“Today I’ll be able to train with my grandmother!” I woke up excited about today’s training. My grandmother always gives me advice or explanations when something becomes complicated; today is the first time she will give me a direct lesson.

  “Where is everyone? I didn’t wake up late…” There is no one at the table where we usually have breakfast; normally my family would already be waiting to eat together.

  “Good morning, young Maki. Everyone left very early today; Lady Rita is waiting for you in a room near the ritual area. Once you finish eating, you should go see her.” The person in charge of the food informs me after hearing me.

  “Thank you, Tommy, I’ll go right after breakfast.” Tommy has great talent for cooking; all his meal plans never disappoint.

  I finished eating and headed to where Tommy indicated. I’d be lying if I denied my excitement; it doesn’t compare to learning magic, but training skills is deeply satisfying.

  “You kept me waiting, little one.” When I entered the room, my grandmother greeted me with a gentle smile; she was seated on the right side of the room.

  The room is medium-sized, a square of at most fifteen meters per side. I can see different types of wood anchored to the floor, each one shaped differently.

  “Good morning, Grandma, sorry for the delay.” Her words are a joke, I know it; I just want to play along. I heard a small laugh as she stood up from the chair at the same time.

  “Little one, as you know, we are very busy these days. I can’t dedicate much of my time to your training, I’m sorry. We must make the most of our time.” She looks a little sad after telling me this.

  “I understand the situation perfectly, don’t worry, Grandma. If I can understand the basics, I can train on my own.” I consider myself intelligent enough to understand, and I also like training until exhaustion; if I grasp the basics, I’ll be able to do it by myself.

  “Don’t rush, little one. Don’t try to fly without knowing how to walk. Let me explain what your new training consists of.” Her eyes show a unique confidence.

  “All those pieces of wood are different for a purpose. If you look closely, there are small circuits on the floor; if you press this button, each piece of wood will react and reposition itself in different places. The goal is to move through this area blindfolded; it’s fundamental to begin pushing your senses to the limit and improving the skill,” Rita explains to me.

  “I understand…” I more or less grasp the purpose; while my vision is null, my other senses must find a way to give form to lifeless objects, and with that button they will move without me knowing the direction, making the practice more dynamic.

  “That is only to improve your skill toward one similar to your grandfather’s. Unfortunately, to improve your skill related to mana, you need someone else.” I can hear a hint of sadness in her voice; if there weren’t so many problems, she would help me in her free time, I’m sure of it.

  “Why do we need someone else? Can’t another person do it without being you, Grandma?” I have my brothers, or some workers could help me.

  “Because someone has to start creating mana forms around you; you begin with one and then increase. The form must also change, and when you get used to it, you must be attacked with that mana. For the first two stages it can be someone else, but the problem is the third; it requires good mana control to give the spell enough density, but not too much or you’ll be injured.” She paused to look at me.

  “Little one, I don’t know if you understand how special your ability is. Although I’ve known many people with this skill, you are the first at Amethyst rank. The problem lies precisely there; your parents also want to hide that ability from as many people as possible, which is why I personally offered to train you.” That’s the reason—now I understand her concern.

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  My family doesn’t want to show my abilities to others for fear of information leaking to other noble houses. Although large-scale wars are rare, the deaths of talented children in small noble houses are quite common; usually other houses secretly send people to kill those children.

  “From today on, we will both meet in this room every day at 4:30 in the morning. Being so early, fewer people will see us, and we’ll have about two hours of training per day.” The schedule doesn’t worry me much; I used to train early every day.

  “Thank you very much, Grandma.” It makes me happy to know how much my family cares.

  “After magic training, you will have to train alone with those pieces of wood, and it’s also a comfortable place to practice your magic. Take all the time you need.” My grandmother indicated that I should sit on the floor and cover my eyes with a very thick blindfold; after confirming my vision was completely blocked, she began forming spells around me.

  I can’t feel the magic at all; I only realize it exists when it touches my body and then disappears again.

  The practice lasted almost two hours, and my grandmother left, not before reminding me to practice with the wooden obstacles and my magic for as long as I needed.

  The blind-walking training was just as difficult; I stumble after a few steps, hitting my head and parts of my body. I’ve fallen more times than I care to admit.

  I feel like I’m in hell; I’ve never felt so useless in my life. Yet, contradictorily, I’m also excited thinking about the future when I master both skills. Two hours flew by. I’m taking a short break before starting my magic practice.

  “Why is it so difficult? I haven’t managed to gain even a single level in my skill…” I feel a bit disappointed at not gaining any levels; after all, yesterday I managed to gain some levels at the end of training.

  “Let’s remove this feeling of sadness from my body and keep training. TRAINING NEVER DISAPPOINTS!” The training wasn’t going any better than yesterday until…

  “Do you want to learn the skill: Mana Control?” A flat voice sounded in my mind, similar to a robot’s—specifically, a female robot.

  I let out a sigh of relief; according to my brother, after acquiring the Mana Control skill it should be less complicated to form figures in my mind. I mentally accept the prompt and feel the knowledge arrive in my mind and take root in my body.

  “Let’s start again!” With renewed spirit, it’s time to return to training and notice the difference.

  After practicing for thirty minutes with my new skill, I could clearly notice a difference; mana followed my ideas better and took less time to form what I wanted. The control and quality are still poor, but there is improvement.

  “It’s time to practice until lunch and then eat something.” A full belly is always a happy body and a healthy mind.

  Improvements appeared little by little; I managed to raise the skill by one level after so many hours of practice—the pitiful control and quality became merely poor. During lunch I asked Tommy if he could prepare some snacks, and he happily agreed.

  I’m heading back to the training room with my snacks to dedicate the necessary time to improving my skills. I devoted three more hours to moving through this wooden jungle, and my efforts were rewarded: I raised my Enhanced Senses skill by one level—it only cost hundreds of falls and bumps.

  My skill increased by one level, and I didn’t notice even the slightest difference. Very different compared to Mana Control and Sword Skill, where I always noticed a small change after a level-up. I don’t know the reason why, and I have no way to find out; I’ll just hide that thought in the back of my mind.

  “Time for magic—TRAINING NEVER DISAPPOINTS!” Forming a person is difficult; I’ve been trying for two hours to create the shape of a human with magic, and it’s impossible—it looks like a ball with five sticks. The only good thing about the effort is that I gained a level after dedicating so many hours.

  It’s time to move my body a bit; maybe I should change my routine slightly…

  Training with dual swords and “Quick Step” began and ended without issues, gaining one level in Quick Step and two levels in Sword Skill after nearly five hours of training.

  Today has been a productive day, acquiring a new skill and gaining several levels in my other skills.

  When I returned, my whole family had already gone to their rooms. I finished my dinner and went straight to bed; tomorrow I’ll need to wake up early to continue training.

  Before sleeping, it’s time to check my status, which is:

  Maki: 8 years old – Basic Amethyst.

  SKILLS:

  Sword Mastery – Level 5

  Enhanced Senses – Level 2

  Quick Step – Level 4

  Mana Control – Level 3

  “I want to compare, but I don’t know what the status of other kids my age looks like… wait, it would be better to compare myself to newly awakened children.” It wouldn’t make sense to compare with kids without mana.

  “I must find trustworthy, newly awakened people to try to compare my progress—future Maki will have to deal with that. It’s time to sleep.” I curled up in my bed and slowly fell into the hands of the god of sleep.