"It's one of the core steps to learn magic." Hensen answered Syla's question, he let go of his hand from Syla and sit beside her, the demi-human family and the human instructor gathered together as they discussed things about magics.
.
.
"Why don't mom and dad learn magic too like me?" Syla abruptly asked.
Her question was met with the gaze of her parents, before they answered her with a gentle tone.
"Magic isn't something that anyone can do, well maybe it is.. But usually, people like your mom and dad, who never learned proper magic like you, can't use magics other than the simplest spells." Her dad said.
"What? does that mean you can use magic?" Syla asked again, curious with her father's statement.
"Haha, we never told you this before aren't we?" Her dad then lifted his hand up, showing his palm to Syla, and as if trying to focus, he closed his eyes and summoned a handful of water ontop of his palm.
The water flowed for a few seconds before it ran out, her dad clenched his fist upon noticing that his spells was over.
"See? mom and dad can use magic too, but this is all we could do, creating a stream of water that barely fills up a cup, or creating a fire that lasts for 3 seconds–
"Using it for any longer will cause a chest pain for us, that's because the mana in our body stayed the same after awakening, that's what makes us different from mages who have innate talent." Her dad explained while her mother nodded in response, not denying anything that was said.
"Why did your mana stayed the same, dad?" Syla wondered, trying to find the reason of her parent's lack of magic prowess.
Before her dad could answer, Mr. Hensen interrupted the conversation.
"Because he never received proper training." He said, causing Syla to turn her head towards him.
"Training? Do they need to avoid the fireball too?" She asked, a little bit confused but also curious.
"Hah, well– Not really, that's just how my method of teaching is, to tell you the truth– I don't know if you can understand what im about to say, but—
"In order to use magic, you need to awaken your mana, and to do that, you'll need to trick your body to think that you're in danger, that's why i launched those fireballs at you—
"When your body sensed that it was in an intense situation, it will try to use everything in its power to save you, that includes using the mana inside your body to create something out of nothing, that's what magic is—
"Once your mana is awakened, you can strengthen your magic by learning how to control it and increase the amount of mana you can store inside your body, the more mana you can store, the more destructive and powerful your magic will become—
"Your parents only awakened their mana but not increasing its capacity overtime, that's why they can only use basic spells." Hensen finally stopped with the explanation, doubting that Syla would understand even half of his words.
"Do you understand it?" He said to Syla, trying to test her intelligence.
Syla fell into silence, her eyes were locked into Hensen's, as if she was zoned out.
"Umm, i think that's still too much for a 4 years old child.." Syla's mother said.
"I guess that's true." Hensen responded, his face looked a bit disappointed. "Well, let's continue with our training then, there's still much to do even if she managed to awaken her mana today—
"Syla, break time is over, let's continue."
"Ah, okay.." Syla came back to her senses and replied immediately, standing up on her legs and began to follow Hensen towards another spot on the field.
'So that's how it is– Wait does that mean mom and dad have experienced a life and death situation before!?' She thought, her mouth frowned as she walked before it faded just a few seconds before Hensen turned his head.
The training continues as before, Hensen launched multiple fireballs at Syla, and everytime she was about to get hit, Syla dodged just in time, that way, her body will instinctively sense the fireball that was about to hit her, even though in the end, she will always succeeded in dodging it.
.
.
At night, 8:00PM—
After a long and exhausting day, Syla was seen laying down on her bedroom, her body facing upwards, pressing her tail against her body weight while she looked at the ceiling with an emotionless face.
'He said most people awakened their mana after about 2 weeks of training like that, if i want to awaken my mana instantly, then i would have to be put in an actual life-threatening situation and barely surviving by doing everything i can through sheer will and effort– doing trainings with fake dangers greatly reduced the time it took for mana to awaken, but its the safest option—
'Well, he did say to mom and dad that after my mana has awakened, then it'd be a smooth sailing afterwards, the hardest part about learning magic is awakening your mana after all, the rest just consists of expanding your mana storage and controlling the spells in your head, which i confidently already mastered to some degree thanks to my earth knowledge—
'The problem now is that i'll have to bear this exhaustion everyday for 2 weeks, can this body endure it? I know my mind can, but this body is a different story–
'Even after the training ended, some of my muscles still felt stiff.. Normally a child around my age wouldn't be able to endure this and cried immediately.'
Syla turned her body sideways, allowing her tail to be freed and wags unconsciously.
'Ugh.. Im already sleepy, i guess i can't stay awake for too long at night when im just a 4 years old..' She thought, her eyes gradually closing on its own before it shut her eyes off and allowed her to fell asleep.
.
.
Tomorrow, 6:00AM—
"Mmrhh.."
Opening her crimson eyes slowly in the morning, Syla was met with a sight that she never expected, it was Mr. Hensen sitting beside her bed, watching her waking up.
"WAH!?" Syla was shocked to see Mr. Hensen infront of her, almost hitting her head against the wall behind her.
"Ahaha! Did i scare you?" Mr. Hensen said, his laugh echoed throughout the room.
Just then, Syla noticed her parents were also there behind Mr. Hensen, they were also waiting for her to see her reaction, and to put it in short, their face was not disappointing.
"Urgh.. Don't scare me like that, i thought a robber broke into my room.." Syla said with an annoyed voice, she yawned soon after due to the sudden burst of energy right after waking up.
"That's mean" Hensen said with a smirk, "Go eat your breakfast, i'll wait in the back."
With that, Hensen stood up and walked outside her room, he disappeared from her vision without a single guilt visible from his face.
"Isn't this a bit too early!?" Syla asked her parents.
"You said that yesterday too, haha." Her dad responded with a joke, seeing as how Syla was also saying the same thing when Mr. Hensen came to their house that morning.
"He came way earlier because he doesn't want other people in the village to see him, he thought it'd be weird if they saw the same human coming to the same house 2 times in a row." Her mom gently explained.
"I see." Syla replied before sighing and getting up from hed bed, she walked to the dining table and waited for breakfast to arrive.