The Sage and the Magic Systems

"Mhnnn…" That was the only thing I could say… right now that I just woke up and ready to see another day.

"Haruki~! Come down here. Breakfast." I heard my mother downstairs and I immediately replied, "Yes." But before me was something I couldn't comprehend. A torn page floating in mid-air. Scriptures that seemed unreadable but radiating with immense magical power. I lifted my hand to touch it as I was allured. The torn page vanished into thin air but I felt the massive flow of magic coursing through my veins. This wasn't normal for me as an eight-year-old kid. It's as if I am another person as soon as I touched the torn page. The intelligence was swift and entered my thoughts and memories.

"Haruki. What are you doing? Let's go." A random voice popped out of my door.

"H-Hitoshi. I am sorry… I was…"

"Brother. Now is not the time to get another round of sleeping. Food must not wait you know?"

"Y-yes." I replied to my brother. Hitoshi.

I followed his command and finished our breakfast forgetting about the torn page earlier. It felt real but I can't discern its presence anymore. I sighed once again. If only I could read, I would've understood what it said before touching it.

"What's wrong? Why are you holding that book?" Hitoshi said as I grabbed a book and tried to read it.

"Do you need help with that?" Good. That's a great start at least.

"Y-yes… I can't understand it."

"Why did you ask for this, Haruki? Are you interested in magic?" "Mhmm." I nodded. This book tells how it works pretty well, the way they use it and so much more.

"So these are the magical incantations of these spells… They're actually pretty hard to read especially when you don't truly study magic." Now that Hitoshi brought that up, I realized that everyone in this family focuses on a system they call the『Knight Class』.

It is under the umbrella system most of the people in this world call 『Classes』It is embedded into the user ever since birth.

"You're the only one who is different here in the family. You possess the sorcerer's crest and at that… under the category of mostly production and not for combat." Hitoshi closed the book as he said this.

"It is quite strange that when you were born into this family, you didn't have any crest of combat… Until now, but maybe you really did… it's just that you never had time to condition it yourself."

"..." I didn't say anything, now noticing that I did feel magic only now.

"Anyway, it is not that bad when you use production magic. It has many advantages apart from fighting. It can be used for augmenting items, enchanting, and all other stuffs." Wow. That is bad. I never thought that it would actually affect me that way. Production units are the most important role in every party, not only as support, but also as a carry… in some cases. Underestimated. Even I felt affected by that.

"Heh. You don't have to feel so low, Haruki. There are a lot of opportunities out there as long as you strive harder."

"You're right."

Thanks to Hitoshi, I found a better way to read these books. In quite a terrifyingly fast development within a month. I grabbed a fair amount of books and brought it to my room upstairs and started reading them. Interesting. Magic in this world isn't only within one 『Class』but is in all human beings. All of the coexisting 『Classes』is under the four systems of Magic. There is the 『Close Combat Magic』, 『Long Range Combat Magic』, 『Agile Combat Magic』, and lastly the 『Production Magic』. Then falls under all the appropriate 『Classes』according to their abilities.

According to these books, 『Close Combat Magic』is an effective way of handling melee weapons when up close. In some cases, sorcerers who are closer to the enemy with this system have an even more amplified strength. Apart from the 『Long Range Combat Magic』they get stronger when they are far away, a little slower however in casting time but very helpful in terms of sniping enemies with long range weaponry. 『Agile Combat Magic』is a weaker type of magic firepower but effective in quick casting and magic fire-rate.

Then『Production Magic』, the magic that supports use. It contains what normal smiths, enchanters, and others use. The difference in this one is that『Production Magic』does not have firepower or amplification in any combat-based situation. I feel a bit sad of what I have for now but it is better than nothing I guess. There's not much I know for now.

"Huh. Well, it seems like it is the time of the day. Haruki, you wouldn't mind having a sword duel with me, right?"

"Sure." Now that I remembered, Hitoshi is probably going to be the successor of this family I am currently in.

Hitoshi and I went out of the house and pulled out a wooden training sword from the sword rack beside the pots outside the house.

"Here. Catch." Hitoshi said as he threw it towards my direction.

"I've been waiting for this day to fight you, Haruki. Now. Come—!" Hitoshi pulled a sword stance that looked a little bit of common sword play. I held onto the wooden sword as if it was sheathed on my left hip. Back then, I was interested in classes immersed in katana sword plays, the sword mastery was quick and swift making it look very cool.

"Strange stance. Well, I'll go first—!" Hitoshi went straight ahead of me. I drew my sword as I evaded left holding the sword with both hands. Gah. Heavy. Blocking the sword head on with Hitoshi seems to be harder than I thought.

Well, judging from my body structure and age, I'm sure to suck at sword play for now. However… This was part of the plan. I countered his attack slicing his torso downwards.

"I win."

"W-wow… I never thought you were this good." Hitoshi nervously laughed.

"That swordplay, it's quite unique. Where did you learn that?" Hitoshi started asking me.

"Oh. Uhm… books?" I wouldn't really want to let everyone know I just beated Hitoshi in swordplay, especially that this is an exceptional sword style coming from a traveler from Eadril.

"Wow, that was amazing, Haruki." A voice came from the entrance of our house. Ah, father saw the duel.

