Learning to crawl

Over the course of a week, Tom barely saw any improvement in mastering his strengthening, Although the [skill] itself levelled up along with his pain resistance, Tom still felt he was nowhere closer to actually controlling it.

([Status])

Tom Laplace

Race: Human

Age: 19

Vitality: 165/165 (UP)

Strength: 65/65 (UP)

Dexterity: 129/129

Agility: 55/55

Intelligence: 147/147 (UP)

Luck: 18

Mana: 25.574/25.574 (UP)

Skills:

[Cooking 4/10] [Housework 4/10] [Memorization 2/10] [Pain resistance 4/10] (UP) [Etiquette 1/10] [Mana control 2/10] [Fine motor control 1/10] [Strengthening 2/10] (UP) [Combat awareness 1/10]

Magic affinity:

(At least my pain resistance has gone up again, thanks to that it doesn't really hurt that much when I snap my tendons and tear apart my muscles. Then there's Anne too, she's making all this much easier. I can't afford to disappoint either of them.)

"- So that's what I was thinking, what's your thoughts on the matter, Tom?"

Snapped out of his inner thoughts by a question he hadn't paid full attention to, Tom stared blankly at the person for half a second before he remembered his manners.

"I'm sorry, Miss Warren, I was checking my [status]. Could you please repeat that?"

Looking to Miss Warren Tom was once more dazzled by the flawless smile that greeted him.

"Oh my, have you perhaps gained a new [skill]?"

"Not really now, but I've levelled a few of them up a bit."

Slightly embarrassed that he wasn't living up to Miss Warren's expectations, Tom accidentally said something he shouldn't have.

"Oh my oh my, what kind of [skill] did you level up?"

"My [pain resistance], it's now level 4."

"... L-level 4?"

As Miss Warren muttered those words in disbelief, the classroom suddenly fell quiet, making Tom realize his mistake.

(... Telling these sheltered heirs and heiresses about the [skill] I gained by suffering might have been a mistake. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.)

"Yeah, it had been stuck at level 3 for a while. It seems that getting beat up by my classmates wasn't enough to raise it to level 4. Luckily, repeatedly tearing apart my muscles and tendons seemed to do the trick."

To nail the point further home, Tom unbuttoned the cuff on his shirt and rolled up the sleeve before applying [strengthening] as he clenched his arm. Within a few seconds, Tom's arm turned blue from the internal bleeding, but he didn't even flinch.

Tom had already gotten quite used to this level of pain, [skill] or not.

While Anne silently started healing Tom's now-limb arm the rest of the class was still silent and stunned at Tom's action, this silence was only broken when the noon bell sounded, indicating that it was time for the next classes to start.

Doing etiquette education Tom understandably couldn't train [strengthening], but after learning how to greet different ranks of nobility and when or when not to slurp your tea it was finally time for practical magic education where Tom could continue to improve his ability to use [strengthening].

(while gaining a level has made it easier to control, it is only to the extent that I don't completely tear apart my body but only break it every time I use that [strengthening].)

Warming up the core of mana within his chest, Tom felt it speed up as he started to circulate it within his body, moving that raging mass of energy to use [strengthening] would only lead to destroying it.

But that still didn't mean Tom wasn't going to attempt to tame it yet again, even if it still proved to be a failure.

As Tom broke most of his fingers yet again he felt like he was finally starting to improve, or if not improve then at least grasp at something vague, an ethereal concept in an already forgotten dream which seemed to wait just beyond, just a little further.

"Shit."

"Are you hurt again?"

"No, I'm okay. Thanks for healing me, Anne."

Tom was physically okay at least, but on the inside, his frustrations were about as turbulent as the mana which was moving around within his body.

(Can't I just slow this down somehow? Come on!)

Taking a deep breath as Tom realized his mind was spinning out of control, he figured he couldn't get any further on his own.

"... Anne, can you slow down your mana?"

Turning to someone more experienced than himself, Tom initially surprised Anne, but after a few seconds, she realized that Tom was genuinely seeking help from someone he respected.

"No, mana inside your body always races around, the flow only becomes slower when you deplete it."

With no way to currently deplete his own mana without suffering serious bodily harm, Anne's knowledge wasn't really that much help to Tom.

But it was unmistakably some kind of progress.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind. I'm counting on you to continue healing me, Anne."

"No thanks needed, healing you is my job after all."

With the slightest hint of a smile on her face, Anne continued watching over Tom for the rest of the practical magic class. With classes over for the day, Tom couldn't ask Anne to keep healing him, but that didn't stop him from training.

"... So if I can't slow down the speed which my mana circulates, there still could be some other way for me to manipulate it."

Sitting down and relaxing his entire body, Tom started kneading the mass of mana within his body to make it more elastic, going way beyond the level he had attempted in the past. As Tom moved the circulations further than he had done before he felt the mana within him spread a strange warmth throughout his body.

"... Wait a second?..."

Pushing the mana inside his body just a bit further, Tom experienced a strange discomfort grow within him.

