The god of magic, Mecrose, created magic to help the civilized races survive in the world. Mecrose felt that they deserved the chance to gain the power necessary to fight against the beasts and monsters that roamed the land. He granted all mortals the ability to use magic, but didn't tell them how to do so. The civilized races used their higher intelligence to create spells, leading to their rise in power, and eventual colonization of entire continents.

The civilized races never had the physical strength of the other inhabitants of the world, but they always were, and still are, much more intelligent than them. They left the beasts and monsters behind, creating civilizations, and developing their societies. They recorded the knowledge they acquired, and saved it for the future generations. They used the knowledge of their ancestors to further develop magic, and their civilizations, creating rules, laws, that helped them keep peace. They created a social hierarchy, giving each person a role, something to do for their people. They created culture, and a home for themselves.

They created history. And all throughout that history, they used magic. They thanked the gods for letting them live, for giving them the chance to live, and they worshipped them devoutly. The civilized races have been using magic since before they could properly record their history, but scholars are still able to find information about the time before magic. It was a very dark time, when people slept in trees, hoping to wake up the next morning, and you could see your entire family die before you, massacred by a vicious beast, or a bloodthirsty monster.

That's what the book says anyway, though I'm not sure if I should believe it. It hasn't even told me anything about the origins of magic, just that some god created it. I'm still reading it though, as it's an interesting history lesson, but I still wish it would actually tell me about magic.

Apparently magic has been something that all mortals can use since before recorded history. Before magic, there was nothing but death and misery for the civilized races. They didn't have the naturally strong bodies of the beasts and monsters around them, instead having a higher intelligence, but that wasn't useful to them in the world they lived in.

Everything changed when they gained access to magic though, and their high intelligence allowed them to create powerful spells, while the less intelligent creatures were only able to throw mana at something until it died.

Mana is the energy that fuels magic, and the mana of an individual is measured by the amount of magic they can use. The mana itself is closer to mental power than an actual energy, from what I get out of the book anyway. You focus your will onto your surroundings, and change them. If you change your surroundings too much, you become exhausted, and can even fall unconscious if you go too far.

I don't think mana refers to the energies I sense around me, instead being something similar to willpower. Mana can probably affect the energies though, and I assume that changing them is what's known as 'magic'. I'm not sure how to use mana though, and the book probably won't tell me, it seems to be more about why we can use magic in the first place.

After an hour of reading, I decide to move onto 'Spell Craft, a peek into Magic Theory'. I'm not sure if spell craft, or magic theory can tell me how to use magic, but the other books don't sound any better. At least spell craft should be about creating spells, and should probably also include how to cast them.

I lightly nudge Nalu's head, then gesture towards the books on the table when he looks up at me. He shifts his weight off my legs, slightly raising his body into the air, and I slide off the windowsill.

It only takes me a second to climb back onto it with a new book, and Nalu returns to his relaxed position, closing his eyes, as he rests his head in my lap. It's starting to get brighter outside, but the sun won't be up for about another hour, so I have a while before the manor is filled with busy servants. I've never gotten used to letting the servants do everything for me, so I tend to spend most of the day outside, only actually doing anything in the manor when everyone is sleeping.

I'm not sure if I want to return to the forest yet though, so I might spend the entire day reading. I haven't done much reading since I was first allowed outside of the manor either, and that just makes it more tempting. Nalu seems content to just lay here forever too, but I really do need to continue my training. I guess I'll find out how to use magic first, then return to the forest.

The introduction of the book details what spells are, and how they work. A spell is a programmed piece of reality, created by the mind of a mortal, using mana. The mortal uses their mana to infuse their intentions into the world around them, creating a magical effect. The act of infusing your intentions into the world is called casting a spell, and once you finish doing so, reality changes. The spell does exactly what you told it to, then disappears when it finishes.

If you intend for a ball of fire to start floating in front of you, that is what will happen, but only for as long as you continue using your mana to keep it there. If you tell the ball to appear, and then fly towards something before exploding, you won't need to keep expending mana. You only need mana to program the spell, once you tell it what to do, you can stop casting it. This is know as completing a spell, when you finish casting it, and you lose control over what happens, after you do. If you told it to fly towards some person, and explode when it reaches them, said person can just step out of the way. The spell would then just disappear, as it did not reach the intended target.

