11 Learning the basics

Everything went back to normal after that event. My sister went back to her cheerful and youthful attitude. She has been smiling a lot lately, she became more mature and hard working. Before, she just followed the instructions of her teacher, but now she is taking the initiative to learn more and improve her skills in sword fighting.

My father seems to be pretty busy because he would be gone for a couple of weeks before returning. He always looked tired and fatigued, but he wasn't sharing his difficulties with his children so we have no idea what was going on. I do think it was about the under handed method that the person called Uncle Martis who used my sister's kind and naïve nature to entrap us in the forest.

My mother has been diligently teaching me meditation and magic. It was simple as I only need to feel the mana and element that has most connection to me. Lumi seemed to be the reason why my mana conversion into spells is more effective. My mother has not mentioned anything about Lumi, it seems she cannot see her but I think my grandmother was able to. I guessed that it was a matter of levels as my mother is a master level mage while my grandmother is a grandmaster mage.

She also thought me how to use the level one Healing Light which is an area of effect spell that heals simple wounds, it is also effective on darkness base monsters like zombies and wraiths which are the lowest level darkness based creatures. Although I was practicing magic, I made sure that no one else was around aside from my mother. I promised my grandmother that I will not tell or use magic in front of other people. It seems that it will cause a big problem in the family if I was discovered to be a genius magician at an early age of 3. Our family might be in a precarious situation since the balance will tip to our side, many nobles have been eyeing and conspiring, they are trying to remove the power we are holding in the kingdom and use them for their own.

It was something that I was not able to do anything about, however, I was still full of determination to learn and improve. I wanted to be strong enough the next time we are in a predicament. Magic aside, I wanted to learn swordsmanship too. When I mentioned this to my mother, she told me I was too young and I should wait for my age to turn 5 then we can talk about it. She promised that she and father will decide after we go to the capital and take the test and the magic tower.

I could not do anything about it as I was too young. I did realize that it would be difficult to wield a sword. But it didn't mean that I could not study the different skills and stances that can be used in fighting. My sister did have a large collection of study materials in swordsmanship.

I can now roam around the entire second floor of the mansion with supervision. It was much better since the library was also located at the second floor. This library was an accumulation of my grandfather and grandmother's adventure together. There's a lot of books here, as my sister told me excitedly, however, as I am used to large libraries in the modern world, it did not excite me as much.

Printing books is expensive, that's what she told me.

I was able to learn about the levels that there is on our continent. The levels are novice, apprentice, master, and grandmaster. There are only four levels known in this continent. It is the same with swordsmen, knights or mages.

Being a novice is the first step. This is where you awaken your affinity with an element or aura. For mages it mostly starts at the age of 5, my case being the only exception in the continent. If it does not show during this age then they are not suitable to be a mage. A swordsman or knight, however, has no age limit, some even develop their aura at later age. There was a known story of a knight who awoken his aura at the of 70, so people do not lose hope as long as they train hard. The blue light that I saw my sister was emitting was the sign that she has broken through to be novice swordsman. The aura is mostly called baby blue.

The next step is being an apprentice which is the transition from being a novice to a master. Apprentices have a basic understanding of skills or magic at this time. Unlike a novice who has only awoken their aura or magic. Apprentices usually start to learn under a teacher or a master. There are schools all over the country that teaches people. The kingdom has been open to the knowledge to proliferate the usage of magic skills or swordsmen skills. Although these are basic skills this still becomes the backbone for the country's strong military. Many soldiers in the front lines who are fighting the enemies are apprentices. My sister's level is currently an apprentice, she is in the middle of integrating her aura into her sword skills. The color of their aura becomes light blue

Master is a person who is able to use incantations that are level 5 or higher, while a master swordsman aura will have a darker shade of blue. These people have already mastered their own specialties. They are skilled practitioners. They have acquired the complete knowledge and skills in their techniques or arts.

Grandmasters are those who are able to make their own specialized skills or set of sword fighting skills.

I believe this explanation is very vague, however, there are no others books to support the levels that are in this library. I should visit the capital's library to gather better information when it comes to levels, skills, and magic.

Going about my everyday life by practicing and studying, time passed by like this. I am now 5 years old and heading to the capital with my mother and sister. My father is already in the capital so we will be meeting him there. We have warriors and magicians who will be our guards while traveling. Unlike my grandmother, we will be moving by carriages and horses. Travelling will take approximately ten days.