4 1.4 Learning Magic - Part 1

The next day, I went to the village library with Marina and Sistina. It was my first time visiting the place, but it was quite small and had only a few hundred books. Most of the books had wooden covers and a few of them were huge.

"Hey, Nara, Marina, come here. Let's sit at this table." Sistina said while putting the books on one of the tables.

There were four rectangular tables with 4 chairs on each table. We were the only ones in the library since it was the harvesting season, and everyone was busy.

After we sat at the table, Sistina selected a book from the ones she had brought and said, "Okay, let's start with this one. This one is about the languages and culture of this country. You can note down anything useful you find here."

Sistina passed me the pile of paper and Marina brought the inkpot with a quill that was on the next table.

I understood that the languages were basically the same with just slight differences, but the culture was a different matter entirely. Writing with a quill was a little difficult at the start, but I was able to use it properly soon.

"T-that's all for today. W-we will study more tomorrow," Marina said after we finished reading and writing the numbers and letters several times

"Yeah. Finally, it's over. Sitting around without moving for a while makes you feel tired." Sistina said, stretching.

Since we all agreed, we put the books back into their places and came out of the library.

"We are going to the temple to help Rose and Nina. See you in the evening." Sistina said after we got near the orphanage.

"I will go to the field behind the orphanage and see what Ronald and Arica are doing. See you in the evening," I replied.

After saying my byes to them, I went to the training ground where Ronald and Arica were.

"Hey there Nara. Did you come here to play with me?" Arica said when she saw me coming.

I really wanted to answer yes, but I couldn't because it looked like she was just teasing me, so I brushed it off and replied with another question.

"Are the two of you training with magic?" I asked.

"Yes, since we want to join Magic Knight Academy next year, we are training for the entrance test," Ronald replied.

'I knew Ronald was hard-working, but Arica is training too?"

"Hey Ronald, can you teach me how to use magic? I'm not even sure if I am even able to use magic." I said, looking towards Ronald.

"Ah, okay. First you should try some basics spells and know the elements you can use," Ronald replied.

'Yeah, but how do I try that?'

Ronald saw the confusion on my face and answered the question in my head, saying, "First, you need to know what mana is. If you close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing, you can feel something that you are breathing in along with the air."

I tried doing as he said. I closed my eyes and started concentrating on my breathing. I could feel something that came into my body with the air. I could feel it being absorbed into me.

I could soon sense a small white glow coming out of my body, even though my eyes were closed. It smelled somewhat like soil, but different.

"Yes, I can sense something glowing in me," I said while my eyes were still closed.

"Woah... You learned it so quickly. It normally takes 6 months of training to be able to sense it," Arica said in a surprised tone.

'Well, this part was easy but I am not sure what I can do with it.'

I opened my eyes to find Arica almost about to kiss me on my cheek, so I stepped back in surprise. She made a face of a spoiled child who wants a toy that is displayed in a toy shop when she saw me step back. But she quickly moved on.

'Phew! I know you are just toying with me, but there is a limit to how much this virgin heart of mine can take.'

"Okay, now the next part is converting raw mana into magical energy. For that, you need to visualize the element and imagine it appearing in your hand. Arica, can you show him?" Ronald said, looking at Arica.

"Since I can use fire magic, I just need to visualize it and imagine it appearing in my hand," Arica said while demonstrating how it works.

'Woaa…! Cool.'

Arica created a Fireball as big as a ping pong ball in her hand. For someone who was from a world without magic, it looked like the coolest thing ever.

I decided to give it a try. I closed my eyes and focused my mana onto my hand and imagined a fireball in my hand. As soon as I said that, I could feel something warm outside.

"Stop! That's too big!"

"Stop!"

As soon as I heard Arica and Ronald shouting, I opened my eyes. There was a big fireball of around a meter in diameter in front of me. I was scared at first since I thought I would get burned, but I later realized that it wasn't hurting me. I could feel the heat it was emitting, but it was not burning my skin.

When I stopped concentrating the mana into my hands, it disappeared.

"Phew! You need to be more careful with it. It may not burn you since it's your fire, but it can burn everything else. You almost made barbecue out of us," Ronald said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"You've got lots of power. Cute boys with a lot of potential are really my type. You see, this is the biggest fireball I can create." Arica said while showing me a fireball that was as big as a soccer ball.

"Now concentrate only a little amount of mana on your hands and try doing it," Ronald said after Arica finished the demonstration.

As Ronald said, I tried concentrating little mana and doing it. A small fireball which was as big as a cricket ball appeared. The feeling was similar to when I created a big fireball, but I need to concentrate to maintain its size and prevent it from getting bigger.

"Oh my, you are already able to control your magic. I am not sure how far you can reach like this," Arica said in a surprised tone.

"Haha... I was just lucky this time," I replied, stopping the concentration of mana into my hands. The fireball disappeared.

"Since it looks like you can use fire magic, let's move into another type of magic. You can learn more about them later," Ronald said, bringing the subject back to the aptitude test.

"Yeah, so which one is next?" I asked, looking at Ronald

"I can use Wind and Holy magic, so I think we should try Wind magic next. We can try the Darkness magic that Arica can use next," Ronald replied.

Only one person among a hundred could use 2 kinds of magic. But I was not surprised that they could use 2 kinds of magic since most of the kids here were the children of knight and magicians who died in the Great war.

Next chapter: Learning Magic - part 2