If you told the spell to explode when it reaches the person's current position however, it would do so, potentially harming the person, if they didn't move far enough away. The size of the explosion, and the heat of the fire, depends on how much mana was used to create the spell. Powerful mages can create fireballs that burn as hot as magma, with explosions that can span entire cities. It is rare for a fire mage to get that powerful though, and they usually use more advanced spells by the time they do.

The book's explanation is very confusing, but I think it's saying that mana is your ability to manipulate the energies, and magic is what happens when you do. You tell the energy to do something by infusing your intentions into it with mana, and that is called casting a spell. You have no control over the spell after you complete it, but you also don't have to continue using your mana, and can move onto casting another one.

I assume that someone casting the 'fireball' spell will have a ball of fire floating in front of them, and that fireball will fly towards some target once the spells is finished. I guess it's hard to quickly cast a spell, and it is very draining to use mana. I think mana is just some form of mental energy, you need it to remain awake, and you can't manipulate the energies around you without it. Manipulating the energies expends your mana, leaving you exhausted, and tired afterwards.

It makes sense when I say it like that, but the books are telling me that mana was given to mortals by a god, and that it has the power to change reality itself. That might be true, but I don't think it is. The energies around me seem like they are just another part of reality, and you can change them just like you can change something physical.

You can lift a boulder with your physical strength, and you can magic it into the air with your mental strength. Saying it like that makes it sound like mana is a muscle, and that is probably an accurate description. I assume you can increase your mana by using it, in the same way you can strengthen your muscles by using them.

I look up from the book after coming to these conclusions, focusing on the energies around me. The person who wrote this book doesn't seem to have had any knowledge about the energies when they did, and I'm starting to think that I'm not supposed to be able to sense them.

It feels so natural to be able to sense them though, and Nalu says he's always been able to. I'm just going to assume we're special, and stop thinking about it. I have no possible way to find an answer to any of my questions, so all I can do is hope one comes to me.

"Do you know how to do magic Nalu?" I ask, as I observe the energies flowing around me. They are so complex, and incomprehensible, but at the same time, simple. They seem to have their own pattern to follow, and I assume that the way they move affects the physical world. If someone tells them to do something, they do, but they naturally follow their patterns when not being influenced by someone's mind.

I guess clouds rain and the ground is solid because that is the natural state of the energies that affect them. It's an... interesting concept, and makes sense to me. More sense than the science from Earth ever did anyway. Thinking this way just feels natural, in the same way that it feels natural to trust the random fox that I met in the woods.

"Magic?" He responds, and I can easily tell that he has no idea what it is, even without being able to feel his emotions. He doesn't move, not even bothering to open his eyes, but I know he's focusing on me, waiting for me to explain. I can sense this in the same way I sense his emotions, and it feels normal, as if it is perfectly natural to understand someone's intentions without them even doing anything.

"Changing the world around you with your mind." I say simply, as I focus on the air energy around me. Imagining it moving doesn't do anything, but I didn't expect it to. My hand doesn't move when I imagine it doing so, I have to actually move it. I'm just not sure how to actually move the air energy.

"I've never tried, but I have seen it done before." He says, and I feel that he is questioning why I want to know, as I hear his words. I look down at him, then then go back to observing the energies. I find it fun to be able to look at him, and inspect the energy floating behind my head at the same time. It's no different from being able to hear someone talking behind you, but it's still new, and I've only been able to sense energy for a few hours now.

"Let's learn to use magic together then." I say, imagining the air energy forming a small ball in front of me, and attempting to make it happen. My head is starting to hurt with how much I'm focusing at the moment, but nothing seems to be happening.

"Sure, but how do we do that?" He responds, opening his eyes. He doesn't make any other movement, just looking up at me curiously. I just shrug at him, and go back to focusing on the air energy.

"It's possible, I just don't know what we need to do to make it work." I say, as I will the energy into the form of a ball. It still doesn't work however, so I frown, and try again. Maybe I need a magic wand, or something, to properly infuse my intentions into the energy.

Nalu doesn't say anything else, but I can sense his understanding, as his eyes close again. I assume he's trying to manipulate the energies, so I continue doing the same. I have a very clear image of what the energy should look like as a ball, but I can't seem to do anything other than imagine it as such. After a few minutes, I stop, and think about other ways to use magic.

I look at my own energy, observing it. As I inspect it, I notice that it is denser in some areas. The energy seems to pool in my joints, surrounding each of them in a dense ball, and I sense lines stretching between them. The lines resemble veins, having a large amount of my energy flowing through them. The energy seems to be similar to blood, completely filling my body, but being more present in certain areas.

