“Mind your posture!”

Adi shouts near my ear as he continues encircling me. It is the second day of my supposed magic training and all I learned is how to stand properly. From time to time, Adi slaps me with the stick on his hand that he just picked up.

“Agh!” as I straighten my back, the bent legs supporting my upper body begin to shake and falter.

“Stretch those arms, kid!” Adi slaps my forearms.

My forward-raised arms almost gave up. But I persevere and continue to level the thick old grimoire that my hands are carrying, “T-t-this better be worth it!”

Adi continued to do a few more encirclement, “And,” he stopped in front of me, “Done!”

I exhaled my plight, sweat trickled down, “Finally!” I put my tired hands on my hips. The grimoire fell.

“Hmm” Adi strokes his brows, he appears to be thinking.

Squatting for the sake of magic is a tiring thing. Since yesterday, all I’ve been doing is exerting physical energies and testing my stamina, “Are you sure this will help me build mana?!”

“I don’t know,” he picks up the magical book, “But a little exercise won’t hurt,”

‘It hurts, my body hurts, and I am not training to be a warrior!” I blurted, still gasping for air, “Can’t you just teach me some basic spells or something?!”

“It’s dangerous for someone who has no mana to just chant a spell!” he removes the dirt from the book he just picked up.

I stretched my back, and it let out faint cracks, “Why, what will happen?” 

“I don’t know,” he said, “Hmm,”

“What?! Is there something you know?”

 “If you really want to, you can try setting yourself on fire or blow yourself into the void,” He flips through the pages of the grimoire, “Look, kid, even if I teach you a spell, you probably might not even cast it properly. Are you that eager to hurt yourself or someone else even,”

“Unbelievable!” I moaned as I sat on the ground.

“For now, read this book,” Adi threw the book at me, “I’m going to get something to eat,” he turned around and started walking towards the mansion.

“Wait!” I catch the book, “M-master Adi!” admittedly, I hesitate to call him a master. When I returned my attention to him, he was gone.

When the silence finally settled, the wind blew and the rustling of the tree gave me time to wonder for a moment. I inhaled the fresh dew, I found myself contented. But, sudden flashes of Titus’ image often disturbed me since the day I got out of the hospital.

The grass beneath me shelters an assortment of small insects minding their own business. I might have sat and stepped on some of them. I wonder if Titus thinks of me in that way.

I try to flip the grimoire to a random page, it opens to a fireball spell. Apparently, it says there are a lot of fireball spells and this book even has a dedicated chapter for all the spells. I skimmed through the pages and found the word ‘Bomba’.

“Bomba?” I pouted, “That’s the one Hearth used on Master Adi,” I smirk. Maybe I can use it as well.

I turn to the next page, which shows an illustration of a humongous fireball being cast by a poorly drawn human wizard wearing a robe.

Suddenly, I remember the words that Titus said. A language that is foreign in this world, alien to all of Evereal. I stressfully sweat heavily.

“Should I tell him…?”

“Tell him what?” Adi, from behind, startled the living hell out of me.

I screamed, “Master Adi!”

He rolled his eyes. In his hands, are two glasses of what seems to be a cold fruit drink, “Gods…”

“Is that for me?” I stretched out my hands to take a glass from him.

“No,” he sat beside me, “I made this for myself, get yourself your own drink,”

I frowned, “Didn’t you use ingredients from our kitchen?”

“Yes, but I made it using my own effort,” he takes a sip, “And my own magic,” then he placed the second glass between us on the ground.

“You can make a drink using magic?”

He snickers, “You can make almost everything out of magic if you have the mana for it!”

“I see,” I nodded in agreement, “So, tell me more about them, I might as well need the knowledge,”

He made a loud slurp before looking at me, “What do you want to know?”

I slowly prepare my arm to grab the idle glass of fruit drink, “Spells…?” I quickly snatched it. But felt nothing on my hand.

“Nice try,” in his hand is the second glass of drink, “But let me tell you about spells,” he threw his first glass behind, and it made a shattering sound.

“Hey!”

“That broken glass is now a thousand pieces of something with mana. Those bits of mana can fix that glass!” he stood up and turned to where the glassware shattered, “Listen. if you know the spell, you can say it out loud or keep it to yourself!” he bared his inactive hand and directed it the direction of the shattered pieces.

Slowly, the pieces levitated and moved toward Adi’s hand. He readies his palm to grab it as the final pieces finally come together, “That’s magic!” he said before taking his hand away, and then the fragments fell, “Any questions?” he chugged his second drink.

“What do you mean by as long as I know the spell?”

He throws the second glass to the tree and it also shatters, “That grimoire, it gives you stuff about spells. Stuff such as how to pronounce them so you can say the incantation properly, the mana control needed to cast it, and the power to control it.”

“Hey! Why do you keep breaking our things?!”

“First, learn the incantations, some of them are a sentence long some are only one or two so your little brain could handle memorizing it!” his voice becomes sluggish.

“Uh…”

He stumbles backward but he catches himself before he can fall further, “Second,” he lets out a loud burp, “Mana control! If you are going to spout the words, you better know how to exert your mana into it! So, better study how to arrange and control mana!”

I look around, “What did you just drink… Was that alcohol?”

“Third!” he fell to the ground, “Power! Power… Power!” he laughed while lying on the grass spreading his limbs, “This is where your exercises come in, the physical and mental toll of exerting such mana to manifest something should be equaled by a strong body and mind! Else… Or else you’ll die if you cast a strong spell or you might get someone hurt!”

“Is there something wrong with you…”

“Listen! Magic is a powerful thing. Mana may act all stupid and after telling you about auras you may even find them irrelevant! But, everything is at play, all of them, including you! Make use of this knowledge!” he shouted erratically.

“I don’t even understand what you’re saying right now!” I shake my head in response.

“Remember, Auras are mana, mana is magic, and magic is…” he flails around a bit, “You!”

“Great. So, what’s next for me?” I grabbed the glass that fell with him, it smelled like wine but with a stronger scent, “Wait… What- Why are you drinking, it’s the middle of the day!?”

“I’m sorry, I cast a spell on my drinks, I made it stronger, fermented longer, and put something special that I only know!” Adi chuckles after every hiccup, “Now… I don’t know, I was wrong… I think. Go cast a spell or something…”

“S-should I read this grimoire all by myself?!” I showed the book in front of his face.

Adi held my face and smiled, “Listen, Andy, you have to control your power to control your spell! The spell is only as strong as the caster! But then again, magic is not something so trivial such as mana usage and wordplay… It demands a delicate balance of what we are and… stuff…”

“Wait… What!?” To my shock, I dropped my book on his face.

The book knocked Adi out cold, the thickness of it could crush insects. When the book slid off of his face, he was sleeping comfortably.

“Master Adi!” I said, “Why did he call me Andy?” I straightened my back, looking around for people to help me carry the old master back to his quarters. 

I find myself contemplating once more. Could he be referring to someone he knew or was it just a coincidence that it sounded like my grandfather’s name?

“Must be a coincidence,” I shrugged it off and left him there to sleep. I struggle to bring the grimoire with me as I head back inside to find my sister, maybe she can help me with incantations.

“Why is this book heavy?!”