Chapter 5

After an agonizing 14 days 10 hours and 15 minutes the duo had arrived at Kansas. Actually according to Emilio they had arrived. Percy had no real way of knowing that they were in Kansas. It was the same in Illinois, forest here mountain there river over there. There was no real difference he could identify.

For all he knew they could be in South Dakota. But Emilio insisted that they were in Kansas even though they were lost half of the time it took to get there. The man points at a mountain that looked to be close. "That is where we are going."

Percy restrained himself from punching the man square in his nose. "Alright let's get going then."

Almost a fourth of the way up the mountain Percy was dead tired. His muscles ached and he was very hungry. He had not eaten in a whole day because Emilio refused to share his food saying,"You don't hunt, you don't eat."

Percy intensely glared at the back of the mans head. Emilio could feel the boys eyes trying to bore a hole into his skull. The man just kept on walking ignoring the feeling.

The way they took up the mountain was treacherous. Percy could not get a good solid grip on the rocks underneath him so he would nearly fall continuously. Rocks the size of medium sized dogs came rolling down at break neck speed. Both Percy and Emilio had to practically throw themselves to the side to dodge the rocks.

It took nearly two whole hours of branch breaking, rock dodging, and hallway falling to their doom for them to reach a particular spot that Emilio pointed out. The spot was not inclined in this spot, the land under their feet was perfectly horizontal. It was like this for a good twenty feet where then it did a 90° turn upward making a wall of pure rock.

The wall had two giant boulders in front of it with other long one laying on top of them in a horizontal fashion. It looked like a doorway of some kind, something that you would see in the movies. Emilio walked towards the rocks, stopping in front of the left one he knocked. He knocked three times and with every knock the sound seemingly echoed through the boulder.

The ground shook violently for a few seconds. Then a person out of nowhere came from the other side of the boulders. He was about 5" 11 with long white hair, yellow cat-like eyes, and pale skin. A regal purple robe covered from his neck down to his feet. "Nice to see you again Xander." Emilio said identifying the man as Xander.

"How long has it been fi- no eight years? Come inside I'll prepare some tea." Xander waved them forward then proceeded to walk into the "doorway". A ripple of what looked like water moved in between the boulders as the robed man walked in.

Emilio walked towards the boulders then stepped inside. Percy hesitantly walked behind him, reaching the "doorway" he shut his eyes held his breath and walked in. A weird feeling came over the boy. Something like entering a deep space then suddenly being tugged out.

When Percy no longer felt it he opened his eyes. What came into view was even more incredible than when he saw Kale perform his attack. A castle about 30 feet high was where he had arrived. The walls were made of wood even though they passed through some boulders straight into the wall of rock.

The castle looked like somrthing from back in the time of English Kings. Chandeliers were suspended in the air, luxurious tables and chairs adorned the massive room. On the east and west walls, thousands of books were fitted into bookshelf's the size of small houses. "Wow!" That was the only word that Percy could put together to describe how amazed he was.

Percy took a whole 180° turn before settling his view back towards the front. Emilio kept on walking till he reached a very expensive dining room table. Taking out a beautifully carved wooden chair from under the table he sat down. Percy followed his example and did the same. Xander kept on walking until he reached a pure white door on the far north wall.

He pulled the door open then walked through. Percy found it weird that even though he had opened the door enough so someone could be able to see the other side it only looked blank. Like something stopped Percy from taking a look. The boy watched as the door slowly closed with a small thud.

Percy looked at Emilio but said nothing. The man had a serious look on his face and he kept on staring out into space. During the whole time they walked to Kansas he had a gloomy mood surrounding him. Percy speculated that it was because of his "friend" that he had killed.

The door opened once more revealing Xander holding a silver tray. A teapot and three tea cups were on top of the tray. I guess he was serious about the tea. The boy said in his mind. Xander waliked up to the table and set the tray down on it.

"So why are you here Emilio?" Xander asked while pouring tea into the cups. Emilio was immediately was snapped out of his daydream like state. He turned his head to look at Xander with a bored look on his face. "Just need a place to sleep for a few months, call it a favor."

The white haired man stopped pouring tea into the last cup midway. He looked at Emilio, blinked a few times then began to laugh heartidly. "The great Ghost Captain needs a favor from me?" Xander wiped a year from his left eye. "Oh that's priceless."

