1 Chapter 1: Mana Gathering Comes Easy

"I've been getting called into work more often now, even on my days off, I should put my foot down and say something."

I walked farther and farther, passing buildings and homes on the way to my job. Along the way, I see a stick on the ground. I kick at the stick before picking it up and holding it in my hand. I chuckle a bit before suddenly getting hit with a lot of nostalgia.

"I remember playing with sticks, imagining them as swords, being the magical hero to save the day. Good times. I miss being a kid again. Sigh~"

I drop the stick, I keep forward toward my place of work. Finally, I arrived. I sit down and set up shop at the convenience store. I clean the windows, sweep, and get the cash register ready.

And with one flip of the sign that says, 'Closed' it became 'Open'. The first customer of the day walks in, they look around for a while and then come to the counter so I can ring up their items. I ring them up and wish them well, they say goodbye and I just sit back and wait for the next.

This is all this job is, being called in on your days off and sitting behind a counter for hours and hours just waiting for customers to come threw and buy something. Not to mention the thieves that sometimes just come by and take before running off.

This place is hell on earth, I even see some people doing drugs and often smoking in front of the store, they litter and don't care to clean up after themselves. My boss, who is too busy living their best life and enjoying the money from the business often comes by just to chew me out. He complains about why the store is dirty when all I do is clean. He complains about why cigarettes, trash, and other garbage are just sitting outside on the ground when I try my best to clean them up as well. 

He always sees the bad in everything, he doesn't even care to see what I do that's good. And I've tried sending people off and stopping them from loitering and littering in front of the store, but what can a skinny guy like me do against a bunch of weapon-brandishing thugs?

After a long day of standing and ringing up customers, which often vary from junkies to middle school kids, I clock out and close the shop down for the night. The sun was now rising, I guess I forgot to mention I do the graveyard shift.

I grab the cheap earphones from within my pocket and play my favorite song which usually calms me down after work. I stand at the crosswalk, I watch as the sign gives me and other people permission to cross.

A speeding truck. It swerves back and forth, the driver is completely knocked out and oblivious to whats happening. With my headphones on and music blasting, I can't hear anything that's happening, and only at the last second when the truck's headlights are right in front of my eyes do I realize what is happening.

I can't breathe, I can but it's hard. My lungs feel crushed, my bones are shattered, I can't feel a single thing, my toes and fingers are completely twisted, and both arms and legs are broken. I am sure I'm going to die.

"I-"

"...."

Before I can even say my last words, I take my last breath, and there I am pronounced dead.

Or so I thought. Was it a dream? or even a nightmare? maybe I fell asleep at work and had a lucid dream? But this all feels too real.

I can't hold my eyes open, I can't lift myself up, I feel helpless. I feel small, extremely small. I hear somebody's voice but can't quite make out what they're saying.

I force myself to open my eyes, but even to this extent everything is still blurry, I just give up. For some reason, I felt like crying.

No, no way. All of this....what I'm describing....I, I'm a baby?! 

This is bad, but is it? if I'm a baby then that means I got reincarnated. This is a dream come true, this is the greatest gift ever! with this new beginning, I could do something great with my life.

But, where exactly am I? Is it still Earth? or some alien world? am I still human? I sure hope I am. Do I gain a cheat? hopefully. I think I deserve one. 

2 weeks have passed since then, and I have grown accustomed to this new body. The two people in front of me are my mother and grandmother I don't have a father, as expected of a main character. 

1 Year has passed, and I can now walk, this world is very fantasy-like, magic and mystical creatures exist here. I can already see my future, great magic swordsmen! It doesn't matter to me, as long as I can become strong.

4 years have passed since then, I am now 5 years old. I attend a small school with a lot of children. But recently I've been getting into small altercations with the older kids for bullying smaller children.

I don't see myself as I hero, but I hate bullies, considering I was a victim of a few back in my old life. 

My family is poor, I expected as much though, but I'll be sure to change that one day. 

But I've been secretly training in magic. In the school library, I stole a book about magic, not very nice of me but It's crucial if I want to learn more about this world and become strong.

The story goes like this, 500 years ago, a man and his exhibition team were discovering a secret cave, upon finding the cave a great dragon was awakened killing everyone but him. He somehow bonded with the dragon and soon made a pact with it, the dragon granted the man strength and with this strength, he was the most powerful man on earth.

But he wasn't a selfish man, he was heroic and wanted everyone else to be just like him. He spent 100 years creating a foundation, he then created spiritual energy, which we know as mana. With all of this power gathered he thrust it into the air, scattering it all over. The trees changed, the air became heavier yet richer, and the people soon discovered this change. And so, he became the first king to ever live, the strongest magician, the creator of mana.

King Sintain, the first great ruler of Ashwood, the kingdom I reside in. I thank him, I don't know him, but I thank him for giving the world mana and the ability to use magic, he was a selfless man, he wanted the world to experience magic. But look at what they have done with it.

Nobles are horrible and treat the poor like street garbage, they take their titles for granted. King Sintain wouldn't want something like this.

The current king, King Sintain IV is nearly on his last breath and will eventually be taken over by his son. Besides that, I should start training my magic.

In the book, 'Basics Of Mana Control And Magic' you must first relax and then have stable breathing, after this, you must imagine yourself bringing in mana from the world, and storing it in your lower abdomen, which is called the core.

But I have another idea, I relax and breathe, and mana is brought in thoroughly. Instead of just storing mana in the lower abdomen I store it in my heart, I carefully bring in more and more mana, and once I feel like the capacity has been reached, I bring in mana to my core.

I kept imagining and it kept happening, It all felt too easy to me so I was confused, I couldn't have been the first person to try this, but I felt accomplished I did it so easily. I now have 2x the mana stored inside of me than most, and if I keep training and keep on improving I will have a nearly endless pool of mana at my disposal.

Magic is the easiest, well it is, but isn't. It takes a lot of mana to do some spells but something basic like a water spell or fire spell takes nothing but a small, small amount.

I put out my hand and imagine a ball of water, in half a second a small ball of water is sitting in my hand. 

"I just have to push it out with a lot of force now," I imagine the ball flying from my hand at immense speeds, and it happens. The water ball crashes into a tree and makes a small dent in it.

I smiled and started to make a maniacal and evil laugh while rubbing my hands. 

"At this rate, I will be the strongest by the time I'm 15!....ZEHAHAHAHA!"

I tried out other elements, like fire and earth, and they were both a success.

After a nice day of training, I run back home, and there my mother and grandmother are sitting at a small wooden table.

"Quinten, you are back! dinner's ready!"

I sit down and instantly dig in.

My grandmother smiles at me, "You are growing well, growing a bit too fast for grandma!~" She rubs my cheeks and ruffles my hair a bit.

"Well, boys like him have to grow fast if they want to become strong. Isn't that right Quinten?"

As I stuffed my face with food, I looked up and responded, "Mphmm...Yeah~ yeah, sure do~ mhmm~" 

I finish my food and just spend some time with my family.