If I cut myself, anywhere on my body, I will start bleeding, but I will always bleed more if I cut into a blood vein. I'm not sure if I can bleed energy, but I assume I will lose more if the injury touches one of the veins. There are always two veins, with the energy flowing through them in opposite directions. The veins run up my fingers, pooling in each joint, and my fingertips, then run back down to my palm.

The energy pools in my palm, my thumb joint, and in my wrist. I notice that there are actually two separate balls in my wrist, overlapping each other, but not combining. Looking closer, I see that the veins connecting my wrist to my palm and elbow only run through one of the balls in my wrist, and that ball connects to the other. I'm not sure what the second ball does, but I notice that it's the same for my shoulders, hips, and ankles.

There is a large pool at the base of my neck, and in the center, and crown, of my head. They all have large veins connecting them, and continue down to a pool in my chest. After my chest there are two pools in my abdomen, and a final one at the base of my spine. The seven of them seem to form a tower, and hold much of the energy in my body. With all the other pools connecting to the tower in some way.

As I keep inspecting my body, I find another pool, but this one seems different. It is located in my stomach, directly behind my navel. Unlike the other pools, which seem to just store energy, I feel that I could take energy from this one, and the amount in it wouldn't lessen. It is also the largest pool, and the energy in it is denser than any other part of my body. It probably has more energy in it than the rest of the pools in my body combined.

I find this new discovery interesting, but it still doesn't help me use magic. I have a feeling that it should be easier to manipulate my own energy though, so I hold my hand in front of my face, and try to gather my energy into it.

It only takes half a second to have a large amount of energy swirling around in my palm, and I'm shocked at how easy it was. I felt the energy flow from my wrist, and into my palm, with the energy from my elbow filling in the space left behind. The same happened for my shoulder, and the pool at the base of my neck, continuing down until the pool in my stomach.

I was right about the pool not losing any energy, but I'm unable to tell where the extra energy came from. I don't think about it too much though, instead focusing on the fact that I moved it. I focus back on the air energy around me, trying to understand why it doesn't move when I tell it to.

Comparing the two energies, I realize that the only difference is that the air energy doesn't have my presence in it, unlike my energy. I immediately try to add my presence into the air energy, and find that it is something easy to do.

As I try to shift the energy again, I find that it is still hard, but not impossible to do. It doesn't work nearly as well as shifting my own energy did, but I still manage to form it into a ball relatively easily.

I feel a sense of understanding from Nalu, before another ball of energy forms next to mine. I watch as his ball changes into a cube, then moves on to form a few other shapes. After a while of observing it, I realize that the actual air isn't being affected, and come to the conclusion that the energy won't affect the physical world without that being the intention of whoever's manipulating it.

Normal people probably can't tell if they're doing it right unless something happens to the physical world. I assume that it's possible to cast a spell without letting your target know what spell you're casting, but I highly doubt that it's common knowledge. It would be impossible to defend against a spell if you didn't know it was surrounding you until it set you on fire. That doesn't sound like a pleasant experience.

I stop holding the air energy in the form of a ball, then infuse my presence into a larger portion of it. I tell the energy to make the actual air revolve around me, and soon I can feel a light wind circling my body. The air energy is following the same path I can feel the air taking, and I smile at my success.

Sustaining this wind is definitely taxing on my mind, but I believe I can continue doing this indefinitely, as long as I don't do anything more difficult than creating a light breeze.

"I guess we've discovered how to use magic." I mumble, as I stop manipulating the air. This means I need to get back to physical training, and the sun hasn't even started to rise yet. I guess I'll be able to experiment with more dangerous magic in the forest, but I still don't want to return there.

"Yes, what now?" Nalu asks, as he starts playing the water energy in the air. The water energy is much less noticeable than the air energy, but it is still there. The water energy in the air is different from the other water energies I can sense around the manor, but it is still water. It seems to be linked to the air energy, without being the air energy itself, but I can't really understand why.

"Now we go back to the forest, and experiment with magic." I respond, pressing my legs up into him as I do. I can't really move my legs, seeing as he's laying on top of them, but I don't really have to wait long before he stands up.

I push myself off the windowsill, then set 'Spell Craft, a peek into Magic Theory' back on the table. Nalu drops to the floor beside me, and we start walking towards the library's entrance.