Emilio glared at him harshly before sighing in defeat. "So can we stay or not?" Xander nodded his head slowly before saying, "Since we're such close friends you can stay as long as you want. And you don't have to count it as a favor. Emilio smiled at the man in gratitude, Xander merely smirked back.

Xander handed out the tea cups, and in a flash Percy had already started to drink the warm beverage. The flavor of the tea was sweet, nice, and refreshing. So the boy took his time in drinking the delicious drink.

"So they found you huh?" Xander asked suddenly. Emilio looked at him then nodded. "Yeah, damn bastards are persistent." Percy immediately knew that they were talking about the people from the Brotherhood. The boy guessed that they had been following Emilio for some time. And that Xander was also affiliated with them in some kind of way.

"Were you part of them too?" Percy interrupted the two men. Xander looked at Emilio raised an eyebrow then looked at Percy. Emilio gestured towards the boy as an "OK" sign. "Yes, a long time ago actually. Before this guy joined." Xander thrusts his thumb towards Emilio.

"We'll save that for another time. It's late and you lads must be exhausted." Xander quickly got up, waving his hand he somehow made the tea cups and tray dissapear. Percy's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. He was astounded, because he hadn't seen anybody do that before. Even his almost invincible teacher had not ever performed such a technique.

Emilio and Percy both got up and started to follow Xander as he started to walk away. They walked to the west wall of the gigantic room. They arrived in front of a homey looking brown door, opening the door Xander walked in. Just like before Percy couldn't see to the other side making him a bit hesitant on going in.

Gathering up his courage he passed through door. The feeling was just like when he passed in the middle of the boulders. A huge vast space then being pulled back into the world. On the other side of a door was a huge illuminated hallway stretching as far as the eye could see. The floor was an elegant white quarts. And the ceiling was also a dazzling white color. The walls of the hall were a dark rugged brown.

At every 10 feet there was door on both the east and west walls. Xander stopped in front of the nearest one, he opened it and stood there. "This one will be for young Perseus here. And the one next door will be for Emilio. Breakfast is served at eight, and lunch is at three. If there's anything else you need you just need to ask."

Xander gave both of them a cheerful smile before walking back into the huge room on the other side. This time Percy could see into his room, he breathed a sigh of relief then walked into his room. Emilio followed close behind, the man had something he had to discuss with the boy before they went to sleep.

The room was elegant. Cream colored walls, with intricate white lines painted flowing along it. The floor was a light brownhardwood. A bed that could fit two people took up a fourth of the room. Some cabinets to put your clothes in and a fancy wooden desk with a chair in front of it.

A cherry red RA-DA (A radio made in the 1920's) was on top of the cabinet giving the room an even better look. On the left side of the bed there was a small desk that had a lamp on top of it. The west wall there was another door. Percy placed the bags he was carrying next to the bed. Then he jumped onto the bed sprawling himself on it.

"Percy I'm leaving tomorrow in the morning." The boy immediately sat up. "What?! Why?!" Percy scrunched up his face showing his anger. "Because I need to gather some information." Emilio said emotionlessly.

"So we'll go together then." Emilio shook his head in dissaproval. "No, you can't go." Emilio's tone said that there was no room for discussion.

"Why not?!

"Look Percy to be frank you're not strong enough. The places I'm going there are people that have no compassion, they don't care if you're a kid they'll put a knife straight through your head. These people won't underestimate or hesitate to kill you. The women at the places I'm going to can easily trick and kill any man just by batting their eyelashes. Imagine what would happen if they got a hold of you."

If his teacher was that certain then there was no real argument to be made. Percy knew that he had to get stronger overnight or wait until he returns. The boy looked down and balled his hands into fists. He was extremely irritated that they walked all the way to Kansas just for him to be stuck on a mountain or someplace close.

"You will be able to train here. Xander has tons of books where you can learn magic, ki attacks, mana manipulation and tons of other things. By the time I get back you would be able to go out with me." Emilio ruffled the boys hair affectionately.

Percy didn't look up, a bit of his irritation had gone away from hearing he would be training. "Hey Emilio, I hadn't brought this up before but why did you accept to teach me so quickly." Emilio was taken aback by the boys words. He wondered that maybe Percy had always questioned his lack of judgement.