"Hitoshi is quite right. Such a strange swordplay, I am actually eager to duel with you."

Ah, well… No escaping it then. But father has a bigger structure than Hitoshi, this is going to be quite hard for me. Father exchanged places with Hitoshi as he grabbed onto a new wooden sword.

"Now. It's going to be my turn, Haruki. Come at me!" Father had more of an aggressive technique. Now that he is running towards me with his sword on the right… Going the opposite direction would be better. I executed the same stance evaded right and crouched as soon as the sword slashed above my head. Now's my chance!

I struck father's leg… but he dodged it as soon as I could do it. Oh shit. He's retracting his sword from the slash earlier real quick.

"Nice try! Take this!" The sword hit inches away my neck in mid-air making father break his formation from the knockback.

"W-what was that?!" Hitoshi surprisingly said in the background. I got you this time, father. I kicked off the ground and slashed his torso the same way I did with Hitoshi.

"I win." No matter how cool I sounded in my head… I was panting heavily while saying that.

"What did you do just a while ago?!" Father looked quite estranged by me.

"Uh… I simply focused a field of mana near my neck before you hit me since… that part was kind of expected."

"You what now?! And above all… no chanting?!" Wait… was it really that much of a big deal? I conditioned my mana and focused it in one area causing all of my mana to form an invisible wall that a normal sword couldn't break through… not unless it was enchanted to break through 『Mana Wall』.

"Heh. I never thought you would grow this fast. And weird." Oi. Don't call your son like that.

"Yeah." Not you too, Hitoshi.

I guess there's nothing I can do for now but try more of these magic I'm going to learn. They're quite easier to handle than I thought. After casting this magic, I felt like there were more I can do but I couldn't specify it.

"Dinner is ready~!" I heard mother inside with the fresh smell of food in the morning.

"So, I've heard you defeated your own father! My oh my. That's quite something." Mother said in the midst of the feast, this surely made dad quite bothered while eating. Even my brother, Hitoshi, seems quite unpleased with what happened earlier. I feel like a total outlaw.

"That's true. But I never thought he would reach that kind of level. I'm quite impressed."

Father just spoke out of the blue. Truly I felt even more comfortable because of the compliments. "But this does not go without a rematch!" Okay. I take that back. During our feasting, shouting was heard indistinctly which seemingly came closer to our house. Suddenly, there were hurried knocks coming from our entrance door. Hitoshi opened the door and came out a panting stranger from the village.

"T… there… there are w-willows! One of our men was left behind and we couldn't go back because of a strong enemy."

Willows, huh? Those things come from the wilderness. Mostly in forests when they are around living trees. They're made out of wood because they are living trees that walk the earth. Quite docile, but when aggravated… you might lose your skin, those wooden creatures sure have unwanted sharp things on their bodies. Hmm. No. It isn't the willows who are doing this, it is that 'strong enemy' they mentioned.

"What did it look like?" Before I could even ask myself, father went first.

"It was a huge dog! We couldn't get there anymore because of that thing!" The stranger exclaimed. I want to see that thing… but of course, I am quite young to ask father to go with him. Even for me, I would probably die instantly in this frail body.

I saw father, without finishing his food, gearing up before us.

"Please, please take care of yourself, honey." Mother said with concern in her eyes.

"I will. Hitoshi and Haruki, you both stay here. I don't want you two to be harmed. Don't worry, I'll be back." Wow, father looks and sounds cool with that armour on. But I am afraid I won't overlook this opportunity to test my skills here in this world. Saving father and finding my skills out is hitting two birds with one stone. After the meal ended, I was eavesdropping from the window on the second floor of the house.

"I believe that this won't be quite easy. Do we have any skilled magic-users here in this village?" That was father's voice.

"Skilled? I fear that is quite difficult to find nowadays."

"Un. Except if we had people from the magic academy in the royal capital."

"Tch. Forget the magic-users and let's move! We can't waste time. We need to find a way to get this person back." Father sounds quite pissed. Plus, is it really that hard to find skilled magic-users nowadays? Now I am curious what this magic academy teaches to magic-users.

"Let's move before anything else happens." Father and the other strangers walked side by side with him. Before we can safely assume that he is safe… let me see if I can use『Detect Life Force』. In this case, detecting life force works as long as you're not facing against undead. If it was the undead, using『Detect Mana Force』will be better.

In this case, detecting the life force and the Mana would be easier to build up the image of what father is going to fight. After all it does not consume any Mana, or it does, it just doesn't impact that much… I'm guessing I can handle at least 2 kilometers of detection range for now. As soon as my Mana passively scanned the whole forest area, I felt a huge radiance of life force with a strong Mana force. Ah. That's quite troublesome. Apparently, willows weren't much to handle… but I fear a hunter wolf isn't a safe one to fight especially when you're that few.

Hunter wolves, by the name, are not the ones being hunted by the hunter. They make humans into preys. Some call these wolves 'demon wolf' or 'giant wolf' but I think 'giant wolf' is enough. I jumped down from my window and timed my landing with 『Negate Fall』. I grabbed hold unto a wooden sword by the sword rack. Un. This might do nothing but it will be enough for the proper time. I casted upon myself『Concealment Magic』and snuck towards the forest with father and his group.