The Growing Years II

KELLAN WINTERGALE'S POV:

My baby girl!

I couldn't be happier to have a daughter. I pondered when babies could start training. When did I start my training again? I couldn't wait to teach my baby girl all about magic. Hopefully, she'd turn out to be an augmenter like her old pops. While I understood the basics of conjuring, my practical use was limited to mental exercises.

Elara, on the other hand, was exceptionally talented. Even as an Emitter, she was outstanding. After agreeing to date me, she joined my party, and we embarked on missions together. Her restorative powers were remarkable, but what truly astounded me was her area of effect spell, healing all allies within. Exceptional, especially considering she was my wife!

Hehe... saying that still brought a smile to my face.

In the days of adventuring, before we settled down, we explored the Spiritwood Forest, hunting for ethereal beasts. These unique creatures absorbed mana, creating their own spirit cores. These cores were invaluable, their value increasing with higher classes. Ethereal beasts ranged from E class, like the domesticated fanged spirit, to the elusive SS class entities. I hadn't encountered any SS class, but rumors suggested their existence.

Generally, ethereal beasts surpassed humans in strength, even without mana. The stronger ones lurked deeper in enchanted caverns or nearer the Glades' core. The first few kilometers around the perimeter were well-mapped and safe for C-class adventurers.

Occasionally, missions required multiple parties to explore uncharted dungeons or face formidable ethereal beasts. These tasks promised treasures where ethereal beasts ruled with lairs and subordinates.

I shared these stories with my daughter, Vi, hoping to instill a sense of adventure in her as she grew older.

I didn't know what I'd do if Vi never awakened. Regardless of the time it took, as long as she trained to become a mage, I'd be a proud father.

Determining a mage's type upon awakening was straightforward. Augmenters, conjurers, and deviants formed a translucent barrier, each exhibiting different mana behaviors. Augmenters had a repelling force, conjurers created a vacuum, and deviants... well, their aura behaved uniquely.

I don't mean to brag, but when I first awakened, at the early age of twelve, by the way, I was sleeping, and the pushing force made me levitate for a good couple of minutes! Enough force to lift a human body?

Anyway, as soon as she awakens, I'm going to train her. If she ends up becoming a conjurer, I think I can get her a tutor from the main town since Elara and I aren't adept enough to be teaching her...

...Is what I said but...

BOOM!

Currently, half of the house is gone...

What happened?

Fortunately, Elara and I were in the front yard, but Vi was still inside...

"VIOL..."

Elara's face drained and pale eyes wide in worry as I covered her with a temporary shield and I rushed towards the direction of the explosion, shielding my body with a layer of essence over my skin. The debris was constantly thrown towards me as I reached deeper into the source of the explosion. After fighting my way through the scraps of what was left of my house and several pieces of rocks, I saw it.

Vi, with a barely noticeable translucent barrier, caused the explosion. Her awakened powers created a repulsion force, leaving her floating in a crater that destroyed a significant part of our home.

"Haha…"

My legs gave way, and I landed on my knees, shocked to witness my daughter's awakening at almost four years old only four…

A mixture of laughter and tears overwhelmed me I did not know if I should be crying or laughing.

"Kellan! Honey!" I looked back at my wife still speechless from the shock I had witnessed, she slowly made her way toward me after the explosion settled in and there was no danger to be shown

She was making half-steps towards me, covering her face with her arms to shield what she could from the strong pushing force still pushing out of Vi.

"Kellan What is going on? Where is our baby?"

Still silent as there were no words to describe or even answer her question I simply looked in Vi's direction

While confused she also indeed looked at the direction I was and all she managed to conquer out of her mouth was a small whisper "No way.."

VI WINTERGALE'S POV:

Wow, I feel great!

Feeling refreshed at my breakthrough, I closed my eyes to sense my newly formed essence core. My sweet little essence core!

"MOM! OH MY BABY! Are you okay?"

I spotted my father rushing towards me while my mother was on the ground kneeling.

What did she do this time that caused her to get punished by father?

My father lifted me up and hugged me, almost to the point where my underdeveloped ribs gave out.

I managed to squeal out a "Dad, no cry. What's wrong?"

He didn't answer me and continued sobbing while cradling me. My mother arrived next to him, patting his back and patting my head as well, giving me a weak smile.

After a brief moment of confusion, I peeled my head away from my father's chest and I looked around to see that we were standing in the center of a giant crater, with most of our house gone.

...What in the fuck?

Who did this? Who had the audacity to destroy the home of a Queen and her castle?! The perpetrators will rue this day! I will hunt them down day and night and not rest until...

