Year 5007 after the system day 12 of the flowering season on the grass plain during the morning.

 

“Are you ready for some more training in the ways of a magician?”

My father chuckled after mocking me, observing how I had a sleepy yet cute look splattered on my face. 

“Y-yes...!”

Briefly, after he continued with the bullying.

“Full of motivation, I see!”

He smiled, opening a box next to him, and then he knelt on the grass. From within, he pulled out a small wooden cube. 

Revived a bit from the curiosity about the different contents within the container, I spoke a little more cheered up.

“What’s that for dad?” 

“To explain more of the mana training!”

From time to time, during the past days, we trained the way mana went in and out of my body. At those words, I made a boring look since it was a never-ending loop of monotonous energy flowing, along with the necessary knowledge and control of it.

To feel, to perceive, to imagine, were the three beginnings of every sentence, he would tell me, but that didn’t come without other ones such as be patient, be calm, and be wise.

This happened as he noticed changes in my emotions that provoked flaws whenever I used the clear blue wave.

“Yes, dad...”

Without further ado, Luke resumed yet another one of his long explanations that I so adored and loved to death. He would often repeat them to make sure I would never forget about them.

“Mana, as it is called by the wise from the capital and those who study it back in the magical institute led by the mightiest wizard, Ryan. It is like the flow of the river where you enjoy fishing. The better one controls it, the faster it will fall into your grasp, but today... I’ll show you the next step, so you understand why this tough training is necessary for your growth as a future magician.”

With an interested and curious expression, enormous eyes, and a wide mouth like I was about to consume the world. I questioned him hastily, shouting, “are we doing magic!?

“Yes, you could say that, but first a couple of rules about it.” 

I did my best to contain a significant amount of excitement, along with a positive expression after nodding. From experiences, I knew that remaining silent in times like these would allow things to progress faster, perking up.

“With mana being the normal thing and even considered the base of all beings, they considered calling it attribute-less magic. On its own, you can’t use it to damage things around, though.”

That information made me question him promptly, “is it possible to become a mage just by possessing mana?”

“People fight each other to reach their ideal. This allows the most talented to be considered magicians, leaving others in their dust. It is not just anyone that can reach that far, so no.” 

I tilted my head, not understanding his reply.

“How so? Aren't we all the same?”

“Humans...”

My father made a displeased expression, reminiscing about the past before continuing. Through his life experience, Luke had seen plenty of peasants dominated by high-born. He himself felt the need to ally with similar important people in order to not suffer the same treatment. Those who were powerless, low rank, and poor... went through abuse. It was one of the reasons to live in the outskirts of the kingdom, far from the capital where nobility with such power lived.

With a childish voice and concern, I questioned him, “what’s wrong, dad?” 

Almost as if he woke up from a trance, he shrugged before replying.

“Nothing is daughter.”

My head nodded in disbelief, not pursuing the matter, waiting solely for the answer my curiosity sought.

“People... are born differently, even before they are part of a race. The quality of the soul, the size of it, already dictates their future partially, and such does not change easily.”

Reminded about my status, I voiced out to him, interrupting his words and potential thoughts, “dad, I noticed my status screen had a soul choice in it, but when I tried to open it, there was nothing special inside...” 

With a surprised expression, the father responded, “what do you mean!? We humans can’t see that!”

With a nervous feeling growing inside of me, I faced him with shining eyes, “but, in my skill, I see it along with other things.”

“You mean that strange skill status you were born with shows the soul?”

In the past few days, the three of us spoke about the two skills I had. And they ended up allowing me to use them as long as I didn’t allow my mana to reach zero. I got to learn then that it could hurt me. And that back then, that was the reason I fainted.

“Yes! I’d show you, but you two taught me no one can see each other screen so...”

He regained his composure, calming down sullenly, despite all the curiosity that grew within.

“I understand. Tell me. What does it show exactly regarding the soul?”

“Uh, status skill open...”

My father made a surprised expression as soon as he realized my mana appeared and then disappeared. I spent it to perform magic, which was one of the following steps he intended to show me at some point. Unlike the skill all humans are born with, named personal data, mine actually required some amount of energy to be given to the system. Possibly since mine showed more things than his, and it came with a voice that began with the word notice. However, unlike most active skills, he saw no magical circle, which intrigued him deep down.

Notice: System consumed 2 mana.

Status:
Level: 1 | Experience: 0/100
Health: 8/8 | Mana: 67/69
Strength: 0 | Vitality: 8 | Endurance: 0 | Agility: 0 | Dexterity: 0 | Intelligence: 0 | Wisdom: 23
Status Points: 0
Class: <None>
Fame: 800 | Disgrace: 800
Race: Human | Name: Iris | 7 years old
Affiliation(+)
Soul(+)
Titles(+)
Achievements(+)
Skills(+)
Elements(+)
Soul-bound(+)

Once I explained the status word by word to him till the soul aspect which caused his complexion to grow astonished, making mine turn confused in comparison. He then muttered my name, causing my gaze to focus intensively on him, who hugged me tightly out of nowhere, further causing my mind to become chaotic.

“What’s wrong, dad? You’re scaring me!”

He let out a chuckle and then disconnected himself from me, gaining two heads of distance while he stared at me with a smile.

“Your soul quality is three times more than the minimum!”

He showed me that many fingers happily. 

