyly, Lith could always resort on cheating to find out the proper time for him to "learn" to do something. He was already capable of understanding most of what he could hear, so he would always be open to "suggestions".

If Elina was dying for him to finally say "Mommy" instead of "Mama", he would wait a couple of days before making it happen. If Raaz cheered for Lith running to him, he did.

The real problem was paying attention to everything Raaz, Eliza and Elina said while being seemingly completely oblivious about their words.

Another problem was that once they let him roam free in the dining room, they gave him also small wooden toys expecting him to play and explore his surroundings.

Lith already knew the dining room as the bac of his hand, and there was not much to see in the first place. Yet he had to pretend to be curious about it.

That was the hardest thing he had ever done since becoming a baby, and scared him to death. He had no clue how a child would explore such bland environment, and his paranoia about blowing his cover made him sweating bullets.

Seeing the expectation in their eyes, he started from the nearest thing, the fireplace. The fire was not lit, the logs were cold and covered in ashes.

When he got closer, Raaz stopped him.

"This is the fireplace. Now is safe, but fire is bad. Fire hurts. No touching it, never."

Lith looked at him, seemingly confused, before trying to put his hand in the ashes. Raaz grabbed his hand, blocking him.

"Fire is bad. No touching it. Never." His father repeated.

Lith stared in his eyes like he was deeply in thought, before asking: "Fire bad?"

"Yes, very bad." Raaz replied while nodding.

"Okay." Lith moved away from the fireplace and got close to the table. When he tried climbing up a chair, almost falling down with it, Elina ran to his rescue.

"Good gods, this little one sure likes danger." Seeing their increasingly worried expressions, Lith believed to have found a way out that torment.

He would keep putting himself in danger, trying to climb on the table and going into the kitchen rummaging through pots and knives.

Quickly they decided that adventure time was over. They made him sit on an old cloth spreaded over the wooden floor, and gave him toys to play with while they recovered from the stress.

He had a little wooden horse, some kind of cart, and an odd-looking dog thingy. Playing was much easier to him. Lith did not need to create stories or explaining what he was doing.

He could just use playtime to practice spirit magic. Lith would actually never use his hands to move the toys, making them float as close as possible to his fingers.

He really enjoyed those moments. Lith could finally openly rejoice, scream and laugh anytime he made a new discovery or a breakthrough, and all his parents would see was a happy child lost in his fantasies.

"Who would have ever thought that such a quiet little fellow could have such a vivid imagination." Raaz said with a big, proud smile on his face. "Look at him. All he has is just some old toys, yet it looks like he has the whole world in the palm of his hand."

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The following years weren't easy on Lith.

He was finally allowed to do a lot of questions, filling most of the holes in his vocabulary and starting to finally learn about his family and the new world.

He learnt that they were living in the village of Lutia, that was part of the county of Lustria, which in turn was part of the Griffon Kingdom.

His parents knew about the neighbouring countries by name, but that was it. They knew nothing about the life outside the village, nor they cared about it.

In their eyes the king was some sort of mythical beast, they put all their faith and worries in Count Lutia. Not only he administered justice and taxes in the county, he would also always take part in Lutia's spring festival as the guest of honour.

His parents never mentioned to their children anything about magic, wars or history. They only told them tales that could be easily dismissed as bedtime stories even in this new world.

All of their stories were filled with beautiful princesses, valiant heroes and villainous tyrants.

Lith was truly dissatisfied by such little information. He wanted to know what was the planet's name, what was the stage of scientific development it had developed.

He wanted to learn about the history of magic, the lore, the legends, anything that could give him at least a clue about what to expect from life.

But it was clear they knew little more than gossip, so he could not make questions he was not even supposed to think about.

At least his family tree was much easier to fully understand. Elina and Raaz had married very early, even by village standards, barely sixteen.

Raaz, being an only child, had inherited his father's farm, where they were currently living. Elina got pregnant shortly after the marriage, giving birth to the twins Eliza and Orpal.

Then she got pregnant again every two years. Thant meant that Raaz and Elina were currently 25 years old, Eliza and Orpal 8 years old, Trion 6 years old, Tista 4 years old and finally Lith 2 years old.

In fact, most of the information were leeched from his siblings' questions, Lith was mostly limited to a "What's this? Why is that?" kind of question.

Spending more and more time with the rest of the family, he also discovered why despite his father owned such a nice farm, with its own barn and henhouse, had so much problems putting food on the table.

Tista was born with a congenital condition that prevented her from doing any physical exertion and made her also prone to illness.

Fast pacing was enough to leave her out of breath. She would chough from time to time, and when things were about to turn for the worse, the cough would become violent.

At that point one of her parents would have to run to the village to let Nana visit and heal her. But she could not really cure her, only alleviate the symptoms and return her to her natural state.

And while a check-up wasn't expensive, the treatment was. Also, even if Raaz did go picking her up and then brought Nana back home, it would still cost an extra.

Doing a round trip meant her losing business, so she required compensation.

It was the constant need for the healer to put such a strain on their budget.

Lith felt very sorry for her. Despite not having spent much time with Tista, she was precious for both Elina and Eliza, and that was more than enough to make her precious for him too.

He felt helpless, cursing his inability to ever practice light and darkness magic. Light magic required a patient, and until he had gained a solid grasp of how it worked and what was this world's human anatomy, he would not dare putting anyone's health at risk.

Darkness magic was another story. Lith had only seen it once, no one in his family used it. And even in that one occasion, he had clearly felt the destructive power it held.

He was also biased against it, since on Earth dark magic would always be associated with evil practices and undeads, so he had no desire to dabble with something potentially horrifying.

Lith could only live on, hoping to eventually get some training in magic, while enduring the madness that he was getting used to call family life.

He had to be lively, but not too much. He had to be curious, but not too much. He had to run around but never get out of the door.

His parents were never satisfied. If he tried to sit in corner meditating, they would worry because he was too quiet or too lazy. If he tried to move around or help them, he would be scolded for getting in the way.

They refused to teach him chore magic (that was the name of the lesser spells they used on their daily life), and prohibited him to learn them.

Lith could not go outside without being accompanied by someone, could not get near to the fireplace, could not make too many questions.

Everything was basically prohibited until he "grew up".

More than once Lith wanted to scream "I may be biologically young, but I am actually the oldest in here, dammit!" but all he could do was suck it up and obey.

His feud with Orpal never resolved, and he could clearly feel Trion's hostility on his brother's behalf. Clearly Orpal was for Trion what Eliza was for Lith, his role model.

Unlike Orpal, Trion would not completely ignore him, even when their parents were absent. But Lith could clearly see that every time his brother helped him, it was just to be polite. There was no kindness between them.

Lith quickly started ignoring him in return. "I have already spent half of my old life being worried about dysfunctional family members. Been there, done that. So thank you, but no thank you. If you want to be a jerk, be my guest. I don't give a damn about you." These were his thoughts about the matter, so he let things fester.

Once he became three years old, he could not take it anymore. The boredom caused by the cold winter months where he was basically stuck at home 24/7, aggravated by the constant hunger was about to drive him insane.

It was a stormy afternoon, and the family was gathered around the fireplace. Elina was teaching her daughters how to sew. Raaz was teaching Orpal how to carve wood, while Trion and Lith were only allowed to watch. They were still too little to handle any sharp object, even sewing was off limits.

Lith had already asked, baffling his father and flattering her mother. "You are too little, and your hands are still too clumsy." She replied.

And Elina was right, Lith's body felt even clumsier than his old one, before he started practicing martial arts. Just the thought of all the lost muscle memory was enough to make him cry.

So, he patiently waited that Raaz finished instructing Orpal, and then Lith mustered all his courage and asked him to teach him how to read, write and count.

Raaz was flabbergasted. "You are too young! Usually kids wait until they are six years old to go to school and learn. Don't you think is boring?" That was the philosophy every man in his lineage had always uphold.

"Boring? What could possibly be more boring than sit here doing nothing? Like yesterday and the day before. And probably tomorrow too! Please daddy, try me! I beg you, please, please, please!"

Raaz didn't know how to say no. Lith had never asked him anything before.

"Even when he is clearly still hungry, if he notices there is no more food, he never asks for more." He thought "Unlike Orpal. I don't know if is Lith that is too good, or I am just spoiling Orpal too much."

He really wanted a way out, but Elina was already staring at him. Her hands never stopped sewing, her mouth explaining the girls what they were doing wrong, but her eyes were clearly set on him.

"Dammit, what can I say? Learning does not even require dangerous tools… That's it! The tools! I'm such a moron sometimes."

Raaz looked in Lith's puppy eyes, his heart squeezed as in a vice, but he still replied: "I'm sorry son, we have nothing you could possibly write on. So, I can't teach you."

Lith had considered things through before asking, so he had already a solution at hand. He picked the biggest tray they had, and filled it with the ashes collected in a bucket beside the fireplace.

"Now we do! We can write as much as we want!" Raaz was amazed by Lith's ingenuity, and so was Elina. He was about to object again when he noticed that the stare had turned into a frown. Her hands were moving too fast, and that meant trouble for him.

There was a storm outside, he could not run away from the one that was brewing inside. So with a deep sigh, he gave up.

"From what do you want to start?" Raaz could only hope that Lith would get bored fast and let him return to his leisure.

"Count!" Lith promptly replied. So Raaz sit on the floor beside him and started drawing lines in the ash. Lith was ecstatic.

The numbers they used had a different shape from the Arabic numerals, but aside from that they were identical in use, even the calculation methods were the same.

So, he kept the new numbers in the upper row to learn their shape, and then started doing the multiplication tables. He could actually do such simple math in his head, but he needed to engrave the new numbers in both his mind and body.

Once he finished, Lith started taking requests from his audience, and when Orpal sarcastically asked "How much is 124 times 11?" he quickly replied with flat "1364" leaving them all speechless.

Elina could not help herself standing up and lifting Lith up in a big hug.

"My little genius! I'm so proud of you!" In less than one hour he had mastered what it would take others a full year to do. Eliza and Tista soon joined her in the embrace, congratulating their little brother, while the male side of the family was still flabbergasted.

In rural areas they learned how to count only to not get ripped off when they sold or bought merchandise. So, they remembered only addition and subtraction, letting the useless multiplications and divisions fade away in their minds.

Reading and writing required more time, but it was equally simple. Lith already knew most of the words and how to spell them. He only needed to learn the alphabet and memorize it, to be able to read and write.

Once again his family was stunned, and the only one not rejoicing with them was Orpal, left alone with his envy and scorn.

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Having officially learned how read and write, Lith practiced every day. While his family considered him a genius, he knew better. Needing to practice hard to memorize just twenty-one letters and ten numbers, Lith did not feel much brilliant.

Striking the iron while it was still hot, he asked Raaz to carve for him a wooden ruler, 50 centimetres (19,7 inches) long and 3 centimetres (1,2 inches) both high and wide.

In the front he had engraved all the alphabet, on the back the numbers. It was Lith's clutch during his homework, a tool necessary for him to be free of practicing anytime without bothering his parents.

Raz was still on cloud nine, so he didn't make any question about the oddly big sizes Lith requested. He could have easily made it much thinner and shorter, making it easier to carry around. But Lith refused the proposal, begging him to fulfil his wish.

Lith had not missed Orpal's hostile glare every time someone called him a genius. He had to be sure for it to be not easy to break or go missing by "accident".

It was also the perfect pretext to always carry around something he could practice spirit magic on.

When the weather finally cleared up, Elina decided that it was the perfect moment for Tista to be checked out by Nana. With all the cold and wind during those last days, no matter how much effort Raaz and Orpal had put in the house's maintenance, it had still been kinda drafty.

Tista had been coughing enough for Elina being seriously worried about her. So, she took the mule cart and brought Tista and Lith to the village of Lutia.

The bad weather had lasted too long, and the accumulated farm work needed everyone's help to be finished before another frost wave arrived.

She had to bring Lith along, he was too small to be left alone. After stuffing them with the warmer clothes they had, the trip began.

Lith was really happy, it was the first time for him seeing the world outside the farm's bounds. There was much he could learn from such experience.

On the road they were bothered more than once by stray graaths. They were wasp like insects with a venomous sting at the end of their abdomen. Compared to Earth's wasps they were much hairier, and blue instead of yellow.

"Why in the Great Mother's name are they still around?" Elina complained. "They are supposed to be asleep during winter!"

One graath was particularly stubborn and despite all their shooing, it kept going back until it got too close to Tista for comfort.

Lith slammed his hands hard, missing it entirely. He was still nimble as a brick, but his spirit magic wasn't.

It had already reached a radius of full ten meters (32,8 feet) radius of effect, so the graath was squashed effortlessly.

Lith showed the prey with pride. "Don't worry big sister, I'll always protect you." After hugging him, Tista was really curious about the dead insect, but Elina was still worried by the venom, so after throwing it away, they resumed their trip.

When they came in sight of Lutia, much of Lith's doubts got cleared up. It wasn't just his family, the whole village resembled closely one of those early middle ages drawings he had seen in history books.

There was no sign of any complex technology, even a windmill or a watermill would have been considered a marvel of science.

When Lith asked Elina about the village, she explained that only artisans, scholars and merchants lived there, the rest of the population lived in their own farms tending the fields and raising livestock.

Lutia consisted in a few dozens of one or two stories high wooden houses well-spaced between them. Not even one was made out of stone or bricks.

There was also no road pavement of any sorts. The space between the houses was just like the road to the village, bare earth and mud.

From the signs hanged outside the buildings, he could spot a blacksmith, a tavern and a tailor shop.

The bakery didn't need any sign or advertisement, the delicious smell that came out its chimney was enough to make every passerby's mouth watery.

Lith's hunger stroke so hard that he already knew what he would have dreamed about that night.

When they arrived at Nana's house, Lith was surprised noticing it was bigger than their own, yet Elina had told him more than once that Nana lived alone.

In his eyes it meant that either she was from a rich family, or more likely healing was a lucrative business. Lith decided that he had to master light magic as soon as possible.

The door was open, and inside Lith felt the familiar feeling of a doctor's waiting room. Inside there was a single huge room that smelled of medicinal herbs and incense.

At the end of the room, on the left there was a door, probably leading to Nana's living quarter. On the right there was a huge wide curtain, behind which Nana was visiting and treating the patients.

The rest of the space was filled with benches and chairs, and many of them were already occupied.

It seemed that many families had decide to make use of the good weather. Elina removed all the extra clothing from her children before instructing them to be quiet and don't disturb others.

The waiting room was filled with bored mothers, and soon Elina joined the chatting, sharing her experiences and advices with them.

Lith could wander around undisturbed, the women were too busy keeping their children under control to take notice of his existence.

The room was bare and uninteresting, but once he got close to the curtain he stumbled on a treasure. He found a small open cabinet, filled with books about magic.

"Maybe in this world is the equivalent of a doctor hanging his degrees and masters." Many of the titles were specific about an element or its application, but one caught his eye immediately.

It had "The basics of magic" written on the cover. After checking that no one was paying him attention, he grabbed it and started reading.

"I'm only three years old. I can afford a better to ask forgiveness than permission attitude." Lith then moved to a corner, giving his back to the curtain hoping to go unnoticed as long as possible.

It was clearly a book for beginners, so he skipped the introduction going straight for the elements' description.

Lith discovered that water magic was not just about conjuring and manipulating water, it also allowed the user to lower anything's temperature. Any magic apprentice was supposed to be able to generate ice, and use it as a mean of both offence and defence.

Air magic too had an ability that he had never taken in consideration. Air magic highest peak was weather control, but even at the basic level a mage could generate lightning.

Fire and earth were just plain and simple as he had pictured them all along, so he moved to the last two elements.

While reading, it became clear to him that because of magic, whoever had written the book had no idea what anatomy was.

The book would speak about the importance of keeping a wound clean, there was no use of terms like disinfection or sepsis, so he barely found unknown medical terms.

Lith remained dumbfounded upon discovering that light and darkness were explained together instead that in separate chapters.

According to the book, both elements were the bread and butter of any healer. Darkness magic could be used as a weapon, but it was not explained in detail.

The author was very clear stressing out the fact that he was not a fighter, and that beginners should never bite more than they could chew.

Then he proceeded to explain that darkness magic wasn't either good or bad, just an element like the others. It was an invaluable tool for a healer, since it allowed to clean wounds, tools or even to fumigate houses from rats and insects to avoid the spreading of diseases.

Also, it was the only way of getting rid of parasites that had grown inside the patient, since light magic would allow the healer to detect their presence, but could do no harm to them.

Light and darkness worked best when used together. Light magic specialty was the ability to perceive life forces and scan them for anomalies. It also allowed to correct such anomalies and to guarantee an instant recovery from most diseases.

Restoring broken bones was more difficult, and was explained in another chapter.

Lith felt incredibly ignorant and stupid. He could have discovered most of those elemental properties on his own, if he hadn't been blinded by his narrow-minded superstition.

"How could I possibly have been so idiotic? I have lived here more than three years and I am still thinking like this is a video game with fixed rules and levels?!? Darkness is evil and light is holy or something? No, this is science, dammit, the same one I studied all my life. If fire magic is converting mana into heat, then water magic is nothing but converting mana into cold, condensing the water in the atmosphere and turning it into the liquid state. It's all so obvious, it's like the damned Culumbus' egg!"

He was about to turn the page and learn about healing broken bones when a firm hand squeezed his shoulder, locking him into place.

"That's not a toy, young man. I really hope that you have not damaged it, otherwise your family will have pay for it dearly."

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Lith had been so engrossed reading to forget where he was, throwing caution to the wind. When Nana caught him red handed, he was startled enough to yelp.

"I thought I knew every single rascal, but I fail to recognize this one. What's your name, kid?"

"Lith. What's yours?" He replied while making puppy eyes. Nana was now more curious than angry.

"Lith? Do you mean Elina's little imp? No wonder your face is new to me, you were just a new born the last time I saw you."

Nana's presence had made the chatter stop. Some women wanted to ask her how long until their turn, others were just curious, Elina jumped out from her chair apologizing on Lith's behalf.

"There's no need to apologize, Elina." Nana said. "No harm, no foul. The little imp has not damaged the book while playing with it."

"Yes mom, there is no need to apologize." Lith hated when someone spoke of him like he wasn't there. "And I was not playing with it, I was just reading."

"Reading? Young man, how old are you? Three years and something? If this is a joke, it's not funny. I never expected one of Elina's children to be such a liar."

"He is not lying. During the last storm, Lith was bored, so he asked his father to teach him how to read, write and count. Here is proof." Elina handed Nana the wooden ruler.

Elina's rebuttal had caught her by surprise, she realized to have struck a nerve. After studying the ruler, Nana had to admit it was a clever learning tool.

"Tell your husband that this thing is really a good idea. He could sell it to teacher Hawell. It never hurts to have extra money."

Elina wouldn't let her change the subject, not until she apologized for calling her son a liar.

"Raaz didn't invent it. Lith did, so he could study alone without bothering anyone."

Nana was shaken by all those sudden revelations. Her pride wanted to avoid apologizing, but insinuating that Elina too was lying in front of all those people would have hurt her whole family's reputation.

"So, young man, how much is seven times six?"

"Forty-two."

Nana took the book from Lith's hands, and after opening a random page, she gave it back.

"What is written there? Start from the top of the page."

Lith suppressed a smirk. "The first thing to understand while studying magic is that it's just a tool. Anyone can use it, but only few can actually use it properly. In fact…"

"Okay, that's enough. I owe you an apology Lith." Yet she said it while looking at Elina. "Seems your son is indeed blessed by the light, dear."

The room was once again resounding with chatter, but this time they were all discussing the same topic.

"What does Nana mean with blessed by the light? Isn't that just a fairy tale?"

"I wish my son was that smart. Every morning just sending him to school is a war of attrition. Not to mention getting some actual results!"

Those were the most common comments.

Lith kept hitting the iron while it was still hot.

"Can I…" Suddenly he realized that he ignored the word borrow. "take it with me for some time? I will return it as it is. I promise."

"And what would you do with it? Can you already use magic?" Nana's reply would have normally been quite different, but she had had enough surprises for the day and could not afford anymore sarcasm or scepticism.

"Yes, I can." Lith replied before realizing his mistake.

"I'm an idiot! I just blew my cover! Years of careful planning, ruined by this big mouth of mine. The only thing I can do is damage control."

"Really? And what can you do?"

"Yes, Lith. What can you do?" Elina rebuked. Her right foot was furiously tapping the floor in annoyance, Lith knew he was in trouble.

"I can do wind and water chore magic." He said with a low apologetic tone, while staring at his own shoes.

"I'm sorry, mom, I know you prohibited me to use any magic. But everyone else in the house always uses it, and I was so bored."

The chattering increased in volume. Elina was really angry, but she could not scold him in public. Not when they were staring at them with admiration.

"Nana seems really impressed. Maybe this is a turning point in Lith's life. If she takes him as her apprentice, we could have a healer in our family. I can't ruin this opportunity."

So, she kept silent, wondering about his son's future.

"Would you please show me?" Nana asked, smiling for the first time.

"In for a penny, in for a pound. Here goes everything." Lith thought.

"Brezza!"

Lith twirled his middle and index finger two times, creating as many tiny whirlwinds that he used to quickly sweep the room. He pretended to lose control from time to time. His goal was to impress, not to brag or scare people out of their wits.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Nana laughed in admiration. she could see more and more of her in the little imp. Nana too had been a precocious brat. When she was his age her talent was better, but Lith was still a sight to behold.

Usually men were less talented for magic, since women with their prerogative to give birth, were naturally more in tune with the life force of the planet. Some called that world energy, others simply called it mana.

Also, country boys were usually blockheads, more inclined to hard works in the fields or in the military rather than spend years on books.

"Now I want you to do a thing for me. You said you can conjure water, right?"

Lith nodded in response.

"Now call upon water, it does not matter how little. But then, you have to not let it fall. You must make it float, like this." A perfect sphere of water the size of a fist appeared half a meter from Nana's open hand.

Lith could not comprehend the why of such a specific request, but he complied.

"Jorun!" He conjured less than a glass worth of water, keeping its form irregular and instable. Lith could not afford any more mistakes, his focus peaked trying to make his lack of control convincing.

The water floated for three seconds before falling off. But instead of hitting the floor it started floating again, becoming another perfect sphere orbiting around Nana's spell like the Moon does around the Earth.

Lith was flabbergasted. Not by Nana's control on the mana flow, he was already able of doing the same, if not better.

He could not avert the eyes from the spectacle in front of him. Both spheres of water were constantly spinning on themselves, reflecting everything around them. They would capture the light from the sun, turning it into sparkles of rainbow.

Lith had always seen magic like a force to be reckoned with, a great tool to build his future with. But he never thought of it as beautiful.

For the first time in over three years he was not pretending anymore. He was simply amazed, staring at the dancing lights while the memories of his old life flooded his mind.

He suddenly remembered all the hours that he spent as kid, hiding in the planetarium together with his little brother Carl. They would dream of becoming astronauts, to run away to the stars where no one would ever hurt them again.

And just like that his grief returned, stronger than ever, fighting the joy out. The pain for the loss overwhelmed him, tears started streaming from his eyes.

"Lith, are you all right?" Elina voice woke him up from his stupor.

Realizing how weak he had allowed himself to be, Lith felt deeply disgusted.

"Water is just water, no need to get soft over a measly light show. Soldier up and follow the plan." Lith steeled himself sealing away all the feelings that he deemed useless. "I'm done getting hurt." He thought.

"Yes, mommy, I am alright. I was just moved from the old lady's magic."

"My name is Nerea, Lith. But everyone calls me Nana."

"Why Nana?" Nana was usually a term of endearment used for the family's grandmother.

"You see, when I was still was a young maiden, everyone called me by my name. But then time passed, and I helped so many children come into this world that they started to call me Mama. After even more time passed, those children had children of their own, and they started to call me Nana." She ruffled Lith's hair.

"I have a proposal for you. Now you are too little, but when you become six years old, instead of going to school together with those blockheads, you could come here instead. So, you could read those books as much as you want. And maybe you could learn a trade. Mine."

Lith tilted his head, playing dumb.

"I don't know, you don't seem nice. I would like the books, though." He replied while hiding behind his mother, only half his face visible behind her legs.

Elina didn't know if to laugh or cry. Her dream had come true but Lith didn't understand what he was turning down.

"Please, excuse him, Nana. He is just three years old, he has no idea what he is saying. He doesn't even know the importance of apprenticeship."

"Three years old." Nana repeated. "It's almost too good to be true. But you are right, if he had to choose between gold and toys, he would probably pick the latter.

We'll have this conversation again three years from now." She knelt down, looking Lith straight in the eyes.

"If you don't become dumb as all the other boys in this village, I'll take you as my apprentice. If you are still interested in magic and books, of course."

Lith nodded, grabbing his mother gown, looking for protection.

His weak and scared appearance hid his inner rage.

"Three years? I could have as well starved by then! And all because of you, greedy hag." He was so sick of being hungry, he wanted to bite her out of frustration.

"Calm down, Derek, and remember all of your lessons. Suck it up and grow stronger, because only strength will make you free. Only power will keep your family safe."

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Nana's work ethic didn't allow for favouritism of any kind. Lith may have been his future apprentice, but Tista had to wait for her turn like everyone else.

