Pseudo-Magic

"Well then, allow me to educate an incompetent welp, such as yourself, in the ways of magic." Davarose paused, trying to add an air of grandeur to his words before resuming.

"Fire magic is very simple to understand and utilize effectively since it is one of the elemental types of magic which can be activated with a simple chant. The chant is long so don't fret if you don't understand. We'll start with the basics though so your inadequate self can at least use it correctly without burning your own hands trying."

Terem unconsciously nods at Davarose's words, prompting him to continue.

"First off, fire magic has a few tiers ranging from basic to advanced. Other branches of magic exist, like water magic, but these are irrelevant at the moment. Now for the basic chant. Repeat this phrase out loud..."

*"Soul Bond... Find... Target... Shatter!"*

Of course, to Terem the lich sounded like he was summoning a horde of demon spawn and heard,

"Aretos Va... Mento... Vante... Vespium!"

The lich, seeing Terem's hesitation spoke again.

"Don't worry if your idiocy didn't allow you to comprehend the words on your first try, it's natural for inferior beings to not know this. Just repeat after me. Aretos Va."

"Aretos Va."

"Mento."

"Mento."

"Vante."

"Vante."

"And finally, Vespium!"

The lich, if he had a physical form, would have been smiling ear to ear. After all, the spell he had instructed Terem to cast was a spell that targeted and self-destructed the caster's soul. It could only be performed upon oneself since word magic had many restrictions in casting and targeting so it was usually performed on inanimate motionless objects to integrate commands rather than in combat, but that didn't matter for the lich's purposes.

However, Terem never spoke. His mouth remained completely still, not even letting a single breath escape.

'Is he dead already?' the lich thought.

He knew he might have missed the moment when Terem spoke the final word of power, but shattering one's own soul should be extremely painful, so Davarose, at the least, had expected Terem to helplessly wail a bit as his soul was torn apart into nothingness.

Finally, a wide grin crept out onto the boy's stony face. He began to laugh.

"You're alive? I mean, just who do you think you're laughing at, brat?"

Terem didn't answer. He was too busy laughing his head off to bother forming a response.

At last, Terem composed himself enough to direct his thoughts to the lich.

'Thanks a lot, Davarose. I would have never found out what magic was without you. I offer you my gratitude.' The last line was conveyed under the heaviest amount of sarcasm that Terem could pour over a single sentence goading the lich into hysterics.

"What? Impossible! Word magic can't be felt! It harnesses the magic particles within the air, not one's body!"

'Oh, really? You're telling me that there is a distinction between personal mana and mana in the environment? I see. I'll have to conduct some experiments in that regard. Thanks for the heads up, oh great archlich.'

At this point, Davarose realized just how thoroughly he had been fooled, even thinking at one point that he was the one trapping Terem in a dastardly scheme.

"You brat! I will kill you for this! I will fucking dissect your puny corpse and play with your soul until I grow tired of your pathetic screams! Then I will mutila..."

Terem concluded that he would not be able to swindle any more information from Davarose for a while so he promptly ignored him, offering the raging lich time to cool his hot head.

And then began the experiments.

While Terem was whispering the magic words, he noticed that some sort of energy was absorbed from the environment directly into his body so he used that experience as a baseline for his experiment, searching for that powerful feeling once again. Davarose's ritual coincidentally helped Terem out since it forcefully injected mana from the air into his body before circulating it, allowing him to know how mana control felt beforehand.

After around ten minutes, Terem discovered that he could sense an immense ocean of power within the surrounding forest. Everything had this strange vibrancy: trees, birds, grass, and even ants. The air around him was... alive!

'This is incredible.' He thought. 'What would happen if I coaxed this power into my body?'

Unconsciously, Terem reached out his hand to the nearest blade of grass and attempted to pull the mystical power out of it. The sensation was akin to breathing. He noticed small tendrils of mana leaked out from his body towards the blade of grass, wrapping around it trying to seize the magic power that lay dormant within.

But alas, neither the grass nor the mana moved. However, he felt mana from the air slowly begin to draw closer with each breath.

'Why can't the grass's mana move but the mana in the air can?' Terem wondered over this phenomenon for a few minutes before deciding on his most logical hypothesis.

He concluded that there was something material in the grass holding the mana inside, claiming it as the grass's own, but the surrounding air was pushed aside by the mana, offering little resistance and not forcing the mana to stay, allowing it to move around like an object being pulled through the water.

Terem kept manipulating the raw power surrounding him, now focusing on the mana in the air rather than the mana within living things. And the more Terem absorbed, the more enraptured he became. Soon he found that the mana he breathed in passed through a central point that acted akin to a heart specifically for mana. After the energy coalesced at his mana heart and was converted into personal mana, the mana heart or core began to circulate the concentrated energy around his body until it gradually dissipated into the surrounding air through his skin, needing to once again be drawn in through breathing, starting the cycle over.

Soon, Terem found himself panting on the ground. Through the trees, he could spot the first light of the morning sun.

'Guess I went a little overboard, huh.' He chuckled at himself while silently reprimanding his carelessness.

Terem stood up, surprised to find that he felt invigorated, albeit mentally strained. The discrepancy between mind and body led him to make a split decision on whether to sleep or continue his march through the forest.

All along, Davarose was yapping directly into Terem's mind since his remaining mental strength was not strong enough to erect another barrier against the lich's soul.

This ended up being the determining factor in Terem's decision to sleep since he couldn't picture a world where he was forced to listen to Davarose's ceaseless yammering all day with no measures to protect himself against it.

And with that decision made, Terem slumped against the nearest tree and quickly nodded off into the dreamworld before he remembered that he had neglected to find a method for creating fire to roast the nuts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mom! Can you send me to Magic School? I wanna learn magic!"

A despondent chuckle answers the enthusiastic child's question.

"Sorry honey, but we can't afford to send you to magic school. We need to work to live, tuition is expensive and so are tutors and books. I'm really sorry. Could you find it in your heart to forgive mommy and daddy?" The soft feminine voice patiently tried to sway the child, but he stood firm.

"Come on, when I learn magic and become a famous mage, then you guys wouldn't have to work anymore, right? I'll buy a house! I will make lots of money and we can live happily ever after so can you please send me to magic school?"

"We're sorry son, we're doing the best we can. Just stick it out a bit more. Oh, I know! I can teach you the sword so you can get some money as an adventurer. Then you can pay for magic tombs, get yourself into a magic university, and more." This time the characteristically deep voice of a man used to hard manual labor answered the incessant boy. The voice continued before the child could make any further retorts.

"Son, you can do anything you want in life. You just have to work hard. After all, like any good knight or adventurer will tell you, hard work is what creates a strong foundation for the future. Not something as flimsy as money. So keep working hard, I know you'll achieve your goals someday."

And as the last words were spoken, the voices faded into oblivion, leaving no trace of their passing behind.