Chapter 2 : Thieving for the lesser evil

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It's been a year since my birth.

In these twelve months I've read every day and I've mastered the language they speak here, I still can't talk but I understand everything that is being said around me.

I have also gained a lot of knowledge through the books, about magic and the four continents.

on the magic side, I've learned that most people awaken after fourteen years, some geniuses around thirteen, and even a few super-geniuses around eleven and a half and twelve.

It takes this long because humans naturally absorb mana throughout there life and because when you are born the mana needed to awaken is more than the strongest magicians in all continents have gained over the years, but the longer you live unawakened the lower the mana required to awaken.

because the human body absorbs mana unconsciously but at such a slow rate that they only gain enough mana after fourteen years to break the awakening needs at that age, some people awaken later because they have below-average talent and thus absorb and ..... mana at a slower rate than the average human. The geniuses that awaken earlier than fourteen almost always have good talent and instead of unconsciously absorbing mana have meditating techniques to absorb mana and therefore they absorb much more mana which leads to earlier awakening.

An early awakening also means they have a purer mana core because they had to absorb a much larger amount of mana to awaken earlier than average, early awakeners most often are rich aristocratic children because they have more and better resources. It does however still rarely happen that poor or less rich children awaken early due to very good talent and a lot of meditation in their early years. I plan to become the youngest awakener in history because I already have the higher brain function to start training from a very early age. since I read about mana absorption in my first three weeks i decided to start meditating so since my first month I have spent most of my days meditating while still spending a few hours reading the books in the library.

I still have to play with my parents on their breaks to not make it suspicious, but since my meditation looks like sleeping, I can do it a lot as a baby.

by doing this trough the months I have concluded it will still take some time before i awaken, but i already have the mana an average new awakend would have so if I was fourteen I would have awakened already, but because I am only one year old my mana treshold to awaken is still way to high I have done some calculations and if i keep absorbing mana at this rate I think I will awaken at four and a half years old, but because i am far from that treshold and thus can't sense it yet and because in these calculations I asume the the mana needed for the treshold is grows lower in a linear line, which i am not at all surtain of because even because i have been able to crawle for the last three months I haven't found any records in which human know and talk about the lowering mana treshold except for of course the fact it lowers over time which explains why we awaken at fourteen, no scientist has documented any further studies on the subject in the library records I have read so far and i do not think there are any, in this library at least. so my calculations are way off if the lowering rate isn't linear or if the meditation effectivity isn't linear.

I do honestly have a bad premonition that the threshold doesn't lower at a linear rate, although with some luck I might find ways to improve my meditation or it grows more efficient over time.

A big help to my growth is a technique I read about some time ago and have been able to learn which lets me meditate in my sleep and despite the slow absorption rate it still is an abnormal help.

This whole idea of awakening earlier than anyone has ever done is cool, it does however come with its own problems. In the history of this world, it has never happened that someone would awaken as soon as I am planning to do so that it will scare most people out of their wits. Certain powerful people can scan your core if they are stronger than you or if they have a treasure to do so. This isn't a problem as long as I am not awakened which will still take some time, but the bigger problem is that doctors have certain devices that can measure someone's mana, even if they aren't awakened yet this of course very handy to help people with their health as when someone has health problems even if they haven't awakened yet the mana that is already in their body helps to fight against certain illnesses. Thus with said device doctors can see where the mana is acting up and they can see how strong the mana is to be able to see how strong the illness is and to see how long the mana can keep fighting it before giving medicine. This was an amazing discovery in the medical department when it was invented, but if I go to the doctor for health problems or just a check-up and he would scan my body he would find out I already have the mana of an average fourteen-year-old and freak out. we do not want that. So I should try to stay as healthy as possible, of course, with the strength of my mana it would be hard to get ill, but it is still possible.

and most importantly I should find a way to disguise my mana before awakening.

Even though I have already found a great solution, it is very expensive, and even if I had the money it would still take a few years before my parents would let me go through the market alone, as I can't even walk yet. for the time being, I have already gone to the market and spotted all the shops I will need for the supplies. In the money department, I have a solution, but it isn't very .... legal.

While making my way through the market in my mother's arms every Wednesday when we go buy groceries, I spotted a few rich people with pouches of money, I sometimes even see aristocrats walking with guards close to the market, though I wouldn't suggest stealing from guarded people as most guards have a military background which means they have above average mana cores.

All this information will be important in the future when I can walk and talk, for now, I've dedicated all my reading time throughout the day to books in the martial arts and magic section, and there are also a few books on pickpocket for educational purposes, I love living in a library.

