A Talent
CURRENT STATS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name - Bell
Age - 9
Gender - Male
Race - Human
Attribute - None
Old Title - The Greatest Mage
(locked)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strength: 5
Speed: 5
Vitality: 5
Intelligence: 87
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bell looked at his stats again and pondered quietly. "Hmm, my physical stats are so low, and my intelligence... if it is this low, then that must be the reason why some of my memories feel so fuzzy."
He sighed and closed his eyes, shifting his focus entirely onto the mana inside him. Once he sensed the faint flow of mana moving through his body, he concentrated on it and slowly forced it to expand.
A slight discomfort crept in, but he continued pushing the mana outward, letting it spread through every limb and nerve. Sweat formed on his forehead and dripped down his cheek as he kept expanding the mana flow again and again.
After ten minutes of continuous strain, Bell finally let out a long breath of relief. His whole body felt warm and slightly heavy, but the mana flow had undeniably changed.
He leaned back on the chair to catch his breath, then pulled the system screen up to check the results.
CURRENT STATS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name - Bell
Age - 9
Gender - Male
Race - Human
Attribute - None
Old Title - The Greatest Mage
(locked)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strength: 20 +
Speed: 24+
Vitality: 25+
Intelligence: 87
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hah... that should be enough for now. Anyways, there is a reason why I continued chopping logs for hours. It is not because of the task the orphanage lady gave me, but also to train my body."
Bell shifted his focus to his head, guiding a steady flow of mana throughout his brain. As the energy circulated, the system reacted with a sharp sound.
"ZZIP!"
~~~STAT POINTS UNLOCKED~~~
Points: 15
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Bell looked at the system with a hint of disappointment. "Haha... from my perspective this looks so poorly made... but I guess I cannot be choosy."
Without hesitation, Bell directed all the available stat points into his intelligence.
CURRENT STATS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name - Bell
Age - 9
Gender - Male
Race - Human
Attribute - None
Old Title - The Greatest Mage
(locked)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strength: 20 +
Speed: 24+
Vitality: 25+
Intelligence: 102+
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ooo, reached a hundred. Then that means..."
"ZZIP! Auto points has been achieved. Would you like to activate?"
Bell smirked a little before saying, "Yes."
Auto points being activated gave Bell a huge advantage, because now he could do any kind of physical labor or work and his physical stats would naturally grow. The same applied to his vitality and intelligence, as long as he followed the correct methods.
He looked at his hands and affirmed to himself that he would rebuild everything with nothing able to stop him. But then, suddenly, a wave of tiredness washed over him.
"Huh... wait a minute, I am sleepy? Hah... I forgot... I was always using an anti-sleepy spell before. Now without that spell... I am... tired..."
His eyes slowly closed, and his head rested on the table.
The orphanage lady went downstairs to check why the light was still on. When she saw Bell sleeping at the table, she sighed softly, grabbed a blanket, and carefully covered him with it.
..
….
…..
Morning came, and Bell woke up to the sound of a pot boiling. He looked around and noticed a blanket draped over him. When he lifted his head, he saw the orphanage lady preparing a meal for breakfast.
She noticed he was awake and said, "Ah, Bell, since you are the first to wake up, mind helping me a bit?"
Bell stood up and nodded, walking toward her. On the counter lay a dead duck.
"Here." She handed him a knife. "You know how to slice up a duck, right?"
Bell looked up at her and replied, "Huh, uh, yea."
The orphanage lady smiled. "Good, good. While you slice that, I will prepare the vegetables and other ingredients for the soup. I got lucky today, there was an early limited discount for these things hehe."
The atmosphere was peaceful. They cooked quietly, the soft morning light entering through the window. Everything felt relaxed and calm.
The orphanage lady glanced down at Bell to check on his progress, but to her surprise, Bell was extremely precise with his use of the knife. His cuts were smooth and exact, almost professional.
"You are really good with a knife. Where did you learn that from?"
Bell felt a little nervous at the question since he obviously could not reveal he was actually an experienced adult.
So he simply said, "Ah, I just read a book about how to properly slice animals for cooking."
To quickly change the topic, Bell added, "By the way, do we have school or education here?"
The orphanage lady paused for a moment and answered, "Hm, yes, we do. Although it's only a school for kindergarten. You see, this village is not very resourceful, so a lot of teens grow up and leave the village to attend a proper school either in another village, a town, or even a kingdom if they get lucky enough."
Bell nodded. "Ohh, I see. I finished cutting the duck here. I will be going to the back to see if there are any more logs I can chop down."