I can see sunlight starting to come through the windows, and I sense that sunlight energy is also different from the other types of light energy. I had already assumed it would be, but now I have confirmation.

We move down to the first floor of the library, then into the northern hall, and head towards the main entrance. It only takes a minute to reach the entrance hall, and we quickly leave the manor. I'm not sure if we should leave the manor without someone knowing that we are, but at this point I'm just trying to find an excuse to wait longer before returning to the forest.

I leave the manor before anyone is awake more often than not, and the servants have come to know that it's rare to see me during the day. I'm pretty sure that my parents and brothers left already too, they were only here because I went missing in the first place.

I push the front gates open, then walk through them. I have no proper reason not to go to the forest, so I can't let myself stop training. The sun is just starting to rise over the horizon, and I start walking around the walls, heading towards the back of the manor.

As I walk, I notice that every rock on the ground has its own unique energy. It is still earth energy, but the energy is slightly different for each rock. I continue observing the rocks until I reach the forest, looking for two with identical energies.

I don't find any, and I assume that it will be just as hard as finding two identical rocks would be, as I step past the first tree. The light from the sunrise filtering through the barren trees is quite pretty, and I walk through the forest at a casual pace.

At the rate we're going, it'll take a few hours to reach our destination, so I start moving faster. Soon me and Nalu are sprinting through the forest, barely touching the ground with the way we're moving.

We run for thirty minutes, before coming across the hill where I met Nalu. I stop at the top of the hill, a few meters from where I had found him laying just a few days ago. He doesn't show any indication that he cares about this place, and we are quite deep in the forest now, so I shift my focus to the energies around us.

I can sense hundreds of different energies after just a few seconds of looking for them, but I can barely understand more than a few. The most noticeable ones are earth, air, heat, cold, dark, and light. I can also sense water, plant, and electricity. Any of the other energies are too hard to comprehend at the moment, and I have no idea what they are.

I can also sense the energies of different lifeforms. Mostly insects, and small mammals, but they are definitely there. At first I could only see their auras, but it only took half a second to look past them. I'm guessing that hiding your energy is an instinct, even if most people can't sense it anyway.

As I already have experience with it, I start with air energy. I infuse my presence into as much of the energy as possible, then remove it. I repeat this process a couple times, until it becomes relatively easy to do quickly, then start experimenting with what I can make it do.

I never cared much for magic in my previous life, as it wasn't something I could actually do, so I don't really know much about it. I do remember a few friends I had when I was younger talking about things like fireballs and windblades though, so I guess I'll start with that.

I'm not sure what a 'windblade' is, but I assume it involves making wind turn sharp. Following that line of thought, I form the air energy into a thin line. I base it's form off of the short sword I stole from one of the bandits a while ago, as it's the only proper weapon I've really seen up close, but make it a bit flatter, more like stiff paper than hammered metal.

I tell the energy to hold the air in the shape I gave it, before flying towards a nearby tree, then stop actively controlling it. It does exactly what I told it too, but as the energy impacts with the tree, it just disperses, not having any effect.

I have no idea what I did wrong, so I try again a few times, with the same result. After a few tries, I decide I don't know enough about magic, or the energies, and move on to a new energy. I need to actually have some idea of what I'm doing, before I try to create my own spells.

I try to infuse my presence into the earth energy below me, and find it just as easy as it was with the air. The first thing I tell it to do, is to raise a block of stone out of the ground. I'm a bit shocked when a perfect replica of the stone cube I'm imagining appears before me, but I soon start smiling. I might not be able to cut things with air, but I know that sharp stones are very good for causing damage.

"What are you doing?" Nalu asks curiously, and I sense that he is talking about the block, more than the magic I created it with. He is standing about a meter behind me, staring at the perfect stone cube now sticking out of the ground before me.

"It was the first thing that came to mind." I say, shrugging, as I form a copy of the short sword. I bend down and grab the sword, lifting it into the air. It's much more heavy than the original sword, but I have no problem holding it. I can tell that this will easily cut into most things too, but I'm not sure how durable it is. It probably wouldn't last long if I started banging it against a real sword, but it only took me half a second to make.

I swing the sword around a few times, then turn to Nalu. I stopped actively telling the earth to stay shaped like a sword, but it still is, so I assume this can be counted as it's normal form. Air doesn't normally form a blade and stay that way, but I guess it has other uses that earth doesn't.