Lith hadn't been so happy of being stuck in the queue since his student's days in college, when he would use every single second to review his weakest subjects.

"So much to read and so little time. Better to cram light and dark magic since they are the only elements outside the physics as I know it. In the best-case scenario, it will take years to get my hands on a book again, and there is only so much I can learn as self-taught."

When it came their turn, he studied carefully how the healer performed the light magic Vinire Rad Tu.

It was the same life force detecting spell she had used on him three years ago, and this time he had a better understanding of magic and a way better standpoint.

Being next to her, Lith could appreciate every gesture and hand movement Nana used to amplify the spell effectiveness. The light enveloped Tista's body, quickly turning grey around her chest, clearly outlining the shape of her lungs.

"I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that Tista's condition is the same as always, there is no sign of degeneration this time. The bad news is that it doesn't seem to be improving either. I'm afraid that she will remain like this forever. The more she grows, the lesser the chances that her body will be able to somehow fix itself."

The air in the room turned heavy, a lifetime of illness was barely better than no life at all.

Lith was so shocked to completely forget about the books. The whole world meant nothing to him if he could not share it with the only three people he loved and trusted.

They came out of Nana's house in low spirits, returning home without speaking a word.

Once arrived, Elina shared the bad news, searching for Raaz arms before starting to cry. One by one, the whole family burst into tears, hugging each other in search of comfort.

Lith allowed himself to cry, cursing the cruel fate that had befallen his sister.

"What good is magic if I keep being helpless? Why do I keep reincarnating, simply to replace one living hell with another? Is this just bad luck or is it my fault? Could it be that in some previous life I committed such an atrocious act that now all those I love are cursed? Could this be my punishment?"

During the following days Lith kept second guessing every life choice he made, before accepting the fact that bad things happens. Tista was already ill when he resurrected for the second time, it couldn't be his fault.

Having been accepted as Nana's apprentice, he could now practice magic openly. Soon he proved capable of cleaning the whole house by himself, relieving his mother and sisters from all the chores.

Thanks to darkness magic, cleaning dishes and cauldrons became a matter of minutes. Nothing organic, be it food residue or grease could escape being turned into dust by a single spark of dark energy.

He also made countless experiments with light magic, in search for a cure. Yet all he managed to do was keeping the symptoms at bay. Tista now needed much less treatments from Nana, but was still prisoner in her own body.

This caused Orpal to hate him more and more.

"Show off! How I am supposed to enjoy my life with him constantly breathing on my neck? Not only Leech shares the housework with mom, but also spends so much time with Tista. Mom and dad always praised him for his so-called talent and intelligence. And now they never shut up about Leech saving the family a lot of money, by tending Tista's condition on his own. No one gives a damn about me wasting my time and sweat doing all the farm work! Gods, why did you let him live? Why you didn't give me any talent?"

Oblivious of his brother's feelings, Lith was not coping much better. His magic power and comprehension of mana kept growing, but it could not erase the perpetual taste of failure that accompanied him.

In the following year he could not feel any joy regarding magic, every discovery was useless, all his power meaningless.

And so, he was finally four years old. The period between four and six years in Lutia was called "the golden age" since the child was big enough to have some freedom and too little to be of any help in the daily activities.

They would be allowed to play all day without a care in the world. It was the perfect time to make friends and grow closer to one's own neighbours and deepen the ties between the families.

The day of his fourth birthday, after he finished the chores, Eliza introduced him to all their neighbours before returning home.

He was supposed to socialize and play, but Lith had other plans. There was no amount of failures or grieve that could make him forget for long the hunger that consumed him since he was barely five months old.

Raaz's farm was on the western edge of Lutia's farmlands, a little less than a kilometre (0.62 miles) apart from the great woods known as Trawn.

Despite the pretentious name it wasn't particularly dangerous. The people who lived in nearby villages depended on the forest as their primary source of timber for their everyday life.

Trawn was also abundant in wildlife, so those bold and lucky enough would go hunting all year around, searching for precious meat, warm fur or both.

It was impossible to meet monsters in the forest, unless one went several kilometres deep. Since there was no need for exploring Trawn in detail, the inner areas were still uncharted territory.

There was a reason if Lith had never practiced martial arts in the new world, not even the footwork. The constant practice of magic required a lot of energy, and his household lacked the necessary resources for his training.

Lith was already skinnier than all of his siblings, any more exertion and he would turn in a pile of bones. He needed food.

But being a city boy, he knew nothing about butchering, he needed a teacher. And that was why he was headed for the house of Selia Fastarrow, the only hunter among their neighbours.

"The problem is that I have no idea how to get her to help. I'm still too little for apprenticeship, and even if I wasn't, it's unlikely she had not heard about Nana's offer. She has nothing to gain helping me. I can only hope she is a kind and benevolent woman."

Selia's house was a single-story wooden house, much smaller than Lith's, about sixty square meters large. There was no henhouse or barn. Except for the space in near proximity of the house, the fields were uncultivated, full of weeds, tall grass and whatever the wind hand planted over time.

"She clearly has no interest in farming and stockbreeding, and that's good news. Means her business is good enough. I wonder what's in the shed near the house. It's almost as big as the house itself."

Lith knocked, his innards tied in a knot from the nervousness. The door opened almost immediately.

"You again? Are you lost or something?" Selia was a woman in her early thirties, 1.7 meters tall, the skin tanned from the years long exposure to the sun. Her black hair was kept short with a haircut identical to Earth's military standards.

She could have been considered very cute, but the small bosom coupled with her sharp eyes and rough attitude made her manlier than most farmers.

She wore a leather hunting jacket over a green shirt, green cargo pants and brown hunting boots with a soft outer sole to limit the noise made while moving.

"Hi miss Fastarrow, I need a favour. Could you please teach me how to skin and gut animals?"

Selia raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because I am hungry." Not having any lever on her, Lith had decided that truth was the best policy. "I have been hungry long enough to forget how being full feels. I know I can hunt, but I also know that without proper handling meat goes bad and is inedible."

"No, you got me wrong. I mean why should I help you? What's in for me?" Now she was knitting her eyebrows.

"What do you want?" Lith asked while bottling up the urge to kill her slow and painfully. He was hungry enough to see her as quarry.

"Honestly, I don't believe a runt that barely reaches my belt can hunt anything, not even a rat. And since teaching is a waste of time, it demands compensation."

She scratched her chin searching for a deal bad enough to drive the pest away. She never wanted a child of her own, let alone dealing with someone else's.

"So, if you want to learn from me, first you must bring here some game. If you mess up while playing butcher, you'll ruin my merchandise, wasting my goods and time. So here is my deal, whatever you bring me, I'll teach you how to skin and gut it. But half of it is mine for the trouble. Take it or leave it."

"So much for the kind and benevolent woman, this is plain extortion." Lith thought.

"I'll take it. How long will you stay home?" He replied.

"I'll be here all day, I have a lot of work to do. Why?"

"Because when I get back with my prey, I'll need your help. Don't forget our deal."

Lith turned around, moving toward the woods. Seeing the little runt act all tough, without a bow, traps or even just a bag for the game, Selia could not help but laugh out loud. That until the door suddenly slammed on her face, sending her butt first on the floor. After getting up, she went to the nearest window.

Lith was still in the same spot, but his face was turned towards her door, his eyes glowing bright in the dim light of the dawn.

After getting at the edge of the woods he activated the light spell Life Vision. It was one of his creations from the last year of practice. By infusing his eyes with light magic, Lith was able to see living beings as coloured, while the rest of the world was turned into shades of grey. The stronger the lifeforce, the bigger and brighter was the light emitted. This way he could easily spot animals, even if they were hiding underground, in bushes or inside a tree.

Lith did not need to hunt something big, as long as it was meat it was the perfect prey.

Most of the animals would run away as soon he came too close, but not all of them. Birds and squirrels perched on tree branches felt safe. But Lith's spirit magic had reached a range of over twenty meters (21.9 yards), they were all within his reach.

He only needed to extend his open hand towards the quarry, then squeeze and turn it for a neck to be broken. In less than twenty minutes he had killed 2 odd feathered birds and two squirrels.

"I could catch more, but I want to pay that harpy as little as possible."

While returning to the huntress' house, his greed was debating fiercely with his rage.

"Dammit! I wish I could just ask my father. Our farm has a henhouse, we eat chicken, so he must know how to butcher it. But if I do, then I will be forced to share MY quarry in equal parts. And if there is something that I hate more than being robbed by that harpy is the idea of Orpal and Trion having the same amount of meat as me. Or worse, even more, being older. I hunted this game! This meat is mine, MINE! They will only be allowed to eat my scraps when and if I want so!"

When Lith got to the door he had calmed down, the rage hidden by his business face. He took deep breaths before knocking again.

When Selia saw him, was on the verge of mocking him, calling him a quitter for giving up in less than an hour. But then Lith showed her his game, making her whole "Never underestimate how hard a hunter's job is" speech die in her throat.

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"How did you do it?" Selia asked, still recovering from the surprise.

"Magic. I am blessed by the light. Didn't you hear the news?" Selia started rummaging her brain, until the answer made sense.

"Ohh! I get it now. You are the magic kid that's on everybody's mouth in Lutia. That's explains a lot, including your shitty attitude."

"Excuse me? You found a scrawny kid on your door, asking for help. And what you did was send him away with a rip-off deal, even laughing at his efforts, and I am the one with a shitty attitude?" Lith was now so angry that even the idea of sharing his prey did not seem so bad anymore.

Selia laughed out loud. "Kid, you really are funny in the head. First, when you come at the door of a stranger asking for help, the best you can hope for is to be sent away with a polite kick in the butt. If I had to comply with every madman's request, I would be broke in a jiffy. Second, you had the guts to slam the door at me and then come back like nothing happened. That's a shitty attitude."

Listening to her point of view, Lith could only agree. For four years he had been a recluse, his only interactions with the family members. He had got too used getting a yes as an answer, forgetting the basic social interaction rules and even common sense.

His hunger didn't help either, making him single minded and prone to anger. Lith realized that Selia was right, and what he did that morning was just a temper tantrum.

"I'm really sorry." He said earnestly, looking her in the eyes. "I have no excuses from my behaviour. I would understand if you wanted to call off our deal."

Selia started laughing even harder.

"Hold your horses, kid. I said that you are crazy and rude, and I like that. As you so kindly pointed out, I'm a bit of jerk myself. And dog does not eat dog, our deal is still valid."

She handed him a small knife with a wooden handle.

"Rule number one, bleed out the game as soon as possible. If the blood starts clotting, the meat is ruined. Make a deep incision in the neck and then hang them upside down, to make the blood drain out." She pointed him to a clothesline.

"When you don't need the fur, I always cut off the head directly, makes things faster."

Lith put down the knife and conjured water, making it coat his whole hand. Then he froze it, turning it into a razor-sharp blade, cutting off the birds' head, using the knife only for the squirrels.

Selia whistled with approval.

"Nice trick. You don't shy away from blood, don't you?"

"As I have told you before, I am hungry. Too hungry to care about big round eyes or a warm fur, I only see them as food."

Selia gave him thumbs up. "That's the right attitude for a hunter!"

Then she took the animals and hanged them, thinking the clothesline was too high for Lith to reach. Lith did not feel the need to correct her.

"Since we are building a master-apprentice relationship and all that cr*p, mind you telling why come to me instead of your father or mother? I don't know your family, but this is something that any farmer knows how to do. It would be too expensive having someone else butcher your livestock."

"Indeed." Lith concurred pondering how to answer. He looked her straight in the eyes before asking. "Juts between us, master-apprentice secret and all that cr*p?"

Selia nodded, surprised receiving an actual answer instead of a cranky remark.

"As far as I can remember, me and my brothers never had a good relationship. Things are pretty bad, especially with my older brother."

Lith decided that he needed to take that load off his chest. Talking to a stranger was the best way to relieve his stress and ruin Orpal reputation. Truth was indeed the best policy.

"I do not know if it's because of my magic, but I always ate a lot. That would not be a big deal if I hadn't four siblings, one of which has a congenital condition. Her treatments cost quite a lot, and that is barely necessary to keep her house ridden."

"Thank the Gods I'm an only child. But what does that have to do with your older brother?" Lith pretended to not have heard her.

"This means that despite my parents' hard work, we don't have much food on the table." Lith pointed at his thin arm, to make her feel guilt. "And my brother is a growing boy too, so he would like to have much more chow than he actually has.

From time to time, especially during winter, he had fits of rage, where he would accuse me of everything that goes wrong in his life. He often said things like:

Why the heck did you have so many children if you cannot properly feed them? Why does he have to get almost as much as food as me? He does nothing, while I work my ass in the fields all year around! This is not my brother, this is a Leech that is sucking my life away! I wish you died that cursed day!" Lith did his best Orpal impression.

"Are you making this up to make me feel guilty, kid? Because that's sick." Selia was knitting her eyebrows, doubting someone could say such things to his little brother.

Lith shook his head, sighing.

"I wish."

"Did your father give him a good beating? Maybe that could help him come to his senses."

Lith shook his head again. "No. This started when I was still very little, and even when my father resorted to spanking, it only made thing worse. To the point that I now sleep in the girl's room."

Selia bit her lips, to avoid making a sex joke. "Too soon."

"Too soon for what?"

"Nothing. Please continue."

"That was until a year ago. Then I started practicing magic, and soon I was skilled enough to do almost all house chores by myself. Sometimes I help with the livestock too. I even managed to keep my sister's condition under control." Lith took a deep breath before finding the strength to add "Most of the times."

"Then everything should be good now, right?"

"Wrong. The house needs repairs, and so does the barn and most of the working tools. If you also take in consideration all the random sh*t that happens and takes priority, I don't see our situation getting any better soon, and neither does my brother.

Now he can't put the blame on me anymore, so the last time he took it out on my ill sister, saying things that I refuse to repeat out loud." Lith spat on the ground to get rid of the dirty taste the memory gave him.

"To the point of saying that it would be better for her to…" Lith pointed at the hanged game.

"To put her down like an animal? Kid, we may be jerks, but your brother is a lunatic."

Lith gritted his teeth, remembering Orpal's exact words.

"It would be much better for her, for all of us! She can't run, she can't work. Tista will never be able to make friends, fall in love or have children of her own. She is bound to be a burden for the family. And what will happen when you guys are no more? Who will take care of her? Eliza? Or maybe the little Leech wonder?"

Lith could still vividly recall his mother crying from those cruel words. Eliza and Tista running into her arms. Raaz beating Orpal so hard he could not walk for days.

"Indeed." He replied to Selia with a growl. "And that's is why I despise him and don't want him to touch a single bite of MY game."

"I get it. I don't even know him and already hate that guy's guts too."

"No, I don't hate him." Lith corrected her "Hate, just like love, is an irrational feeling, while my contempt for him has sound foundations."

"Wow! Such profound notion for someone so young. Worthy of a hunter!

Now enough chit chat, it's time to get to work."

Selia took down the squirrels, passing one to Lith.

"We will start with the little critters. They are smaller and better for practice, since even if you mess up is no big deal, there is not much meat in here."

She placed a squirrel on a cutting board, and prepared another for Lith.

"What I am going to teach you stands for most rodents, but just in case, if you ever find a rabbit that still has a snow-white fur, bring it to me. It is valuable only until it starts turning brown for the spring. Even a tiny mistake can ruin the fur, lowering its value."

Selia handed him the short knife again. "If you want me to teach you properly, let's do things my way. Use the knife, do as I do and follow my instructions."

Lith nodded in approval.

"On the squirrel's back pinch its hide and cut it near the base of the neck so to expose at least half of it. Now use your index finger and middle finger on both hands to create an opening after you have made the cut. Use your fingers to hook up under the skin and pull one hand towards the rear and the other hand towards its head..."

During the process, Lith noticed that beside being disgusting, skinning a squirrel was like taking off a sticky wet glove.

After that Selia showed him how to remove the head, the legs and the tail.

"I know is a bummer, but that bushy tail is no fur, is all goddamn body hair. You can still use it to stuff things, is very warm and soft. Now comes the tricky part.

When we proceed to gut anything, be careful while making incisions. If you cut open the bladder or the intestines, the meat is ruined by bile or feces. There is no saving it. This stands for all the animals, so pay attention, kid."

Gutting the squirrel was bloody and gruesome, but Lith could already smell the meat at the end of the tunnel, so he barely felt any discomfort.

When they finished, Selia put both squirrels on a skewer, to roast them in her fireplace.

"While we wait for our morning snack, I'll show you how to scald a bird for the plucking. As the name implies, water must not be too hot or cold, just enough for you to immerse a finger without getting a burn, but unable to hold the finger in for more than a second without burning yourself. That's proper scalding temperature."

Selia took a big cauldron, positioning it over a campfire she had always ready on the back of her house.

"It can be a messy job, so it's better to do it outside whenever is possible."

The smell of the meat cooking inside was making Lith's mouth watery, he could not afford the risk of them burning.

"Jorun!" At his command the cauldron became immediately filled with water.

Lith then stuck his hand in the water casting "Infiro!" making it emit steam.

Selia whistled again with approval.

"Fast and efficient. I'm starting to regret this master-apprentice stuff less and less.

I now understand why that old hag of Nerea called dibs on you. We should be ready to go, but first…"

Selia went inside briefly, returning with two little plates of roasted squirrel.

Before she could even pass him his plate, Lith had already snatched the food, wolfing it down like there was no tomorrow. He sucked and gnawed until only bones were left.

After licking every single of his fingers, he returned to his previous calm and composed demeanour.

"Good gods, such a gentleman." Selia's voice was oozing sarcasm. "Would you like another serving? Because that seriously creeped me out and I know a thing or two about…"

Her mockery fell on deaf ears. Lith's eyes could only see the second squirrel closing in. As soon as Selia pretended to offer him her share, his hands were already moving.

After devouring the last squirrel, Lith noticed that Selia was frozen in place.

Her mouth was open but no words were coming out of it, the plate still near his face.

He gently put the bones back into the plate.

"There was no need to hold the plate for me, but thanks. That was very kind of you."

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After resolving the morning snack incident, Selia prepared the working table for the remaining game.

"The birds you caught are called blinkers, because they get scared easily and are very quick to fly away. Usually you need luck and skill to take them down from a distance. Whatever magic you performed, it made a clean kill. Aside from the broken neck, both the feathers and the body are unscathed."

Lith accepted the compliment with a small bowing.

"It's just a matter of finesse in using air magic, nothing special."

Selia's curiosity was far from being satisfied, but she decided not to pry further.

"Scalding is easy and quick. You only need to throw the poultry in the cauldron for about 45 seconds. Is better to gently stir the water in the process, to clean the birds from dirt and external parasites. It also helps loosening most of the feathers. Never scald too long, or the meat could start to boil. Not to mention the risk of rupturing the organs, ruining the meat."

Lith took charge of the scalding process, waving his right hand to take control of the water in the cauldron, stirring it and adjusting the force of the current according to Selia's directions.

"Dammit, kid. You are really starting to make me regret to have never given a damn about magic or learning it."

"You don't know how to use magic?" Lith was astonished.

"No, and before today I was proud of it. I consider chore magic a simple parlour trick. Why waste my time learning how to do things with it when I get faster and better results by using my hands?" Selia shrugged. "Now get the blinkers out of the water, time to get serious."

Beside the scalding and the plucking that replaced the skinning process, gutting poultry resulted really similar to his previous experience with the squirrel, except he had also to remove to crop, the neck and the oil gland.

Once they finished, Lith's eyes enjoyed the results, noticing that aside from the blinker's skin being a little more porous compared to a chicken's, it was just a roast away from what he would purchase back on Earth.

"How do I cook it?"

"Still hungry even after two squirrels?"

"Yes, very." The previous meal was just an appetizer, he was far from satisfied. "Please, let's use the outdoor campfire. I need to get used to not using a fireplace."

Selia slammed her hand on her forehead. "Right, right. I almost forgot about your family issues."

After instructing him how to choose the right spot for a campfire, she showed him how to improvise a kebab with wood sticks. The final lesson was about how high to set the kebab to avoid burning the food and how to recognise when it was ready to be eaten.

After memorizing everything, Lith imbued his eyes with fire magic, activating the Fire Vision spell, that granted him an improved version of thermal goggles.

He then started to weave together fire and wind magic, keeping the heat stable with no hot or cold spots, while using air currents to cook every nook and cranny of the meat evenly.

Such fine control required for him to move both his hands and feet, to watch his meal from different angles and adjusting the mana flow.

His movements were akin to a combination of martial arts katas.

Selia was about to mock him about how performing a victory dance for a single blinker was a little extreme, when the delicious smell reached her nose.

The blinker was getting roasted with a speed visible to the naked eye, the skin turning into a crispy crust, releasing the fat that was masterfully spreaded evenly.

The smell was so good that her stomach started grumbling, despite she had consumed her breakfast less than two hours ago.

Lith lifted the skewer with spirit magic and after lowering the temperature to avoid burning himself while eating, he started wolfing down the meat ripping it apart with his bare hands.

First the drumsticks, then the breast and lastly the wings.

It lacked salt, and the meat wasn't as tender as a roasted chicken since they had not let the meat undergo any maturation. Nonetheless it was the best meal Lith had ever had.

"I can't believe it, I cannot feel the hunger anymore." Lith fell to his knees from the happiness, his eyes wet on the verge of shedding tears.

But that moment passed quickly.

"I need more! I can't allow the hunger to cripple me again." Lith looked at the sun, there were still a couple of hours before noon, he had still time for more hunting.

"Master Selia, I need a favour. I need a place to hide my own game, the one I am not willing to share."

"Just call me Selia, hunters do not waste time with honorifics, we are practical people."

She waved her hand dismissing the need for a title.

"As for your request, I don't make favours, only deals. What about this: from tomorrow onwards you will come here every day and clean my house, and maybe from time to time cook something for me with that silly dance of yours.

In exchange, I will keep your personal meat safe and sound, and whenever you cook for me, we will share the meal evenly. Deal?" Selia offered him her hand.

It was still a rip-off, but it was his only option.

"Deal. I have only one rule. I don't do laundry."

In the next days Lith's house resounded with much more laughter and joy than usual. Him bringing game home had raised some questions, but nothing he couldn't explain easily.

The food helped everyone to relax and let go of the stress of the past. Even Lith and Orpal started to smooth over their relationship, limiting the glares and insults to a couple every day.

But more importantly, Lith could finally start practicing martial arts again. His routine was very simple, hunting in the morning, magical training in the afternoon, martial arts at night.

Thanks to the Invigoration breathing technique, Lith was now able to stay up for almost a week before being forced to rest.

He would sneak out of the house as soon his Life Vision spell confirmed that everyone was asleep.

Once outside he would create mud dummies with earth magic to both practice martial techniques and temper his body. His first priority was the footwork.

Maybe it was because he was only four years old, or maybe it was the lack of activity due to the previous constant hunger, but his body was embarrassingly clumsy and lacked coordination.

Whenever someone threw anything at him, even a chestnut from a meter away (3 feet), he would either miss it entirely or dunk it on the floor.

Lith knew that despite his spellcasting was very quick, especially spirit magic, it was not instant. He could not afford to become a sitting duck as soon as someone closed in too much.

Learning magic was powerful, but not omnipotent. What good could possibly do to him being able to topple mountains only to get killed by a random thug that managed to snuck up on him.

Even back on Earth Lith had always thought that considering mind and body as separate entities was dumb. Exercise had always allowed him to relief his stress and relax his mind. Exactly like studying always allowed him to perform at his best, be it at work or martial arts.

Brute strength was just violence, pure intellect just ideas with no substance. Only when mind and body were trained together the body could perform as the mind required.

About a week after Lith had begun training, something happened.

He was alone at night, practicing footwork by circling around the dummies, when he felt that something was wrong.

Pain burst from his mana core and quickly spreaded to his whole body, accompanied by a head-spinning nausea like he had never experienced before.

"What's happening to me?" He screamed inwardly. "This can't be a bottleneck, the last one resolved just yesterday, and no bottleneck ever felt like this."

Soon he started gasping for air, incapable to stand up anymore and writhing in pain.

"I can't die! I don't want to die again, not after enduring so much. I refuse to become some slave in a distant galaxy or an old man waiting for death. I had enough! I refuse to die!"

He used all his willpower to convert every iota of his mana into light magic, fighting off the affliction that was tormenting him, but to no avail.

The pain got worse and worse, his power incapable of keeping up.

When he surrendered, the burning sensation was finally free to rise all the way up to his mouth.

Then he started puking lumps of a black, sticky substance that looked like tar but smelled like something had died and rotted for weeks under the summer heat.

They were the size of a nut, but the strain he felt was akin to have barfed two elephants walking side by side.

The stench was so bad that even in his incapacitated state he found the strength to summon some dark magic to destroy them without leaving traces.

Lith spent the next minutes spitting, drinking, even eating grass to get rid of that revolting taste in his mouth.

When everything returned normal, Lith was too exhausted to practice, so he had to use Invigoration to return his body to peak condition.

As soon as Lith started executing the breathing technique, he discovered that he was now able to sense his mana core with much greater clarity.

While absorbing the world energy with Invigoration, he could feel and manipulate the mana flowing through his blood vessels and his organs to the point of visualize even the residual magic in his hair.

