Chapter Two

~

Reynolds Leywin had been outside working on extending the houses. Both his little helpers were inside, alone. Trouble can only occur when those two are left alone.

He thought about how he had children, two boys and wondered when can they start training? He asked. When did he start training again? He wondered. He couldn't wait to teach them all about magic! Hopefully they turn out to be an augmenter like their old pops. He knew the basics of conjuring, but couldn't do anything practical with it except use it as a form of mental exercise.

Alice, on the other hand, is one of the most talented people he's ever seen. Even as an Emitter, she's exceptional. Back then, after she agreed to date him, she joined my party and they went on missions together. Her restorative powers were amazing in and of itself, but what shocked me the most was when she used an area of effect spell, which healed all allies inside. She was one of a kind and he was her husband! He still didn't get tired of saying that.

He tells his sons all about his life, telling them this and much more so he can nudge them to at least gain some experience as an adventurer when they get older.

He was quite sure they were going to awaken, and do great things. It was just a matter of time, and he be a proud and happy father.

It's easy to tell what type of mage someone will be when they awaken, because when augmenters, conjurers, and deviants form a translucent barrier, the mana behaves differently around them during that time.

Augmenters, when they first awaken, form a sort of repelling force around the barrier, signifying that they have dominant mana channels in their body. Conjurers, on the other hand, form a vacuum of mana around them, which means that their mana veins are much more dominant. Of course the degrees of the pushing force and vacuuming force depends on their talent in either category.

He first awakened, at the early age of twelve, by the way, he sleeping and the pushing force made him levitate for a good couple of minutes. Enough force to lift a human body.

If any of them or both of them awaken he was going to train them. If they ends up becoming a conjurers, they would find them a tutor from the main town since he and Alice weren't enough to be teaching him...

...Is what he said but…

*BOOM!*

Currently, a portion of the house is gone…

Luckily, both him and Alice were in the front yard for a bit after dinner, but... Alai.. Art... they were still in the house...

"BOYS!"

Alice's face drained of all blood she had gone pale, eyes wide in disbelief and worry. Reynolds nudged his wife down while covering her with a temporary shield that would last for a few minutes.

He rushed towards the direction of the explosion, shielding his body with a layer of mana over my skin. The debris was constantly thrown towards me as I reached deeper into the source of the explosion. After fighting my way through the scraps of what was left of my house and several pieces of rocks, I saw it.

My son had the all but noticeable translucent barrier flickering around him. Better yet, the repulsion of his awakened powers was what caused this explosion. He was floating in the center of a crater that cleared 3/4th of our house, as well as our entire backyard.

Haha…

His legs gave out and just landed on his knees while his jaw hung loose. His son was almost three years old when he awakened. Only three…

Reynolds didn't know whether to laugh or cry

"Reynolds! Honey!"

He glanced back at my wife with my mouth still agape from shock. She managed to slowly make her way towards me after the remains of the explosion settled and there was no more danger.

She was making half-steps towards her husband, covering her face with her arms to shield what she could from the strong pushing force still emanating out of Arthur.

"Reynolds! What happened? What's going on? Where are the boys?"

Still unable to find the strength to speak, he simply pointed towards the direction of their son.

While confused, she looked at the direction he was pointing at and all she could manage to whisper was, "Oh my…"

...

Earlier on Arthur had just been reading along with Alistair, when his older brother looked at him and turned his head to the side.

Still with his childlike manner, "You are about awake" he said smoothly, squinting his eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes, it's about time if you ask me"

It's been two years since he started forging his mana core. Alistair had done something different, he has been forming a mana pool instead of a core. It was more sufficient and saved him from losing his mana, but to get his mana pool he had to form a mana heart, it was similar to a mana core.

However if he choose to awaken and it would destroy a large portion of the house, so he chose Arthur to awaken and destroy the house. He feels like he does not want to awaken like the rest of the world, he's fine with his previous life's methods.

"It will cause a huge explosion, but I can help minimize damage"

Arthur put his book down, with a curious gaze "How?"

"Are you ready to awaken" Alistair asked, to which Arthur smiled.

They sat down at the centre of the room, Arthur doing he's daily meditation but aiming to awaken. Behind him was Alistair creating a barrier to protect himself and minimize the damage that was about to happen.