"This is really complicated. I guess we have a lot to learn." I say, looking back down at the sword. I need to use mana to change its shape again, but it should be fine remaining like this, even if it's a bit impractical. Earth energy is probably better used for making walls, or digging holes.

"that's reasonable. We have never used magic before." Nalu says simply, before he starts playing with the earth energy, making a few stones float above the ground. He forms them into long spikes, which sort of resemble icicles, before flinging them at the same tree I was throwing air energy at.

I hum as I watch the spikes sink into the tree, and drop my sword, telling it to merge back into the ground. The spikes didn't really fly very fast, and they don't seem to have done much damage to the tree. I guess rocks aren't meant to fly, at least not with earth energy as their only propulsion.

I think for a second, before telling the earth energy to form a spike out of the ground, rising through the air towards the tree. I can't infuse my presence into energy I can't sense, so I have to tell the energy near me to move towards the tree before forming the spike. It works well though, and I see the tip of a long spike rise out of the ground, being pushed towards the tree by the earth behind it.

I can't sense the energy from this distance, but that just makes it seem more like I'm a normal mage. The tip of the spike stabs into the tree about a meter from the ground, and just keeps going. The tree splinters loudly, as the stone spike starts getting wider, pushing against it.

Eventually the spike stops, leaving an eight inch hole in the tree, and nearly splitting it in half. The spike itself is a little less than three meters long, and the tip is stabbing out the other side of the tree.

"That... worked better than I thought it would." I say, shocked. I didn't think the earth energy was that strong, but I'm not going to complain. It's definitely effective, and I assume it would easily kill a human. If this is the kind of thing any mage can do, then I'm shocked they don't rule the world. A crossbow bolt is nothing against a stone wall, and metal armour is useless if the attack can come from any direction.

It only took me a second to cast the spell, and the spike finished forming after three more. Most people wouldn't be able to dodge a spike that travels a meter in a second, especially if it appears less than a meter away from them, but I assume it's possible somehow. There would be no point in having swords and bows if magic was so much better, so I assume there are some downsides to using it.

It's probably hard for most people to quickly cast a spell, and I doubt it's easy to do either. I have a slight headache already, and I've only been experimenting for a few minutes. This is probably what it feels like to expend mana, and I doubt I'll be able to create that spike more than ten more times.

"It seems you did something right. Let's keep practicing." Nalu says, as he as he starts raising pillars out of the ground. They are wide pillars, being about two meters in diameter, and soon he is being lifted into the air by one. That seems like it could be useful for balance training.

I copy him, rising into the air, then jump onto one of the pillars he created. That was a lot harder than creating the spike, and I can feel how exhausted Nalu is after creating seven of them. We are about four meters off the ground now, and I can tell that this will definitely be good for all kinds of physical training.

I try to shift the stone of the pillar below me, but find that the energy can only hold one presence. I can't manipulate it if Nalu's presence is still there, but I feel that I could remove his presence if I tried. He could probably resist though, and this makes me think more about how fighting another mage would work, especially if you can't even sense energy, and don't know that you have to infuse your presence into it.

I'm not sure how people are supposed to do magic without even knowing how it works, but I guess they subconsciously, or instinctively, know what they're doing. It's something really interesting to think about, but I should be focusing more on my own magic at the moment.

"You okay?" I ask, looking to Nalu. He seems fine, but I still have to ask. I can sense that he is mentally tired, but perfectly fine physically. He probably doesn't feel like moving now though, and I'm going to assume that he's trying not to fall asleep.

"Yes, just tired." He responds, jumping to a pillar next to mine. I feel his presence fade from the surrounding energy, as he lands, so I replace it with mine. It only takes a second to form a bridge between the two pillars, creating a large, two by four meter platform.

"Then you should rest. We don't know what pushing ourselves will do when it comes to magic." I say, then start walking towards him. He takes a step towards me, then decides to just lay down where he is. His eyes close as I sit down next to him, and I start lightly stroking his fur after a second.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of running my hands through his fur, it's just so soft, and fluffy. I wish I had fur like this now, but humans don't have any fur, let alone soft, fluffy fur. I guess I'll just have to be content with petting Nalu, something I'll probably do quite often in the future.

I relax with Nalu, thinking about the different ways we can use magic, and wondering just how strong we can get. I'm excited for the future, and I expect my life to become quite interesting from now on. We'll have to get back to training soon, but for now, cuddling with a giant fluffy fox sounds like a wonderful thing to do.