Despite his eyes being closed shut, Lith could see inside his body as he was observing a state-of-the-art full body scan 3D.

Still dizzy, he tried performing the footwork exercise again. Lith's movements were still far from perfect, but he no longer felt like having two left feet.

"It's an amazing improvement considering that until a minute ago my goal was stop tripping on my own feet. I wonder…"

Lith stretched forward his right hand opened, applying spirit magic to the head of the dummies.

"The best I could do before, with so many targets at once, was to squeeze them a little. And now..."

He clenched his fist, faster and harder than ever before.

The dummies' heads popped like balloons.

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During the following days, Lith made several discoveries about the changes he had undergone. His body felt lighter than ever, all his physical abilities augmented, all his senses sharper and heightened, compared to before.

There had also been cosmetic changes in his appearance. The moles on his body had visibly shrank, his skin was smoother than after a Spa treatment back on Earth and most of the freckles around his nose and eyes had disappeared.

Lith took note of all these changes, trying to understand what had happened, but he could not care less about beautifying effects. Even with no moles and freckles at all, he would still look like a crude hillbilly.

If his mother had passed anything to him, he was unable to notice. Unlike his sisters, Lith had nothing of her beauty or grace. Elina moved like a ballerina, while he was rough and clumsy enough to feel like a caveman.

Lith had deep set eyes like his father, a high forehead and a nose a little too big to be proportionate to his visage.

He wasn't ugly but not even cute. The best he could give himself was a solid six out of ten. Lith's only hope for improvement was the teenage growth spurt, to get rid of his thin and scrawny build.

Figuring out the changes in the mana core required even more time. Lith understood that his mana had undergone a qualitative change, becoming purer and denser.

This allowed him to cast stronger spells, also reducing the time he needed manipulate elemental and spirit magic, resulting in faster casting speed.

Through Invigorate, he could now spot the presence of that tar-like material scattered all around his body, in his organs, blood vessels and even in the neural pathway.

Whenever he used the Accumulation technique, he could feel the smaller tar-like particles being pulled toward the mana core, while the bigger ones would fragment over time, shrinking in size before actually moving.

Confident in his new strength, Lith started getting deeper in the woods, hunting for bigger preys. He was no longer afraid of predators. Instead of avoiding them, he started looking out for them.

Lith wanted for his family to have enough fur to make a set of warm clothes for everyone. He was sick of being forced to wear so many layers of clothes during winter, that he was unable to walk properly, swinging every step like a penguin.

The problem was that Lith still moved through the forest making a lot of noise, exuding enough killing intent to scare away anything that wasn't stupid or desperate enough to stand in his way.

It was only thanks to the Life Vision spell combined with spirit magic that he was still capable of hunting. The spirit magic range had expanded to over 30 meters (32.8 yards) range, so he could easily kill any animal that tried to escape by climbing trees or by taking flight.

When Lith wasn't able to catch anything, he would shoot down any bird that made the mistake of flying within his scope.

One day, Lith was exploring a new area of the Trawn woods, hoping to find a fur wearing meal, killing two birds with one stone.

While looking at a small mound, his Life vision spotted three lifeforces hiding a few meters underground. They were not strong enough to be predators, but they were big enough to be a perfect lunch.

"If those are rodents or other smart animals, there could be more than one exit. I have no time to waste, I'll force them out!"

After getting on the highest spot of the mound, always keeping both eyes on the prize, he used earth magic.

"Magna!" The ground around him started to shake, making the burrow and the small tunnels collapse. The creatures started panicking, taking the most direct route out.

Lith started running, following their underground movements as close as possible, not letting them get out of the spirit magic range.

From a well-hidden hole near a bush, came out three big fat rabbits, two of them still wearing a snow-white fur.

"Lucky!" Lith screamed while snapping his fingers, forcing the rabbits' neck to a 180 turn.

"I'll keep the brown white one for myself, while I'll trade the other two pelts with Selia for some fur of lesser quality but much more quantity. Today is really my lucky day."

Lith was so used being alone in the woods to always think out loud, to break the feeling of isolation. He hung the rabbits to his belt by the ears and started walking toward Selia's house.

After a few steps, Lith heard an odd sound closing in. He had never heard it before, so he started looking around for its source. Soon he could see two horses in the distance, galloping in his direction.

"F*ck! It seems I have been too loud. Fight or flight?" To answer his own question, he activated Life Vision again. The horses were just horses, while the men were far from impressive.

The one taking point was barely as strong as Selia, while the one behind was even weaker than Raaz, Lith's father.

Lith forced himself hiding a cruel smile. "Well, well. My first encounter with complete strangers in this new world! Are they good people? I bet that humans are humans everywhere. This would mean that they are a*holes! I can't wait to find out!"

Lith stood there, waiting for them to arrive.

The first man was clearly a servant, dressed in a hunter suit made of leather of low quality with a crest on both his chest and shoulders. He was an unshaven middle-aged man, with pitch black short hair, mean and angry eyes sitting on a face worthy of a mugshot.

The one behind him was dressed with a suit of much better quality, probably brand new. He wore the same crest on his chest, but this one seemed to be made of silk and gold embroidered.

He was a kid maybe sixteen years old, with a handsome face and the build of a swimsuit model. The tight-fitting leather emphasised his muscular body moving in tune with his horse.

Lith felt really pissed off, and he knew exactly why.

"I really hope he is as much of a d*ck as he is handsome. Otherwise not only I will be forced to start to believe in prince charming, but I will also die of envy."

"Hey, kid!" The servant had a rude tone of voice. "What was that noise from before?"

Lith put on his best innocent expression, playing wolf in sheep clothes.

"Good day, sir. It was just me hunting. I'm sorry if I scared you." Lith's voice sounded genuinely apologetic. He wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Where did you get those?" He said ignoring Lith apologies and pointing at the rabbits.

"From a rabbit hole. They are my game." Lith smiled keeping watch on both of them.

"Give them to us, now. They will make a perfect muff for my mother."

The handsome youth had also a beautiful voice.

"If you are really sorry, you should offer us proper compensation. Even a commoner like you should know the basics of decency." He said with a mocking smile.

Lith dropped the act like a live grenade.

"Seriously? Robbing a kid in broad daylight? Don't you have any shame?"

"Kid!" The servant rebuked. "Do you know who are you talking to? He is the son of baron Rath, lord of these lands."

Lith started laughing out loud.

"Please! Trawn woods has no owner, except maybe count Lark. Stop spewing bulls*it just to cover your sorry a*s. And besides do YOU know whom are you talking to? I am the supreme mage!"

"See what happens when you waste your breath on commoners, Korth?" The young noble took up the short bow he carried on his back, nocking an arrow. "They are just too stupid, it's in the nature of things."

He shot the arrow with perfect aim towards Lith's heart.

But Lith was far enough, and had kept many spells ready on his fingertips. With a wave of his hand, a strong gust of wind hit the arrow on the side, making it spin out of control before harmlessly hitting the ground meters away from its intended target.

Despite being flabbergasted, the young noble was able to keep his cool, nocking another arrow while ordering Korth to kill the kid.

Lith raised his left hand, freezing Korth in place with spirit magic, while with the right he took control of the arrow, that slipped away from the youth's fingers before stabbing him in the eye.

The youth fell from his horse, screaming in pain

"To think that I even bothered giving you guys a chance to get out of here alive." Lith sighed shaking his head.

"Wait! If you kill the young lord, you and whoever you love will die! Think about it."

Lith started laughing again. "Really? And how could they ever find out what happened here?" Lith moved his left thumb, and Korth noticed with horror that his right hand was moving against his will, unsheathing the hunting knife he carried at his belt.

"Wait, please! Have mercy! Don't do this, you are just a kid!" He begged.

"So, when you want to kill, you kill. But when you lose, I am supposed to show mercy?" The spite in his voice was palpable. Lith lowered his ring finger, bringing the knife at Korth's throat.

"Since you are just a servant, I'll give you a clean death." With a flicker of the little finger Lith forced Korth to cut his throat from ear to ear.

Then he approached the young noble that was still writhing in pain, uncaring of what just happened to his loyal servant.

"As for you, you are the kind of guy I hate the most!" With one hand Lith kept him frozen at mid-air, while he used the other to punch him nonstop.

"You have f*cking everything! Money, beauty, a bright future, and all you can do with such treasures is screw those who are already struggling to survive?"

Lith hated humans more than everything, even back on Earth the only thing keeping his rage in check was his responsibilities towards his family.

But in the new world there was no cameras, no GPS, nothing. There was only power, and for once he was the one holding it.

"You know, I have a very ill sister." Lith said after venting out. "I could never practice darkness magic on living beings, because using it on animals is just plain cruel. You, on the other side, are just a monster with the face of a man. You will make a perfect specimen for my research."

Trawn woods resounded with screams for hours before death could come to claim her prize.

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While Lith was approaching Selia's house, he felt a profound sense of shame tormenting him.

"It's a shame to waste so much good equipment and horse meat, but I have no plausible excuse for it. Our farm could really use a couple of horses, but what if someone recognized them? Too many risks for so little reward, destroying everything was the right thing to do."

Once he had finished with his experiments, Lith used darkness magic to wipe out any trace or proof of what happened, turning everything into dust.

Selia was so excited seeing the two rabbits to let slip her dire need for them, to fill the order of a very generous client.

Respecting his master's teachings, Lith exploited the situation.

"Hunters don't do favours, they make deals." He quoted.

In exchange for the snow-white rabbits, Lith managed to get a full set of warm clothes of lower quality and Selia would personally tan the remaining pelt for free.

That and the three rabbits ready for the cooking earned him great praise from his family, except Orpal. Over time he had started to consider all the food that Lith brought home for granted, so his hatred and envy returned stronger than ever.

"That little Leech! Hunting with magic is easy, any idiot could do it. Everything he does is a slap in my face. I never get the respect that I deserve as the firstborn, and it's all his fault! First, he flaunts his luck hunting, then he plays martyr, asking mother and father to let that piece of trash of Tista be the first to have fur clothes. What can Tista possibly do with them? Getting ill with style? No, Lith did it on purpose.

He knows that my stupid parents still resent me for telling the truth about that cripple. Lith did it only to make me lose face compared to him."

The truth was quite different from Orpal's self-centred interpretation.

Lith really loved Elina (mother), Rena (big sister) and Tista (ill sister), while Orpal was never on his mind. He cured anyone in the family without being asked to, except for Orpal. But not out of spite or anger, but simply because his existence was irrelevant in Lith's eyes.

If Orpal lived or died it was not his problem. He would not do anything to harm him, but would not help him either. For Lith they were complete strangers living in the same home.

The reason why he had wanted Tista to be the first to benefit from his luck, was that Lith hoped that with warm enough clothes his sister could finally spend more time with him and Rena during winter, playing in the snow.

In Lith's eyes the image of Carl would often overlap on Tista's visage. He loved them deeply, and both of them were victims of a cruel fate.

Lith wasn't willing to let anyone or anything, not even a congenital condition, take his loved ones away from him.

He suffered at the thought of how little of life she could enjoy. To give Tista the opportunity to experience speed and the feeling of the wind on her face, Lith built for her a swing with the help of their father, Raaz.

It was nothing special, just a wooden plank attached to four tight ropes hanging from a reversed U-shaped wooden framework with triangular standings. Yet the result was awe-inspiring for his family.

Swings seemed to be unknown in the new world, or at least they were in the Lustria County.

Raaz looked at the result of their work in admiration.

"It's amazing. Why the three wooden beams instead of just one?"

"Safety reasons." Lith explained while using earth magic to make the last 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) of the beams sink underground, making the swing impossible to topple by bad weather or a too vigorous movement.

"That way both ends are like a chair. Multiple legs mean that the weight is equally distributed among multiple beams, making the stress per beam significantly inferior."

"Off course! Now that you explained it is so simple. By the way, how do we call this thing?"

Lith was at loss for words, he had no idea what the word for the swing movement was and he could not ask that now.

"Err... It's a rocking chair."

"Dammit, why I always screw up with the little details? That's not a rocking chair, but it's the closest thing I could think about with my current vocabulary."

Tista fell in love with his present, and the rocking chair became soon a popular pastime in the family, to the point that Raaz had to build a couple more to avoid quarrels.

Furthermore, after his experiments with dark magic, Lith spent the following months trying to apply both Life Vision and Invigoration while treating Tista's symptoms.

"If I can manage to have for Tista's body the same imaging that Invigoration grants me for my own body, I could have a better understanding of her underlying condition. That would mean having much better chances of finding a cure!"

In the blink of an eye it was almost winter again, Lith's fifth birthday was approaching.

Lith was determined to capitalise on every single day before the great cold arrived, to catch as much game he could to fill the house's storeroom to the brim.

He had no idea how cold the incoming winter would be, and even if he was probably strong enough to survive a storm, he doubted his parents would allow him to test his theory.

During the last year Lith had explored more and more of the Trawn woods, learning how to move without alarming the animals. He had also discovered new uses for dark magic.

His newest spell, the Shroud, allowed him to cancel out his body smell and aura by enveloping Lith in thin layer of dark energy, making impossible for most animals to notice him, either by nose or instinct.

But it wasn't an easy task, even a small misstep would turn the Shroud into full-blown killing intent, making the whole woods aware of his presence.

That day Lith was raiding a new area, deep in the Trawn woods, investigating an odd feeling that had tormented him for days.

In certain areas of the woods, Lith could hear an annoying buzzing sound, and until that day he had always ignored it. Lith had always thought that it was the call of some weird, unknown animal, but in the last days the noise had gotten stronger and persistent.

"Damn, whatever this is, it reminds me of my desktop's Uninterruptible Power Supply unit whenever there was a black out. It's ear piercing."

Lith could not help but to imagine it as a desperate cry for help. He did not understand how he got that idea, but his gut was telling him that it was something important.

Ever since Lith had learned martial arts back on Earth, he had always followed his gut feelings when he had nothing to lose, and this was definitely the case.

The closer he got, the louder the noise. Lith knew he was on the right path.

He was running at full speed when he heard a bone chilling howl. Lith immediately used two of his life saving spells, Shroud to conceal himself, and the air spell Lightsfeet to float a few centimetres above the ground, making his movements noiseless.

Both required a lot of concentration, but it was better to spend some mana rather than stupidly endangering himself. Calm and focused, he searched for the source of all that noise.

"Holy sh*t! That's a Ry!" Lith exclaimed inwardly after quickly hiding behind a huge tree.

A Ry was a magical wolf beast, the apex predator of the Trawn woods. Magical beasts were more common and weaker than monsters, but they could still easily take apart a fully armed soldier.

Not many animals could turn into a magical beast, they needed a great talent for magic and enough time to feed off the world energy.

Once an animal became a magical beast, it could use its mana to boost its physical prowess and even developing spells that employed elements they were attuned with.

The Ry was almost as big as horse, with a fire coloured thick fur.

Lith could not understand why a Ry would come so close to a human settling, Rys were intelligent beasts that avoided unnecessary trouble. If humans did not disturb them, they would return the favour.

Lith felt pity for its prey. After making sure being upwind he cancelled both spells to save precious mana, getting a better understanding of the situation.

The Ry kept howling and growling, as it was in pain. Lith noticed that every time the Ry's snout got close to the ground, the buzzing sound would become high pitched and the magical wolf would whine in pain.

Now more curious than afraid, Lith activated Life Vision to estimate the Ry's power.

What he saw made him gasp loudly.

The Ry was unbelievably strong, with a mana flow almost on par with Lith's. But the real reason for amazement was a second mana flow, that belonged to the source of the buzzing sound.

It was a little stone, smaller than a thimble.

"What the f*ck? That pebble is alive? That explains everything! The noise it emitted must have lured here the Ry, just like it did for me. Taking into account its reactions, the noise is much more annoying for the Ry than for me. I never heard of rocks with mana flow, that thing must be a magical item. I cannot let that brute destroy it."

Throwing caution to the wind, Lith decided to take action and save the magic stone.

"The Ry's lifeforce is incomparable to mine, but if I manage to avoid it getting close, I know I can win. His mana flow is inferior to mine, and from what Selia told me magic beasts have no offensive spells."

First Lith activated Shroud again, then he started weaving his strongest spell.

"Plague Arrow!" A bolt of dark energy flew from his joined hands, hitting the Ry from its blind spot while it was trying again to crack the noisy stone with its teeth.

The screeching sound and the spell hit both at the same time, making the magical beast almost lose its footing.

Plague Arrow was a spell that injected a dense mass of darkness magic in the victim, disrupting both the mana flow and the life force. Lith had charged it as much as he could, to get as much advantage as he could.

Before the Ry could turn around to search for its enemy, a stream of lightnings erupted from Lith's palms, hitting the magical beast with enough strength to knock it down.

While increasing the distance between them, Lith cancelled Shroud for Life Vision. Despite the sneak attacks the Ry was still alive and strong.

Lith focused his spirit magic, using both his hands, trying to break its neck as he had already done countless times.

The Ry wasn't stupid, as soon as it felt the ominous sensation on his neck, it contracted its muscles, reinforcing it with mana and making it harder than steel.

"F*ck! So much for my advantage. If only I could use fire magic you would be already roasted to death. Could you please go away? That thing is mine! Mine!"

Lith conjured several ice javelins, throwing them at the magical beast from multiple angles simultaneously.

The Ry easily dodged them all, retaliating with a powerful magical roar.

Lith was only saved by the distance, having the time to realize that a massive wind blast was heading his way. He stepped back at the moment of the impact, using his own wind magic to dissipate the blast.

His sleeves got turned into confetti, but aside from some flesh wounds he was fine.

"F*ck me sideways! Thanks a lot, Selia. Magical beasts do not have offensive spells, sure. It seems this Ry never got the memo, though."

The Ry charged at Lith, using its wind blasts to disrupt his rhythm. Lith did his best to keep the beast at bay, but the difference in physical prowess was overwhelming, it was only a matter of time before getting caught.

"Okay, when you can't win, just run. Plan B, fight dirty!"

Lith stopped running away, to prepare his last attack plan before throwing the towel.

He conjured many ice javelins, but did not throw them, he left them floating in mid-air all around him.

After a moment of hesitation, the Ry chose to ignore them charging straight at that insolent pest.

"That's a good boy! Eat this! Twin spell! FlashBang!"

Lith's right hand produced a massive flash of light, for a moment it was like a second sun had appeared. His left hand, instead, used wind magic to produce a noise comparable to an explosion.

The Ry tumbled from the pain, its eyes and ears bleeding, while Lith was unscathed. He had learned long ago that as long it was infused with his mana, his own spells would do him no harm. He could cover himself in fire, ice or lightning without a scratch.

When the Ry crashed against a tree, Lith finally used the javelins, throwing them with all the force he had. All of them hit the target, but the thick magical fur prevented them from impaling it, piercing only through a few centimetres of flesh.

Lith immediately checked with Life Vision, the results appalling.

The Ry was definitely wounded and weakened, but far from being dead.

"Dammit! So much effort for so little damage. If it continues like this, I am the one who is most likely to run out of steam or luck. The Ry only needs one hit to kill me. It's not worth the risk."

Lith used spirit magic to recover the magic stone before running for his life. The stone was full of teeth marks, its sharp surface prickled Lith's skin.

"So long, sucker!" Lith screamed at the still stunned magical beast.

"See you again in a few years, let's see if you dare attack me again!" Small drops of blood touched the stone, and the noise stopped.

The Ry was still trying to make head or tails of what had just happened. It only wanted the damn noise to stop hurting his ears when that fierce man-pup showed up.

The Ry had tried to scare him away and to teach him a lesson, but it ended to be the one getting schooled instead.

"Bah, who cares." The Ry thought. "I wanted to get rid of that stupid rock and in one way or another I got the job done. That was one feisty pup, though. I pray that he shows more consideration towards his pack than he did for me. Otherwise when he grows up, he will be a scourge to his kin. Stupid humans and their greed bring only troubles. They are incapable even of taking care of their own."

The Ry, leader of all the packs in the Trawn woods, shrugged away the javelins before returning to its family.

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Lith kept running until he was out of the woods, turning his head from time to time to check with Life Vision is he was being followed.

"There is no trace of the Ry, but better safe than sorry. I'm afraid I have pissed off that thing quite bad. It's better to give it some time to vent off and search for easier preys."

He was near Selia's house, when he finally remembered about the magical stone. Lith activated Life Vision, getting a good look up close.

The first thing he noticed was that the rough edges on the stone had smoothened up, it did not prick his skin anymore. The surface was still rough, but now looked like a stone marble.

The buzzing sound had stopped from a while, and the magical stone's life force, despite being still at the same level, had changed significantly.

Back when he saw it for the first time, its life force was like a candle about to burn out of wax, now it had become steady, with a regular pulse.

Warning Selia about the magical beast took priority, so he hid the stone in a leather pouch he always carried at his neck before knocking at her door.

Lith explained her everything, describing in detail the size and power of the Ry, leaving her flabbergasted. Of course, he never mentioned their fight.

Lith told her that he had fled as soon as their eyes met, and that he got away only thanks to his magic, showing his tattered sleeves as proof.

"Good gods, kid." She still refused to call him by his name. "You have been really lucky it took it easy on you. Had the Ry decided to give you chase, we would not be having this conversation. Nonetheless, thanks for warning me first, instead of going to your parents." Selia ruffled his hair.

"How do you know I came here first?"

"Because if you didn't, your parents would have probably locked you up in your house, and one of them would have come here to warn me in your place."

Lith froze up. He had just dodged a bullet much scarier than any Ry.

"You are right. Is better not to tell them, otherwise my hunting days may be over forever."

"Yeah. I suggest you taking the rest of the morning off. Make up and excuse for those sleeves and go home." Selia walked over the shed near her house where she kept her game maturating.

"Take these as a thank you for the heads up." She handed him a rabbit and a blinker, ready to be cooked.

"I was about to go in the woods. I think I will follow my advice, instead, and keep tanning the remaining pelts. I'll go to hunting in the afternoon, when it should be safer."

Lith thanked her with a deep bow, he knew how precious meat was in Lutia, even for a huntress as good as Selia. Not to mention she had just saved him from perpetual house arrests.

He spent the rest of the morning trying to understand how to use the magic stone. It appeared to be feeding off Lith's mana. Not leeching it like a parasite, more like nibbling at the mana that he naturally released being talented in magic.

The stone would simply breath in what Lith's body breathed out, nothing more.

Lith tried injecting mana into it, but to no avail. Then he casted elemental spells while holding the stone, to check if their strength, cast speed and area of effect were affected in any way.

All of his experiments gave no results, the stone looked just like any other.

"Stones do not have such a clear mana flow, and certainly they do not have any life force. Maybe this thing needs time to heal, to recharge or something. The Ry messed it up quite bad, let's hope is not broken. Unless it starts harming me, I'll keep it. Maybe is some kind of treasure, or maybe I can find something about it on Nana's books. I just have to be patient."

The last days of autumn passed on uneventful, until winter arrived.

Having reached the five years of age, Lith revealed a little more of his magic talents, proving to be invaluable to his family.

He would wake up first and warm up the whole house with magic, even the floors. At that point the fireplace was lit only because was cozy, and because rounding up around the fire, especially during the stormy winter evenings, was a family tradition.

Even the cooking was entrusted to Lith. Elina would prepare the meal, and Lith would cook it faster and better than a ventilated oven, keeping the soup warm for everyone during the whole meal.

He could not go hunting anymore because of the bad weather, his parents had been adamant on that. But Lith could still go to Selia's house to perform the chores for her.

During the last year, she had become so lazy to become dependant on Lith for keeping her house clean and her tools sterilized.

This meant killing two birds with one stone for Lith. Now he had an excuse to go fetch his private stock of meat whenever he got hungry, and Selia had to pay him for the chores.

Lith would do it for free, just to get out of the house, but his parents would not agree. So, Selia paid him a few copper coins to clean her house, and some more for Elina to do her laundry.

Both Elina and Raaz would welcome any extra income, and doing the laundry for eight instead of seven wasn't much an effort. Especially since Lith provided her an endless supply of hot water.

"Nice to meet you, I am Lith, boiler supreme." He would grumble inwardly every time.

In the first weeks of winter, Lith made a very important breakthrough. He finally understood how to use Invigoration's body imaging on others.

He was now able to let his mana seep into another person's body, and slowly take control of their mana flow, allowing Lith to know everything about the subject's physical condition.

The only way to achieve such a result was to keep physical contact, searching way ins for the mana without harming him/her.

Lith immediately used it on Tista, and his findings were appalling.

Her body was full of the tar-like substance, that for the lack of a better term, he had dubbed impurities. And the cause of that was her lungs.

Barely half of Tista's lungs were made up by a healthy tissue. The rest appeared like a black-brown mass that actively produced impurities, that over time filled the healthy tissues of her lungs and windpipe, making her cough first and ill later.

After giving it some thought, Lith was sure to have found a fix better than everything he had done before, but much more embarrassing.

Even though now his real age was that of a thirty-year-old man, he was still in a five years old body, which found extremely uncomfortable the idea of speaking of certain matters, especially with the family women.

After some deep breaths to calm down, he called Raaz and Elina to ask for their help and permission.

