First time using magic!

Luka smiled widely as he looked at the floating words.

[Name: Elysia Luka Artois "Luka Artois"

Race: Human (Mage)

Age: 8 years old

Magic: Ice-Make]

"Ice-Make!" He pumped a fist towards the sky and laughed merrily. "There was literally a one in a thousand chance that I would get one of my favorite magics! Thank you Lady Fortune!"

Luka's joyful laughter was interrupted by a realization: He doesnt know how to use his magic.

He quickly went through his entire system again and found no instruction manual, nothing to tell him how to summon even a little bit of ice.

"...Fuck."

`It's going to get dark soon, I need to find a place to stay for the night and buy some supplies. Future Luka will worry about how to use magic, yep that is his problem.`

The pink-haired boy gets up from the ground and goes back into the concrete jungle, a part of him wants to go back to the library and continue investigating to find out what threats he will face in this world but night is coming and the library will still be there tomorrow.

`Tomorrow I will look in the entertainment section. The history of the world seems practically identical to mine, finding out if the same series and movies exist in this world could give me some clue. I really hope One Piece exists here, I've been waiting for the ending of the anime ever since I learned to walk!`

Luka walks into a bazaar and buys the first thing on his mental list: an inventory.

`Since my system does not have an inventory I will have to use the traditional inventory: a backpack!`

Luckily Chinese bazaars abound in most cities and their prices are very low, he was able to buy a backpack for only 8 euros!

`Nine euros in the restaurant and eight euros for the backpack, I have 28 euros left. I doubt I'll find another drunk lying in an alley anytime soon so I'll have to spend wisely. No more eating in restaurants! I will have to buy food from the supermarkets and try to make this money last as long as possible.`

Luckily he came to this world at the end of spring, more precisely the current date is May 2, 2002, so the nights will not be very cold.

After buying a simple navy blue backpack, he entered the nearest supermarket.

`Toothbrush and toothpaste, both cost 3 euros.` Luka absolutely hates the feeling of not having a clean mouth, he can't bear to go more than a day without brushing his teeth without feeling like he's starting to go crazy. `It is not an OCD! No matter what Damian says it's not OCD! It is normal to take care of your mouth and avoid cavities, yep. Completely normal.`

The next section he went through was the fruit shop, where he saw that they had an offer for a mesh of two kilos of apples for only 1.50 euros! He took a mesh of apples and some bananas. Going through the bakery, he bought a freshly baked baguette and then went through another section and picked up a 3-pack of pâté. He also bought a two liter bottle of water.

Heading to the registers to pay for his purchase, he passed the junk food section and fought the urge to fill the cart with chips and other goodies.

`Nope! Do not fall into temptation! You have little money and those are just empty calories! You are stronger than this Artois!`

***

After finishing his shopping, he walked through the city looking for a place to spend the night. It was 11:30 p.m. when he found an abandoned building near a residential area. Well, more than a building, it's the skeleton of one.

`Some company went bankrupt and could not finish the work, judging by the state it has been abandoned for at least half a year.`

Luka scaled the security fence and examined the building closely.

`The stairs are blocked but I can climb up to the first floor by a side wall.` He thanks the many gym classes he took in his past life. `My former teachers would be shocked if they knew I am using these abilities to scale a half-built building.`

He laughs weakly as he climbs the last flight. Breathing hard, he drops to the ground and wipes the sweat from his brow.

`This body is not in very good physical shape, that is one of the first things I have to work on.`

After catching his breath he gets up from the ground and examines his surroundings, on the first floor of the abandoned building there are only some abandoned construction materials and luckily for him he doesn't hear any rats or bats.

"Phew, Lady Fortune favored me again." Luka sits in the place where he will spend the night and opens his backpack. After eating bread and pâté, he eats an apple and saves the leftovers.

The wind begins to howl around him and he feels a chill run down his spine, it's not because of the cold. No, if it were the weather it would be more bearable: it is the cold of loneliness.

Now after dinner and without any more pressing tasks, the events of the last day take on more clarity, like a black and white image that takes on color everything becomes more striking.

"I- I died." Luka hugs his knees against his chest and begins to shake. "I died." His eyes fill with tears as memories of the agonizing pain, the anger and helplessness of that memory haunt him again.

The sobs are silent but profuse, thick hot tears falling from his blue eyes with no sign of stopping.

The memory of his death is shocking and painful, but the source of his agony is his present: he is alone, all alone in an alien world.

"J- just 5 minutes." He tells himself between sobs with a broken voice. Luka tries to swallow but finds it hard. "5 minutes to cry and then I'll sleep. Tomorrow will be another day, tomorrow I'll be strong."

He counts the seconds in his head and when he reaches 300 he forces himself to stop crying and sleep, which was not easy. Falling asleep took hours, hours in which his only company was the howling of the wind and the distant sounds of the city.

***

At dawn he was awakened by the sound of birds.

"Ugh." He groans and opens his eyes, because of how much he cried last night his eyes are swollen and sore. He blinks and wipes away the wax with his fingers. "Sleeping on the floor is not comfortable at all."

After washing his face with a little water, he does some stretching exercises.

"It's during the week so I can't walk around the city until noon since all the kids my 'age' are in school." Luka winces as he tests his flexibility.

After finishing stretching he remembers his words from yesterday.

"Future Luka, huh? That is me I guess..."

Luka Artois decides it is time for him to try invoking his magic, he sits cross-legged and begins to meditate.

"To use magic I need to use magical energy aka mana, in Fairy Tail they said that magical energy is made up of a type of environmental energy called Ethernano. The mage's body absorbs this ambient energy and stores it as mana in his body. I don't think this world has Ethernano but since I have a system that allows me to use magic I have to assume it has to have some form of magic. Or maybe the system supplies me with that energy." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "First I have to find my mana."

Given the perfect integration that his soul and this body underwent, Luka does not feel anything out of the ordinary, it is as if this body had always been his, but since his race is Human (mage) this body must have magic, he only has to find that mysterious energy.

At first he doesn't feel anything out of the ordinary but he doesn't give up and keeps looking. After a while he begins to feel a strange warm but refreshing sensation in his body, he would not know how to describe it other than to say that it is warm but refreshing and it is everywhere: in his head, in his hands, in his torso. ...

Luka focused on that strange but familiar energy and tried to visualize it. In his mind he saw a pool of bluish liquid, that pool is completely calm and in that mental image Luka saw himself as two separate beings: he is the structure that contains the bluish liquid and he is also a being completely separate from the liquid. Concentrating on the being separated from the liquid he moved towards the pool and crouched down next to it, he reached into the liquid and felt something that left him wordless. Touching that liquid he felt an indescribable euphoria, it was... almost addictive.

Opening his eyes, Luka saw a large ice blue magic circle in front of him, the circle is thirty centimeters in radius and has patterns with something similar to a snowflake in the center and some sort of runes around it.

The atmosphere around it cooled considerably and Luka was distracted by the feeling of cold, the magic circle started to flicker and soon disappeared.

Luka blinked twice before starting to grin like crazy.

"I just summoned a magic circle. My magic circle!" His voice is soft and incredulous but at the same time completely ecstatic, Luka has just fulfilled one of his childhood dreams!

"I'm a mage!" Luka laughed happily, the prospect of this mysterious new world is not as scary as before!

Luka Artois feels a little more prepared to face the unknown.

"Now I just have to channel my mana into something useful and not just to invoke my magic circle."