As time went on I began to live more selfishly. Some days I skipped my workouts and others I just laid around all day. My friends, Ryan, Chase and Dante were academy students and were in families of high caliber, so even when we did visit Xyrus I couldn't see them often.
We made our meeting spot that same tree in the park, that we met at. Of course, these days my mother and father would be with me, but they were off doing other things.
It seemed like they enjoyed going into Xyrus and being there a lot more than at the house. The feeling of Xyrus was just completely different.
They always seemed to be having fun there. It wasn't until a few months ago that I heard them talking about wanting to move and things of that nature and honestly I was excited.
I've been more involved in things like cooking with my parents, so somewhere with a bigger kitchen would definitely be nice. Not to mention the distance for stores that aren't blacksmith related would be halved since Xyrus had all kinds of shops.
The life I lived now was nice, but I still hoped that my other family was doing well, even if I didn't think about them much. As harsh as that sounds, I've become fully invested in this life I'm actually able to live.
Living like that, I was now 8 years old. Although I thought I looked pretty mature for an 8 year old, everyone else kept it at cute, which I could do nothing about.
In the past two years I had to say, the happiness and joy I felt in that time was amazing. The main reason being…I'm finally starting to see the twinkling of mana within me!
I've read about it in books, that being in a place full of mana can also stimulate the mana within yourself. Then it would make sense why this only happening after I started visiting Xyrus more.
Speaking of Xyrus it reminded me of all the letters me, Ryan, Dante and Chase would send. Some just talking about things at school, venting, checking up on each other and just genuinely wanting to chat.
It was amazing that I could have friends like that even with the age gap. Ryan was now 15 while Chase and Dante were 14. All of them were in their last years of being in the lower grade classes.
They wrote to me about how Ryan had managed to break into the Light Orange stage while Chase and Dante were hot on his trail at the Dark Orange stage.
I was also told about the affinities they had and how well they were progressing with their training. Ryan was becoming more and more adept with spells and using his affinity. Dante was shown to have an affinity for fire and Chase had one for wind.
Oddly enough I predicted as much. Although it did seem like they were bragging, I was still the winner of our last few arm wrestling tournaments.
They said they really hoped to see me there one day as their Junior, so they could give me some pointers and be the cool seniors everyone liked.
"It's always refreshing…looking back on those memories…!" I said in between the pushups I performed.
"78!…79!….80!" I dropped on the ground and removed the straps from my shoulders as I rolled over with a duffel bag of big rocks falling to my side.
As I huffed for air, I heard the backdoor open and saw my dad coming outside. He tossed me a pouch of water and sat on the stairs.
"How's it going? Any progress?" He asked as he took drank some wated.
"Eh? What're you tired from?"
"Don't worry about it, let's talk about you." He urged. I had no problem with talking about myself now.
"Well not really. I can gather the little bits that's there, but it's not enough to actually form a core. Right now it's like a droplet, but even then, it's like if I don't mold it together then it tried to drift away from each other."
"I see, maybe it'd be better if you just did your meditation in Xyrus?"
"Huuuuh? Going all the way to Xyrus just to do an hour or two of meditation? You guys definitely wouldn't do that every day." I huffed and waved off the idea.
"Why do we have to be with you? You're clearly strong enough to hold your own while you're there and you wouldn't cause any problems right?"
I rubbed my chin as if I had stubble and thought about his idea.
"Well you're right, but what if I get hungry and didn't pack enough? I'd have to come all the way back home."
"Ah, you're right. I guess you're due for a monthly allowance now. I'll have to look into our savings, but I'm sure we've got enough."
"We have savings? Now that I think about it, how do you guys make enough money for so much stuff? I know you would go out a few times a month and hunt crazy amounts and turn it in, but there's no way it's making you this much livable coinage." I rambled.
"Well things happened and we just so happen to have the money, so do you wanna take the opportunity or not?!" My dad argued bitingly into a stick of jerky.
"Fine, I'll accept this offer." I forced a smile
"Good, cuz' it'd be awkward if you didn't." He replied with a matching expression and we shook hands.
"You should go today." He said, reaching into the house and tossing me a red pouch. The sound it made when I caught it, gave away its contents and I was surprised by its weight.
"Hey, that's for this whole month! Manage it properly." He warned.
I pulled the strings and opened the bag, holding my breath from what I saw.
The first thing I saw when I opened the bag was a shiny, golden coin! The rest of the bag looked to have about 40 or so silver coins!
My jaw practically unhinged itself as I saw this. Families were just fine living off of a few copper and silver coins a day, how the hell does he even have a single gold coin?!
"Dad! Is this money legal?!" I asked as I showed the golden coin.
"Ehhhh, I'm sure they'll take it regardless." He said with a carefree smile and a thumbs up.
"Hey if they arrest me, I'm ratting on you immediately!" I said as I tied the pouch and put it into my pocket.
I grabbed my water pouch and walked towards the door.
"I'll be back before midnight." I informed him before I left the house. My sense of hearing was sharp though, I heard my mother asking if I was gone and that question was followed by a lot of things I don't want to think about.
"Alright, back to Xyrus!"
….
Stepping through the gate, I didn't stop to look at the city and I immediately sped through it. Of course, the only place where I can meditate without worrying about being looked at weirdly, was the park.
Before that though, I grabbed a skewer and continued down the road. As I came upon the turn, I saw a boy with bags strolling up to a huge, white house.
Across the street from there was the park I'd be meditating at, so I instead ignored the scene of him running into the house and just went over to the park.
As I sat down, I began to clear my mind. Mana was everywhere. In every breath you took, in every beam of sunlight and in every bit of life across the continent.
Sitting here and meditating, invisualising the mana within myself, allowed me to sense the mana inside of me and a bit of the mana that surrounded me.
From within, I could see really small twinkles of mana floating around. Vastly different colors, each for different affinities.
Being in Xyrus, there was so much ambient mana that I began to see way more mana within myself. I focused on my breathing and exhaled in sharply.
One thing I noticed, was that with my breathing, my blood flow would speed up and my body would get hot. Once that happened, I could practically feel the ambient mana being brought into my body.
However, this rate of gathering only happened when I was in Xyrus.
Slowly, I kept up with this breathing. Thanks to how strong my lungs were, I could go like this for 2 hours clean if I don't stop to eat.
Watching as I began to put clumps of mana together and molded them onto the miniature orb I had inside me.
It wasn't enough to call it a core, but it was getting there. For the next couple of hours I stayed like this. Completely ignoring the outside world.
….
*Bonk!*
At the sensation of something ricocheting off my head, my eyes immediately snapoed open. Beside me, there was a pink disk, like a frisbee.
Looking further, I saw the same boy from before moving towards me, away from what looked to be his family.
I sighed and picked up the frisbee, meeting him halfway.
"Thanks for that, my dad's surprisingly bad at this." He said with an awkward laugh.
"No problem, it's getting pretty late for me anyway, I needed to get going." I replied, handing him the frisbee.
I prepared to leave, but was stopped when he suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
"Wait, I'm Arthur Leywin. You?" He asked with his hand out.
It was weird. As I stood before this kid, he had a face of a child, but the aura of very profound man. It was strange, but that vibe alone made me shake his hand with a grin.
It's the feeling you get when you meet an interesting person.
"My name is Ryuji Gardener. It's nice to make your acquaintance, Arthur."
...