He had to dumb down the procedure quite a lot to get them to understand.

"Basically, I cannot cure Tista, not yet. But I discovered a way that should make her feel much better. In the best-case scenario, she could even get rid of most of her symptoms."

"And in the worst-case scenario?" Raaz asked full of worries.

"At worse she will be the same. That's I'm certain of it. But I need you to trust me."

Contrary to his expectations, they did not make any objections or question. Their trust in Lith's mastery of magic was boundless, and in their eyes, he was just a five-year-old, while Tista was barely seven.

She had yet to mature in every way, for them it was like yesterday when they bathed together in the wash tub.

The first phase was the easiest. Lith would take control of Tista's mana flow, overloading her body with his mana, and forcing the impurities to move away from the inner organs and toward the skin.

She would just feel hot the whole time, like having a mild fever.

Once most of the impurities were about to surface, Lith demanded to be blindfolded and that either Elina or Rena witnessed the process.

Tista was just a kid, and Lith feared that overtime suspicions might arise. During Earth's middle ages, incestuous relationships were disgustingly common, and he rejected even the idea of being thought of as a pervert.

The second and last phase required Tista to be soaking in the wash tub, that had been previously filled by Lith with hot water and soap.

He clearly remembered the stench the impurities gave off, and during winter ventilating the house was difficult, especially in Tista's condition.

Cold was her worst enemy.

Then, he could finally extract the impurities by using mater magic, creating and manipulating flows that would massage Tista all over her body. Lith would destroy the impurities as soon as possible with dark magic, preventing them to release their smell.

It was a difficult process that required using water and darkness magic, all while keeping Invigoration active. After the treatment, he would also use water magic to remove all the water still on her body, and then mix fire and wind magic to obtain a makeshift hairdryer.

When it was finally over, Tista looked like she was just back from a spa, while Lith looked like he had just got back from mining, drenched in sweat and out of breath.

"How do you feel?"

Tista made some deep breaths.

"I never felt so good! Like, ever! Also, I always dreamt of having a winter bath, instead of having to resort to warm water-soaked towels. Thanks, lil bro, you just made two of my wishes come true!" She tried to hug him, but he raised his arms in defence.

"Please, no. I'm disgusting right now, do not ruin my hard work. I now need a bath, some food and two hours rest, minimum."

Both his mother and big sister, nodded.

"Lith, dear, what was that thing with the water that you did?" Elina asked.

"Do you mean the…"

"Dammit, I can't tell her I was imitating a hydromassage, they do not have latin here. Nor I can call it a Jacuzzi or something. Whatever, I'm too tired for this sh*t."

"… water massage?"

"Yes, that! It seemed so relaxing. Tista has fallen asleep many times during her treatment. Sure it must be pleasant." Rena's words were filled with expectation.

"And that thing for drying her hair, could you do that again too?" Elina raised the ante, their aim more and more obvious by the second.

Lith was on the verge of collapsing, he had no time to spare with niceties.

"Are you implying that you would like a hot water massage too?"

More nodding followed, their hands joined in a silent plea.

"But… but…" Lith stuttered. "Both of you are…"

He was trying to find a polite way to say "hot". Lith could still remember Elina's naked body when he was still an infant, and she had aged very well.

Rena was now eleven. Maybe it was the countryside lifestyle, maybe it was related to the new world, but she had already begun her growth spurt, developing some curves, being nice and soft in all the right places.

Lith already had so many qualms for his little sister, and Tista was as flat as a board, only her long hairs gave her away as a girl instead of a boy.

"We are family. And all of us have dreamt of being able to take a bath during winter without catching a cold or worse. You have no idea how smelly we become by working in the barn, surrounded by the livestock smell and their dung. Sometimes the smell is so bad we can't even sleep at night. Couldn't you help us too?" Elina, his mother, completely oblivious of Lith's worries tried to play the guilt card.

Lith gave up.

"Fine, just let me rest a bit and then I'll help you. But you still need to blindfold me, and I demand a witness!"

They both started laughing out loud.

"Why so many qualms? You are just a baby, not some thug."

"I would like to say that I am a gentleman, but I do not know the word for it. I could say that I am a man, but that would make them laugh even harder. Stupid five-year-old body." He thought.

"Decorum." It was the only word in his vocabulary he could resort to.

"Damn, this is going to be a fricking long winter."

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As Lith predicted, his fifth winter revealed to be quite interesting.

Treating Tista's condition required two session per week minimum, each one lasting around four hours. Two for the treatment itself and the remaining time for him to bathe and recover his strength.

Manipulating Tista's mana flow while simultaneously using fire, water and dark magic took its toll every time. The good news was that with so much practice, he was becoming accustomed to casting and maintaining several spells active at once.

Every treatment was easier than the previous one and her symptoms were quickly improving. Tista was now able to help with the house chores and the livestock.

She could even afford making long walks outside, when the weather was good.

The bad news was that Lith's relationship with his brothers was now uglier than ever before. Every time Tista got better, someone would reproach Orpal for his past words, and if no one did, then Tista would.

Orpal's fits of rage had really hurt her, his cruel words had shattered the image she always had of her perfect family, of her caring big brother.

Tista had been humiliated and betrayed, and she was not going to forget that easily.

Also, soon after hot winter baths had become available, Raaz too started to bathe often.

Orpal and Trion were the only ones left out. Orpal because he could not stand the thought of having to ask something from Lith, especially if he had to do it politely.

"I'm the eldest brother, I'm not supposed to beg runts for favours. I'm supposed to give orders and be respected for it! That Leech now has turned even the cripple against me! And I can't put Tista in her place, otherwise she will make me look like I'm the bad guy who picks on a sick little girl. Manipulative b*tch!"

Trion was between a rock and a hard place. He deeply loved Tista, but he also loved and respected Orpal. Trion was the only one by his side, so he had not the heart to betray their bond.

With everyone else fresh and clean, their smell stuck out like a sore thumb. Even with all their family goodwill, disgusted grimaces were impossible to avoid from time to time.

The first time Tista dubbed the duo as Orpoop and T-reek, she brought down the house with laughter. Orpal and Trion blamed Lith for their humiliation, but he just ignored them like he always did.

Raaz made for Lith a pair of snowshoes, spending more and more time with him. Raaz also started imparting him lessons about how to operate a farm and teaching how to whittle. Lith was still very young, but knowing he was able to skin and gut his game, Raaz thought there was no risk for him in handling a carving knife.

Orpal and Trion lived the situation differently, though. Until then, Lith had spent most of his time with the girls, letting Raaz spend all his free time with the boys. They felt wronged twice, once because Lith was robbing them of their dad time, the second because he always refused teaching them whittling before they reached the age of eight.

Things got even more unpleasant for Lith after midwinter. Every time he would treat Tista, he could notice that something was off. Both his mother and sister had an odd look in their eyes.

Often, they would open their mouth, only to close them right away, giving him the silent treatment for hours. Lith couldn't figure out the reason of this behaviour, so his mind started spinning like crazy.

"Do they believe me a pervert? Have I looked at them in an inappropriate way? Maybe they are starting to suspect something. Maybe they know I am from a different world!"

Lith's full blown paranoia wouldn't give him a second of rest, preventing him to have a good night of sleep. He heard them sighing too often, something was definitely off.

It took Lith all his courage to muster the strength to face them and ask for the truth.

The confrontation took place in the girl's room, where they were all gathered for Tista's treatment.

"Lith, did you really not notice any changes?" Elina asked pouting.

"Yes, I did. Tista is feeling much better now, right?"

"Off course there's that. But don't you notice anything here?" She waved her hand, going from Tista's head to toes.

"That's my sister."

"And?" She prompted.

"Her health is getting better, nothing is getting worse. Tista is still Tista." For the first time in his three lives, Lith could spectate with his own eyes a synchronized facepalm outside internet meme gifs. Rena was fuming.

"Really? Don't you notice that her hair is soft and silky? That it never tangles or get split ends?" Tista had light brown hair with shades of purple all over them. Ever since the treatment began, the colour had got more vibrant and visible.

"Shades of purple, uh. This is really another world after all. I wonder why women do have them and men do not." Lith thought.

"Now that you mention it, yes I do. But normally I don't care for hair, I keep mine short for a reason." Rena shook her head.

"Don't you even notice that her skin has got smoother? With no imperfections? That she is growing taller and slender than her peers?"

Lith kept scratching his head. He knew nothing about the average girl. Also, they were simply describing the side effects of removing impurities.

"And why is that a problem? Aren't those all good things?" This time even Tista joined the facepalm.

"They are envious of those things, dummy! They just want you to do the same for them."

Lith was flabbergasted by such trivial demands. "All those grimaces, the silent treatment, all of it for such a stupid reason?"

"Lith, dear, being attractive for a girl is a pretty big deal. For your sisters could mean getting the possibility to choose between just a wealthy man, and a good, wealthy man. It can affect their entire life, their happiness."

That sounded right to Lith's ears. "How could I have not thought of that?"

"While for your poor mother, it means that she can finally make all those pompous, high and mighty neighbours of her, that keep bragging about having so much more money than her, flaunting all the pricy beauty creams they can afford, kicking themselves out of envy!"

That sounded right to Lith's ears too. He accepted with a sigh, and his life finally returned to normal. He had to spend at least three afternoons a week for all the treatments, but it was worth it.

All that practice made his mana core grow steady and fast, his control of mana and cast speed improved by leap and bounds.

Right before the end of winter, he was forced to take in a new customer.

With the weather improving, the neighbouring families started meeting often. Sometimes for a visit, more often they would simply bump into each other while trading goods at the village.

And that was driving Raaz crazy.

"Lith, you have to help me!" His plea was desperate. "Your mother looks at least ten years younger, and I am starting to look more like her father rather than her husband. People keep murmuring how she was unfortunate marrying me, that she could have got so much better. Please do your thing on me too!"

Lith had heard the rumors. They were mean and petty, and deserved to be faced head on. He would not allow anyone to speak ill of his dad.

"Fine, but only at some conditions, the same I asked from mom. One, secrecy. Nobody must ever know outside you and me. Think of all the bad people that could want to exploit me."

Raaz nodded.

"Second, you will never talk about it with Orpal or Trion, nor ask me to do it for them. I don't care if they fall on love or want to marry. They made pretty clear what they feel toward me and Tista. I will not endanger my safety for them. Take it or leave it."

Raaz wanted to object, remind Lith that they were family too. But their behaviour had only gotten worse after being forced to spend so much time together during winter. Raaz had to scold them multiple times just to make them behave properly.

"I can only hope that when they grow up, my sons will be able to mend their relationship. I can't force them to get along."

And so, he accepted.

A few weeks later, Lith was headed to Selia's house for the usual cleaning, before going hunting. The dawn's light made the world around him look like out of a fairy tale.

The thin layer of snow was immaculate, reflecting the orange light over the weeds and trees along the way. His surroundings were completely silent, the world still and at peace.

At the next clearing, Lith took out the magic stone out of his pouch, observing it in the morning light.

During the winter months the magic stone had mended most of the teeth marks. Both its life force and mana flow had tremendously improved, but it was still useless as the day Lith found it.

"Just my luck." He sighed. "I risked my life facing that Ry for nothing. Let's hope I can find something in Nana's books, otherwise my only option it's to find someone willing to buy it."

Lith was really impatient to start his apprenticeship.

It meant being finally able to study magic from books instead as a self-taught. Also, as an apprentice healer, he would get practice magic and be paid for it, gaining the village recognition and respect.

So many birds with just one stone.

After putting the magic stone back into the pouch, Lith arrived at his destination and opened the door. That day Selia was out of town to sell her merchandise, so she had left the door open for him

It didn't take him much time to clean everything and leave.

As soon as he walked out the house, he got hit in the head by a wooden stick.

Lith's eyes went blurry, he felt someone pushing him back inside, making him fall to the ground with a kick in the stomach.

"Look who's here, the little Leech!" Lith recognized that voice, he was one of Orpal's friends.

Four boys quickly surrounded Lith, kicking him while he was still down, while a fifth closed the door after checking that no one did notice them.

"You little arrogant piece of sh*t! Orpal told us all about you. How you humiliate him every day, how you even dare stealing his food!"

"Yeah!" Another one yelled. "He is your big brother, it should be him getting the best part of the game, not you, little ungrateful runt!"

"Less yelling and more kicking, Trant! Remember Orpal's words, if Leech gets the chance to use his magic, we are finished!"

Despite Lith was curling up, desperately trying to shield his head and stomach, another kick grazed his face, making one of his baby-teeth fall.

"I know what to do!" Trant moved forward gripping Lith's hands with enough strenght to crush them. "Let's see how he does magic without hands!"

By coming that close, Trant had forced his friends to stop kicking, and a moment was all that Lith needed.

He released all the lightning he could muster, shocking Trant out cold.

But before he could do anything else, the wooden stick hit him in the head again, making him collapse.

"You d*ckhead! How dare you hurt your seniors! You deserve to die!"

The beating resumed, this time with no hint of mercy or holding back. Lith started coughing blood and teeth.

The four had him surrounded, Lith tried multiple times rolling out of the encirclement, but he would be sent back in the middle every single time.

Lots of feelings were ravaging his mind, while his body was burning with pain. The spite for his brother's betrayal, the rage of being assaulted by boys with double his age and size. But most of all, he felt helpless, and afraid of death.

"Damn magic! What use are you if I don't have the time to concentrate? Stupid stone, I kept you hanging from my neck for months, do something! Help me! Somebody, anybody, help me!" All his silent pleas went unfulfilled.

While his conscience was fading, Lith started cursing himself for his weakness and helplessness.

"Magic, martial arts, all that careful preparation, useless." Oddly, his last thought was not for his family or revenge, but for his last opponent.

"If only I was as strong as a Ry! He stopped my spirit magic so easily by…"

His survival instinct kicked in, his mind and body acting in unison.

"By infusing himself with mana! And I can do that too! It's the same principle behind Life and Fire vision!"

With each breath he started calling upon the elemental energy, but instead of wasting time giving it a form, Lith let it merge directly with his mana core, infusing himself with earth magic.

His whole body started hardening, the pain getting duller and duller. Lith also infused himself with light magic, accelerating his healing and preventing himself from losing consciousness.

Soon he was able to ignore the kicks, springing back up in one fluid motion.

"What is earth? It's just a mix of minerals and organic matter, the same as my body. I can be immovable like a mountain!"

With that thought, he further hardened his head, before headbutting from below the chin of the assailant in front of him.

Before the remaining three could recover from the surprise and resume the encirclement, Lith raised his guard. The left arm forward for blocking, the right arm ready to strike.

Orpal's friends were scared, after Lith knocked down their leader with the headbutt, the only thing on their mind was to prevent him to use magic, so they rushed forward, not giving him time to recover.

The closest assailant tried to punch Lith in the face, to disrupt any casting he could attempt.

"60% of the human body is made of water. I can be formless like water."

Lith's left arm, imbued with water magic, coiled around his opponent's right arm like a snake.

"The body burns calories to produce heat and energy. I can be destructive like fire!"

Fire magic burned through his muscles, granting Lith short bursts of explosive strength. By flexing his left arm, Lith broke the immobilized limb in three points, elbow, ulna and radius, while his right fist hit the opponent on the nose, pulverizing it.

The pain made the boy faint, his nose bleeding profusely.

The remaining two fell into panic, and tried to run away.

"Nerves, synapsis all the information and orders in the body are transmitted via electrical impulse. I can be fast as lightning!"

Lith imbued all his body with air magic, becoming fast enough to blink in front of them, punching both in the gonads at the same time.

All of his opponents were down, sobbing in pain or fainted.

Lith spit a mouthful of blood, while contemplating the results of his last experiment.

"Seems that this new magic puts too much strain on my body. Maybe I'm too young, maybe I took too much damage, whatever. I have all the time in the world now."

"I need to decide what to do with you motherf*kers." Lith said while using light magic to heal his internal injuries.

"It may take a while, but you'll get my undivided attention. Enjoy your stay."

Lith sat on the couch, his left hand on the chest, performing the healing.

The right one was open in front of him, releasing five streams of lightning that enveloped the five boys like tendrils, making them scream with agony.

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The original plan was to kill them all, erase the evidence and then make Orpal have an "unfortunate accident". As Lith calmed down, however, he realized that it was an idiotic plan full of holes.

"If five young men disappear suddenly in a sleepy village like Lutia, it is bound to cause a commotion. Also, Orpal knows they were here. Once he discovers they are nowhere to be found, he could come too close to the truth for comfort.

I don't want to give him any kind of leverage on me. There is also the possibility that these blockheads shared their plan with their siblings. Killing is the wrong answer here, too many things can go spiralling out of control. Worst of all, if I make Orpal disappear too, the whole family would worry and grieve for him. Most certainly I don't want to turn him into a f*cking martyr! I want him to pay. To suffer for his whole f*cking life!"

While in deep thought, Lith would release streams of lighting from his right hand, keep the spell active for a couple of seconds, then give his assailants a few moments of relief before zapping them again.

They had already lost control of their bladder and bowels multiple times. When they were not writhing in pain, they were sobbing and begging for mercy.

"I can't let off this trash easily either. Always remember to pause between lashes. The short interval without pain fills them of false hope that it's finally over, making the next hit more painful than the previous. To punish them is not enough, I want to break them!"

There were too many variables. Lith was sick of running circles, so he decided to resort to an modified version of his very first plan, back on Earth.

"Those guys were trash too. I wonder how they reacted after my death, when the photos got leaked all over the internet with their names tagged."

Lith had a cruel smile at the thought of his revenge, backstabbing them after so many years.

With a final spell, Lith made the five lose consciousness and started arranging their bodies with spirit magic.

"I must keep both spirit and fusion magic a secret, so I need to create a stage from which I could end up a winner with just normal magic. An encirclement is too much for a five-year old, I'll fan them out."

He put back the wooden stick in the hand of his owner, making sure it was smeared with blood.

Lith was arranging the final details, when he heard someone calling his name from afar.

"Sh*t! I took too much time thinking. My family must have sent someone looking for me. This screws up a good part of my plan, dammit. I must play it by ear and hope they did not send Orpal, or it's going to get ugly."

Lith looked through a window, spotting Elina approaching Selia's house with long and fast strides.

"Good, it's mom! Rena or dad would have been better, but I can work with this."

When she got close enough, Lith responded to her call with a moan, slowly opening the door while begging for help.

Elina started running with all her strength, and once inside what she saw was bone chilling. There was blood everywhere, teeth on the ground and Lith was almost unrecognizable.

He was losing blood from multiple injuries. His face was swollen to the point that his eyes were barely visible amidst all the black and blue.

Lith was holding his left arm like it was hurt, and just by talking he could make her notice his bleeding gums and missing teeth.

"Mom! Mom! Thank the gods it's you." Lith voice was distorted by the injuries into a lisp. "I was so afraid they would get up before I could call for help. They tried to kill me, mom, and I have not the strength to fight anymore."

Elina quickly embraced him, feeling him yelp and shivering from the pain caused by even such a gentle touch.

"My baby! My poor baby. Who did this to you?" The two of them started to cry at the same time. Elina because she was scared to death, Lith because while in his mother's embrace he could finally allow himself to vent all his rage and fears.

"Orpal! It's all Orpal's fault! These are all his friends They even told me their plan when they thought I was about to die!"

Elina was shocked by those words, refusing to believe such a terrible thing. But those five really were Orpal's closest friends. One of them, Rizel, was even holding his grandfather's wooden stick, and it was stained with blood.

Elina looked at Lith's head, easily spotting the bruises and cuts shaped after the cane.

"Why would they assault you otherwise? And how could they possibly know that today Selia was out of town?" Elina thought out loud.

Among the sobbing and crying, Lith was inwardly smiling. Feeding her facts was a last resort, it would have a much deeper impact if she put the pieces together by herself.

"Can't you heal yourself, even a little bit?" Elina's voice was full of worry, her son's condition seemed dire. Lith was expecting this question.

"Now that I had the time to recover, I could. But I won't."

"Why?" That answer made no sense to her, Elina started worrying his injuries were affecting his mind.

"Because when you and dad decide what to do with Orpal, I want you to take a good look of what he did to me!" Lith screamed, coughing a mouthful of blood from a wound he had reopened on purpose.

"Orpal has always hated me! Always will! No matter if I help you all with chores or your health. He does not care how much game I bring to the table or money to our house, nothing is ever enough for him!" Lith kept screaming and sobbing.

"Am I such an awful son, such a terrible brother to deserve this?" Lith hugged her with all of his strength, bawling his eyes out.

Elina was at loss for words, but only for a moment. She held her son tightly, raising him up from the ground and carrying him back home.

Then she brought the whole family to Selia's house to let them witness the scene with their own eyes. The matter was too serious, she could not hide it from her children.

When Orpal saw Lith, he became pale as a ghost. Elina refused to call him by his name, and if glares could kill, he was certain that she would make him leave the fields feet first.

"What the heck went wrong? Those morons knew the plan! They had only to rough him up. Teach him respect and humility. But most importantly to force him to shut his f*cking mouth up! Now my stupid parents will never let me hear the end of it."

And when he saw all the blood on the floor, with his friends still there and out cold, he felt his life falling apart.

As soon as Elina let him do it, Raaz embraced Lith before checking his conditions. After that he looked around the room, easily recognizing the five culprits.

"Rena, go call their parents. Take Tista with you, I don't want her to hear what I am about to say." Raaz was even paler than Orpal, clenching his fists so hard that they started to bleed.

Elina had whispered to him only three words after coming back with Lith.

"Orpal did it." In the beginning, he had refused to believe that one of his beloved children could do something like that, but the truth appeared so horrifyingly simple to his eyes.

No one outside of the family knew that Lith worked for Selia. No one else could possibly know that exactly on that day and time Lith would be left alone in Selia's house.

But the most painful and irrefutable truth was that no one but Orpal could possibly resent Lith so much. He barely knew anyone outside of his family and their closest friends.

Lith had always been working so hard to help all of them, especially Tista, that he never had the time to make friends or enemies.

Raaz felt those thoughts ripping his heart out of his chest, but he had to know.

"Did you do it?" Raaz looked Orpal straight in the eyes.

A terrible silence fell in the room, revealing the truth that Raaz was trying so hard to deny, looking for a possible alternative explanation.

But there wasn't any.

"How, how could you possibly do this to your brother?" Tears were streaming from his eyes.

"Dad, I swear, it's not like you think! I can explain!" Orpal mind was desperately trying to find a plausible excuse.

"Is there anything to explain?!?" Raaz roared out of anger.

"Aren't those your friends?"

"Yes, but…"

"It wasn't you telling them what to do? It wasn't you planning how, when and where to ambush Lith? Causing him to be almost beaten to the death? In the gods' name how could you possibly explain all that?"

"Because that wasn't the plan! They didn't listen to me, just like you! You never listen to what I say! You never let me have my way, always siding with Leech and the cripple. You are never on my side! Never!"

"They got carried away? Is that your explanation?!?" Raaz didn't know if to laugh or cry.

"Do you mean that ambushing and beating your brother, my son, is perfectly fine as long they do it with moderation?" He raised his fist, tempted to give Orpal a taste of his own medicine, but Elina stopped him.

"Too much blood has already been shed today. Don't do it. You'd only harm yourself, he is beyond saving." Elina was crying too, but her face and tone were stone cold. She had already made up her mind.

Raaz was too broken to stand anymore, he needed to sit down on a chair, weeping.

"You are right, my love. I have lost count of the times I have tried to make him understand that respect is something that you must give before receiving it yourself. That we were his parents, not his friends. We are supposed to help our children understand their mistakes, not enabling them. The gods know if I haven't tried to teach him that his siblings were not his servants, that a man's authority lies in the responsibilities he shoulders, not how strong he is. I know I have not been a perfect father, but I did the best that I could. I don't know what to do with him anymore, Elina." Raaz wiped his own tears, looking for his wife's support.

"I agree. Even now he doesn't show any remorse. He never loved his brother, stealing his food and calling him names even before Lith was able to walk. He is clearly unable to understand the enormity of what he did. I believe that if we allow this to continue, he will do it again. If not to Lith, to Tista. And I'm not going to let him doing more harm to our family."

She held Raaz's hand tight, searching for the strength she needed.

"I think we should disown him. Strip him of his name and report him together with his accomplices for attempted murder to the village militia."

"Thanks, my love." Raaz had no more tears to cry, his resolve steeled like his voice.

"I don't think I had in me the strength to say it."

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After those words, Orpal fell to his knees. His world was crumbling beneath his feet. All he knew, all he had planned and dreamed about, had disappeared in the space of a single word.

Disown.

It meant that he was dishonourably banished from his own family, leaving him with nothing he could call as his own. He had just become a nameless, penniless orphan.

When the parents of the other boys arrived, things escalated quickly. Seeing their boys broken and unconscious in a foreign house, stinking of their own feces and urines, they demanded for an explanation.

They were all long-time friends, so it was easy for Raaz making them calm down enough to have a civil conversation.

"You" Raaz ordered the nameless one "explain what you did."

Despite being still shocked, he was already angry enough to return to his old self.

"If I must go down, I'll bring them all with me. We'll share the same destiny, so I won't be alone. I refuse to be the only one to pay for this!" He thought.