"Congrats, Vi honey. You awakened."

"..."

"..."

I did this?

In my old world on Earth, a similar phenomenon happened when a youth awakened. A clear barrier appeared around the awakened, and a small pushing force would surround the barrier. I'm guessing, though, that the repelling force in this world was lot stronger because of the essence in the atmosphere, something that wasn't present back on Earth.

As once a Queen of integrity, I decided on apologizing for this... er.. situation.

"I'm sorry Dad, Mom. Am I in trouble?"

"Haha... No Vi honey, you're not in trouble. We were just worried about you. I'm glad you're alright." My father managed to chuckle through half-teary eyes.

My idiot mother, on the other hand, was a lot more excited.

"My girl is a genius! Awakened at the age of less than five! This is unprecedented! I thought I was fast, but jeez!"

So a couple of moments of a picture-perfect atmosphere was broken when a neighbor passing by screamed, "What in the world?!"

"Haha, we better clean this mess up," my father said as he grinned, rubbing the back of his head.

Several weeks had passed since the incident. We decided to keep my awakening a secret for now. My father reached out to a few of his former adventurer party members to aid in rebuilding the ravaged part of our house, while we stayed in a nearby inn. With conjurers manipulating the earth for the foundation and augmenters performing the heavy lifting, the house was reconstructed swiftly. The wonders of magic! Surprisingly, none of my father's ex-party members seemed to question the explosion that befell our home.

That said a lot about my rather oblivious father.

During the reconstruction, my birthday approached (January 24). My parents woke me on that morning with a present and what appeared to be bread? in their hands.

Ah! It was a cake!... would've been easier to tell if it wasn't brown.

Opening the present box revealed a carved wooden sword with my name on the handle but it was not any simple toy wooden sword like in my old world, it felt… different. I embraced both my parents, expressing gratitude for the gift and the cake.

This surprised me since my parents hadn't bothered celebrating my past three birthdays, leading me to assume this world didn't give much importance to such occasions. I later learned that birthdays are celebrated starting at the age of 4 due to a tradition from a long time ago when babies were more susceptible to death before the age of four.

How medieval.

Another observation caught my attention.

Witnessing children and teens working on farms with their families and as apprentice blacksmiths made me realize the absence of a mandatory structured education system. Any rudimentary education was provided by families, focusing on basics like reading and writing.

As I turned five, my mother began giving me lessons for a set time, teaching me how to read and write. Playing the role of a precocious daughter, I feigned quick learning, much to her delight, allowing me to read more advanced books in the library without arousing suspicion.

These last few weeks flew by fast. After my awakening, my father initiated my training in the fundamentals of essence manipulation, doing his best to simplify it for a toddler's comprehension. If not for my adult-level cognitive abilities, I doubt I would've retained much.

The basics are as follows:

An easy measure of strength lies in the color of your essence core. Initially, the essence core would be Onyx due to the body's blood and other impurities mixing with the essence particles as they formed into an essence core. As the essence inside the person's body becomes purer and the impurities get filtered out over time, it changes into a Crimson color. From there, the color of the essence core would get lighter; from Ember, to Gold, and then to a radiant Ivory.

The order goes as follows: Onyx, Crimson, Ember, Gold, Silver, and Ivory.

From the Crimson essence core until the Gold essence core, the colors split into three shades (Scarlet, Ruby, Crimson). Rule of thumb, the lighter the essence core's color, the purer one's essence core was and the more power they would have access to.

While the lessons with my father proved useful, I grew impatient with the pace. I asked my mother a couple of days later, "Mom, can I get books on magic?"

Given my mother's connections in the Guild Hall (Adventurer Guild), she managed to acquire a diverse collection of books on basic essence manipulation and fighting with different weapons. Some were simple, with mostly pictures and basic words on how essence was condensed, but I ignored those. My mother gave me a strange look because the books I was interested in were at a higher level. She assumed I wouldn't be able to understand most of the words and tried to persuade me into reading simpler books, but eventually, she relented.

A typical day involved reading and writing lessons with my mother and augmenting training with my father. After covering the basic theory and application of augmenting, we moved on to physical training. Since my body was too small for sparring, we focused on running and body workouts. I imagine seeing my four-year-old self attempting a pushup would be the funniest thing, but my father did a commendable job holding in his laughter.

When not engaged in these lessons, I stayed in the newly improved library, reading and meditating to further condense and purify my essence core.

As the year passed with not much occurring beyond my routine, my father spoke up during dinner one night.

"Honey, I think it's time we find Vi a proper teacher."