Prep And Practice

The darkness of the night now held a near complete grasp on the sky, save for the twinkling dots of light that shined through its all-encompassing veil. I was now "Upstairs" in a room on the far-right corner of the large house, designated as my living quarters, or simply "my room."

The light that was being emitted from the small device on my right cast a dim glow throughout the entire room, and while I could have easily used the one fixed in the center of the ceiling to instantly illuminate everything here, doing that would attract nothing but needless attention. After all, as dictated by my "parents" I was supposed to be sleeping right now, but the thought of wasting so many hours of precious time simply slumbering wasn't particularly appealing to me, I had done more than enough of that.

There was something else I needed to do right now; it had become something of a nightly routine, and one I thoroughly enjoyed doing at that. Now open on the small wooden desk in front of me was a book on mana and magic, or the subject matter commonly called "magecraft."

Since learning to read two years ago by way of Shiina's nighttime stories and with the aid of Lewis, I secretly began indulging myself in this world's knowledge bit by bit, using magecraft as my initial starting point. Understanding how magic worked in this world was the most urgent issue I needed to resolve, and even with my current efforts I hadn't yet grasped all the intricacies it had to offer.

Despite my initial eagerness to learn more about magic from Chelsea earlier today, that had been little more than a façade. I'd already known most of what she had told me about how magic operated, but I simply decided to play along with the charade and fit the confines of how this vessel was expected to act. If anything, it was more of a test to see how competent she actually was in her teachings and with magic itself.

To my surprise, she was actually quite capable in both aspects, her summaries were on point, and I could tell that the small display of magic she put on was just the cusp of her abilities. If she could control her magic power to the extent where she avoided harming all the creatures swirling about in that pond, then the control she could exert on actual attacks would be nothing to trifle at.

Right now, her ability to control mana definitely surpassed my own and that alone made the entire premise of her being my "tutor" worth it, but despite her competence however, she still wasn't able to provide me with the information I truly desired, not that I had much in the way of hope but it was still worth the attempt.

"Cardinal" - The being that supposedly bestowed crests onto humans, who or what exactly was it? I had yet to discover anything about its true nature despite the countless hours I'd spent researching and simply asking around hadn't been very effective either. It seems that most people, including Michael and Shiina simply saw it as a god that bestowed power upon those who were worthy, but that explanation was simply a crude excuse at best.

In the first place, humans were the only species in this world that had crests, all the other races either siphoned mana directly from the atmosphere or relied on some other elusive source of power.

If this thing was a god, then shouldn't it have been able to set the same standard for everybody?

That definitely wasn't the case, human potential was extremely limited to whichever crest they obtained, if they even ended up getting one in the first place and possessing a crest was only seen as an advantage inside human societies. For races like elves who could simply absorb mana from the atmosphere and use it to project their spells without any outside assistance, a crest would be nothing more than a hindrance.

Either Cardinal was just an extremely incompetent god, or this extreme disadvantage was simply humanity's fate. Whatever the case may be, I had no intention of letting any pre-defined limitations get in my way.

"Perhaps the gods weren't completely fair after all...."

Tilting back the sublimely polished wooden chair at my desk, it let out a dull creek in the wake of my lackluster comment. That woman, Shiina would definitely try to scold me if she ever saw me sitting like this, but thankfully I hardly ever got any visitors once the night had fallen.

I closed my eyes in the now tilted chair, sharpening my focus and concentrating on the strange essence that flourished in the very atmosphere. The mana swirling around me began entering my body bit by bit and soaking it all up like a sponge I simply embraced the warm feeling now coursing through my body.

I could feel it passing through the channels in my body known as the "mana circuits" and each time my mana capacity grew, I could feel them develop in response as if to facilitate my growing mana pool. The stomach was the point of origin of these circuits, and once the human body began unconsciously absorbing mana in small amounts, they would then branch off from there, spreading throughout the body and ensuring that mana could seamlessly navigate the pre-determined path they had paved.

Though in the case of most humans, they weren't aware of these circuits until they obtained a crest, because they couldn't siphon mana directly from the atmosphere. Their bodies could unconsciously absorb mana but that was something they had no control over, meaning the development of their mana circuits was left up to complete chance until they managed to obtain a crest, which was the catalyst for them learning to control the flow of their magical energy.

Based off all the magecraft text I'd gone through, on average humans awakened their crests at around age ten, but mana circuits became fully developed by around age sixteen, so for the average person, they had only six years to accommodate for the crude development of their mana circuits and once that deadline arrived, nothing could mend or fix the damage already done. If by that point their mana circuits couldn't properly facilitate the flow of their magical energy or had some other impediment, then it would remain that way forever.

In the dull silence of my room, a diabolical smile had begun forming on my face. My time in this world had only been a brief five years so far but despite the unpredictability of this whole situation, there was some genuine humor to be found here.

The more I read, the more comical this entire situation seemed to get, no matter what brief advantage these humans obtained, it was immediately balanced out either by some absurd stroke of misfortune or fate.

This species was on a running timer but that meant nothing to me, because humanity was far beneath the scope of my true potential.

Opening my eyes, I concentrated on the mystical essence flowing throughout my body and condensed it in my palm. Orange sparks danced in the space above my hand and soon enough a bright orange flame had manifested in my hand.

This "magic" I just used directly contradicted the notion that you needed to have a crest to use it. After only a few years I quickly discovered that having the crest was only necessary for people that couldn't consciously absorb mana on their own, the crest was simply their intermediary.

This solution wasn't a perfect one however, because while I could use magic the most I could manage right now were simple techniques like physical reinforcement and subpar control over certain elements, skills were needed for anything more complex and to top that off using magic this way depleted my reserves at an absurdly fast rate.

Considering how proficient Chelsea and Michael were when using their crests, it must play a part in reducing the total amount of mana it took to perform these feats. Since this is what it came down to, using a crest would ultimately be more effective, so this would just have to serve as one of my trump cards for now.

THUD

A dull noise resounded from the corridor and following that the flickering flame in my hand was promptly extinguished. Turning towards the source of the sound, my eyes immediately glanced at the white door only a few steps away, given my knowledge of the upper floors, this could only mean one thing. After closing the broad book in my hand, I continued my preparations with a simple tap on the small device to my right, it immediately lost its luminescent glow and a veil of darkness had returned in its place.

Lying on the soft bed in the very center of the room, I closed my eyes in anticipation.

With a dull creak, the door slowly opened, and I could hear faint whispers coming from its entrance.

(See I told you he was sleeping.)

(I-I just wanted to make sure that's all.)

(Hahah.....quite the doting mother aren't you.)

(Shhhhh, not so loud.)

In only a few short moments, they had come and gone like a pair of nighttime specters.

"I guess that's it for today...."

Once again in the familiar embrace of darkness, my accumulated fatigue was finally able to triumph.