The nameless one confessed that he had always hated his brother, and how he had planned to teach him discipline and respect with the help of his friends.

When he had finished, everyone in the room was appalled, refusing to believe those words. They had always known Orpal as a good, kind young man.

"Lith, can you tell us what happened here exactly?"

Lith acted like he was reluctant to leave his mother's embrace, and after a dramatic moment of pause, he stepped forward. He made sure of limping and holding his left arm, while wincing with pain at every step.

"As you all know, my family has a lot of expenses, and my sister is ill. So, since I am quite talented in chore magic, Selia pays me to clean her house too. I give the money to my parents, to help them make ends meet."

"I have carefully picked the words for this speech." Lith thought. "If they don't feel pity and compassion for a beaten up five years old after this sob story, these guys are full blown psychos."

"Today miss Selia is out of town, so I was alone in here when your sons suddenly barged in and started beating me." He held out his arms, turning around to let them see how battered he was.

"I tried to defend myself, like my dad taught me, but they were too big and too strong." Lith started sobbing again. "I had to use magic to defend myself, I was so scared! I really thought I was going to die." He returned between Elina's embrace, weeping non-stop.

"Poor kid." Said Bromann, Rizel's father, picking up the wooden stick from his son's hand. "This piece of trash even dared using his grandfather's only memento. Elina, Raaz, Lith, I offer you my most sincere apologies. I have failed as a man and as a father, to raise such a snake in the grass. Whatever is your decision, I will comply without questions. But first…"

Bromann splashed Rizel's face with a bucket of dirty water to get him conscious.

He needed to hear the truth from his own son. He still could not fully believe even his own eyes.

"D… dad? What are you doing here?" Rizel held his chin that was throbbing with pain, when he suddenly recalled what had happened.

All the eyes were on him, including Lith's. The same cold eyes, glowing with blue energy Lith had before unleashing lightnings.

"I make the questions, young man. And if you don't want another beating or worse, you'd better tell the truth. What in the gods' names were you all doing here?"

Terrified by both his father and his tormentor, Rizel could only say the truth.

One after the other, the four remaining boys were woken up and forced to tell the whole story. One of them tried to expose Lith's torture, but his father made him shut up with a strong slap in the face.

"Five against a little kid and you have the gall to blame him for going all out? Our families are friends from generations, your actions dishonoured us all! When we get back home, I will show you what real torture is!"

"What a moron!" Lith laughed inwardly. "Their credibility is less than zero, they can tell whatever they want. It will only appear as the pathetic excuse of a criminal caught red handed."

"Raaz, what do you want us to do?" Bromann asked.

"I am going to disown Orpal, and then report all of them for attempted murder. I won't ask anything from you. We all know how hard is being a parent, especially in moments like this. I just wanted you to hear it from me, before I go to the village chief."

"I will not disown my son. Not yet at least." Bromann said. "But I can promise you that I will do nothing to defend him in any way from the consequences of his actions. And when he will be back home, I will make sure that he will never have the opportunity to harm your family again!"

So, they all went to Lutia, where the village chief listened to the six boys' confessions before pronouncing the sentence.

"After hearing all the facts and testimony, I hereby sentence the six of you to four hours of pillory, where you will be shaved of all your hair and whipped ten times for your crimes. After that, you will spend three days in jail to reconsider your actions.

Any objections?" All those present shook their heads.

"I have a question." Lith said.

"For me or for the prisoners, young man?"

"For them. Can I?"

"But off course. Ask them whatever you want."

Lith nodded, and moved in front of Rizel.

"Did Trion know?"

"Off course he did!" Orpal screamed. "He is always stood by my side, unlike you, Leech." Lith ignored him.

"Did he?"

"No." Rizel looked at Orpal with eyes filled with disgust. "We planned everything when we were alone. Orpal said that he did not trust Trion enough. That Trion is a spineless coward, and that he feared that he could rat us out."

"Thanks." Lith then spoke to the village chief again. "Could you please reduce his sentence? His sincerity helps my whole family, it clears our doubts and my brother's name as well."

"But off course! If the victims asks for mercy, how could I possibly refuse? Rizel will only receive five lashes, and after the pillory time has passed, his family is free to bring him home. Is that okay for you?"

Lith nodded, and Bromann shook Lith's hand while his wife was weeping with joy.

"Thanks, Lith. That means a lot for my poor Lisa. I will not forget your kindness. I'm sure you'll become a great man, just like your father."

Lith was completely satisfied with that outcome.

"I didn't know that disowning a son, especially the firstborn, was possible. Everything went even better than I imagined. Orpal's friends can't wait to get some alone time in jail with him, and once his sentence is over, he is doomed. Either someone from the village adopts him, something that I find hard to believe, or he will be deported to the nearest orphanage. I hoped to get rid of Trion too, but maybe that's for the best. I don't think my parents can bear losing two sons at once. And between their happiness and getting even with that idiot, they come first by a landslide."

The following days were really hard for Raaz, Elina and Trion. The couple needed quite some time before overcoming their grief.

It was really hard for them to accept that the kind and bright boy that they brought up for almost twelve year was gone forever. Even worse, they started to suspect that the Orpal they knew never really existed.

Thinking back about all the bad things he did and said over the years, he might as well have been deceiving them all along,

Trion was the one having the hardest time. He had lost his favourite sibling and his family's trust at the same time. Despite Rizel had cleared his name, the suspicions remain. How could he have been so close to Orpal and yet never noticing anything?

"I can't blame them. In their shoes I too would think of me as either a liar or a complete idiot." Trion didn't know if to laugh or cry.

Lith, Rena and Tista, instead were having the time of their life, even if they did their best to avoid their parents to notice.

They would get more and better food, clothes and they did not have to tolerate Orpal's mean words and petty jokes anymore. Plus, there were all the gifts that five families sent them as an apology.

Both the girls had stopped considering Orpal as a brother from the day he had proposed to get rid of Tista, calling her a cripple.

Lith was above and beyond them, he never considered him his brother. His only worry was for his parents, so he tried to lessen their burden as much as he could.

Lith's magic was now strong enough that he could till and plough the fields with earth magic.

He could also hunt for much bigger preys, his aim set to deer, boars and bear, whose pelt could be sold for a pretty penny.

The time for the spring festival was nearing, and Lith wanted some extra pocket money to buy something nice for his parents and sisters. Trion was still a stranger to him.

The spring festival was held midspring, during the equinox, to celebrate the time when the light finally overcame the darkness and cold of winter.

Lith was happily playing around the Trawn woods, looking for the best opportunity to kill a huge boar.

"Dammit, it's neck and skin are too thick to break with my current level of spirit magic. Fire and thunder could easily put it down, but that would mean damaging either the pelt or the meat. I need to get creative."

The boar movements were easy to predict, since it would always charge in a straight line By using air fusion, Lith's body was fast enough to dodge the charges with ease, as long as he managed to prevent the beast from coming too close.

"When an ox went mad, my father told me that the best way to put it down is to strike at the legs, instead of the head. Once you take away their mobility, beasts like this one are easy prey."

At the next charge, Lith conjured a thick layer of ice before dodging. When the boar stepped on it, it lost its footing, spinning on itself like a top.

The boar crashed against the huge oak Lith had aligned it with, its bones snapping on impact. Lith closed in enough to not miss his next shot, but always keeping a safe distance.

"A cornered prey is the most dangerous one. Always respect the prey, never underestimate it. It only needs one hit to kill you." Lith remembered Selia's teachings.

Lith made a finger gun, aligning it with his target before shooting an ice arrow that penetrated in the boar's right eye, puncturing its brain.

The beast collapsed on the ground, but Lith shot another arrow in the left eye too, just to be on the safe side.

"Okay, dead it's dead. Now the problem is how the heck do I carry it out of the woods? My spirit magic may not be enough to carry a several hundred kilograms dead animal all the way until Selia's house. And even if I actually manage to do it, how can I explain it?"

Lith was nervously tapping with a finger on a nearby tree, trying to find a solution before having to fight to defend his game, when the dead animal suddenly disappeared.

"What the f*ck?!? Since when do boars vanish into thin air? Who's there?"

He promptly activated Life Vision, scanning the surroundings in search of his enemy, but the only living beings he could find were small birds and rodents.

"Okay, this is getting creepy, but I need to get my boar back."

The boar appeared back, very close to Lith, making him jump away in fright.

"Why are you messing with me? Who are you?" Lith screamed while checking out the best escape route.

"And invisible enemy could easily kill me. Screw the boar, I need to get out of here fast." He thought.

"There is no need to escape." A gentle feminine voice replied in his mind. "I'm not your enemy, my host."

"Okay, if you want to scare the sh*t out of me, you're doing a great job. What do you mean with host? Where the heck are you?" Lith kept looking around, the enemy somehow was untraceable even by his magical senses.

"Stop looking around, host. I'm here were you put me. Around your neck."

Lith instinctively grabbed the pouch and threw it away. He could finally notice that both the life force and the mana flow of the stone were bigger than ever.

Lith had always kept it in a blind spot, and since it was useless, he forgot to check it with Life Vision since the day of the ambush.

"Okay, I hate riddles. Tell me who or what you are, or I'll leave. As much as it pains me losing such a game, it's not worth having a creepy, mysterious stone talking in my head 24/7."

"Please, don't!" To voice turned desperate. "I'll die without my host."

"Enough with the riddles!" Lith screamed out loud. "What the f*ck are you?"

"Our minds are linked, it's easier to show rather than tell."

Suddenly Lith's mind was filled with images and memories that were not his own. He could have thought of having been teleported away, if the images weren't full of holes, allowing to still see part of the woods through them.

"I'm sorry, but my powers are almost depleted, this is the best I can do."

Lith could see a gigantic tower, whose vault was so deep to reach the bottom of the ocean, it's top so high to touch the sky. He could perceive that the whole structure was a giant magical artifact, pulsing with mana.

At some point, the owner of the tower had died, and without his/her mana to nourish its core, the tower began to decline. Centuries passed, while the tower kept looking for its next host, using illusions to send away those it deemed not talented enough or unworthy.

Over time, the tower spent all his powers, and to avoid death it had been forced to an extreme sacrifice.

To prolong its existence, it started to consume its own walls, floors, everything within itself, even its memories.

More centuries had passed, now only the tower core was left, barely the size of a pebble. It had nothing left, except its sense of self. Preferring death rather than becoming a mindless tool, the tower core attempted a desperate gamble.

It sent a signal that any being with the bare minimum magical powers to sustain its life could perceive. The clock was ticking, every second that passed, the tower core could feel its life slip away.

When the one answering the call resulted to be a Ry, the tower core had tried to communicate with no results. The beast mind was too different from the first host, making the mind link impossible.

Hope was lost, the tower core could only wait for its end.

But then a saviour arrived, saving the tower core from the beast's maw, using his own blood to bond himself with the tower core, right before it fell into a deep slumber to recover from its wounds.

The images disappeared, leaving Lith alone with the pouch and the dead boar.

Lith's mind was overwhelmed, incapable of any thought outside stupid jokes.

"Does that make us married or what?"

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"Why do you say that?"

"Well, back on my world, being bonded for life with someone you would not have any intimacy was the joke definition of marriage."

"That's funny." The voice chuckled. "And also kind of sad."

"Never mind the jokes. Let me get this straight: you once were a mighty artifact, full of treasures and knowledge. But now everything you had and knew is lost, and you are dimished to the size of a marble. Am I missing something?"

"No, all your statements are correct."

"Also, you did not pick me because of my talent or virtue, but simply because I possess, and I quote 'the bare minimum magical powers to sustain your life'. That makes me nothing more than an off-brand life support system."

"That is not exact. I am now bonded with you until your death do us part."

"That sounds more and more like marriage." Lith grunted.

"I am no parasite, you can see me as a symbiote. We will both benefit from our relationship."

"How? Are you saying that if you manage to get your strength back, you will also recover your memories and magical artifacts?"

"No, those are lost forever. I'm just like you. When you grow up, can you spit back the food you have eaten in the past to pass it on someone else? No. The same applies to me."

"Then what's in for me? The pleasure of your company?"

"At the moment all I can offer you is a pocket dimension."

"Say what?"

"One moment, I'm looking at your memories to make it easier to understand. It works like a Dungeons Looting's Bag of Keeping."

"That's interesting." Lith pondered. "An interdimensional space where I can store my stuff without being hindered by its weight. How big is this pocket dimension?"

"Ten cubic metres big. It can store anything that amounts up to such volume, no matter the weight, as long as it's something inanimated."

A cruel intuition flashed in Lith's eyes.

"Can it also store things like lightnings, fireballs or incoming arrows? If so, it would be an invaluable tool for both offense and defence."

"No." The voice killed Lith's hopes. "The pocket dimension is outside space and time, so it rejects both life and kinetic energy." Feeling its host disappointment, the voice added quickly.

"This also means that whatever you store will not rot, cool down or warm up. A roasted blinker would be kept hot and tasty, frozen in the moment you finished cooking it."

"That barely qualifies as a silver lining." Despite their chat was quite long, it was only happening inside their minds. Barely a second had passed after Lith had accessed to the stone memories.

"Whatever. At least you save me from my current predicament. Now I know how to bring the boar back, I just need a decent excuse to explain how I managed it."

The stone mind-shrugged.

"Keep it simple. Drop it to the edge of the woods, and tell Selia that you managed to kite it to that spot before killing it. It should be easier to believe that the truth."

Lith nodded.

"Resourceful and smart. The fact that our minds are linked still creeps me out, but thanks to that I can see you have no malice or hidden agenda towards me. If you really are what you say to be, I'll keep you. True loyalty is a too rare commodity to turn it down when you find it. So, until I am convinced of your good faith, consider yourself on probation."

Lith put the pouch back at his neck and the boar in the pocket dimension.

"By the way, I can't keep calling 'you' and 'stone'. Don't you have a name?"

"No." The voice sounded really sad. "It's lost, like everything else."

"Don't be a pouter. A name is just a name. You can call me Derek, Lith, host, CZ DELTA, whatever. I'll always be the same cynic, misanthropic, lying, cutthroat guy I have always been. Would you like me to name you?"

"Yes, please." Lith had it ready since he heard the tower core's story.

"You are supposed to be a great artifact, so I'll name you after the greatest, albeit fictional, magical forgemaster that I always admired when I was a kid. Solus."

"Thank you, Lith. I like how it sounds. And I really appreciate you named me after someone you loved, rather than give me a pet name like Happy or Lucky."

Lith had the odd feeling Solus was mind-blushing.

They spent all the time on the way back chatting. Lith was really interested in understanding the limits and use of his new partner skillset.

After assessing that both Lith and Solus could activate the pocket dimension, he proceeded to pick the right spot. It needed to be close enough to the edge of the woods and covered enough to make spotting the boar from a distance impossible.

"There are countless things that can go wrong leaving a dead animal alone, even for a few minutes. A passerby that then claims it's his kill, a scavenger believing to have lucked out a free meal, take your pick. With my luck, I never trust the odds."

"You trust no one." Solus turned to a flat tone.

"You bet. That's life rule #1. Rule #2 is 'No good deed goes unpunished'."

Lith then used earth and wind magic to mess up the surroundings, mimicking the signs of struggle left by his previous fight with the boar.

"Bah! All this effort and I get such a sloppy result. If Selia throws a second glance at this scene, she'll expose my lie. I can only hope the prize catches her eyes enough to not make any question."

He then gently dropped the pouch on the ground.

"As soon as you receive my signal, take the boar out the pocket dimension. I'll be back in a jiffy."

Without waiting for a reply, Lith started running at full speed towards Selia's house. Once out of their mind link range (10 metres/10.9 yards), Lith could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"Dammit, leaving her like that was d*ck move. She surely knows the real reasons why I did it. It's hard to accept someone else in your head, reading every single of your most embarrassing thoughts and memories. Not to mention that in DL every sentient artifact was usually a bag full of troubles, trying to mind-control the owner or something. I know that it's just fiction, but still…

What if I just stumbled in this world's Lone Ring, like in Vasyli Bolkien's books?"

Lith shrugged his head, his body covered in cold sweat.

"I bet that as soon we are back together, she will have access to this inner monologue too. F*ck my life. No pain, no gain. If she really is what she says, she's worth the risk. At least I'll have someone who finally knows the real me."

A few minutes later, Selia and Lith were approaching the drop spot, riding the two-horse cart she used to move around the heaviest goods.

"Is it really that big to require two horses?" She asked sceptically.

"I think one should be enough to move it once it's loaded. The second is necessary to drag it on the cart easily."

Once Lith and Selia jumped down their ride, he gave Solus the signal. Selia detached the horses, guiding them by the bridle.

Lith took with him the thick ropes necessary to make a harness for the boar, making it easy for the horses to drag it out of the woods and into the cart.

When Selia saw the game with her own eyes, she whistled with approval.

"Good gods! This thing must be around 300 kilograms (661 pounds)! You weren't boasting as usual."

"I never boast." Lith used spirit magic to stealthily recover the pouch, while Selia was engrossed sizing the beast.

"Please, all men do." Selia clicked her tongue. "You are not an exception. With all your magic and secrets, do you want me to believe you do not enjoy your short, dark and teethless act?" She added laughing out loud.

"It's not my fault I have a lisp now!" Lith was pissed off by her non-stop mockery of his new voice. "Will you ever let me hear the end of it?"

"I'm sorry, I really am. It's just that your tough boy attitude is even more hilarious now that you have a lisp." The first time she had heard him call her "Phelia", she had laughed hard enough to fall from her chair, hugging her belly.

"Judging from its size, it was really close to become a magical beast. We could have sold it for a much bigger sum, it's kind of sad." She sighed.

"Yeah, and if it was a magical beast, I would be much deader now." Lith rebuked.

They kept bickering until the boar was safe and sound on the cart.

Only once they got back to her house and started bleeding out the game, Selia got her business attitude back.

"The most valuable piece is the head. If we can find a noble willing to stuff it, hang it over his fireplace and take the credit for the kill, we can sell it really well. The pelt and the meat are nothing special, do you have any plans about them?"

Lith nodded. "All this meat will allow me to skip hunting for a while, so I prefer to keep and maturate it. As for the pelt, it should make a nice carpet for my parents' bedroom."

"Always a family boy, huh?" Selia ruffled his hair, this time there was no mockery in her voice. "I'm so proud of you being so considerate toward your family that I'll tan it for free. I still get half of the head price, though."

"Perfect."

"Good! Our best shot is with Count Lark himself. He is both loaded and very proud of his hunting skills. I must reach my contacts in his manor to test the waters. Fingers crossed!"

Lith suffered at the idea of losing so much money, but half was better than nothing. He didn't know how to tan pelts or stuff heads, and lacked both time and instruments to do it.

And even if he did, he had no way to sell the merchandise outside his little village.

After Lith left Selia, he and Solus started chatting again, feigning ignorance about each other's feelings.

"Solus, I think that your help will be invaluable to bring my martial arts training to the next level."

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Until that moment, Lith's martial training had had been really sloppy. Despite all his efforts, in a whole year of practice he had barely managed to regain the skill level of a 4th kyu of aikido (the equivalent of an orange belt for karate).

The only aspects he had managed to step up to the 3nd kyu (the equivalent of a green belt for karate) were the footwork and the fall techniques, and that because the initial progression depended completely on him.

Without a sparring partner, someone that could watch his moves and help him correct his mistakes, there was only so much that he could do.

He could either make a mud dummy move or train himself, he was not at the point that he could do both at the same time. Making a rough mud doll perform human like movements required a lot of concentration.

That meant that he could only put the dummies in position and then practice while they were once again still. Lith's body was even clumsier that his original one back on Earth, to make real progress he needed to be hit, to be thrown around, to practice all his moves on a moving target.

But Lith couldn't ask for help from anyone. How could he possibly explain that he wanted to practice alien martial arts? What help could anyone give him, not even knowing the basics of the basics? That's why he usually practiced in the middle of the night.

And Solus was the perfect solution for his problem. After further merging their minds, they had discovered new uses for the tower core. Lith had just to plant her into a mud doll to turn it into a quasi-golem, finally getting his sparring partner.

Solus had all the human senses and more, and with Lith permission, she could consume his mana to perform spells he knew in his stead. Her nature was that of a magic tower, she was supposed to overseer countless floors and devices.

Even in her weakened state, moving a poor excuse of a mud golem was easier than pie. Solus further improved Lith's idea, managing to make the golem's body soften at the right times, before hitting or being hit. This way she was able to put enough strain on Lith's body to train it, and avoid any possible injury by accident.

She also had access to all his memories, including all of his masters' teachings. Solus was able to use those memories to correct Lith's mistakes and help him improve by leap and bounds.

Thanks to Invigoration, Lith was now able to stay awake for a whole month before his performances started declining, forcing him to rest. So, thanks to Solus, whenever he would meet a bottleneck, he would train martial arts.

He only needed to take a short break when the fatigue became too much. Light magic would mend his muscles, making them recover and grow stronger in a matter of minutes, dissipating the accumulated lactic acid at the same time.

During those moments, Lith and Solus would chat heart to heart.

"So, what do you plan to do in the future? Why do you put so much effort in all this training? Magic, martial arts, hunting. Why don't you stop from time to time, just for smelling the roses?" Solus asked.

"Whenever I do stop, I start thinking about the future. And that scares me to death. I already know that death is a trap, forcing me to switch one hell with another.

I don't want to live all my life in a small village, just the idea is equivalent to the death penalty. Doing the same routine every day, in a prison without bars where I am forced to lie every single day, waiting to die and start all over again.

I can't bear this thought. My plan is to test this body's limits, get as strong as I can, so that once I reach adulthood, I will be able to explore this world, and see if it's worth living in.

If either this body or this world meet my expectation, I will strive all my life to find a way to prevent me passing into another world after my death."

"How?"

"I don't know, I'm still as ignorant as a baby about magic. All I know is its practical use, I have no idea if it's possible to create magical artifacts.

But if my hypothesis is right, I could become a lich. Even better, I could find a way to bind my soul to this world, so that in case of death I would remain here, possessing the nearest available corpse. I hope that when push comes the shove, I will also have found a way to retain both my magic core and muscle memory."

"And what if both the world and your body fail you?"

"In that case, I would not mind starting my journey once again. If I have to live a sh*tty life in a sh*tty world, might as well depart early.

I'll keep moving around until I roll my 100, and get born as a perfectly healthy young master of a filthy rich family, a chosen one or whatever. Is just a matter of luck."

"What about your family? Are you going to abandon them like that?" Lith pondered seriously about that matter.

"Off course not. Making them lose their son, their brother for no reason, without even giving them a body to bury is too cruel, even for me. I'll stick around until my family needs me before checking out."

Solus giggled.

"Don't you see? Things are not actually all black and white as you make them. When you awoke in this world, you couldn't wait to die. To 'reroll' as you say.

Then you chose to stay for the magic. Now you are willing to continue this life for someone else's sake. Give yourself some time.

The bad people you met have reinforced your bias on life, but the good people are also slowly changing you. At the beginning you couldn't care less about Tista's life, now it's all you think about.

You hated both Elina and Raaz even before knowing them, because of your issues with parental figures. Thy are not your parents back on Earth, this planet is not Earth. Give it a chance before doing something so extreme."

"How do I know you are not telling me all this stuff only to keep your host?"

"Easy peasy, read my mind." After checking it thrice, Lith could not find any hidden agenda or egotistical reason.

"Dammit, all this mind-link stuff is so irritating. I cannot get out of this argument with mistrust or doubts. It's my loss. For now, at least. You are barely a month old, life will change you. It always does."

Solus giggled again.

"Or maybe it will change you, and you will start warming up to me. And then you will have to take care of me for your whole life, hubby."

Lith felt a cold chill run down his spine.

"Please, don't call me like that. I'm ready to go again. Don't go easy on me!"

"I never do." Solus replied, getting on Lith's already shaken nerves.

Thanks to all that exercise, Lith would quickly overcome any bottlenecks, and soon he could feel the bottled-up impurities trying to find their way out again.

Lith had pondered if it was the case of getting rid of the impurities in the same way he did for the rest of his family, but after discussing it with Solus, he decided not to.

The purification treatment he had devised for Tista was an artificial method, and even though it gave the same benefits in term of physical appearance and resistance to illness, their magic power and physical prowess never got enhanced.

Lith had no idea why the impurities had to travel to the mana core before getting expelled, inflicting such excruciating pain. But it was worth the cost.

It happened during one of their sparring sessions. As soon as Lith realized what was happening, he quickly undressed himself to not taint his clothes.

This time he offered no resistance, discovering that it wasn't so painful after all.

Lith puked much more impurities than the last time, letting them came out of all his pores and orifices.

The stench was so bad he was about to faint before managing to destroy them with dark magic.

He was completely exhausted, this time not even invigoration could replenish his energies, he needed to sleep.

"After a bath. I stink so bad I could raise the dead." Solus ignored the obvious remark.

"It's exactly as you remembered. Whatever happens to you, is like a sword getting tempered and purified at the same time. Both your body and mana core had undergone qualitative changes again.

I think your potential skyrocketed, promoting you from my bare minimum requirements. You still need to work hard to develop it, though."

And so, Lith continued his routine until the day of the spring festival came.