"Cuz you were kinda like me. Now get some sleep, because I told Xander to train you as early as possible." Emilio gave Percy a small smile something he rarely did and proceeded to walk out of the room while picking up one of the bags that Percy dropped on the floor.

Percy looked inside his bag and took put some night wear. He then slipped under the sheets, turning around he turned the lamp off. Since his body was exhausted from all of the walking he instantly fell into a deep sleep.

Percy woke up the next day early in the morning. He got up from his bead and instantly stated to smell his armpits. "Ugh. That smells bad." The boy made a "yucky" face and tried to breath in as much uncontaminated air as possible. Noticing the door once again on the west wall he quickly made his way to it.

Pushing the door open he puts his head into the unknown room. The room was naturally illuminated by an unknown source, and what was inside the room was a miracle for Percy. A whole white usable bathroom was revealed to the boy. A wide smile quickly stretched from ear to ear.

After a 30 minute shower the boy quickly changed into his clothes. A plad shirt, white shorts, and some shoes he got from Emilio. The boy quickly rushed out of the room and into the first room where he came from last time.

Once inside the giant room he began to look for any signs of life. Finding none after a long period of time. Percy sat on a chair in front of one of the fancy tables. Taking a book from the top of a small stack he tried to read the title. Unfornutaly the book plus the title was in French something that he knew nothing about. He figured that Emilio had left already, putting him in a somewhat sour mood.

"Oh you're already up." A familiar voice makes Percy jump. Percy didn't even here the man walk into the room much less walk up to him. Xander saw that he had scared the boy which made him grin.

"You always have to stay vigilant even if you are in a "friend's" house." Percy turned around to look at the man that looked just like yesterday. Just like yesterday his yellow cat eyes made the boy feel uneasy. "Here, eat." The man snapped his fingers and almost instantly a plate of food came flying landing right on the table.

The boy looked at the plate then at the man, then back at the plate. His stomach rumbled so he did what any other logical human being would do, he ate. The plate was filled with eggs, some cheese, ham, and a piece of bread. A cup filled with water also came flying in giving Percy something to down his food with.

5 minutes later a full Percy tapped his stomach and burped loudly. "Good. Now come with me." Xander instantly walked to his right going straight to a blood red door similar to the one leading to Percy's room. The boy quickly got off the chair and followed.

They stepped into the other side and seemed to be transported to another world. The place was huge and circular shaped. Hundreds of thousands of books were on book shelf's that rose well over 50 feet. The walls all around them were filled with every type imaginable.

"This is my library, and this is where you will learn about all kinds of things."

Percy looked around in awe. "So what am I going to do here?"

Xander snapped his fingers. Suddenly three books came flying out of different parts of the wall landing on a table in the middle of the room. Xander and Percy walked up to the table. The white haired man grabbed the book on top and opened it. The book was about three inches thick with weird writing on it.

"This book has information on Magic, the second one on Mana, and the third one on Monsters. You will start with the Magic, I will be back in three hours to see how you are doing." Xander immediately turned around then walked out of the giant library. Percy sighed loudly then sat on a chair in front of the table. He grabbed the book then started to read it.

Magic

The basis of magic is in one's imagination. Those who can believe anything is possible can achieve any kind of magic.

One cannot simply use magic. Pure mage bloodline or also an afinity for magic are some of the ways a person can achieve magic.

The only way for a normal human being to learn magic is to be aware. A normal person would have to expose themselves to a high amount of magic to able to be aware of it. After that they need to learn the very basics. Then it comes down to how much their body is able to take.

There are many types of magic. There is Black Magic, ranging from necromancy to dark arts. There is Light Magic, ranging to heavenly arts to light magic.

The way to begin trigger these types of magic are also varied. Incantations, and chants can be used. Also magical items that have been blessed with magic. And the more common one, a magic circle.

These type of triggers are also varied in power. The longer an incantation or chant the stronger a spell. The stronger the magic on an item is the more powerful the attack. The denser the magic circle the bigger the power.

There are 7 Echelons of Magic. This is a type of scale to determine the strength of a spell. The higher the pillar the more complex and imaginative the spell.

Percy is entranced by the knowledge the book contains. He turns the pages and reads about different types of spells. Fire spells, wind spells, healing spells. The complexity of magic confused Percy at some points.