...

Arthur looked around, then at his brother, who was grinning at him despite being thrown across the room. "Lunatic" he muttered under his breath.

Then their parents entered the room. Arthur was so happy he could stop smiling, finally progress.

"ART! OH MY BABY! Are you okay?" his mother asked rushing towards him, while his father was on the ground kneeling.

He thought of what punishment he would get for blowing up the house.

His mother lifted him up and hugged him , almost to the point where his body strength gave out.

"Mom, no cry. What's wrong?" he asked, he knew what's wrong but he had to act his age something, says Alistair.

She didn't answer me and continued sobbing while cradling me. His father arrived next to her, patting her back and patting his head as well, giving me a weak smile. He then looked around, until he spotted Alistair who was still across the room, he ran towards him inspecting him of any injuries.

He breathed a sigh of relief and turned to his wife and youngest, "Congrats, Art honey. You awakened, Champ."

Arthur was confused, he was in a small panic in he's mother's arms. He had not thought things quite far, luckily he had an older brother.

"Cool! Artie is like Papa!" he brother jump out of his father's hold towards his brother,

"I'm sorry Mom, Dad. Am I in trouble?"

"Haha… No Art honey, you're not in trouble. We were just worried about you. I'm glad you're alright." their mother managed to chuckle through half teary eyes.

Their idiot father, on the hand, was a lot more excited.

"My boy is a genius! Awakened at the age of less than three! This is unprecedented! I thought I was fast, but jeez!"

"Artie is like Mama and Papa!" his lunatic brothers celebrated with their father.

-----

A couple of weeks had passed since then. The Leywins decided to keep Arthur's awakening a secret for now. Their father managed to contact a couple of his past Adventurer party members to help rebuild the decimated part of our house while we stayed in the nearby inn. With conjurers raising the ground for the foundation and augmenters doing the grunt work, the house didn't take too long to finish.

None of their father's ex-party members seemed to question why our house blew up. That seemed to say a lot about their father.

During the middle of reconstructing the house, the twin's birthday came around. The twins woke up that morning with two presents and a cake.

They opened up their presents to find two wooden swords and several new books on the beginners guide to being a mage. The twins hugged their parents and thank them for their gifts and cake.

Alistair finally knew now it's been three years since he was reborn and found out that birthdays are celebrated starting at the age of 3 because of a tradition from a long time ago when babies were more susceptible to death before the age of three.

After they turned three, their mother began giving them lessons : how to read and write. Neither revealed that they knew some of the books they were given, but Arthur, as Alistair like to say, love to play the role of a genius son, and he was never the one to fall behind, so he played the game too.

As soon as they got home, their my father taught them the basics of mana manipulation and how to start training in it as best as he could. He tried to simplify it as much as possible so that they could understand.

For Alistair through these lesson he revealed that he can use his mana, despite not awakening so his mother can stop giving him the pity treatment. They were surprised and beyond confused and even asked he to demonstrate several times, to which he gladly did.

While the lessons with my father proved useful, Alistair mainly focus on his physical training, because he was using a different technique for his mana control. Meanwhile Arthur was getting impatient at the pace we were moving at and focusing too much on his mana.

He asked their mother a couple days later, "Mom, can I get more books on magic?"

Since Alice still had some connections in the Guild Hall (Adventurer Guild), she managed to acquire a pretty wide collection of books on basic mana manipulation, as well as fighting with different weapons. Some of them were just books with only simple words and mostly pictures of the basics on how mana was condensed, Alistair usually read those while Arthur took the high order books.

Alistair learnt that this world was more or less the same as his, but in great depth, so he can apply this world's knowledge to his techniques :

"…Mana can be used in a couple of ways. The two most common methods of utilizing mana are: enhancement of the body with mana (augmenter), and emission of mana to the outside world (conjurer)…"

"…. augmenters are most commonly seen amongst warriors who utilize mana, channeling it through their body to strengthen themselves and their attacks."

"… The practice of conjuring is seen in Mages, who, after utilizing their mana, can cast spells to give off a certain effect on the surrounding area or directly at a target."

