Chapter 05: The Limit

...

It has been 3 months since my first day coming to this world.

I have been diligently training my stamina during these past few weeks in the backyard of our home.

When I can finally walk,the first thing I ever did was to explore the surrounding area. Turns out,Nasir's house was a two-storey cottage on a hill.

There are several homes following the dirt path,although the locations of those houses are scattered and very separated. Ours are located right in front of a small forest.

Since then,I tend to came out and enjoyed the fresh air on the backyard and ran around to increase my stamina.

During this time,I also noticed that this world has magic. Yup,that's right. Magic.

The thing that you saw on the movies are actually real in here. I've seen Nasir and Yukino using those.

Although Nasir rarely used it,he uses healing magic to tend to the neighbors wound and ailments. Sometimes,even people from far away would come over to meet Nasir.

He sure is a popular man.

------

I held my hand upwards and pointed my palm at a wooden board in a distance.

I closed my eyes,trying to concentrate my mind and directed my imagination towards my palm.

5 seconds passed.

10 seconds passed.

30 seconds.

1 minute.

5 minutes.

There's still nothing. I opened my eyes once again,visibly tired.

My breathing is comparably ragged to when I first started.

'I can feel the magic trying to converge,but I can't seem to materialize it not control it'

Suddenly,I heard a whistle from afar. It was Yukino.

She walked up to me,signalling for me to stop my action. I put my arm down and sat on the ground.

"Phew..." I sighed,they made learning magic looks much easier in the movie.

It's the 50th time today I did this. Feels like I was training more on my arm muscle than in magic.

Technically,with each day passing I don't really feel any different than before. The whole training process seemed repetitive to me.

'Oh well,practice makes perfect I guess' I thought.

As I finished my thought,Yukino was already in front of me. She offered me a hand and helped me up.

"Alright,let's do this one last time. I want you to watch me and then imagine yourself doing the same,okay?" Yukino stated as she helped me up.

When standing,I saw just how shorter she is from me. About 10 centimeters in difference.

Anyway,Yukino turned her back on me and raised her palm towards the wooden board in the distance.

"Converge! Water spear!"

In an instant, countless of droplets appeared out of nowhere and formed a small sharp spear on her hand.

"Burst!" Yukino shouted. The water spear then whistled away from her palm in a sudden burst. It collided with the wooden board in the distance,instantly knocking it down.

As the wooden board rises again,there's small cracks that appeared on its surface,visibly wet and waters leaking out of it.

"Alright,now let's see you do it. Just imagine forming a mental image of the elements and focuses on feeling the elements around you" Yukino spoke,then walked to the side to watch.

Again, I repeated her action but it still ends up the same.

We then returned home for the evening after a little more lecture.

-------

"Your ability to memorize is truly amazing,Ryuuto" Nasir spoke as he watched me finish another book.

All I need to do was to look at the content of a book and it would be simply imprinted onto my mind like a printing feature.

Nasir spoke of my gift as knowledgeable. Naturally,being a smart person is a great achievement in this era of magic.

However....

"It doesn't seemed like you are affiliated with any element" Nasir stated,his tone was that of pity.

At first,Nasir was both surprised and shocked. Despite being a hero,I was unable to wield any of the elements.

Fire,Earth,Water,Ice,Lightning and a the must have for all heroes, Light. This was confirmed since there's no hero in the past that aren't able to wield the Light magic.

Light magic consists of blessings and healing,a natural spell for heroes since they are blessed by the gods. Even so,every heroes at least wield two other elements aside from the light magic in the history.

Aside from that,Nasir continued teaching and supporting me in learning my magic. He always believed that I have one,only that it still haven't comes out yet.

Although he never taught me once or even spoke of the forbidden magic.

Crimson Magic.

It's a widely used general terms for dark arts and has a rather wide branch of Arts.

For example,Blood magic was the most well known amongst the norms. Using blood as the source of magic,it's a rather grotesque ability.

The thing is,I can wield it.

Though,I have never told anyone,not even Nasir about this ability.

Ever since I read those in the books,I was instantly secretive about revealing such ability.

This is because...only Aesir's followers are able to wield it. In other words,the demons.

....

"Weird...it must have had something to do with your reincarnation timing. Giving that the hero reincarnation are later than usual this time" Nasir spoke as he stood up,visibly uncomfortable.

I stared at his expression for a while and sighed, "Maybe someone out there had been reincarnated,and he must've been the real hero."

My head slumped over the table. Visibly frustrated from it.

Nasir clasped his hands together and chanted, "Dear Iris,please guide us through this hardships..."

As he did that,a small bead of light formed on top of his head and flew towards the sky. Phasing through the roof.

Immediately,my head began to thud frenzily,bloodstream began to rush in a sudden instant as if I was injected with a massive dose of adrenaline.

Iris...the name of the goddess of healing. Whenever I heard the name I felt like my body was being crumpled into a small piece of paper.

Instantly,I collapsed to the floor,breathing heavily.

"Dear Iris! You're having another fever" Nasir spoke after he puts his hand on my forehead.

What now? This is the fifth time I'm going to get bedridden.

Usually,it'd take me around 4 days to fully recover again.

"I'm sorry Ryuuto,you must've used up all your mana pool. This might be the the result of another mana backlash" Nasir told me as he diagnosed my condition with a troubled expression.

"I'm really sorry,I shouldn't have forced you" Nasir sighed,just recently we were engaged in mental training,channeling mana into materializing.

Nasir then carried me into my room. I fell asleep along the way,seemingly coming from the fatigue accumulated during the training.

Having a body of a little kid who's never had any real exercise felt surprisingly better than the one I have in my previous life.

At least,this one isn't on the verge only the dying from anxiety and depression all the time.

....

It's nighttime,I leaned my head on the wall,listening to the outside.

Seems like everyone's asleep.