A door creaks a few feet away. Percy is so stuck on the book he does not see a part of the bookshelves split down the middle and open. The shelf's open outward like French doors revealing a secret door.

A loud boom echoes in the room shaking Percy out of his concentration. The boy looks around and sees the bookshelves had opened. Inside the room of the bookshelves was a lone book on a large white pedestal. For some reason Percy felt compelled to walk up to it.

Walking up to the book Percy ran his fingers along the cover of it. He noticed that the whole cover of the book was leather, from the texture he would say that I was fairly old. Some light scratches here an there but in all it was in good condition.

The book as if it had a mind of its own opened up and started to flip the pages. After a couple of hundred pages it stopped on a large gold magic circle. The middle of the circle had a 4 individual diamonds that touched each by the tip. In the middle of the four diamonds there are thin looking triangles. A thin line goes around it, then another thick line goes around that line. After that symbols that could not be adentified by Percy were separated by thin lines in between them. The symbols went around the line that separated the symbols from the diamonds. Above the symbols another thick line encircled everything. Four triangles were around the thick line directly north, south, east and west, of the magic circle. (If you can't imagine that, then just think of a regular transmutation circle.)

Percy hesitantly touched the magic circle. The book began to shake then light up in a gold ray of light. Gold light quickly enveloped the boys body shrouding his sight. All of a sudden words start to run through his brain, images of different types of spells triggered in his mind. Pictures of magical items and their attacks quickly overwhelmed his brain.

After a few minutes the glow died down. Percy fell to his knees completely exhausted for some unknown reason. His arms were at his sides so he did not notice the tattoo like circle on the back of his hands

"Ugh my body." Percy groanedout. The boys body was sore beyond belief. Whatever that light was sapped the energy right out of him.

"Amazing!" Percy would have jumped in surprise if not for his tired body not being able to move properly. Xander quickly walked up to the boy and put Percy's arm around the back of his neck to support his weight. Xander led him to the chair and quickly sat him down on it.

Xander observed his body, almost instantly he caught sight of something. Two gold magic circles like the one in the book were branded on the back of Percy's both hands. In the light the tatoo like magic circle seemed to shimmer brilliantly.

"Astounding! Emilio had told m about how you quickly learn and absorb things but to this extent is just amazing!" Xander said to no one in particular. Partly because Percy was falling into a deep sleep and wasn't paying attention to the white haired man.

As soon as Percy's eyes closed he began to mutter something. "Echelon 7, Infinite Barrior." A blue magic circle appeared below the boy's feet. Then a type of blue shield erected itself around Percy.

Xander was suprised that somehow Percy managed to use a magical spell. And a level seven one at that. The man reached out touching the shield around the boy. Instantly it blew Xander away burning him in the process. This must be a protection spell. A type of spell that triggers itself so no one could steal ttheThreshold Origin.

The man smirked widely before walking out of the library towards his private chambers.

After two hours of dreamless sleep Percy woke up. The shield dispersed right as the boy opened his eyes. Then the magic circle dissapeared after Percy stretched his arms. How long was I out for? Percy mused.

"Good you're awake." The voice of Xander sounds out from his right. Percy almost died from the shock he gave him. This guy needs to stop doing that.

"How did you do it?" Percy scrunched his eyebrows then turned his head to look at Xander. "Do what?" He asked. Xander rubbed his temples and sighed exasperatedly.

"Look at your hands."

Percy looked down at his hands. Then looked back at Xander obviously not finding funny that he played a joke on him. Xander gestured towards his hands then he flipped them so the back was a facing upward. Percy got the idea then did the same. "What the heck is this?!" Percy yelled.

The boy looked at the magic circle on his hands with bewilderment. He closed his eyes then opened then to see if it wasn't a trick his mind was playing on him. "That is the Threshold Origin." The white haired man said loudly.

"What is that?" The boy looked back at the man with a glare on his face.

"The book that you opened contained secrets of the magic world. That magic circle there contains all of the information and magic that Merlin the Wizard had. The magic circle itself is the pinnacle of magic, it makes it so easy to perform magic that to execute high level magic there is no need to make a large magic circle. The Threshold Origin condenses the magic then makes another magic circle with double the power but two times less power needed to trigger it."

Percy looked at the gold circles with happiness in his eyes. He thought that with this magic shortcut he would be able to get stronger twice as fast.