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It was without a doubt the worst day of the year for Lith. He would be forced to spend the full afternoon away from home, surrounded by complete strangers and robbed of any privacy or personal space during the festivities.

All the families in the village would gather for the festival, forgetting about all their daily problems and miseries, since everything from decorations to food and drinks were paid by Count Lark.

He would also take part in the whole event, to keep his bonds with the community strong and maintain his reputation of a fair Lord, instead of being just a faceless guy who collected taxes making their lives even harder.

The festival was comprised of three parts.

The morning would still be spent like a normal day's work, to let foreigner merchants and carnies prepare their stands and arrange their merchandise.

In the evening the families would gather and check out the stands, searching for trinkets and jewellery to buy with their extra money to add them to their daughters' dowry.

The food would mainly consist of appetizers, like fresh fruit and vegetables, with skewers of different kinds of meat and even exotic food, brought by Count Lark for the occasion, like saltwater fishes and seafood.

The only drinks available would be water and light beer.

After the sunset, huge braziers and torches would be lit all around the village, while the Count's workers would prepare the stage for the festival main event, the election of the Spring Maiden.

All the girls fifteen and sixteen years-old could take part in the Spring Maiden contest, which was more like a debutante ball rather than a beauty pageant.

It was the opportunity for all the young maidens of marriageable age to show off their beauty and virtues, in hope to catch the attention of as many suitors as possible.

The judges of the Spring Maiden contest were always the same, Count Lark, the village chief and Nana.

After the election, the real food would be brought out, with lots of roasted animals, soups and caramelised fruits. Both pure and watered wines would be available, raising the spirits for the finale.

The last part consisted of a ball, encouraging the eligible bachelors to approach one or more maidens that may have caught their eye.

Each part would affect Lith's mood differently. The first would cause extreme boredom, tempered by the fact that he was still allowed of moving alone.

The second was akin to torture. He would be forced to sit on his father shoulders, staring for hours at a bunch of little girls he did not give a damn about.

The third was the best one, but only because it was very short. After some dancing, his parents were too tired to remain any longer, and would finally bring him back home. None of their children was yet of marrying age, so they had no reason to linger.

For the first time in his new life, Lith had some money in his pocket, so he could check out the carnival games that offered the best prizes.

"They cheat, I cheat. Let's play this fair and square."

Using spirit magic he won a beautiful stuffed bear for Tista, beating a ring toss game rigged by unbalanced rings. From a crossbow shoot game he got a silver coated hair comb for Rena. All he needed to do was to use two strands of spirit magic, one to guide the dart to his target, the second to force it to crumble. Last, but not least, a silk ribbon for his mother from a Wheel of Fortune stand.

The carnies were flabbergasted, but trying to bully a local child in front of so many villagers, not to mention Count Lark, would have earned them nothing more than the beating of a lifetime and a permanent ban from every event in the county of Lustria.

They started to keep an eye on him, but Lith was not greedy and left after getting the three prizes. He actually wanted something for Raaz too, but all they had were feminine products.

The carnies hoped to lure the young boys into wasting their money, trying to impress the girls with expensive presents they could not afford without gambling.

After distributing the presents, Lith searched for Nana, he wanted to have a chat about magic with an expert. He found her sitting on a bench near her house.

The first thing he did was looking at her with Life Vision. Her mana flow was way bigger than Lith's, but her life force was weaker than Tista's.

Nana was a over sixty years old woman, but she looked like an eighty-year-old Earth woman. Her back was so hunched that she needed a cane to walk properly.

She had sharp grey eyes, a face full of wrinkles and a big aquiline nose. Nana always wore a shawl over her head, to avoid her long grey hair bothering her during work.

At a first look she seemed an inconspicuous old lady, but when you got near, you could feel the raw strength exuding from her body.

"Must have had a rough life." Solus commented.

"Hello, Nana. How are you?" Lith asked politely.

"Hello to you, little imp. You sure are growing fast, aren't you?" Just like Elina had noticed back in winter, Tista and Lith were growing taller and slender than their peers. The same was happening to Rena too, after she had received Lith's treatment.

Lith was already over 1.1 meters (1'8'') high, his shoulders broad like he played water polo.

Lith nodded. "Yes, I do. Can I ask you a question?"

"As long it's not about my age, be my guest." Nana laughed.

"Nana, are you a strong magician?" Nana was surprised, the question not very childlike.

"Yes, I am. When I was still a young girl, I even got a scholarship for the prestigious Lightning Griffin academy, and I managed to graduate without any problem." Nana straightened up proudly, remembering her years of glory.

"Then how did you end up being a healer in Lutia?"

"How tactful of you, Lith!" Solus rebuked him.

"Children are allowed to be rude. It's one of their few privileges."

Nana's mood turned gloomy.

"You see, Lith, in this world there are commoners, nobles and mages. A strong mage has a status on par with the nobles, depending on his/her magic power. Back then I was very strong, but not a genius. Sadly, I was also stupid and naïve, so I made some very bad choices and ended up alone, without anyone backing me. I had only two options left. Either submit to a powerful noble or living free with the status of a healer. Guess what I picked?"

Lith became gloomy too, the idea of losing everything after working so hard for it made his future look even scarier.

"There, there kid!" Nana brightened up. "Let's not spoil the mood and enjoy the festival."

After leaving Nana alone, Lith thought back at her words about his growth, and stopped in front of a mirror on display, watching his reflection.

He could only sigh in resignation.

"No matter how many impurities I expel, I managed to fail even at the gene pool lottery. I took so much from my dad and so little from my mom.

When I look at myself while brooding, rather than cool I like some kind of psycho kid escaped from juvie. If I smile, now that I miss so many teeth, I'm not even cute. Even all dressed up, I could barely pass for a street urchin from one of Dicken's novels."

Solus tried to brighten him up, but to no avail.

Later in the evening, Count Lark introduced to the village elders his guest of honour.

"Chief Yurok, sage Nana, allow me to introduce you the young Ricker Trahan, son of my dear friend, baronet Lokar Trahan. This young lad is a really talented magician, that in the future will bring glory to our county." Count Lark was a magic enthusiast, always trying to sponsor promising youths from his land.

"Nice to meet you, young man." The village chief saluted him with a polite bow, expecting the other to offer him his hand or at least reply to the bow.

Ricker instead kept looking around, his eyes filled with contempt.

"The pleasure is mine." He replied with a cold tone.

"Ricker, where are your manners?" Count Lark rebuked him mildly. "Sage Nana was a powerful and renowned magician in her youth. Feel free to ask her for advice. Her experience could prove invaluable to overcome any difficulty you may encounter during your studies."

"I have no doubt about that, my Lord." Ricker bowed this time, but to Count Lark.

Nana had seen enough nobles in her life to recognize the type. A high and mighty young master, pampered enough to believe that only nobles could achieve greatness.

The people of the village were having a hard time tolerating so much disrespect towards their elders, but for the Count's sake they limited themselves to angry whispers.

"Oh, oh, oh! You got yourself another spunky one, dear Lark." Nana laughed without any warmth.

Ricker shuddered at such lack of respect, the old bat calling the Count by his first name without honorifics. But he knew that Lark was a sucker for magicians, and judging from her attitude, he had granted the old bat the right to do so.

"He has every right to be proud, dear Nana. Next year he will turn twelve and apply for a Lighting Griffon's academy scholarship, and with a little luck he will enrol just like you did back in the day!"

Ricker failed to repress his amazement, knitting his eyebrows at Nana.

"By the gods, how could such a commoner get admitted into the academy?" He thought. "She must have cheated her way in, no doubt."

"Really?" Replied Nana with exaggerated enthusiasm "Why don't you ask him to show us what he is capable of?"

Count Lark gladly accepted, and per his request soon was set up a one meter (3'3'') high stump with a head of lettuce on its top.

Ricker had to stay at least 10 metres (11 yards) away from it and knock it down. It was a very basic exercise for anyone who wanted to become a magician, often use to quickly get rid of unworthy candidates.

Only those with real talent for magic were able to use chore magic at such range. For normal people, magic had a range of a metre or two.

To learn something outside chore magic, one had to either enrol in a magic academy or buy very expensive books.

"Young man, do your best!" Count Lark's voice was full of enthusiasm.

Ricker had done that exercise countless times, but always alone. This time he was surrounded by commoners, clearly hoping to watch him fail and get the chance to ridicule him.

Even worst, count Lark was putting a lot of pressure on him. In Ricker eyes this wasn't a simple test, but a matter of life and death.

Feeling countless eyes on him, he lost his concentration while performing the hand signs and stuttered the magic word.

"I-Infiro!"

He produced a chestnut big fireball, that almost missed the lettuce. Yet with a small boom the head of lettuce got knocked off.

No one applauded except for count Lark.

More than one "That's it?" could be heard among the crowd.

Nana walked slowly to the vegetable, bringing it back for the Count to examine.

"He messed a few key hand signs, stuttered the magic word, and missed the lettuce entirely. It only got knocked off because of the explosion." Nana remarked coldly.

"I would not keep my hopes up, Lark. When I was his age, I was able to actually hit my target without performing signs nor using magic words. They admitted me only because of my perfect silent magic." Nana's grey eyes were staring at Ricker in contempt.

"Well, he is still young, that's why I brought him to you. He has another full year to prepare for the exam. There is still time to fix the small mistakes. I was hoping you could mentor him."

"I would be glad to, I really would. But between the villagers and my disciple, I already have my hands full. I'm too old to take care of two youths, and my apprentice takes precedence. As you know, a magician's word is her bond."

"You have an apprentice?" Count Lark was shocked no one had informed him about such critical matter.

"Yes." She nodded, smiling in Ricker face.

"He learned to read and write and the age of three, and by that time he had already learned chore magic all by himself."

"Marvelous!" Count Lark excitement was a slap in Ricker's face.

"Yeah, he is also my disciple." Selia stepped forward, adding fuel to the fire. She and Nana politely detested each other, but between her and a stuck-up obnoxious brat, she would always choose the devil she knew.

"He hunts in the Trawn woods from the age of four. Even if he can only hunt blinkers and critters, he would never miss a moving target, let alone some deadweight lettuce."

She then whispered to the count's ear: "He is actually the you-know-who that provided the you-know-what."

"Fantastic! Excellent! When can I meet him?" His monocle jumped out of his eye orbit from the happiness.

Ricker was on the verge of exploding out of anger.

"Can't he see they are just leading him by the nose? How can someone with such a high social status like the Count trust even one word from these commoners?

Lying and cheating is in their nature. They are just trash, trying to stoop us at their level to make themselves feel better about their pathetic lives! If that old bat is a magician, then I am the crowned prince.

Why do I have to bear with all her nonsense? And how come even a gut-stinking hunter can freely speak to a Count? This evening could not turn any worse. How the heck I managed to let my father convince me to come to this pigsty?"

"Here he is!" Bromann shouted triumphantly, forcefully dragging Lith by his arm.

He had no idea what was happening. Lith was with his family, nibbling at a caramelized apple, when Bromann appeared out of the blue, babbling about the village honour or something.

Too many eyes were on him, Lith's intuition told him that something was wrong, so he decided to play it close to the vest.

"Count Lark, I'm honoured to meet you." It didn't take a genius to understand that the overdressed beanpole with the monocle had to be the lord of the land.

Lith greeted him cupping his fist, performing a deep bow. He then proceeded greeting the village chief, Nana and Selia, making his bow deep according to the respect they deserved.

Lastly, he turned towards the ill looking kid standing next to the Count. He had to be around ten years old, 1.4 metres (4'8") high. He was wearing a silk white shirt over high-end leather pants. His face was all red and sweaty, like he had either run for his life or been bitten by a venomous snake.

The situation made no sense to Lith, but since no one seemed worried about the kid's health, Lith did what he was supposed to.

"Greetings, honourable guest. I hope you enjoy your visit in our village." Lith cupped his fist again, making only a small bow. He had no idea who that kid was, and Ricker could not find the strength to introduce by himself.

The Count seemed to have completely forgot about his existence.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Nana laughed. "See, Lark? Manners. That's something so many youngsters lack nowadays."

Lith kept looking around, waiting for someone to explain what was happening.

"Can I be of assistance?" He asked.

Ricker once again needed all his willpower to prevent himself from throwing a fit of rage.

"This is their prodigy? A toothless bum? I should ask the Count to whip them all to death for their blatant lies! Simply outrageous!"

"Yes, Lith." Selia stepped in again. "Count Lark loves magic in all its kinds and forms, and I was just telling him about how you kill blinkers without ruining even a feather. Would you mind to show him?"

She took out a wooden stick, holding it up for the Count and everyone else to see.

Lith sighed with relief.

"All this fuss for chore magic? They almost gave me a heart attack. If it's just to entertain some bored nobles, why not? If the village thrives, so will my family."

"Brezza!" After twirling twice his middle and medium finger, a small vortex enveloped the stick. Outwardly it was just like the ones every housewife used daily to clean their houses, but looking at it closely one could notice that it was actually two different vortexes, one spinning clockwise and the other counter clockwise.

This way the spell applied a huge strain to the stick in the point where the two vortexes connected, causing it to break almost instantly.

Lith had invented it after Selia had started bothering him too much about how he killed the blinkers. He could not show her spirit magic, so he came up with this trick.

Ricker wanted to rebut saying that Lith was standing barely a meter (1.1 yards) away from the stick, but even he knew how hard it was to use two different spells at the same time. He also knew that such an objection would be met by the old bat requesting him to do the same. And he had no idea how to.

Nana waved her hand, and a villager put another head of lettuce on the stump.

"Lith, be a dear and knock that out, please."

Lith was getting more and more confused. The Count now had stars in his eyes, looking at him like some mythical beast had descended from the heavens, while the noble kid was as pale as a ghost.

"What the heck is going on here? Why the Count is so engrossed by cheap magic? And why no one cares about that poor kid? Whatever he has is getting worse."

Lith shrugged before flickering his middle finger while saying: "Jorun!"

An ice dart hit the lettuce dead center, making it roll a few meters away.

"Without using hand signs!" The count gasped, his voice so faint that Lith could not hear him.

"One last thing, dear Lith. If you manage to indulge this poor old lady, I will treat you and all your family for free until you start your apprenticeship. Are you willing to humour me one last time?"

Lith had no need to think before accepting. Despite his best efforts, Tista still needed constant care. From time to time they had still to seek for Nana's help and it wasn't cheap.

Nana smiled, full of confidence enough for the both of them.

"Bromann, toss one of those as high as you can."

Bromann threw a head of lettuce with a lob shot, sending it about three meters (10") high. When it reached its peak, Nana made a simple gesture, cutting the air horizontally with her extended hand and fingers, conjuring ten ice darts.

Five struck its left side, five the right side. When the head of lettuce started falling, Nana cut the air again, this time vertically, splitting it evenly in four parts.

Then she simply opened her palm toward the sky, conjuring four small vortexes that brought down the four pieces slowly.

"Damn! Not only Nana's mana flow is still superior to mine, but her skill level is above and beyond my expectations. I could probably achieve the same result, but I'd need both hands and something more than just a casual wave of the hand.

Now I understand why everyone in the village holds her in such high regard. She is likely to be the reason why the village of Lutia is so peaceful. If she can do so much with simple chore magic, I can't imagine what she can do with a real spell." Lith thought.

"Now is your turn. Bromann!"

Another head of lettuce, another lob shot.

Lith knew it wasn't a contest, he wasn't supposed to perform as good as Nana.

Until Lith could get a clear picture of how much talent was considered good, how much to be considered a genius level and how much for the "burn that monster" label, he had to play it safe.

When the shot reached his peak, Lith made hands signs with both hands shouting "Jorun!", conjuring four ice darts, two per side. When the lettuce started to fall, he used "Brezza" to cut it unevenly in half, using it again to summon two vortexes to bring the pieces down. Once again, they were rotating in opposite directions, the phenomenon highlighted by the slowly spinning lettuce.

"In for a penny in for a pound. They already know I can do it, if I have to entertain the Count, might as well do it with a little swag."

The crowd exploded into an applause, soon joined by and ecstatic Count Lark that still could not believe his own eyes.

Nana sent Lith away to his parents, reassuring him that she would keep her side of the bargain, before speaking again to Ricker Trahan.

"And that, young man, is what real talent for magic look like!"

Ricker could not hear her, thought. Back when Nana had showed her skill, he had fainted standing up.

His mind could not accept that all the certainties he had grew up with, had proven to be nothing more than convenient lies.

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After the end of the spring festival, nothing major happened, and Lith's life returned to his usual routine.

Solus proved to be of invaluable help for his magical training. Despite having lost all her past knowledge and being quite naïve in the ways of life, she was by far the brighter of the two.

Solus was not limited to the humans' five senses, but actually had twelve. Solus was certain that by regaining her powers she would be able to awaken even more.

Solus' sense of mana helped Lith to better understand the laws of magic that determined the innate talent and the mana capacity.

Her mana sense was similar to Lith's Life vision, but much more profound and accurate. Solus could see the mana flowing even from blades of grass or pebbles. When looking at someone, she was immediately able to grasp their magic talent.

Even more important, she was able to use her mana sense even on Lith's memories. According to Solus, all the information needed for the mana sense were also contained in the visible spectrum, but the humans lacked the means to interpret them.

"When you were on Earth, you had no mana core. Your native world had basically no mana at all. The same thing happened on the alien spaceship.

But when you were born here, you started with a very little blood red mana core. By absorbing and processing the world energy with your breathing technique, you managed to develop it from red to orange."

"Four years of unrelenting practice just to promote it to the next rank?" Lith was quite depressed by the news.

"Not quite. Your mana core also keeps changing and developing as you grow up, and this happens to everyone else too. At the moment of your birth, Tista's mana core was already field poppy red, and turned brighter every year. Right now it's light orange, and it would not surprise me if after her final growth spurt it turned yellow, or even green. She seems to be fairly talented for magic."

"And that where does it leave me?" Lith kept feeling worse about himself. "Am I really a complete failure in everything? Looks, talent, can't I do one thing right?"

"Stop moping around and listen to me. You keep forgetting that you are two years younger and I have no idea if males and females develop their mana cores at different rates. Also your constantly skipping steps makes hard for me to understand what your base talent is. After every cycle of expansion and compression, your mana core would turn one shade brighter. Every time you expel impurities from your mana core, it skips to the next level. Right now is deep green."

"Is it me, or this mana core strength seems to be somehow related to the light spectrum?" Lith pondered. "A prism can break down white light in its basic components: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple."

"Agreed." Solus mind nodded. "But it could also somehow be related to fire. Flames follow the same principle, a yellow star is colder than green one and so on. Our real question is: Is the final step for a mana core to turn purple or white?"

Lith shook his head.

"I'm starting to get a head splitting headache. We'll face this like I did for college back on Earth, one exam session at a time. Even back there, if I started to think about all the exams that I had to pass to get my degree, only to start right back for my master, I would go into a deep depression." The memory made him shudder.

"So let's focus on the present. I'm deep green, what about Nana?"

"She is the only person with a light cyan mana core. To be born with such talent, she is really impressive."

"Is there anyone else talented in the village?" Lith had to be aware of the possible competition.

"No. The ill kid count Lark brought along had a bright yellow mana core, but I don't think he lives close by."

Lith sighed, all that information overwhelming him. For so many years he had deluded himself into thinking he was special, stronger than anyone else.

Now he felt like the proverbial frog in the well, finally discovering the vastness of the sea.

"Enough moping around, let's roll up our sleeves and work hard. Nothing that's worth having comes easy."

Lith and Solus kept practicing together for the whole year, growing closer and closer like fraternal twins.

Lith's birthday was on fall, but all major activities in the village would be suspended until the next spring. Since Nana's offer was to replace the two years public school with an apprenticeship, Lith too had to wait until spring to begin his magical education.

In the late winter the weather cleared, and the trades between the village and the farm houses became more and more frequent.

Thanks to this, Nana was able to let Lith know the date she had set for starting his apprenticeship, entrusting the message to one of his neighbours that had come to her to heal a nasty wound suffered while repairing the roof.

When the day came, Lith woke up early, determined to keep his routine of cleaning both his house and Selia's before going to the village.

The huntress had done so much for him that Lith considered her as an aunt. A stingy, nagging one that would make rip-off deals, but an aunt nonetheless.

That morning the house was in turmoil. All his loved ones were so excited at the idea of having a future mage in the family, to be barely able to eat their breakfast, spending all their time and energies giving him unwanted and obvious advices.

"Do not be late. Is better getting a little early rather than late."

"Be obedient and respectful. Nana is giving you a great chance!"

The reason why everyone was on edge was that despite they considered the first day to be of vital importance, Lith he had to go to the village alone.

The house was in dire need of repairs, and with Orpal gone they needed all hands on deck to also take care of the fields and animals.

Lith didn't mind it at all, it was just a thirty minutes' walk that he had done countless times. Raaz and Elina, though, felt like they were abandoning their child in his hour of need.

Lith rushed out of his house, to escape from that barrage of worries. He had been very calm about the apprenticeship, it wasn't his first rodeo, afterall.

But they had managed to make him nervous like a teenager at his first date. After finishing the chores at Selia's house and collecting his usual payment, Lith restlessly looked at the sun.

"Dammit, it's still barely dawn. And here I was, shuddering in fear. I still have a lot of time."

Lith walked briskly toward the village, hoping that at his arrival Nana would at least be already up. Arriving so early to give her the wake up call would have been quite embarrassing.

When he arrived midway, Lith noticed something odd. There was a horseman standing on the side of the road.

It was already unusual finding a stranger so early in the morning, but what really alarmed him was that the man wasn't moving. Whoever he was, he was clearly on patrol.

As soon the horseman noticed Lith, he took out a silvery whistle from under his shirt, emitting a high-pitched noise.

Lith kept moving forward, but slowly, ready to react at any moment.

Soon the scout was joined by four other horsemen, and they started trotting toward Lith in an arrowhead formation.

Lith stopped moving, many spells ready at hand.

"Kid, are you Lith? Son of Raaz and Elina?" Said the horseman on point. He was a middle-aged man, with brown hair and eyes. He had perfectly trimmed moustaches, and everything from his straight up posture to his commanding tone identified him a military of some sort.

Looking carefully, all the horsemen had the same vibe, marching perfectly aligned. Yet they wore casual clothes, white shirts over leather hunting pants.

"Isn't a little earlier to go out without the matching leather jacket?" Lith thought. "Unless off course they need to avoid showing any household insignia."

"Who are you, mister? My mother always tells me that I am not supposed to talk to strangers." Lith decided to stall for time, while he and Solus checked their surroundings for lookouts or possible reinforcements still in hiding.

"I perceive only five human males, above average physical strength, deep red mana cores." Solus reported. It was the same thing Lith had determined using Life Vision, but four eyes were better than two.

"I ask the questions, kid. Are you the Lith that is supposed to start his apprenticeship today?"

Lith grimaced.

"Whoever sent this hired muscle, knows way too much about me."

"I am." Lith retorted fiercely. "And it's none of your business."

"I'm here to give you a friendly advice, son. Today you are feeling very ill, and it's best for you to go back home and stay in bed all day."

Lith anger started to grow and he didn't care about hiding it.

"I'm feeling perfectly fine, thank you. Now scram!"

The five men lowered their hands to the weapons hanging from their belts, the reins held tight ready to the charge.

"Last chance, kid. Turn back now. I know you have such a pretty house and such a beautiful mom. Not to mention two gorgeous sisters ripe for the taking. It would be really sad if something bad happened to them."

Lith released such a powerful killing intent aura, that the horses took a step back. The hair on the horsemen's neck suddenly standing up.

"I wanted to play this nice and slow, but I just changed my mind."

With a sweep of his right hand, five wind blades struck the horses' legs, making them whine in pain while collapsing on their sides.

"Now you cannot retreat anymore."

The man with the moustaches and his right-hand man managed to dismount with a roll, avoiding getting crushed by the falling horse. The other three weren't so skilled.

"Kill him! Go! Go! Go!"

"Kneel!" Lith voice was cold, his words fell on the two men like boulders, making them instantly fall on their knees.

Lith's spirit magic was stronger than ever, and he wasn't holding back even one bit.

"What the heck? Sarge, I can't get up!" Screamed the right-hand man struggling on the ground.

"I never allowed you to talk or to look at me. I said kneel!" Another wave, even stronger than the previous one, pushed their heads toward the ground.

Despite dropping their weapons to absorb the impact with their hands, they still hit the ground so hard that they started to bleed.

"Much better. Now let me dispose of the garbage before resuming our talk." Lith walked over the closest horseman, still under his horse, the leg stuck and broken, making him scream and wince in pain.

With a wave of the hand, turned both their heads 180, the necks snapping like a dry log tossed into the fire.

"Stay away! Stay away from me, monster!" Screamed the next in line, crying in desperation.

"Am I a monster? Wasn't you the one ready to burn a house full of innocents, to r*pe a barely eight years old child?" Without waiting for his reply, Lith clenched his fist, distorting the man's head before making it implode like a walnut.

"Please, please! It's not my fault! Have mercy! I was just following orders!" Said a blonde, handsome youth trying to free his trapped leg.

"Just following orders… I could lecture you about the many atrocities that men like you did with such an excuse. But you see, I'm just the same. I'm just following orders too! Mine to be precise!" A fire bolt struck both horse and rider, turning them into a pyre, screaming in agony.