“What do you mean by that, dad?”

His happiness persisted, as he was a tad satisfied with this discovery.

“Do you remember our conversation regarding talent?”

“Yes? Not everyone was born with the same one, right?”

He shifted his hand to have only one finger aimed toward the sky.

“Exactly! Most people independent of their social standing have a low wisdom ratio with mana, like one-to-one. In other words, while you have sixty-nine, they would have twenty-three.”

As the last piece fitted inside my brain, I let out a surprised shout.

“Does that mean!? I can learn magic?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what it means! And It also includes being able to get a magician type of class in the future, not to forget you’ll be able to use a few skills, though with a minor output as your talent is not the greatest, but already a bit higher than a lot of peasants.”

As soon as I was about to speak, he continued, changing his expression to a serious one, along with a severe and cold tone.

“You can even end up dying during a fight. Being able to use magic doesn’t make one omnipotent.”

I gulped, understanding the risks and that once again, nothing is perfect in this world, nor convenient enough for humans to defeat everyone with one spell.

“Exactly, and that’s why whenever I have time to train you, we must do it with the best effort!”

Reminded about our last talk, I muttered something sad.

“If I do somehow surpass their strongest warrior, I’d still be no match against an army...”

I laughed while despairing gazing downwards, making a sorrowful expression that didn't go unnoticed by him. 

“And you don’t have to, dear. We’re weak, but we are ten million humans! We won’t go down without a fight!”

I gazed back at him, half hoping and half confused.

“Wouldn’t the enemies be a lot more than us?”

“Only if all the races grouped together, which they don’t, they too are enemies of one another. Thanks to that, we under the goddess Aria could persist till now.”

After I rubbed my chin for a while, thinking, I looked at him, who awaited me silently and patiently.

“If we’re a kingdom of ten million, just how many beings are out there?”

“We haven’t explored too far thanks to the dangers, but the researchers believe we are, at the very least, ten percent of the entire world.”

“Can we even beat our enemies?”

My hands gripped against one another, feeling a tad nervous.

“To be honest with you, as a father, shouldn’t be in a case like this...”

He made an awkward expression and added.

“...we probably can’t.”

“Why do you say that!?”

I yelled, convicted with teary eyes, wanting to hold on to a trend of hope, which seemed to fade at every single moment that our conversation unfolded. 

“If we were to beat them...”

My father patted my right cheek before resuming.

“...wouldn’t we have done so already?”

With tears almost falling, I shouted angrily, “then, what’s the point of training?”

I punched my knees with the lower part of my fist.

“It is for you to protect yourself and grow stronger. Wasn’t that the reason you wanted us to teach you?”

With a calmer voice after breathing deeply a few times, I corrected him. 

“To protect the both of you...”

He picked up the wooden cube and then got up with a radiant smile.

“That’s a great and beautiful goal, to become strong enough to keep your parents out of harm. I think you should focus solely on your dreams daughter, instead of worrying about what may or may not happen in the future, since in the end, that’s what matters.” 

I passed my white sleeve, wiping out the tears, “I’ll do what I can!”

Within me, I understood what he meant. Surely, it was not what I wanted to hear, but still, they were the words I needed to keep myself in check with reality. I smiled to push away the negative emotions, accepting the cold and harsh reality of his vast knowledge. I got to know then that I was just but another worm that crawled among millions of others.

“That’s for the best. For now, back to some explanation regarding magic.”

He threw the cube into the air and created a pool of mana slightly above the ground. As the object fell on it, it trespassed, falling on the grass.

“First rule of mana, since it is an energy, physical things will always go through it.”

I opened my mouth, surprised, as I hadn’t tried to do this before.

“Second rule is...”

He projected his mana against my body, causing it to hit an invisible wall.

“This energy can only go through your body through a technique named mana channeling, and only those who have a magical class can learn it.”

“Does that mean there are other ones?”

“Yes, melee and ranged classes. Each type as we call it has different elemental techniques that we can gain that suit those classifications.”

“Is that what I’m going to learn?”

“You will learn the bases for the ones I know. That way, once you gain a class, it’ll be much easier to receive them.”

“I understand. What other tricks are there?”

“A different yet useful one would be an elemental barrier.”

Quickly, he made a defensive posture, placing his palm in front of him. A blue mana circle appeared beneath him as a small amount of energy flowed from his body to the front of his palm. That was when I noticed a yellow elemental circle appearing in front of his fingers: it looked like a golden wall.

“This is one of them. You can try to punch it if you would like.”

I threw a blow with half of my strength, feeling the impact nullified as soon as it reached it amounting to nothing but a fuzzy and warm sensation on my skin.

“Also using mana against it will only make the barrier become stronger since elements are naturally superior, so, against monsters who don’t excel in magic, it could save your life. This does not mean that we absorb the enemy mana to ourselves, as that’s not possible. It solely stays inside the skill we used.”

“I understand.”

I responded simply, feeling the urge to learn all the different techniques, knowing that at some point they could be of use. Furthermore, I was very interested in discovering magic since my past life books had very interesting stories related to it: Small whirlwinds to turn windmills for the production of bread. Fireballs the size of buildings spreading destruction to everything around. I, who never got to gain it myself, spent my lifetime imagining using powers beyond reason and logic.

At last, now I had a chance to take the first step toward it.