Weaknesses and Limitations

"While augmenters can possess incredible strength, defense and agility, their weakness lies in their limited range…"

"conjurers possess unfathomable powers, being able to bend their surroundings to their will. However, such powers come with limits. Unlike augmenters, who utilize most of the mana in their own mana cores, conjurers need to borrow mana from the outside world, in addition to their own mana core, to exert mana into their surroundings in the form of a spell."

"While both types of Mages, or Mana Manipulators, for the more scientifically accurate term, depend on and are categorized by their mana core, augmenters and conjurers also have different ways of measuring their aptitude."

"flip"

"An augmenter's prowess or talent is measured by the strength of the mana channels in their body, which measures the speed and efficiency in relocating their mana from their mana core into various parts of their bodies..."

"…A conjurer's power and talent, comparatively, is measured by the power of their mana veins, which indicates the speed and effectiveness of absorbing mana from the outside world to cast a spell."

"flip"

"…Mages (Mana Manipulators) are typically categorized into one of these two divisions since attempting to be proficient in both from an early stage is incredibly time consuming and inefficient. Most are born with a skewed difference in their mana channels and mana veins…"

"…augmenters do not need very strong mana veins because they mostly utilize the mana from their cores, while conjurers do not need very powerful mana channels because they do not release their mana into their own bodies."

"As proficiency level rises, the distinction between augmenters and conjurers lessens naturally, but that is only so at an advanced level…"

"flip, flip, flip"

"There are a few, rare deviants. The two most well-known types of deviants are elemental deviants and Emitters. While there are still some undiscovered, ones that are highly sought after are the Emitters, more commonly known as healers. Healers possess the rare ability to cast their unique restorative mana unto others, directly, recovering injuries and impairments."

Wow… mother is the best.

Fundamentals of Conjuring

"The proper steps of utilizing mana for conjurers is to gather the surrounding mana in the area, drawing it into your body, then, after circulating it into your mana core to stabilize and purify the atmosphere's diluted mana, you channel it into an appropriate conductor (a staff, wand, ring, of some sort) with the incantations as a mental controller for your will into shaping the mana into whatever spell you want…"

"flip"

"…The more powerful the spell, the longer it will take to draw in surrounding mana, store it in your mana core, where it is condensed and purified, and finally channel and release…"

"flip"

"Because conjuring involves exerting focused mana into a particular spell, conjurers will notice that they have a special aptitude of certain elements (Air, Water, Fire, Earth), but with proper training, can become adequate in the basics of all elements.

"flip, flip"

Fundamentals of Augmenting

"Unlike conjuring, much less time can be spent gathering the surrounding mana. Efficient use of augmenting requires speed and precision in the use of the mana from your core and less from the mana in the atmosphere..."

"…augmenting requires proper distribution of mana into different parts of the body, depending on how the user sees fit. While it seems simple at a glance, augmenting requires much insight into the individual's own body. Being able to utilize the mana channels efficiently requires years of both mental and physical practice."

"flip"

"Because augmenting involves extracting mana in its purest form from the user's mana core, there are no highly notable distinctions in an elemental sense at an early stage. However, augmenters are able to control their mana more freely, resulting in vastly different forms of fighting through augmentation."

"flip"

"The phenomenon called 'Backlash' occurs in both types of practitioners. For augmenters, it occurs from depletion of the mana core, causing extreme bodily pain-"

Alistair doesn't like reading, so he went to bother Arthur. As much as knowledge is powerful, he's sanity was more important.

A typical day would involve taking reading and writing lessons from mother and augmenting training with my father. After he covered the basic theory and application of augmenting, they started physical training.

The brothers would spar with one another, under the careful eye of their father, but those spars were rare since they were still too small, so they opted with running, and body workouts. Alistair would laugh every time they attempted adult exercises, like push-ups.

Alistair would still roam around the house or something the area, he doesn't like staying cooped up in the house like Arthur. Though to be fair, he was at an advantage where he knew what he needed to do to purify his mana heart and build his mana pool, unlike Arthur who was using this world's technique.

And like that a year passed. Late one night, unexpectedly their father spoke up while we were having dinner one night.

"Honey, I think it's time we get the boys a proper mentor." he said, opening a gate that cannot be closed.