Lith returned to the kneeling men. They were still struggling to escape his control, their faces pales as ghosts, gritting their teeth while exerting every ounce of their strength.

"I'm sorry." Lith said with a cherubic smile, while letting them raise their heads. "But my Puppet Master spell isn't so simple. It takes more than a touch of strength and a spoonful of wishful thinking to escape from it."

The two men wanted to beg for mercy, but their mouths refused to open. It was like their teeth were fused to each other.

"Now, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I don't need both of you. And between the pack leader and a lackey, the choice is obvious. The good news is that I allow you to speak. Any last words?"

"Please, don't! I just married, I needed the prize money from my Lord! My wife is expecting a child! I could not allow to lose my position."

Lith emitted a cruel, joyless laugh.

"We'll have to agree to disagree. You say wife, yet all I can hear is widow."

Lith put his left hand on the man's head, turning it into a block of ice.

It fell to the ground, shattering into countless shards of bones, skin and brain matter.

The man with the moustaches started to puke uncontrollably, but his mouth was still tight shut. Some barf managed to escape from his nose, the rest he was forced to gulp it down over and over, to avoid chocking.

Lith raised his hand, making the man with the moustaches float in mid-air upside down, so that he could watch him straight in the eyes.

"And now, you have only two choices. You can tell me what I want and die without suffering too much. Or you can keep resisting, suffering through unimaginable pain and agony before telling me what I want to know. You have free will after all."

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At those words the man steeled his resolve, recovering the courage worthy of a soldier that had looked death in the eyes many times on the battlefield.

When Lith allowed him to speak, he wasn't afraid anymore.

"I am knight, my honour lies with my Lord! I will never betray his trust, you filthy mongrel!"

"Oh my, you're so helpful! Thanks to your friend there, I already knew there is a Lord behind the ambush. But I thought you were just mercenaries. Are you telling me you are actual knights? Maybe his personal guard?"

Realizing his mistake, the knight bit his tongue, literally, trying to die before letting anything else slip out his mouth.

"Tsk, tsk! Not so fast!"

Lith froze him in place again, forcing the teeth away from the tongue before healing it with light magic.

"You are way dumber than you look." Lith never stopped smiling, talking to him with the calm a collected manner a mother would use with a small child.

"I'll spell it out for you. Not even death can save you from me. I can take you apart, piece by piece, and then put you back together, like the flesh puppet you are."

Lith's eyes lost any trace of humanity, his voice exuded only hatred and rage.

"But if it's pain that you want, I can give you plenty."

Lith clenched his fist, and suddenly the knight felt his nether regions squeezed and crushed, like into a vise. The knight's eyes filled with tears, his mouth was only able to emit gargling sounds.

Lith would release the grip from time to time, giving him some rest, before twisting and turning his hand and so the knight's gonads.

"Are you ready to talk?" The knight was still in so much pain he could barely understand his words.

"No? Not a problem, I just wanted to test my new and improved Plague Arrow."

After a bolt of darkness hit the knight in the chest, Lith released him from the Puppet Master grip, letting him sprawl on the ground.

"One."

Before the knight could start looking for his weapon, he found himself shivering in cold, while his teeth were rattling uncontrollably.

"Two."

He ended curling up, hugging himself trying to find some precious warmth.

"Three."

Suddenly the cold was gone, the knight started sweating bullets. He felt terribly hot, like when he had been forced to stay on guard for hours under the scorching summer sun.

"Four, five."

He felt suffocating, so he tore away his shirt, gasping for air. The knight's throat was so parched that he started gulping down handfuls of snow, thanking the gods for its fresh relief.

"Six, seven."

Then it was like his blood had started flowing in reverse, all his body was coursing with pain. The whole world had become the knight's enemy. The ground hurt his skin, the snow his throat, the light his eyes. There was no safe position he could find, he could only switch from one torture to another.

"Eight, nine."

The knight's veins were full of poison, his own saliva tasted like acid. The knight started to puke uncontrollably, until nothing but bile remained inside his intestines.

"And ten! Ready to talk now?" Lith dispelled the Plague Arrow using light magic.

"Please, no more. No more! If you waste any more hours you'll play right into their hands!" The knight was barely alive, but at least had a sliver of hope. By enduring all that torture he now had a bargain chip.

"Hours?" Lith laughed.

"I killed your soldiers in what, three minutes? Barely another minute has passed since you told me about your knighthood. Even rounding that up, it make five minutes at worst. What hours are you talking about?"

The knight was shocked, that couldn't be right. He looked at the sun, searching for a proof to expose that cruel lie.

But the sun was still raising over the horizon.

"Gods have mercy, how can all that pain and misery last a minute? It seemed hours long."

"You really are stupid." Lith paralyzed him again. "It's a minute from the moment you tried to bit your tongue off. The Plague Arrow lasted barely ten seconds. Didn't you hear me counting out loud?"

"It seems that the Plague Arrow distorted his sense of time." Solus was studying the specimen's body reaction to the new spell. "His lack of mana must have allowed the dark energy to reach his brain, altering his perceptions."

Lith was on cloud nine, it was all too perfect.

"I'll ask you only a second time. Are you ready to talk?"

The knight's mind broke down, forgetting all about his vows and his honour. All he wanted was the pain to stop. Even death seemed alluring in comparison.

So, he told Lith everything. About how after being humiliated during the spring festival, Ricker Trahan had reconsidered Nana's worth.

He had understood how lacking his preparation was, and had become determined on becoming her only apprentice.

After taking the matter to his father, Baronet Trahan had explained to his stupid son the enormity of his mistake. Nana held a huge grudge against nobles, and since they had started off in the worst possible way, begging or bribing her would be useless.

The only option available was to remove the competitor out of the picture, hoping that Nana would be willing to replace one pupil with another more reliable.

The reason why they ambushed Lith was the same that prevented Baronet Trahan from coercing Nana to do his bidding. He could not afford to make her angry, otherwise the whole Trahan household would be wiped out.

Despite Nana's fallen status in the mage association had stripped her of most of her privileges and authority, she was still a member nonetheless.

In the County of Lustria she held an authority equal if not superior to that of Count Lark himself, and that meant that she was free to execute lesser nobles like them on a whim.

Nana would not even need to justify herself for such an action, just explain her reasons to the association by writing a letter. A mere formality.

That was why Baronet Trahan had sent his personal guard on an undercover mission. He had stressed countless times the importance of not creating a fuss.

Nana should never come to suspect anything.

Their orders were to make Lith drop off from his apprenticeship by intimidating and threatening him. If none of the above worked, their job was to make him disappear without leaving any trace.

"During the spring festival, Nana told me that powerful magicians are like nobles, but I never expected that she actually was such terrifying existence. Seems like my choice of becoming a mage has much more ramifications that I imagined.

Status of a noble, even a frigging mage association! All this stuff is giving me a headache. Now, what to do with this dirtbag?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Solus replied anyway.

"Disposing of the bodies would backfire on us. If we want to make this Baronet pay, we need the bodies and some proof that links him to the ambush."

Lith mind nodded. "My same thought exactly."

"Last question. Where are the leather jackets with the Trahan family crest?"

"W-we left them at home. We could not allow anyone to notice us, it would mean implicating the Baronet."

The knight was terrified. Lith's eyes were turning black, glowing with dark energy.

"Wait! The whistles! We brought along the silver hunting whistles the Baronet gifted us when we swore our allegiance to him! They bear his family crest too!"

"Thanks, a deal is a deal." Lith double tapped the knight's head with ice arrows, killing him painlessly.

He then collected all the whistles from the dead bodies, taking care of erasing the traces of his spirit magic.

"Those twisted necks and imploded head could rise too much questions. Let's cover our traces. I simply need to cut off the former and freeze the latter."

After that, Lith used air fusion to rush toward the village. Being forced to wake up Nana was now the last of his worries, he wanted revenge.

Air fusion allowed him to reach a speed of 60 km/h (37mph), so he arrived in less than two minutes, but once at the village's outskirts he had to cancel the spell.

"I can't allow anyone to see the fastest kid alive. Damn, I want those books so bad! I need to know if spirit and fusion magic are of public knowledge or still unknown. I can't risk exposing my aces in the hole unless is a matter of life and death."

Lith kept running until he could spot Nana's house on the distance, and when he saw a luxurious stagecoach right in front of her door, he pushed the pedal to the metal.

"Lady Nerea, I beg of you, be reasonable. Consider the bigger picture!"

Lith could not hear from that distance, and even if he could, he was too focused closing in to pay attention. Solus had no such problems. In the last year she had not acquired new abilities, but her senses had become much keener.

"A farm boy has so many things to take care of. Magic is a strict mistress that demands time and resources, all things that my dear son can provide aplenty."

"I'm sorry, dear Baronet." Nana's voice was polite but devoid of any warmth. Her hands were clutching so hard on her cane to turn white.

"A magician word is her bond. I'll wait for Lith all day, if necessary. And in my opinion raw talent and a sincere disposition are much more important foundations for a magician.

Things that your son is clearly lacking. Or do we want to pretend that his rude words and acts during the spring festival never happened? I may be old, but my memory has yet to fail me."

Ricker Trahan was pale as a ghost. So far, his father's plan didn't seem to work. They had spent the last half hour in a one-sided negotiation.

If everything failed, he knew that his father would skin him alive in case he didn't manage to enrol in the Lightning Griffon academy.

Baronet Trahan had invested countless resources to give his son all the books and teachers he could afford.

The idea of all that money and efforts, wasted because of Ricker's arrogant ignorance while dealing with the best magician in the County, was enough for the Baronet to disown Ricker.

"Ah ah ah! Now let's not be so hasty, Lady Nerea. It's normal making mistakes when we are young. The important is to learn from them and never repeat them.

I know that Ricker has quite a temper, and I apologize for his behaviour. I can assure you he is terribly sorry for what he did"

Ricker had never felt so humiliated. They kept talking about him like he was not there.

"Also please, consider that punctuality and reliability are very important when walking the path of magic. Yet I do not see this Lith anywhere near, while my son is right here.

Don't you think that maybe a farm boy cannot understand the privilege you are granting him? Life in the wilds is very hard on the youths, I honestly fear his parents had not the opportunity or the time to impart him a proper education.

I can understand your position, you gave him your word and knew him for so long. But I can't stand the idea of such an opportunity wasted on someone that cannot give you the respect you deserve.

Also, I can guarantee you that if you take Ricker as your disciple, I will reward you handsomely. Not to mention that in case he got admitted to the Lightning Griffon Academy, we will never forget your help and generosity.

I am ready to commit as of now that if my son reaches the greatness he deserves, he will do anything in his power to clear your name. What do you say?"

Nana snorted.

"I would like to say many things, but it doesn't seem to be necessary. The reason why you don't see him is because you are looking in the wrong direction. Lith is the panting little imp right behind you."

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At those words, father and son turned around just in time to see Lith rush past them, stopping only when he was already in front of Nana.

Now that he was close enough, Nana could notice that Lith's body was covered in cuts and bruises. Some were quite deep, but had been already roughly treated with light magic. They were still bleeding, but Lith's life was in no danger.

"What in the gods name has happened to you? As far as I know the roads to the village are safe." Nana did not miss the panic flashing in the expression of the two nobles in front of her.

Lith was still bent downward, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

"Was it really necessary inflicting yourself all those wounds before coming here?" Solus asked, still worried about Lith.

"No pain, no gain." Lith responded telepathically. "Coming unscathed out of a sink or swim fight, alone against five knights, would have been too suspicious. These wounds serve two purposes.

First to make Nana angry enough to do what must be done. Second and most important, to avoid any further investigation. If there's anything this mess proved, is that too much attention is bad. The higher I get, the more dangers I will have to face.

Right now, I have no backer. All that stands between my family and the Baronet is Nana. I can't protect them at all the times. It was a stroke of luck that they had to target me.

In the future I must be careful of not crossing the wrong people, at least until I get enough power or backing. I don't care about magic or wealth if I don't have anyone to share them with. No one will ever be taken away from me. Never!"

The whole conversation with Solus lasted barely for a second.

Still panting and wheezing, Lith told her about the ambush.

"When I was coming here, five horsemen tried to coerce me into giving up on my magic schooling. When I refused to submit, they tried to kill me! Thank the gods I managed to kill their leader before they got too close.

With him dead, their formation went in disarray and I managed to kill them before they killed me." Lith sniffled, covering his eyes with a hand, pretending to be fighting back tears.

"Gods, I don't know I managed to do it. It's all a blur."

Nana performed skilfully a series of hand signs before saying "Vinire Lakhat!"

A warm sphere of light magic enveloped Lith's body, healing all his injuries.

"That's enough, Lith. I can easily imagine the rest." Nana caressed his head, trying to comfort him.

"You did your best to treat your wounds, before rushing here to warn me against this scum noble." She raised her cane, pointing it toward the Baronet's face with an intimidating manner.

"Please, Lady Nerea, don't rush to judgement, I…"

"Enough with your fake sycophancy!" Nana was bursting with rage.

"Do you want me to believe that all your talk about respect and punctuality and the attack on the boy's life happening today, at the same moment, is just a sheer coincidence? How stupid do you think I am?"

Baronet Trahan knelt down, his hands on the floor in submission.

"Please, Lady Nerea, believe in my good faith. I know nothing about it. The kid is still scared and traumatized, maybe his memory about the assault is confused. Also, he doesn't have any proof. Don't take hasty decisions before considering all the facts."

The sight of his father, kneeling to a commoner, shocked Ricker deeply. Yet he kept enough of his cool to remember what was ta stake, so he kneeled too, begging for mercy.

"Good faith my wrinkly a*s! I have met enough nobles to understand how your kind thinks, and how cheaply you value a commoner's life. I think…"

Nana stopped talking, Lith was tugging her arm repeatedly. She knew he was smart enough to understand that she was fighting for him. For interrupting her like that, Lith must have had excellent reasons.

He was showing her five silver whistles, one of which had burnt marks. Nana took one and started examining it.

She barely needed a second to recognize the Trahan family crest engraved on it's top.

"Well done, Lith." She whispered. "Even in the face of danger, never let your emotions cloud your judgment. That's the way of a true magician."

She was kindly smiling at him, like a grandmother proud of her grandson achievements. Then, always keeping her back at the Trahans, she quickly performed some complex hand signs before whispering "Ekidu Ruha."

Nana's eyes briefly glowed black with dark energy.

Ekidu was root magic word for darkness magic, like Vinire for light magic or Infiro for fire magic.

She was casting a dark spell, Lith couldn't wait to see its effects. At the same time, though, the way she used the spell threw him in confusion.

"Why taking the trouble of performing hands signs and using words? Nana knows silent magic, I've seen her do it already.

Couldn't she just do it silently in front of them? I can't believe she is using a complex spell that requires that much caution just for those weaklings."

Nana turned around, poking father and son both with her cane.

"She has just hit them with her spell." Solus notified Lith. Everything had happened in an instant, without releasing even a magic spark. If it wasn't for Solus' mana sense, Lith would have missed it entirely.

"Enough with this charade. Do you want proof? Is this proof enough?"

She shoved the silver whistle in front of the Baronet's face, that turned red, then white and finally green. He had to use every ounce of self-control he had to stop himself from panic puking.

"Now get out of my sight! If anything ever happens to my apprentice or his family, even if one of them breaks his fingernail, it's you that will pay the price."

The two of them got back on their feet, running toward the stagecoach without saying a word. Lith was both shocked and disappointed by Nana's behaviour.

"So much for her hatred toward nobles. Who would have thought that after everything she went through, she would still be so merciful? F*ck!"

Nana went to the bakery, to talk to the coachman that was eating some pastries while waiting for his master.

"Hey, kid" The man was actually in his mid-twenties, around 1,77 metres (5'6" tall). He had blonde hair and a kind, perfectly shaven face. "What's your name?"

"Andy." He replied while nibbling at a cream puff.

"Andy?" Nana raised an eyebrow. "Gods be my witnesses, it's a really strange name."

Andy shrugged.

"Is actually just a nickname. Better than my real name, though. Many people found Hasa Diga Eebowai too hard to pronounce."

Nana was flabbergasted.

"Anyhow, what do you need me for, Lady Nana?"

"You seem a nice man, so here is a friendly advice. Bring your master back home as fast as you can, then find yourself a new job." She winked.

Andy dropped the cream puff like it was hot, deeply bowing to Nana before running to the stagecoach.

Nana returned to her house, opening the door to let Lith go inside.

"And now what?" He was barely repressing his disappointment. "Do we wait for their next move?"

Nana laughed heartily.

"Their next move? They will drop dead before arriving to their pompous home. What do you think that darkness spell was for? I just wanted to avoid making a fuss in front of the whole village."

Lith suddenly felt very stupid.

"Well played! This will teach them a lesson." He could finally sigh with relief.

"Far from it." Nana said with an ice-cold tone. She went into her private quarters, quickly followed by Lith.

Nana's house was really similar to Lith's, but the dining room was smaller, and instead of three bedrooms there was just one. The other two rooms were occupied by a study room and an alchemic lab.

She went in the study room, opening one of the desk's drawers with a key she wore around her neck. Nana then took out a wrapped cloth, revealing a silver amulet.

It had a nut-big gemstone in its center, with arcane glyphs engraved all over.

Lith didn't need Life Vision to know it was a magical item.

"This is a communication amulet. Every member of the mage association gets one. Now give me a minute to do a full report about Baronet Trahan's attempt on my disciple's life.

They hate when some small-time noble messes with us. Before I put this back into the drawer, their whole bloodline will be wiped out. That will teach all those damn nobles a lesson."

Lith deeply bowed to Nana, inwardly apologizing for doubting her character.

"Master, your disciple awaits your command."

The report was indeed brief. Once activated, the amulet generated a small 3D hologram of a middle-aged bald man, sitting behind a clean and orderly desk.

All Nana had to do was to introduce her disciple, say the name of the noble and the mage on the other side had already started giving instructions.

Nana gave nonetheless a short description of the facts, showing the silver whistles as proof. Lith could see from the man's expression that he could not care less about such minor details.

He still took note of everything, even somehow scanning the whistles through the amulet.

After everything was said and done, Nana gave Lith his first assignments.

"Start by reading 'The basics of magic'. Is the book you tried to borrow three years ago." Lith nodded.

"Read it carefully, if there's anything you don't understand, feel free to ask me. In case there is a client, wait for me to finish. If there's no emergency I'll answer you, otherwise you will have to wait.

You can use my study. When you have finished with the basics, I'll give you your first tier one magic book."

Lith ran back in the waiting room, fetching his prize. After sitting behind the desk, with the thick book in front of him, he could not avoid thinking back at all those years spent cramming during college.

He was back being a student, a familiar and reassuring feeling.

Lith pushed emotionalism aside, and opened the book, reading it from the author's foreword.

"My name is Lochra Silverwing. I am known as the wisest sorceress of the Griffon kingdom, and also the only one of my generation to achieve the title of Magus…"

"What the heck is a Magus? Isn't it just a synonym for mage?" Lith paused for a second, taking the mental note to ask about the magicians' hierarchy.

"… I want to dedicate this book to all my female readers, in hope that they can make good use of it and unleash their superior potential.

In a world scourged by wars waged by men, it's of the utmost importance for us women to keep our leading position in the magical field. Let our calm minds soothe the savage fury that dwells in their hearts."

"What the actual f*ck?!" Lith cursed, jumping off the chair.

He ran straight to Nana, the book still in hand, in dire need of explanations.

"Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but it's the truth." Nana chuckled.

"Like men are stronger physically, women are more apt towards magic. It's the nature of things." (see chapter 12 for more details)

"F*ck me sideways!" Lith inwardly screamed, amongst Solus giggles.

"Does this mean that I start right on the back foot?" Was what he actually said.

"Yes, little imp. Be it the Griffon kingdom, the Gorgons empire or the Blood Sand desert tribes, usually women hold most of the key roles in the various mage associations. Even I never expected to have a male disciple.

Back when I attended the magic academy, 70% of the students were female. I don't think things have changed much. If you aim for the top spots, they'll be your fiercest competition."

"Great." Lith felt dejected. He wasn't the kind of man to discriminate, he despised humans regardless of their gender. What dispirited him was the idea of being once again on the losing side of life.

"Not rich, not talented, not handsome. I even managed to be of the fairer magical sex. Just splendid." He thought.

"There, there." Nana patted his head. "Don't be depressed. History is full of very powerful male mages. It's the talent that matters the most, not the gender. One day you could even become a Magus."

"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot, that was my second question. What's a Magus?"

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"The magic community is like a separate society, and just like any society it has a clear hierarchy. First there is normal people.

Anyone is capable of using chore magic, but their range barely reaches two metres (2.2 yards) and are incapable of executing any complex task. They are not even considered people. Most mages refer to them as cattle.

Then comes those like you, that can use all the six elements, can perform complex tasks with magic, but lack a proper magical education.

They are referred to as magico (males) or magica (female) and are the real grassroots of the magical community, from which mages can expect a magically talented offspring.

Even if it's considered uncommon, a magica can sometimes be accepted by a magic academy and become a full-fledged magician, like it happened to me.

A magico usually becomes a medicine man in a village or city, depending on his talent. A magico becoming a magician is even more uncommon, but far from rare.

Terms like mage, witch, sorceress, warlock are all just different words that identify someone that managed to enrol in a magic academy and complete the five years course necessary to be recognized as a true member of the magic community.

At that point, one has just to follow his ambitions. You can become the personal mage of a noble, I you enjoy life at Court. Others choose to devote their whole life to study magic or create specific artifacts.

As long as you don't do anything to contribute actively to the development of the Kingdom or the Mage Association, you'll only remain just a mage, no matter how powerful you are or what you accomplish with your experiments.

Remember, no mage can be forced to share his/her spells or discoveries in the magic field. Not even the King himself can openly violate this rule.

But what you keep for yourself has no worth for society, hence it gives you no merits.

Only by sharing your knowledge or by using it to perform tasks from which the Kingdom or the Magic Association take great benefit, you can be elevated to the status of archmage.

They are for the mages what dukes and marquises are for the nobles.

And finally, there is the Magus. A Magus is someone whose power is equal only to his outstanding merits toward the community and the knowledge he shared with the Magical Association.

A Magus usually ensures to those who come after him a deeper understanding of magic, and the means to achieve better foundations than their predecessors.

A Magus is a King to mages, and a god to men. Very rarely there has been more than one. Whenever any country has two or more Magi, it's considered to be in its golden age, everything becomes possible."

Lith was far from impressed.

"Basically, is just a fancy title that some old fogey forces on you after milking you dry. I don't know if by becoming a Magus I would feel just sad or simply lose all my self-respect."

"You insolent whelp!" Nana was outraged by such disrespect. "Without Magi like Lochra and their legacies, people like me would never get the chance to pass the entrance exam of any academy, no matter how small or insignificant.

It would remain a privilege for those with an outstanding talent, or that come from noble or magic families.

Simply by writing that book, she willingly sacrificed a great advantage she had over all the rest of her peers!"

Lith shook his head.

"I see it differently, Master. In my opinion, you do have an outstanding talent. If in the past even those gifted like you wouldn't be accepted, in the long term this would have led the magical community to dwindle, if not to completely disappear.

Being born in a wealthy or talented family only gives you more resources and schooling, but the talent is decided at birth.

Hence Lochra must have written that book not out the goodness of her heart, but to correct a dangerous flaw in the magical community. It's true that magic allows to beat quantity with quality, but there is still strength in numbers.

Without people like you, maybe even like me, there wouldn't be enough new blood, and magic would sooner or later disappear. This is the reason why I can't see her book as a gift. She needed us, and badly."

Nana opened her mouth to rebuke Lith, but stopped halfway. She pondered a while before speaking again.

"Dammit, Lith, whatever your mother fed you with as a baby, I wish I had it too when I had your age. I never looked at it from this perspective, yet I can already sense enough truth behind your words to not dismiss them as child babble."

She sighed deeply with regret.

"I wish I was so profound back in my days. I would have avoided so many stupid mistakes."

"Yeah, sure." Lith thought. "A over thirty years old man that comes from Earth and is not able to see that much would be a complete idiot. Scholarship here or on Earth are the same.

Either a way for the rich to get rid of some of their sense of guilt for being filthy rich, or the manifestation of their fears.

The fear of not having a doctor, a lawyer or any professional help when they need it. If just having an offspring would suffice for their needs, they would have closed the schools centuries ago."

The door of Nana's waiting room opened, the first client of the day had arrived.

"Time to make some money. Do you have any other questions from the foreword?" She tried being sarcastic, but was still dwelling on Lith's words, so she lacked the proper tone.

"Only one. I may need to take notes. Is there anything I could use to write?"

"But off course." After confirming that the woman and child that just entered the waiting room simply needed a medical check, Nana asked them politely to wait for a minute or two.

Nana and Lith got back to her study room, where she gave him a big, thick book with a red hard cover. Its pages were completely blank.

"This will be your first grimoire. Treasure it dearly. Paper is rare and expensive by nature. It's sold by weight, and it's more precious than silver."

Lith was stunned by such news. The book was twenty-seven centimetres (10.7 inches) long, seventeen centimetres (6.7 inches) large and three centimetres (1.2 inches) thick. It was huge.

