Threads - 2

As inconvenient as it was, Damon learned something important from his mother barging into his room. He still had his mana thread activated, but she had failed to notice it.

"It's likely that once a stable thread is formed it has properties that differ from normal mana." Pondered Damon, stroking his dimpled chin with his chubby fingers.

He went about evaluating this the next day. Very carefully, he formed a mana thread whilst his mother and his two future attendants were in the room. It was much easier this time, and the process of circulating his mana was much smoother. The thread formed quickly, and to his glee, there was no reaction from his mother.

Over the next few days, he spent his days and nights experimenting with the mana threads and concluded that it they two interesting properties that would make it quite a useful skill when he grew up.

Firstly, though mana was mostly intangible to physical touch unless a spell was activated, mana threads appeared to be able to interact with things if he so willed. He was able to nudge his toys around, though he found that making them tangible to physical objects used up his mana much faster.

Secondly, he was able to channel his mana through the threads. As of now, this didn't have much use, but when he learned some spells and his mana pool grew, he would be able to use them as something like a guiding system. If a normal fireball was fired in a straight line, he would be able to use his mana threads to determine the path his fireballs would move in – like a guided missile. Of course, this would use up more mana, but it was undeniably useful.

As Damon lay in his cot, he saw his mother sitting at a window and reading a book. Both Lucy and William were at their afternoon classes, so it was just he and his mother in the room.

He was channeling his mana through a mana the thread when the idea of making it tangible and channeling mana simultaneously came to mind. The idea of trapping an opponent in threads and then channeling a spell through the thread was quite appealing.

The instant he made tried to make the thread tangible, however, he felt a throbbing in his mana veins, and mana from his surroundings started surging towards the thread.

Damon instantly cancelled the thread. The strain on his mana veins died down, but there was still a dull ache in them.

His mother, who had been leafing through her book, snapped her head upwards, her body tensing as she stared intensely at the cot, obviously sensing a change in the mana in the room.

She stood slowly, and Damon held his breath, worried at what she might do.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and then a thick surge of mana rushed out with her at the center. Pulsing grey lights formed in concentric circles at her feet, spreading out to cover the entire room. Damon felt the air grow heavy with the density of mana roiling through it.

A Field? His mother had developed her own mana field!

This meant that she was at the very least a Level 5 mage. He couldn't tell exactly what the properties of the field were, but he sensed a large concentration of earth attribute mana.

The air next to his mother shimmered and tall, thin old man came into view. His silver hair was kept short and neat, slicked into simple style with a side part. His bear was clean shaven, and he sported a well-groomed silver mustache. He wore the typical black and grey suit of an Aristian Noble's butler, but carried himself with a dignity that was above the station of a mere servant.

The man bowed to Damon's mother, and then looked around the room, seemingly unperturbed by his mother's display of a mana field.

Damon knew this man very well, he was Alan Carlington.

Alan Carlington had been his mother's butler and bodyguard. He was one of her staunch supporters and had become Damon's butler after his mother's death. Alan had been one of the last of his supporters to be killed before Damon had been forced to leave the kingdom.

The old man was meticulous in everything he did and was fiercely loyal to Damon's mother. Damon knew that Alan was a skilled mage, but he had never personally witnessed it. In his previous life, similar to his mother, Alan was extremely cautious about performing magic in front of Damon.

"How may I be of assistance, my lady?" Asked Alan.

"I felt a surge of mana near Damon's cot." His mother spoke in a tone that was icier than Damon had ever heard her take. She was clearly agitated.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone using space or concealment magic. You wouldn't have been able to detect anyone able to use a Domain, and your Gravity field would have drawn out anyone unable to." Noted Alan.

"I know. I will keep the field in the building. I need you to sweep the perimeter in case they escaped before I reacted." His mother had her eyes fixed on Damon in his cot whilst she spoke to Alan.

"As you wish," said Alan.

The space around him shimmered and he disappeared.

"Don't worry my Prince, no one will hurt you with mother here." Whispered Ariel, smiling at Damon in his cot.

"She's probably unable to control the intensity at the source of the field, so she's keeping her distance." Mused Damon.

He smiled at her in an attempt to show her he was okay, and it seemed to help her mood, as the intensity in her gaze dimmed slightly.

A few minutes later, Alan re-entered the room, shimmering into existence next to Damon's mother.

"There is no trace of anyone out of place in the surroundings, my lady. Just the usual spies keeping an eye on you." Stated Alan.

Damon's mother released a relieved sigh, and the whirring field around her subsided. Once it died down, she walked over to his cot, picking Damon up.

"Perhaps it was a test of our security" said Lady Ariel, her eyebrows knitted.

Alan nodded in agreement. "That could very well be the case. I will increase the patrol of the perimeter and assign some more guards internally."

Damon's mother nodded and she gave Alan a warm smile. "Thank you, Alan, you may go."

He bowed once more, and then disappeared into the air.

"If I remember rightly, he is very skilled in laws of space." Thought Damon.

More importantly though, that had been too close!

"If I didn't happen to be looking in her direction, I wouldn't have noticed her looking and I wouldn't have cancelled the thread as quickly as I did" Damon thought to himself.

If that had been the case, it was highly likely that his mother would have realized that he was the source of the disturbance in mana.

He planned to slowly reveal himself as a genius for the sake of his standing, but a baby wielding mana went beyond common sense, it was too risky to be discovered.

Laying in his mother's embrace, he realized that he was nearly was out of mana now. In less than a second almost all of the mana in his body had run dry!

Damon was sure that he had only been able to make a few mana particles tangible, the majority of the thread was unchanged, and yet he had been drained.

Thinking the issue through, it was clear that he was close to discovering another skill. The mana thread was on the verge of undergoing a fundamental change, but for the time being, his mana pool was much too small to activate it.

Still, it hadn't been a fully useless venture. Firstly, his actions had raised his mother's prudence. This could only serve in their favor. Damon did not know the full details of her assassination, but being more conscious wouldn't hurt.

Secondly, his experiment had brought an idea to his mind. If he could channel mana through his threads, maybe he could use them to stealthily activate True -Sight?

Because of his mana circulation ability, he could now move mana within himself without his mother noticing, so he had no issues with activating true sight in her presence. However, whilst he was low level, he would need to borrow mana from the environment to scan those with higher stats than him. He knew this well from his previous life, where he had relied on aura and had run himself dry early on when trying to activate True – Sight on opponents that were too strong.

Worse still, was the fact that ability points could not be used on innate abilities. Most Innate abilities could not even be leveled up in the first place. For those that could, it was only achievable through practice and luck.

He knew from experience that True - Sight would evolve once he reached Level 4 and he would have no worries in using it. Until then, however, perhaps his mana-threads could be a work-around? It was too risky to test it on his mother, but he could wait until Lucy and William returned.

Satisfied with himself, he settled into his cot and let sleep take him. Trying to make the threads tangible and channel mana through them simultaneously had truly tired him out.