She gave him a small gentle smile. "Okay. Be careful handling the axe."
..
…
As Bell reached the back of the orphanage, he did a few quick stretches before grabbing the axe. This time, he lifted it without needing to enhance his arms or legs with mana. He glanced around and noticed there were only three logs left unchopped.
"Hm... oh well. I will inform the orphanage lady as soon as I finish cutting these."
Bell swung the axe, splitting through the first log. While he continued chopping, Marc walked to the back of the orphanage and saw Bell working. Marc looked surprised before exclaiming, "Woaa!"
Bell noticed him and asked, "Oh, morning. What are you doing here?"
Marc replied, "I came to tell you that breakfast is ready, but besides that, were you just cutting those woods without using mana flow on your body???"
Bell paused, taken a bit by surprise. "Wait, you can tell?"
Marc nodded. "Huh, ah, yea. I don't know if it is just me, but my eyes can see when and where mana is flowing."
Bell looked at Marc thoughtfully. "Ah, there it is... a talent. A prodigy. If this child is educated well, he could be someone great in the future."
He then said, "Hey Marc... would you like to learn magic?"
Marc's eyes widened immediately. "Really?? I can learn magic??? Are you sure??"
Bell nodded with confidence. "Yea, you can. And I bet you would be great at it too. But let's go inside first before we get yelled at. You came here to tell me breakfast is ready, right?"
Marc suddenly remembered. "Ah! Yea, I forgot because I got excited. Alright, let's go."
..
..
After breakfast, Marc and Bell went to the room to look at the books Marc had been reading. Bell picked up one of the books and said, "Woa, there is quite a decent amount of books here. How did you get them?"
Marc replied, "Ah, Jenna gave them to me."
Bell's thoughts: "Jenna? Oh, that must be the orphanage lady's name."
Marc continued, "She provides me with all kinds of books. Most of these are not bought, some are found, and others are donations. But I really care about these since I do not have much to do here except read."
Bell smiled. "Yea, these are all nice books."
The door opened, revealing Jenna standing there with Nelly beside her. Marc waved at Nelly, and Nelly shyly waved back.
Jenna said, "I will be taking Nelly to the kindergarten school. Watch over the orphanage for me, boys, while I am away."
Marc exclaimed, "Aweee, Nelly is going to school. Make sure you study well and have fun there, Nelly!"
Jenna looked around the room, noticing all the books scattered on the floor. She smiled gently. "Alright, we will be going now. Make sure you also clean the place while we are away."
Marc and Bell both waved as they watched Jenna and Nelly walk away.
Bell then turned to Marc. "Well then, shall we begin learning magic?"
Marc's eyes lit up. "I can really learn magic?? Like the greatest mage???"
Bell laughed awkwardly. "Ahaha... well... I do not know about that extent, but yea, you can learn magic. It will probably be simpler than you thought."
Bell then began instructing Marc on the old traditional way of gathering mana. Marc followed his words but commented, "This is not the modern way of gathering mana, is it?"
Bell nodded. "Hoo, I am surprised you know, but yea, it is not. This is an old traditional method. We are doing this because the mana in this village is really low, so you cannot gather much unless you focus completely."
Bell continued, "You cannot gather mana if you do not know what mana feels like. So I will put a little mana on the back of your head, and you will try to familiarize yourself with the feeling. Then focus on gathering that feeling throughout your body."
Marc nodded and sat on the floor, closing his eyes and trusting Bell's instructions. Bell moved behind him, pointed his index finger at the back of Marc's head, and let his mana flow out so Marc could absorb it.
With his eyes closed, Marc saw nothing but darkness at first. Then a faint blue flow appeared. It slowly grew thicker and denser, giving him a slight headache, but he didn't stop. Instead of just getting used to the feeling like Bell told him, he began controlling the mana, moving it on purpose and gathering it into a small ball.
Bell's thoughts: "Ho… this kid… instead of just familiarizing the mana flow, he absorbed my mana and is concentrating it to make it his own…"
Bell smirked softly and silently exclaimed, "Interesting…" He then stopped sending mana and let Marc do everything himself.
Inside Marc's mind, he had fully captured the flowing mana and turned it into a dense mana ball. He tried to grab it, but realized he didn't have hands in this state. So he released a bit of mana from the ball to form a hand made of mana. He looked at the ball floating there, then grabbed it.
The moment his mana-formed hand closed around the ball, a huge surge of mana burst out and spread through the surroundings.