"But just because you have that magic circle doesn't mean you can just use high level magic with a snap of your finger. First you need to learn how turn the Threshold Origin on, then you need to learn how to trigger a spell without it blowing up in yourface. But before all of that you need to learn how to control you magic because if you don't you will die from over use or under use."

Aftwr hearing that Percy physically deflated. His face turned into a frown with dissapointment evident in his eyes..

"Don't worry though, since you have the Threshold Origin it will be ten times easier to trigger spells." Percy immediately perked up. Xander could only laugh internally at how the kids emotions could be easily effected by a word or two.

"Alright let's get to it. First I will show you all 7 Echelons of magic." A small magic circle appeared on his index finger. Then a small ball of flames ignited right above it.

"Echelon I, Fire ball. This is the lowest level of magic, and the easiest to control. The ranking of magic is not just based on power alone, because if that were the case them there would be an infinite number of Echelon. Rather it is a ranking on the complexity of the spell as described by the book you read."

The small fire ball dissapeared then Xander opened hishand. A white magic circle the size of a dinner plate formed a couple of centimeters above it. "Echelon 4, Volt Dagger." Lightning began to erupt from the magic circle. It began to form into a type of small knife.

Xander suddenly threw it Percy's way. Without time to dodge the boy could only close his eyes and hope for the best. Percy opened his eyes once he knew that no damage had been inflicted unto his body. He turned around to see where the weapon went. The lightning knife had made a huge crater in the library. It had blown away a considerable part of the east bookshelves.

"You see how complex that was? First I had to use a lightning type spell then make it so the spell itself would make the lightning into a type of dagger. But a spell doesn't have to be strong to be high in the echelon."

"Echelon 3, Disappearing act. But also can be useful." A silver magic circle appeared over his head. Without warning the white haired man disappeared into thin air. The magic circle also disappeared without a trace.

A unknown force suddenly knocked Percy off his chair. Then something grabbed his leg and flung his towards the east part of the library. The boy immediately got into a defensive stance, he watched and listened for anything that could give away his unknown assailants' place.

Snapping his fingers Xander stopped his spell. The veil over his body cracked and shattered like a mirror scaring Percy. Xander looked at the boy with a huge grin on his face.

"Did you see that? You can't use that spell to burn someone like that Echelon 1 spell but it is higher ranked. Why is that?" The white haired man asked Percy.

Sea green eyes looked to the right giving way Percy's thinking. He thought about it for two seconds before he came up with an answer. "Because it's more complex."

Xander smiled widely. "Bingo! You got it!"

"Now show me that psychic power Emilio told me about."

Percy's eyes narrow at the man. Weird. Emilio didn't tell me anything about mentioning my power to Xander. Percy raised an eyebrow at the white haired man but decided to comply. Percy focused for a moment before dozens of books began to float in mid air. Then he proceeded to make them spin around making a tornado of books.

"Remarkable. It seems as if your psychic power only uses the matter and energy part of everything. So that means you cannot directly touch or use Anima with that type of ability."

Xander rubbed his chin quizzicaly. "Well I guess you will be able to train your psychic power here too."

"There will be no need for you to learn magic any further." Xander said with a bored tone. Percy glared at him while he died his power down. Once the books returned to their spots he began to question the man.

"Why don't I need to learn anymore about magic?

"The Threshold Origin contains the information of every spell Merlin had ever casted or had knowledge about. It will take time but in a couple of years I believe you will be able to perform World Class Magic and even become a World Class Mage.*

"What is that?" Percy could not understand Xander. The man practically talked in his own language.

"Here let me show you what a World Class Mage can do. Echelon 7 Necromancy, Restless Soldier." A black magic circle appeared two feet away from Xander. In a second a literal bony hand rose out of the circle. Then a skull emerged, after that the whole body of skeleton came out. The skeletons was covered in tatters of clothes, the smell that came from it was repugnant. In between the bones dark green slime oozed out. Its jaw hit together making a clacking noise. Holding a sword in its right hand it was a ugly and scary sight.

Behind it thick black chains were connected to its spinal cord. The shackling noise of the chainse choed through the library. "This is what world class magic is. This skeleton is the body of a former enemy, I had hated him so much that I tied his soul to his to his dead body. With a dark arts spell I connected his body to some chains that keep his bones intact and his soul stuck to the spell and skeleton like body."

