Chapter 4: Growing (2)

3 years have flown by like a gust of wind. 

In those 3 years, I've been training and gathering mana every day for as long as I can. 

My mother is still struggling a bit but she's doing fine. 

In those three years, I only reached the peak level of Stagnant red not yet reaching light red. But I already knew this, my body is smaller and really young. It's obvious I wouldn't just rush through the stages of mana gathering.

And right about now, I was sitting under a tree. It's very old and ragged, but it gives off so much mana that I call it Tree of life just for fun.

I sat in the lotus position while leaning against the tree, I breathed slowly. The mana in the air entered my body with grace and flowed all around. It went through my veins and surely formed in my core.

I didn't rush it and just made sure to keep gathering and condensing. The key to gathering mana is to take it slow, allowing the mana to seep in and slowly gather in your body. 

How do I know this? I heard it from a mage before the great war broke out.

---

"Cedric, can you use mana?" A lady of pure elegance sat near me on a log.

I look over at her with eyes full of bliss, "Yeah, why?"

"But do you really?"

Glaring at her I quickly responded, "What do you mean?"

"Show me."

"Show you what?"

"Show me how you gather and use mana."

I scoffed a bit, "Uhm sure."

Rising from the log, I sit on the ground idle not in a designated position of any kind.

I then breathed deeply the mana flowed in very fast, it was now flowing through me very chaotically and unorganized.

"I see."

I stop and look up at her, "What do you see?"

"The way you gather mana is very wrong?"

"What? how?.."

"When gathering mana one is supposed to breathe slowly as if you are sleeping, and then when you focus on bringing in the man you must control it. Letting it flow freely inside your body will result in it being very rushed and chaotic. But when you control it.."

Her body started to glow a bright gold while she spoke in a soft voice, almost indistinct.

"You can do whatever you want with it, and when you do that you finally condense it and make it part of your mana core."

I look at her with big eyes, looking as if I just learned the key to the universe. 

"Wow! Thank you! I'll be sure to remember that!"

---

That lady was one of the reasons why I was able to grow much stronger and wound the demon lord not once but twice.

'I wonder what she's doing right about now?'

A blue coat of mana surrounded my body like a cold jacket. I then opened my eyes to find my mother looking down at me with a smile.

"What are you doing Cedric? sleeping under a tree?"

"Uhh yeah, I suppose."

She puts out her hand to help me up, "Well let's go, It's time to head home." 

"Okay!"

She sees me as some sort of genius baby, due to my talking at such a young age and even walking not long after she has me in high hopes as every parent would. 

I often read books but mostly about mana, my mother is quite broke but she buys books often from street vendors who sell them for cheap. She rarely even knows what they are about and just buys them to buy them.

And that's how I got these, two books about gathering mana and utilizing mana.

I grabbed the second book, 'How To Utilize Mana'.

It explained in simple terms about how to cast spells such as the common 'Fire Ball'.

While my mother was sleeping in her wooden and dingy bed I ran outside and into the nearby woods where there were luckily no beasts of any kind.

We lived atop a small hill with a small forest behind us. Now we weren't the only people who lived here but we were a part of the small percentage. 

In the forest, I held onto the book and sat on a round stone of large stature. I then flipped through the pages and found what I was looking for.

<<Fire Ball>>

I put my hand out and held the book in my other. I look at the page and read it carefully, making sure to read the instructions.

"So I put my hand out, focus my mana, and imagine what I want to create."

And I did just that, I focused my mana and let it flow all the way up to my hand I then imagined what I wanted to create.

"Fireball!"

A small spark came out and that's it.

"Well it's not as easy as I thought, I guess I need to practice a bit more."

Hours passed and the sun went down. I had spent the entire day trying to produce a fire ball but to no avail.

"Hah~ Hah~ hah~ I-I use up all my mana and yet nothing has come out...why?"

"You aren't doing it right."

A voice sounded from the side of me and I jumped in fear, "W-Who are you?"

An old man with a tiny beard of grey color stared at me, "Just some old man passing by."

"Then why are you in the woods?!"

"I could say the same for you child."

'True..'

"What is a tiny boy such as you doing out here? the sun is going down very fast."

I looked at the man suspiciously and chose to reply, "I've been gathering my mana for a while but I can't produce a fireball."

"Well I can see that, but I'll tell you now that you're doing it wrong."

"Can you explain how?"

"Well, first of all when you want to use a spell you have to focus and then push out your mana with great force, all while having it rushing into the hand. And after that, you chant it by saying something as simple as 'Fire ball'. And it should come out, but it may not be what you are expecting."

I listened to the old man, "Well I did everything right but one thing, I didn't focus it in my hand and push it with force while maintaining it in my hand."

"Earlier when I did it, I usually focused it in my hand and then just chanted it expecting something to come out. But now it seems I know what to do."

"Good, it may seem like a lot right now but if you keep practicing it'll feel as natural as breathing."

I bow to the old man and wish him well.

"Anyways I'm off kid. Be safe and take care!"

I ran after the man a bit, "W-Wait sir! what is your name?"

'I should make him my friend, this man he could teach me a lot in the future.'

"Oliver, my name is Oliver."

The old man turns away to walk and I smile while waving behind him.

'Tomorrow I'll be sure to test out what he said!'