Chapter Eight

Unexpected was something he was accustomed to.

Being reborn, swords, magic and monsters should have made him numb to surprises.

But when he felt a flicker of mana being used, he froze up. But still, he continued eating, absently wondering what Rudeus was doing.

That pulse came from him and there had to be a reason... Nope, he was going to check.

"I'm done, thanks, Mom, Lilia."

Putting the spoon on the empty plate, he jumped off the chair and headed to the second floor.

"You're welcome, dear."

Quickly closing the distance between himself and the door that dared to obstruct him from his brother, he opened it and... Stared.

There Rudy was, lying on the floor his pants wet along with the floor next to him.

...did he deplete his Mana reserves?

Shrugging, he made a large cup from stone and pointed at his brother. Water drained from the clothes and droplets came up from the floor, with a flick of his wrist, the water entered the cup and he put it on the table.

Walking over to his brother, he picked the little guy up and started walking to his room. Lying him down on the bed, he looked at him for a second, he narrowed his eyes.

The hell?! This kid was one year old! How did he pull that off?

Shrugging mentally, he dismissed it, talent could be terrifying.

Walking out of the bedroom, he walked down the stairs and extended a hand.

Not even a second later, his sword flew in his hand, his fingers curling around the sheath as he brought it to his side.

"I'm going out, I'll be back before evening."

Zenith looked over with a smile and nodded.

"Have fun! Don't get in trouble."

Nodding, he closed the door behind him and walked to the fence, ignoring his father who was just swinging his sword around to "Excercise his muscles", he was just showing off to the ladies.

___

Yeah, this was what Gray was expecting, village life was boring...

Nothing really happened around here and the kids were Rudi's age, none were as old as him, so it was like hanging out with brats.

That's why, he was sitting against a large tree, observing the clouds... Yeah, he knew why that one lazy character from Naruto liked cloud-watching.

Closing his eyes, he started probing around with his Mana, letting it interact with the surroundings.

Mana was life, everything had it: grass, bread, trees, people. Even air.

And every time someone died, their mana dispersed in the atmosphere, joining the world.

So what was stopping him from absorbing Mana from the atmosphere and making his reserves bigger?

The answer was: Nothing!

So he grabbed onto the residential Mana and pulled. The blobs of mana entered him, and he could immediately see what was the problem.

The mana was different from his own... Did he need to assimilate it, maybe?

Humming absently, he started tugging his own Mana to the foreign one, and a few seconds later, it was surrounded by a shell... "looking" closer, he could see the edges fading into his and...

Oh god, the pain!

He grunted, rolling to the side, and clawed at his chest.

This was pure agony!

Why did he think this was a good idea?!

He didn't know how long that pure torture went on but it seemed like hours and when it was all over, he rolled on his back again, breathing heavily with his clothes soaked with sweat and he suspected that his forehead turned into a waterfall for a second.

"...What the hell was that?"

He mumbled as he stood up, not feeling the pain anymore.

Looking closer, he could feel his mana... Change?

What the hell did he do?

Not knowing what changed, he lifted his palm and did what was the most common spell for him.

A single ice shard formed on top of his palm, floating there like it always did.

Sighing, he figured ripping the bandaid off as fast as possible was the best call.

Risking a chance to feel that same pain again, he grabbed another blob of natural mana and brought it inside, his own source of power circled around it and...

He sighed in relief, no more pain.

Looking up at the sky, he rose an eyebrow...

When did the sun get so fast?

... He might have a few minutes to get home, if he was late, he might be punished by being forbidden to train.

Sighing, the Thousand Demon Daggers flew into his hand again and he concentrated on his Touki, concentrating it on his back and legs, while still keeping his body fully reinforced.

Since Touki was magic, controlling it was just as easy for him.

Not even a second later, he blurred forward, bending forward to make the air resistance as little as possible, as a precaution, a wind barrier was created in front of him, preventing any dust from getting into his eyes or any bugs that he might hit.

Another step and he sped up, even more, using even more mana than before.

Channeling Mana into his eyes, and brain to let everything process even faster, he circled around a kid that he would have ran into otherwise.

It didn't take long for him to reach his house.

Stopping a slight distance away, he used water magic to get any sweat out of the clothes and hair.

With a light job, Gray closed the distance and walked inside the fenced area, and walked up to the house.

Walking inside, he immediately saw Paul sitting on a chair, facing the door.

His father raised an eyebrow at him, looking particularly interested.

"Where were you?"

He tilted his head, acting like he didn't do something that was very painful, maybe even deadly, and could potentially cause a problem for his health in the future.

"I found this really cool tree and...I took a nap there."

Paul's eyes sharpened as sharp as his sword, maybe even sharper, and he knew that this lecture would be a long one.