A feeling Tom hardy paid attention to, on account of the massive, overwhelming feeling of joy that came to him at the same time.

"FUCK YES!"

-

Time quickly passed for Lizzy, after all, her work was painfully simple.

"Well then, time to see how far that kid has improved."

With a large fox-like smile on her face, Lizzy took in the mornings first rays as she looked at the Laurence mage academy in the distance, sitting among the same sparse forest and grass fields it had two weeks ago when Lizzy left for work. Taking a deep breath to taste the slightly damp and cold morning air, Lizzy felt her fatigue and exhaustion leave her body along with her breath that carried a few ice crystals.

Entering the main gate of the academy, Lizzy greeted the gatekeeper with a lazy wave as she dropped the large backpack she had been carrying on the ground. Ignoring the gatekeeper's confusion, Lizzy headed straight to the training field where her favourite disciple was already waiting for her, along with the academic best [healer].

"So? Do you have anything to show me kiddo?"

Reaching into her stained cloak, Lizzy pulled out her pack of cigarettes, lighting a smoke while her disciple sat down cross-legged on the ground.

"Hooo?~"

Sensing the mana inside Tom's body starting to circulate at a rapid phase, Lizzy was both surprised and intrigued by the outright insane solution Tom had found to the issue she had presented him with.

(As I thought, this kiddo really is too good for this academy~)

While the speed at which Tom circulated his mana only seemed to increase, something else also started to happen.

"Have I told you that you are insane kiddo?~"

"I don't believe you have Lizzy, but I'm sorry that I didn't live up to your expectations."

As Tom talked he still continued to move the mana around within him, circulating it faster and faster as he got chills all over his body.

"You didn't live up to my expectations? How so?"

Not immediately following Tom's line of thought as she was still so surprised at what Tom was doing, Lizzy hardly contained the large grin she had on her face.

"You told me that I would need to learn how to walk from scratch, but I've learned how to crawl instead."

Circulating around his mana at a phase faster than he could control it, Tom's mana was slowly leaking from his body. By bleeding some of the insanely abundant mana within his body, it's speed gradually slowed down to a phase Tom's body could keep up with as he used [strengthening] on his entire body.

"Well then, show me how you crawl kiddo!~"

Flicking away her half-finished cigarette, Lizzy gripped her [catalyst] from her cloak before she dropped it on the ground. Strengthening her entire body, Lizzy stepped forward as her claws made out of ice formed, aiming for her still sitting student with not even a hint of mercy. As Lizzy attacked without mercy multiple red lines formed in Tom's vision, although they were vague like a mix between a cloud and a mist those lines still allowed Tom to avoid Lizzy's first attacks.

But then Lizzy started using faints that her novice student couldn't keep up with, quickly reducing Tom to no more than a dirty rag on the ground that Anne silently started healing.

"As far as crawling goes that was pretty good kiddo, It seems like we can continue as I planned tomorrow."

Showing a genuine smile for once, Lizzy suddenly started yawning loudly before she turned around and picked up her cloak, waving goodbye lazily as she went to get some sleep.

"... I guess it is finally time to learn magic? Thanks for healing me yet again Anne, I truly don't know what I would have done without you."

"No thanks needed, it is my job after all."

With the slightest hint of a smile on her face, Anne made sure to also brush off some of the dirt which had gotten onto Tom's uniform.

Turning back time a little to when Tom had his breakthrough…

"... Level 4!? Level 4 he says!"

Almost speaking through her teeth, a lady tossed one of her favourite teacups across the room, as the porcelain cup hit the oppressed wall it shattered into countless pieces, sending tiny fragments of porcelain all over the place as the cup's contents stained the wall.

"That kind of improvement is not normal! Even though!- Damn it!"

About to throw another random object across the room, the lady was interrupted by a quiet knock on her door.

(What now!?)

Still in enough control of her own emotions to not shout out in anger, the lady calmed herself before opening the door and sticking her head out, slightly regretting that she had smashed her favorite cup now that her head had cooled down slightly.

"Yes, what is it?"

Greeting the girl outside the door without much in the way of manners as the other party was quite rude to interrupt her, the lady wore her perfect smile.

Only her eyes weren't smiling.

"Ah, Miss Warren I believe I heard some strange noises so I just wanted to see if you were okay."

"It's fine, I just dropped something, the maid is currently cleaning it up."

"That's a relief. In that case, I won't disturb you any longer, see you at class tomorrow, miss Warren."

Having dealt with the pest that distracted her, Elizabeth shut her again before she jumped into her bed and started rolling around.

(Shit, looks like I need a backup plan after all… I need to write some letters.)

Recognizing that she had lost her cool and needed to restructure her plans, Elizabeth stopped wallowing in her anger, deciding to act instead of just remaining in her current situation.

(Why can't he just stay pathetic!?)

While the last few weeks hadn't been easy for Elizabeth and her well-laid plans, the next few months wouldn't be any kinder to her.