"You're not hurt anywhere right?"
Yulia checked her daughter's temperature by touching her forehead, but it was normal, and there don't seems to be any visible injuries or changes on her body.
"No, im okay mom." Syla said, assuring her mother that she wasn't feeling any pain.
"Can you use your magic again?" Mr Hensen suddenly asked, he got closer and sat down beside Syla to observe her.
"Okay.." Syla replied, she then tried to use her fire magic again, and the result startled everyone in the room.
Whirrr!!
As the flame rises from Syla's hand, its size kept growing further than the previous flame she created in the morning, if the previous flame was the size of a peanut, then this flame was the size of a tennis ball.
The flame kept burning, Mr. Hensen watched as the flame grew even bigger in its last moment before dissipating after 30 seconds.
"It's bigger than before.." Syla said, amazed by her progress.
"Yeah, can you make it bigger?" Mr. Hensen said, curious if Syla could make it into a real fireball.
"I'll try." She responded before trying to summon the fire again.
She closed her eyes and imagined a fireball that was in Mr. Hensen's hand when they were training. Soon, a flame appeared on her hand, at first it was small, then just like before, the flame grew into a bigger and rounder shape, it burned brightly and Mr. Hensen started to feel the heat on his body.
In the end, a fireball the size of a soccerball was created, the flame lasted for a mere 3 seconds, but it was enough to make everyone's eyes popped out of their socket.
"Haha.. It just keeps getting crazier and crazier.." Mr. Hensen said, he chuckled in disbelief. "That was even bigger than what i threw at the training"
"That was amazing Syla!" Her mother said.
"T- thank you.. Ahaha." Syla was a bit embarrassed to receive those compliments, she scratched her cheek and smiled.
"I have no more things to teach you.." Hensen said out of the blue. "I guess this is goodbye."
"Mr. Hensen.." Syla stared at her teacher for a while, then bowed her head out of respect. "Thank you so much!"
Mr. Hensen couldn't contain his smile upon seeing such sight, he then gently stroke Syla's head again.
'I can't believe a 4 years old is able to act like this.. Her mother raised her with a lot of love it seems.' He thought.
"You'll be a great mage in the future, keep improving even without me at your side, and chase after your dream— Now that i said it, what's your dream Syla?"
"I want to see the world! Like you! Dad said the other day that you- Wander to different places everyday! I want to become like that too!" Syla replied with enthusiasm.
"Hm? Ahaahha! Sure, you can do that.. But first, you need to grow up, and listen to your parents. If you become a naughty kid, then you won't be a wanderer like me." Hensen said.
"Okay!" Syla responded with a smile, her answer calmed Hensen and her mother, knowing that she will undoubtely hold true to her words.
"This is my final advice to you Syla– Information is the most important thing, the more you learn, the more powerful you'll become, remember that.. Now that my duty is over, i'll take my leave." Hensen said before standing up and walked outside the room, however, before he do so, he looked back to Syla and her mother for one last time.
"Give my thanks to your father, i hope we can meet again soon."
"Mr. Hensen! You don't want to eat before you go?" Syla's mother called Mr. Hensen, but he didn't stop.
"Im already full! See you later in life! Syla!" He said as he left the living room and went out from the back of Syla's house.
Syla and her mother was left speechless, they didn't utter a single word for a few seconds, then her mother broke the silence.
"He just left like that.."
"Will i be able to meet with Mr. Hensen again?" Syla asked.
"Of course you can, but that'll be in another time." Her mother responded.
.
.
As the day goes by, Syla's father came back from hunting at sunset, and upon realizing that Mr. Hensen had already left the village, he frowned and cursed Mr. Hensen for not waiting for him.
"AGHH!! You bastard! You intentionally didn't want to say goodbye to me!? Syla! When you grow up and by pure chance you met with him again, punch that bastard in the face, just lightly." Her father said angrily, jokingly requesting Syla to punch Mr. Hensen once she became an adult.
The day goes as usual, Syla was satisfied with the result of her training, and her parents are happy that their daughter successfully learned magic without much troubles. Together the the three of them enjoyed dinner as if nothing has ever happened, as the moon rose and the candles are being turned off, Syla laid down on her bed and looked at her own hands.
'I did it– The first step is over, now— All i need to do, is to keep practicing my magic, controlling it and expanding my mana.. Using the mana absorption method is nice, i can keep condensing the mana to absorb more than normal, but it takes a lot of energy and mental capacity to stay focused.. And even after that, the result is way smaller than i thought, each mana absorption only increased my mana by a little bit.. If i want to get stronger, then i'll have to keep doing it for years—
'Sounds simple enough, unlike other people who started their magic journey at an older age, i started at 4, so i have a lot of time in my hands.. If we go by the logic, that means the older the person gets, the stronger their magic abilities will be, im assuming someone who's a 100 years old mage would be capable of destroying an entire city by themselves—
'But i can't be sure yet, Mr. Hensen only taught me the basics, if i want to know more, then i'll have to gather information– Just like he said, information is the most important thing.'
Syla accidentally closed her eyes while she was thinking, and that led her to fell asleep as her body wasn't able to hold the drowsiness any longer.
.
.
2 Years later, 9th April—
At the back of Syla's house, the sound of a sword slashing through the air was heard constantly throughout the day, the one that swung the sword was non other than Syla, she had grown a little bit taller and her white hairs were hanging below her shoulder, she's now 6 years old, just 1 month after her birthday in march.
Syla started doing sword training 6 months ago, at that time she was with her dad when he took a day off from hunting to clean his sword and equipments, Syla watched as her dad washed the shining steel sword and thought.
'Wouldn't it be better if i learned combat too?'
And so, she asked her dad that day.
"Dad, can i learn swordmanship?" She said infront of her dad while he wiped the sword blade with a cloth.
Her dad who heard the request immediately stopped his hand and looked at Syla in confusion.
"What?" He said, trying to confirm if what he heard was true or not. "You want to learn– Swordmanship?.."
"Mhm! Can you teach me how to fight like you?" Syla confirmed her father's confusion, his face suddenly lit up like a sparkle.
"Syla! Are you serious!? Dad's not hearing things right!? You really want to learn swordmanship!?" Her dad lifted Syla up and gave her a wide smile. "Ahahaha!! You're the best daughter i could've ever asked for! Even though you can use magic, you still didn't abandon the art of combat! Alright!– Wait here, dad will bring you something." As her dad said those words, Syla saw him walking into the house and coming back a few moments later with a wooden sword.
"Use this!! We'll start tomorrow! How about that?" He said enthusiastically.
Syla agreed and grabbed the wooden sword with her hand, it was a bit heavy, but Syla find it more interesting.
"Okay!"