Gate

The next morning, I woke up early but unlike before, I could barely get up. Every muscle of my being was crying with pain. You know the pain that comes from the lactic acid building up in your body after a session of intense workout, my pain was folds beyond that. Even raising my arm was very hard. But, I have to keep training.

If I wanted my affinities useful, I have to be excellent at combat, and in order to have a chance at winning against someone at close quarters combat, I have to build my body.

Meaning, if I wanted to have a chance in this life, I have to get up from my bed now and start training.

I managed to do it after great struggle. When I went to the kitchen to eat breakfast and saw dad already having his. He saw me enter and he said:

"Good, I thought you won't be able to even stand but here you are. Come let's eat" I sat down next to him and had some meat, eggs, milk, bread and many things. I had to eat a lot to endure my training. When I finished devouring everything, I went back to the backyard.

I put on the weights on and started running again. I felt it was harder than yesterday, maybe because of pain. But by the time it was lunch's time, the pain less unbearable. Unlike yesterday when I passed out from the accident, today I was able to complete 80 laps. And maybe after lunch, I would be able to finish the 100 in an hour.

I had lunch quickly and resumed running. In a little more than hour, I completed the required task. It was easier than yesterday, but still a very tiresome task.

Dad looked at me and said "Now you've finished running, it's time for working out" I was confused, I just completed running, was there something else.

"Now you would be doing pushups, squats, lunges and maybe we'll throw in other exercises later" "What? Why?" "Well you don't think just running would be enough to build you up, do you?" "Ahh, I guess not." I surrendered to fate. I dropped the weights and started doing the exercises that dad described for me. At first, I did 20 pushups, 30 squats and 30 lunges. It may not seem much to you. But to me, a 10 year old, it was extremely hard. But by the time I completed those tasks, it was two hours before dinner.

I was happy I needed some time to rest. Dad looked at me and smiled. He clapped for me then spoke.

"Good job Eddy on finishing fast, now you see those stones over there. You will have to lift them. Start by the smallest one, and lift it 20 times, if you do so, pass to the next one. You remember me saying that training stops when it's time for dinner, right?" I looked over to the stones with renewed despair, I was getting very tired. But I have to train. I went to the smallest stone, it weighed around 5 kg. Somehow I was able to lift it 20 times. I did as dad mentioned and started lifting the next one.

It weighed twice as that and I was barely able to lift it. It was very hard. But after a long time of struggle, I was able to complete the 20 times. Dad looked at me and said "Well, that's enough lifting, you won't be able to lift the next one. Go back to running" I resumed running and finished when dinner was ready. I was more tired than yesterday and the pain was more unbearable. I dined, had a shower and went to sleep.

That was how I passed the week, I was making more progress and the pain was disappearing. The training was becoming harder and harder the more I improved.

Today was going to be the first day of training with Chrestos and I was really excited.

I did my morning routine and the training with dad. I managed to do the 100 laps in an hour now and the rest of the time was for exercising. Dad decided to double the number of tasks for each exercise. So now I had to do 40 pushups, 60 squats and 60 lunges. It was tiring but I was able to complete each one. I still struggled to lift the 20kg stone so I lifted the 10kg one forty time.

By the time lunch was ready, I completed everything. I had a good lunch. Dad told me to start running again until mister Chrestos arrives. So I did that.

As I was finishing the 100th lap, I saw a purple gate forming from nowhere. I stopped running instantly and looked at it.

I saw Chrestos stepping out of it and it closed behind him. He waved at me and said:

"Hi, young Edward, you seem to be waiting for me." I greeted him and looked back to see dad coming from the house.

"Chrestos, hi how are you?" "Roland, hi, I'm well. So is Edward ready to start his magic training?" I looked at him and said "Yes mister Chrestos, I'm ready" "Good" He looked at dad once more and said:

"I'll get him back to you by dinner" Dad nodded at him and Chrestos opened a gate in front of me and told me to pass through it. I did as instructed and stepped inside and found myself in a dense forest. The gate closed after Chrestos stepped out of it. He looked at me and said.

"We'll be using this place to teach you magic. It's a secluded area with no one around. So you will be able to practice to your heart's content.

Let's start with your space affinity. What do you think space is?" I contemplated a bit and opened my mouth to speak "Space is something mysterious. Some would say that space is just the very place itself. I mean this forest is a part of space, my house is a part of space, the king's palace is a part of space and even the space itself is contained in space. Some would say that space is absolute; it exists permanently and independently of whether there was any matter in the space. Some would say that space was in fact a collection of relations between objects, given by their distance and direction from one another. In short, we can say that space is coordinates and forces. And we as Space mages have the power to control space itself" Chrestos was shocked, he didn't even expect an answer from Edward but the little guy's answer was overwhelming and probably even better than his own. He didn't even think of space like that.

He looked at Edward in conflict, this kid shouldn't even know how babies are made, but he defined what all mages wanted the answer for like he was explaining to children how to heat up water.

At first, he was terrified from this kid's potential, if this guy learned how to control space, he would have the power to destroy kingdoms, even the world itself.

But, if he taught this kid well, he would have taught probably the strongest person to ever exist. And he would be a huge asset for the kingdom.

Chrestos bit his lip and thought:

(How could I be thinking like this? he's just a kid) "Hmm, that was an unexpected answer but an excellent one.

You seem to know a lot about space so let's move on to how you can control it" He spoke as he turned around and proceeded to open a gate. One formed in front of him and another one formed behind me. He looked back and said:

"This is the spell named Gate, or how most people call it, Space control: Gate.

People would often name their spells by saying their names and what type of affinity control it is.

That is normally for the less talented people who can't imagine their spells properly. Well never mind that. Now let's get to how this spell functions.

This spell connects two points in space to each other by opening a rift, or as we call it the Gate. The rift has two functions. The first being connecting the two points by defining an entry point and an exit point to where you'd like to be transported. The second function is conserving the state of the object that passes through" He bent down and picked up a rock and threw it at the gate. The rock moved in the air and entered the gate in front of him. When it passed through the gate, it appeared at the gate behind me, it barely missed my head, then it continued to travel until it passed through the gate in front of Chrestos one more time and appearing once more from the gate behind me, but this time it passed by my shoulder. It continued to travel until it had no more force behind it and dropped on the ground.

"As I said, the state of the thing passing through is conserved when it passes the gate, that stone kept moving in its original speed and when it comes out of the gate, it still had the same speed that it had when entering. And it still kept its solid state and everything that characterized that stone before entering" "Now let's get to how to make this spell." "First you have to picture the entry point and the exit point. Both points should be well defined in your mind, so in order to perform the gate, to any place; the place should be one that you have already been to before. You don't want to be transporting in somewhere you didn't picture clearly. You might end up in the ocean or even stuck underground, so you have to be careful.

After that part is done comes the part where you connect the two points. Imagine a tunnel formed with mana that leads from the entry point to the exit. And at each end, there is a gate that limits the spatial tunnel." "Now try opening a gate in front of you and the other behind you" I closed my eyes and did as he said. I imagined the two points where the gates should be placed and a magical tunnel made with mana connecting both of them.

And when I opened my eyes, I could see a gate in front of me and a second one behind me. I looked at mister Chrestos who had his jaw dropping on the ground from astonishment.

This was my first time using magic.