"How could you do that to a person?" Percy was appalled by the way Xander treated lives. No matter how much he hated someone he would never condemn them to such a fate. Or so he thought.

"Because I can. Remember this Percy, humans are selfish. They do anything they want whenever they want because they want to. Human greatly embrace greed, and power. Haven't you noticed that all human beings would do anything to do what they want? Just like you. Didn't you ask Emilio to train you so you could get revenge for the people that killed your friends and family. You're no better than me or the next person. So do not try to talk to me as if I'm a bad guy, I just know what I want and take it."

Percy was furious. He could not believe what he was hearing. This monster had the audacity to say that they were the same. That he was no better than he was, of course he wanted to take revenge what person wouldn't. But he did not want revenge just to kill people, he wanted closure. He wanted to end the lives of the people that caused him pain, and be done with it.

"Fine if I'm no better than you then teach me, teach me how to use magic so I can kill those who killed the ones I cared about." Xander smiled a devious type of smile. In his mind he laughed at how easily this boy could be manipulated which was not a good thing. You failed the first test Percy. But do not worry the second one will be coming up shortly.

"Alright then let's begin." Xander clapped his hands. A black dome started to cover the library making shadow over both of the people present. The shadown grew and grew until it enveloped the whole library. The room was now cold and dark with only a white light shining from far above them.

"Focus on your magic circle." Xander instructed.

Percy looked at his hands then closed his eyes. He focused on the gold magic circle on his hands. "Focus on the sound of my voice." Xander's voice echoed through his brain. Percy chose to ignore it and concentrated more into his task. "Now imagine anything."

The sound of the mans voice vibrated in his ears. Vibration. A glow of golden light started to surround his hands. More and more light started to spread around Percy's body. Xander watched as the boy was about to perform his first spell.

This boy is more of a natural then me. And that's saying something.

Percy opened his eyes. In a flash white magic circles that had a diameter of an inch began to form centimeters above Percy's fingers. After all ten had formed a sudden pulse began to fluxuate the air around his fingers. "Echelon 3, Pulses."

Percy inspected his fingers. At first he was amazed but it died down to confusion. "Why isn't it doing anything?" Percy did not know that he had unconsciously said the name of the spell. The boy looked at the World Class Mage with confusion written all over his face.

"That spell is called Pulses. It is a spell that uses vibrations, it can either be used in a offensive or defensive way. For defense you can make it bigger to use as a shield, since it vibrates at high speeds anything that comes into contact with it instantly breaks apart. In an offensive way you can cave someone's chest in with a hit from the palm or in your case your finger. It all depend"s on how much power and range you put into the spell."

A wide smile appeared on Percy's face. The boy was ecstatic that he was able to trigger a spell. For some reason he knew that it was also mid level spell which made him even happier.

"Triggering many small spells is easier than triggering a big one. It is because it takes more focus, time, and magic to form a big magic circle. So I want you to turn off your spell, then focus on the palm of your right hand and try to trigger the spell. Try to make it as larger as an orange this time. But before you trigger your spell put your hand on this pillar."

Xander moved his left hand in a circular motion. A pillar of solid white granite shot out of the black floor. It grew about a foot away from Percy making it so he doesn't lose his concentration. Percy stopped his spell, he then placed his hand on the pillar of granite.

He closed his eyes once again. Doing as he was asked he began to trigger the spell but now making it much larger. I can feel his magic start to move. He is actually doing it. This kid is a prodigy! No! He's a genius! Xander said in his mind.

The white magic circle appearedoncee again. But this time it was the diameter of at least six inches bigger than what Xander had been expecting. The man knew that Percy had put much more power into this spell than the previous one. Percy opened his eyes and looked at his Magic circle, the look in his eyes showed he was happy with the outcome. Once the spell triggered completly something amazing happened. The spell had made a foot deep crater in the granite. Cracks spreadthrough the granite like wildfire. Pieces of the pillar fell off showing the extent of the spell.

After a few seconds the spell wore off and Percy started to breath heavily. The spell had taken a lot out of him. Percy looked at the pillar and grinned. No words could describe how proud of himself he was. At first he was skeptical on if he could do it but now looking at his result he knew that there nothing he couldn't do.

Clapping noises began to echo through the dark room. Percy looked at Xander to see him with a giant grin on his face. "Amazing! You did better than I hoped."