Though I can only do the theoretical work after doing this for one and a half months my knowledge of magic theory has become much better and I have already made several theories beyond the human knowledge I want to test when I awaken. On the martial arts front, I have already memorized a lot of moves from a lot of different martial arts though it will still take some time to train it into my muscle memory and all I believe this will help me a lot in training especially precision and energy efficiency by moving as little as possible with fast and powerful attacks.

I also have read about people strengthening their bodies during combat with magic and made some theories to test to make them more efficient and precise.

I also gain more knowledge on pickpocketing by memorizing a few techniques, but for that, I mostly need to train on speed and stealth.

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It has been some time, my fourth birthday is coming up soon.

I learned to walk and talk some time ago now. And I already started cutting out some of my meditation time to lightly train in martial arts since last year and I am improving Quite well.

Around the same time, I started lightly training my speed and reflexes while practicing pickpocketing with my parents. After six months I was already pretty good at it and last week I started pickpocketing a little when going to the market with my mother and she doesn't suspect a thing, at the moment I am using my cuteness as a distraction so when someone talks to my mom I act all cute and when they go to pet my on my had or say something I quickly steal their pouch without them noticing anything. I only do so when my mother is talking to some high-middle-class people because stealing from the poor is even less moral. I get this opportunity because my family is around that income range by managing the library. over the years I've learned i few things about my parents. We are not poor we are quite well accommodated because my parents manage the library in the capital of the country I live in. That is also the reason that you often see well-filled money pouches. they got this managing position because the former manager was my grandpa, and my mother got it from his will so she and my father could retire from their former work and start a happy family. About their former work, they used to be adventurers, they were part of a team, my mother is water and heal mage, which explains her good skill of removing my tummy aches and my father was a spear wielder who used magic to reinforce his body, pretty damn cool!

Because they have seen the terrors of this world as adventurers they still try to help the poor in the city while not taking care of me or the library. they also apparently give a portion of their salary to charity. They also try to raise me with those values like being a gentleman and helping the less fortunate. Tough I pickpocket from the more fortunate I doubt they would be okay with it if they found out about that. But I also like to help the less fortunate and to be morally correct, but at the moment this is the only way I can hide my power which will be better in the long run so I think it is okay, right? It's the lesser evil.

Anyhow, I have absorbed so much mana that I'm on the mana level of a military officer with a little authority, so that's going better than planned which means I might awaken earlier which would not be in my favor.

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It's the morning of my fourth birthday every day I wake up before my parents and start meditating after doing that for three hours I was planning to go to the garden to start a body workout when I walked into my parents in the kitchen. they got spooked for a second and told me to go to my room while trying to hide a birthday cake they were decorating for me, so I went to my room and did a light body workout before I meditated some more. After meditating for half an hour my parents walked in singing with a birthday cake. and sat beside me then my dad pointed his hands towards me and he made a little flame on all ten fingers and told me to blow them out.

So I did while as a tradition I made a wish for my parents to stay safe until death, it may sound weird to some because I was born with a mature brain, but I still love my parents the same. after we all ate some cake the three of us went to the market that closed the library for the day, so they could spend my birthday with me while walking through the market my father ran off somewhere while I and my mother got some new groceries. a few minutes later my father returned with a beautifully decorated long dagger it had a gold and silver design with vines imprinted on it and a green emerald embedded at the end of the hilt. He closed the box the dagger was kept in and handed me a wooden dagger of the same size and he started explaining that he had the dagger reserved with the merchant and that it was an expensive elvish long dagger. While we kept walking through the market towards our home he started explaining that when he was a child his father trained him in swordsmanship and katara and that he master both of those before he started training with the spear which he later found out soothed him more. He told me he decided to train me like his father did when my mother got pregnant because even though the training was hard those training sessions were some of the best memories he had with my late grandfather. while telling the stories of his training with my father's father I saw a tear falling off my father's cheek which felt weird but understandable as he must miss his father. My grandfather was a military officer and died in battle when my father was in his early twenties, so he didn't even see how successful my father became my father also couldn't keep the tears in when talking about how happy my grandfather would be meet me, because despite his military background and his strict rules he showed his love for his family through his deeds.

I probably would have liked him.

After arriving at our house my father and I sparred a little in the garden with my wooden dagger while my mother was preparing dinner. after dinner, we all went to bed. Instead of consciously meditating for two hours, before my sleep meditation, I asked my father to tell some stories about his father before I fell asleep.