"I-I…" Lith stuttered for the second time in his new life. "I don't know what to say. I can't believe you would do such a thing for me, it must have costed you a fortune. I'm deeply moved." A tear appeared on the back of his eyes.

Nana laughed heartily.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! So wise yet so naïve. You bet I wouldn't! Money doesn't grow on trees. If it were for me, a few pages would have sufficed, little imp."

The warmth in his heart died as quickly as it had appeared.

"Then who do I have to thank for it?"

"Count Lark, who else? That noble is a magic enthusiast, he sent it to me as soon as he was informed of your apprenticeship. Now more studying and less flapping your gums. You are here to learn magic, not to chat!"

Nana left in a hurry, hoping to avoid her waiting room getting clogged up with patients.

Lith sat back behind the desk and resumed reading. Most of the contents of Lochra's book were old news to him. He had discovered them by himself through countless trial and error experiments.

He could only sigh in regret.

"If only I had this book as soon as I was reborn. I wonder how powerful I would be today."

Whenever Lith would find something noteworthy, he would write it down in his grimoire. Lith could not trust his bad handwriting, so he would dip his finger into the inkwell and then use water magic to spread the ink on the page, and then to dry it.

The result was a whole page written with an outstanding calligraphy, even copying illustrations when necessary, in perfect English. All in just a second.

"Ah ah ah!" Lith inwardly laughed. "I don't need a secret code. I am the only one that speaks English in this world. My secrets are safe with my grimoire."

"They would be safe either way. Don't forget my pocket dimension." Solus chimed in.

"One more layer of protection never hurts. There is no such thing as too careful."

Lith found the sections about fire, water, air and earth quite bland. He already knew almost everything written in the book, but he read carefully every word.

Nana allowed him to read only until lunchtime, then he was forced to go back home and resume his previous routine, switching the hunting time from morning to afternoon.

It took him three days to get to the juicy part. Lith was aware that being a self-taught, light and dark magic were his weakest subjects. They were the only two elements that didn't exist on Earth, after all.

He spent a whole week on the light and darkness section, taking countless notes and finally understanding how shallow and rough was his mastery over those elements.

"Amazing, simply amazing. It never ceases to impress me how profound is Lochra's understanding of light and darkness. Her description of the mana flow in the patient's body is just peerless. I would have never thought of that on my own.

Only now I finally understand why she wrote about them in the same section. Light and darkness are not separate elements, but two sides of the same coin. Darkness is of paramount importance for healing diseases and congenital conditions.

Once I have fully absorbed all this new knowledge, I might even be able to cure Tista for good. If I really manage to do that, I will rethink my view about being a Magus."

Lith read that section again and again, until he became certain to have not missed anything. His magic power hadn't increased much, but his comprehension was now on another level for all the six elements.

Lith was sure he would be able to achieve even stronger foundations, also improving his spirit and fusion magic. But with his confidence, also new doubts arose.

"The more I learn the less it makes sense. How is it possible that with all this knowledge in her hands Nana didn't manage to cure Tista over the years?

Why she needed both hand signs and a magic word to kill Baronet Trahan and his son? A finger snap should have sufficed."

Lith decided to postpone those question until he had fully understood Lochra's book. Maybe he was missing some key element, or maybe it wasn't as easy as it appeared.

Nana was delighted learning that he had finished the whole book in just a week, and immediately gave him his first tier one magic spell book.

"Let's see if you are good at practicing magic as you are with its theory."

Lith took the book from her hands, treating it like a precious gemstone that could easily break. He walked solemnly to his desk, opening the book full of anticipation.

He would have never imagined to be disappointed to such a extent.

"What the f*cking f*ck is this? Is this how a spell book is supposed to look like?"

"By my core, what is this cr*p?" Solus cursed for the first time in her life.

Both Lith and Solus were too flabbergasted to make any further comment. So, they closed the book, re-opened it again, discovering it was unchanged.

They had expected for it to be filled with instructions about how to manipulate the mana flow in the mage's body, how to better connect with the world energy to obtain spells whose power was incomparable to those they already knew.

Instead all they found was an odd mix of a spelling book and a hand signs instruction manual. Not to mention that they already knew all of those tier one spells, just with different names that Lith had invented over time.

"Blasting Sphere is just a Fireball, Piercing Ice is identical to my Frost Lance, if not worse."

Lith did go back to the foreword, noticing that this book had not been written by a Magus, and was just a collection of the most common spells.

By reading the instructions for Blasting Sphere, Lith noticed how the author stressed out the importance of executing the hand signs in the proper order with precise movements.

Even the magic word was split into syllables, to help the student learn the correct pronunciation and accent. After skimming through the whole book, Lith couldn't find any mention of how to perform them with silence magic.

Becoming more and more confused, Lith went to Nana for advice.

"I'm sorry Lith, I had forgot how frustrating and painful is going from the simple and easy silent chore magic to the much more complex real magic. Only tier zero magic can be silently cast. All the superior tiers of magic require both hand signs and proper spelling of the magic word."

Lith's head was spinning so fast he had to sit down for a moment.

"This makes no sense at all." He thought. "I use silent magic with my ice spears and fireballs all the time. I wouldn't be alive otherwise."

Then a sudden thought erupted in his mind.

"Maybe I am special, after all. Maybe I use a different kind of magic because I came from Earth. Maybe I am some sort of chosen one!" Lith was both scared and flattered at the idea.

"None of the above." Solus words abruptly doused his enthusiasm.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. Much appreciated. What's your explanation then?"

Lith could feel Solus's mind spinning so fast that it was hard for him to follow her reasoning.

"If my hypothesis is correct, then you, like Lochra Silverwing and all the other past and present Magus, are one of the few people in this world to actually use true magic."

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"What do you mean with 'true magic'?" Lith said.

"At this point is still too early to tell. Off course if you are too curious you can look at my mind right now, but I don't know how helpful could it be."

Lith merged his mind with Solus, discovering she wasn't exaggerating at all. Her mind was full of 'ifs' and 'buts', constantly examining facts, revisiting memories, making one speculation after the other before dismissing them.

"What can I do to help you?"

"I need two things. First, all the books about the history of magic you can find. Second, we need to get out of here and do some experiments. I'll explain everything later."

Lith went to Nana, asking her for help.

"Sure, I have a magic history book. But is not such an interesting topic, so I only purchased one covering the last couple hundred years. Is that enough for you?"

Lith shook his head.

"Can you please contact Count Lark and ask him if I can borrow some more from him?"

"You sure are an oddball. First you beg me to teach you magic…"

"I never begged. It's you who offered to teach me and I accepted."

Nana pretended to not have heard anything and continued.

"… and now that you get an opportunity to practice real magic, you want to bury yourself in history books?"

"After pondering about what you told me and what Magus Lochra wrote, I understood that I need to understand the past to comprehend the present and plan for the future." Lith improvised, digging up an old family motto.

"Makes sense, sort of." Nana conceded. "I'll contact Lark via the communication amulet and see what I can do."

"The Count has one too?" Lith asked in surprise.

"It's not some sort of secret or anything. Nobles, merchants, soldiers, no matter your background, as long as you can afford the price, you can get yourself one."

Lith thanked Nana before returning to the study room. The book was very detailed, recording both historical turning points and lore.

Lith didn't know what they were looking for exactly, so he read carefully, skimming only the parts about conflicts between countries or Magic Associations. Instead he focused on studying the life of influential mages, archmages and Magi.

After spending a few hours researching the past, he had already found a recurring pattern in the rise of the Magi. Some were recognized as geniuses at an early age.

But most of them had started being considered mediocre at best, never achieving noteworthy results until at some point their talent simply skyrocketed.

It usually happened between the thirty and the forty years of age, well past their supposed prime, when the magical community had pretty much forgot about them.

Of course, the author had no idea of what happened to cause such a turnaround, so he just presented the theories most popular at the time. Too bad that those paragraphs resembled more a work of fiction than history reports.

According to some rumors, Magus Elista had married in secret the god of magic, while others claimed that she had found a mystical amulet from a lost civilization that was able to grant her unlimited mana.

The same had allegedly happened to Magus Morgania and Frejik. An obscure start, followed by a sudden rise in power and glory, with no plausible explanation outside fairy tales and divine encounters.

"Could this be what Solus was looking for? Maybe what changed them wasn't some insane stroke of luck, but the discovery of the 'true magic' Solus mentioned before."

Lith was about to close the book, having ran out of Magi, when Solus stopped him.

"Turn the page, please." Lith had no idea why, but did as instructed. By quickly reading through the page, he noticed it was about some disorders in a faraway place, during which several low ranked mages had died.

Solus had him flipping every page until the book ended.

It was already lunchtime, so Lith started walking back home.

"Did you find anything important?"

"Yes, I think so. I just need us to perform some experiments to put my theory to test. If I am right, once you experience the difference between fake and true magic, you'll be able to understand my reasoning.

I hope that once you do, you can help me fill the holes I am unable to explain."

Lith's mind and heart were in turmoil, the road seemed to stretch endlessly in front of him. Even when he sat around the table together with his family, he was unable to hide his unpleasant feelings.

"Dammit! Dammit all this cr*p! First my real origin, then spirit magic, fusion magic and now this? How many secrets do I have to keep to protect myself from this world, to protect my family from me?

Couldn't I just find a magical hammer or something, granting me godlike powers? Or maybe just be handpicked by an ancient magician, to become the champion of order just by speaking one frigging word? Why does everything have to be so complicated?

I really love my family, except for Trion, but I can't be honest with them. At this rate, I will never have friends, a lover, anything. I will be forced to spend my life alone with my secrets."

"No. Not alone." Solus's voice resounded in his mind, full of kindness and affection. The tower core around Lith's neck pulsed, releasing gentle waves of mana that enveloped his body like a warm embrace.

Lith's mood lightened a bit, allowing him to have a pleasant meal and conversation with his family, telling each other the respective day's work.

After doing the dishes, he was finally able to leave home and go to the Trawn woods. Lith had his own special glade, deep in the woods. A place spacious enough to train his magical skills without endangering trees or wildlife, away from prying eyes.

Lith and Solus double checked their surroundings for intruders or magical beasts. Finding none, Lith could finally take out his grimoire from the pocket dimension and start memorizing the simplest tier one spell he had found in Nana's book.

"We don't need something powerful or complex for our experiments. Only something to compare with your own spells. The faster you master it, the sooner we'll have our answers." Solus explained.

The spell was Piercing Ice, a watered-down version of the Ice Spears spell that Lith used against huge opponents like the Ry or the boars. Its magic word was "Joruna Lituh", with accents on the u for Joruna and the i for Lituh.

The hand signs required to start with the indexes' fingertips touching themselves, before pulling them away, drawing in the air a 7 with the right index while the left one had to execute mirrored movements at the same time.

After that, the left hand had to stop, while the right index had to rotate, drawing a full circle before pointing at the target.

The expected result was conjuring and shooting a giant ice shard against an enemy.

"Holy sh*t! And this is a simple one. So much effort for so little return."

At his first try, Lith managed to conjure some kind of giant fork that travelled forward for a couple of meters (2.2 yards) before crashing on the ground.

"You did not aspirate the h." Solus remarked.

Then it came a boomerang that almost chopped his head off.

"It's Lìtuh, not Litùh!"

After a series of non-life threatening failures, Lith had to admit he wasn't able to learn both the pronunciation of the magic word and the hand signs at the same time. So, he had to sit down and recite the spell until he got it right.

After that, he had to face head on his poor hand-eye coordination.

"That's not a seven, more like a one. Do the second line steeper!"

"You are supposed to draw a circle, not an egg!"

"Will you stop your left hand during the last movement, please? Otherwise we'll never see the end of it."

Failure after failure, Solus kept nagging in Lith's mind, correcting the many mistakes he did during each try.

"If you are so good, why don't you do it yourself?" Lith rebutted, bursting with frustration.

"Sorry, I do not have a body. Not to mention I cannot perform any spell unless a) you first know how to do it and b) you give me the permission for it."

It was a long afternoon for Lith, full of cursing, sweating and casting, not necessarily in that order, before he finally managed to get Piercing Ice right.

He kept repeating the spell until it became a second nature to him.

"I can't believe I had to work so hard for the simplest spell. I have barely an hour before the sunset. Hey, Solus is it enough time, or do we wrap things up for today and go back home?"

"Is more than enough. Tell me, how does it feel using magic that way?"

"To be honest, it does not feel at all. I'm so focused on all that cr*p that I can barely breath."

Solus mentally nodded.

"Perfect. Now cast your Ice Spears spell, shooting only one spear."

Lith was so tired to need to actually use the magic word.

"Jorun!" With a flick of the wrist, Lith conjured a slender, sharp ice javelin that struck the nearest tree faster and harder that the Piercing Ice.

"Now focus, how did you do it?"

Lith couldn't understand all those apparently stupid questions, but he trusted Solus enough to know she wasn't just trying to piss him off.

"Like usual. First, I mentally visualized the effect of my spell, things like the shape of the spear, the trajectory, etcetera.

Then I used my mana core to generate enough mana to support my spell, taking in account the size of the spear I wanted to conjure and how strong I wanted it to strike.

Finally, I projected my mana on the outside, mixing it with the world energy to have access to the water element and voilà! Order up."

"Okay, now use Piercing Ice, again. This time do it slowly, try to feel how your mana flows according to the spell."

Lith needed a few tries before succeeding in the task Solus had assigned him, the result was astonishing.

"What the heck? As soon as I start with the hand signs, a portion of my mana leaves my body. And there is more. The magic word determines how my mana interacts with the world energy, in this case the water element, while also giving the spell its shape and size."

Lith could tell that if Solus had a face, now she would have had a smug grin from ear to ear.

"You are almost at the finishing line. Do Piercing Ice again, but try making the ice shard bigger."

"I can't." Lith was flabbergasted. "If I try adding more mana the spell becomes unstable and dissipates."

Solus asked him to try generating a second ice shard, then to make the single shard faster and finally to alter its trajectory right after it materialized. Lith's answer was always the same.

"I can't. The whole spell is set in stone. Once I learned the proper signs and pronunciation, I became nothing more than a mana source and a targeting system. My mana core and imagination play no part in this type of spell casting."

Lith suddenly reached enlightment.

"And that's why you consider it fake magic!"

"Calling it fake magic is a little extreme, but for simplicity's sake let's call it that."

Lith could sense Solus brimming with pride.

"Now I can finally share my theory with you. First of all, I'd like you to think back about all the steps necessary for you to use true magic."

Solus paused for a moment, giving Lith time enough to think.

"What's your point?"

"My point is that what you so casually dismiss as 'usual', is actually a really complex feat, much harder than fake magic."

"Hmmm. Sorry, I still can't follow you."

Solus mind-snorted in frustration.

"True magic isn't as simple as you make it out to be. It requires to be aware of your own mana core and to be able to generate the right amount of mana for each and any spell. Too much mana and it would backfire on you, too little and it would not succeed.

It also requires to be able to project your mana outwards, reaching out to the world energy by yourself. I doubt even Nana would be able to do that."

Lith found that last part hard to believe.

"When you put it that way, sure, is not an easy feat. But is what everyone does with chore magic. What's the difference between true and chore magic? Why no one else uses it?"

"The difference is in the amount of mana required. Chore magic needs little mana, so you can use it even without activating your mana core, while true magic may require great amounts of mana, according to what are you trying to accomplish."

Seeing as Lith was struggling, Solus started to use a monotone, lecturing tone.

"Chore magic is the very foundation for magic, it teaches you everything you need except how to activate the mana core. Fake magic is like a crutch, a foolproof 'magic for dummies' spellcasting method.

You only need to learn a few words and gestures and it does everything by itself, as long as you have enough mana. My hypothesis is that chore and fake magic are taught in this order as a training course towards true magic.

But only few, like the Magi, understand that fake magic is not about finger movements and spelling words, is about perceiving the mana flow and learning how to control it.

Your breathing exercises are a crutch as well, but a good one, since they helped you accessing the mana core, making you aware of the mana flow. Fake magic, instead, is a bad one, since it makes its users too reliant on its power.

Most fake magic users are so obsessed by details like hand signs and pronunciation, that live their whole lives without noticing what lies beyond. Fake mages, especially those with great talent, become so complacent being able to do what no one else can, that they never stop for a moment to ask themselves why. Is kind of ironic."

Lith was astonished. Everything made perfect sense.

"But if you had all this figured out, why didn't you tell me? What are those holes in your theory you mentioned earlier?"

Solus was embarrassed, but replied nonetheless.

"Because I can't answer some key points of my own theory. If I am right, why is fake magic the only one available for everyone? Why true mages kill whoever tries spreading it to the whole world?"

"Say what?!?"

Solus merged their minds, showing to Lith all the things she had noticed reading the history book. How so many theorists and rising mages had all died in accidents or mysterious circumstances, often right after announcing to the magical community a ground-breaking discovery.

Others, instead, would be dismissed as frauds, before going mad and disappear.

Lith could only laugh his heart out.

"Oh, my. Solus, you are so smart and yet so naïve in the ways of mankind. The answer is really simple. Do you know why back on Earth we had traffic jams? Because everyone could get a car.

Would you really let any madman, any naïve fool gets his hands on this kind of power? Fake magic is a mean to control the masses, it's not the final test like you think.

After one discovers true magic, the final test is proving to be smart enough to silently join the club and reap the benefits. And if you don't like the club rules, the only way out is death."

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When they finished comparing notes about Solus' explanation for true magic, it was already late. Lith had to rush to get out of the woods before it became too dark. He wasn't afraid of night time predators, his mother Elina, though, were another story.

"If I come back too late, I'll get grounded for weeks. Darn it all, I hate curfew so much!"

He did not want to come back home empty handed, so he took out of the pocket dimension a couple of fat blinkers he had saved for moments like that.

The next day, Nana informed Lith that the Count had agreed to help, and that some of his best books were on their way.

Lith was forced to pretend being still engrossed in Nana's history book, it was too big to finish it in one go. He spent that day abridging all the tier one spells on his grimoire, keeping only the name, hand signs and pronunciation instructions and a short description for each spell.

"I don't need to waste precious pages on this cr*p. I can fake out the hand signs by moving my hands fast, but I still need to remember each new magic word when I pretend to use fake magic.

Also, if Nana wants to put me to test, I need to show her my proficiency. Sigh, all this brainless memorizing will drive me crazy. The silver lining is that by learning this stuff I can predict an enemy's spell and counter it if necessary."

More than once, Lith found himself wishing Solus could move his body at will. She had a much better memory, and it would save him a lot of time and effort.

The only spell Lith was really eager to try was the air magic Floating Body. With this incantation one could make float in mid-air anything or anyone weighing less than one hundred kilograms (220.5 pounds).

It had many uses, like braking a free fall, moving a severely injured patient without bumps, or moving without leaving traces and making noises while hunting or on scouting.

This was something that Lith had attempted many times on his own but with no success. He could easily make others float with spirit magic, but not himself. It was really hard balancing his whole body while focusing on the spell, the same could be said about using air magic instead of spirit magic.

A minor mistake would make him float upside down or make him spin like in a washing machine. Lith never managed to float properly, let alone moving.

"If Solus is right and fake magic is a training course, I can use this Floating Body to learn how to float for good. Then, the most natural step is evolving it into a flight spell. I can't wait to soar through the skies like my childhood heroes!"

Right after lunch, Lith went back into the woods and started practicing. Floating Body's magic word was "Brezza Ri Lak", so he had no problems with pronunciation. The hand signs, instead, were quite complicated.

Having learned from his mistakes, Lith first made sure he had got the magic word right before moving to the hand signs. He took it slow and easy, he didn't need to learn how to fast cast it, only to learn from the spell how to distribute the energy.

After only a few tries, Lith managed to cast the Floating Body properly. It was an odd feeling, much different from what he had expected.

To float it did not require a single strong updraft, but hundreds of them at the same time, each one pushing upwards with the same force to keep the balance in check.

"This is much worse than I had anticipated. No wonder I always failed in the past. Now, according to the book, Floating Body makes me weightless, standing in place. To move I need either external support or air chore magic."

Lith started to generate weak winds, moving around like a toy drone.

"This feels great! This spell has countless applications, I wonder why it's just a tier one despite being so elaborate."

"Because it lasts only one minute" Solus reminded him while Lith was already falling to the ground.

After experimenting with Floating Body a few times, Lith used his own mana flow to replicate the spell. Soon it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to do it in a single afternoon. True magic, after all, was really more difficult than its fake counterpart.

Angry and frustrated, Lith started grumbling non-stop.

"It's all so annoying, having to learn two kinds of magic for every damn spell. I'm telling you, Solus, I have seriously considered using Floating Body instead. But if I am stupid enough to do so, then I would be forced to learn all its upper tier versions, and who knows at what step lies actual flight.

This way, instead, once I get some solid foundations, everything else should come easy. Or at least I hope so."

Lith spent all day and night practicing his new spell, Levitation, but when morning came, he had yet to succeed.

The following day, a small crate of books was delivered to Nana's house, and she promptly handed it to Lith.

"If they were mine, I would never allow you to bring them out of my house. But the Count explicitly told me you are free to bring them home as you see fit. Lark is a very generous man, don't abuse his trust."

At first, Lith was really pissed off. He had completely forgot about his plea from help, and now he was flooded with useless books that he had to pretend to read. After two whole days as a shut in, his body was craving for some action.

But then he noticed that there weren't that many history books, most of them were biographies and autobiographies of past and present prominent mages, archmages and Magi. He finally had at hand the information he needed about how much talent he could reveal safely.

Lith could finally see a light at the end of one of the many tunnels he was stuck in. So far, his apprenticeship had only added more problems to his life, getting lucky for once, made him feel really good.

He took note in his grimoire of all the feats his role models accomplished and at what age they managed to do it. Then it came the most serious part, deciding how far to push his act.

"I'm of humble origins and with no backer. Mimicking a Magus is like courting death. If even revealing less talent than Nana brought a noble to try to kill me, showing so much skill would put me on the hit list of all the major families."

"Agreed." Solus chimed in.

"The best choice is to keep being below Nana's talent. If Count Lark starts protecting you, you can ramp you up to her level. A male mage of that skill would definitely be noteworthy. From then, is better to adjust your power talent based on how things develop."

"My thoughts exactly." Lith mind nodded.

During the following weeks, while at Nana's house, Lith and Solus split the tasks at hand. Lith crammed all the tier one spells while Solus would read the Count's books and take note of every relevant detail.

Lith gave her control over both spirit and water magic, making her possible to flip books and write an appendix on the grimoire.

During the afternoon, instead, they would try to make Levitation work. Little by little they were working out all the problems, sometimes even improving Floating Body foundations.

Lith completed Levitation after over a month of hard work, and by that time he had also already mastered all the tier one spells, but he was forced to wait. According to the Count's books, that was a feat worthy of a future archmage.

So, he had to wait for another half a month before revealing to Nana the fruits of his endeavours. She was truly impressed by Lith's skill and determination.

Nana had told him that back in the day she had needed less than a month to memorize all the book, and despite Lith being of lesser talent, he had managed to accomplish the same result with just two weeks of delay.

Nana had expected that it would take him no less than two whole months.

Nana offered him to help her during the busy hours, and Lith gladly accepted. Until completing Levitation he had not hunted for over a month. Not only the reserve of game he kept in the pocket dimension was almost depleted, but that huge break had also costed him a lot of money.

Lith needed to make up for the lost time. Officially he only knew two tier one light spells, Vinire Rad Tu (the illness/injuries detecting spell) and Vinire Dan, a basic healing spell, capable to treat coughs, light colds and not too deep cuts.

Hence, most of the times he would only get the diagnosis fee, since it would be Nana treating the patients. He could only get to heal minor injuries, yet his profits weren't that bad.

Nana's business had deep roots, people from all the neighbouring villages would come to seek her aid.

By spending more time in the front office, Lith discovered that Nana was so much more than a healer for the people of Lutia. She was also their protector and the strongest law enforcer.

Simply by living there, most bandits would avoid the village, and those who were brave enough to attack would quickly meet their maker before doing any real damage. Nana was also the shield for all the local merchants and population.

No foreigner merchant, young master or young mistress could bully the people of Lutia without incurring in her wrath. Sometimes she would be called even to put an end to a drunken brawl.

Lith found hard to believe she had such disposition toward the people she served, always standing ready to intervene whenever was necessary.

One day, after Nana taught a lesson to a young noble and his bodyguards, believing that he could forcefully take any maiden that suited his taste, Lith decided to find out the truth.

The old hag had already proven that she cared about money more than everything. Lith had fallen for her kind act more than once, so he wanted to know what her real angle was.

Being rude to his mentor was definitely a bad idea, so he went with a subtler approach.

"Master, I really don't know how to express my admiration for you. Taking care of the safety of the village, basically all by yourself, and asking nothing in return. It's really impressing of you."

Nana laughed out loud, sounding ominous like the plumber, back on Earth, that once Lith had been forced to call during a national holiday.

"You really are hilarious, kid. Sometimes you are so wise I almost forget you are just six years old. But whenever you come out with this nonsense, you really look like a naïve child. Off course I get something in return. Have you ever wondered why my treatments are so expensive?"

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