"How did you think I would do?" The boy asked in a playful tone.

"I thought you would have crashed and burned. Maybe you would've died from over stressing your body but that wasn't the case." Percy immediately deadpanned.

Xander snorted then began to laugh loudly. Percy looked at Xander with a glare then infected with his laughter began to laugh as well.

Percy wanted to dislike this man due to his views but couldn't. He couldn't believe that someone who would voluntarily teach him magic would be like that.

"So what's next?" The boy asked.

"You will trigger that Echelon 1 spell that I did a couple of minutes back and practice only that spell for a few hours." Percy groaned loudly. He didn't want to trigger that lame looking spell even if he was going to use magic.

Hours later a swearing Percy is sitting on black ground in the cold dark room. For the past three hours the boy had been triggering the Echelon 1 spell well over 50 times. Finally after all that time the amount of times he had done the spell began to take its toll on his young body.

Percy began to breath heavily as he triggered the spell for the fifty secondth time. The small ball that had started off looking like the size of a golf ball was now the size of a baseball. Even after so many hours Percy could only make it a bit smaller which made him mad.

His concentration didn't lack didn't lack on bit. But even so, making the ball bigger was a big task. The first twenty times he had done it he was only able to keep the spell up for about seven minutes before it dissapeared. Percy was confused because he had performed a much larger spell hours ago but could not do the simple task of making the ball bigger.

But the boy realized that Pulses dissapeared after five seconds after its triggering. Percy cursed loudly as once again the ball of flames vanished. He began to trigger the spell once again but this time trying to add a little bit more power to it.

Xander had warned him that if he added more than necessary than the ball would explode in his face. Or even worse the flame would go out of control and burn him to a crisp.

He triggered the spell once again. But this time because he wasn't concentrating so well the ball began to flicker before it turned itself off. Percy groaned in frustration he pulled his hair trying to think of a way.

Man this is harder than I though. The boy said in his mind. Once again the boy triggered the spell. He watched as the ball of fire grew until it was the size of a baseball. Then it grew to the size of a baseball after this point was the hardest part. If Percy tried to add more magic to it the ball would feel like it started to go out of control so he had to turn it off. But if he added more magic little by little it due to his lack of concentration it would die out.

Percy let the spell dissapeared before he went into thinking mode. It took him about five minutes before he came up with an answer.

What if I make the magic circle bigger and also add more power into the ball. That way the size of the ball could fit in the magic circle! I'm so stupid! Why didn't I think of that sooner!

Percy believed that he had a fifty-fifty chance of success. If memory served him right then the book he had read explained how the size of the magic circle could also affect the power of the spell. So he decided to try out the supposed theory.

The boy opened his right hand with his palm facing upward. He concentrated on his palm and on the familiar magic he had done earlier. The spell activated and the ball began to grown until it grew to the size of a baseball. Then he concentrated on the magic circle pumping more magic into it he made it expand an inch more.

Then Percy began to focus on the ball of fire. The ball grew bigger this time growing up to the size of a regular sized melon. Percy internally praised himself before turning his spell off. He let himself fall on the ground breathing heavily as he basked in the coldness of the floor.

"So you're done?" Xander asked looking up from the book he was reading that he had conjured up hours ago.

"Yeah." The boy said enthusiastically.

"You know that you didn't have to make the magic circle bigger. You just had to add more magic into the spell, but because of the lack of your concentration your spell continued to die out. You have to be more secure with your spells because they can be helpful in life or death situations."

"So I just needed to add more magic? Wow, I feel so stupid now." Percy said in a disappointed tone.

"Look on the bright side you managed to perform an Echelon 2 spell." Percy immediately sat up and looked at Xander with wide eyes. "What? How?" The boy questioned.

"Well didn't I tell you that the higher the level the more complex the spell. Well since you made the magic circle bigger and the ball bigger it immediately became a Echelon 2. It had also became that because that fire ball could be thrown not like the Echelon 1 spell."

Percy was speechless. Without even trying he performed a higher spell than he needed to. The boy began to laugh, he sprawled himself on the floor looking at the light above him with a giant smile plastered on his face.

Finally I'm getting stronger. Percy closed his eyes and let his consciousness fade

"I guess you can rest now." Before Xander had even finished his sentence Percy had already fallen into a deep sleep.